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Right now, the binary brain thinking is that SGA > Jokic because OKC won the series. But if OKC goes on to dominate Minnesota and then their Eastern conference opponent, will we revisit the fact that Denver pushed OKC to 7 games with just Jokic and 3 other starting-quality players (Gordon, Murray and Braun)?

Denver might well be the second-best team in the league with just Jokic and 3 useful players.

I credit him making the OkC a more mature team for the next round

Nah DEN would lose to MIN as well. They blew a 20 point lead to them in game 7. Last year

1993Playoffs wrote:Nah DEN would lose to MIN as well. They blew a 20 point lead to them in game 7. Last year

Last year's Minnesota team was better, at least as a matchup versus Denver because they had KAT in place of Randle. And KAT played really well that series.

Being honest, Minnesota sucking probably doesn't change anyones perspective in the short-term or long-term on the Nikola Jokić vs. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander conversation. Funny thing is that Minnesota honestly probably beats Denver, so it's kind of similar to the rock-paper-scissors from last year with Minnesota beating Denver and getting blown out by Dallas (except OKC is infinitely better), when Denver probably would have beaten Dallas.

nate33 wrote:Right now, the binary brain thinking is that SGA > Jokic because OKC won the series. But if OKC goes on to dominate Minnesota and then their Eastern conference opponent, will we revisit the fact that Denver pushed OKC to 7 games with just Jokic and 3 other starting-quality players (Gordon, Murray and Braun)?

Denver might well be the second-best team in the league with just Jokic and 3 useful players.

Nah, OKC shot the ball terribly on open looks in that Denver series, which is why it went 7. They have been making those shots at much better (expected) rate vs Minnesota to this point. Jalen Williams in particular couldn't hit anything the first 6 games vs Denver. He was averaging 16ppg on like 33% shooting through 6 games.

nate33 wrote:

1993Playoffs wrote:Nah DEN would lose to MIN as well. They blew a 20 point lead to them in game 7. Last year

Last year's Minnesota team was better, at least as a matchup versus Denver because they had KAT in place of Randle. And KAT played really well that series.

Denver was also better last year.

I already give Joker plenty of ‘credit’ for making it 7 games against a superior team carrying hobbled teammates.

We are crediting someone for not losing as bad? What are we doin

How much credit does an NBA Champion and 3-time MVP need and why do fans focus so much on individuals instead of this being a team sport?

nate33 wrote:Right now, the binary brain thinking is that SGA > Jokic because OKC won the series. But if OKC goes on to dominate Minnesota and then their Eastern conference opponent, will we revisit the fact that Denver pushed OKC to 7 games with just Jokic and 3 other starting-quality players (Gordon, Murray and Braun)?

Denver might well be the second-best team in the league with just Jokic and 3 useful players.

Premise of this story is wrong, since only guys that think this are eyetoma, chokic and their alternate accounts. Rest of guys think(know) that OKC defense was main factor in that series.


But you are right about the fact that Nuggets and Jokic will get more credit if OKC walks trough WCF and Finals which is likley to happen at this point.
People were talking like Nuggets have to blow it up, when in reallty they need a quality rotation piece and couple borderline rotation pieces so they dont need to run their main guys into ground in regular season and in playoffs.

Why would he get any credit? They lost.

I swear people around here look for anything and everything to prop up Jokic. And then wonder why there are "haters". Threads like these don't help.

His game speaks for itself, you don't need to prop him up with series losses to show how great he is. It comes off rather pathetic.

bisme37 wrote:How much credit does an NBA Champion and 3-time MVP need and why do fans focus so much on individuals instead of this being a team sport?

I agree with this, a guy who has been top 2 in mvp voting 5 straight years, has a fmvp and somehow it mattered how much credit we give him in a series his team lost in 6 games? At the end of the day he got semi contained by Okc outside of games 1& 4. Life goes on.

The people who hold that series against him were never people you could reason with anyway. It will make them look dumber though.

1993Playoffs wrote:Nah DEN would lose to MIN as well. They blew a 20 point lead to them in game 7. Last year

Sure. 

The T Wolves scored ZERO fast break points in game one against OKC, and they did a pathetic job of scoring in the paint to this point. You have nothing to go off of that suggests the Wolves would beat Denver. 

Nope. I highly doubt that even 10% of people on this board could recount from the top of their head the series outcomes of the last 2 champions.

Even by itself it doesn´t say much. I can lose a series 4-0 and it can still be a super close and competitive series with a small point differential.

You guys look too much into series end results instead og actually analizing the basketball played

This is the kind of approach that leads people to criticize lebron for his 2009 orlando series or would lead someone to praise 2015 harden for his play in the upset over clippers

Jokic and denver offense had their worst production series in their contender era even if the series went 7 against a upper dog

That doesnt take away his 3 great games or how okc sacrificed offense for defense to stop him either

Jokic fans are quickly becoming the worst fanbase in the NBA.

KyRo23 wrote:We are crediting someone for not losing as bad? What are we doin

Were you around in 2015? Bron fans were giving him credit for winning 2 games vs. the Warriors

If a 68 win team mops the floor with everyone else, and your squad tested them and went to 7...while dealing with injuries and a horrible roster construction...yeah, some credit is deserved.

I said this before the Minny series started, OKC's toughest challenge this whole playoffs was the Nuggets. They're gonna lose MAYBE 1 game rest of the way...I could honestly see it play out like this tbh:

Grizz - SWEEP
Nuggets - 7 game series
Wolves - SWEEP
EC Champ - SWEEP

California Gold wrote:Why would he get any credit? They lost.

I swear people around here look for anything and everything to prop up Jokic. And then wonder why there are "haters". Threads like these don't help.

His game speaks for itself, you don't need to prop him up with series losses to show how great he is. It comes off rather pathetic.

Same reason Harden fans will bring up "tHeY aLmOsT bEaT tHe KD WaRrIoRs", but...THEY LOST. Period.

So if we had that same energy with other greats who fell short vs. historic teams, why wouldn't we do it for Jokic who had...[checks notes]...0 all stars, vs. a team with 2 all-defensive team players (Chet and Caruso weren't eligible either...) and the MVP?