Windy: Mavs look like the biggest threat to DEN in the West

[One_and_Done]

Suns played them 6 times. Lost

Worse Suns team. Booker hurt his foot and couldn't move anymore, Ayton missed time, etc. Fully healthy I think last years Suns likely would have won.

Also this year’s suns team is different from last years so what makes them a top high pick and roll team?

Yeh the way the Suns are playing right now is clearly not high PnR focused. In theory though, if they go more to Booker & Beal in high PnR, and make KD a scorer in the flow rather than an iso guy, then they can get back to a style that works. Honestly, the 2021 Suns were better. CP3 would just make sure they were relentlessly going to PnR and running the right plays.

Wolves can run some high PnR too, but Gobert stops them playing 5 out more which somewhat negates their other advantages.

[AleksandarN]

Worse Suns team. Booker hurt his foot and couldn't move anymore, Ayton missed time, etc. Fully healthy I think last years Suns likely would have won.

Booker hurt his foot and couldn’t move. Bs. Ayton was getting worked by Jokic. Next you going to say a washed CP3 was difference. Just stop.

I've posted about this before. His stats dropped like a rock from the moment he hurt his foot. It was clear he couldn't move right anymore.

CP3 was actually playing ok when he got hurt. If he'd been healthy it would have made a difference too.

Ayton is better than no Ayton.

I also the Suns weren’t a high pick and roll team last year.

[Pelly24]

The Mavs are a big threat to the nuggets I think if they can beat the clippers. I think they would beat the timberwolves, though not as badly as I once thought. The Mavs' defense is legit, and the nuggets defense is legit too, but at the end of the day, Luka and Kyrie can play very slowly or fast and hit every shot there is to hit. Jokic is better than Luka, but I think Kyrie has a considerably higher floor than Jamal Murray on a game to game basis and might actually lock him up in their individual matchup, and I don't think Jamal can do the same. Luka and Kyrie make very good decisions with the ball with the game on the line, just like LeBron and kyrie, and they can both score from anywhere and beat their initial defender. Those qualities make them a factor at the end of any game as long as their role players do okay.

[One_and_Done]

Booker hurt his foot and couldn’t move. Bs. Ayton was getting worked by Jokic. Next you going to say a washed CP3 was difference. Just stop.

I've posted about this before. His stats dropped like a rock from the moment he hurt his foot. It was clear he couldn't move right anymore.

CP3 was actually playing ok when he got hurt. If he'd been healthy it would have made a difference too.

Ayton is better than no Ayton.

I also the Suns weren’t a high pick and roll team last year.

That's somewhat true, but the games where they won or looked dangerous were the games Booker was going beserk (or that 1 game Paul looked good on). They need a coach who can stand up to KD about iso'ing so much.

[AleksandarN]

I've posted about this before. His stats dropped like a rock from the moment he hurt his foot. It was clear he couldn't move right anymore.

CP3 was actually playing ok when he got hurt. If he'd been healthy it would have made a difference too.

Ayton is better than no Ayton.

I also the Suns weren’t a high pick and roll team last year.

That's somewhat true, but the games where they won or looked dangerous were the games Booker was going beserk (or that 1 game Paul looked good on). They need a coach who can stand up to KD about iso'ing so much.

Again Suns didn’t put Jokic in the high pick and rolls. Let’s talk about Boston now. If the answer is high pick and rolls against Jokic. Why didn’t Boston expose Jokic and Denver. We keep doing this and same result. Lol

[One_and_Done]

I also the Suns weren’t a high pick and roll team last year.

That's somewhat true, but the games where they won or looked dangerous were the games Booker was going beserk (or that 1 game Paul looked good on). They need a coach who can stand up to KD about iso'ing so much.

Again Suns didn’t put Jokic in the high pick and rolls. Let’s talk about Boston now. If the answer is high pick and rolls against Jokic. Why didn’t Boston expose Jokic and Denver. We keep doing this and same result. Lol

Regular. Season.

[KGDirkTD_Fan]

I think this Mavs team is a better more cohesive version of that pre-Beal trade Suns with two big offensive powerhouses and a team thats looking to be defensively better than that Suns team (not 100% sure on that yet). But i'm not really sold on them over Minny if the reffing stays the same where you can play heavy handed defense, holding and all. This is Minny's type of game all day. I think Minny is the only team I can see that could sustainably defend against the Jokic offense, they just have all the tools to deal with them...i dont know if they have enough scoring output to win 4 games though.

[AleksandarN]

That's somewhat true, but the games where they won or looked dangerous were the games Booker was going beserk (or that 1 game Paul looked good on). They need a coach who can stand up to KD about iso'ing so much.

Again Suns didn’t put Jokic in the high pick and rolls. Let’s talk about Boston now. If the answer is high pick and rolls against Jokic. Why didn’t Boston expose Jokic and Denver. We keep doing this and same result. Lol

Regular. Season.

Again lol Boston did treat those games as regular season games. You can’t be this intellectually dishonest can you? Both teams played playoff basketball those two games.

[One_and_Done]

Again Suns didn’t put Jokic in the high pick and rolls. Let’s talk about Boston now. If the answer is high pick and rolls against Jokic. Why didn’t Boston expose Jokic and Denver. We keep doing this and same result. Lol

Regular. Season.

