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Post by JB on Jul 16, 2024 10:49:49 GMT -5
that team was literally one quarter away from beating essentially the same Laker team that beat the Nuggets in the 2009 WCF.
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Post by LotharBraunBrownBryant on Jul 16, 2024 11:30:33 GMT -5
How about this: let's look at every team that won at least one playoff series last year, and look at who their 9th-10th men were in the playoffs... Bro you spent the entire last summer arguing how the bench wouldnt be a problem. How one could argue the bench would be better. Using cute stats to fit that narrative What happened? We lost because our bench was worthless and Malone ran starters into the ground It's weird how often you reply to me by telling me what I said, and it's a misrepresentation of what I said. Like you're constantly arguing with Lotharn't. Please don't do that. Here's what I said about the bench last July/August/September (quoting full posts, adding occasional highlights): Close playoff series are often won or lost based on how well the 8th or 9th man plays. In finals game 5, Cody Zeller played a few minutes and got smoked. DAJ played a few minutes and held up OK. Obviously if you lose a key player for extended time in the playoffs and have to rely on a bench guy playing starter minutes, that can make the difference between a championship team (2023 Nuggets) and a first or second round exit (2021 and 22 Nuggets). But even if you have pretty good health, you need that 8th or 9th guy to at least mostly hold his ground. The starters and Braun are fine (even with a possible sophomore slump.) I think Reggie is more likely to be a "hold his own" 9th man than a "totally sucks" 9th man if he locks in, which I believe he will. But I don't know if guys 7-8 are going to be rookies who step up, players who have been in and out of the bench rotation like Vlatko or Zeke, or someone we pick up with the vet min or the TPE. I would *like* to get a quality 7th man for the TPE. Makes it a lot easier if you only need one more guy out of Vlatko, Zeke, all the rookies, and the last vet minimum spot to step up than if you need 2 of them. But it's not totally unrealistic that 2 guys could step up from that group, or that we could use Reggie/Zeke's deals during the season to make a trade for someone at that level. Not "the bench will be fine". Recognition that you need the 8th or 9th guys to not be a total disaster. Reggie would have been a perfectly fine 9th man. Questioning what the 7/8th men would be and whether we'd need to make a move. Turned out it was PWat who Malone didn't trust in the Minny series, and then nobody -- we didn't use the TPE, Vlatko was injured, Zeke sucked, Strawther was injured. It's like a more extreme version of last offseason. The team did swap veterans in Barton/Monte for KCP/Ish, but then also released veterans in Boogie, Forbes, Rivers, and Facu while bringing in only Bruce and DAJ as veteran signings. This meant Bones and Braun were given more room to operate, as were youngish players like Zeke. With a championship starting five, it's important to have enough vets on the bench, but I'm glad we're not just going out and signing "blocker" vets to soak up minutes with little upside. Right now the bench has 3 clusters of players: low-expected-minute professional locker-room-presence vets (DAJ, Reggie, Holiday); young players with some meaningful NBA experience (Braun, Vlatko, Zeke); young players with essentially no NBA experience (PWat, Gillespie, Pickett, Strawther, Kamagate, Tyson -- probably 3 of these guys will be either two-way or overseas players). I think giving the last roster spot to a guy in the first category would be a nice insurance policy, but really the hope is that the guys in the second category will step up and that one or two guys from the third category will develop adequately over the season to at least be regular-season rotation guys, even if in the playoffs the bench is gonna be like Reggie, Braun, and someone we trade for mid-season using Zeke's contract or smth. Not "the bench won't be a problem" or "the bench will be fine". Explicit acknowledgement that it'd be nice to get one more vet min guy, and the hope that others will develop and that we trade Zeke. Those things didn't happen, and Vlatko and Strawther were injured, and Malone didn't trust PWat. Multiple things can be true at once. KCP and BB and CB and Uncle Jeff were huge for us this season, and they absolutely deserve respect as key parts of the championship (and even DAJ had some key playoff minutes!), and the 2 who left for more money deserved the bags they got. And, the "big 4" is good enough that swapping out a couple of bench guys for reliable but not-as-good guys (not Facu-level) will still leave us as contenders. It's still a championship if you go 16-8 instead of 16-4 in the playoffs. So the calculus here is: given that there was no way we could keep Bruce with the enormous offer he got, but KCP/Braun were already under contract, are we better off trying to replace what Bruce and Jeff brought with a couple of minimum-for-one-year vets and a lot of rookies-under-long-term-contract, or better off with a lot of minimum vets and few rookies? Not like we're going to win 5 straight either way. Maybe we maximize this year's chances better if we target the best vet min guys. But maybe we maximize the odds of getting 1-2 more championships in the next 4 years if we have long-term contract control over a bunch of mature young guys, and give them chances to develop in the regular season instead of putting them behind low-ceiling high-floor vets, and don't have to cycle out a whole bench full of vet min guys every offseason. IDK if the plan is going to work, but I understand it.That's hardly "the bench is fine". It's an explicit acknowledgment that maybe we have lower odds of winning this year with the strategy Booth pulled, but that I understand what he wants to do, and it might not work. Also, zero "cute stats" anywhere. So, again, I'm not sure who you were arguing with, but it wasn't me, and I don't know why I need to take Ls for what Lotharn't said. But there is one more post: If Malone decides not to trust the bench and exhausts the starters, instead of being willing to keep the championship core guys healthy and figure out who else belongs with them in the playoffs, that's on Malone. His job is to understand what he's got and make the best decisions with these pieces, even if it means maybe rolling to a 3 or 4 seed because it took the bench time to develop instead of a 1 seed because he ran the starters hard. But Malone isn't Thibs. Why expect him to act like that? I'll take the L for that one. |
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Post by voodoo on Jul 16, 2024 16:50:42 GMT -5
Is Swather playing, he was a standout on day 8 of SL action.
