I think this is the series where, after 7 long years, Meyers Leonard earns his paycheck. This may sound crazy, but hear me out: 1. Kanter is still dealing with a separated shoulder. Even if he were healthier though, Jokic is averaging 37mpg. Kanter is playing gassed at 29mpg. Meyers is going to be critical in doing what he can to drain Jokic's tank every minute he's in there. I want to see him use all 6 fouls. 2. Jokic is an even worse matchup for the Blazers pick-and-roll than Steven Adams was. Portland needs to pull him out to the three point line repeatedly, and it's bound to create wide open three point opportunities for Leonard.
Denver won 5 of their final 11 regular season games, and scraped by a 7th seed in 7 games. So they are a .500 team over their last 18 games. We finished out the regular season 9 of 11, and the first round in 5 games. So we're playing at .812 over the same time span. All but 2 of those games have been without Nurkic. The average age of their top 3 minutes guys are 23. Portland's average age is 27. We have one guy under 25 who will see any real minutes (Zach) and they have 5. Experience and maturity matter in the playoffs. Portland has had 6 days to prepare for the series, while Denver has had less than 48 hours. I'm pretty surprised Portland isn't widely considered a favorite in this series. I guess the sweep last year really did some lasting damage....
Jokic isn't really much of a P&R finisher-- he's a good passer in the short roll, but they don't really use it that much. He's actually a lot more effective in the inverted P&R when he's the guy who creates for the guards. And they do this a ton with both Harris and Murray being the screeners. Meyers is not smart enough to figure out coverages when this happens. Where Jokic will destroy us is in the post. He's incredibly strong and has ridiculously good touch around the hoop. He moved around Aldridge like a rag doll. Meyers has fake muscles, but is not nearly as strong as he looks. I think he's gonna get manhandled.
More unfounded hate for Meyers. I like the comment in general but that statement could not be more wrong. Meyers Leonard is very smart.
Could we say "Meyers doesn't process situations and respond quickly enough"? I agree with you that Meyers is very intelligent--but even 7 years in he seems to think through the game rather than simply play and react. I think (and forgive me if I'm putting words in your mouth) that's what @yuyuza1 is talking about; that the proper response to those situations isn't instinctive for Meyers, which causes him to be too slow to respond to them properly, which ends up looking like low BBIQ.
HCA for Denver, a (probably) injured Kanter, and 7 scorers in double figures is why I predicted the Nuggets win in 7. Of course, my track record for predicting series is about as good as Ben Simmons is from 3, so really I should have voted "I have no idea" The only thing I can say for sure is I don't know how Denver isn't the favorites. As fans we can get away with that stuff, I just hope the team doesn't.
as long as those 6 fouls arent in 10 minutes. If knater isnt effective due to injury then we need collins and Meyers to be less aggressive so that they can stay on the court. Worried if Kanter isnt effective then Nugs will kill us on the boards.
Fake muscle? So Jokic's blubber is fake?? Alert all Developmental Biology textbooks: updates are in order STAT
You know what I mean. How easily does he get pushed around for rebounds? Given how much he works out and flexes, it makes no sense.
He went through Aldridge like he wasn't even there. He's even backed down Nurk pretty easily. Deceptively strong.
Especially considering that Lillard (26.8%) and McCollum (26%) shot so poorly from the three point line against Denver this year. Maybe they could make some adjustments but Stotts was quoted as saying adjustments are not important. (I can always hope he is trying to mislead them!)
To be fair, I could probably do that too. At least twice in a game! In all seriousness though, even under Pops I don't think much of LA as a defender. Touting that Jokic treated him like a rag doll is very faint praise, IMO. Not that I think we'll do well defending Jokic, just that dominating LA isn't something to hang your hat on.
