Windy: Mavs look like the biggest threat to DEN in the West

[HotRocks34]

This morning.

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[SA37]

Minnesota and OKC offer a much more difficult matchup for Denver, imo.

I'm not even sure the Mavs get past the Clippers.

[dirkforpres]

Theres no room on the bandwagon for Windy.

Too fat.

[EmpireFalls]

Minnesota from what I’ve seen so far is the biggest threat.

[cgf]

I can see arguments for Dallas, LAC, Minny, or OKC if they brought their A-games. So why not?

[UglyBugBall]

I put $500 on the Mavs making the finals. I didn't have the balls to pick them over Boston yet.

[HadAnEffectHere]

lmao, Gafford and Lively and PJ are way too small.

It's Minnesota by far.

[kingr]

Yeah, they need to get by the clippers first, which I don't think will happen.

[Funcrusher]

Pelicans, dawg

[Froob]

I think it’s only Minnie honestly. I don’t think Dallas has the big bodies to put on Jokic.

I think it’s really only Boston and Minnie that can beat them and Minnie really blew it letting homecourt over Denver slip away.

Boston has the big bodies and can shoot a million 3s and hope to make em at 40%+

[dirkforpres]

lmao, Gafford and Lively and PJ are way too small.

They werent too small when they beat Denver a month ago, and they held Jokic to 16 and 11 in the process.

[HadAnEffectHere]

lmao, Gafford and Lively and PJ are way too small.

They werent too small when they beat Denver a month ago, and they held Jokic to 16 and 11 in the process.

Cool.

[Johnny Firpo]

Minny looks very impressive, and they are doing it against a bad matchup. Of course anything could change, it's early. Let's see what Minny does in Phoenix, and what the Mavs do at home. Actually, let's also see what the Nuggets do in LA, I loved the comeback, but didn't really love their level of play in game 2.

[Peregrine01]

Nah, I don't see it. Mavs ball devolves into your turn/my turn offense late in games way too often, leading to tough shots on every possession. Funny enough, the Nuggets can play the iso-game better than any other team in the league because they have Jokic, who's either going to back his ass to within 10 feet of the rim for a 65% hook shot or make you have to double him and kick out to wide open shooters. But they don't do this at anywhere near the rate like the Mavs do because they have something even more deadly: the Murray/Jokic two-man game.

[shrink]

I always thought it’s Minny, because they are best at negating DEN’s typical match up advantages.

MIN plays Towns on Jokic. Nobody stops Jokic, but Towns length helps reduce his passing ability, and makes Jokic more of a scorer. That allows Gobert to protect the paint while he guards Aaron Gordon. For most teams, that means if they use their PF and C this way, Porter has a big size advantage on his defender. The Wolves though are loaded with quality players 6-9 or taller, with Jaden McDaniels, Naz, and Kyle Anderson. In fact, MIN likely has the size advantage in the match up, because DEN’s bench bigs aren’t as deep as MIN.

Next, Jamal Murray is an under-rated player finally getting his due, and a lot of that credit goes to receiving great passes from Jokic. But MIN is showing that with defenders like McDaniels and Ant (and Nickiel Alexander-Walker), they can really limit perimeter scorers, like Devin Booker.

On the other hand, how does DEN handle Ant? They don’t have Brown this year, and the only player that could maybe defend him is Gordon. However, Gordon is the ONLY option they have to defend Towns size and scoring ability. Towns shoots over smaller guys, and drive past bigger, slower defenders.

I’m not saying MIN is better than DEN, and they should be favored. I am saying that MIN’s team composition (both built by Tim Connelly) create a lot of match up issues for the Nuggets. I wonder if Connelly realized that for the MIN to have high level success, he needed to build a team that could match up with with DEN, and that influenced him to pay such a high price to acquire Gobert?

[Harry Garris]

I think it’s only Minnie honestly. I don’t think Dallas has the big bodies to put on Jokic.

I think it’s really only Boston and Minnie that can beat them and Minnie really blew it letting homecourt over Denver slip away.

Boston has the big bodies and can shoot a million 3s and hope to make em at 40%+

I don't think Boston really does have the size to match up with Denver though. We've seen in their meetings KP is too skinny and offers no real resistance to Jokic in the post, and Horford is too small for him. Minnesota is the only team in the NBA that can physically match up to Denver and *occasionally* cause Jokic some problems.

If the finals matchup is Boston vs Denver you're right that Boston's opportunity to win is just to run drive and kick every single play, shoot a million three pointers, and hope they go in. And I'm not going to lie if that's the way the championship plays out... it would feel a little cheap to be honest. No team has ever won a NBA title doing that before and I am still holding out hope that basketball will never get to that point. Not because I'm rooting for Denver, I just don't think it's a healthy direction for the state of the game to go.

[Archx]

I hate these reactionary takes from one game to another. Can we at least wait until at least full series is over?

[Peregrine01]

On the other hand, how does DEN handle Ant? They don’t have Brown this year, and the only player that could maybe defend him is Gordon. However, Gordon is the ONLY option they have to defend Towns size and scoring ability. Towns shoots over smaller guys, and drive past bigger, slower defenders.

With a guy like Ant, you force him to make reads, clog the paint and invite him into tough pull-up jumpers, which he seems very willingly to oblige. Honestly haven't been impressed with him at all on offense - he doesn't have great feel.

[shrink]

On the other hand, how does DEN handle Ant? They don’t have Brown this year, and the only player that could maybe defend him is Gordon. However, Gordon is the ONLY option they have to defend Towns size and scoring ability. Towns shoots over smaller guys, and drive past bigger, slower defenders.

With a guy like Ant, you force him to make reads, clog the paint and invite him into tough pull-up jumpers, which he seems very willingly to oblige. Honestly haven't been impressed with him at all on offense - he doesn't have great feel.

To be honest, Ant’s ability to make reads varies every night, sometimes even within games. The problem he creates though is that he is too athletic to not just blow by most one-on-one defenders. He can also make tough jumpers. If you watch the Suns, who also don’t have a good option, they try to double team him, and then pack in underneath, like you suggest. Sometimes Ant just dominates that. They really need two Aaron Gordon’s, or bring back Brown.

[GiannisAnte34]

its the Clippers if Kawhi is on one. people forgot how much of an assassin robot Jordan can be