GAME 7: WCSF 2024 - Timberwolves@Nuggets, May 19th-TBD

[duh88]

Alright guys - this is my first thread ever. So one rule:

Stop being f***ing pussies. 

Back when Brian Shaw was the coach, and the only thing that lifted our f***ing spirits was a Kenneth Faried dunk - think about those days - what sacrifices would you give to the bball gods to be part of a team that's "favored" to win it all (right after winning it all the year before)?

Some of you want this to be easy - but understand something:
It's not easy. 

No repeat is easy. And in fact - life is not easy. 

But ya know what? 

Where's the FUN in easy???

Someday, we'll all face our last moment of life. Hopefully, in those final moments, you'll happily recap the highs and lows, and re-run our favorite parts of it all. Some of us might think of these moments, watching our Nuggets and arguing/conversing with each other - and while inconsequential to our jobs and families - the sheer emotions that we invested into caring so much about one team - and the emotions it made us feel - it's a special experience that made our lives more unique. And you know why you'll smile when you remember that? Because in those memories - you'll remember that you weren't the GS fan who counts the amounts of money that purchased their championships - rather - you are the Denver Nuggets fan - the gritty fan that ate s**t for years/decades, but dutifully invested with your fellow Nuggets family members (and watched it get paid off). 

No fanbase had to patiently wait as long as we did for this dynasty moment. And no group of guys, who make up a championship squad, have shown more resilience - whether that's overcoming being a second round pick from a foreign country - overcoming a horrible acl injury, or multiple back surgeries - or finally being the core that broke the most evil curse in the sports:
Nugglife. 

Now is the time to get behind our guys. Stop adding to the narrative of who needs to be traded and why the GM should be fired - and start enjoying the ride and get behind our guys! 

I'm often accused of being an optimist. My most optimistic take is that, when I cheer for a team, I am family - family with the players, family with fellow fans - because there's one thing that bonds all of us, as Nuggets:

We are resilient. We face the worst - and we overcome. You know who are?

We are the Denver f***ing Nuggets. 

Never forget that. 

#YWDF

[Miura]

Nuggets winning this one and then road to finals much easier.

Jokic and A.G. will be there and finish these wolves off... HOPEFULLY Murray and MPJ join with decent numbers.

Nuggets in 7

[somborshuffle]

Reason to be optimistic: Homecourt and Jokic God mode about to be activated for 45minutes.

Reason to be pessimistic: it still won't be enough if MPJ and Jamal play like scrubs and score fewer points than Jaden freaking McDaniels combined.

[freakns]

game time will be decided by game 6 between Knicks and Pacers...

as for this one, I believe Jokic and AG will show up. others, 0 trust. MPJ is horrible whole series and Jamal has had more bad then good games these playoffs.

game 5 against Lakers is the only game in these playoffs he scored 25 or more points.
game 1 against Lakers is the only game he had 10 or more assists.
game 5 against Lakers and game 1 against Wolves are the only two games where he shot 50% from 3.
game 3 against Wolves and game 5 against Wolves are the only two games where he shot 50% from field.
in 4 out of 11 games he hasn't hit 3 pointer.
in 6 out of 11 games, so more then half, he is shooting below 40%
in 5 out of 6 games against Wolves he has scored less then 20 points. in 2 of those he scored 10 or less!
and so on, and so on... not only Jamal hasn't been playoff Jamal, but he is actually worse then he was during regular season!

and I get it, Wolves are horrible matchup for him, but Lakers weren't and he was sublime in that series too despite hitting two game winners. if he wants to redeem himself, he needs to have monster game 7 and lead Nuggets to WCF, but I don't think he has it. Jokic will have to pull one more all time great game out of his ass and hope AG will join him. and I hope Wolves will shoot like s**t.

[jimijam28]

s**t thread easy L

[GBG]

Game 7’s are won 77% of the time by the home team.

We were absolutely embarrassed last night. Humiliated. If that doesn’t act as “fuel” to get our players playing at and ABOVE their capabilities in an elimination game, I don’t know what does.

