Topic: 2019 NBA Pre-Season - page 607. (Read 914577 times)

Not entirely sure if Vogel will be a great coach for Suns. They did build a great team but what they need wasn't some micro management coach, it was a coach who could handle stars and that's a different thing. Like Phil Jackson was good at triangle offense but what he was perfect at wasn't strategy, it was managing egos of superstars, they needed someone like that if they possibly could.

I know that it is going to be hard to find that in this era, not that many "egoless" player anymore anyway, but they would have been doing a lot better. Silas was free and available if I am not wrong and he was dealt a terrible hand at Rockets, I would prefer to get him for a year or two to see how he would do with a great squad as well, it would have actually helped them a lot.

The Heat players have already come such a long way and beaten such strong opponents as the Bucks and Celtics, and now they're literally one step away from winning the title. So how can they lack motivation? Those players who played poorly in the first game should pick themselves up in the next games rather than relying on Butler to win the title for them single-handedly.

Take note also that Jokic and Murray has a good role backup players making the Nuggets more deadly to deal with e.g Michal Porter Jr and Aaron Gordon. Porter, is now being recognized as a big key on Nuggets defense in the entire playoffs. Gordon, on the other hand improves his efficiency in terms of offense and defense within the paint. Porter and Gordon did show a great performance on their Game 1 match against the Miami Heat.

Another hard to deal with the Nuggets is, did you guys even see Nikola Jokic having a bad night starting from the start of the playoffs? Percentage of either of his stats is always close to his average or even more. An all-around center that even teams will put pressure on him defense, can still found a way to make that as an advantage.

Jamal Murray do established lots of off-night games already these playoffs but what surprising is, he can always bounce back at the last phase of the game and will even become the hero of the game. That's the version of Murray that Heat needs to watch out.

Definitely, we know how good coach Spo is, we've seen the adjustments he made during the Bucks the series. It might be very difficult though because the Nuggets seems to be zone in right now to win their NBA championship. They are young and big with Jokic in the middle.

The key for the Nuggets is how they are going to shoot. It's like they are now the Warriors, they will live and die in their 3 point and outside shooting. And of course Jimmy being the leader of the team will have to produce another MVP like numbers to stay in this series and not be sweep.

They already made a good run, with Joel winning the MVP this year and it seems Harden has found his home already and has settled down as the number 2 options. But it seems though that Doc Rivers is really unlucky on the playoffs as his team always choke. They have history before, we all know that Toronto gave Joel a big lesson before, but I think it's all history now between coach Nurse and Joel and I was thinking that maybe Joel was consulted as well before they hire Nick Nurse as their coach.

Doc Rivers was already fired by Philadelphia earlier which already picked former Toronto coach, Nick Nurse as the replacement. I doubt Joel Embiid will want a trade. The rumors circulating are probably due to the past exchange of words between Nurse and Embiid. But these days, superstars will have a say on the team coach so I assume Embiid is okay with Nurse and both of them are already in good relations. Maybe a Gobert-Ayton trade is doable. 

Monty Williams is already with the Pistons. Still, 3 championship teams are looking for a coach, Milwaukee Bucks, Boston Celtics, and Phoenix Suns. Very exciting and intriguing.

Well if Frank Vogel wants to return as a coach after the 2022 end of his coaching maybe he can surely make a viable play for them, but if not Doc Rivers is up and there are Rumors that he will be leaving the 76ers or the Phoenix Suns could take players instead of getting a coach instead, for me, they could throw away Ayton because there are some in court not understanding Ayton situation and Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton is not really looking eye to eye, so they can trade Ayton for Joel Embiid because Embiid might want trade and for me, the Phoenix Suns will be a formidable team in the west,


I think the motivation is not enough and Jimmy Butler is feeling it with the Miami Heat team, on the interview he is likely saying all of that words to his teammates for them to wake up a bit, that they need to move more, and getting those inside rebounds and taking the drive to the Nuggets because there isn't much activity in getting free throws,


Many have already seen how the Denver Nuggets are playing and Jamal Murray is a quality in the Nuggets both Jokic and Murray can surely go down as the champions if they continue playing like this, and If you look closer on the play pattern of the Denver Nuggets Jamal Murray and the other 3 is constantly moving around the paint for Jokic's to give a good assist, or if he got his defender slacking he could also rally inside the paint for a big scoring points,

Too big with competitive speed and skills, that's how Denver compared to Miami, A matter of how Miami players will find ways
to adjust and look for some opportunities to try winning game/s against Denver.

I still like to see how coach Spo will try to blend players that will give him the attacks and executions to manage and counter Denver's offensive attacks.

Game 2 will be another one for Denver if they will continue that great execution.

There is no series yet, there was only 1 game.  

