Game 3 - Denver Nuggets Vs Minnesota Timberwolves 830pm BSN/ESPN

[TimberKat]

Conley can't keep up with the younger, bigger, and faster guys. Nowell doesn't play D and can't shoot. SloMo too slow for Porter. We only have 3 guys that played well today. We just can't match up. Let hope we win one game.

[YaleS]

just not enough shooting

Conley trying to create something with Gobert/KAT first, Denver just doesn't guard Gobert on the perimeter, presses up on KAT no where to go
tries to get something with KA, Denver backs off him until he tries to drive with the shot clock running out

Yes sir, and this will allways be true when playing Gobert. He is making life difficult for teammates, even more so for KAT who just needs space at the top. Maybe advanced stat guys will someday realise that when an unskilled player who is no danger anywhere outside of 5 feet, sets a screen for his team, all he actually does is bringing his defender to help stop the drive or the shot. But yet again, a person has to watch and observe the game to see this, there is no nice quantifiable number, thus it apperantly doesnt exist.

How is that different with Vanderbilt last year? We actually had more options with Gobert.

Its not different. But keep in mind - I never said or thought of Vando as the best option going forward, he is off the bench energy guy for me. In addition, Vando is a multi position defender and gets paid about 1/5 the money. Also, I hear he can stand in the corner now, and I would love that for a energy defender.

[UnFadeable21]

Denver bench 28
Wolves bench 10

Jaylen Nowell is a goner
NAW RFA
Prince Team option
Jmac Team Option
Kyle Expiring
Minnot
Moore
Naz FA
Garza FA
Ryan FA
Rivers FA
Knight FA

Need to figure that out. We have our starting 5 already.

[YaleS]

This offense will continue to struggle as long as they are doing the KAT-Gobert thing. Their spacing is so bad 90% of the time. That's the real issue they will never admit.

And we send a full nba roster /9 players/ to have the privilege. Gobert has been a thorn in my eye this whole freaking season.

[D1SGRUNTL3D]

Bench was supposed to be one of Nuggets weaknesses but they have thoroughly outplayed our bench so far in this series...that's how awful our bench has been. Jaden's injury has also hurt us a ton defensively

It’s insane and not just the bench. They have 6 guys not named Murray or Jokic who can score 6-8 points in in 2 min. Outside of ant, kat and Naz, we have none. Denver’s just fun to watch. Outside of *insert role player shooting 7-9 here* you still have to worry about Murray getting hot and that back to back mvp guy

Dropping games Vs bottom feeders matters in the regular season so you don’t end up in the 8th and maybe Jaden doesn’t punch a wall. Wolves made this bed, they deserve to lay in it.

Were outclassed everywhere besides ant. I actually think Rudy has done pretty good

[Guidus88]

Bench was supposed to be one of Nuggets weaknesses but they have thoroughly outplayed our bench so far in this series...that's how awful our bench has been. Jaden's injury has also hurt us a ton defensively

It’s insane and not just the bench. They have 6 guys not named Murray or Jokic who can score 6-8 points in in 2 min. Outside of ant, kat and Naz, we have none. Denver’s just fun to watch. Outside of *insert role player shooting 7-9 here* you still have to worry about Murray getting hot and that back to back mvp guy

Dropping games Vs bottom feeders matters in the regular season so you don’t end up in the 8th and maybe Jaden doesn’t punch a wall. Wolves made this bed, they deserve to lay in it.

Were outclassed everywhere besides ant. I actually think Rudy has done pretty good

Agree, Ant and Rudy were only two that were consistent despite being hurt

[Domejandro]

Read on Twitter

When I read this, I think of every single bad pass from Karl-Anthony Towns that results in him walking back on defense. Can’t win games with that lack of effort.

[Calinks]

Read on Twitter

When I read this, I think of every single bad pass from Karl-Anthony Towns that results in him walking back on defense. Can’t win games with that lack of effort.

