Dennis Reynolds wrote:jigga_man wrote:Dennis Reynolds wrote:
Did you miss my point or are you choosing to ignore it? You don't go from winning 1 round in 2 seasons to winning a ring by adding a mediocre player.
It's not about Jokic who is the best player in the league and has been for some time, it's about these nonsense narratives most of this board has been trying to push. Instead of talking about his supporting cast based on their level of play you see plenty of people ignoring facts and straight up lying just to downplay them.
More and more posters are ranking players and their supporting casts based on nothing but bullchit and I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds it annoying.
Jamal Murray played 65 games last season (new minimum threshold for all nba selection for this season) and he wasn't even in consideration for the all star team much less all nba. That's the Nuggets second best player.
What does that have to do with his production in the playoffs? It's also like there's more than 2 players on the roster and having one of the best starting lineups in the league actually matters. Just say you're trying to push your sorry narrative and save both of us some time.
I think there’s a couple things worth noting here:
First, someone can be not an all-NBA player (and not an all-star) and still improve a team a lot. Even a borderline all-star is a big deal for a team, especially on a team like the Nuggets that has really lacked in depth (Murray being out pushed guys like Campazzo and Austin Rivers into major playoff minutes).
Second, Murray isn’t generally an all-NBA player, but he did very arguably play like one in the 2023 playoffs. That was great for them in that run, but he’s not replicating that form in these playoffs (which isn’t surprising, since that’s not his normal level as a player).
So basically, what happened last year compared to 2021 and 2022 is that the Nuggets added a borderline all-star to a team with minimal depth, and that borderline all-star actually basically played like an all-NBA player in the playoffs. That’s definitely a major difference, and was obviously enough to make them go from an early-round-exit team to a title-winning team. What seems to be happening this year is that that borderline all-star player is not playing like an all-NBA player in the playoffs. That leaves them a better team than they were in 2021 and 2022, but not as good as they were last year. Of course, maybe Murray will quickly start playing a lot better than he has been. But I wouldn’t hold my breath, since we shouldn’t expect a guy to just constantly rise in the playoffs just because he has done it before (and especially not when there’s injury issues for him).