Jokic wouldn’t sit down the entire fourth quarter last night. Stood the rest of the game. By himself. I think he did that as he was sending a message to his teammates, such as “I, Nikola Jokic, don’t want to be anywhere near you guys if you’re gonna play like that. I refuse to sit with you, talk to you, or even even acknowledge you are sharing this experience with me.”

The body language of standing alone the entire 4Q while we are getting bludgeoned by up to 50 points at one point tells his teammates more than the text message he sent them at AllStar break.

We will find out if his teammates heard the message. Or understand what’s at stake Sunday. A typical home team understands the stakes at game 7 and succeed 77% of the time, throughout history. We have two things going for us besides that which help our cause: Altitude and the greatest player any of us have ever followed in our lives. And I’m 70!


Win.

[wizardofcozz]

Difference between this year's team and last years comes down almost entirely to our 3 PT shooting.

22-23 % 23-24 %
Murray 40% Murray 31%
KCP 38% KCP 33%
Jokic 46% Jokic 28%
MPJ 35% MPJ 42%
AG 39% AG 40%
Bruce B. 32% RJ 35%
Braun 20% Braun 23%

In 22-23 We only had our two bench guys shoot under 35% in the playoffs. This year MPJ (Who has shot like crap in this series vs. MIN) AG and Reggie are our only reliable 3 PT shooters, anda Reggies and AG aren't on very high volume. We have to make shots. I again will reiterate I think a big part of this is we don't get to the rim, so we don't get enough of those catch and shoot 3's where the guy doesn't even have to move. I'm talking about he's facing the basket, not those where we pass from the top to a wing for a shot. Catch and shoot 3's from dribble penetration are some of the high % shots in basketball. But it feels, and I don't have numbers yet, but it feels like we never get to the rim, outside of Jokic anymore. Don't get me wrong we can still win game 7 and win the title, but it would be so much easier if we could put more pressure on MIN defense and force them to scramble more. I don't felt like they had to help much in game 6, and so could just stick on their man.

[somborshuffle]

Also, Game 7 is not the time for Murray and MPJ to "get going" in the 1st qtr by taking half a dozen shots each.

Screw that.

I want Jokic taking 8-10 shots in the 1st qtr and putting the fear of God into Minny's front court.

Then when the defense overcommits he can start kicking it out to Jamal and MPJ who can do what they are paid to do.

[scooter]

May 17, 2024 10:48:54 GMT -5 GBG said:

Jokic wouldn’t sit down the entire fourth quarter last night. Stood the rest of the game. By himself. I think he did that as he was sending a message to his teammates, such as “I, Nikola Jokic, don’t want to be anywhere near you guys if you’re gonna play like that. I refuse to sit with you, talk to you, or even even acknowledge you are sharing this experience with me.”

I don’t think that was it at all. Jokic isn’t a jerk and likes his teammates and has zero interest in embarrassing them, dismissing them or “throwing them under the bus.” Unlike lots of NBA stars, he never blames his teammates or his coaches and doesn’t get any of them traded or fired. He was just standing up for them.

On to game 7 — I hope its a great one!

[freakns]

Jokic already explained it. There is nothing mystic about it, there is no message that needed to be sent... He is creature of habit, and his body is used to play in 4th, then go and do lifting afterwards. So he was standing so he doesn't cool down before lifting. Its that simple. We Serbians are not big on sending messages, especially cryptic ones. When we want to send a message, we just say what we have, and thats it.
Now, I'm not claiming I'm same as Joker that way, but thats how I and most of my fellow countryman are... I assume famous after all star viber message was something like "lets go, its time to kick some asses"

And if there was anything on his face it was displeasure caused by loss, nothing else.

[Ring]

I think this game is pretty simple. The Wolves are going to double team Jokic all game and force the other guys to make shots. Do you have confidence in the other guys on this team? I do not. Therefore I am picking the Wolves. Hope I am wrong but the Wolves have the much better defense and that is typically what wins a Game 7.

Should the Nuggets lose this game, it is time to move on from MPJ/Murray. MPJ is a lost cause at this point that can't be counted on. He's basically a opponent dependent role player and you can't pay a guy a max contract that can't play in certain series. Murray cannot be counted on to stay healthy. 3 of 4 postseasons now. 

The Nuggets franchise owes it to Jokic to surround him with other elite talent and lessen the workload that he has.

