Peyton Watson & Cam Johnson | The Young Man and The Three
T: How would you describe what Cam is walking into?
P: I would describe it as the perfect opportunity to do something really major. To win a championship is really hard to do in this league, and it's only a certain amount of teams that you feel really have the DNA to do it and the roster and the locker room presence to do it. But our team has always been super tight knit. Obviously, acquiring Cam, acquiring Tim, that's gonna be huge for us. But just to have their veteran voices in there will be great. But I think it's a great locker room, I think we got some special players obviously, and I think we got all the makings of what a special team could be, really. So, I'm excited for it, and I think you should be too, for sure.
C: What have you liked about your time in Denver so far?
P: I would just say the authenticity. I feel like the fans are super authentic. I feel like everybody truly loves the team, and it's not just one of those things where people go to the games and they're on their phones all game and posting about where they're at. They're actually engaging in the games, and they're sports fans. So, I think that Denver is a super great place for me to start my career or for you to be now. I think you're just gonna get some fans that will be with you forever.
C: You know, man, I've been walking around. I've been in Phoenix, I've been around here, and when I was in Denver, I didn't know how many Nuggets fans there were. Like, there's Nuggets fans coming at like, oh, I'm from Colorado. I'm a Nuggets fan. I didn't know that Nuggets fans were everywhere like that, though. It's pretty cool to see. I was really excited to see that.
P: No, it's crazy cuz you start to really realize when you are in Denver that it's super centrally located in the country. So, you know, there are people always moving to Denver or moving from Denver to the West coast, where I'm from, or even to the Midwest as well, so there are Denver fans everywhere. Like, I had my first camp the other day out in California, where I'm from, and there was a girl who was from Denver, and they traveled all the way to LA just to go to my camp, so that was super special, and like you said, they're everywhere.
T: It's a great sports city in general. Broncos like; they roll deep on everything.
C: I heard even the Rocky stadium has been great crowds.
P: I haven't even been. I was trying to make it to a game, but I haven't been this year.
C: We'll pop out.
P: Yeah. No, we're about to pop out to one for sure. But even our hockey team, the Avalanche, they won the championship the same year we did, I believe. So, it's a good sports town for sure, and I think that with the continued success, and the team and the talent that we have right now, it's a super bright spot for Denver sports, for sure.
T: What's it like being a teammate of the two men, of those two together?
P: Of Jamal and Jok? It's great to kind of learn from them. From day one, I've always kind of looked at what they've done, and spectated from afar when I really wasn't playing. I was always watching what they were doing, their work habits, and what time they were getting to the gym, what they were eating before the games. they're just two super consistent dudes. They're consistent with their work. They're consistent in their approach to the game, their demeanors. It seems at times, like Jok can be emotionless and things like that, but when you're really around him on a day-to-day basis, like he's the biggest jokester, bro. He's the most animated person sometimes, but I just feel like when both of those two get on the court, they're killers. Obviously, playing alongside them, they just make the game easy, and they just draw so much attention to themselves that it opens up spots for myself.
C: You got on the court a lot as your career has progressed through effort, defense, being in the right spot, and taking advantage of opportunities. Where do you see your game growing from here? And where has it grown so far in your time in the league and time in Denver?
P: Becoming a more consistent shooter has already done a lot for me and opened things up. I remember earlier in my career, like last year, when I first started really playing, and even at the beginning of this year, coming off an injury in the preseason. Teams were sagging off of me, and for me, that was honestly not something that affected me mentally, cuz you know, sometimes when you're wide open and it's like, is this the ethical shot to take if they're always leaving me wide open? But my teammates and my coaches encouraged me to continue to shoot them and rep them out. And as I've become a more productive shooter, I think I shot like 46% or something from the corners last year. I just think continuing to sharpen that part of my game and shoot well all around the arc, learning some things from yourself. I shot with Tim this morning, and it's just the consistency in every single shot and things that I'm picking up on that are making me a better shooter and making me more of a threat, so I think that definitely has brought me more success. but just everything, learning the game more, becoming more comfortable, learning how to play off of people, when to cut, when to space. It's been big for me, and I've actually played a lot of four, and that's something that I never really had to do. But when you are in the league, you might have to-
C: The number don't matter.
P: You ain't never set a ball screen before, but you're running into all these small actions and things that help free up guys. So, it took some learning from me, but as I've gotten better at it, I've just found myself with more easy buckets and able to create things for my teammates as well.
T: [...] it's just reps, right? Like, when you guys get in the gym, this is just habits, in terms of your advice.
