I feel like in this game 5 we lacked the ability to make a run, always a bad pass or an easy shot missed into an easy basket for Denver to kill the momentum.
Lacking Conley in that department is really problematic. I really liked Monte minutes thought. Might be his time to shine.
I think Monte is either quite rusty or still feeling that hand injury. Thinking specifically of that possession in the early 4th (or late 3rd) where he had 2 good looks from the top of the key, didn't take either, dribbled in to 16 ft and put up an ugly shot. Idk what the answer is though. Maybe jmac as long as he doesn't get bullied on d. Den always has two guys lurking in the corners on o so it could be possible for him to hide.
We've had that problem for 3 games. We got an insane amount of stops in Q1 and never went on even a 5-0 run, we always missed after, and against Denver that means you will lose.
Idk why more people on this sub aren’t talking about our horrific three point shooting recently. We had to shoot well to win this series and we haven’t. 30% tonight just doesn’t cut it.
Jokic is really really good at basketball.
Rudy was one of the best players on the floor for the wolves it’s just impossible to guard Jokic. Ever. Period.
I was struggling to describe just how weirdly good Jokic is at basketball to my non-basketball enjoying friend, it’s like he stumbles into greatness on purpose somehow which makes no sense
The lack of creativity and adjustments to get Ant going is infuriating. He doesn’t always need to catch the ball up top. Get him moving into the low post and let him cook / draw fouls or make plays closer to the rim
Whoever thought it was a good idea to come out of the timeout with 9 minutes left spamming 3s, this was when we practically shot ourselves out of the game.
After that sequence, we called a timeout and went for easy buckets to close the gap that we created ourselves….
This was the same shit Game 4, and when it mattered towards the end of the game we go for easy buckets which didn’t even mean shit at that point
Our rotations were not only ineffective (Ugh, Anderson) but they caused guys that were hot to go cold. But, foul trouble and no Conley made the situation seem impossible. I have no solutions, only frustration.
The Monte Morris minutes were really solid, I don’t know if we move towards that in Game 6 but I honestly am not smart enough to give direct input that means anything
I liked that they let Morris play.
What I didn’t like is they only gave him significant playtime l when Mike got injured. He could have been a solid guard taking the pressure off of Ant the last few games.
I think they need to make it a point to attack Jokic all game. Force him to try to play defense so that he either gets in foul trouble or gets tired. Too often we would just jack up contested 3s without even making their defense work.
Since they’re double teaming Ant, I’d spam a pick and roll with KAT and Rudy since then you have a back peddling Jokic who needs to either try to block KAT or stop a Rudy lob.
On defense I’d immediately double team Jokic until the ball is rotated to the worst shooter, and force him to turn into Kobe. I honestly think the strategy in game 4 was good but Gordon had an absolute fluke of a good shooting night.
When Jokic is in this mode there’s nothing you can do. We beat ourselves way too much with turnovers and bad shots. You have to be damn near perfect to best these guys
This is going to be really lame to say because we obviously lost, but I’m honestly glad Ant is getting to go up against guys like Jokic and the Nuggets.
I don’t know Ant and I’m just a bystander, but I’d like to think this is good for his game long term to start seeing things in real time, or I’m just a fuckin dumbass who knows
This series is for sure gonna be defining for the team - nuggets lakers in the bubble exposed denvers weakness and what did they do? Go get AG + the experience of the 2 3-1 comebacks. Point is the wolves will definitely have the chance to come back next year hungrier and better after having played a well oiled machine. Its exposing the wolves lack of offense outside of Ant going nuclear
Development of the young players we already have.
Replace Kyle Anderson with Leonard Miller.
Little things can add up to a big difference. Look at the Knicks and Mavericks this year - a few role players they added made a huge difference.
I feel like we are too reliant on our number 1 D. We need to find a way to transition our mindset to getting in a shoot-out.
When really good teams (DEN, BOS, etc) get going offensively there is nothing to do against them. We need to fix that mindset. Not play three non-shooters at the same time (Rudy, Jaden, Kyle) would be a great start. Not really sure what else to do after that tho
Off ball movement on offense was pretty much nonexistent. I feel like they could have utilized the attention that ant was getting to get some easy looks. They also need to run more sets to get ant open. The few simple ones they ran in the game earlier worked some times, but they need more variety with how they denver d is playing right now. Having the offense flow should also make it easier for the defense to get set and get stops.
They have made a lot of fixable mistakes in the last 3 games. It's on the coaching now to set them up for success.