[Ring]

May 17, 2024 11:14:49 GMT -5 somborshuffle said:

Also, Game 7 is not the time for Murray and MPJ to "get going" in the 1st qtr by taking half a dozen shots each.

Screw that.

I want Jokic taking 8-10 shots in the 1st qtr and putting the fear of God into Minny's front court.

Then when the defense overcommits he can start kicking it out to Jamal and MPJ who can do what they are paid to do.

I got some bad news for you if you don't think Murray is going to try to salvage his series by taking a ton of shots Sunday. 

[Coach Sticky]

Yup, it’s decided wolves are 100% gonna win.

[JB]

It's sad to see my boy Ring in his Dante jr arc.

even though I have my criticisms of Calvin and Josh, I'm very glad they take the long-view and are rarely prisoners of the moment. Jamal Murray is on the Nugget Mt Rushmore. he's not going anywhere even if they quintuple team Jokic and Jamal responds with going 0-18 from the field. the man is dragging a dead calf around and despite everything, he still turned this series around with his game 3 performance. and had two game winners against the Lakers in the first round.

we still might be able to finesse our way to the WCF tomorrow. calm the f**k down everyone.

[Ring]

May 17, 2024 13:06:10 GMT -5 JB said:

It's sad to see my boy Ring in his Dante jr arc.

even though I have my criticisms of Calvin and Josh, I'm very glad they take the long-view and are rarely prisoners of the moment. Jamal Murray is on the Nugget Mt Rushmore. he's not going anywhere even if they quintuple team Jokic and Jamal responds with going 0-18 from the field. the man is dragging a dead calf around and despite everything, he still turned this series around with his game 3 performance. and had two game winners against the Lakers in the first round.

we still might be able to finesse our way to the WCF tomorrow. calm the f**k down everyone.

Firstly, comparing me to Dante is arguably the worst thing you can say. I take great offense to that because that guy is a clown, a hater, a guy who knows nothing about basketball, etc.

Secondly, I want to keep Jamal I'm just tired of the injury thing being a thing every single year. He doesn't take his body serious enough to stay healthy. Every year he's hurt (sometimes multiple times per year). MPJ is the one I'm 100% done with. Nuggets are going to have to go through Minny year in and year out and that guy is absolutely terrified the second a team plays him physically. 

CB better get more minutes than MPJ tomorrow. 

At the end of the day the franchise should do what they can to get Jokic a bonafide All Star. He deserves that level of help. 

[GBG]

May 17, 2024 13:33:23 GMT -5 Ring said:

May 17, 2024 13:06:10 GMT -5 JB said:

It's sad to see my boy Ring in his Dante jr arc.

even though I have my criticisms of Calvin and Josh, I'm very glad they take the long-view and are rarely prisoners of the moment. Jamal Murray is on the Nugget Mt Rushmore. he's not going anywhere even if they quintuple team Jokic and Jamal responds with going 0-18 from the field. the man is dragging a dead calf around and despite everything, he still turned this series around with his game 3 performance. and had two game winners against the Lakers in the first round.

we still might be able to finesse our way to the WCF tomorrow. calm the f**k down everyone.

Firstly, comparing me to Dante is arguably the worst thing you can say. I take great offense to that because that guy is a clown, a hater, a guy who knows nothing about basketball, etc.

Secondly, I want to keep Jamal I'm just tired of the injury thing being a thing every single year. He doesn't take his body serious enough to stay healthy. Every year he's hurt (sometimes multiple times per year). MPJ is the one I'm 100% done with. Nuggets are going to have to go through Minny year in and year out and that guy is absolutely terrified the second a team plays him physically. 

CB better get more minutes than MPJ tomorrow. 

At the end of the day the franchise should do what they can to get Jokic a bonafide All Star. He deserves that level of help. 

MPJ does provide spacing and has had a good shooting postseason (42% from 3), despite three straight bad games against Minny. We have poor to average 3PT shooters throughout the roster (KCP usually is good on lower volume, though). If MPJ gets traded for a bonafide AllStar, which will also require packaging Watson and using Zeke as salary filler, that AllStar had better have floor spacing in his arsenal. Otherwise, the paint will be packed and Jokic will have to expend even more energy, even with an AllStar on floor with him.