C: Yeah, I mean, a lot of it is habits. And we walked about this with Tim on the pod the other day, is I like to have an approach that tries to transfer it over to the game. Because the mental pressures of shooting when you're just shooting catch-and-shoots, you're able to catch a rhythm. There's no defense, and there's really no punishment for missing like in the game. You know the deflating feeling of missing a wide-open three. You know the feeling of being 0 over four, 0 over five, and it affects the next shot. As much as we want to say it doesn't, it does. So, I try to mimic those pressures in a workout-type environment, whether it's competing, whether it's competing versus misses, shots on the move, fatigue shots. There are just so many ways to approach it over my career. That's how I've become a better shooter.
P: 1000%. I would agree with you 100%. I think a lot of times for me, the reps definitely matter, but me and one of the guys I train with, Dorell Wright, played in the league for a long time. We call it B (?), you gotta be nerdy (?). So, every single shot, you've got to really focus it on whatever mechanics work for you and things that allow you to shoot your best and optimize that.
C: So, like the important part about that, especially in an NBA sense, is that with an 82-game season and not much time in between, like in college, all of us were able to go back to practice and get live reps to find a rhythm back. So, say I had a bad shooting game or two games, like I have time in between to try to get that back on track. But in the league, if you're off, you might be rolling into - if you're 0 for seven, you might be rolling to the next night you got to play.
P: Three games in five nights.
C: Exactly. So, there's not much time to just get away and work on it. That's why being nerdy really comes into play, because then you can get back to the basics quicker and try to kind of undo the slide that you're on or keep a hot streak going.
T: We were talking before you got here about some of the challenges of being a young, gifted, but sort of inexperienced player on a really good team that has championship expectations and the pressures that go with that. There's obviously pressure playing in the league in general, but when you are like, if I have a 0 over four night, I'm not sure I'm going to see the floor, especially your rookie or your sophomore year. how have you managed to juggle those anxieties over time?
P: I think it's definitely something like Cam said that affects you, you know, just the ebbs and flows of the NBA season. When you first get to the league, I don't think anyone can understand how many games it is and how many days in a row you have dedicated to perfecting your craft over and over and being pushed. Like for me, it was just all about finding an even kill mindset to the point where it's like, okay, I have a bad game this game, I know what I did before my last good game to prepare, I need to go back to that, and I need to go back to the basics and whatever. Whether that's if you feel your best when you're being super aggressive rebounding, so you get a feel for the ball in your hands, or you go to the free throw line, you sink some free throws, then the baskets start to open up for you. So, I think it's just discovering all those things within the NBA season that helps you with those things for sure.
T: What do you think about defensively? I mean, you've made such an impact since you've come into the league, but what was your transition from college to the pros, and what was it like for you in terms of physicality, speed, and everything?
P: I think most of the times it comes down to the discipline aspect, especially when you have like an archetype like myself where I'm long, lanky, my feet are quick, I can move laterally, but it's the littlest things like a veteran guard might pump fake you or get into your body, pump fake you and then pivot again and shoot, like it was all about for me getting down the timing, and being more disciplined when I defended because I always felt like I had the potential to. I always kind of intrusively feel like somebody's targeting you or somebody's going at you, that's almost like a sign of disrespect. So, you always got to be solid on defense and be able to, you know, hold your ground. the more and more I grew into my talent for that, I also grew the mindset of you have to be patient with it. I can block the shot, but would it just be better if I contest it, so I don't foul, or if I don't jump for a pump fake? so, it was just gauging those things and still kind of trying to stay true to who I am, which is a defensive playmaker.
C: Yeah, I mean the cool part of that is like in basketball in general, it's easy to look at games from overall bird's eye view but when it comes down to it, especially being a young player on a team with championship aspirations where it feels like your leash is very, very short, is like there's things that you can control and there's things that are a lot harder for you to control and things that you can always control. Your effort, your attention to detail, where you are on the court, how you communicate, and things like that. So, when you kind of make those be the markers of how you performed, and you know, early on, you might get three shots in a game, two, three shots in a game, you might not even shoot. So, if you're hanging your hat, living and dying by box score in that instance, it's going to be really tough on you mentally.
P: Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. I think you got to be able to just stay even keeled, especially in those times where you wish you could, like, I wish I got more looks or I shot two for five, but I feel like if I had shot seven shots, I would have been 4 for seven. Like, there are always those thoughts in the back of your head, but at the end of the day, what I always try to do is be glass-half-full and understand that, well, if I shoot 5 shots and I make all five, I end up with 14 points. you add some free throws here, I make a two threes, that'll get you to 14 points, which for our team is amazing because we got Jok, who's going to get 30, we got Jamal, who's going to contribute 25, we had M*chael, who was going to get 18, AG, you know what I'm saying? So, for me, it was just all about filling in those little gaps and just, you know, trying to be as efficient as I can with what I get for sure.
