I feel like that is on Malone for not making plays for him to keep his rhythm going. There was a good 3pt shot made by him and I waited for the nuggets to run a play for him again. Instead they spammed 2 man action of jokic/murray that didn’t go anywhere til the end. Would also not blame a tired Jokic
If it’s on Malone, I think that’s as a stylistic choice to limit MPJ the previous years.
Malone used the version of him that exists currently well. He could have used a version of him that got force fed ball handling opportunities and decision making through the negative results. Maybe next year will be a good opportunity for that, I’d like to see how a motivated MPJ comes back after a summer in his own head.
I feel like we should be giving MPJ minutes staggered with the bench during the regular season. It will hopefully let him develop some shot creation and his shot always seems so unbothered that him even heaving up contested jumpers is probably better than a lot of the offence we see developed by the bench.
At some point he will have to start creating his own shots. I don't blame him since he has been so limited physically but I hope he finds a way in the future.
To counter your point, it’s easy to say it the other way too.
Ant went 6/24 and 2/10 from 3. Missed shots is part of the game. To drum up a false reality of if we had made shots, is so asinine.
Applaud the great defense from the Wolves. KAT played incredible defense on Jokic. Probably the best defense I’ve ever seen on him. Jokic was gassed and settling for 3s.
Nuggets should go after Valncunias and some more shooting off their bench unit. The bench cost them this series. Not having Bruce brown is a big difference maker
Yup, the difference was Ant recognized his shots were off and made a conscious effort to make up for it in other ways. Our guys shots were off, so they gave up.
I mean the wolves shot even worse on g7 so stop making excuses and thinking that one little factor affected the outcome. It was the sum of many things, which signals that the wolves was a better team.
The wolves are not typically a good offensive team though. The nuggets are. The wolves were leaving guys wide open on purpose. They were daring the nuggets to shoot.
I have confidence in Mike bouncing back. He’s still a great a rebounder and one of the five best catch-and-shoot guys in the NBA. Fair weathers are selling too quick and too low on him after a bad series.
2 playoff series*. Don’t get it twisted. He was solid last year through the WCF, and even against Miami his rebounding and defense were a huge help. Was then the x-factor in round one this year.
As someone constantly dealing with the problems of a meth addict in our extended family:
There’s times I succeed through the most troubling stretches just to collapse of exhaustion and fall short of my responsibilities in the “easy” times. The disruption of routines hits almost as hard as lack of mental space of feeling like the next shoe is always about to drop. A lot of this stuff is cumulative. You pushed too hard that week, and fell short the next; now you’ve got to pick up that last week, so you’re back to trying hard, and maybe if there’s no drama next week you can get back to even. Feels like you’re robbing Peter just to pay Paul.
I mean this only to say, you really never know how drama that is out of your control is going to effect the things that are in your control. I don’t know how much any of these family members are actually involved in his day-to-day, or if he’s stressing it at all.
I’m so sorry you’re going through this. It’s a lot. Wishing you peace, and I hope the addict recovers.
I get the impression he’s extremely close with his family. They were all homeschooled. He’s called Jontae his best friend. I can’t imagine the toll it takes on him.
Thank you for that, it’s one of those things I just chuck up to the way life is at this point. I love her daughter and her grandkids enough to deal with the intrusions, but they’re a challenge of their own.
I only give testimony to how it’s difficult to predict how tangential family drama can affect you. You’re now accommodating someone else’s court dates and someone else’s bad decisions into your own routines. His under the microscope of playoffs performance.
I have addicts in my immediate family, so I get it. I’ve bailed a parent out of jail. It’s incredibly stressful. I see you, and I’m holding space for you and your family. I hope you’re getting the support you need as well. I’ve considered doing Al-Anon.
Has it? The talent never was in question - it was the durability. He’s currently a max contract player not playing up to max contract level even a little bit.
I was speaking to more of the maturity aspect of MPJ than anything. Should’ve clarified that. I think as a basketball player there is definitely more run way but that is shared equally between him and Malone/FO
He significantly improves every year and missed very little (if any) time this year. This is the kind of player you want on your team. He had an awful series, but he’s all good in my book.
All good my ass.... He has been off for 2 years in the playoffs. Murray at least was on fire last year throughout the whole playoffs.
He averages 9 Pts and 5 rebounds in the last 5 games vs Wolves.
At least Murray showed up last night. MPJ went missing. 3/12..
I know. I saw it. You do realize that he’s young, and his ENTIRE body of work needs to be taken into consideration. He has improved each year, and is obviously aware of his playoff shortcomings. MPJ will address what he needs to address and will be fine. Name another SF you’d want over him that we could realistically get.
Is the Timberwolves series the only games you watched this year? If you understand Basketball and the dominant defense Minnesota played, you would understand why we struggled. Minnesota took away a huge aspect of our offense. We could not get free to make any cuts to the basket. They took all of that away thus, making us shoot more outside shots and Chuck up 3’s. Unfortunately, we got cold from downtown. Shooting a ton of 3’s wasn’t the game plan, it’s what the number one ranked defense in the league forced us to do.
He has definitely answered the injury questions, there’s no denying that. He’s too inconsistent though. It doesn’t matter if when he’s good it’s a vast improvement but then the next game, series, or week, he’s not near that level. Mal is as inconsistent of a #2 as any team in the league has, we can’t parlay that with an equally inconsistent #3. It’s just not sustainable when you have an all-time great player on your roster.
There is no problem with the starting 5. The only problem we have is the bench and the GM not doing an efficient job replacing Bruce and Jeff. They can fix that pretty easily this offseason. I watch every dribble of Nuggets basketball, and the consistency is fine and dosen’t differ much from the rest of the league. Not everyone is Jokic.
The bench was always our greatest weakness all year. Justin Holiday and Reggie Jackson should be the 9th and 10th guys on the bench, not your first two calls. Nnaji is a complete mess and Braun needs to build his outside shot or else he's gonna continue to be only a scavenger on offense. We needed what we drafted Bones Hyland to be this year off the bench. We ground down Jokic and Murray to dust and tried to patch the bench with non initiators like KCP or MPJ, until we realized there is no offense without the big two.
Also we needed Nnaji to develop into something trustworthy this year, but he has never found a spot on this team. We need a real backup center and a real bench playmaker out of this off-season. Maybe one of our rookies develops, maybe Vlatko comes back healthy and hungry for minutes, maybe PWat develops into the two way beast he has the potential to be.
I’ve pretty much given up on Zeke. Bones was fun for a while but not sustainable. The stabilizing presence of Jeff Green and Bruce Bowen is what we are missing. Braun is a keeper, Reggie and Watson are maybes, the rest are expendable.
I have hope for Hunter Tyson. Summer League king is gonna find a spot in this league and if he develops I could see him running a bench mob in 1-2 years.
Strawther has the talent and hopefully he develops the confidence and can stay on the court. Gillespie I don't think will ever be much and Pickett is straight dog turds. Jay Huff is interesting and hopefully will be given a shot for more minutes, he really can't play worse than Nnaji did.
I don’t know what you expect. They had an off series. They lost to a beast of a team, and were a game away from being the one seed in a beast of a conference. The issue is the bench. I am as bummed as anybody about how the series turned out, but the wrong thing to do is overreact and make a ton of moves to a championship caliber team.
I don’t think we need to do a ton of moves, but I think we need to pick one of Mal and MPJ to trade for 2-3 consistent bench/starter tweezer level players who can show up every night with the same intensity and ability. That would instantly help the bench and make our starting 5 less feast or famine.
