Game 5 : Phoenix Suns (4-1) @ Denver Nuggets (1-3) - 9:00 PM

[ducler]

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[skywalker33]

Good start to the game, Murray showing up early, while Jokic already on his way to another TD

[skywalker33]

Wondering where that STARTER Will Barton is, not playing offense, not playing defense.....was he wrong about his status ??

[skywalker33]

Bench really giving us nothing (AGAIN), think we've identified one of the problems for the season.

[skywalker33]

Isn't bench scoring Bol's forte' ? And yet he remains on the bench, why ?

[Timmyyy]

Green looks like he could help a little with the bigger problems we have like rebounding and forward defense. That makes it even more disappointing that Malone doesn't seem to be interested in using it additive and instead splits the minutes between Green and Hartenstein entirely and not using them together. Can't believe that he cuts the minutes of one of the bright spots on the bench in Hartenstein.
Gives me vibes of Malone trying to keep everyone happy instead of playing the best lineups possible.

I really learned to like Malone as a coach the last two seasons but this season I think some of the problems really evolve around his lineup choices.

[The Rebel]

This 4 guard lineup is terrible, Green and Hartenstein have the chance to be a solid PF/C lineup giving uys some defense and rebounding, plus both can shoot. I do not understand that fascination of having a bunch of guards taking turns isoing and then watching the mismatch overpower our guard on defense.

[The Rebel]

While a lot of people can point to the crap offensive games by Harris and Barton, and they were bad, I think our biggest problem is still the bench and PF. The Suns starters were all negative and then bench all positive in plus minus, if our bench played even we are likely winning by double digits.

I think we need to play Hartenstein and Green at the same time for the bench, we have too many ball handlers on the court and it seems like everybody struggles to get going. With Green's shooting and Hartenstein in the pick and roll they both can add to the offense and our defense should at least be respectable.

Barton has to go, and hopefully we can get a PF for him. He gave a lot better effort on defense, but he is either totally passive or a ball hog on offense depending on who he is on the court with. I actually kind of feel bad for him, I think he wants to fit here, he just doesn't.

What is going on with guys just fumbling the ball? Especially Millsap and Harris suddenly cannot seem to hold onto the ball. It is crazy to me.

Bol got no minutes, and honestly I am not surprised, I wish we could have seen NNaji for a couple of minutes since Jokic was in foul trouble and our bench is struggling. Hampton seemed to be okay for his whole 2 minutes.

Dozier is a frustrating player, he plays terrible for a half and then good for a half, and it does not seem to matter who is on the court with him.

Of course the refs were terrible the entire game, why do some refs seem to hate Jokic so badly?

[THE J0KER]

The good news is at least that defense in 2nd half was good, and bubble-Murray is definitely back, so his Houston performance is not accidental.

But we again not played like a team with BIG3, this time because of MPJ. Still, despite missing Porter we should win this game. Every team whose best player is SG is a good matchup for Nuggets because it skyrockets the value of Harris, our starter which lost his offense.

Malone once again has bad management of players playing time despite his favorite victim MPJ was out (I hope he finally realized how fake is his Porter or Barton dilemma). Malone treated Jokic like he is a rookie player after getting 4th foul in the middle of the 3rd quarter and benched him without reason, so he played just 29 minutes in a game team desperately needed him (of course, it is not Malone the only one who should be blamed, Jokic should stop doing silly fouls). In a game which Porter missed Millsap played under 20 minutes, Green just 11 despite good shooting and part of that he played as a backup center, so almost the half of the game we played with the guard at PF spot (Barton and Dozier) which not impressed me at all as a solution. Denver takes the lead 2min before the end and has a shot to send the game into overtime, but the main reason for the defeat we will find actually in 1st half in another double-digit deficit on halftime.

[NuggetsWY]

Green's first game - didn't expect a super hero, but I loved what I saw.
We need Murray to be more consistent throughout the game.

