PG Nuggets: Former Champs Whip Current Champs

[JimmyTheKid]

Up to 17th in DRTG. 7th since Doc took over and 6th since we moved on from AG.

[-Jragon-]

PatBev is absolutely gonna be the devil on Bobby's shoulder whereas Khris, in the past, was the angel on it lol

Thanks for the inspiration.

this is awesome, nice work

[-Jragon-]

Gotta fire this one off before larger sample size + regression kills it for me lol.

Dame/Giannis/Brook have a +31.3 net rating since Griffin got fired. That #1 in the league out of 284 total 3-man lineups with 100+ minutes in that span.

Bucks are also 6th in the league in DRTG post Griffin firing. Doc/Joerger may have transformed this team.

Throw Beasley in there and they are at +31.8.

Throw in a 5-man lineup of Lopez, Giannis, Crowder, Dame, and Beasley minimum 50 mins and they are a +58.2.
Next closest is Curry, Green, Podziemski, Kuminga, and Wiggins at +37.5.

Wow!

[Ron Swanson]

I'm sorry but I'm not gonna get carried away with 50-minute sample sizes lol. Pretty much every 3-man lineup with any combination of the 5-starters is a +10 or more net-rating on the season and that's all that matters. Pat Bev being the ultimate glue-guy and almost single-handedly making the bench lineups no longer a liability (+21.4 on/off lol) is the main takeaway these last 4-days.

[Eeavers57]

The combined Dawg-ness of Pat Bev and Bobby might collapse into a neutron star and destroy the world.

I know I'm late here, but I had this thought after the game. Imaging a starting 5 of Bev/Smart/Thanasis/Draymond/Bobby. Call it the Spaz 5.

[paulpressey25]

Made this comment in the game thread the other night, but if any of you can watch the halftime interview with Dave Joerger from the Hornets game, it is a good watch.

Since Jenkins and Darvin left, our assistant coaching ranks have been filled with young guys, who I'm not sure have the experience or gravitas. So you're left watching those interviews, thinking "this guy looks like a young dad coaching his 8 year old in CYO league. And somehow he's coaching Bobby on what to do out there?"

Meanwhile, Joerger has presence like a badass, and proceeds to reel off a bunch of authoritative and substantive comments.

What an upgrade.

[Ron Swanson]

Read on Twitter

Dude drove down to Chicago at 1AM just to get some extra FT practice in. Absolute basketball psychopath.

[aboveAverage]

AJ Green breaking out, Pat Bev bringing the PJ energy, and Doc improving our defense may just be enough to win it all this season. Assuming we stay healthy and Khris gets back to somewhat decent form on defense. We just need him to be able to stay in front of guys some of the time and hit big mid range shots.

[-Jragon-]

I think we're about to go on a run. I'll be a good boy; I won't post 8-1, 9-1, etc after each win.

Is this team more likely to win a title with Khris Middleton or Jae Crowder playing more minutes?

When you look at Jae Crowder, Pat Bev, even AJG you can see how the WAY they play defense, hustle, run hard, get the ball to the hot hand, take the most efficient shots in basketball and follow the coaches plays and what the PG calls --- it's infectious and you can see it immediately that it brings out those qualities in your teammates as well now Brook, Bobby and Malik are bending their knees and hustling more so that makes the TEAM better even if those players aren't nearly as talented as the top 3 players on the team. I think it's a version of the pygmalian effect. This is the culture, brand of basketball and the plays we should want to see and it's not all about just talent.

[HKPackFan]

The effort and cohesion is just clearly much better. This win feels more "real" than the Boston one. This game made me more optimistic than any this season. And it's not not because we played out of our minds perfectly, it just is a more coherent brand of basketball that feels sustainable.

It just shows how little the guys believed in what Griffin was selling. Doc is not some schematic maestro but he is a real life adult professional coach that is capable of getting guys of believing in what he's asking them to do. There's no doubt that pure effort and energy are a factor here.

As awful as I think AG was as an Xs and Os coach, I do wonder how big of a chunk of those schemes being disasters was his inability to get his troops to follow him versus the scheme itself being a dumpster fire. Tonight was a great example, we are capable of blitzing and applying pressure and making it work but the back end seems more organized. It's hard for me to gauge how much of the defensive improvement is pure energy due to believing in the directives and how much of it is the directives themselves being... better.

Either way, we will still have ups and downs but bottom line is we look like a basketball team. What we're attempting to appears coherent and with purpose.