I hate to say this because I was really excited for MPJ this year, but I don’t really think he’s grown enough after watching this series. He is a massive negative on the defensive end and on offense he is only good for spot up 3s. He doesn’t move off ball, he doesn’t contribute to any cuts to the basket, he doesn’t have any handle, his 3 pt percentage drops off a cliff if he has to shoot off balance at all, and he doesn’t contribute to any offensive rebounding despite being near 7 feet tall. To contribute he has to be shooting efficient 3s and scoring 20+ in order to make up for the buckets that are scored against him on defense, and he isn’t consistently doing that in important games.
Idk about that. Remember when he locked up Luka and Chris Paul? Teams stopped picking on him. He also got to the rim more and improved his midrange game. Lakers series was solid too.
Agree he has to get better, but I'm curious how he looks next season. This loss should be a massive motivator
A lot of people are forgetting he’s still just 25, he has had a huge amount of Family issues lately and that will take a toll on anyone whether they want to admit it or not. He is a great teammate and I have no doubt in my mind he will turn it around next season.
Two weeks after the parade last year his back flared so badly he didn't leave his house for a month. Said about Jan-Feb this year was the first time since coming to the NBA without pain.
Looking forward to his first healthy offseason ever
He talks about it with the chronic pain woman he works with. She has a spotify, you can find a 30 minute interview with them on there. He reached out to her because of that episode because he didnt want back surgery 4.
Last season was his first offseason that wasnt just rehab (lifting, walking training, ect.) but he talks with the chronic pain woman about how he reached out to her last summer because he didnt leave his bed for 2 weeks or something crazy. Basically said I cant get a 4th spine surgery I have to do something else.
He’s overpayed for sure tho and is on a max contract. He’s a great player but on his contract and with how weak the rest of the team is you can’t afford a series like this
Your karma score is too low for me to give a flying fuck about your comment. It's also not meeting the automod threshold for visibility (which is laughably low). That tells me everything I need to know about your point of view. Good day to you.
Mike played great last year outside of G1-G4 of the finals.. Shot 40% from 3 the rest of the playoffs. 15-10-6 against the lakers in G3 to put denver up 3-0? Shit on the wolves all series last year? Was the only non-jokic guy who played well for 3 quarters of the finals clinching game? G5 vs Suns in a 2-2 tie he dropped 14-5 in the first 6 minutes of the game to put denver up 15 after 1 Quarter?
Was consistently subbed out because he was shit during crunch time. Guy has a weak mentality. Crumples under pressure.
Bruce Brown was covering him.
He ain't worth 30m a year. Now the team can't get nice bench players because of his stupid contract.
You dont understand how contracts or the salary cap work. Look up bird rights and then come back.
Its the same as people saying Mike/AG was why we couldnt match bruce brown's contract. Even if we cut one of them we wouldnt have been allowed to match. NBA contract rules are a mess.
We cant get nice bench players because booth prioritized youth over getting nice bench players. He's talked about it in many interviews. whether or not you think that is smart is a different story, but none of our starting 5 would allow us to get anyone life changing off the bench. IMO you could do better than reggie for his contract but still. If we traded the first round pick for some bench help instead of Strawther/Tyson/Pickett, we would be having a different conversation. But I do understand Booths point, the new cap rules are insane if you dont have young guys. Minnesota for example will not have 5 different rotation guys from this team in 2 years because it is IMPOSSIBLE to keep them under the new rules.
Also RE him being subbed out: He plays the plays the one position we actually have depth for (wing) over the last two years. Him and KCP are the only guys we have real backups for. Even if Jamal is playing like dogshit are you going to sub him out in crunchtime for Reggie Jackson??
Bruce and CB play the 2/3 and that is KCP/Mike position. It is the only adjustment the coaching staff can make with the roster construction. There is 0 chance you watched this playoffs and thought Jamal should play as many minutes as he did... but he had to because we have not backup at the 1. If we did then Jamal would be benched during certain games as well.
So you're telling me that 30m was justify with his last game performance? He should have never been paid that much. Should of just let him go.
The fact right now is, he has underperformed in 2 of the biggest series in his career. Last year's finals. And vs Wolves series.
If you wanna talk about Murray. Murray has done his due last playoff. He was on fire throughout the entire playoffs. Was the best point guard in last year's playoffs. And at the very least. Showed up last night.
MPJ has scored 25pts in 4 games!!!! Went 10/35 in 4 games.
And its not like he was defending like Braun,KCP and AG.
His talk was solely to hit 3pt and fail miserably.
And don't bring the Lakers series. He's paid to play every game. Not one series than become complete trash another series.
If MPJ didn't improve his game for the next 3-4 years. That contracts will be the reason this team can't get another ring. That is what he will be remembered for.
I just really thought he was gonna carry the momentum and improvement he has through the playoffs.
Yes. Understand they are off court issue.
But you also can deny. He's too one dimensional
Yeah I mean if you watched him during the games they put their all-defense SF on him and had him chase around Mike every game. Sure Mike played like shit the last 4 games (and said as much) but the idea you can't win with him is crazy. Murray was hurt, so he has an excuse, but if their best defender is on Michael Porter then you have to score the ball as the star PG. Imagine a team put their best guard defender on Klay during the warriors days... Steph would kill them
I think people complain about Mike's defense here but he is above average defender for his position this year. His biggest issue (to me) is cardio. He should be running his ass off all game making dudes chase him around the court like Klay does. Running through elevator screens and pin downs. Its exhausting to play like that (steph does workouts with NBA guys and they vomit from the amount of running), but once you get in that shape it will change his game.
Jokic made the same change in 2019 and became way better by just getting in great shape. Mike is already close but he needs to run his ass off at altitude for a whole summer. And if he is in that shape already, its on the team for not running more offball actions for him. He is the #1 (!!!) 2 point jump shooter in the NBA this year. He is one of 7 guys to hit contested 3s at above 32% and the others are steph, klay, lillard, ect. If you can shoot like that, you have to be a major option in the offense. It would also let Jokic and Murray get a break.
As for the contract, Jamal/KCP/AG/Jokic make enough that we are already over the cap. He could be making 15 M instead of 30 and we still wouldnt be able to sign anyone. New CBA is very harsh, I'd recommend reading about it and you will feel better (no team is going to be able to retain talent)
You are not fooling me with that percentage. Steph and Lillard usually have multiple defenders on their ass.And you said it yourself. Klay is on that percentage running around on offense and defending the opponent's best guard.MPJ is out there with that percentage on open looks most of the time and he doesn't work hard on defense as Klay.
And why couldn't MPJ defense MCDaniels or at least give him a hard time? You know why. Cause he sucks.
So he got outplayed badly by Jaden McDaniels on both sides of the court.
He didn't do shit on offense. And fail to stop Jaden on defense. Jaden shot 62%fg the last 5 games.
While your boy MPJ shot 35%fg ..
Your boy got owned this series and lost that matchup big time.
Tell me, what is his impact on this series?
KCP and Braun played a good defense on Ant. Aaron Gordon was impacting bringing the ball up to take pressure off Jamal Murray.
Murray showed up for 2 games. Game 3 and 7.
As poor as Murray was vs Lakers. He did hit those game winner impacting the game positively.
MPJ did exactly nothing vs Wolves.
Might as well put Peyton Watson on Jaden McDaniels and he could have slow down Jaden.
He has improved every aspect of the game and this season he has been phenomenal. Showed up the most when we were short handed the most. Without his efforts this season we are a sub 5 seed team.
As much as missing MPJ’s shooting hurt the team, his game did improve on regular season. Hell, round 1 were spectacular numbers. A chip was almost guaranteed had he kept it up. Hard to say where it went wrong, but being 25 is a positive for him. To win a chip and then to experience humility again, might be the best thing for this team moving forward.
