Last years Nuggets a fluke or have the Wolves gotten that much better?

[Ducklett]

There are two big differences from last year and this year:
1) Jokic won a ring and doesn't appear to even care about playing basketball
2) Ant Edwards went from a guy to THEE guy

[BDM22]

Minnesota just peaking at the right moment and they're pretty much created in a lab to match up with the Nugs.

I'm sure there's a little championship hangover and injury issues hurting Denver also. They shouldn't be getting run off the floor.

[GopherIt!]

defensive recap of the game (great insight)

Spoiler:

[svart]

Why does everything have to be a fluke, fraudulent, exposed etc?

Man NBA discourse is cooked.

No two seasons are the same. Teams don’t stay the same from year to year.

Because more people here enjoy seeing a team loss than one win, and when they do it must pe a fluke or an asterisk

let's see:

2015- asterisk - dubs meet only teams with injured players
2016 - asterisk - draymond's suspension was a joke
2017-2018 - asterisk - the snake broke the league
2019 - asterisk - kd and klay went down
2020 - 3 flukes and 11 asterisks - bubble
2021- fluke - injuries, best teams avoided and all that ****
2022 - fluke - again, injuries, bla-blah
2023 - fluke - see this thread

it's easy to do it, see?

y'all should try to enjoy watching basketball instead of hating and projecting.

my dubs are fishing in cancun for some time now, but i still find reasons to watch and enjoy these playoffs, for me it's luka, pacers, wolves. not rooting for others to loose, just enjoying good basketball.

you should try it sometimes, guys.

[queridiculo]

The Timberwolves took a gamble and unlocked a formula that's going to be tough matchup for just about anyone, even more so in the playoffs.

The Nuggets are just getting ground down by the next NBA champ, no shame in that.

[LordCovington33]

Wolves are healthy and better.

But they were also missing the DPOY tonight. The Nuggets have no real excuses.

[art_tatum]

Do the lakers re evaluate their position if the nuggets flame out?
Gentlemen swept by not the champs but a 2nd round flame out. Lakers actually further from contending than they think

[hippesthippo]

Timberwolves have been much better this season. KAT's injuries last year pretty clearly affected his fit with the rest of the team.

He's played fine enough on the defense end this season, putting in the effort to guard PF's and chase guys around the floor. He's no longer constantly running into Gobert on offense and is dominating mismatches inside with SF's trying to guard him at the PF spot.

The Nuggets just aren't the same team in the playoffs without a healthy Jamal Murray. When Murray isn't going, the Nuggets don't have anyone else to create shots. The Timberwolves defense has had zero issues containing him with multiple long defenders to throw at him.

As usual, it's more than just one thing. It's a bad matchup, the Timberwolves have improved a ton, and Murray playing like shite has exposed Malone a little bit. He doesn't have a backup plan. There was plenty of time in the RS to try out some different ideas, but MM remains as stubborn as ever and now his only adjustment is hoping Reggie Jackson magically turns into a consistent player.

[AIfan3]

The NBA is actually allowing defense to be played in the post season.

Ya'll don't want to hear it, but the NBA easily dictates who has the advantage by what they choose to call and allow on the defensive end.

[hippesthippo]

Why does everything have to be a fluke, fraudulent, exposed etc?

Man NBA discourse is cooked.

No two seasons are the same. Teams don’t stay the same from year to year.

Because more people here enjoy seeing a team loss than one win, and when they do it must pe a fluke or an asterisk

let's see:

2015- asterisk - dubs meet only teams with injured players
2016 - asterisk - draymond's suspension was a joke
2017-2018 - asterisk - the snake broke the league
2019 - asterisk - kd and klay went down
2020 - 3 flukes and 11 asterisks - bubble
2021- fluke - injuries, best teams avoided and all that ****
2022 - fluke - again, injuries, bla-blah
2023 - fluke - see this thread

it's easy to do it, see?

y'all should try to enjoy watching basketball instead of hating and projecting.

my dubs are fishing in cancun for some time now, but i still find reasons to watch and enjoy these playoffs, for me it's luka, pacers, wolves. not rooting for others to loose, just enjoying good basketball.

you should try it sometimes, guys.

You're forgetting the injuries in the East and the refs home-cooking guiding the Knicks to the Conference Finals.

It's still been a great post-season so far. The play-in was great. The Wolves have been a really fun story. The ORL/CLE series was a great watch. Indiana's plethora of mid-level dudes (Nemby, Nesmith, TJ, Jackson) running the floor is entertaining as hell. Kyrie's dribble-drives have always been fire when the off-court stuff isn't overshadowing his talent. Maxey breaking out. The young Thunder. I can go on.

Honestly, this might be one of the most entertaining post-seasons in recent memory.

Jalen Brunson looking like Toronto Kawhi has probably been the highlight for me so far. His mid-range turn-around drops every single time.

