Wolves vs Nuggets GDT:Ricky's trade value is rising

[thedoper]

The bright side is still that this team is very versatile. It's just the glue right now that's messing with us. If we just had someone experienced to ease the pressure situations. Lots of talent on this team. As I see it we really need a sixth man, someone reliable to anchor the second unit and crossover of one of the three just doesn't have it.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

So, Nikola Jokic... He good.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Lots of dissection of our offense, whose clutch, who isn't, etc. What about the defense? Let yet another team shoot better than 50%. Until the youngsters learn to defend, the losses will keep piling up.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

So, Nikola Jokic... He good.

He's outstanding. Killed us with his passing. Our off ball defense is just terrible.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Another loss. Another game with both promising and horrific play. Commentary:

BENCH
- Shabazz Muhammad. Bjelica. Dunn. Aldrich. (42 starts)
vs.
- Will Barton. Jameer Nelson. Kenneth Faried. Jamal Murray. Jusuf Nurkic. (1038 starts)

But it goes beyond the number of starts. The Nuggets have players who could be starters for other teams coming off the bench. The Wolves do not. Those are bench guys at best with only Dunn POSSIBLY being starter-level material at some point in his career. It's very rare when the Wolves bench can go out and win a game for this team. At best, they can hold serve.

That's not good enough. Especially when the team is SO RELIANT on three players offensively who are only 21 years old. And when that team is still forced to win games offensively because the defense is so poor. It's not sustainable for a good team.

RUBIO
Nothing new here. He dominated flow early with his passing. The game was fun again. He was marvelous. He crippled the team by not making wide open shots later. I guess giving up a few easy ones to Mudiay hurt his overall grade? This game illustrates what kind of player he is. And there's nothing really to add. As we all know... Dunn can't shoot either but he can't control the offense either. Ugh. Just how ugly are things gonna get? More importantly, what can be done about it?

Then there's the free throw thing. Is that becoming one of basketball's greatest unsolved mysteries... how a guy can be so good at the line but so dreadful everywhere else?

WIGGINS
Started off dynamite. Cooled. Forgotten? Then missed 4 critical shots late (3 freebies and the layup). He still takes too many long twos for my liking. He still disappears for too long of stretches. He still doesn't do enough other stuff. But he's just too talented. Again... is there anything new to add?

LAVINE
Not a super efficient game, but fairly typical. There was one play that stood out for me. It was in the 1st quarter. He got the ball at the three point line (open) but he didn't shoot it. Instead he took two dribbles and took a very contested 20 foot shot. (he made it) It reminded me so much of last season that I found it alarming. This team still is learning what it/isn't a good basketball play/decision and it shows in the W/L record.

TOWNS
Doubled hard all game. Made the right play a lot. Missed bunnies. Came on hard late to get the Wolves there at the end. Still the future... still a work in progress.

DIENG
Good game. Glue guy. But let's revisit my first topic... some teams have these guys coming off the bench. The Wolves have Dieng starting and playing 40 mpg every game. He's not a bad player. He's just limited.

SUMMARY
Meh. More of the same. Always the same. Promise... that leads to losses. Rinse. Repeat. Rinse. Repeat. Someday that will change. Maybe.

OTHER
- Is Danlio Gallinari the new Wes Mathews? 12 - 18 fg this season and 6 - 11 on three pointers. 28 - 55 on three pointers vs. the Wolves since 2012.
- The Nuggets have to trade Jokic or Nurkic. Not for basketball reasons... I have trouble telling them apart watching at home. Even the names sound too similar.
- This team has to be the team everybody is calling for trades, right? There's so much here. Too much redundancy. A mix of super young and experienced. Legit talent and promising room for growth. Heck, it's not just the big guys. Check out Barton, Harris and Murray.
- I think Denver makes the playoffs. I think whether it's trades or Malone's decisions after 40 games... the rotation gets more set and the wins become more common.
- What is Mudiay's value around the league? He's only 20. But is he any better than an Elfrid Payton type? He could be the #1 reason for the Nuggets missing the postseason... yet again... he's only 20 and an athletic beast.
- Jameer Nelson seems older than 34 for some reason. But the little bowling ball still has enough flashes to be in the rotation.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Lots of dissection of our offense, whose clutch, who isn't, etc. What about the defense? Let yet another team shoot better than 50%. Until the youngsters learn to defend, the losses will keep piling up.

Didn't see the game, but the GDT tells me Ricky had a poor defensive game. True? His 4 steals stand out in the box score, but was he beaten consistently all game?

[BloopOracle]

another game where we outplay the other team the vast majority of the game besides a 5 minute PATHETIC stretch in the 3rd where the Nuggets ran a layup drill against us.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Another loss. Another game with both promising and horrific play. Commentary:

BENCH
- Shabazz Muhammad. Bjelica. Dunn. Aldrich. (42 starts)
vs.
- Will Barton. Jameer Nelson. Kenneth Faried. Jamal Murray. Jusuf Nurkic. (1038 starts)

But it goes beyond the number of starts. The Nuggets have players who could be starters for other teams coming off the bench. The Wolves do not. Those are bench guys at best with only Dunn POSSIBLY being starter-level material at some point in his career. It's very rare when the Wolves bench can go out and win a game for this team. At best, they can hold serve.

