You don’t think he should be held to those standards?
If any other all-time center was getting guarded by a guard in a game 7......
You don’t think he should be held to those standards?
Shield & Sword
All Star
number21
Strive for rulership not equality, black man.
Took only one shot in the second half. Caruso forced him to tap out. Take off the cape.
Fani Willis fan
free tory lanez expeditiously
I think they just gave the league a blueprint on him.
Small pesty guard with active hands.
Jokic will attempt to back him down, send double to crowd him at high post..if hes at the rim send help defending big man to change the shot.
But dont initially guard him with the big.
Of course you need good personnel for all this but most teams have similar defensive talent other than a Chet.
Small pesty guard with active hands.
Jokic will attempt to back him down, send double to crowd him at high post..if hes at the rim send help defending big man to change the shot.
But dont initially guard him with the big.
Of course you need good personnel for all this but most teams have similar defensive talent other than a Chet.
Torrential
LWO
Here's Jokic sealing off Caruso inside the paint (notice how Caruso has his arm wrapped around him, which should've been a foul) -
Now look at where Westbrook ends up passing the ball to -
That's what the problem was.
Whenever Jokic had him 1v1, his teammates couldn't even make basic entry passes.
JOKIC HAS CARUSOIN AN ARM LOCK
THEN TRIED TO FLAIL
FOR A CALL
YOU DUMB fukkING CAC
GOOD NO CALL
Is it really the blueprint or does it speak more to the state Denver was in?
Because the biggest problem with folks overemphasizing the effectiveness of having Caruso on Jokic is, literally any [reasonable] defensive scheme OKC employed would've worked. They could've put Dort on him, they could've put Hartenstein on him, they could've put Chet on him, they could've put any main rotational player on him and they would've had success in Game 7.
And it all comes back to the fact that OKC treated everyone else as if they weren't a threat to score, because they weren't.
That's what exhaustion, a short rotation, injuries and playing on the road in yet another Game 7 will do. This was the end of the road for them. There was no counter for them to work in because they had nothing left to give. Once OKC realized they didn't need to defend the role players, it was a wrap. Just surround Jokic with multiple defenders and it was game over.
If OKC used the same tactic in Game 1, they wouldn't have had anywhere near the same amount of success because Denver was in a healthier state then.
Look at how much OKC are respecting Denver's shooting (leading to a more spaced floor and less help defenders for Jokic to worry about). Look at how AG is moving more freely on offense. Fastforward to Game 7 and OKC realizes that Denver's shooting is trash, that Murray has run of of gas and AG is hobbled, and now they can just center their entire defense on limiting the space that Jokic has to work with.
In fact, if you go to 2:50sec in that clip, Jokic posts up Caruso from the 3-pt line and backs him all the way into the paint for an easy hook shot. He doesn't have to worry about help defenders to the same degree -
Denver simply lost the war of attrition more than any defensive scheme that OKC came up with to stop them.
So you're saying Jokic doesn't know how to seal off a defender, a smaller defender at that, and give his teammates a big ass target to get the ball to regardless of any help. Jokic is supposed to be better in those situations. There's no way he should be fighting for positioning with Caruso....even before the help even comes.
Fani Willis fan
free tory lanez expeditiously
Is it really the blueprint or does it speak more to the state Denver was in?
Because the biggest problem with folks overemphasizing the effectiveness of having Caruso on Jokic is, literally any [reasonable] defensive scheme OKC employed would've worked. They could've put Dort on him, they could've put Hartenstein on him, they could've put Chet on him, they could've put any main rotational player on him and they would've had success in Game 7.
And it all comes back to the fact that OKC treated everyone else as if they weren't a threat to score, because they weren't.
That's what exhaustion, a short rotation, injuries and playing on the road in yet another Game 7 will do. This was the end of the road for them. There was no counter for them to work in because they had nothing left to give. Once OKC realized they didn't need to defend the role players, it was a wrap. Just surround Jokic with multiple defenders and it was game over.
If OKC used the same tactic in Game 1, they wouldn't have had anywhere near the same amount of success because Denver was in a healthier state then.
Look at how much OKC are respecting Denver's shooting (leading to a more spaced floor and less help defenders for Jokic to worry about). Look at how AG is moving more freely on offense. Fastforward to Game 7 and OKC realizes that Denver's shooting is trash, that Murray has run of of gas and AG is hobbled, and now they can just center their entire defense on limiting the space that Jokic has to work with.