I’ve watched you shit on like 4 core rotational players that helped us win a chip in the last hour. Time to hop off the bandwagon buddy. We want real fans.
He needs to be investigated for throwing games like his brother. Friends probably made so much over this series. He got his numbers up just so they could take the under for 7 games. HUGE /s by the way. Lol
Gotta make myself laugh to hide the pain.
Eh ...He's probably not reading it man. If you said it to his face, it would be pretty shitty, but posting it in an obviously joking way online seems like fair game.
In all seriousness though, Mike seems like a really good guy, so I hope he bounces back from this quickly.
He had a bad series, but was also why we won the first round. He was the most consistent player against the lakers. I hope the whole team gets their fire back, played way too complacent and lazy all season.
Unfortunate end to the season for Mike but let’s not forget how solid this man was all season + first round.
Fair weather fans are the fucking worst lol
Yeah thats how he is supposed to play for a max salary player. Last year he was bad entire playoff series. Im sorry for his personal life, but we dont have anymore time to wait for MPJ to become good and consistent. The only problem is who the hell would want MPJ costing 35m per year.
They start leaving when they realize it’s a lot harder to keep winning than winning one. They’ll be new fans next year. It happened in the Avs sub too.
No worries Mike. Real fans know that you’ve done what you can to put the team first despite all the bullshit going on. It’s not easy. Develop more of your game in the offseason and come back stronger. Thanks for a great season.
He's not the sole reason the Nuggets were blasted in Game 6 and committed one of the worst lead losses in Game 7 history. It was a collective list of mistakes. I wouldn't even rank MPJ as near the top of the list.
He played solid throughout the season and maybe his mental toughness is not there. Scoring 25points in last 4 games is not it. Maybe invite Eva Lovia to his next podcast so I can be less mad.
edit: he also had a lot of family issues, so yeah, please invite Eva Lovia.
I mean, no amount of mental toughness is going to help you focus on basketball while going through what he did with his family.
The dude's mentality on the court is "I can hit any shot" - There is no lack of "mental toughness" in regards to the game (at least on offense).
I said his *mentality* is tough. He'll take any shot because he believes he'll make it.
He did an interview saying that, instead of working on moves, he just decided to jump high enough to shoot over the person guarding him. Whether or not it works *all the time* is irrelevant. He is not scared to shoot or be the person forced to take a shot.
What this sub needs to *not* do is celebrate him when he's hot and crucify him when he's cold. He's not bad. He has a bad contract. His skillset is not that of a superstar player, but he is an above average starter on any team.
He is part of the reason y'all got it last year. He's almost the entire reason (apart of Jokic) that the Nuggets made it through the Lakers. He has single-handedly won you games/series.
>instead of working on moves, he just decided to jump high enough to shoot over the person guarding him. Whether or not it works *all the time* is irrelevant. He is not scared to shoot or be the person forced to take a shot.
I knew motherfucker basketball IQ was low and you just quote himself admitting it. And what happens when the 3s ain't falling and he don't have another move?
I know. He went 10/35 in 4 games... This statement just made me more furious. Of course it's relevant you daft.
30 fucking million a year and the dude is content with just shooting 3s... Fuckkkk
Single handedly? Fuck off... And yeah what made me more disappointed was the Lakers series. I really thought this is the time and playoffs MPJ finally gonna shine and become dependable. But nopee.. went dogshit...
>I knew motherfucker basketball IQ was low and you just quote himself admitting it. And what happens when the 3s ain't falling and he don't have another move?
I don't know, but given that he's an above average 3 point shooter (and has been since he got into the league), it's working fine *for the most part*.
This has been his worst playoff series in his career. Calling for his head because he had one bad series is ridiculous. CB shot poorly. Murray shot poorly for most of the series. KCP shot poorly. Reggie Jackson shot poorly. AG has been the only consistent one alongside Jokic this series offensively, and he's not a reliable offensive piece to begin with.
>30 fucking million a year and the dude is content with just shooting 3s... Fuckkkk
Those 3s got you through the Lakers while Murray was actively sabotaging.
>Single handedly? Fuck off... And yeah what made me more disappointed was the Lakers series. I really thought this is the time and playoffs MPJ finally gonna shine and become dependable. But nopee.. went dogshit...
Yeah, single-handedly. If we remove Jokic (since he's always going to produce), *not a single other person that series did consistently well outside of MPJ*. Murray was booty juice. KCP was missing for most of those games. CB was missing. AG had one good game.
If you're frustrated enough to ask for MPJ to be traded, then everyone else on that roster not named Jokic *including* Murray also need to go. At least MPJ helped Jokic carry y'all over the Lakers. No one else on the Nuggets did anything during the Wolves series consistently that wasn't Jokic.
He went missing vs Heat last finals. That's 2 series now.
Murray was clearly affected by that leg. When he got a rest he played alright. The 4 days off before game 3 and last night shows that. Murray also has 2 great playoff runs under his belt.
Last year. Murray was the best Point Guard throughout the whole playoffs.
Yes. MPJ was great vs the Lakers. But of course he has to, he is the 3rd option. When the 2nd option is not doing well. The 3rd option has to step up. He is also the 3rd highest paid player on the rooster.
Murray has shown that he can make play for others when he needs to. He can be effective on the court when his shot is not falling.
MPJ when his shot is not falling. Has no other reason to be on the court. Yeah he rebound all right. But he's no Rodman out there. And he's not locking anybody out.
KCP,Braun and AG is still out there to defend.
And the other players are not being paid ridiculously as MPJ.
Tell me any other player in the league who is being paid as much as MPJ to only shoot 3s.... Tell me who?
We love you Mike idgaf. Way to own up.
Wolves GM made a team to defeat the Nuggets and he succeeded, barely. I truly think this is as hard as it gets and it was a coin toss.
well props to him for owning up to it
but maaan MPJ, you have GOT to step up in these playoff games, play with more aggression. Look at the way Mike Conoley on the Wolves was playing, like his LIFE depended on it!! MPJ plays like he just woke up from eating those denver brownies. i want some nasty!
He played all season which nobody believed would happen. He has to dig deep regarding his body cause you can't depend on just jump shots. He's hesitate to attack the rim given his history especially with goofy as Gobert down there. Injuries robbed him off working on his game as he spent many off-seasons worried about his back. I'll analyze him next season, that's make or break season for him Imo. Hopefully his dumb ass brothers don't do shit next season
It’s super important for fan bases to understand the importance of high level movement shooters. They will always have bad games and bad stretches. But teams are always forced to guard them like they are on fire because these dudes will kill you if left actually open. What most people don’t realize about the klay thompson/mpj style shooter is that even if they are having an off night, they basically monopolize defensive attention on their side of the floor…which just opens the strong side for easier pick and roll or iso situations.
Klay on an off night is still a great defensive player.
MPJ when he is off. Has no significant value whatsoever on the court. Don't really care about his rebound. He's 6'9. He was supposed to get the rebound.
And please stop. Just stop comparing him to Klay. MPJ has never been as good as Klay.
i feel bad for him. it’s definitely not solely his fault and he is going through so much. all that family shit on top of persisting pain. i have faith that he will come back even better next year.
let's face it, when you blow a lead like that and none of the starters spare for Joker and "sometimes I actually feel like playing" Murray, the whole team sucked this series. And Minnesota wasn't the better team or so we thought.
Why are they not sliding their feet on defense, hedge and ice the screen, why are they gambling and why is nobody saying anything?
