Chokic wrote:Minny in 6 bc they got the best player in the series plus denvers bench is shallow.
Thanks for your input chokic
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Chokic wrote:Minny in 6 bc they got the best player in the series plus denvers bench is shallow.
AleksandarN wrote:Grubie024 wrote:Minnesota's got a real shot!
I picked Wolves in 6. I like their depth. Nuggets have two of the three best players in the series but Wolves thoroughly outclass them beyond Jokic/Murray.
Need good KAT to show up, not the one who makes non-stop boneheaded plays. He was great against the Suns.
I think MPJ out plays KAT.
Quentin wrote:The refs will decide this series.
Grubie024 wrote:Quentin wrote:The refs will decide this series.
Now why you gotta go say something like that!?!
God I hope not. Let em play.
_NoMas wrote:Chokic wrote:Minny in 6 bc they got the best player in the series plus denvers bench is shallow.
Thanks for your input chokic
shrink wrote:I always thought it’s Minny [who matches up best against DEN - sic] because they are best at negating the things at negating DEN’s match up advantages.
MIN plays Towns on Jokic. Nobody stops Jokic, but Towns length helps reduce his passing ability, and makes Jokic more of a scorer. That allows Gobert to protect the paint while he guards Aaron Gordon. For most teams, that means if they use their PF and C this way, Porter has a big size advantage on his defender. The Wolves though are loaded with quality players 6-9 or taller, with Jaden McDaniels, Naz, and Kyle Anderson. We may even see Ant on him. In fact, MIN likely has the size advantage in the match up, because DEN’s bench bigs aren’t as deep as MIN.
Next, Jamal Murray is an under-rated player finally getting his due, and a lot of that credit goes to receiving great passes from Jokic. But MIN is showing that with defenders like McDaniels and Ant (and Nickiel Alexander-Walker), they can really limit perimeter scorers, like Devin Booker.
On the other hand, how does DEN handle Ant? They don’t have Brown this year, and the only player that could maybe defend him is Gordon. KCP is a good defender, but can’t stop Ant one-on-one. Gordon is the ONLY option they have to defend Towns size and scoring ability. Towns shoots over smaller guys, and drive past bigger, slower defenders.
MIN needs to win the minutes when Jokic is off the floor, and with their much better depth, they should.
I’m not saying MIN is better than DEN, and they should be favored. I am saying that MIN’s team composition (both built by Tim Connelly) create a lot of match up issues for the Nuggets. I wonder if Connelly realized that for the MIN to have high level success, he needed to build a team that could match up with with DEN, and that influenced him to pay such a high price to acquire Gobert?
nomansland wrote:cupcakesnake wrote:TunaFish wrote:
They can play Gordon on Ant if they want. Denver usually plays a switching man to man defense because they have two plus defenders who can take on the point of attack. They routinely rotate their forwards. You can almost bet that Gordon will be switching in that direction. MPJ is more of a inside rebounding force with his new found defensive presence, shot blocking and 6'10 height at small forward.
They'll run a lot of scram switching against Minnesota picks, so you can basically expect everyone on their team to spend a few possessions against everyone. With KCP, Gordon, Braun, Watson, Denver is designed to be able to switch and adapt without exposing too many weak points.
This is what I've been thinking as well. It's not going to come down to X player on Y player matchups. There will be lots of switching on D and lots of different schemes on both ends. Every game is going to look different as well, not just based on previous matchup success, but also to keep the other teams off balance. Should be an interesting series. I'm still quite nervous though.
durden_tyler wrote:Porter has been mentioned a lot as the probable key cog for Denver (assumption is Murray and Jokic will get theirs anyway). i do think the Wolves have the defensive weapons to make MPJ’s life miserable this series (relative to cakewalk that was the Lakers)
Interesting to see who McDaniels guard most of the time; would it be Murray so that the focus of the attack is addresses immediately? Or would it be better if he’s helping out both against the Murray and/or Jokic sets?
McDaniels-Murray
Conley-KCP
Ant-Porter
KAT-Gordon
Gobert-Jokic
Maybe?
mademan wrote:durden_tyler wrote:Porter has been mentioned a lot as the probable key cog for Denver (assumption is Murray and Jokic will get theirs anyway). i do think the Wolves have the defensive weapons to make MPJ’s life miserable this series (relative to cakewalk that was the Lakers)
Interesting to see who McDaniels guard most of the time; would it be Murray so that the focus of the attack is addresses immediately? Or would it be better if he’s helping out both against the Murray and/or Jokic sets?
McDaniels-Murray
Conley-KCP
Ant-Porter
KAT-Gordon
Gobert-Jokic
Maybe?
