Next levers to pull

[Phenom]

I have been thinking about game 2 and the current status of the team as a whole. I'd like to see these things happen:

Take Jaden off of Murray replaced with Ant and Ayo. Let Jaden help off of Braun or whoever their 5th scorer happens to be.

Rudy, Kyle then Naz only guarding Jokic.

When Ant is off the floor make sure to have all of Ayo Bones and TJ out there together. If the team really wants to run and push pace, lean hard into it.

I think evidence shows us that Mike needs a long recharge between games played. Let him charge up for game 3, if necessary.

Run Ant as a decoy if he is afraid to put too much on his knee. Lean into the double teams and getting off it quickly. He can be like an injured wide receiver that still draws double coverage.

What would you all like to see? Other than throwing Julius into the Colorado River?

[FNG]

Some good stuff, phenom. If Ant is not too hurt, I also would like to see him on Murray. Not that Jaden wasn't effective guarding him, but it might inspire Ant and elevate his game. Murray is not a great defender either, but did you notice how locked in he was when he was guarding Ant? And Jaden is a very good rim protector when he is playing help defense. I don't want to see Ayo on Murray though...he really struggled. Maybe bring in Clark for a couple hard fouls.

I like your idea of getting some runners out there together too. It was frustrating to watch Ant take 10 seconds to bring the ball up, allowing Denver to set up their defense.

Of course if Ant isn't healthy, all bets are off.

[Q-is-here]

I don't see Finch making any big changes this early in the series. It's not in his nature. I thought overall Jaden was terrific on Murray. But when Murray was out there with Denver's 2nd unit against our bench unit he absolutely cooked us and we lost those critical non-Jokic minutes.

Personally I think whatever he does is just moving around deck chairs on the Titanic, but yeah, at some point he will likely start changing things up out of desperation. Not sure that happens in Game 2.

I'd absolutely pull the TJ arrow out of the quiver sooner rather than later, but he has to have the ball in his hands and that means less Bones and/or Conley. Finch isn't going there just yet.

[AussieWolf3]

Good stuff Phenom,

I think there are two main task, each with subs.

First, tweak and tightened the defense, don't overhaul it. Their defense wasn't great, but it was good enough. Jaden was good on Murray, Ayo wasn't and Ant was fine as a fill in but he'll need to dial it up. Murray had a good game but he didn't beat them imo, and they need to challenge him again to see if he gets the same whistle. I like the idea of mixing up the coverage and playing Jaden as a lurker but their best look is still McDaniels on Jamal.


On offense they need to come out fast and aggressive. They need to look at themselves and look at the Nuggets and realize there is no good reason for their offense to have been this bad.

First - you gotta put more pressure on the rim.
Second - stop playing the double like it's a insurmountable obstacle. Honestly, bait them into the double, make Jokic run up to press Ant more it quick into a DHO with Rudy or Randle. If they come up all the way past the half court, laugh at em and throw the hit a head pass. Force Jokic to run and then when they play drop, attack the rim.

There was just no reason for it to get that stagnate and for them to be unable to score against such an inferior defense.

Stop forcing passes to Randle just cause Braun is guarding him. Swing it to Randle after the defense tilts and get doing what he does best, kicking out to shooters.

And finally just run run and run some more. The wolves are the under dog and I believe Denver is the better team, so your best chance to win is introducing high variance elements like transition points.

Then CAN beat this team but they can't do it if Randle continues to be a negative, and Ant has to find that godly playoff gear we all love so much

[thedoper]

Finch needs to shorten the roster to 8. The ebb and flow of game 1 was way off.

[Phenom]

I have been thinking about game 2 and the current status of the team as a whole. I'd like to see these things happen:

Take Jaden off of Murray replaced with Ant and Ayo. Let Jaden help off of Braun or whoever their 5th scorer happens to be.

Rudy, Kyle then Naz only guarding Jokic.

When Ant is off the floor make sure to have all of Ayo Bones and TJ out there together. If the team really wants to run and push pace, lean hard into it.

I think evidence shows us that Mike needs a long recharge between games played. Let him charge up for game 3, if necessary.

Run Ant as a decoy if he is afraid to put too much on his knee. Lean into the double teams and getting off it quickly. He can be like an injured wide receiver that still draws double coverage.

What would you all like to see? Other than throwing Julius into the Colorado River?

Shows what I know. Jaden was able to sap Murray's energy with the help of Ayo and some Ant. That is maybe the most important variable to him guarding Jamal.

Naz didn't do well on Joker but I still think he will have a couple big moments on him at some point. Hopefully Julius can keep having solid sequences on him when needed.

Bones may have ended up a wash but I wouldn't abandon him yet. His 3 ball, even cold off the bench is valuable. He might just need to tone it down on his aggressiveness defensively a notch.

Not too much Mike tonight so that one holds for now.

Ant showed he is not decoy status and really figured out how to manage his pain levels. I didn't really notice him dealing with pain after the first quarter.

And thank God we didn't toss Jun into the river

[Q-is-here]

Finch needs to shorten the roster to 8. The ebb and flow of game 1 was way off.

Thank God he didn't take your advice! Our guys had the legs and energy to defend and close the game out while Murray and Jokic were exhausted and left everything short.

[thedoper]

Finch needs to shorten the roster to 8. The ebb and flow of game 1 was way off.

Thank God he didn't take your advice! Our guys had the legs and energy to defend and close the game out while Murray and Jokic were exhausted and left everything short.

It worked last night so Finch was vindicated, not sure it should be the plan the whole run. If Finch is going to stick with 11 I hope they get the message to take it to the rack the whole game instead of settling for the outside. We need some payoff for the extra bodies, not sure we are getting that playing Kyle and Conley.

[rapsuperstar31]

I'll be curious to see if Denver goes more zone in the next game or two. Denver played a lot of zone against OKC in their series last year, and it really bothered SGA the first few games before he figured it out.

[Q-is-here]

Finch needs to shorten the roster to 8. The ebb and flow of game 1 was way off.

Thank God he didn't take your advice! Our guys had the legs and energy to defend and close the game out while Murray and Jokic were exhausted and left everything short.

It worked last night so Finch was vindicated, not sure it should be the plan the whole run. If Finch is going to stick with 11 I hope they get the message to take it to the rack the whole game instead of settling for the outside. We need some payoff for the extra bodies, not sure we are getting that playing Kyle and Conley.

Jokic and Murray are averaging 40 and 41 MPG respectively through the first two games playing primarily a 7-man rotation with short stints thrown in there for Spencer Jones (9.5 MPG) and JoVal (5.5 MPG) as the 8th and 9th man.

Ant is averaging 39 MPG and then no one else is averaging more than 35.5 MPG. We have gone 10-deep so far.

The only way we beat these guys is through strength in numbers and wearing them down. Jokic is still the best player in the series and Murray might be close to 2nd best given Ant's rust and being hobbled. We saw the vaunted Jokic/Murray two man game stall out in the 4th quarter last night as their legs got tired.

Relentlessly taking it to the rack as you suggest and putting a ton of ball pressure on Murray whenever he's in the game saps a lot of energy from our guys in addition to wearing down their guys, so we need more of our guys to do it!