T: Coming off this playoff run, what's been your perspective on the balance mentally with both the Clippers series and then OKC, just the ebb and flows of what came with that?
P: I definitely say that the playoffs are a testament to resilience. Like, you got to be able to lose a game or lose two games in a row and still maintain the vision and the mindset that you can win still and that's something that my partner, (name), who works with me has instilled in me a lot is just to never lose hope with any of this stuff because we've seen it before. Teams come down from 3-1 or 3-0, it's crazy. So, you never know what can happen, and once you get that momentum back, you just got to ride it as long as you can. But these playoffs were definitely, you know, it showed us that you got to be healthy at the right times, and you know, you can never predict it like with Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton in the primes of their career, prime physical shape probably, and something just happens, and it's just like, that's the nature of the sport. But it was all about being able to go deep on your bench this year, like you saw OKC and the Pacers, they went 9, 10 deep, and that really helped and saved their starters a little bit of extra rest so that they were able to come in and close when it was needed. I think that's why our front office was aggressive with making trades like, for you and for Tim, and just to have that extra little spark, cuz you know two, three, four, five points can win you a ball game.
C: Absolutely. There's a lot to be learned from playoff basketball, too. And I'm sure you've seen it in a lot of series. You have been in a lot of good series, and you've seen a lot, coming out on top, losing tough ones. What else have you learned from those series that you take with you to make yourself a better player?
P: Just to take advantage of every opportunity for sure, because I feel like, for me personally, over the last two years, we had shot, we were this close to being able to win it all. Now, you can't operate on hypotheticals, and what if we beat this team? Do we beat the next team? But we lost two game sevens, we go out on two game sevens where we gave our all in that series, you just go to learn to take those opportunities when you can. I feel like when we won the championship, my rookie year, it was all I knew, so I kind of took it for granted, like, oh, we could win again next year and the year after that. But every team has their year, and you got to take advantage of those opportunities when they come and really exhaust everything in the tank because it's like you never know when you'll get back there, like when we won the championship my first year, Deandre had played 15 seasons and that was his first time to the finals and his first time winning the championship, on great teams with hall of famers. So, you talk about Reggie Jackson, Ish Smith, guys who played in the league for a long time, and that was the only time they got there, and they won. So, you never know how many chances you have at it, you really got to take advantage of them.
T: Outside of the obvious, what were your favorite moments from the champ run?
P: It just almost felt like a dream to me because we just played so many elite players, and we also were in great cities, like we came and played Phoenix, and the valley was rocking. we went to 6 with them. they won two at their crib, and it was rocking in there, like I'm talking about super loud, and KD and Book just went on heaters, like I'm talking about hitting everything in there. You know, sometimes there's nothing you can do, like Joker had 56 in one of the games, and we'd still lost out there. So, I just take away from it being able to play in some amazing environments, and also just being able to watch it like some amazing performance. Jamal with 30 points in the first half in LA, one game when we really needed it. It was just all around a great experience for me to learn more about the game and to learn more about what it takes to be at the top.
C: Yeah, you were spoiled early for sure. (LMAOO). But playoff basketball is what we all play for. You've made it every year of your career, and you've had good runs and had great series. I hope you never are on the outside of it, but when you're on the outside of it, that season ends. You watch the playoffs, like one, you feel like, man, this sucks. I feel weak. I feel weak. Everybody out there is having fun, but I feel weak. And then on the other hand, it's like that's what we compete for, a chance to win a championship, like we go out there, we play 82 games - playing 82 games, and you know you're not going to make the playoffs is tough. Like, you're just getting beat up, but on the playoff teams that I've been on, you're coming down the stretch and you're looking forward to what's ahead, like you get a boost, and it becomes its own season. So, I'm really looking forward to that part about being in Denver is the experience that you guys have, and those championship aspirations that we have as a group, and I'm really excited to get to work. (AWWW)
T: We talked a little bit with Tim last week, just about Joker in general. [...] Being with him, he's had a lot of crazy moments. He's had a lot of crazy individual plays. He's played a lot of crazy games. Do you have a list of, like, these were the ones that stood out?
