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Denver Nuggets 2019/2020

Lucas

Przez Lucas
w NBA

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Nuggets skończą sezon na:  

70 użytkowników zagłosowało

  1. 1. Nuggets skończą sezon na:

    • Mistrzostwo
      3
    • Finały NBA
      4
    • Finały Konferencji
      17
    • 2 runda
      27
    • 1 runda
      17
    • Brak Playoffs
      2

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Lucas Grand Master

Lucas

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Spoiler najbliższego sezonu

In a beautiful nod to symmetry, Jokic is shirtless again.

It’s an unseasonably warm June in Denver, so as the championship parade for the Nuggets pulls out of Union Station and up 17th Street, the 7-footer does away with his T-shirt, takes his place atop the firetruck leading the procession and begins bobbing his head to the music once again.

The Nuggets had been talking about championship expectations since they convened in Colorado Springs for training camp on Sept. 30, believing they had the talent, depth, coaching and experience necessary to capture the franchise’s first title.

Still, there is disbelief as the parade weaves past thousands of onlookers. So much had to go right for Denver to beat the odds. So much magic that had to happen for the Nuggets to win a Game 7 in the NBA Finals over Joel Embiid and the 76ers. Jokic, defying the predictions of some that there was simply nowhere else for his game to expand, is about to be named the league’s MVP after averaging 22 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists per game, an incredible performance that included 21 triple-doubles and who-knew-he-had-it-in-him defense in the postseason.

Jamal Murray, riding in the lead fire truck with Jokic, had taken an even bigger leap. After a quiet preseason, the point guard who had been handed a max contract extension 11 months earlier stormed out of the gates, finally shaking a career-long trend of slow starts. He averaged 24 points per game in October and November and never really slowed down, earning his first All-Star bid and then becoming a forever legend in Denver by virtue of his Game 6 buzzer-beater in the Western Conference Finals to eliminate the Clippers.

Malik Beasley and Jerami Grant are on the next truck, two players whose career years had led coach Michael Malone to say, on the eve of the Finals, “I don’t have a starting five. I have a starting seven.” Grant had proven to be an even more perfect fit than Denver had imagined, his willingness to fill any crack fortifying the whole. His youthful legs had allowed Malone to rest veteran Paul Millsap often during the regular season, and the result is the best postseason performance of Millsap’s 14-year career. The Nuggets had faced criticism in some corners when they handed a player who turned 35 two months prior to the playoffs a $30 million payday before the season started. But Malone and president of basketball operations Tim Connelly knew Denver couldn’t win a title without Millsap, and his spill-it-all-out performance in Game 7, when he helped fluster Embiid into 4-of-13 shooting, made every penny worth it.

For his part, Beasley, a clear choice for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award, never let the specter of playing for a new contract alter his game. Perhaps the search for a max deal was the fuel that helped him average 18 points in just 25 minutes per game, shooting 43 percent from 3-point range. Teams simply couldn’t match his energy during the postseason, when he led a Denver bench that fully answered the bell after its collectively disappointing performance during the 2019 playoffs.

In the last truck is Michael Porter Jr., his Hollywood smile reserved not only for the thousands of fans chanting “MPJ! MPJ!” but also for the 12 teams that passed on him during the 2018 draft, believing that back surgeries he had as a teenager made him damaged goods. The Nuggets endured some growing pains with Porter through the first half of the season. Like most rookies, his defense needed work. He didn’t grasp the nuances of the NBA game in the early days of his first season. But Malone, through gritted teeth at times, stuck with the rookie. And in the postseason, defenses that were already stretched thin having to account for Jokic and a much-improved Murray found little ammunition to throw at a 6-foot-10 small forward who gave Denver an isolation weapon it hadn’t had while falling in the Western Conference semifinals one year earlier.

As the parade ends, and the Nuggets gather for a pep rally at Civic Center Park, they talk about how they came to view predictions that Denver would finish the regular season as the West’s best team as a backhanded compliment. Whether it was a real or perceived slight, the Nuggets say they kept hearing pundits emphasize those two words: regular season. Denver had indeed owned the West, winning a franchise-record 58 games, never losing more than three games in a row.

Then they carried it over. All the things that made them a regular-season juggernaut — a defense that climbed to seventh in the league; 3-point shooting that returned into the top 10; that glorious, unrelenting depth — they all showed up during an unforgettable postseason run.

Before the pep rally is over, Jokic gets out of his chair and lunges to the front of the stage. He’s put his “Nuggets, 2020 NBA Champions” T-shirt back on, but the party has only just begun.

The center looks at the crowd, pauses and then authors his mic-drop moment: “We’ll see you guys back here next year. Same time. Same place.”

 

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LeweBiodroSmoka Grand Master

LeweBiodroSmoka

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Nie no dopłacanie Beasleyem do kontraktu Bartona, to byłaby jakaś granda. Faktem jest, ze przez maxa Murraya i kontrakty Willa i Śliwki jesteśmy zacapowani na maxa, przez co Malik dostawał jakieś śmieszne z punktu widzenia płac w klubie, oferty extension rzędu 10mln na sezon. Niespecjalnie to wygląda, bo picku już nie mamy, a i wszystkie assety są albo dla nas niezbędne albo nietrejdowalne bez konieczności dopłaty.

Edytowane przez LeweBiodroSmoka
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LeweBiodroSmoka Grand Master

LeweBiodroSmoka

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1 minutę temu, Lucas napisał:

Nie wiem na ile Malik byłby wyceniony w wymianie jeśli jest RFA, który pewnie nie zostanie wyrównany przez zacapowanie. Dlatego zejście z Bartona nie byłoby aż tak źle. 

To mało istotne, bo wzięłaby go druzyna, którą by było na niego stać. Tylko, że wtedy taka akcja bardzo rzuci się cieniem na menedżment, bo nie zadbać o miejsca dla swojego drugiego najlepszego RFA, to byłby bardzo szkolny błąd niestety. Inna sprawa, ze nie wiemy czy Beasley jeszcze rozważa pozostanie, czy już mu może Paul i reszta nasrali do głowy pespektywą gry w Lakers.

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