Ringer -- Denver's demise

[GeorgeSears]

I don't think the team needs to be broken apart. Two things need to happen: 1. Calvin Booth needs to get creative, 2. Malone needs to figure out how to develop the bench.

The article, correctly, pointed out that Malone did a poor job developing the bench unit. He wouldn't give them enough opportunities to make mistakes and grow from the mistakes. Players were put in the dog house when they played poorly. He needs to become more adaptive.

They lucked out last year by acquiring Bruce Brown because teams didn't know how to deploy him and undervalued him. They have to get a little lucky again this offseason.

Coaches want to win games, if the Nuggets ended up play-in group by playing a lot of their young guys, Malone would have been in trouble

That's the balance a coach has to create. Otherwise, you enter the playoffs with a 6-man rotation, and you better hope no one on the starting lineup gets injured or has an off night.

[Bolivar]

I don’t think people are doubting MPJ’s dedication and character… he has all the tangibles to be not only a good role player, but also a perennial all star… but the dude seems to have no intangibles and low BB IQ … I am not sure if he can fulfill his potentials

I think his best quality is that he's got the smoothest shooting arc somehow, and it can be demoralizing for the opponent. You can see it from games against Lakers: each time he hits a three pointer, LeBrons head tilts down or he does the Jr Smith "WHYYYY" thing with his hands.
But that shot is quite streaky. In fact that whole roster is streaky aside from Jokic.

[TinmanZBoy]

I don't think the team needs to be broken apart. Two things need to happen: 1. Calvin Booth needs to get creative, 2. Malone needs to figure out how to develop the bench.

The article, correctly, pointed out that Malone did a poor job developing the bench unit. He wouldn't give them enough opportunities to make mistakes and grow from the mistakes. Players were put in the dog house when they played poorly. He needs to become more adaptive.

They lucked out last year by acquiring Bruce Brown because teams didn't know how to deploy him and undervalued him. They have to get a little lucky again this offseason.

Coaches want to win games, if the Nuggets ended up play-in group by playing a lot of their young guys, Malone would have been in trouble

That's the balance a coach has to create. Otherwise, you enter the playoffs with a 6-man rotation, and you better hope no one on the starting lineup gets injured or has an off night.

yes, there is a balance... I though P Wat played a lot and was a very good on ball defender rim protector... but when the playoff came, he was deemed to be unplayable

[HotRocks34]

In fact that whole roster is streaky aside from Jokic.

True.

But they still win the series if they could have given guys a bit more rest. The 20 point lead in Game 7 was real but they didn't have the energy to sustain it.

They have to figure out how to balance between developing young talent but also having enough playable options for the postseason.

They're not far off, which is a better reality than how things looked after 0-2.

[jokeboy86]

This line caught me off guard.

“But for their general manager, going back-to-back was never the biggest priority”

Ummmm what? You just won a championship, have the best player in the game and winning another one isn’t the top priority??

Thats the good and bad you have with Jokic being who he is. You appreciate that he lets the coaches and FO do what they do w/o his input or pressuring but the bad is since he’s like that Booth thinks he can say and operate like he does. There’s no way in hell that a GM who had KD, Lebron or even Giannis would have the gall to say that publicly bc the next words out of those players mouths would be “considering my options” or “ do whats best for me”.

[DusterBuster]

Personally, I think MPJ is not very good. In theory he's a good player, but they way he's paid, he's need to be playing like pre injury Klay Thompson.

Yup, 100%. MPJ was an iffy signing at best originally. He's one of those one really good game every 2 weeks kind of guy. He also just doesn't really impact the game much.

[Pointgod]

Either ownership or the GM cheaped out by deciding not to replace Brown and Green. They don’t need to blow it up in the long term, maybe just get lucky with a free agent signing or draft pick. But long term I think their future rests on trading Michael Porter Jr.

[SOA]

So what is Cancar's status? Will he help them next year? Would he have helped them this year?

[Vampirate]

Honestly it boils down to Jamal Murray is not a dynasty level #2 option, he's a contender/championship (depending on the #1) type option.

[tamaraw08]

I don't understand why Booth thought that it was reasonable for an inner circle title contender to be playing a bunch of very bad players in the regular season. There's 0 indication that any of Denver's young players are even at Podziemski's level

Even guys like Watson, who is talented and on the rise, struggled in the playoffs and eventually got benched.

I understand Booth's approach but he's had some misses, like picking up Thomas Bryant last year.

I'm not sure if Booth is the right guy, particularly with Malone. One of them may need to go. We'll see.

In College, Watson averaged 3.3 pts on 32FG% with a shorter range from 3pt area at 22.6 3pt%. Yes, it's a small sample size and for all we know, he could develop more because he is barely 22 years old. Jokic at almost 30, might need a more mature player who knows his role, play tough defense and hit that open shot.
I thought he did great acquiring Justin Holiday at first until I found out that he was over 35 years old. Not sure if a free agent like Robert Covington at 33 can help.

