( ( ( ( ( nba bubble ball 2020 ) ) ) ) )

nuggs also have the most significant home court advantage thats erased by the bubble

i guess the jazz are the one team that doesnt matter as much against though

yeah it's funny, these are the two altitude teams so it's a wash in the bubble

nuggets played as clean a first half as you could and the game was basically even, not great for them

jamaal murray is basically a kobe era player who understands he needs to take a certain number of threes... but at heart he wants to shoot step back midrange fadeaways. when the shots go in it does look nice tho

The nuggets had the best defense in the nba the first 6 weeks of the season

that was a long time ago

what’s the fix for denver on that end going forward... it doesn’t seem like any substantial changes are coming to the roster. murray and jokic prob project as average defenders at best... porter could maybe be legit on that end but that feels a few years away.

an insane trade was the heat getting crowder and igoudala (and dumping waiters) for the price of a player whose absence is fully unnoticeable

Just jam good defenders around those three guys, it works for Houston xp

need a hot hand update from matt

porter is so bad right now i struggle to see how he ever does more than scrape average on defense

scraping average being a high end projection

i think he’ll be a good help defender bcuz of his size... he’ll be able to contest. aside from his lack of reps i wonder about how much he’ll be able to/want to bang on defense given the state of his back

murray!

millsap with the clutch swipe block

fuck, mitchell

rip nuggs

paul millsap not the donovan mitchell stopper

donovan is...fuckin good man

Nuggets probably deserved to lose after Millsap did that swipe block (coaches tell you not to do that)

sort of exemplifies their desperation to stop mitchell

i don’t get why their defense is so bad. i need a detailed tape breakdown or something. they don’t have any A+ defenders but it shouldn’t be this way

they dont have a lot of defensive talent and they lost some of what they did have + prob the curse of the bubble

this utah-based writer says that they can't contain on the perimeter at all so utah is getting easy drives which are forcing help and leaving guys open (couple of clips included) https://www.sltrib.com/sports/jazz/2020/08/21/triple-team-nuggets-are/

Gary Harris would’ve guarded Donovan presumably? And Barton isn’t a plus defender but his absence still thins their wing rotation significantly

Barton was a plus defender this year. Like I said last game, murray and Millsap are just getting totally blown by and guys like grant and porter are being switched onto small guards. Then Jokic has to help like 10 times in a row and he gets sick of it.

Been thinking a lot about how it’s almost impossible to stop penetration these days but occasionally you can guess right and bottle someone up and get a deflection or steal. Those plays have very high yield, and Murray and the ghost of Millsap just don’t get them. Barton and Harris do. Harris does it as much as anyone in the league.

Like it’s easy to forget because the rest of his game has fallen apart, but Harris really is a top 5 defender at sg.

"We came in and we talked about 'smash mouth' and 'bully ball.' We're built for the playoffs. We're big. Really all those kinds of phrases equaled, 'Man, we have a huge team,'" Brown said. "We have a big team. And the thing that I found the most challenging as the season played out, space became an enormous issue."

what a completely shocking quote to read in 2020. if i was a sixers fan i would be nauseated

Watching my team get swept hurt, and I don’t ever want to feel that way again.

— Ben Simmons (@BenSimmons25) August 24, 2020

A lot of nuggets fans are panicking but it’s not the worst thing in the world rn. It’s clear that mpj has superstar potential, we all knew Millsap had an expiration date. Considering how badly defense is needed the Beasley trade makes more sense too. They’ve got a big 3 now that they can build around.

Really wish we had Dort

Again it was the best defense in the nba the first six months. In fact, the nuggets’ problems this season were mainly the offense, which even in this series has issues

*weeks

FROM ELIAS: Paul George is the first player to shoot under 25% in 3 straight playoff games since Bob Cousy in 1960 (min. 10 FGA each game). pic.twitter.com/unYBKetLOZ

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 24, 2020

walking in the footprints of the greats

Marcus Morris is a free agent... would make sense for the nuggets.

James Johnson would be interesting too if he’s taking his meds or whatever

they do need some players like that

for sure

would be nice if the Magic could miss a 3

ok these are the Bucks I remember

Pour one out for Brett brown, 7 years of being a nice guy

now get rid of the players

God I love Dort so much

Harden took like 4 step back 30 footers for no reason during that thunder run

lou dort pic.twitter.com/LDnqT9tawa

— br◎seph (@on3ness) March 10, 2020

nerlens noel is gonna kill someone he just takes off with no concern for who might be in the spot he is going to land

would you rather have dennis schroeder or eric bledsoe?