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Back to back playoff seasons for the first time in 19(?) years! After a rollercoaster of a season, we actually made the playoffs...

Let's steal a game in Denver and make this a series!

The rotation is going to be very limited, hopefully Jaylen Nowell can add to our depleted bench.

Does NAW start as our Jaden-lite? Or do we go big to defend MPJ?

I'm guessing Gobert guards Gordon and KAT starts on Jokic and see how it goes..

All 5 nuggs starters + a reserve are DD.

https://www.espn.com/nba/team/depth/_/name/den/denver-nuggets

ARRRRRRROOOOOOOO!!!

DENVER WE ARE COMING!!!!

GopherIt! wrote:All 5 nuggs starters + a reserve are DD.

https://www.espn.com/nba/team/depth/_/name/den/denver-nuggets

I don't put too much into this but if that's correct we might have a very entertaining series.

i predict this series goes into seven games

Just a little fun fact the only 1st round playoff win we've had in our 34 season was against the Nuggets,I think history repeats itself.The Nuggets have a weak bench much like ourselfs and it comes down to Jokic/Murray/Gordon/MPJ Vs Towns/Ant/Gobert/Conley.Just looking at those big fours I like our odds.

I would usually never pick and 8th seed to beat a 1st but to me this year the WEST has been extremely weak and pretty much any team can come out of the WEST.Every team has issues with injuries to stars players,star players past their primes or weak benches.

I really wish we had Naz and Jaden for this matchup.

Jokic gets all the credit (and deservedly so), but one reason the Nuggets win games is their size. Aaron Gordon does great as their multi-tool PF, but that allows Michael Porter Jr to play SF at 6’10. Most teams don’t have enough quality players with that kind of size .. but we can actually outsize them, when we are fully healthy.

We’ll be a tough opponent, far better than OKC, but I’d have really loved to see us with Naz and Jaden out there too!

shrink wrote:I really wish we had Naz and Jaden for this matchup.

Jokic gets all the credit (and deservedly so), but one reason the Nuggets win games is their size. Aaron Gordon does great as their multi-tool PF, but that allows Michael Porter Jr to play SF at 6’10. Most teams don’t have enough quality players with that kind of size .. but we can actually outsize them, when we are fully healthy.

We’ll be a tough opponent, far better than OKC, but I’d have really loved to see us with Naz and Jaden out there too!

Agreed. I think fully healthy we would have a good chance. I still think it will still be fun series.

shrink wrote:I really wish we had Naz and Jaden for this matchup.

Jokic gets all the credit (and deservedly so), but one reason the Nuggets win games is their size. Aaron Gordon does great as their multi-tool PF, but that allows Michael Porter Jr to play SF at 6’10. Most teams don’t have enough quality players with that kind of size .. but we can actually outsize them, when we are fully healthy.

We’ll be a tough opponent, far better than OKC, but I’d have really loved to see us with Naz and Jaden out there too!

Yeah, I also felt that in addition to all of that the Wolves has more combos for the floor with both of them

Nice insight from coach Malone regarding the matchup and what Den is thinking.

I'd really love to see the Wolves give Minott a chance in this series. He's likely the best defensive matchup for Porter now that Jaden is out. Minnesota is the clear underdog and inserting a guy who causes major disruption and chaos could be a good thing. I don't know if Minott is ready for this level of play, but one thing I'm fairly confident in is that he will makes things happen (both good and bad).

wolves_89 wrote:I'd really love to see the Wolves give Minott a chance in this series. Minnesota is the clear underdog and inserting a guy who causes major disruption and chaos could be a good thing. I don't know if Minott is ready for this level of play, but one thing I'm fairly confident in is that he will makes things happen (both good and bad).

I keep hearing Minnott mentioned by Wolves reporters as someone who should get a chance that I think it's a real possibility.

KAT/Gobert/Slomo are going to get heavy minutes against Joker, I think we can see Josh get at least 5-10 minutes if those guys are going 100% every chance they get, especially since Denver altitude is no joke and we need rebounders.

I know Nate Knight is a guy who could see minutes, but I guess we shall see what Finchy has in store

I skipped my Call of Duty session last night and plow through the internet to scout the DEN match up. My significant other didn’t appreciate that. (OK. It is just a joke on the Conley-Towns exchange.)

As Mike Malone pointed out, it’s hard to use the previous matchup to prep the series because Wolves are basically a different team since we played them (Towns, Conley, NAW – in, DLo, Naz, JMcD -out).

On Defense, we likely play more 1-1 to ensure Murray, MPJ, and KCP don’t get open 3s. Likely have Prince/SloMo guard MPJ. Towns/Gobert tag-team Joker to get him off rhythm.

On Offense, use more 5 out sets when Joker is in the game. Towns need to find a way to create his shots when Gordon is on him. Maybe do more pick and pop as Towns seem to have problem with smaller players.

Can Gobert score on Joker? I haven’t watched enough UTA vs DEN games. We do have an advantage in that Connelly knows all the players so we should have very good scouting reports. Towns, skip your CoD session and read the reports.

It’s time for me to get back to my Call of Duty game.

Doogie said this morning that Naz and McDaniels might be back for the next series, if we can upset DEN.

Nowell is available - he played in LA, and was a healthy scratch against OKC, since NAW was doing so well.

shrink wrote:Doogie said this morning that Naz and McDaniels might be back for the next series, if we can upset DEN.

Nowell is available - he played in LA, and was a healthy scratch against OKC, since NAW was doing so well.

I dont trust Doogie.

minimus wrote:

shrink wrote:Doogie said this morning that Naz and McDaniels might be back for the next series, if we can upset DEN.

Nowell is available - he played in LA, and was a healthy scratch against OKC, since NAW was doing so well.

I dont trust Doogie.

It's a tall order to get pass DEN but we do have 2 bigs.

OKC was very small an inexperienced, Denver will be much much tougher they have a great coach, veteran team, and MVP talent in Jokic.

I would start NAW again and have him guard Murray and Ant guard Porter, should be a good matchup for Ant and allow him to cherry pick/rim defend more and save him some energy on defense. Lets Conley be the chaser on KCP/Brown and he has the smarts to know when to double/cherry pick on Jokic.
We will probably throw multiple players/looks at Jokic and our tendency the 2nd half of the year has been to make high level star like him beat us as a scorer this year and not hurt us as a passer (see games vs Trae Young, Doncic, LeBron).
Neither KAT or Gobert are great at getting out to shooters, so how well Aaron Gordon plays is going to be important this series.

I would start NAW on Murray and have Prince/Kyle/Nowell/Jmac(one last time) as our bench rotation

Preserve Ant as much as possible because he gets GASSED.

It's so good to be talkin' playoff basketball again!

ugh these late games are going to be the death of me. why does la/phx play earlier than minny/den?