As for Murray, I fear his aging pattern might turn out to be very similar to Will Barton, who aged out of the league rather quickly due to all his leg and soft tissue injuries that robbed him of his athletic abilities (slashing and leaping were great in 2016, not much to speak of by 2022, and his defensive mobility was gone). Murray could already have peaked, and might enter a downhill slope for his career in his late 20’s. That sounds crazy, he should be in his prime at that age, but his legs are old. Shin splints themselves are a grave sign that he’s aging quick, and add all the other stuff on top of it.

If we can get an AllStar PG, even if a bit older than Murray, in trade, then trading Murray has to be considered. KSE isn’t shy about doing such a thing, as the quick early season trade of AI to Detroit for Chauncey Billups showed us in 2008. They saw AI’s legs going south, and pulled the trigger. Murray might be next.

[rock]

I have zero faith we will win Sunday but I do take solace in knowing that every great team has to go through adversity. All of those great warriors, spurs, lakers, bulls teams etc had multiple iconic wins.

We haven’t had any.

You can’t be a great team without those special all time wins. Hopefully Sunday will be ours but it it feels like 2019 all over again.

[GBG]

May 17, 2024 14:31:49 GMT -5 rock said:

I have zero faith we will win Sunday but I do take solace in knowing that every great team has to go through adversity. All of those great warriors, spurs, lakers, bulls teams etc had multiple iconic wins.

We haven’t had any.

You can’t be a great team without those special all time wins. Hopefully Sunday will be ours but it it feels like 2019 all over again.

Game 5 was an iconic win and a signature game for Jokic. Maybe THE signature game for the MVP.

[JB]

May 17, 2024 14:30:11 GMT -5 GBG said:

May 17, 2024 13:33:23 GMT -5 Ring said:

Firstly, comparing me to Dante is arguably the worst thing you can say. I take great offense to that because that guy is a clown, a hater, a guy who knows nothing about basketball, etc.

Secondly, I want to keep Jamal I'm just tired of the injury thing being a thing every single year. He doesn't take his body serious enough to stay healthy. Every year he's hurt (sometimes multiple times per year). MPJ is the one I'm 100% done with. Nuggets are going to have to go through Minny year in and year out and that guy is absolutely terrified the second a team plays him physically. 

CB better get more minutes than MPJ tomorrow. 

At the end of the day the franchise should do what they can to get Jokic a bonafide All Star. He deserves that level of help. 

MPJ does provide spacing and has had a good shooting postseason (42% from 3), despite three straight bad games against Minny. We have poor to average 3PT shooters throughout the roster (KCP usually is good on lower volume, though). If MPJ gets traded for a bonafide AllStar, which will also require packaging Watson and using Zeke as salary filler, that AllStar had better have floor spacing in his arsenal. Otherwise, the paint will be packed and Jokic will have to expend even more energy, even with an AllStar on floor with him.

As for Murray, I fear his aging pattern might turn out to be very similar to Will Barton, who aged out of the league rather quickly due to all his leg and soft tissue injuries that robbed him of his athletic abilities (slashing and leaping were great in 2016, not much to speak of by 2022, and his defensive mobility was gone). Murray could already have peaked, and might enter a downhill slope for his career in his late 20’s. That sounds crazy, he should be in his prime at that age, but his legs are old. Shin splints themselves are a grave sign that he’s aging quick, and add all the other stuff on top of it.

If we can get an AllStar PG, even if a bit older than Murray, in trade, then trading Murray has to be considered. KSE isn’t shy about doing such a thing, as the quick early season trade of AI to Detroit for Chauncey Billups showed us in 2008. They saw AI’s legs going south, and pulled the trigger. Murray might be next.

AI was a mercenary in his 30s that won a grand total of one playoff game during his tenure. Jamal is a 27 year old Nugget lifer that delivered Denver their first NBA championship. not even remotely similar.

a lot of your Murray prognosis appears like wishful thinking considering you've been rooting against him basically his entire carrer. but for laughs, which "All-star PG" would be realistic trade target this summer that would make the Nuggets better?

[Ring]

Wouldn't happen but Mitchell for Murray straight up would be a clear upgrade.