I'm getting to the point where I would trade Barton plus a future 1st for a G-League player. Why? When he is on the court with pure point guard Campazzo and the NBA best assist-to-turnover point guard Morris; why is Barton bringing the ball up court and starting the offense? Or pretending to start it? His best skill is pounding the ball (and that is not sarcasm).

*** *** ***

Question - which of the following is true? One of them? Two of them? All three?
1. Does Malone not understand Jokic, Murray, Morris, Dozier, Campazzo and half the rest of the team are all better at the point than Barton?
2. Or is Malone afraid to or unable to control Barton?
3. Does Barton have some serious blackmail material on someone high up in the Nuggets organization?

*** *** ***

Looking at Rebel's comment about the four guard lineup which hasn't been working well. Without doing much research, I'm pretty sure he used four guards more in this game thank in the rest of this year's games.

Consider the minutes played:
Players under 6'6"
5'11" Campazzo - 4 min
6'2" Morris ------- 30 min
6'4" Murray ------ 41 min
6'4" Harris ------- 36 min
6'5" Barton ------ 36 min - total for under 6'6" 147 minutes
That means these players played 51 minutes at forward? That sounds crazy. That basically means all the SF minutes and a few PF minutes - by guys 6'5" and under.

Players 6'6" to 6'11"
6'6" Hampton ----- 2 min
6'6" Dozier -------- 23 min
6'7" Millsap ------- 19 min
6'8" Green -------- 12 min - total for 6'6" to 6'11" 56 minutes. That basically means all of those minutes were PF or center minutes, since the under 6'6" played all SF minutes and 4 minutes at PF. So we had 6'6" to 6'8" PFs for 44 minutes and 12 minutes of a 6'8" or shorter center

Players 7' or taller
7' Jokic ---------- 30 min
7' Hartenstein -- 9 min

Unused Players over 6'5"
6'8" Cancar
6'11" Nnaji
7'2" Bol

Coach must not only love small ball, but he must hate tall players and he has seemingly given up on trying to win. But that's just my opinion of what it appears to be --- from what we do know about coach, he hates losing. So I am very puzzled.

P.S. Just noticed my minutes don't add up exactly. Feel free to figure out my mistake, I'm too tired and the point is made any way you slice those minutes.

I believe it is in the Philippians where they have a league allowing no one over 6'6" to play. Malone has this team heading in that direction.

[FilNugsFan]

I thought we were supposed to be one of the deepest teams in the league and yet we aren't getting enough contribution from the bench.

Lol @ Barton for solidifying his case that he's a starter in this league.

[THE J0KER]

@NuggetsWY

Consider the minutes played:

5 Nuggets players whose natural position is POINT GUARD: Murray(41), Morris(30), Dozier(23), Campazzo(4), Hampton(2), played today 100 minutes.

3 Nuggets players whose natural position is SHOOTING GUARD: Harris(36), Barton(36), Howard(DNP), played today for 72 minutes.

0 Nuggets players whose natural position is SMALL FORWARD: Nobody(DNP), didn't play today any minutes.

7 Nuggets players whose natural position is POWER FORWARD: Millsap(19), Green(12), Porter(DNP), Bol(DNP), Nnaji(DNP), Cancar(DNP), Whittington(DNP), played today for 31 minutes.

2 Nuggets players whose natural position is CENTER: Jokic(30), Hartenstein(9), played today for 39 minutes.

- This means our 8 guards played all of 48+48 backcourt minutes, plus all 48 out of 48 SF minutes, plus 26 out of 48 PF minutes.
- All Nuggets zero players from our 15+2 full roster whose natural position is small forward played zero minutes today.
- 7 Nuggets players whose natural position is PF played 22 out of 48 PF minutes and 9 out of 48 center minutes.
- Our 2 centers played 39 out of 48 center minutes.

If you find something strange in this minutes distribution, don't blame me but ask Malone what he is doing, ask the front office why after Grant and Craig exit the team now literally doesn't have any player whose natural position is SF, and ask MPJ why he is not available today

[eathb_au]

Our roster, our bench especially sucks this season. This season is pretty much a fail in every way.

