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Mickey8 wrote:

THE J0KER wrote:

TheBonzaiEffect wrote:WTF, why did Malone keep Jokic in until the end of the game when it was a 20+ point blowout!? That's insane. I might lose my fantasy basketball match this week because Jokic stat padded two extra assists in a 20 point game, inexplicably playing until 55 seconds left. Seriously, what is wrong with Malone? Bush league and reckless coaching.

When Jokic needed just about one or two extra minutes to complete triple-double with a single rebound already twice this season, or when he needs the same short extra time vs HOU to make another 2 assists for a historic 20-assists achievement, he was benched by Malone, but today he played unnecessary last 5 minutes during 20+ lead with 5 fouls and when triple-double is already competed.

But that is Malone...

Jokic should blame himself for his averages dropping down , he was playing poorly in the bubble at the restart , even before the NBA was abruptly stopped, he was playing some of the worst basketball of the season, 5,6 games before the season was shut down.

Jokic suffered COVID19 this summer which is the reason why he played out of the gas whole August (all 8 restart games and first 6 playoff games) so only 4 times in 14 August games Joker has more than 7 rebounds which are unimaginable for his rebounding standards when he is healthy. Being unrecovered from coronavirus issues Jokic not only drop his scoring average under 20ppg but rebounds also under 10rpg. It is no secret that was Murray clearly our best player and saviour in the first playoff series vs Utah while Jokic started to play on his 2019-playoff level again in September, against LA teams.

The Rebel wrote:After this game I hope Malone cuts Millsap's minutes down to 15-20 mpg at PF with Green getting 25 mpg at PF only, and Hartenstein getting 15 mpg at C...

Being a whole career mediocre 3pt shooter Millsap against all odds turned overnight into an elite 3pt shooter as a 35y veteran and until it continues he needs to play 20-25 minutes, not 15-20. But because Millsap becomes slower his defense very declined so for him is better these 20-25 minutes to play from the bench instead of facing the best opponent's frontcourt players all the time.

Does anyone know why Hartenstein was out tonight? He has been solid in his time thus far this season.

Breakout games for Green and Campazzo!

Looking at Green's stats: 14pts. 5 rebs. 3 assts. and 2 stls., these are terrific numbers for someone who's practically our 6th or 7th option. I think this is even better than Grant's regular season stats last year. Sure, it's just one game, but if Green can give us these numbers consistently, I wouldn't be surprised if he's already our starting 4 come post-season.

No relief at all, that win. Quite the opposite, I'm quite concerned we managed to play like crap for 3 quarters against such a bad team. But that 4th quarter was pretty impressive.

I really like Dozier but when he is on the floor with the bench he looks out of control on offense way too often and I think that hurt us multiple times this year. But then he has stretches where he looks great. Just really inconsistent. But that defense! I am really, really high on his defense.
I knew Facu had another gear. Watching him in europe it was obvious how smart he is and that combined with his skillset is definitely enough to fill a role in the NBA. His team defense is really great. Excellent defensive awareness. Offensively he just lets the ball move. If he can keep this up (close to it), he should take Bartons minutes entirely from a winning perspective when MPJ is back. But of course that would tank his trade value, so also not the best thing to do.
Is it just me or is Harris even more frustrating this year until now? Right now it feels like he will never hit a 3 again in his life.
Barton completely lost his mojo. Everytime he drives to the basket he drives into a wall of defenders, misses the pass to open shooters and then, even worse, misses tough layups at the rim. And you can see that he is overthinking every move he does on the court.
Green will make things a little better as soon as he is played as the backup 4 (or even starter) with Hartenstein providing what he provided the first few games as the backup center. Don't think this will happen unfortunately.

But even with the small improvement we gain with Green and if Malone realizes this super smallball crap is trash, we still need defensive improvement at the forward spots. But one step after the other with my wishes. First Malone needs to get his stuff together regarding lineups and playing the best players possible, not trying to please everybody with playing time.

We have issues, huge ones when Jokic is out and Barton is in, he just stops the ball movement and playa his hero ball, yes he will give you few 3s sometimes, some nice D but at what cost? We need ball movement, we need rebounds, and you cant play 3 or 4 PG lineup with only one big, not one of our PGs is used to what Malone is asking them to do, thats why we have defensive issues where they get lost on D and we have rebounding issues as no obe is used to watching the boards that much, they are not Westbrook

DaFan334 wrote:Does anyone know why Hartenstein was out tonight? He has been solid in his time thus far this season.

He's like a super anti Malone player in that he commits really dumb fouls and looks clueless on defense.

He's just one month with the team, and he barely played in Houston too, he will need some time. Anyhow, the Wolves played small ball, so not a good match for him, even Jokic struggled with fouls.

eathb_au wrote:

DaFan334 wrote:Does anyone know why Hartenstein was out tonight? He has been solid in his time thus far this season.

He's like a super anti Malone player in that he commits really dumb fouls and looks clueless on defense.

.

Well, Malone was giving him praise in training camp

eathb_au wrote:

DaFan334 wrote:Does anyone know why Hartenstein was out tonight? He has been solid in his time thus far this season.

He's like a super anti Malone player in that he commits really dumb fouls and looks clueless on defense.

I think we saw completely different Hartensteins.
The Hartenstein that I saw gave terrific energy to the second unit, provided some rim protection, rebounding and wasn't a liability on the perimeter. On offense the pick and roll between him and Morris was one of the only things that worked consistently for the bench unit.
I think his defensive awareness and IQ needs some work, but for christ sake he is a low minutes back up. How people can watch the Nuggets this year and say Hartenstein is clueless on defense is beyond me. To answer the original question, it is obviously about Malone wanting to satisfy Barton with as much PT as possible and because Green came back Hartenstein was the odd man out. It had definitely nothing to do with his performance the first few games.

While I love the passion some of you guys have to relax a little bit.

We had a terrible bench last year, we won most of our games just like we did the one last night.

The difference is that this bench has 7 new guys, and a big piece of it has played 2 games with the team so far. 5 of the new guys are NBA rookies, 1 of the other 2 is in his 3rd year but only played very limited minutes for his 1st 2 years for a team that does not use many bigs. 1 of our rotation players was on a 2 way deal last year and spent very little time playing with our guys. The bench will get better as guys figure out how to play with each other, how to play in the NBA, and Malone figures out how to use him.

Campazzo showed some great signs last night. Green fit very well at backup PF especially with Jokic and Murray on the court. Dozier has been pretty solid for a 9th guy. Hartenstein has been impressive when he has gotten limited minutes. Add those 4 with Morris and I am excited about what the bench can be by the end of the season.

I think Malone is going to have to figure out how and when to use Millsap, and cut back his minutes. He is also going to have to stop with the 4 guard lineups, especially since Hartenstein and Green appear to be a great fit together, but last night was a good 1st step against a terrible team.

Made a 700 mile road trip today and my eyes are blurring, but I finally got to see this game.

I understand why some are concerned, but as The Rebel has said more than once, we added quite a few new players to our bench unit. We just need to give them a little more time to learn to play together.

I love Campazzo's energy but I question his ability to influence an NBA game on the defensive end.

Barton ...

I believe Millsap's minutes will be reduced as Green begins to fit in.

I'm not worried about Hartenstein. Like Green, he needs time to learn how to fit in.

Haven't seen much of Bol, but what I've seen leads me to believe we won't see much of him this year.

I think coach needs a seeing-eye dog to find his roster lineup sheet (and let the dog eat it).

But I still believe!