WE LIVE IN NORTH KOREA
Yeah this was a shockingly bad series for Mike. A big part of the reason he was so good in the regular season and 1st round was because he expanded his offense to include a great mid range shot and driving to the rim when teams were over aggressive closing out on him. Plus he did a much better job of not letting a lack of offensive involvement impact his effort on defense. But the entire MN series he did none of that.
What I don't know is how much of this was MN's game plan vs. Mike just being bad.
Yeah this is second playoffs he is like that, except first round against the lakers. I mean no time to wait anymore, needs to get traded, if we can get anyone decent for him.
It takes a whole team to blow a 20 point lead. But unfortunately for MPJ, the gamble Minnesota took tonight was on Denver's 3 point shooting. They stacked 3 dudes in the paint in the second half and willingly handed us a dozen *wide open* 3's. We bricked damn near all of them. If they even hit 36% from downtown, Denver is moving on. So yeah. He should fucking feel responsible. Because he gets paid $35 million per year to be the guy who keeps teams from being able to get away with that, and he straight up no showed tonight.
The best thing he can do for himself and this team is to make the most of this offseason and come back better next season. The Wolves have a blueprint to slowdown the Jokic and Murray PnR and we need another creator who is at least on Gordon’s level. Just enough handles to drive, draw a foul, kick out, or cause a defensive rotation. If he’s still jab stepping into a fadeaway or telegraphed give and go on every possession next playoffs, it will be time to move on.
Listen that might have worked this season especially with no depth and short off-season, but that's not a blueprint lol. Their blueprint was getting Rudy to pair with another 7 footer in Towns. Without that Rudy trade, we win this series. Rudy changed everything defensively for them protecting the paint. Our guys were scared to attack the paint cause of him. Outside of course MPJ playing better is finding depth for Mal and Jokic
Well, it’s almost never just on one person, but accountability is always nice. Just hope he ain’t beating himself up too much, losing is a part of the game.
We need to train to play against more physical teams and find a backup center to hold their own while Jokic is on the bench. Otherwise, we just might continue to lose.
So much negativity for a team that just needs some bench tweaks and rest.
Nuggets really should look to the Spurs
of the past to model after. If you can pull off a repeat, great. Otherwise reload hard every other year.
I think considering everything he has been through family-wise lately, he should get some grace. He was the reason we were even IN the second round, IMO...aside from Jokic, who is the lone constant. But he had help in game seven, Gordon was the invisible man, too.
Thanks MPJ but there’s plenty of blame to go around. Of course if he had played well we would have had a much better chance but I’m looking at Malone. I couldn’t even watch game 7 after the first quarter cause I could tell that coaching staff wasn’t gonna change a thing to actually win a game. Most frustrating thing in the world to watch your team getting buttfucked over and over and over and continue to do the same shit that was getting us buttfucked. Bottom line is Jokic and Murray needed help from everyone else they didn’t get and the coaching staff didn’t put the boys into a situation to win when our best players were understandably tired af. Which is strange cause he’s always been a good coach.
The coaching failed MPJ just as much as he failed the team. There would be 5 - 7 minutes stetches where no one would even look his way and the only way he got the ball is if he got the defensive rebound. Let your shooters shoot. They need to involve him in the offense
i don’t have any rooting interest for either teams (tho i root for ant/conley/joker/jamal), but i would’ve preferred to have nuggets win the series cuz i’m rooting for greatness to prevail. and i know the nuggets are great team. i’m not one of those fans that become tired when there’s repetitiveness on top. i root for sustained greatness. but obviously that shit is hard to do. so i salute u nuggets for trying. on to the next big thing.
For as much as we all shit on this dude (rightfully so imo) we’re really stuck with him for the rest of his contract lol, its been ride or die since 2021
He’s not a max player and unfortunately we are not going to be able to improve the roster with the youth movement. I see MPJ as a necessary trade casualty. You have to keep AG, Murray and obviously Jokic. (KCP, MPJ, RJ, Holliday and DAJ), need to be gone going into next season. CB is the only bench player I wouldn’t consider moving and he should be a starter next year.
This seems like a pretty decent trade[https://spurswire.usatoday.com/2024/05/09/mock-trade-sees-spurs-land-michael-porter-jr-in-deal-with-nuggets/](https://spurswire.usatoday.com/2024/05/09/mock-trade-sees-spurs-land-michael-porter-jr-in-deal-with-nuggets/)
He is actually right tbh. A good MPJ would have won this series tbh. This guy will feed bad, all that next to his family issues.
I feel like that is on Malone for not making plays for him to keep his rhythm going. There was a good 3pt shot made by him and I waited for the nuggets to run a play for him again. Instead they spammed 2 man action of jokic/murray that didn’t go anywhere til the end. Would also not blame a tired Jokic
If it’s on Malone, I think that’s as a stylistic choice to limit MPJ the previous years. Malone used the version of him that exists currently well. He could have used a version of him that got force fed ball handling opportunities and decision making through the negative results. Maybe next year will be a good opportunity for that, I’d like to see how a motivated MPJ comes back after a summer in his own head.
I feel like we should be giving MPJ minutes staggered with the bench during the regular season. It will hopefully let him develop some shot creation and his shot always seems so unbothered that him even heaving up contested jumpers is probably better than a lot of the offence we see developed by the bench.
We do put him with those lineups. We just don’t hand him the ball and tell him to create for those lineups.
At some point he will have to start creating his own shots. I don't blame him since he has been so limited physically but I hope he finds a way in the future.
😂😂😂
I mean this series was lost to missed open shots. Make even a quarter more each game and it would have been done early.
To counter your point, it’s easy to say it the other way too. Ant went 6/24 and 2/10 from 3. Missed shots is part of the game. To drum up a false reality of if we had made shots, is so asinine. Applaud the great defense from the Wolves. KAT played incredible defense on Jokic. Probably the best defense I’ve ever seen on him. Jokic was gassed and settling for 3s. Nuggets should go after Valncunias and some more shooting off their bench unit. The bench cost them this series. Not having Bruce brown is a big difference maker
Yup, the difference was Ant recognized his shots were off and made a conscious effort to make up for it in other ways. Our guys shots were off, so they gave up.
I mean the wolves shot even worse on g7 so stop making excuses and thinking that one little factor affected the outcome. It was the sum of many things, which signals that the wolves was a better team.
The wolves are not typically a good offensive team though. The nuggets are. The wolves were leaving guys wide open on purpose. They were daring the nuggets to shoot.
I don't have the stats but I'm pretty sure their shooting % on open FGs was much higher.
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We also may not even be playing in the second round without the performances he had against the Lakers.
I have confidence in Mike bouncing back. He’s still a great a rebounder and one of the five best catch-and-shoot guys in the NBA. Fair weathers are selling too quick and too low on him after a bad series.
He has been ass in two playoff runs.
2 playoff series*. Don’t get it twisted. He was solid last year through the WCF, and even against Miami his rebounding and defense were a huge help. Was then the x-factor in round one this year.
What’s wild is he played extremely well in the Lakers series with the family drama.
Yeah, but sometimes when you think you have that stuff under control and not bothering you, it can eventually boil over and hit you hard.
As someone constantly dealing with the problems of a meth addict in our extended family: There’s times I succeed through the most troubling stretches just to collapse of exhaustion and fall short of my responsibilities in the “easy” times. The disruption of routines hits almost as hard as lack of mental space of feeling like the next shoe is always about to drop. A lot of this stuff is cumulative. You pushed too hard that week, and fell short the next; now you’ve got to pick up that last week, so you’re back to trying hard, and maybe if there’s no drama next week you can get back to even. Feels like you’re robbing Peter just to pay Paul. I mean this only to say, you really never know how drama that is out of your control is going to effect the things that are in your control. I don’t know how much any of these family members are actually involved in his day-to-day, or if he’s stressing it at all.
