PG Denver: Bench? What Bench?

[RiotPunch]

Doc and Dave need to unlock Dame. He looks a step slow, but he's still being forced to create his own separation too often. No more closing with Beas, no more Khris initiating on meaningful late game possessions. Horst needs to cash in the Bobby chip yesterday. Rubber meets road for Doc, hope he learns from tonight quickly.

Defense was much better, Jae looks rejuvenated.

[MiltownMadness]

I think we only lost because Doc rotations tbh, but that's okay because the scheme is now non-disgusting after 1 afternoon. This is sick.

[Plossum]

Bad third quarter cost us.

Those Dame turnovers were so unnecesary.

This will be Doc’s biggest challenge - unlocking Dame into what we need him to be.

[theFireBlanket]

Bad third quarter cost us.

Those Dame turnovers were so unnecesary.

Mids did the samething.

Yeah, but it started with Dame & his were pretty over the top.

[woosah]

Dame is not supposed to "fit". He's not a role player.

[theFireBlanket]

Dame needs to take the kids with the team, leaving Portland. How much you wanna bet the separation is killing him?

[MiltownMadness]

Dame is not supposed to "fit". He's not a role player.

Some of these people don't know what they are looking at. Dame has a 60% TS while having an enormous volume, this is an incredibly positive player. They see a turnover and some shots not fall and want to shuffle deck chairs, it's low hanging fruit.

[Chad34]

Dame is not supposed to "fit". He's not a role player.

He's also not the player with the most gravity and efficiency on this team. He does need to fit IMO. We're not building around Dame, nor should we. Those days for him are over

[ABucksFan]

Looking like a second rd exit

[Chad34]

Love listening to Doc, he gives me hope lol

[theFireBlanket]

Dame is not supposed to "fit". He's not a role player.

Some of these people don't know what they are looking at. Dame has a 60% TS while having an enormous volume, this is an incredibly positive player. They see a turnover and some shots not fall and want to shuffle deck chairs, it's low hanging fruit.

It was multiple turnovers.

We need him taking better shots & relaxing in those moments he tried to make erratic passes.

That doesn't mean he's washed. He hasn't gotten very comfortable yet it seems.

[RiotPunch]

This game just really highlighted Bobby’s issues against good physical teams.

He can’t get to his spots, he’s never gonna get a call because he doesn’t actually play with any force, and then he starts to shy away from taking the open looks that do come his way.

Him passing up open corner threes just to do a methodical backdown is bad ball, man.

Then on the flip side, he doesn’t provide defensive value. He can rebound, and that’s his best contribution, but man does he shrink against tough defenses.

Yup, really a case in point game for Bobby being a liability in high stakes basketball games. When he's not making shots, he is not moving the ball and basically turning the ball over every possession with his shot attempts, while giving zilch defensively.

[MiltownMadness]

Dame is not supposed to "fit". He's not a role player.

Some of these people don't know what they are looking at. Dame has a 60% TS while having an enormous volume, this is an incredibly positive player. They see a turnover and some shots not fall and want to shuffle deck chairs, it's low hanging fruit.

It was multiple turnovers.

We need him taking better shots & relaxing in those moments he tried to make erratic passes.

That doesn't mean he's washed. He hasn't gotten very comfortable yet it seems.

Not talking about the people saying he's washed (obviously isn't), but any sort of trade him discussion is disturbing. This team has the 3rd best record in the league, Dame is the 2nd most important reason for that.

[German Athens]

This game just really highlighted Bobby’s issues against good physical teams.

He can’t get to his spots, he’s never gonna get a call because he doesn’t actually play with any force, and then he starts to shy away from taking the open looks that do come his way.

Him passing up open corner threes just to do a methodical backdown is bad ball, man.

Then on the flip side, he doesn’t provide defensive value. He can rebound, and that’s his best contribution, but man does he shrink against tough defenses.