Bonus props for Doc for quickly deciding to get Green on the floor. I wonder if he saw something from afar because there has not been a lot of practice. I am hoping that AJJ and Marjon are getting brought up to speed behind the scenes and eventually get there shots as well.

I think grief was so bad the players just started doing their own thing. Giannis calling plays, calling his own number thinking he'll do what got him Ws in the past. Each player has their own style of basketball and they have all had some level of success in their own way of doing things. So you had 5 guys playing individual bball because they had a **** scheme and no faith in it, so they went back to what they know worked for them as individuals.

That's why giannis and Dame never looked like a fit, why Bobby was out there doing his own thing. And why the only coherent team ball was khris and Giannis working together.

Finally there's a coach having them believe in a system and working as a team. It's night and day and it's not even a finished product yet.

[drdrG]

Pat is looking great lately, his passing ability is really important. The number of ways Griffin ****** this team up is astounding.

I was really impressed with Pat's passing last night. I've been down bad on Pat all season but he's been much better since Doc took over. I forget that for role players, they can look really bad when they don't have a clear role. Doc addition recovering Pat, Jae and others on the bench is huge.

I though PatBev also created some good looks.

[Ron Swanson]

5th best defense and 10th best net-rating since Griff was punted into the Sun (yes, I'm going to keep doing this until the NBA.com filters max out at "last-15 games"). You can blame Horst for hiring him in the first place, but I maintain that not many GM's would have the balls to pull the plug as early as we did. Season-saving move.

[LUKE23]

By far the best halfcourt D we have played all season, just based on the eye test. The key is sustaining it. It seems like they trapped hard and at just the right time consistently last night. Teams will get the tape on that and move the ball quicker, but it was great to see an aggressive defense that actually worked.

[-Jragon-]

Pat is looking great lately, his passing ability is really important. The number of ways Griffin ****** this team up is astounding.

I was really impressed with Pat's passing last night. I've been down bad on Pat all season but he's been much better since Doc took over. I forget that for role players, they can look really bad when they don't have a clear role. Doc addition recovering Pat, Jae and others on the bench is huge.

I though PatBev also created some good looks.

His handle looks better too.. more stable, head up and more awareness.. someone must have told him he could get some of Cam's minutes (when he was here) if he started working on more PG stuff this year.

[-Jragon-]

By far the best halfcourt D we have played all season, just based on the eye test. The key is sustaining it. It seems like they trapped hard and at just the right time consistently last night. Teams will get the tape on that and move the ball quicker, but it was great to see an aggressive defense that actually worked.

Yeah... Bobby still flying up for that steal seems to backfire each time though.. IDK why we kept that..

[Brewhoopfan]

[Ron Swanson]

These last 2-games are also probably the best I've seen any team consistently defend Jokic this year. We've held him to 50% TS and forced 8 turnovers. Another revelation is that Bobby might actually be playable in a potential Finals matchup vs. these guys, so long as Murray can't relentlessly hunt him on switches. Great news.

[ShootingtheJ]

These last 2-games are also probably the best I've seen any team consistently defend Jokic this year. We've held him to 50% TS and forced 8 turnovers. Another revelation is that Bobby might actually be playable in a potential Finals matchup vs. these guys, so long as Murray can't relentlessly hunt him on switches. Great news.

It was also great to see Bobby attacking Jokic of the dribble, once ending in a dramatic dunk. Making Jokic work on D exhausts his offense.

[Profound23]

By far the best halfcourt D we have played all season, just based on the eye test. The key is sustaining it. It seems like they trapped hard and at just the right time consistently last night. Teams will get the tape on that and move the ball quicker, but it was great to see an aggressive defense that actually worked.

Yeah... Bobby still flying up for that steal seems to backfire each time though.. IDK why we kept that..

To be fair, Doc said after the game that he has tried to make players stop gambling so much on defense and to continue defensive integrity. He went as far as to say "They still gambled a couple of times today, even when it works I tell them you can't do that come playoff time."

[German Athens]

I’m fine if people have Jokic as the MVP favorite, his advanced stats are in the top grouping, and he’s getting the widely considered best player in the world bump.

What I’m not fine with is when Giannis was widely considered the best player in the world, had arguably his best season to date, and carried a team without Brook all season, he finished 3rd in MVP voting. He didn’t get a best player in the world bump at all.

The year prior, Curry got third ahead of Giannis, and the warriors bowed out in the play-in.

I’d also probably be a little irked if Jokic won this year, because I think Giannis has been better, but I’d get it. 2022 will never make sense to me.


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