RealGM

Just throwing the thread up there.

A poll about what?

My god, at the defense and 3PA.

I'm glad we could contribute to the launching of Roy Hibbert's career pre-season block total, a bpg which is now 3.5 bpg and only 1 block in his previous game. Is he the new beast?

Looks like Melo and JR flatlined. Our discipline in not attempting too many 3pters and making a decent amount of free throws is of note.

Balkman leads the team with a +1.

I hope Karl has a plan in the trashcan somewhere labeled "Defense: This Season We Mean It"

tbh Roy Hibbert should have dominated, since we had no size.

Shows how weak we are when Nene goes down though.

Some things to note:

- J.R. dribbles now at FT line instead of swirling the ball in his hands

- (This concerns me) while other players coasted ala pre-season, Billups and Afflalo looked like they played close to their 100%. Billups getting his shots blocked, or struggling to get his off. He looks... old.

and Afflalo is very limited offensively. He's got smart to push off his defender a little to gain some space to get his shot off... but off dribble he's pretty dead offensively.

- Graham is BIG... I had no idea he's that big. But he easily has one of the lowest game IQ out there, going straight to defenders instead of around them...

- AC still a TO machine...

- Without Nene, this looks like we'd be struggling A LOT. Kenyon kept bricking, Afflalo depends on someone to create him a shot, Graham will be trash in the season, offense looks like it solely gonna rely on Billups and Melo.

It seems to me that if we re forced to play smaller (which in Hibbert's case, will be always) our guards need to deliver.

These guys need to make sure they can deliver at least at the same level they did last year. We're going to need improvements from last year to compete.

Just noticed Hibbert got 2 more blocks in the final 2 minutes.......lol. We know he's going to be great, but in terms of his first breakout game...he had 1 block previous game, we gave him a big stat pad. Can't do that in regular season.

I would expect we avoid him much better in regular season and we end up with like Birdman 3 blocks and Hibbert 5 blocks max...6, 7, 8 is just getting abused!

Another disturbing thing is just how wide open Troy Murphy and three pt shooters were... I think Troy shot at least 10 wide wide wide open threes at the top of the three pt line. It's pre-season, but guys looked like they actually worked really hard on defense but just like Laker series in Game 6, Trevor Ariza got open for many three pts...

SnakefromHell wrote:Another disturbing thing is just how wide open Troy Murphy and three pt shooters were... I think Troy shot at least 10 wide wide wide open threes at the top of the three pt line. It's pre-season, but guys looked like they actually worked really hard on defense but just like Laker series in Game 6, Trevor Ariza got open for many three pts...

Karl Still trying to rotate as much as he could to figure out the the newcomers. Concerns lot of people with the start of the preseason. Guys maybe playing with too much worries in their mind and to play up their last year's reputation. Hopefully everyone will find a groove by the start of the preseason. Like i said before I WANNA SEE TY TO PLAY !

^Defensive rotations to cover outside shooters are still terrible... picked up where we left off in Game 6 WCF...

What worries me is how different and ineffective we are offensively without ONE single player: Nene. If he gets injured, we're done for. No inside threat... ZERO! Unless Melo decides he's going to be that for us, playing in the paint, just like he did in Lakers series Game 1. If this is the case, we keep swinging the ball and there won't be any double team inside to free up our shooters... Kenyon is gonna keep bricking his shots and try lousy driving attempts around the basket... Balkman and Graham will be useless on half court offense... Birdman looks all the same offensively from last year...


Positives? Afflalo is a better individual, team, and overall defender than D-Jones. With his addition, we can lock teams down on some possessions, especially against teams with no outside shooting.


But if our defensive rotations are still terrible like this, mark our record 0-2 against Pacers in regular season because they're a very good three pt shooting team.

Another thing to note is how **** Dahntay Jones is... I don't think, when he came into the game, he smiled or shook hands with the Nugget players... maybe he did it in practices or tour prior to the game... but he kept his poker annoying face and start hitting us. Hacking Melo, Graham and Afflalo.

The guy with his first ever new long term contract is showing off...

Good thing we play them only twice in the season or I think there could be a fight, simply just because the Nugget players can't stand him already.

Yeah, I thought Dahntay Jones took the game a bit too serious...

IMO he treated it like a playoff game.

Actually got to see the game on Altitude, and individually saw some nice shots - but yeah the inside presence needs a boost in the non-nene minutes. As a team, obviously not come together yet - so I hope Karl has a real good look at everyone.

When you don't play together, it doesn't matter how good anyone's going to be.

Balkman looked good out there for his first chances at rebounds.

It starts with rebounding. Block out, rebound, set up the offense, and execute. Just start there and build from there...

eathy wrote:Yeah, I thought Dahntay Jones took the game a bit too serious...

IMO he treated it like a playoff game.

That is the respect for the game or whatever you do. I liked him here in Denver & dare every nuggets to treat all the games like it is playoff game!

Eh. Dahntay Jones is trying to make an impression on his new team and fans. That's what he brings to the table. I don't have a problem with it.

I need the opinions of nonPacer fans. Is Roy Hibbert that good or was it just because he was going against the likes of Johan Petro can make anyone look good? I know Nene would have helped, but where did Hibbert's blocks come from? Were they all against Petro and Andersen or was blocking guards coming into the lane?

His blocks were on our bigs or Joey Graham who failed at attacking the basket.

Roy Hibbert did pretty good. But he played most of the game where Kenyon Martin.Birdman/Allen were the center... and they all would get murdered by big man because they're too small/skinny to take them on in the post, so his dominating stats was somewhat expected (Petro didn't play much).

GrapeApe wrote:I need the opinions of nonPacer fans. Is Roy Hibbert that good or was it just because he was going against the likes of Johan Petro can make anyone look good? I know Nene would have helped, but where did Hibbert's blocks come from? Were they all against Petro and Andersen or was blocking guards coming into the lane?

I expect big things out of hibbert this season. His per minute numbers last year were really impressive, he was just hampered by fouls.

If he can keep those under control a 16-7-2 season is not out of the question, which is nothing to laugh at for a second year center, especially since the postition is so week these days.

For those who can't tune in the game, I will update tweet to tweet every play here:

https://twitter.com/nuggetscore

Billups has missed free throws since the WCF more than he had in his previous 2-3 years... this is getting ridiculous.

Melo committed 2 offensive fouls on Danhtay in a span of less than 2 mins... both appeared that he intentionally tried to hit DJ with his elbows... the second one got him in the lips... I'm telling you DJ got Nuggets testy...

Remember when Jones said "Denver does me dirty"...