Lakers had a great strategy that really limited the Nuggets offense, they should emulate it. Double Jokic and pre-rotate. Minny is bigger and longer almost all across the board (Conley exception) so it should work out better for them.
cupcakesnake wrote:mademan wrote:durden_tyler wrote:Porter has been mentioned a lot as the probable key cog for Denver (assumption is Murray and Jokic will get theirs anyway). i do think the Wolves have the defensive weapons to make MPJ’s life miserable this series (relative to cakewalk that was the Lakers)
Interesting to see who McDaniels guard most of the time; would it be Murray so that the focus of the attack is addresses immediately? Or would it be better if he’s helping out both against the Murray and/or Jokic sets?
McDaniels-Murray
Conley-KCP
Ant-Porter
KAT-Gordon
Gobert-Jokic
Maybe?
Lakers had a great strategy that really limited the Nuggets offense, they should emulate it. Double Jokic and pre-rotate. Minny is bigger and longer almost all across the board (Conley exception) so it should work out better for them.
I don't think the Wolves will emulate much of the Lakers strategy. The Lakers strategy was good, but it was built to protect their vulnerabilities. They didn't have big bodies to throw at Jokic, and they didn't have any good perimeter defenders. The Wolves don't have those vulnerabilities so they don't need to design a scheme to protect themselves from that.
The Wolves are much more well equipped to play the Nuggets aggressively, and can survive a lot more situations in single coverage. The Wolves will try to overwhelm the Nuggets.
cupcakesnake wrote:mademan wrote:durden_tyler wrote:Porter has been mentioned a lot as the probable key cog for Denver (assumption is Murray and Jokic will get theirs anyway). i do think the Wolves have the defensive weapons to make MPJ’s life miserable this series (relative to cakewalk that was the Lakers)
Interesting to see who McDaniels guard most of the time; would it be Murray so that the focus of the attack is addresses immediately? Or would it be better if he’s helping out both against the Murray and/or Jokic sets?
McDaniels-Murray
Conley-KCP
Ant-Porter
KAT-Gordon
Gobert-Jokic
Maybe?
Lakers had a great strategy that really limited the Nuggets offense, they should emulate it. Double Jokic and pre-rotate. Minny is bigger and longer almost all across the board (Conley exception) so it should work out better for them.
I don't think the Wolves will emulate much of the Lakers strategy. The Lakers strategy was good, but it was built to protect their vulnerabilities. They didn't have big bodies to throw at Jokic, and they didn't have any good perimeter defenders. The Wolves don't have those vulnerabilities so they don't need to design a scheme to protect themselves from that.
The Wolves are much more well equipped to play the Nuggets aggressively, and can survive a lot more situations in single coverage. The Wolves will try to overwhelm the Nuggets.
Jaqua92 wrote:cupcakesnake wrote:mademan wrote:
Lakers had a great strategy that really limited the Nuggets offense, they should emulate it. Double Jokic and pre-rotate. Minny is bigger and longer almost all across the board (Conley exception) so it should work out better for them.
I don't think the Wolves will emulate much of the Lakers strategy. The Lakers strategy was good, but it was built to protect their vulnerabilities. They didn't have big bodies to throw at Jokic, and they didn't have any good perimeter defenders. The Wolves don't have those vulnerabilities so they don't need to design a scheme to protect themselves from that.
The Wolves are much more well equipped to play the Nuggets aggressively, and can survive a lot more situations in single coverage. The Wolves will try to overwhelm the Nuggets.
I just don't think Kat is the difference, and Denver is still capable of the going on those 5-6 minute stints of domination.
They'll try to overwhelm the Nuggets, but at the same time, they won't have the fire power LA did.
Sealab2024 wrote:Jaqua92 wrote:cupcakesnake wrote:
I don't think the Wolves will emulate much of the Lakers strategy. The Lakers strategy was good, but it was built to protect their vulnerabilities. They didn't have big bodies to throw at Jokic, and they didn't have any good perimeter defenders. The Wolves don't have those vulnerabilities so they don't need to design a scheme to protect themselves from that.
The Wolves are much more well equipped to play the Nuggets aggressively, and can survive a lot more situations in single coverage. The Wolves will try to overwhelm the Nuggets.
I just don't think Kat is the difference, and Denver is still capable of the going on those 5-6 minute stints of domination.
They'll try to overwhelm the Nuggets, but at the same time, they won't have the fire power LA did.
In what way will the wolves not "have the fire power of LA"? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you haven't watched many wolves games, correct?
cupcakesnake wrote:Sealab2024 wrote:Jaqua92 wrote:
I just don't think Kat is the difference, and Denver is still capable of the going on those 5-6 minute stints of domination.
They'll try to overwhelm the Nuggets, but at the same time, they won't have the fire power LA did.
In what way will the wolves not "have the fire power of LA"? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you haven't watched many wolves games, correct?
I've said it before in this thread, LA and Minny were similar offenses in the regular season. I think Minnesota definitely has more "firepower" because we have better shooting overall, and a guy who can puncture the defense. LA's offensive advantage is better decision making from their primary ball handler. LA is better suited to not wasting possessions which gives them a higher floor, but Minnesota's offense has a higher ceiling and bigger guns.