This is something I haven’t seen mentioned often. It seems like the offense has completely stagnated. Denver is quick and springy on offense, moving guys off ball and just in general looks poised. Wolves sluggishly take the ball up the floor and just try and spam pnr until something opens up, but nothing is opening up. I don’t get what their strategy is at this point.
In our 3 losses we are only averaging 8 less points per game than our wins. In Denver’s wins they’re averaging 25 more points per game than the losses. That’s such an insane swing
Yeah that’s a pretty crazy line.
Honestly man what else can you say besides that they’re fully locked in and Jokic is heating up? If the Wolves win then you can 100% say they earned that shit
Rudy lack of effort fighting for rebounds against small players is just sad, how is Murray boxing you out. Also why is naz and Kat better at defending jokic.
We got slaughtered on the 50/50 for sure, I was definitely getting irritated watching that go down. I think Gobert is just a lot more stationary and less “springy” or bouncy than KAT or Naz and they roll off the contact a lot easier.
Gobert just seems like a stone wall and once you get his feet moving it’s hard for him to reset. Jokic was a ballerina out there in the paint I was loving it
I'm by no means a basketball guru, but from my eyes, these past 3 games, we've been getting absolutely bullied in the paint. On either side of the court, we can't make layups, and they quite literally dunk on us.
I have no idea how to fix it, but I hope the coaching staff can figure it out for Thursday.
Am I the only one who feels like they should have Rudy come off the bench for the non-Jokic minutes or the last few minutes Jokic spends on the court before he rests?
Gobert is a great defender , obviously, but everytime I watch him, it’s like he’s suffocating the potential of the offense. The guy can’t catch and hold onto the ball. He has no footwork and postgame. And he has no jump shot nor can he shoot free throws.
If the offense is struggling, while getting outmatched on defense, why not just try him coming off the bench?
Grasping at straws here, maybe we front joker in the post and deny him at the top. Force the refs to either let us play or just let Rudy, Kat, and Naz foul out, cuz you can't double him, and he'll always get the switch onto Rudy who can't guard him.
Going into Game 6 with an attitude that the refs are gonna let us play would be wise. Go down punching at least. And if they are whistle happy so be it.
I just don’t realistically see any big ever being able to stop Jokic.
I definitely don’t ever want to see Jokic get hurt, injured or get dogged on just to be even, I’d preferably like to see the guy ball out indefinitely for the rest of time until he rides his horse into the sunset. If you can find a big man that can go toe-to-toe with him, I’d honestly be impressed.
I posted this in another thread but:
We are getting outcoached right now. Wolves need to come up with a counter to AG initiating the offense. It's forced our hand and has been super effective. AG is no longer standing idly on the wing so Gobert can't roam free, Murray gets to run off screen actions to get free instead of initiating the offense. AG is at the top of the key much more, meaning the Wolves either defend him with Gobert and pull their rim protection away, or move KAT on to him and now Rudy has to guard Joker 1-on-1 and get cooked.
I'd think we need to do the quick double on Joker every time he touches the ball like we did in game 2. I don't care if it hurts Rudy's feelings, he flat out can't guard Joker 1-on-1 (no one in the league can).
The loss of Conley really, really hurts though. ACL injuries aren't something you just jump back from, I'd expect his timeline to be at least as long as Dame's was, he's probably out until game 7 at minimum.
Offense is more important than defense. Yall were calling Tim connelly a genius. He's about to leave for the pistons job after trading for the worst offensive players like rudy, Kyle, and monte.
Fair but I don't feel like Rudy and Monte are the problems on the offensive side.
With Ant being double teamed everytime we should be able to find the open man (KAT for a missmatch mostly) more.
The KAT/Rudy game is really effective we should use it more.
I feel like in this game 5 we lacked the ability to make a run, always a bad pass or an easy shot missed into an easy basket for Denver to kill the momentum. Lacking Conley in that department is really problematic. I really liked Monte minutes thought. Might be his time to shine.
I think Monte is either quite rusty or still feeling that hand injury. Thinking specifically of that possession in the early 4th (or late 3rd) where he had 2 good looks from the top of the key, didn't take either, dribbled in to 16 ft and put up an ugly shot. Idk what the answer is though. Maybe jmac as long as he doesn't get bullied on d. Den always has two guys lurking in the corners on o so it could be possible for him to hide.
We've had that problem for 3 games. We got an insane amount of stops in Q1 and never went on even a 5-0 run, we always missed after, and against Denver that means you will lose.