Been the problem all year. We don't execute at a high level. A lot of that comes with experience, cohesion. We haen't had a lot of experience together but they should still be better. Talent alone got us in the playoffs. We played a lot of sloppy ball all season, we dropped games that should have been easy wins. Great teams don't do that. Very few guys on this team play at the level they need to to see real success. Lets hope we can start building towards that starting with Ant and Jaden. Surround them with smart guys, energy guys, and build this thing going forward. I'd love to see a Kings level leap next season.

[Neeva]

Read on Twitter

When I read this, I think of every single bad pass from Karl-Anthony Towns that results in him walking back on defense. Can’t win games with that lack of effort.

Been the problem all year. We don't execute at a high level. A lot of that comes with experience, cohesion. We haen't had a lot of experience together but they should still be better. Talent alone got us in the playoffs. We played a lot of sloppy ball all season, we dropped games that should have been easy wins. Great teams don't do that. Very few guys on this team play at the level they need to to see real success. Lets hope we can start building towards that starting with Ant and Jaden. Surround them with smart guys, energy guys, and build this thing going forward. I'd love to see a Kings level leap next season.

This team doesn’t execute because they are not well coached.

[m2002brian]

Someone said the crowd was kinda tame.
I was there. Whoever their DJ is should be fired along with Finch. My god,lame 90s music and just nothing that gets you hype. The half time show was a joke. Some guy with super balance, seen him before on pie streams. Ant was smooth, a little sticky, but given some of the dead spots, he needed to get something going, he did have a couple drives where he lost his dribble and it got stolen. KAT kinda sorta shows up on one end. No surprise his team leading -10 plus/minus coincide with Aaron Gordon’s team leading plus/minus. Kats still playing defense 6-10 feet from the 3pt line. He seemed hesitant from 3. But made some nice drives. Ugly when he got blocked by Murray. There was a point in the game KAT was grabbing at his calf again, so he may still be experiencing symptoms. Bench was shot. Naw was great on Murray. Nowell came in flat as pancakes and Murray ate him up like super delicious pancakes. Finch should have had NAW in anytime Murray was in. Refs got a little ticky tacky at the end, but we should
Have won if we had a bench and played actual defense.

[TwolvesFanRome]

Those matches lost during the RS with draft lottery team killed us...

Our not well-coached inexperience...our front office which (at least to date) made a sensational mistake in the Gobert's trade...a pathetic season...

I hope for a mini revolution in the summer...

[m2002brian]

I don’t find the Gobert trade quite as detrimental.
A) we still have excellent trade capital in KAT and McDaniels. (I rather keep Mcd)
The forcing the issue with Rudy is more the issue. This leads me to believe that either Finch and/or Connelly are infatuated with big offenses. But it goes against a “flow” offense if you’re told explicitly to look for Rudy, that’s not flow. Rudy worked in Utah with a similar dominant wing in DM. But in that system they had better shooters and less forcing it Rudy.

[Calinks]

If people really hate how this team is currently built they should be mad at Rosas. He's the one who blew it with an affair and crappy interpersonal skills. The dude was on top of the world and had one of the surprise teams on the year and he threw it all away. Still blows my mind that happened but it's the Timberwolves, crazy crappy happens every other month.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

We can't compete agaainst a team deisgned to win a championship. We have 4.5 players with play off level, Ant, KAT, Mike, Rudy and Kyle . Impossible to compete without bench. today starter through not perfect manage to compete against the Denver starter, our bench just got destroy.

[Rookie-Mistake]

I haven't watched any of the games.. I've seen enough this season.. something has stunk all season...

Sent from my SM-G991B using RealGM mobile app

[Battletrigger]

We can't compete agaainst a team deisgned to win a championship. We have 4.5 players with play off level, Ant, KAT, Mike, Rudy and Kyle . Impossible to compete without bench. today starter through not perfect manage to compete against the Denver starter, our bench just got destroy.

Totally disagree, Cat has shown that is not PO material and Rudy have been exposed before.