Again lol Boston did treat those games as regular season games. You can’t be this intellectually dishonest can you? Both teams played playoff basketball those two games.

You play playoff basketball in the playoffs, not in a 1 off game in the RS.

[Handlez]

LeWho?

[AleksandarN]

Regular. Season.

Again lol Boston did treat those games as regular season games. You can’t be this intellectually dishonest can you? Both teams played playoff basketball those two games.

You play playoff basketball in the playoffs, not in a 1 off game in the RS.

It was 2 games when Boston were trying to beat the Nuggets and they didn’t cook Jokic. Why when they were trying win? You are getting cooked stop it.

[SweaterBae]

TWolves are a way better team. This is nonsense.

[JDR720]

It's Minnesota. Depending on which version of Murray shows up, you may be able to convince me that the Wolves could be slight favorites.

They're the only team in the league that has size and defenders at all positions that matchup well vs Denver's players. Obviously Jokic will still get his, but they can limit the others enough to win.

Boston are too immature and dependent on 3's. Dallas would basically be Luka/Kyrie vs Jokic/Murray. I'd take Denver in that, Porter Jr is more likely go score 20+ than the other Dallas players.

[One_and_Done]

Again lol Boston did treat those games as regular season games. You can’t be this intellectually dishonest can you? Both teams played playoff basketball those two games.

You play playoff basketball in the playoffs, not in a 1 off game in the RS.

It was 2 games when Boston were trying to beat the Nuggets and they didn’t cook Jokic. Why when they were trying win? You are getting cooked stop it.

And I clearly disagree.

[QPR]

Boston? Man Jokic was killed against Boston this year wasn’t he? . And don’t tell me regular season both teams played like it was the playoffs and both arenas atmospheres had playoff intensity.

Regular. Season.

Both teams didn’t treat it as post season. Both teams wanted to win.

One and done is creating an argument that can't be disproven, because it relies on things that haven't happened yet (Denver playing certain teams in the playoffs, with regular season discounted). It's not really worth the debate tbh.

[AleksandarN]

Regular. Season.

Both teams didn’t treat it as post season. Both teams wanted to win.

One and done is creating an argument that can't be disproven, because it relies on things that haven't happened yet (Denver playing certain teams in the playoffs, with regular season discounted). It's not really worth the debate tbh.

Obviously. He can't use anything to back up all what he says. Stats favor Jokic in playoffs this past year. Pretty soon he will run away from this thread too like the last couple. It's like wack a mole.

[AleksandarN]

You play playoff basketball in the playoffs, not in a 1 off game in the RS.

It was 2 games when Boston were trying to beat the Nuggets and they didn’t cook Jokic. Why when they were trying win? You are getting cooked stop it.

And I clearly disagree.

lol

[One_and_Done]

Regular. Season.

Both teams didn’t treat it as post season. Both teams wanted to win.

One and done is creating an argument that can't be disproven, because it relies on things that haven't happened yet (Denver playing certain teams in the playoffs, with regular season discounted). It's not really worth the debate tbh.

The other side is doing the same, in that all Jokic's past failures are being dismissed with excuses. Taking a step back; Jokic is a guy with one title, and alot of postseasons where he came up short. I don't judge guys off titles, but this idea Jokic has proven it all and we should shut up is silly. I think waiting to see how he does against a more competetive playoff field is extremely reasonable.

[QPR]

Both teams didn’t treat it as post season. Both teams wanted to win.

One and done is creating an argument that can't be disproven, because it relies on things that haven't happened yet (Denver playing certain teams in the playoffs, with regular season discounted). It's not really worth the debate tbh.

The other side is doing the same, in that all Jokic's past failures are being dismissed with excuses. Taking a step back; Jokic is a guy with one title, and alot of postseasons where he came up short. I don't judge guys off titles, but this idea Jokic has proven it all and we should shut up is silly. I think waiting to see how he does against a more competetive playoff field is extremely reasonable.

I don't think you could genuinely say Jokic has had playoff failures. Which series did he lose as a favourite, or with a better team, or through his own underperformances? He has always been a strong playoff performer, he has always elevated teams above their level and, when he had an elite team, he won it all pretty convincingly.

I completely agree that rings are a lazy measure of individual greatness, but once you start introducing subjective criteria like the supposed strength of a playoff field, it's hard to debate in good faith because you're always going to be able to move the goal posts (eg - Jokic hasn't faced good pick and roll teams in the playoffs, and when he beat them in the regular season it didn't count).

What would you consider a "more competitive playoff field"?

[mcmurphy]

Both teams didn’t treat it as post season. Both teams wanted to win.

One and done is creating an argument that can't be disproven, because it relies on things that haven't happened yet (Denver playing certain teams in the playoffs, with regular season discounted). It's not really worth the debate tbh.

The other side is doing the same, in that all Jokic's past failures are being dismissed with excuses. Taking a step back; Jokic is a guy with one title, and alot of postseasons where he came up short. I don't judge guys off titles, but this idea Jokic has proven it all and we should shut up is silly. I think waiting to see how he does against a more competetive playoff field is extremely reasonable.

you are a crearly a troll... but you can make a better job to don't get discovered