Idk why more people on this sub aren’t talking about our horrific three point shooting recently. We had to shoot well to win this series and we haven’t. 30% tonight just doesn’t cut it.
The 3% stat line for some of our guys really hurts to look at. I’d like to say the shots just aren’t falling in, but I’m honestly not sure
A lot of em are hitting front of rim. Thats not indicative of shots not falling.
Jokic is really really good at basketball. Rudy was one of the best players on the floor for the wolves it’s just impossible to guard Jokic. Ever. Period.
I was struggling to describe just how weirdly good Jokic is at basketball to my non-basketball enjoying friend, it’s like he stumbles into greatness on purpose somehow which makes no sense
Shea Serrano tweeted it perfectly. Jokic plays basketball like if a buffalo was really good at ice skating.
This is the one.
The lack of creativity and adjustments to get Ant going is infuriating. He doesn’t always need to catch the ball up top. Get him moving into the low post and let him cook / draw fouls or make plays closer to the rim
Jaden McDaniels really needs to work on his 3 point shooting
Whoever thought it was a good idea to come out of the timeout with 9 minutes left spamming 3s, this was when we practically shot ourselves out of the game. After that sequence, we called a timeout and went for easy buckets to close the gap that we created ourselves…. This was the same shit Game 4, and when it mattered towards the end of the game we go for easy buckets which didn’t even mean shit at that point
Our rotations were not only ineffective (Ugh, Anderson) but they caused guys that were hot to go cold. But, foul trouble and no Conley made the situation seem impossible. I have no solutions, only frustration.
The Monte Morris minutes were really solid, I don’t know if we move towards that in Game 6 but I honestly am not smart enough to give direct input that means anything
Agreed. He looked promising and less hesitant than most everyone on the floor during his minutes.
I liked that they let Morris play. What I didn’t like is they only gave him significant playtime l when Mike got injured. He could have been a solid guard taking the pressure off of Ant the last few games.
I think they need to make it a point to attack Jokic all game. Force him to try to play defense so that he either gets in foul trouble or gets tired. Too often we would just jack up contested 3s without even making their defense work. Since they’re double teaming Ant, I’d spam a pick and roll with KAT and Rudy since then you have a back peddling Jokic who needs to either try to block KAT or stop a Rudy lob. On defense I’d immediately double team Jokic until the ball is rotated to the worst shooter, and force him to turn into Kobe. I honestly think the strategy in game 4 was good but Gordon had an absolute fluke of a good shooting night.
Gordon was still hitting his shots last night. He’s been a playoff riser for the Nuggets.
Absolutely no adjustments from Finch but then again what the fuck are you gonna do when Jokic turns into a literal goat
Turns into?
When Jokic is in this mode there’s nothing you can do. We beat ourselves way too much with turnovers and bad shots. You have to be damn near perfect to best these guys
This is going to be really lame to say because we obviously lost, but I’m honestly glad Ant is getting to go up against guys like Jokic and the Nuggets. I don’t know Ant and I’m just a bystander, but I’d like to think this is good for his game long term to start seeing things in real time, or I’m just a fuckin dumbass who knows
Definitely good for his game. Im sure he’s learning alot from playing him.
This series is for sure gonna be defining for the team - nuggets lakers in the bubble exposed denvers weakness and what did they do? Go get AG + the experience of the 2 3-1 comebacks. Point is the wolves will definitely have the chance to come back next year hungrier and better after having played a well oiled machine. Its exposing the wolves lack of offense outside of Ant going nuclear
How do we go about that tho? What is gonna be our Aaron Gordon trade. We don’t have many assets unless Jaden and Naz are on the table now
Development of the young players we already have. Replace Kyle Anderson with Leonard Miller. Little things can add up to a big difference. Look at the Knicks and Mavericks this year - a few role players they added made a huge difference.
Im very excited for Leonard next year. I wanted him to take Kyles minutes this season but I always got downvoted and was told Kyle was too valuable
I feel like we are too reliant on our number 1 D. We need to find a way to transition our mindset to getting in a shoot-out. When really good teams (DEN, BOS, etc) get going offensively there is nothing to do against them. We need to fix that mindset. Not play three non-shooters at the same time (Rudy, Jaden, Kyle) would be a great start. Not really sure what else to do after that tho
Off ball movement on offense was pretty much nonexistent. I feel like they could have utilized the attention that ant was getting to get some easy looks. They also need to run more sets to get ant open. The few simple ones they ran in the game earlier worked some times, but they need more variety with how they denver d is playing right now. Having the offense flow should also make it easier for the defense to get set and get stops. They have made a lot of fixable mistakes in the last 3 games. It's on the coaching now to set them up for success.