In fact, if you go to 2:50sec in that clip, Jokic posts up Caruso from the 3-pt line and backs him all the way into the paint for an easy hook shot. He doesn't have to worry about help defenders to the same degree -
Denver simply lost the war of attrition more than any defensive scheme that OKC came up with to stop them.
I will the gameplan is to prevent Jokic from getting his way, if there is indication that his teammates are ineffective in this particular scenario.
If they are helping off but guys start hitting shots, then you stay home.
Never had bad things to say about Jokic.
But his ‘supporters’ here are on some z1onist shyt, like it’s a crime to even criticize him. wtf? The facts are he had an average series for someone who is supposedly the best in the game. He kept them in certain games, but he never won them a game. The whole playoffs essentially. His supporting cast may be up and down, but he had the luxury of them winning his team games multiple times in these playoffs.
Far too often he loses control unless he gets every call go his way. It gets to him and he starts focusing on antics like wrestling and flopping as if to prove a point. He acts like it’s a crime for opponents to make things difficult for him, as if it’s his divine right to succeed. The worst part is, after such a lazy effort, he talked about looking forward to lots of drinking with media encouragement - ANY other superstar would be destroyed if they acted or spoke like that after that type of loss.
But his ‘supporters’ here are on some z1onist shyt, like it’s a crime to even criticize him. wtf? The facts are he had an average series for someone who is supposedly the best in the game. He kept them in certain games, but he never won them a game. The whole playoffs essentially. His supporting cast may be up and down, but he had the luxury of them winning his team games multiple times in these playoffs.
Far too often he loses control unless he gets every call go his way. It gets to him and he starts focusing on antics like wrestling and flopping as if to prove a point. He acts like it’s a crime for opponents to make things difficult for him, as if it’s his divine right to succeed. The worst part is, after such a lazy effort, he talked about looking forward to lots of drinking with media encouragement - ANY other superstar would be destroyed if they acted or spoke like that after that type of loss.
nightwing2016
All Star
This thread lacks a basic understanding of how the thunder are playing defense on Jokic. Caruso is the first layer of a three layered defense
Of course, he does, he's the best big in the league at sealing off his man.
He was doing it all series with success (and yes, against Caruso too).
It all comes back to the fact of how many help defenders are in the vicinity, along with the refs just letting the smaller player to be as physical as they can. Caruso got whistled for two fouls on Jokic for that shyt in the 2nd quarter and then after they just swallowed their whistles. Are we supposed to believe that Caruso was only fouling Jokic on those two possessions and then after that didn't foul him again? Or did the refs just choose to ignore him fouling Jokic, not being consistent with what they called him for earlier in the game?
There's also this which I posted on the previous page -
But Westbrook ends up throwing the ball too far out of his reach.
Braun did the same thing throwing a bad pass when Jokic had Caruso posted up. There were quite a few instances where all Jokic needed was a better pass but the support cast couldn't even manage that. Nobody on the team besides Murray can get him the ball cleanly on these entry passes. That should be a priority in the summer for Denver's front office, to get players who know how and when to get him the ball, because they're borderline non-existent on this team.
And that all comes back to the Nuggets organization taking him for granted where they just put any sort of role player around him because he can do everything on offense, not realizing just like every other big man, he needs ball-handlers to give him the ball in proper position and he needs shooters to help space the floor.
Any big man worth their weight in salt needs those two things.
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Jaylen brown was playing with a torn meniscus
KP was playing with VD or whatever he had
That's how they defended us shai found a way
And Boston ultimately paid the price for that misfortune.Jaylen brown was playing with a torn meniscus
But OKC didn't have to deal with any sort of injuries even remotely on that level. It just goes to show how Denver kept overcoming the odds to extend the series because they had nearly everything go against them but still kept persevering. Game 6 was the last real effort they could give; AG tearing his hamstring at the end symbolized this.
That's because Shai had greater and more help, and wasn't defended nearly as closely in Game 7. Denver didn't have the legs to do that for another game. That's why this series was always going to end in this manner with the Nuggets running out of gas and/or injured in the process.That's how they defended us shai found a way
The better team ultimately won in the end. Nobody on Denver's bench would even crack y'all rotation.
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