RipPizzaGuy wrote:NuggetsWY wrote:The Rebel wrote:That is something that has always bugged me about Jokic, although he does show the fire occasionally it is rare. That was also the thing I loved about Nurkic, he had no problem going after anybody or fighting for the win. Gallo, Nelson, Faried, Chandler, and Barton have never shown that fire on a consistent basis.
Totally agree - I'd love to see him dunk more - be aggressive & assertive but I guess that's hard to do with the coach looking for excuses to yank you from the game.
Same thing goes for Murray & even more so for Hernangomez and forget Beasley (Malone has). 30+ mpg is sort of the region of "top players in the league." Not even Harris gets those minutes, only Gallinari and barely Chandler. Injuries do not affect ppg much, just games played. The Nuggets currently have a stat I've never seen before: 8 players averaging over 24 mpg. That's 8 players that are playing more than half the game. Without injuries, that's almost impossible. If every starter played just over 24 mpg, then three bench players played just over 24 mpg and the rest of the players played less than 24 mpg, it's possible but highly unlikely. What does that mean? It means Malone doesn't have a consistent rotation after two years and please don't drink his kool-aid of "3 rookies". Murray has averaged 20 mpg and Hernangomez 14 with a few DNP while Beasley averages 5 mpg but has only played in 18 games.
Yea.. I feel your pain. Malone as a coach wants to win every game. He will play crappy vets bigger minutes because he feels they give him the best chance to win. I remember it with Travis outlaw and Marcus Thornton.
The Nuggets are in that odd position, having some good vets on the team that could bring in some trade value. Also having some really good youngsters that need time to develop. With Malone I'm sure he prefers to play the vets but management wants him to give time to the rooks.
I would have liked to have seen Denver move Barton/Chandler/Gallo/Faried and try to get a young sf and pf. Something like Gallo/Chandler to the rockets for Decker/Harrell. Then fire Malone before making the Nurkic trade. Hire a coach better suited for player development and go. Move Faried and Barton over the summer trying to move up in the draft.
Jokic/Nurkic
Harrell/Hernangomez
Decker/Beasley
Harris/Murray
Mudiay
Draft a pg at the top of the draft and probably a pf with the Memphis pick you had. Keep Arthur/Jameer as positive vets.
Either way good luck to you guys, always liked the Nuggets.
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When he is allowed to play his game Murray is actually a scoring PG, but Malone lets Barton basically run the point and has Murray playing off the ball all the damn time. The handful of times Murray has actually been allowed to play point he plays well and the offense does as well.
Malone is a weird guy, he comes off as a great, knowledgeable coach in most interviews and is supposed to be a players and defensive coach, yet he has publicly feuded with several of the players and our defense is the worst in the league. He also obviously has either no control over the veterans or is an idiot, and I personally think it is lack of control because he seems smart enough in interviews I have heard. Yet the veterans all seem to do whatever they feel like doing.
The crazy thing is our young guys all look great and seem to be playing within the system. When Chandler, Gallo, Faried, and Barton were out of the games before the all star break the offense ran smoothly and they did a great job, with them the offense is a series of iso plays with the occasional play run with Jokic getting the ball at the top of the key, about once every 5-7 plays.
Jameer is actually the 2nd worst offender with doing what he wants and ignoring the way the offense is supposed to be run, with gallo the worst and Barton a close 3rd. While you had a range of fans wanting different things, there was really 3 groups, those that only wanted to move 1 veteran (mainly Gallo or Nelson), some of us that were hoping for 3 guys (one of Barton or Nelson, 1 of Chandler or Gallo, and 1 of Arthur or Faried), and a couple that wanted all the veterans gone.
While the win against the Warriors was basically a fluke, as everybody seemed to get very hot from 3 on the same night, the ball movement and defense were not flukes. It was the young guys doing what they are supposed to do, playing within the system on both ends, and putting in max effort. I have said for weeks that removing some of the vets would make this team better and I still believe that, those are the guys giving constant effort. Even with some of them overthinking things and making mistakes there is really no question that Murray, Mudiay, Beasley, and HernanGomez are giving max effort when they are on the court.
Allowing Lawson to pull that ball rolling trick that he learned from Billups in Denver was just a terrible example of the lack of effort from some of the veterans especially on defense. The young guys would not have let that happen if they were allowed to play.