NuggetsWY wrote:Just finished watching the game and reading the comments. Yes Nurkic dominated Jokic but as was pointed out, Nurkic didn't have a monster game. IMO Malone's new offense is a huge problem, however, as much as I hate to say this, the Nuggets are scoring on roughly the same pace as last year - - a little less than the post December 15th offense, but still close.
If Jokic handles the ball a lot, he doesn't need to score for the Nuggets to win. The Nuggets win when he approaches 10 assists and he can't do that without the ball in his hands. But it's worse than that. For three years and more, we've watched the Nuggets revert to outside shooting far too often. That is not their strength. With last year's offense or this year's offense, their strength is driving to the bucket. The three best players to do that IMO opinion are Harris, Barton & Murray, in that order. Chandler's not too bad either and Mudiay is close behind. There are more players cutting/driving toward the basket when Jokic has the ball. This is basketball basics. If you look back at Walton & Sabonis & Divac and any other top passing big men, you'll find that same trend.
Defense is still a problem also. We see more help defense this year but it's the second or third pass where we are giving things away. They call it help-the-helper and we are not doing very well at that. Plus our players are not recovering fast enough when they do a short double-team. Either commit to the double-team and stop not only the shot but the pass also, or just avoid double-teams. Another basketball basic. The Nuggets seem to have one defensive scheme no matter who they are playing. That does not work against NBA talent, especially the stars. But how many bench players seem to have great nights against the Nuggets? Too many I think. Pick-n-rolls are just one example. Against some players, you trail over the top. Against other players you go below. Against others, you simply switch. But the entire team needs to know how to play against each player on the other team. If one player takes one approach and the other takes a different approach, both look terrible and bad things happen. Defense is the most difficult aspect of NBA basketball and the Nuggets are no where near good. On the other hand, most of us would have been happy with being above the bottom-3 and we are in the middle-third, so that's an improvement. A lot of the improvement has to do with individual effort, but that's still a plus.
IMO we lost this game because Jokic did not have enough assists and Portland's guards are the masters of the pick-n-roll, especially when you trail over the top.
Very nice analysis. The problem is not Jokic not scoring enough, it's not running the offence through him (which would probably lead to more points, but it doesn't have to, but would definitely lead to more assists). Look at last year and the types of assists he had. Those were assists for buckets. Now he got twice 9 and 10 assists, but those were handoffs to the shooter, or passing to Millsap who makes three dribbles and shoots. No more cutting, no more flow, no more Jokic-centric offence. Denver has an offensively very talented roster, Barton, Harris, Jamal, Millsap and Jokic are talented offensive players, but them playing iso, and not as a team is not good. And the only player that can make this unit play as a team is Jokic. So he definitely needs his old role back for Denver to have sustained success. When people say Jokic is a team player and doesn't need to score the ball don't understand the core of the problem. The core of the problem is not playing to your best players strengths. In Boston Stevens turned a 20 point player into a 30 point player just by adjusting his team to him because he recognized he was the best he has. And team success came together with it. I don't think Jokic should score 30, I think the offense should be played around him and to best utilize him, which will lead to better team play and a better record.
I predict his immaturity will flare up before the off-season