Yup, really a case in point game for Bobby being a liability in high stakes basketball games. When he's not making shots, he is not moving the ball and basically turning the ball over every possession with his shot attempts, while giving zilch defensively.

On the flip side. One thing that made me feel good about this game is that we have a little upward mobility to improve our starting lineup.

There’s no guarantee that we will, but I’m hopeful.

Watching someone like Gordon be a perfect defensive role player for Denver and envisioning what we could do at the 2. Like imagine Caruso hounding Murray rather than Beasley which isn’t all the value Caruso has on the defensive end. It would make a world of difference.


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[MiltownMadness]

Yeah I think getting Caruso vs not getting Carsuo is the difference for this team winning a championship or not, maybe delusional but the POA defense can't be anchored by Dame/Beas. I will say that Beas isn't AS BAD defensively as I've given him credit for throughout the season

[BuckFan25226]

I don't even care about the loss. We played defense and rebounded while seemingly on almost every loose ball.

[MiltownMadness]

Imagine slotting Caruso into the starting lineup then giving Beas 20 mins off the bench, that sounds like what a contender would do.

[Prez]

I'm feeling good about this coaching staff being good enough for a title. They're obviously not gonna measure up to Spo, Nurse, etc but we're no longer going to be at a catastrophic coaching deficit anymore, like starting games basically down 15 like we did under Griffin. We're playing more sensible brand of basketball, and now when we lose it feels more on the players just not executing. I can live with that.

The way I see it, we can win a title if Horst somehow can find a decent POA defender + more defensive minded backup big for Bobby, Pat, MarJon, POR 2nd, our 2nd, and possibly Dre depending on who we get back. If we don't really make any moves and it's still the Bobby/Pat show off the bench we could lose to anybody in the East top 8.

[Brewhoopfan]

This game just really highlighted Bobby’s issues against good physical teams.

He can’t get to his spots, he’s never gonna get a call because he doesn’t actually play with any force, and then he starts to shy away from taking the open looks that do come his way.

Him passing up open corner threes just to do a methodical backdown is bad ball, man.

Then on the flip side, he doesn’t provide defensive value. He can rebound, and that’s his best contribution, but man does he shrink against tough defenses.

***sigh*** You're 100% right. But you're also describing 90% of league regarding matchups. Unfortunately, Bobby doesn't have the sense to defer or adjust his game accordingly.

[HKPackFan]

I felt better about this game even with the warts.

I felt we are playing competent basketball again, I felt the scheme was normal. Lopez was getting blocks, Giannis manned up Jokic at times. I definitely felt with AG we would have been down by 20 pts by halftime minimum, maybe 30pts. We had something of a Defense tonight unlike with Grief and Jokic is such a good passer he would have had like a 20/12/20 game or something ridiculous.

On to the warts:

I've been a long Bobby stan. I have the BOBBY! BOBBY! BOBBY! tshirt. But nostalgia aside I finally see it. He's been bad a lot of this year. When he is shooting 40+% from 3 and he's in those corner 3 spots he creates value. But he's bad streaky this year and this game showed it. When he's not hitting the open shot nor getting you extra possessions on boards or 50/50 balls his value is not enough.

Sure he has those games at home where he plays aggressive and drives the crowd wild, but overall in a game like today against a contending team, he hurt the team. 2/13 overall and sat alone at the bottom with a -14 plus/minus. OUCH. He's a good guy and has legit big moments, but I think against better teams he loses is value.

Pat is a guy, he's OK but there's gotta be someone in front of him that's better. This needs to be upgraded.

Beas/Bobby and maybe Pat need upgrades. But at least 1 upgrade is required, Pat as an 8th guy is fine.

3rd quarter really hurt with the TOs as everyone mentioned.

I was waiting for Dame time, but I feel like he didn't even attempt a jumpshot during dame time. Someone has to unlock him. (I just checked the last 5 minutes play by play, shows 2 missed layups almost exactly 5 minutes apart (5:19 and :24 seconds and that's it). That shouldn't happen.