[BelgradeNugget]

I don't think the team needs to be broken apart. Two things need to happen: 1. Calvin Booth needs to get creative, 2. Malone needs to figure out how to develop the bench.

The article, correctly, pointed out that Malone did a poor job developing the bench unit. He wouldn't give them enough opportunities to make mistakes and grow from the mistakes. Players were put in the dog house when they played poorly. He needs to become more adaptive.

They lucked out last year by acquiring Bruce Brown because teams didn't know how to deploy him and undervalued him. They have to get a little lucky again this offseason.

Coaches want to win games, if the Nuggets ended up play-in group by playing a lot of their young guys, Malone would have been in trouble

That's the balance a coach has to create. Otherwise, you enter the playoffs with a 6-man rotation, and you better hope no one on the starting lineup gets injured or has an off night.

Or play starters like KCP through injury. He had injury on finger on shooting hand for few months but couldn't miss games to heal it. So in playoffs he shoot 39.5/32.7/100.0. In last playoffs it was 45.7/38.0/82.9. Murray was not 100%, Jokic played the most minutes of any player from all-star break through 2nd round in playoffs. They were burn to the ground.

[Special_Puppy]

I don't understand why Booth thought that it was reasonable for an inner circle title contender to be playing a bunch of very bad players in the regular season. There's 0 indication that any of Denver's young players are even at Podziemski's level

Even guys like Watson, who is talented and on the rise, struggled in the playoffs and eventually got benched.

I understand Booth's approach but he's had some misses, like picking up Thomas Bryant last year.

I'm not sure if Booth is the right guy, particularly with Malone. One of them may need to go. We'll see.

In College, Watson averaged 3.3 pts on 32FG% with a shorter range from 3pt area at 22.6 3pt%. Yes, it's a small sample size and for all we know, he could develop more because he is barely 22 years old. Jokic at almost 30, might need a more mature player who knows his role, play tough defense and hit that open shot.
I thought he did great acquiring Justin Holiday at first until I found out that he was over 35 years old. Not sure if a free agent like Robert Covington at 33 can help.

Drafting Braun instead of Walker Kessler is pretty bad especially since Kessler was BPA at that point in the draft. Kessler is flawed, but having a backup center would have been huge

[ShootersShoot]

They need to retool the bench somehow. Minny having a guy like Reid off the bench was a big reason why they were able to win in 7. If denver had a stronger bench, they definitely could have been the ones in the wcf.

Bruce Brown averaged 12ppg last season in the playoffs.

None of Braun, Watson, or Jackson reached that number even once in the entire playoffs this year.

[HotRocks34]

So what is Cancar's status? Will he help them next year? Would he have helped them this year?

Should be back from injury next year, I think. I believe the team has an option on his contract next season so they have to decide what they want to do. My guess is they keep him.

I think he could have helped some this year, even if just to eat minutes in the regular season. IMO he has some ability.

[dc]

I think the Nugz can mostly run it back next year and just to shore up depth. They don't need some drastic overhaul. Give MPJ another chance to prove himself. If he does the same thing next playoffs, then it's probably time to move on from him.

I mean, they won 3 in a row after being in an 0-2 hole. They had a 20 point lead in Game 7. It's not like they didn't stand a chance vs. the team that presents the toughest matchup problem for them. They just ran out of gas this year. I don't think they need to make any moves out of desperation. Jokic has a game that should age extremely well and he's been pretty durable.

Maybe it isn't the Not 1, Not 2, Not 3 type dynasty Booth was predicting, but they should be in contention for the forseeable future.

[LaLover11]

MPJ for Jimmy Butler

[syrus3]

MPJ needs to develop a mid range game.

[Froob]

The arrogance to think they were going to be a dynasty after being in one Finals

[stoo]

The arrogance to think they were going to be a dynasty after being in one Finals

they weren't in finals. they won finals. u mixed up celtics and nuggs i believe

anyway, i think malone is one of those coaches that lucked out having a generational player on their team. he pretty much proved that by not knowing to make a functional roster without jokic on the court ever. Also, if MPJ is not traded, i believe a lot of coaches, including nuggs' assistant adelman, would make him look a tier better player than he is now

[BeiBeau]

Honestly, I think the Zeke Nnaji extension was a huge mistake. I understand that they had hopes that he would develop, but I feel like even a Jeff Green quality forward could have been enough to maybe get Denver over the hump. Their complete lack of depth pretty much nuked their ability to keep their foot on the pedal to close out this series.

I've often said the worst player on the floor can hurt you more than an allstar can help you. This series shows if you go to extremes to avoid doing that...you just make everyone on the floor worse in total. But this plus looking back at this famous game.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201805280HOU.html

I'm starting to think that we can't just stop at the analysis of how many minutes went to terrible players, but we also have to factor in the lack of rest for the stars in our assessment.

Small ball was always about always having 5 skilled players on the court at all times. The NBA has changed, you cannot play 4 v 5 offense anymore. Gone are the days where Andre Roberson or Tony Allen can play playoff minutes, let alone start.