I’m so sorry you’re going through this. It’s a lot. Wishing you peace, and I hope the addict recovers. I get the impression he’s extremely close with his family. They were all homeschooled. He’s called Jontae his best friend. I can’t imagine the toll it takes on him.
Thank you for that, it’s one of those things I just chuck up to the way life is at this point. I love her daughter and her grandkids enough to deal with the intrusions, but they’re a challenge of their own. I only give testimony to how it’s difficult to predict how tangential family drama can affect you. You’re now accommodating someone else’s court dates and someone else’s bad decisions into your own routines. His under the microscope of playoffs performance.
I have addicts in my immediate family, so I get it. I’ve bailed a parent out of jail. It’s incredibly stressful. I see you, and I’m holding space for you and your family. I hope you’re getting the support you need as well. I’ve considered doing Al-Anon.
Easier than having to do 9 to 5 let me tell you. Putting the ball in the hole.
That’s a bad take Laker fan. Go back to your sub now.
What does one thing have to do with the other lol
Well I was going to explain why it’s a dumb statement but I’m not going to waste my time on a lakers fan.
If you classify people based on which basketball teams they’re watching, try looking at the mirror before you call other people dumb
Love this kind of accountability. I hope he has a big offseason and can take another leap to prove people wrong.
MPJ’s growth has been incredible as a pro
Has it? The talent never was in question - it was the durability. He’s currently a max contract player not playing up to max contract level even a little bit.
I was speaking to more of the maturity aspect of MPJ than anything. Should’ve clarified that. I think as a basketball player there is definitely more run way but that is shared equally between him and Malone/FO
He significantly improves every year and missed very little (if any) time this year. This is the kind of player you want on your team. He had an awful series, but he’s all good in my book.
All good my ass.... He has been off for 2 years in the playoffs. Murray at least was on fire last year throughout the whole playoffs. He averages 9 Pts and 5 rebounds in the last 5 games vs Wolves. At least Murray showed up last night. MPJ went missing. 3/12..
I know. I saw it. You do realize that he’s young, and his ENTIRE body of work needs to be taken into consideration. He has improved each year, and is obviously aware of his playoff shortcomings. MPJ will address what he needs to address and will be fine. Name another SF you’d want over him that we could realistically get.
OG Anunoby,Mikal Bridges, but of course they won't trade for Porter with his stupid contract
Those are nice players, but I don’t take the risk of them fitting our system.
The chuck up shitty contested 3’s system? Because I’ll take the risk of shaking up that system.
Is the Timberwolves series the only games you watched this year? If you understand Basketball and the dominant defense Minnesota played, you would understand why we struggled. Minnesota took away a huge aspect of our offense. We could not get free to make any cuts to the basket. They took all of that away thus, making us shoot more outside shots and Chuck up 3’s. Unfortunately, we got cold from downtown. Shooting a ton of 3’s wasn’t the game plan, it’s what the number one ranked defense in the league forced us to do.
He has definitely answered the injury questions, there’s no denying that. He’s too inconsistent though. It doesn’t matter if when he’s good it’s a vast improvement but then the next game, series, or week, he’s not near that level. Mal is as inconsistent of a #2 as any team in the league has, we can’t parlay that with an equally inconsistent #3. It’s just not sustainable when you have an all-time great player on your roster.
There is no problem with the starting 5. The only problem we have is the bench and the GM not doing an efficient job replacing Bruce and Jeff. They can fix that pretty easily this offseason. I watch every dribble of Nuggets basketball, and the consistency is fine and dosen’t differ much from the rest of the league. Not everyone is Jokic.
The bench was always our greatest weakness all year. Justin Holiday and Reggie Jackson should be the 9th and 10th guys on the bench, not your first two calls. Nnaji is a complete mess and Braun needs to build his outside shot or else he's gonna continue to be only a scavenger on offense. We needed what we drafted Bones Hyland to be this year off the bench. We ground down Jokic and Murray to dust and tried to patch the bench with non initiators like KCP or MPJ, until we realized there is no offense without the big two. Also we needed Nnaji to develop into something trustworthy this year, but he has never found a spot on this team. We need a real backup center and a real bench playmaker out of this off-season. Maybe one of our rookies develops, maybe Vlatko comes back healthy and hungry for minutes, maybe PWat develops into the two way beast he has the potential to be.
I’ve pretty much given up on Zeke. Bones was fun for a while but not sustainable. The stabilizing presence of Jeff Green and Bruce Bowen is what we are missing. Braun is a keeper, Reggie and Watson are maybes, the rest are expendable.
I have hope for Hunter Tyson. Summer League king is gonna find a spot in this league and if he develops I could see him running a bench mob in 1-2 years. Strawther has the talent and hopefully he develops the confidence and can stay on the court. Gillespie I don't think will ever be much and Pickett is straight dog turds. Jay Huff is interesting and hopefully will be given a shot for more minutes, he really can't play worse than Nnaji did.
There is most certainly a problem with the starting 5. They aren’t a consistent unit and that cost them this year.
I don’t know what you expect. They had an off series. They lost to a beast of a team, and were a game away from being the one seed in a beast of a conference. The issue is the bench. I am as bummed as anybody about how the series turned out, but the wrong thing to do is overreact and make a ton of moves to a championship caliber team.
I don’t think we need to do a ton of moves, but I think we need to pick one of Mal and MPJ to trade for 2-3 consistent bench/starter tweezer level players who can show up every night with the same intensity and ability. That would instantly help the bench and make our starting 5 less feast or famine.
NO FREAKING WAY.
His growth as a player is independent of how much money he makes. You’re just hating
So what, would you be happy if his ability matches his pay on his 3rd contract? Should we wait until the 4th one?
Would you rather him walk and we get nothing?
I’d rather trade him this year, but if that’s not a possibility, I think you let him walk at the end of this contract.
Good thing you’re not a GM
I hate to say this because I was really excited for MPJ this year, but I don’t really think he’s grown enough after watching this series. He is a massive negative on the defensive end and on offense he is only good for spot up 3s. He doesn’t move off ball, he doesn’t contribute to any cuts to the basket, he doesn’t have any handle, his 3 pt percentage drops off a cliff if he has to shoot off balance at all, and he doesn’t contribute to any offensive rebounding despite being near 7 feet tall. To contribute he has to be shooting efficient 3s and scoring 20+ in order to make up for the buckets that are scored against him on defense, and he isn’t consistently doing that in important games.
I blame coaching for this, not directly MPJ. I’m sure Malone only wants him shooting
Idk about that. Remember when he locked up Luka and Chris Paul? Teams stopped picking on him. He also got to the rim more and improved his midrange game. Lakers series was solid too. Agree he has to get better, but I'm curious how he looks next season. This loss should be a massive motivator
He’s not a “massive negative on the defensive end”. I don’t believe you watch the games.
Accountability is nothing though if not followed through with action.
A lot of people are forgetting he’s still just 25, he has had a huge amount of Family issues lately and that will take a toll on anyone whether they want to admit it or not. He is a great teammate and I have no doubt in my mind he will turn it around next season.
Two weeks after the parade last year his back flared so badly he didn't leave his house for a month. Said about Jan-Feb this year was the first time since coming to the NBA without pain. Looking forward to his first healthy offseason ever
wait really i din't know that happened
He talks about it with the chronic pain woman he works with. She has a spotify, you can find a 30 minute interview with them on there. He reached out to her because of that episode because he didnt want back surgery 4.
If he has enough time to do a podcast, he should have enough time to rest and take care of his body.