P: Yeah, there's definitely some performances that stand out to me like every time we go to Washington DC, they have a huge Serbian population there and as soon as you walk in the arena with Joker, they're going crazy, like as if we're the home team and every single time, no matter who's on the other side player center, I remember my first year was Daniel Gafford, my second year I think it was Jonas Valančiūnas, but every time we go there, he has 50 and 20 rebounds or something. It's just always so crazy because there's a huge Serbian population there, and that's always crazy to me that he could just flip it on and decide, like I'm going to go get 50 tonight because there's a lot of fans here. that's pretty crazy. So, it's like really crazy when he does that. There was one play that didn't even go in this season, where there was like .3 left on the clock and you know Joker is known for the heaves like, he'll take it every time there's 3 on the clock and I was inbounding the ball off the free throw and he was like throw it up like a lob, so I throw it up like a lob and he volleyball smacks it down the length of the floor it air ball probably by four or five feet but he almost got that to go in. So, that was one where I'm like, bro, if there's any time on the clock you're trying to get the points, which is to me, is a testament to still shoot however good he shot from three with all the heaves that he had was crazy. And he made two, one off a Euro step, and I assisted that one, too, which was funny.
C: Take the assist.
P: We'll take the assist every time. But one more, I would just say when he has 60 this year, 60, 20, and 10 versus the T*mberwolves, it was just like every time down, he was getting to exactly where he wanted to go on Rudy, who's considered one of the best defensive Bigs in almost league history. So, just the way that he's able to do exactly what he wants, no matter the cover, is just crazy.
C: He didnt even mention that 30, 20, 20.
overlapping: He had that, but that one doesn't make sense. (BYE WHAT, but I understand lol).
P: No, we weren't even tripping on that one. it's just like a good game. Good job. Solid game. He missed a few shots he should have made that game. it's just crazy.
T: With some of your teammates, with AG, and I think with Jamal in particular, I mean Jamal was like the boogeyman to the Lakers, like you got Joker on your team, but like that's the guy they do not want to see.
C: Game winners.
P: I mean, he's a gamer, bro. Like, you talk about someone who just like kind of has a natural flair and competitive edge for the game. Like, he's one of those people when he feels the most challenged is when it's going to bring the best out of him, I think, and that's something that I've noticed with him from day one is that he's a gamer. So, you know, when we beat the Lakers all the time, it started to just get so routine, like every time the ball was in his hands, versus whatever covers they were giving him, he was making the right play, whether that was a two-man game with Jok or creating his own offense. So, I mean, he was big, but a lot of our guys played amazingly in those games. I remember AG scored like 19 or 21 points in the paint, one of those games versus the Lakers. I don't know what it is, but we play well. I don't know if it's because we take the match-up personally or whatever the case may be, but you know, playing in the west against the Lakers, their fan base is crazy. so, I feel like it just adds a little something to it.
T: Does your Long Beach - does that become tricky with your crew?
P: It doesn't become tricky with me because I'm loyal to where I'm at, but I was definitely a Lakers fan before I got to the NBA, and obviously, I forfeited that immediately, but I love it. I love to play well against them and win games against them, to do that in front of my home crowd, my family, it means a lot to me. so, those games always mean a lot. I've played in LA in the playoffs every year that I've been in the league.
C: That's cool. That's really cool.
P: Yeah, it was dope. It's dope.
T: Your advice to the rookies, to the guys who are the second-year guys who are here now, who are starting this journey, going through this particular process of the next 10 days, but then also [...] what they should be thinking about how they should be balancing themselves, to put themselves in your position.
C: First thing I say is don't be your own worst enemy, and I think that gets in the way with a lot of people. there's a lot of talented people in the world. There are a lot of good hoopers. the first thing I try to encourage everybody to do is just don't be your own worst enemy. consistently do the right things. give it your best shot. Be in the right spots. Be attentive. Pay attention to details. These are finite opportunities, and a lot of guys in the summer league are fringe. a good summer league performance puts them over the top; they get a contract, or a bad summer league performance kind of takes them down in the front office's eyes. so, while that is a lot of pressure, it's also a game. Have fun, be your best self, and just make the most of it.
P: Just always have an amazing attitude, always have amazing energy because that's the type of stuff that people are going to look out for the most like, I was talking to our GM John Wallace today or actually yesterday at our summer league game, and I asked him how big a factor is body language in a kid's approach and his energy in the game. He was like sometimes that's more important than the game because it's like, you watch Cooper Flagg, say for instance yesterday, he shot 5 for 21 and he even said that's the worst I've ever shot, but I still saw him blocking shots, I saw him made the right plays, timely passes and that's the stuff that i look for because everybody knows when he gets comfortable, he gets his feet under him, he's going to shoot better. He's gonna be over there with Klay, Kyrie, and AD. You couldn't ask for better guys to kind of learn from, and I think that'll do wonders for him. But I just like the way he was playing hard. He was rebounding, he was still blocking shots, making the right plays, and that was something that stood out to me. It's just like his body language, he was super even keeled, he never got down on his teammates, and that's the type of stuff that's important for sure.