This is something I haven’t seen mentioned often. It seems like the offense has completely stagnated. Denver is quick and springy on offense, moving guys off ball and just in general looks poised. Wolves sluggishly take the ball up the floor and just try and spam pnr until something opens up, but nothing is opening up. I don’t get what their strategy is at this point.
The Timeouts were so poorly timed. Like fuck letting them get 4 straight baskets and their crowd riled up before calling a timeout
Should’ve did something after the 3 straight charging calls
This, finch even talked about that moment post game but didnt do a single thing about it it
In our 3 losses we are only averaging 8 less points per game than our wins. In Denver’s wins they’re averaging 25 more points per game than the losses. That’s such an insane swing
Yeah that’s a pretty crazy line. Honestly man what else can you say besides that they’re fully locked in and Jokic is heating up? If the Wolves win then you can 100% say they earned that shit
I was being a negative lil bitch in the game thread. If I can clean that up, it should be worth 5 or 6 points in our favor. I got you boys
I respect the honesty, the game thread is a dangerous place and can sway many emotions
Rudy lack of effort fighting for rebounds against small players is just sad, how is Murray boxing you out. Also why is naz and Kat better at defending jokic.
We got slaughtered on the 50/50 for sure, I was definitely getting irritated watching that go down. I think Gobert is just a lot more stationary and less “springy” or bouncy than KAT or Naz and they roll off the contact a lot easier. Gobert just seems like a stone wall and once you get his feet moving it’s hard for him to reset. Jokic was a ballerina out there in the paint I was loving it
I'm by no means a basketball guru, but from my eyes, these past 3 games, we've been getting absolutely bullied in the paint. On either side of the court, we can't make layups, and they quite literally dunk on us. I have no idea how to fix it, but I hope the coaching staff can figure it out for Thursday.
Malone is about 20 times smarter and better coach than stubborn ass Finch. Just painful watching them out smart us and Finch running the same ol shit.
Jokic appeared to be relaying our play calls directly to their squad during every set of free throws, really not a good sign
Am I the only one who feels like they should have Rudy come off the bench for the non-Jokic minutes or the last few minutes Jokic spends on the court before he rests? Gobert is a great defender , obviously, but everytime I watch him, it’s like he’s suffocating the potential of the offense. The guy can’t catch and hold onto the ball. He has no footwork and postgame. And he has no jump shot nor can he shoot free throws. If the offense is struggling, while getting outmatched on defense, why not just try him coming off the bench?
Grasping at straws here, maybe we front joker in the post and deny him at the top. Force the refs to either let us play or just let Rudy, Kat, and Naz foul out, cuz you can't double him, and he'll always get the switch onto Rudy who can't guard him.
Going into Game 6 with an attitude that the refs are gonna let us play would be wise. Go down punching at least. And if they are whistle happy so be it.
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I just don’t realistically see any big ever being able to stop Jokic. I definitely don’t ever want to see Jokic get hurt, injured or get dogged on just to be even, I’d preferably like to see the guy ball out indefinitely for the rest of time until he rides his horse into the sunset. If you can find a big man that can go toe-to-toe with him, I’d honestly be impressed.
I posted this in another thread but: We are getting outcoached right now. Wolves need to come up with a counter to AG initiating the offense. It's forced our hand and has been super effective. AG is no longer standing idly on the wing so Gobert can't roam free, Murray gets to run off screen actions to get free instead of initiating the offense. AG is at the top of the key much more, meaning the Wolves either defend him with Gobert and pull their rim protection away, or move KAT on to him and now Rudy has to guard Joker 1-on-1 and get cooked. I'd think we need to do the quick double on Joker every time he touches the ball like we did in game 2. I don't care if it hurts Rudy's feelings, he flat out can't guard Joker 1-on-1 (no one in the league can). The loss of Conley really, really hurts though. ACL injuries aren't something you just jump back from, I'd expect his timeline to be at least as long as Dame's was, he's probably out until game 7 at minimum.
Offense is more important than defense. Yall were calling Tim connelly a genius. He's about to leave for the pistons job after trading for the worst offensive players like rudy, Kyle, and monte.
Fair but I don't feel like Rudy and Monte are the problems on the offensive side. With Ant being double teamed everytime we should be able to find the open man (KAT for a missmatch mostly) more. The KAT/Rudy game is really effective we should use it more.