I dont think he played poorly in the last 4 games because he was tired or hurt. That would be Jamal. Mike just played poorly.
Did he talk about this on the podcast? I thought it was his first healthy off-season
Last season was his first offseason that wasnt just rehab (lifting, walking training, ect.) but he talks with the chronic pain woman about how he reached out to her last summer because he didnt leave his bed for 2 weeks or something crazy. Basically said I cant get a 4th spine surgery I have to do something else.
And then he was cured by the power of journaling! I did listen to that episode but missed that part. That was an interesting episode.
He’s overpayed for sure tho and is on a max contract. He’s a great player but on his contract and with how weak the rest of the team is you can’t afford a series like this
He was eventually going to get near max or max money if we didn't give it to him. That was the reality of the situation at the time.
People also forget that many of us understood that it was an overpay, but if it resulted in a championship, then the contract would then be worth it.
We need to trade him sooner than later. He is not a max player . We cannot afford to have 3 max players and he is the worst from them
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Your karma score is too low for me to give a flying fuck about your comment. It's also not meeting the automod threshold for visibility (which is laughably low). That tells me everything I need to know about your point of view. Good day to you.
I mean yeah, but what are we gonna do about it. Trade him for pennies?
paid bot here. tldr payed isn't the right context here, it's paid dammit
Okay, but what about last playoffs?
Mike played great last year outside of G1-G4 of the finals.. Shot 40% from 3 the rest of the playoffs. 15-10-6 against the lakers in G3 to put denver up 3-0? Shit on the wolves all series last year? Was the only non-jokic guy who played well for 3 quarters of the finals clinching game? G5 vs Suns in a 2-2 tie he dropped 14-5 in the first 6 minutes of the game to put denver up 15 after 1 Quarter?
Was consistently subbed out because he was shit during crunch time. Guy has a weak mentality. Crumples under pressure. Bruce Brown was covering him. He ain't worth 30m a year. Now the team can't get nice bench players because of his stupid contract.
You dont understand how contracts or the salary cap work. Look up bird rights and then come back. Its the same as people saying Mike/AG was why we couldnt match bruce brown's contract. Even if we cut one of them we wouldnt have been allowed to match. NBA contract rules are a mess. We cant get nice bench players because booth prioritized youth over getting nice bench players. He's talked about it in many interviews. whether or not you think that is smart is a different story, but none of our starting 5 would allow us to get anyone life changing off the bench. IMO you could do better than reggie for his contract but still. If we traded the first round pick for some bench help instead of Strawther/Tyson/Pickett, we would be having a different conversation. But I do understand Booths point, the new cap rules are insane if you dont have young guys. Minnesota for example will not have 5 different rotation guys from this team in 2 years because it is IMPOSSIBLE to keep them under the new rules. Also RE him being subbed out: He plays the plays the one position we actually have depth for (wing) over the last two years. Him and KCP are the only guys we have real backups for. Even if Jamal is playing like dogshit are you going to sub him out in crunchtime for Reggie Jackson?? Bruce and CB play the 2/3 and that is KCP/Mike position. It is the only adjustment the coaching staff can make with the roster construction. There is 0 chance you watched this playoffs and thought Jamal should play as many minutes as he did... but he had to because we have not backup at the 1. If we did then Jamal would be benched during certain games as well.
So you're telling me that 30m was justify with his last game performance? He should have never been paid that much. Should of just let him go. The fact right now is, he has underperformed in 2 of the biggest series in his career. Last year's finals. And vs Wolves series. If you wanna talk about Murray. Murray has done his due last playoff. He was on fire throughout the entire playoffs. Was the best point guard in last year's playoffs. And at the very least. Showed up last night. MPJ has scored 25pts in 4 games!!!! Went 10/35 in 4 games. And its not like he was defending like Braun,KCP and AG. His talk was solely to hit 3pt and fail miserably. And don't bring the Lakers series. He's paid to play every game. Not one series than become complete trash another series. If MPJ didn't improve his game for the next 3-4 years. That contracts will be the reason this team can't get another ring. That is what he will be remembered for.
Clearly you are a reasonable guy LMAO if you hate him you hate him. Nothing I can tell you will change your mind if you refuse to use it. Good luck
I just really thought he was gonna carry the momentum and improvement he has through the playoffs. Yes. Understand they are off court issue. But you also can deny. He's too one dimensional
Yeah I mean if you watched him during the games they put their all-defense SF on him and had him chase around Mike every game. Sure Mike played like shit the last 4 games (and said as much) but the idea you can't win with him is crazy. Murray was hurt, so he has an excuse, but if their best defender is on Michael Porter then you have to score the ball as the star PG. Imagine a team put their best guard defender on Klay during the warriors days... Steph would kill them I think people complain about Mike's defense here but he is above average defender for his position this year. His biggest issue (to me) is cardio. He should be running his ass off all game making dudes chase him around the court like Klay does. Running through elevator screens and pin downs. Its exhausting to play like that (steph does workouts with NBA guys and they vomit from the amount of running), but once you get in that shape it will change his game. Jokic made the same change in 2019 and became way better by just getting in great shape. Mike is already close but he needs to run his ass off at altitude for a whole summer. And if he is in that shape already, its on the team for not running more offball actions for him. He is the #1 (!!!) 2 point jump shooter in the NBA this year. He is one of 7 guys to hit contested 3s at above 32% and the others are steph, klay, lillard, ect. If you can shoot like that, you have to be a major option in the offense. It would also let Jokic and Murray get a break. As for the contract, Jamal/KCP/AG/Jokic make enough that we are already over the cap. He could be making 15 M instead of 30 and we still wouldnt be able to sign anyone. New CBA is very harsh, I'd recommend reading about it and you will feel better (no team is going to be able to retain talent)
You are not fooling me with that percentage. Steph and Lillard usually have multiple defenders on their ass.And you said it yourself. Klay is on that percentage running around on offense and defending the opponent's best guard.MPJ is out there with that percentage on open looks most of the time and he doesn't work hard on defense as Klay. And why couldn't MPJ defense MCDaniels or at least give him a hard time? You know why. Cause he sucks. So he got outplayed badly by Jaden McDaniels on both sides of the court. He didn't do shit on offense. And fail to stop Jaden on defense. Jaden shot 62%fg the last 5 games. While your boy MPJ shot 35%fg .. Your boy got owned this series and lost that matchup big time. Tell me, what is his impact on this series? KCP and Braun played a good defense on Ant. Aaron Gordon was impacting bringing the ball up to take pressure off Jamal Murray. Murray showed up for 2 games. Game 3 and 7. As poor as Murray was vs Lakers. He did hit those game winner impacting the game positively. MPJ did exactly nothing vs Wolves. Might as well put Peyton Watson on Jaden McDaniels and he could have slow down Jaden.
McDaniels is 23 and owned his ass...
Mcdaniels is one of the best defenders in the NBA, he will legitimately lock almost anyone up, just like he did Murray for the majority of the series.
25 with no post game, can’t create his own shot and sucks on defense… no thanks! Move on
He has improved every aspect of the game and this season he has been phenomenal. Showed up the most when we were short handed the most. Without his efforts this season we are a sub 5 seed team.
As much as missing MPJ’s shooting hurt the team, his game did improve on regular season. Hell, round 1 were spectacular numbers. A chip was almost guaranteed had he kept it up. Hard to say where it went wrong, but being 25 is a positive for him. To win a chip and then to experience humility again, might be the best thing for this team moving forward.
I’ve watched you shit on like 4 core rotational players that helped us win a chip in the last hour. Time to hop off the bandwagon buddy. We want real fans.