It's like defenders forget he's left-handed. They keep setting up to defend him going to the right and every time he rejects the screen and goes to his strong side and gets deep into the lane where he can use his strength to create space. Not only that, but I swear defenders are even closing out to his right-hand. I can't explain it.

[ChartFiction]

The highest win team they beat in their playoff run last year only had 45 wins, basically a .500 team. And the teams they beat also had injury issues.

They themselves have never been a .700 win team. Every team since like 2000 that's won has had >.700 win seasons. Whether you are talking about Bucks, Lakers, Warriors, Heat, Dallas, Raptors, Celtics, Pistons, Spurs. Maybe not the exact same year they won (didn't check), but every franchise was putting up >.700 win seasons around the time they won.

I don't think they have ever been particularly strong team that you can compare to strong teams of the past. They are one of the weaker championship teams.

[svart]

Why does everything have to be a fluke, fraudulent, exposed etc?

Man NBA discourse is cooked.

No two seasons are the same. Teams don’t stay the same from year to year.

Because more people here enjoy seeing a team loss than one win, and when they do it must pe a fluke or an asterisk

let's see:

2015- asterisk - dubs meet only teams with injured players
2016 - asterisk - draymond's suspension was a joke
2017-2018 - asterisk - the snake broke the league
2019 - asterisk - kd and klay went down
2020 - 3 flukes and 11 asterisks - bubble
2021- fluke - injuries, best teams avoided and all that ****
2022 - fluke - again, injuries, bla-blah
2023 - fluke - see this thread

it's easy to do it, see?

y'all should try to enjoy watching basketball instead of hating and projecting.

my dubs are fishing in cancun for some time now, but i still find reasons to watch and enjoy these playoffs, for me it's luka, pacers, wolves. not rooting for others to loose, just enjoying good basketball.

you should try it sometimes, guys.

You're forgetting the injuries in the East and the refs home-cooking guiding the Knicks to the Conference Finals.

It's still been a great post-season so far. The play-in was great. The Wolves have been a really fun story. The ORL/CLE series was a great watch. Indiana's plethora of mid-level dudes (Nemby, Nesmith, TJ, Jackson) running the floor is entertaining as hell. Kyrie's dribble-drives have always been fire when the off-court stuff isn't overshadowing his talent. Maxey breaking out. The young Thunder. I can go on.

Honestly, this might be one of the most entertaining post-seasons in recent memory.

Jalen Brunson looking like Toronto Kawhi has probably been the highlight for me so far. His mid-range turn-around drops every single time.

It's like defenders forget he's left-handed. They keep setting up to defend him going to the right and every time he rejects the screen and goes to his strong side and gets deep into the lane where he can use his strength to create space. Not only that, but I swear defenders are even closing out to his right-hand. I can't explain it.

Agree with all your points.

it has been some time since i watched almost all games in a first round.
ny-philly was also a great series, i cannot wait for dallas-okc as well

[wablty]

If you took the 12 best players in the series, 8 of them play for Minnesota.

[Godymas]

No fluke. They dusted essentially the same Minny team last year.

But Murray wasn't hurt and playing like trash then.

not the same Minny team

Jaden McDaniels had that hand injury at the end of the season, he didn't play, he's their most important defender outside of Rudy

Naz Reid was injured too

Both of these guys have always been difference makers for Minnesota, last year too.

[Homerclease]

Absolutely a fluke

[slicedbread2]

The Nuggets weren't a fluke. They did what they had to do last year and simply beat the opponents in front of them in order to win their 1st title which can never be taken away from them. Jokic had a GOAT playoff performance and Murray heated up. Sadly the CBA has had a major effect in the sense that due to the 1st and 2nd apron rules kicking in teams have to be more leery of managing their cap and making tough decisions on who to keep and who not to. This is what happened to them this year:

1) Bruce Brown. He was a cap casualty in the sense that the Nuggets could only offer him the taxpayer MLE and he managed to get 3 times that from the Pacers who essentially flipped him to Toronto for Pascal with 3 1sts. Dunno if Toronto will opt into his 23M team option, but hey can't blame the guy for getting the bag.

Denver flipped future 1sts to OKC to try and get young guys on cheap deals to eventually develop into solid role players to replace the departing vets who'll age out eventually.

2) Jeff Green. Listen I love his game and presence, but he's 37 and the Rockets gave him a 2/19M deal that Denver couldn't match despite having early bird rights due to the apron. They thought Nnaji and Cancar would be ready to take over, but it didn't happen due to the former not being able to make the most of his opportunity and Cancar getting injured before the year began.

3) Not getting a backup C. They needed a backup big badly in order to give Jokic some major rest during the regular season. Love Deandre Jordan and he's had a hell of a career considering where he was drafted, but he's cooked. Really hard.

4) Defending champs. Every team will bring their A game against them and the Nuggets looked out of sorts all year long outside the starting 5 not to mention they seemed very casual about things. Hopefully an extra year of development from the young guys can help not to mention getting some help but we'll see.