I'd say that Ant is clearly a PO dude, Anderson, Conley( but it's a little old yet) and I really wanted to see McDaniels and Reid.

[Battletrigger]

If people really hate how this team is currently built they should be mad at Rosas. He's the one who blew it with an affair and crappy interpersonal skills. The dude was on top of the world and had one of the surprise teams on the year and he threw it all away. Still blows my mind that happened but it's the Timberwolves, crazy crappy happens every other month.

No man, Rosas is guilty of been an ****. But the didn't pull the trigger on the Gobert trade.

[Cappy_Smurf]

just not enough shooting

Conley trying to create something with Gobert/KAT first, Denver just doesn't guard Gobert on the perimeter, presses up on KAT no where to go
tries to get something with KA, Denver backs off him until he tries to drive with the shot clock running out

Yes sir, and this will allways be true when playing Gobert. He is making life difficult for teammates, even more so for KAT who just needs space at the top. Maybe advanced stat guys will someday realise that when an unskilled player who is no danger anywhere outside of 5 feet, sets a screen for his team, all he actually does is bringing his defender to help stop the drive or the shot. But yet again, a person has to watch and observe the game to see this, there is no nice quantifiable number, thus it apperantly doesnt exist.

Utah had the #1 offense in the NBA during Rudy's last season there.

He is not the problem, but trying to play him next to another big will likely always be problematic.

[minimus]

We can't compete agaainst a team deisgned to win a championship. We have 4.5 players with play off level, Ant, KAT, Mike, Rudy and Kyle . Impossible to compete without bench. today starter through not perfect manage to compete against the Denver starter, our bench just got destroy.

Totally disagree, Cat has shown that is not PO material and Rudy have been exposed before.

I'd say that Ant is clearly a PO dude, Anderson, Conley( but it's a little old yet) and I really wanted to see McDaniels and Reid.

Well, there are plenty of examples of players who weren't successful in first playoff series, and improved significantly after consecutive playoff appearances. Lowry, DDR, PG13, Jimmy Butler (at some degree). Here is my point: let's complete this iteration by giving young players as much playoff experience as possible. I do believe that in regular season we need both Gobert, Towns and Conley to have 41+ wins. Without them this team lacks talent and depth. I do believe that we miss MCD more than we realize, we were bottom 10 offense in regular season, without him we look like the worst offense in playoffs.

[TimberKat]

Yes sir, and this will allways be true when playing Gobert. He is making life difficult for teammates, even more so for KAT who just needs space at the top. Maybe advanced stat guys will someday realise that when an unskilled player who is no danger anywhere outside of 5 feet, sets a screen for his team, all he actually does is bringing his defender to help stop the drive or the shot. But yet again, a person has to watch and observe the game to see this, there is no nice quantifiable number, thus it apperantly doesnt exist.

How is that different with Vanderbilt last year? We actually had more options with Gobert.

Its not different. But keep in mind - I never said or thought of Vando as the best option going forward, he is off the bench energy guy for me. In addition, Vando is a multi position defender and gets paid about 1/5 the money. Also, I hear he can stand in the corner now, and I would love that for a energy defender.

There is more than one way to win and space the floor but the constant is ability to defend. We are not and should not force feed Gobert. We just missed him in too many opportunities and not utilize him enough to play more in-out situations. Teams will defend you in a way knowing you can't make a simple lob pass.

The way we played last year doesn't work in the long run. We had a bunch of dumb and inexperienced players. We just try to out hustle the opponent. We get destroyed in rebounding and guys like LaMelo picks us apart. That is like dump the puck in every time when you cross mid-court and race after it because you think you can skate faster. It's a system design to cover up our weakness.

Gobert is not perfect. The overall approach does work but may not be the style you like. We just need players to play smarter, make the simple pass and fix our bench.

You may not like how much Gobert is making but that doesn't mean he is not the 2nd or 4th best player on the team right now.