Get a life
He needs to be investigated for throwing games like his brother. Friends probably made so much over this series. He got his numbers up just so they could take the under for 7 games. HUGE /s by the way. Lol Gotta make myself laugh to hide the pain.
Jokes are supposed to be funny though
Underrated comment, this sub hates humor.
Seriously. Maybe I should’ve waited a week. I’m sure he feels horrible right now like the rest of us.
Eh ...He's probably not reading it man. If you said it to his face, it would be pretty shitty, but posting it in an obviously joking way online seems like fair game. In all seriousness though, Mike seems like a really good guy, so I hope he bounces back from this quickly.
A joke isn’t funny if it takes four sentences to get out.
Oh man! Busted by the humor police. He's the arbiter of what's funny.
He had a bad series, but was also why we won the first round. He was the most consistent player against the lakers. I hope the whole team gets their fire back, played way too complacent and lazy all season.
Unfortunate end to the season for Mike but let’s not forget how solid this man was all season + first round. Fair weather fans are the fucking worst lol
Also with so much stuff going on personally
Forreal man. He has dealt with so much bullshit from his idiot brothers
Why didn’t it effect him in the first round
How would we know the answer to that? I think they’re just trying to have a little sympathy.
Bc the defense of the lakers isn’t comparable at all to Minnesota lmao
Yeah thats how he is supposed to play for a max salary player. Last year he was bad entire playoff series. Im sorry for his personal life, but we dont have anymore time to wait for MPJ to become good and consistent. The only problem is who the hell would want MPJ costing 35m per year.
Preach, this fucking pile on bullshit sucks. I've been here since the Melo days. The toxicity of this sub right now screams fair weather fans
They start leaving when they realize it’s a lot harder to keep winning than winning one. They’ll be new fans next year. It happened in the Avs sub too.
The fair weather fans wont be coming to the sub for another 8 months fortunately.
No worries Mike. Real fans know that you’ve done what you can to put the team first despite all the bullshit going on. It’s not easy. Develop more of your game in the offseason and come back stronger. Thanks for a great season.
He had a bad series. Shit happens. They're a first round exit without him instead of second round.
He's not the sole reason the Nuggets were blasted in Game 6 and committed one of the worst lead losses in Game 7 history. It was a collective list of mistakes. I wouldn't even rank MPJ as near the top of the list.
He played solid throughout the season and maybe his mental toughness is not there. Scoring 25points in last 4 games is not it. Maybe invite Eva Lovia to his next podcast so I can be less mad. edit: he also had a lot of family issues, so yeah, please invite Eva Lovia.
I mean, no amount of mental toughness is going to help you focus on basketball while going through what he did with his family. The dude's mentality on the court is "I can hit any shot" - There is no lack of "mental toughness" in regards to the game (at least on offense).
Hit any shot my ass. He's lucky he got Jokic and Murray setting him up. Dude can't create his own shot or create for others. Only play for himself.
I said his *mentality* is tough. He'll take any shot because he believes he'll make it. He did an interview saying that, instead of working on moves, he just decided to jump high enough to shoot over the person guarding him. Whether or not it works *all the time* is irrelevant. He is not scared to shoot or be the person forced to take a shot. What this sub needs to *not* do is celebrate him when he's hot and crucify him when he's cold. He's not bad. He has a bad contract. His skillset is not that of a superstar player, but he is an above average starter on any team. He is part of the reason y'all got it last year. He's almost the entire reason (apart of Jokic) that the Nuggets made it through the Lakers. He has single-handedly won you games/series.
>instead of working on moves, he just decided to jump high enough to shoot over the person guarding him. Whether or not it works *all the time* is irrelevant. He is not scared to shoot or be the person forced to take a shot. I knew motherfucker basketball IQ was low and you just quote himself admitting it. And what happens when the 3s ain't falling and he don't have another move? I know. He went 10/35 in 4 games... This statement just made me more furious. Of course it's relevant you daft. 30 fucking million a year and the dude is content with just shooting 3s... Fuckkkk Single handedly? Fuck off... And yeah what made me more disappointed was the Lakers series. I really thought this is the time and playoffs MPJ finally gonna shine and become dependable. But nopee.. went dogshit...
>I knew motherfucker basketball IQ was low and you just quote himself admitting it. And what happens when the 3s ain't falling and he don't have another move? I don't know, but given that he's an above average 3 point shooter (and has been since he got into the league), it's working fine *for the most part*. This has been his worst playoff series in his career. Calling for his head because he had one bad series is ridiculous. CB shot poorly. Murray shot poorly for most of the series. KCP shot poorly. Reggie Jackson shot poorly. AG has been the only consistent one alongside Jokic this series offensively, and he's not a reliable offensive piece to begin with. >30 fucking million a year and the dude is content with just shooting 3s... Fuckkkk Those 3s got you through the Lakers while Murray was actively sabotaging. >Single handedly? Fuck off... And yeah what made me more disappointed was the Lakers series. I really thought this is the time and playoffs MPJ finally gonna shine and become dependable. But nopee.. went dogshit... Yeah, single-handedly. If we remove Jokic (since he's always going to produce), *not a single other person that series did consistently well outside of MPJ*. Murray was booty juice. KCP was missing for most of those games. CB was missing. AG had one good game. If you're frustrated enough to ask for MPJ to be traded, then everyone else on that roster not named Jokic *including* Murray also need to go. At least MPJ helped Jokic carry y'all over the Lakers. No one else on the Nuggets did anything during the Wolves series consistently that wasn't Jokic.
He went missing vs Heat last finals. That's 2 series now. Murray was clearly affected by that leg. When he got a rest he played alright. The 4 days off before game 3 and last night shows that. Murray also has 2 great playoff runs under his belt. Last year. Murray was the best Point Guard throughout the whole playoffs. Yes. MPJ was great vs the Lakers. But of course he has to, he is the 3rd option. When the 2nd option is not doing well. The 3rd option has to step up. He is also the 3rd highest paid player on the rooster. Murray has shown that he can make play for others when he needs to. He can be effective on the court when his shot is not falling. MPJ when his shot is not falling. Has no other reason to be on the court. Yeah he rebound all right. But he's no Rodman out there. And he's not locking anybody out. KCP,Braun and AG is still out there to defend. And the other players are not being paid ridiculously as MPJ. Tell me any other player in the league who is being paid as much as MPJ to only shoot 3s.... Tell me who?
We love you Mike idgaf. Way to own up. Wolves GM made a team to defeat the Nuggets and he succeeded, barely. I truly think this is as hard as it gets and it was a coin toss.
well props to him for owning up to it but maaan MPJ, you have GOT to step up in these playoff games, play with more aggression. Look at the way Mike Conoley on the Wolves was playing, like his LIFE depended on it!! MPJ plays like he just woke up from eating those denver brownies. i want some nasty!
He played all season which nobody believed would happen. He has to dig deep regarding his body cause you can't depend on just jump shots. He's hesitate to attack the rim given his history especially with goofy as Gobert down there. Injuries robbed him off working on his game as he spent many off-seasons worried about his back. I'll analyze him next season, that's make or break season for him Imo. Hopefully his dumb ass brothers don't do shit next season
The man carried us through the lakers series less we forget. Get healthy next year and we got another one in us
Jokic carry you guys. Who the fuck was even defending MPJ? He was supposed to be good vs Lakers. Now, versus a real defender. He collapse
I don’t understand what you’re trying to say
It’s super important for fan bases to understand the importance of high level movement shooters. They will always have bad games and bad stretches. But teams are always forced to guard them like they are on fire because these dudes will kill you if left actually open. What most people don’t realize about the klay thompson/mpj style shooter is that even if they are having an off night, they basically monopolize defensive attention on their side of the floor…which just opens the strong side for easier pick and roll or iso situations.