It was not boring, Denver was just dominant and well rested while Miami had bad shooting splits and not enough time to recover from a long 7 game series vs Boston.

Sure, Boston will make some adjustments, but that won't bother Denver. What can Miami actually do to stop them? The Nuggets won all their home games this post season, and they will win game 2 as well.

Denver is just too talented, too big and too unpredictable. Whatever you do and however you are trying to guard the Joker, he will punish you. You give him space, he is taking the wide open shot. You close out or double, he will find the open man.
The only chance Miami has is if the Nuggets don't make their shots, basically saying the Heat can't win (in my eyes) and Denver can only beat themselves.

Let's go Denver, get your first chip!!

I can't be too confident about the Nuggets, even though I currently see some mismatches. It's important to keep in mind that this is a best-of-seven series, and adjustments will surely be made throughout the series. I'm confident we will witness those adjustments in Game 2, and it will be interesting to see what Coach Malone will do in response to the adjustments made by the Miami Heat.

To be honest, so far, this series has been rather boring. However, the outcome of Game 2 may change fans' perception. Miami needs to be more competitive and cannot afford to lose as easily as they did in Game 1.

Butler has to perform the way he did in the series against the Bucks.

The first match of the finals has officially gone down in history. Nikola Jokic became the center with the most assists in a single game in NBA Finals history with 14 assists. Also Jokic became the second player in history to score a triple-double in his first game in the NBA Finals. The player who will carry the Nuggets to the finals is already clear. Jokic constantly adds value to his team and i sense a Tim Duncan vibe in him. The Nuggets are very good as a team and their block and steal rates are great. The Miami Heat were comfortable as if they were in a friendly match and were the losing side. The Nuggets dominated the game from start to finish and i think it will be like that throughout the series. Maybe they can reach the championship even without losing in the series.

I agree he changed the role of center. I wish Denver can bring Doncic with which they could be in process of making a run for couple of titles. I belive he would blend perfect in Denver team.

It's because his chemistry with his tandem and other teammates didn't just build over a year or two. They've gone through the process and that's the foundation of what this team has got. Unlike other teams that were trying to do shortcuts through getting superstars after superstars, that doesn't really work well but maybe for a few teams it does but not for most. Jokic is now gonna be the standard of other teams when it's come to getting their center which is flexible and can also shoot whenever he does.

I don't write that much in this section but what Jokic is doing is really something new, the team looks like one, they have good synergy the ball is going fast and Jokic is perfect center figure for that type of play. I think Nuggets will win the series in convincing fashion.

Yeah, all of them didn't shown what they've got and that's truly out of luck. They are dealing with hardship going in because of Jokic and that's why it was the plan and to shoot outside.

While on the Nuggets, they've got clean hands and those outside shooting was on them unlike the Heat. Let's see if the game 2 will change with these hands as that's what potentially really is the plan they've got.

I’m not sure how I feel about the Phoenix Suns signing Frank Vogel to a multi year deal. They desperately needed a new coach and I think Vogel is a great guy who did great things with the Pacers (and even the Lakers in the bubble), but his ending with the Lakers was pretty bad. He’ll have to prove himself but he’ll have the roster to do it.

It's visible and possible.

Just like what they did with the Lakers, it's likely that they'll sweep Heat with just 4 games. I thought that Heat will handle it well for the first game since it's not their first time in the finals. Unlike with the Nuggets, despite being their first finals, they're handling it better than the Heat.

Kidding aside. We'll see if his father's(MJ?) spirit will join him on any of those game.

That's how it is though, the first casualties will be the coach because they are the face of the team and every moved the coach make really affects the team itself. Just like in this case, they have taken the risk to get Durant in return of their good players going into the Nets. And this might not set good with some of their players though, in my opinion.

And it's good to see Monty finding a new home, I think he will rebuild Detroit Pistons, it has the potential to be great, young players, just needed someone that could mentor them and bring the best of each players. For sure the future is bring for the Pistons now.

The management fired him because they lost in the playoffs. They were even dominated in the last game of the series, losing by 30 points against the Nuggets. That level of performance is not competitive. The main goal of a team like the Suns, who have superstars, is to win a championship. Unfortunately, it didn't happen under his watch, so the management will have to try something new.

Given that Coach Monty Williams is great it's not surprising he was hired by a new team.

I don't know what the management of the Phoenix Suns want because they have fired a great coach like Monty Williams while he was in charge the Phoenix Suns have always performed quite well in every NBA event.
But now Monty Williams has signed a new contract with the Detroit Pistons and is the most expensive coaching contract in history.
I'm sure Monty Williams can do quite well and turn the Detroit Pistons into an even greater team.
It looks like later if the Detroit Pistons can develop properly under the tutelage of Monty Williams then Phoenix will surely regret what he did for the dismissal of Monty Williams.