I'll be honest and say that at the beginning of this season, I predicted (on another website) that the Nuggets, if healthy, would win the Championship. That was when Michael Porter Jr. was playing, and rumors were circulating that Jamal Murray could come back on any given day, like they've saying for the past two years now. Well, I don't know if Porter will ever be "healthy" in the NBA sense of the word. And as for Murray, like what exactly is wrong with him anyway?
So instead of contending, now the Nuggets look like they're going to swept out of the 1st Round. I know that anything is possible. But what the historians are saying is that a team has never come from a 3-0 deficit in the NBA Playoffs to win a series. And I doubt if Denver is about to break that record.
Even though he isn't really a bad coach, I wouldn't be surprised if Mike Malone is the first to go, because he seems to lack Playoff creativity, even worse than Steve Kerr. At least with Kerr, he has the Splash Brothers and a championship caliber team to depend on no matter what. Malone doesn't have that luxury. So it was kinda surprising for instance how he insisted to staying with Monte Morris during crunch time of Game 3, even though Morris hasn't done like shit the entire series.
You have Austin Rivers who was doing an admirable job taking Steph out of his zone. Sometimes it's like that. No one is going to argue that Rivers is better than Steph. But there's just certain players who are able to guard certain stars well. And even if I am overexaggerating, it isn't like Rivers is a scrub. He has a history of showing up in pressure situations, and I don't see how it would have hurt letting him play out the fourth quarter. In fact, I would even played Bones Hyland over Morris during crunch time in Game 3. I mean by that point, why not? Hyland may not have done anything spectacular during the game, but at least he wasn't making bad decisions with the ball. Sometimes, having a lack of confidence is a good thing.
I also would have put Boogie in at the same time as Jokic. I even heard one of the announcers suggest that. Having both of them in at the same time would have made it more difficult to chase around the wily Warriors, but it isn't like they really did a good job of that anyway. With Boogie and Jokic in simultaneously, they would have really been able to punish Golden State in the post. And then, it wouldn't look so stupid with Jokic lingering around the key, as he seems to prefer to do. And then it's like slide Aaron Gordon over to the 3, which I believe he has experience playing that position from his Orlando days anyway.
Outside of Jokic, Boogie and Hyland, I don't really see why Denver would be breaking their necks to keep anyone else on this roster. But sometimes it's like that. The thing that separates stars from role players is moment like these. You know what I'm saying? Every player theoretically has superstar potential, until they're placed in a situation which proves whether they're actually a star or a role player.
CONCLUSION
Denver doesn't look like a team that's worried about their future. What that means to me is that they're banking on the return of Murray and Porter. And I'm like, why?
I also wouldn't be surprised if they don't re-sign Boogie. The NBA hates Boogie, which is a discussion for another day. So who knows what's going to happen this offseason?
Last year, after they got embarrassed in the Playoffs, I suggested (on another site) that the Nuggets go after a player like Mo Bamba who could cover Jokic's defensive deficiencies. Bamba just had a career season with the Magic and probably isn't even available like that any longer. But the Nuggets do have trade chips, even outside of their big three. But at the same time those long, skinny defenders are now kinda popular, and there aren't that many of them out there anyway. So it looks like unless they try something really creative and risky, the Nuggets will remain a "what if" team into the foreseeable future.
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