winforlose wrote:Listening to Dane Moore and a weird idea struck me. I have not really thought this thru at all, so it might be really dumb. I mean this idea just popped into my head like less than a minute ago. I just wanted to talk it through with people. What if Ant was matched up with Gordon, and floated. Karl on MPJ, Rudy on Joker, Mike on KCP, and Jaden on Murray. Now Ant can double Murray whenever he catches the ball, can help on MPJ whenever Karl is screened, and can help on Joker whenever he catches in the high post. Again, I have not really thought this through. It is a top of my head crazy thought, I just wanted to hear other people talk about it (sounding board.)
Here are my first-thoughts with that strategy (no hate, just have concerns):
With how quick Michael Porter Jr. is getting around screens, and the amount of off-ball action that is drawn up for him, I think that Karl-Anthony Towns would get cooked. Towns is at his best in single-coverage, having him chase MPJ around seems like a waste of his skillsets and energy (plus, I think MPJ would score a ton). To mitigate Michael Porter Jr., you need to be able to be physical and navigate off-ball screen action effectively.
I also think that would be a HUGE misuse of Rudy Gobert's strengths. Having him as a roamer allows for him to over-commit to jam up ball-screen action and roam; we have seen that he isn't particularly effective at limiting Nikola Jokić one-on-one. Also substantially increases the risk of foul trouble for Rudy Gobert.
Finally, Aaron Gordon's size mismatch against Anthony Edwards would be incredibly problematic on-the-glass and when Gordon sets curl screens. I think that would end up leading to a ton of Aaron Gordon dunks.
Minnesota is far better off keeping Rudy Gobert as a roamer to mitigate MPJ's ability to cut baseline and Jamal Murray's ability to easily snake into the paint. Doubling against the Denver Nuggets feels like a disaster waiting to happen, given how deadly their three-point shooting threats are. I prefer sticking to a more single-coverage strategy, where Karl-Anthony Towns is used as the sacrificial lamb against the other team's best player (he actually does an incredible job statistically, in this role).
Reposting this stat to support why keeping Karl-Anthony Towns in single-coverage is valuable. Towns is able to do a really respectable job against his match-up and is mobile enough to contain guards on switches. Against a passer of Nikola Jokić's caliber, it is immensely important to play him straight up and deny open threes.
