NYRaider Posted June 19, 2021 Author Share Posted June 19, 2021 Just now, CWood21 said: Comparing Mike Conley to Anthony Davis is a head scratcher at best when one is probably a top 10 player in the NBA, and the one is probably closer to 30 then he is 10. But I digress. As I (and I'm sure others) mentioned before the season, you can't win a championship with Rudy Gobert as your 2nd best player. He's an elite defensive player, but he doesn't offer enough offense in the playoffs when defenses play better. And given the sheer amount of money the Jazz are paying him, you need more production then what they got. Anthony Davis is clearly better and more impactful than Mike Conley. But if we had a healthy Mike Conley it would've been a completely different series. He averaged 20/10 and shot the 3 at an insane rate in round one. And as I said above our lack of guard depth was exposed, we had 3 guards on our roster, Clarkson/Mitchell/Conley. Mitchell balled out but we struggled because we were so dependent on the 3 ball. They were blitzing Mitchell on pick-n-rolls and Rudy was a non threat offensively and when he passed it to anyone else they were just looking to shoot 3's. If we had Conley's playmaking ability, particularly his ability to get into the paint it really would've made a worlds difference. But again this is what we get for our poor roster construction. After the playoffs last year we acknowledged our lack of guard depth and perimeter defending, then drafted a 3rd string center, brought back Favors, and traded for Matt Thomas. And I agree 100% it will be essentially impossible to win with Rudy Gobert. I was in denial before but after seeing him get completely exposed by average role players it's just hard to even try and deny it anymore. And I wouldn't even say that Rudy is an elite defensive player, he's an elite rim protector but essentially useless if he can't camp around the paint. If he were able to dominate the boards and/or score he would've forced the Clippers to bring in bigs so they couldn't go small but he completely crapped the bed. It was just incredible to see this dude get post up opportunities against Terrance Mann and Reggie Jackson but refuse to attack or try to score. Our entire defensive strategy is built around funneling guys into Rudy's help defense. That masked our lack of athleticism and switch-ability during the regular season but in the playoffs last year Jokic got him away from the rim and Murray cooked us. And the Clippers got him away from the rim and all of our guys just got beat one on one or someone got a wide open 3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRaider Posted June 19, 2021 Author Share Posted June 19, 2021 Against the Clippers... Rudy Gobert (Per 36): 12.5 ppg, 11.7 ppg, 1.2 bpg | Clippers: 120.0 ppg Boban Marjanovic (Per 36): 20.4 ppg, 13.9 rpg, 0.5 bpg | Clippers: 111.1 ppg @CWood21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YogiBiz Posted June 20, 2021 Share Posted June 20, 2021 15 hours ago, NYRaider said: Imagine your best player being Julius Randle and Trae Young owning the most famous arena in the world. Imagine not having any plays run for your best player to give him easy buckets from the CoTY. God that series was infuriating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRaider Posted June 20, 2021 Author Share Posted June 20, 2021 4 hours ago, YogiBiz said: Imagine not having any plays run for your best player to give him easy buckets from the CoTY. God that series was infuriating. Imagine being a Knicks fan, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YogiBiz Posted June 20, 2021 Share Posted June 20, 2021 3 hours ago, NYRaider said: Imagine being a Knicks fan, Was gonna say the same about Jazz fan but they are slick my second favorite team. Thought this was their year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYRaider Posted June 20, 2021 Author Share Posted June 20, 2021 Just now, YogiBiz said: Was gonna say the same about Jazz fan but they are slick my second favorite team. Thought this was their year Knicks my 2nd favorite team, lmao. Hope we trade Don back home to NY to team up with Zion and Luka Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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