A fail for wasting Jokic's prime

A fail for still losing games despite benching MPJ to close games with washed vets

A fail for this really dumb roster that we have at the moment

A fail for Malone doing the same **** over and over, we are still playing Campazzo, what the ****

[Riko]

I don't want to overreact to a false start but Harris is a negative player. I'm sorry he can't score on jump shot and right now he has even problem at finishing at the rim (and I'm not talking about the last play but about his first quarter performance).
Like I said 3 months ago we should have dump his contract with this year 1st and maybe find something in the FA market or just replace him with Dozier.

[Mickey8]

Another loss that Jokic is directly responsible for , when the team is playing shorthanded and its need the scoring , Jokic have managed to score grand total of seven points in the first half , while Ayton outplaying him yet again in the game .

[THE J0KER]

I don't want to overreact to a false start but Harris is a negative player. I'm sorry he can't score on jump shot and right now he has even problem at finishing at the rim (and I'm not talking about the last play but about his first quarter performance).
Like I said 3 months ago we should have dump his contract with this year 1st and maybe find something in the FA market or just replace him with Dozier.

Booker averages this season 5 assists and 3 turnovers, but yesterday have 2 assists and 8 turnovers! When the opponent's best player is SG I have no problem with Harris's dead offense because he can find his way to be a valuable starter thanks to his defense only. But overall speaking it is bad for a contender team to pay 18M for a starter which impact is literally negative vs at least 1/3 of league and nothing special against another 1/3. But against teams like Phoenix (Booker) or Houston (Harden) a few days ago Harris was arguably useful thanks to the elite defense.

[Richard Miller]

Another loss that Jokic is directly responsible for , when the team is playing shorthanded and its need the scoring , Jokic have managed to score grand total of seven points in the first half , while Ayton outplaying him yet again in the game .

Would you stop trolling already?

[Mickey8]

What trolling ??? I am stating a fact !!! All I hear Jokic is one of the runner ups for MVP award this seasons , yet he doesn't play like one. Team is down 1-3 and your best player Jokic scores 7 points at the half time, he gets fouled out by Ayton , who have scored several points over him while Jokic made one jump shot over Ayton , that's it , he didn't try to post him up once in the game . He made bunch of bad plays against Sacramento in both games, he wasn't aggressive enough , to try to will his team to the victory like MVP's do in close games , against the Clippers he was average as well, I ll give him the pass against Houston who have missed bunch of players . The stats on the paper are nice but they are misleading .

[skywalker33]

What trolling ??? I am stating a fact !!! All I hear Jokic is one of the runner ups for MVP award this seasons , yet he doesn't play like one. Team is down 1-3 and your best player Jokic scores 7 points at the half time, he gets fouled out by Ayton , who have scored several points over him while Jokic made one jump shot over Ayton , that's it , he didn't try to post him up once in the game . He made bunch of bad plays against Sacramento in both games, he wasn't aggressive enough , to try to will his team to the victory like MVP's do in close games , against the Clippers he was average as well, I ll give him the pass against Houston who have missed bunch of players . The stats on the paper are nice but they are misleading .

Your comments aren't well-received here at all. They're always bitchy and derogatory, If you're life is filled with that much ire, gets some help, this isn't a therapy board. Happy New Year !

[Richard Miller]

What trolling ??? I am stating a fact !!! All I hear Jokic is one of the runner ups for MVP award this seasons , yet he doesn't play like one. Team is down 1-3 and your best player Jokic scores 7 points at the half time

He does play like one. He's not Harden to average 35 pts per night, not sure what have you been last 5 years. Jokic had 11 assists, he could have 11 in the first half alone if the rest weren't bricking open threes. Barton and Harris combine for 3-16, PJ was -18 most of the game, whatever problems this team has it's not Jokic, but for whatever reason you keep obsessing with him.