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Post by LotharBraunBrownBryant on Jul 16, 2024 16:57:51 GMT -5
Nuggets announced Strawther and PJ Hall are both sitting
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Post by famicommander on Jul 16, 2024 17:02:48 GMT -5
Nuggets announced Strawther and PJ Hall are both sitting Why sit Hall? He had one very shaky game and one good game. He's a two-way, let him play. I'd much rather sit Alexander, but they probably want him on the court to bring the ball up for Pickett. |
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Post by game on Jul 16, 2024 17:06:06 GMT -5
I'm sure it's to see other guys. They need to fill a third two way spot and I'n sure would like to see what others can bring.
Has Jaylin Williams played yet?
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Post by famicommander on Jul 16, 2024 17:13:03 GMT -5
I'm sure it's to see other guys. They need to fill a third two way spot and I'n sure would like to see what others can bring. Has Jaylin Williams played yet? The third two-way needs to be a SG. Whomever it is, he's not on our roster right now. |
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Post by game on Jul 16, 2024 17:14:48 GMT -5
A wing, sure. I think that's where you need the depth.
Alexander is fairly combo-y, not a true PG.
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Post by famicommander on Jul 16, 2024 17:21:42 GMT -5
Alexander starts us off with a bucket.
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Post by famicommander on Jul 16, 2024 17:29:48 GMT -5
Hunter Tyson has a good feel as a cutter?
Did the announcer just say that?
My god.
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Post by famicommander on Jul 16, 2024 17:34:42 GMT -5
5 second inbound violation on Pickett.
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Post by nuggetshipster on Jul 16, 2024 17:37:45 GMT -5
5 second inbound violation on Pickett. Followed by a terrible pass |
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Post by famicommander on Jul 16, 2024 17:38:07 GMT -5
Currently zero roster guys on the court.
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Post by nuggetshipster on Jul 16, 2024 17:39:12 GMT -5
Is Pickett disqualified for two way deal since hes been on a real roste? If so Calvin may have ruined any chance he had at becoming an NBA player
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Post by Camby's Left Nut on Jul 16, 2024 17:39:36 GMT -5
5 second inbound violation on Pickett. He almost had one in the game the other night too, and there wasn't even much pressure on the play. He just seemed indecisive and clueless. The physical limitations are one thing, but to not even be able to think the game is pretty damning for a PG. |
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Post by famicommander on Jul 16, 2024 17:39:39 GMT -5
5 second inbound violation on Pickett. Followed by a terrible pass Tyson took a horrible shot for his 1st 3 and made it, which cave him confidence to clank an even worse one in his second attempt. Pickett, I'm not sure how, but he's gotten worse than he was last season. It looks like he's mentally cooked, like he understands he doesn't belong. Last year he at least was able to stay in front of some people on defense and make some confident, creative passes. I haven't seen any of that so far this year. |
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Post by famicommander on Jul 16, 2024 17:40:47 GMT -5
Is Pickett disqualified for two way deal since hes been on a real roste? If so Calvin may have ruined any chance he had at becoming an NBA player Anybody that has 3 years or fewer of NBA experience could technically sign a two-way. But let's be honest, he's not good enough to be a two-way either. If Trey Alexander and Collin Gillespie are two-way point guards, Pickett has no damn chance. He's not nearly as good as either one of them. |
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Post by famicommander on Jul 16, 2024 17:42:12 GMT -5
5 second inbound violation on Pickett. He almost had one in the game the other night too, and there wasn't even much pressure on the play. He just seemed indecisive and clueless. The physical limitations are one thing, but to not even be able to think the game is pretty damning for a PG. I can only assume he's starting to understand he doesn't belong and is getting discouraged because of it. Because he was bad last year, but he was better than this. |
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Post by nuggetshipster on Jul 16, 2024 17:42:53 GMT -5
Jahmir Young >>>> Pickett
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Post by famicommander on Jul 16, 2024 17:44:44 GMT -5
Tyson bailed out on an awkward af drive
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