That's not good enough. Especially when the team is SO RELIANT on three players offensively who are only 21 years old. And when that team is still forced to win games offensively because the defense is so poor. It's not sustainable for a good team.

RUBIO
Nothing new here. He dominated flow early with his passing. The game was fun again. He was marvelous. He crippled the team by not making wide open shots later. I guess giving up a few easy ones to Mudiay hurt his overall grade? This game illustrates what kind of player he is. And there's nothing really to add. As we all know... Dunn can't shoot either but he can't control the offense either. Ugh. Just how ugly are things gonna get? More importantly, what can be done about it?

Then there's the free throw thing. Is that becoming one of basketball's greatest unsolved mysteries... how a guy can be so good at the line but so dreadful everywhere else?

WIGGINS
Started off dynamite. Cooled. Forgotten? Then missed 4 critical shots late (3 freebies and the layup). He still takes too many long twos for my liking. He still disappears for too long of stretches. He still doesn't do enough other stuff. But he's just too talented. Again... is there anything new to add?

LAVINE
Not a super efficient game, but fairly typical. There was one play that stood out for me. It was in the 1st quarter. He got the ball at the three point line (open) but he didn't shoot it. Instead he took two dribbles and took a very contested 20 foot shot. (he made it) It reminded me so much of last season that I found it alarming. This team still is learning what it/isn't a good basketball play/decision and it shows in the W/L record.

TOWNS
Doubled hard all game. Made the right play a lot. Missed bunnies. Came on hard late to get the Wolves there at the end. Still the future... still a work in progress.

DIENG
Good game. Glue guy. But let's revisit my first topic... some teams have these guys coming off the bench. The Wolves have Dieng starting and playing 40 mpg every game. He's not a bad player. He's just limited.

SUMMARY
Meh. More of the same. Always the same. Promise... that leads to losses. Rinse. Repeat. Rinse. Repeat. Someday that will change. Maybe.

OTHER
- Is Danlio Gallinari the new Wes Mathews? 12 - 18 fg this season and 6 - 11 on three pointers. 28 - 55 on three pointers vs. the Wolves since 2012.
- The Nuggets have to trade Jokic or Nurkic. Not for basketball reasons... I have trouble telling them apart watching at home. Even the names sound too similar.
- This team has to be the team everybody is calling for trades, right? There's so much here. Too much redundancy. A mix of super young and experienced. Legit talent and promising room for growth. Heck, it's not just the big guys. Check out Barton, Harris and Murray.
- I think Denver makes the playoffs. I think whether it's trades or Malone's decisions after 40 games... the rotation gets more set and the wins become more common.
- What is Mudiay's value around the league? He's only 20. But is he any better than an Elfrid Payton type? He could be the #1 reason for the Nuggets missing the postseason... yet again... he's only 20 and an athletic beast.
- Jameer Nelson seems older than 34 for some reason. But the little bowling ball still has enough flashes to be in the rotation.

Ha, nice work Abe!

[thedoper]

Lots of dissection of our offense, whose clutch, who isn't, etc. What about the defense? Let yet another team shoot better than 50%. Until the youngsters learn to defend, the losses will keep piling up.

The D was pretty awful for the most part. Their guards went off with a lot of activity and cutting. It was too much for Zach, Rubio, and even Dunn to handle. Quick active guards will continue to kill us because Rubio is too slow and Zach is too unaware.

[Coolbreeze44]

The Wolves replay is on my tv right now and because I have no life I was watching the being of the game to see how wiggins scored his first 9 pts of the game.

1st bucket: Hits a pull up jumper on a PnR
2nd bucket: Hard cut to the lane and Kat finds him from the post
3rd bucket: Wiggins to Kat in the post, Kat passes back out, Kat comes to the 3 point line, wiggins replaces Kat in the post and wiggins faces up and hits a 1 dribble pull up.
4th Bucket: Wiggins hits slot three from a feed from Kat from the post.

Good stuff, kek. I see Wig as our best scorer, and he's also proven to be our best clutch scorer (free throws notwithstanding). But I see him as being successful generally in the flow of the offense as he was in his first nine points. For the life of me, I can't understand why Thibs wants to change things when the game is on the line by asking Wig to do something he hasn't demonstrated competence in. I can recall several times this strategy has failed in key 4th quarter possessions this season, but I honestly can't remember any meaningful times it has been successful. I think Thibs needs to be smarter when the game is on the line and put our guys in a position where they have been successful.

LST, I hate to say it, but you're just seeing what you want to see. That strategy has been largely successful not only in the 4th quarter, but at the end of quarters and 1st haves. It's not going to work every time, but it gets us open shots and many times points by Wiggins.