For Minnesota, they've gotten better for the following reasons:

1) The punch up. Gobert taking a swing at Kyle Anderson really killed the chemistry that was forming after the deadline last year. That really made things uncomfortable and honestly it was an experience that was needed to humble Rudy and keep him calm.

2) A healthy Reid and McDaniels. Jaden punching a wall and getting himself injured was stupid as hell. He finally stayed levelheaded and has been a defensive ace. If he can develop a consistent offensive game not to mention a better 3pt shot, he'll be more lethal as teams worry about KAT and Edwards. Naz has really stepped up his production and has turned into a great 6th man that can be counted on to make things better and spell relief for KAT/Rudy when needed.

3) The presence of Gobert. He's this generation's Dikembe Mutombo. Having him anchor the team defense is very comforting. It's amazing what he was able to do in Utah with Royce O'Neale being his 2nd best defender. Now you have a team that not only tries, but is far better equipped and will reward him on the offensive end when needed. He's a great communicator on defense and it allows the others to feel comfortable being aggressive on that end knowing that you have a walking human eraser in the back waiting to come out.

Sure TIm Connelly took a lot of flak for giving up the farm for Gobert, but it was made with one thing in mind: giving playoff experience to Edwards. If you look at what was given up, here's what they gave up:

-Pat Beverly
-Malik Beasley
-Jarred Vanderbilt
-Leandro Bolmaro
-Walker Kessler
-4 1sts(1 of them has turned into Keyonte George. Had an ok rookie year and shows potential)

Quite frankly they didn't give up that much. 3 out of the 4 are about to be out of the league if not already(Bolmaro). Vanderbilt hasn't developed an offensive game worth a damn and picks can either amount to something or most of the time nothing. Kessler is ok, but he's gonna need time to develop more before casting judgment. Honestly it was all about changing the culture of failure that permeated the T-Wolves and turning it into a winning one. Regardless of whether or not they win the title(I think they can do it this year, heck maybe even next year before decisions have to be made due to the cap and aprons) it was a worthwhile trade.

4) Mike Conley. D'lo was so bad he made Conley look like prime Magic Johnson. That's how bad Russell truly was. The dude was a walking liability who couldn't be counted on in Minnesota. He'll be remembered as the guy that cost the T-Wolves the opportunity to draft Trey Murphy III/Franz Wagner and gave up a high 2nd. The T-Wolves were able to snag Conley, NAW and 3 2nds.

Conley's presence is very calming as he's a great stabilizer that gets everybody on track. His chemistry with Gobert is very important as he knows how to get everyone involved not to mention being a highly respected vet that's in his 17th year in the league who's imparted some great knowledge to the young guys on what to do and not do on/off the court. He's basically a coach out there a la CP3 who keeps people on track. Little bonus: NAW went from being almost out of the league due to struggling in NOLA under 3 coaches to having his game be refined and becoming a solid rotation player that can eat up 20-25mins/gm.

5) The passing of the torch from KAT to Edwards. This doesn't get talked about enough. A lot of players in Towns spot would feel envious of having a younger player and superstar in the making passing them up, but KAT is smart enough to realize that Edwards is the Batman of the team not to mention leader. Embracing a lesser role that allows you to thrive is very important and Wolves fans know this too well AKA Marbury being mad at Garnett getting the big contract and demanding out.

6) Chris Finch. This guy is a genius of a head coach. He was on Denver's staff and advised coach Malone to make Jokic the centrepiece of the offense and he has become one of the best players in the game today. He's really made things work wonderfully on both sides of the ball.

[hardenASG13]

No fluke. They dusted essentially the same Minny team last year.

But Murray wasn't hurt and playing like trash then.

Nah, it wasn't essentially the same Minny team. They had no McDaniels or Reid (those guys are like, good and important), and Edwards has improved alot. Sadly, Minnesota still mightve been the best team they played last year, which is saying alot. Time for your boy to step it up and win 2 on the road, if he's some all time great. It's not like Minnesota is some established long term contender either haha, this is their first time in the second round as a group.

[hardenASG13]

Fluke.

If anyone also noticed, the Nuggets considered the Wolves their toughest match up a year ago. The Wolves have leveled up now and are discarding the champs like a used, ahem, tissue.

Winning 16 games in the playoffs isn’t a fluke.

It is when you happen to play 0 good teams along the way. That's actually a pretty big fluke when you look at it historically.

[lonzo_pelota]

Its a combination of a lot of things in one, but this series is far from over because if the champs are the defending champs I think we all thought they were, then they have to win game 3 and because this Timberwolves team hasn't been in this position before i think they may faulter and lose one of the next two games due to lack of experience in closing out a series.

[ChiTownHero1992]

Man the overreaction threads from this series....wow...

For one Nuggets are not quite the same team as last season (especially losing Brown) and secondly Wolves are a drastically better team than they were last year so yes this is a vastly different series