My 'waste of time none of this really makes any difference' adjustments:
1) Do not play a single minute without either DDR or White on the floor.
Someone is going to have to play over 38 minutes. Its the playoffs, deal with it. (If foul trouble happens, then at least LMA has to be on the floor if not White or DDR)
2) Shorten the rotation
STARTERS: White/Forbes/DDR/LMA/Poeltl
BENCH: Gay/Bertans/Marco (no more Mills). I would be okay with playing Lonnie Walker over Mills. or even Cunningham over Marco.
3) Stop the bleeding sooner please.
If a lineup isn't working and is giving the nuggets momentum, Pop needs to stop it in its tracks and readjust immediately before its too late. We've seen it happen twice already and its so aggravating because those players continue to see minutes at the same time. The same exact lineups that give up leads continues to hit the floor. So dumb! I just can't understand how Pop can be so wonderful in some aspects and then be so awful in other parts. I guess no one is perfect?
4) Don't be scared to shoot more 3's.
The most the Spurs have shot in a game all series is 18 attempts. The least the Nuggets have shot in a game all series is 24 attempts. I'm not saying we need go ballistic from 3's. But if in the game, Forbes or Bertans start feeling it from outside, they need to ride with it. Forbes has been great for the most part and would not mind seeing him get a lot more attempts. But unforced shorts, like off the pass type shots. Not the bring it up the court, dribble a few times and then shoot types shots. Those are not allowed.
2 out of the big three (DeRozan, LMA and White) should always be on the court. It’s not that hard to stagger their minutes and this playing 32min or less is rediculous, this is the playoffs. in Portland’s backcourt played 41 and 42 min, no reason why ours can’t play in the high 30’s
the most minutes white has played in these 4 games has been 33. thats inexcusable, and leads to unnecessary minutes for mills. pop needs to be quicker to pull marco.
bertans has to be more aggressive with his shot instead of always looking to drive. your value comes from your shooting and hustle on D.
Marco is worse than mills of that's possible
Marco is the best representation of watching a sloth play basketball, and should not see another minute on the court.
Bench marco and gay and give their minutes to danatas. Pretty simple actually
Denver's adjustment was replacing Beasley with Craig (18 points, 5-7 from three) in Game 4.
Any adjustment from Pop to that adjustment?
I rather have Patty out there than Marco. Patty at least looks like he’s trying and giving an effort out there. Both still suck at defense
I only see #4 happening, in all likelihood because the team is down by a lot of points and needs to mount a comeback. #1-#3 won’t happen until an elimation game because Pop is too arrogant
Ya don't let Torri Craig go off. Some were facials but show the man some respect, get a hand in his face and force the the pass out or drive.
My move would be to obviously play DeRozan/White more minutes; at a minimum DeRozan (assuming no foul trouble) plays 38-40. I do think keeping one of them on the floor (White/DeRozan) is the best idea, but it worked ok last game as timvp said so Pop might do that again. Just have a quick hook and get one of White/DeRozan in quick if it starts going south.
The bigger adjustment to me? Bench Beli and give Bertans his minutes at that position. Bertans is a better shooter and while Bertans struggles to guard Millsap, he is a much better defender than Beli and I think he would have moresuccess than Beli would guarding a smaller player.
So see if that gets the better shooter open more and see if it helps the defense too.
Also, get LMA in more pick and roll situations. He seems to be popping more after screening and if he can get Jokic on the perimeter and get going to the basket more, I don’t think Jokic can keep up.
If above would only cooperate.
Win
whatever you clowns recommend.
pop will do the opposite, its either win his way or the highway...
Unfortunately exactly this
What if White and DeRozan have an awful game? We still need to play them 40+ minutes?
OP is on point. Unfortunately Pop will do what he's been doing this series
stop playing belinelli. funny how it's the same adjustment that needs to happen every year, except when he was gone.
We need White to take a cue from an alpha like Tony and tell Pop he’s staying in the game so we can win another championship.
Saw the le and braced for some ridiculous suggestions. But the OP made some pretty solid suggestions. I hope Pop is getting advice that good from his assistants.
The problem is, a lot of the best advice is along the lines of "Don't Suck". It's the playoffs, and the whole season is one game long now. Play like it. The whole game could hinge on a few blown possessions.
Box out, dammit. Limit Denver's second chance points. Especially on the defensive end. When the Nuggets put a shot in the air, get a body on somebody - especially Jokic and Plumlee. You don't always have to get the rebound - if you box out, your teammates can get a few. Don't suck.
Beasley and Craig are a combined 18-29 from the 3P line. That's a 62.9% percentage, and every make counts for 3 points. That's more points per attempt than any other weapon the Nuggets put on the floor. Maybe consider... I don't know... running them off the 3P line occasionally? Don't suck.
Mason Plumlee is a foul machine. Be aggressive about going after him from the moment he steps on the floor, and force him to foul so that Malone has to play Jokic more minutes than he wants. Tire his fat ass out for the fourth quarter. Don't suck.
Jokic is leading the team in assists, but on a per-minute basis Monte Morris is right there with him. Force Morris to be a shooter more often by playing better off the ball defense. Don't suck.
Treat every inbound play like it's the last 20 seconds and you're down by 1 point. Don't inbound into the damn coffin corner. Don't throw the ball in after a Denver score until you've accounted for all five Nugget players. Don't make those soft throw-in passes, like it's a free play. Don't suck.
Yes. You go with your best players, and hope they don't suck.
Whole regular season our best players were outplayed by other teams best players but we still won games with our depth.
We can’t win with our bench struggling like that. We need to get it going. We are in the playoffs largely because of our 3pt lineup of Mills-Belli-Bertans-Poeltl + one of DDR/Gay/White.
We can’t completely throw that away and expect the notorious playoffs choker DDR and effectively rookie Derrick White win us games with their 2pt magic playing 40+ minutes.
In 2019 to compete a team needs 3pters. We have them on our bench.
Game 5 adjustments: Bring back the game 5 god Manu Ginobili just for this game. Only adjustment that might actually work tbh.
I defended Gay, based on how he played this season. But he has been terrible in the playoffs. Beyond terrible.
Bertans couldn't hit water if he fell out of a ing boat. You can't bank on this being the game his slump ends.
Maybe Belli is still injured, I don't know, but he's been unbelievably bad.
I know who I'd like those three guys to be, but that's not who they've been in the playoffs.
Poeltl has his hands full defending Jokic. He's doing a very good job, but he'll get in foul trouble if he plays much more.
That doesn't leave a whole lot of options, other than taking a shot with LWIV and/or D-Mo. Pop isn't likely to do that in Game 5 of a playoff series. So it's pretty much got to be White and DDR playing long minutes. And maybe not keeping that Aldridge guy on the bench quite as long. If fat-ass Jokic can play 39 minutes, surely Aldridge can play more than 29?
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