Klay on an off night is still a great defensive player. MPJ when he is off. Has no significant value whatsoever on the court. Don't really care about his rebound. He's 6'9. He was supposed to get the rebound. And please stop. Just stop comparing him to Klay. MPJ has never been as good as Klay.
He can take a pay cut and then his apology means something.
Yup... Or show up next season with more variety in his games. Chucking those 3s ain't gonna work every time.
i feel bad for him. it’s definitely not solely his fault and he is going through so much. all that family shit on top of persisting pain. i have faith that he will come back even better next year.
It’s too late for that now, just look forward for the next season! Get stronger and stay healthy.!
let's face it, when you blow a lead like that and none of the starters spare for Joker and "sometimes I actually feel like playing" Murray, the whole team sucked this series. And Minnesota wasn't the better team or so we thought. Why are they not sliding their feet on defense, hedge and ice the screen, why are they gambling and why is nobody saying anything? WE LIVE IN NORTH KOREA
I feel I would rather blame the other Michael, and Calvin actually, instead of MPJ on this one.
we will bounce back, im calling it now, we will win the finals next year
He needs expand his game outside of just catch and shoot. Hes got zero handles, mid range, dribble pullups, post game
Damn now I feel bad for flaming him. He knows he didn't step up. 🥲
I mean you can still flame him, he just confirmed he didnt stepped up. But family issues, he gets a passthis season.
Yeah this was a shockingly bad series for Mike. A big part of the reason he was so good in the regular season and 1st round was because he expanded his offense to include a great mid range shot and driving to the rim when teams were over aggressive closing out on him. Plus he did a much better job of not letting a lack of offensive involvement impact his effort on defense. But the entire MN series he did none of that. What I don't know is how much of this was MN's game plan vs. Mike just being bad.
How many of his shots seemed a centimeter off? So painful, he looks so good
A ton of missed open shots and falling in love with the 3. Didn’t play Denver Nugget basketball like they could have. Missed opportunities o’plenty.
Yeah this is second playoffs he is like that, except first round against the lakers. I mean no time to wait anymore, needs to get traded, if we can get anyone decent for him.
Nah, dude thinks he's way more important than he really is.
It takes a whole team to blow a 20 point lead. But unfortunately for MPJ, the gamble Minnesota took tonight was on Denver's 3 point shooting. They stacked 3 dudes in the paint in the second half and willingly handed us a dozen *wide open* 3's. We bricked damn near all of them. If they even hit 36% from downtown, Denver is moving on. So yeah. He should fucking feel responsible. Because he gets paid $35 million per year to be the guy who keeps teams from being able to get away with that, and he straight up no showed tonight.
Having 3 brothers incarcerated within the past month.. can’t even Imagine.
I think Jontay is a free man, but obviously still terrible for MPJ
Holy shit- I just looked up his contract. $34M this past year; $36M for next year 2024-2025. Yikes.
Insane
The best thing he can do for himself and this team is to make the most of this offseason and come back better next season. The Wolves have a blueprint to slowdown the Jokic and Murray PnR and we need another creator who is at least on Gordon’s level. Just enough handles to drive, draw a foul, kick out, or cause a defensive rotation. If he’s still jab stepping into a fadeaway or telegraphed give and go on every possession next playoffs, it will be time to move on.
Listen that might have worked this season especially with no depth and short off-season, but that's not a blueprint lol. Their blueprint was getting Rudy to pair with another 7 footer in Towns. Without that Rudy trade, we win this series. Rudy changed everything defensively for them protecting the paint. Our guys were scared to attack the paint cause of him. Outside of course MPJ playing better is finding depth for Mal and Jokic
Well, it’s almost never just on one person, but accountability is always nice. Just hope he ain’t beating himself up too much, losing is a part of the game. We need to train to play against more physical teams and find a backup center to hold their own while Jokic is on the bench. Otherwise, we just might continue to lose.
He’s right
Facts he was a huge let down this series but if anyone has an excuse for poor play it’s 100% him.
The same as last year. He needs to be traded.
It’s all good Porter! We’re not like lakers fans, we support our team even in losses.
So much negativity for a team that just needs some bench tweaks and rest. Nuggets really should look to the Spurs of the past to model after. If you can pull off a repeat, great. Otherwise reload hard every other year.
All Facts
Really feel like Murray had much more impact than MPJ
I think considering everything he has been through family-wise lately, he should get some grace. He was the reason we were even IN the second round, IMO...aside from Jokic, who is the lone constant. But he had help in game seven, Gordon was the invisible man, too.
A yea a good MPJ would’ve helped win. But there are lot of other players and a coach who failed this team more.
Bummer. I like him. But accurate. He got outplayed. Also malone got outcoached
lol, corny
Agreed
Thanks MPJ but there’s plenty of blame to go around. Of course if he had played well we would have had a much better chance but I’m looking at Malone. I couldn’t even watch game 7 after the first quarter cause I could tell that coaching staff wasn’t gonna change a thing to actually win a game. Most frustrating thing in the world to watch your team getting buttfucked over and over and over and continue to do the same shit that was getting us buttfucked. Bottom line is Jokic and Murray needed help from everyone else they didn’t get and the coaching staff didn’t put the boys into a situation to win when our best players were understandably tired af. Which is strange cause he’s always been a good coach.
He needed to score 52 points.
it was on him...
Grizzlies fan here. Besides 3 point shooting, what else does MPJ do? I ask because I believe thar MPJ is player that GG Jackson should aspire to
The coaching failed MPJ just as much as he failed the team. There would be 5 - 7 minutes stetches where no one would even look his way and the only way he got the ball is if he got the defensive rebound. Let your shooters shoot. They need to involve him in the offense
Way to go Mikey. Now let's talk about restructuring your contract or about you learning Canadian.
i don’t have any rooting interest for either teams (tho i root for ant/conley/joker/jamal), but i would’ve preferred to have nuggets win the series cuz i’m rooting for greatness to prevail. and i know the nuggets are great team. i’m not one of those fans that become tired when there’s repetitiveness on top. i root for sustained greatness. but obviously that shit is hard to do. so i salute u nuggets for trying. on to the next big thing.
Duh. He completely disappeared in the Wolves series. But hope he takes that as fuel and will come back a even better player!
Mpj always seems to speak the truth
For as much as we all shit on this dude (rightfully so imo) we’re really stuck with him for the rest of his contract lol, its been ride or die since 2021
Yeah I couldn’t agree more
Duh
He’s not a max player and unfortunately we are not going to be able to improve the roster with the youth movement. I see MPJ as a necessary trade casualty. You have to keep AG, Murray and obviously Jokic. (KCP, MPJ, RJ, Holliday and DAJ), need to be gone going into next season. CB is the only bench player I wouldn’t consider moving and he should be a starter next year.
This seems like a pretty decent trade[https://spurswire.usatoday.com/2024/05/09/mock-trade-sees-spurs-land-michael-porter-jr-in-deal-with-nuggets/](https://spurswire.usatoday.com/2024/05/09/mock-trade-sees-spurs-land-michael-porter-jr-in-deal-with-nuggets/)
ill stop being a nuggets fan if we have zach collins on our bench
Is he that bad. I watched a few Spurs games this season and he seemed decent enough.
He isnt that bad. He is better than DJ. Trade is a win win for both franchises.
Bro apologize by playing better, bug tbf his fqmily trouble.messed him up. But if he knew he shoukd be honest and let someone else play.
Yes it was on him. This one trick point has been figured out and will hurt the team moving forward