Was that before or after they were up 3-1 and had the lead heading into the 4th quarter of game 5? he is getting excuses…now Denver was some powerhouse team or something, so it’s not his fault he blew a 3-1 lead, and now his lack of adjustments against the Clippers with no Kawhi are getting excused too Gobert isn’t their best player, and if he’s hemorrhaging points on defense, then yeah…there are some series where a big just can’t play as much…Gobert isn’t some superstar or franchise player where he must play major minutes in a playoff series no matter how ineffective he is…it’s not like he’s balling on offense either to offset him getting targeted on defense as he was averaging just 12 ppg with all the minutes he was playing Doc Rivers was getting clowned on here after what he did, and has been getting clowned for years even after Lebron, u can’t tell me that if Lue had blown a 3-1 lead and then just lost a series like this closing it out with a blown 25 point lead that he wouldn’t be branded as trash
Yep, I agree. Just look at their first round matchup with Memphis. Ja tried to yam on Gobert in each game of that series.
I used to think like the guy you're arguing with too. That Quinn was a top 5 coach and Lue was overrated and was carried by LeBron. But these playoffs have been eye opening. For some reason, the Clippers would do stupid dogshit things in the first 2 games of both series loke having Bev/Morris/Batum guarding Michell/Luka, trying to play big with Zubac, benching Mann but as both series went on they'd adjust the strategy accordingly by putting PG/'Kawhi on the star, going small ball 5 out, playing Mann more. Lue really showed a willingness to change his strategy in order to attack the opponent's weakness. Quinn (and Bud too but that's a different conversation) on the other hand, believe in their system so much that they'll stubbornly stick to it even if it's getting them murdered. The corners were wiiiiide open for the Clippers all series. That's what you give up when you have Gobert out there dropping at every pick and roll. And that's what the Clippers used to win games 5 and 6. If you watch the 3rd quarter for the Clippers tonight, like half of the shots were corner 3s. The inability to make an adjustment when your current strategy is getting you destroyed is a huge inditement on a coach. You can keep Rudy in if you want but at least make him come up to the pick and roll so you don't compromise to corners. That was seriously embarrassing.
Honestly. Got to swallow guilty pill. Ty Lue is amazing playoff coach, his adjustments to defense are top class. He did it against Dallas, now he did the same against Utah. WCF will go to 7 i have no doubt, neither Monthy/Cp or Ty Lue will allow any easy games
agreed and even with Lebron, it was Lue and his staff that designed a game plan that held GS to just 97, 101, and 89 points in the final 3 games of the 2016 finals, but he never got any credit for that
One other thing, I'm giving Lue his props but part of me has this stupid conspiracy theory/crazy idea that would make him look even better( or worse depending on how you look at it). Some of the coaching decisions made in the first 2 games of those series were so unfathomable that they make me question whether those really were adjustments or that they knew the whole time that that was the best strategy and were doing dumb things to throw the other team off for some reason. Like obviously you'd want your best defensive players guarding their best defensive players but they kept putting inferior defenders on them to get cooked. Then, we all know that Rudy and KP, while very big people, don't have the ability to punish smaller defenders because they don't have post moves so what was the point of trying to match up with Zubac rather than punishing them on the other end by going small？And finally, Mann was one of their best players in the second half of the season so why bench him？It's especially weird cause he was great when they used him against Dallas but then he was benched again at the beginning of the Utah series. Could it be possible that Lue was doing the wrong things in the first games on purpose？
Who has more talent, answer the question. Denver had a top 10 player and dude who playing like a top 10 player scoring 40 ppg. Im just saying, its not like he was dog crap or that it was this grand coaching scheme that lost them that series, they lost it by a possession. He's their best player. By every single impact metric he is. At worst he's their second best player. His numbers have superstar impact on the defensive end. Like he is the anchor of their defense. Like you cant just bench whoever dude. I dont know why you think that Rudy has no cache like that but he does. And? The man still has a job and is still respected in NBA circles. A lot of dude's who coached Lebron look like this in the beginning.
And then what? Your rim protection is gone since no one on Utah could contain their man for penetration.
Who was up 3-1 and had the lead heading into the 4th quarter of game 5? Denver had more talent, good for them. Utah was still up 3-1, and Denver even with more talent wasn’t some behemoth of a team. Denver was just so much talented, yet Utah lost game 1 in OT, and then beat Denver by a combined 56 points in games 2 and 3… then they won game 4, and they were up heading into the 4th quarter of game 5 How’d they manage all that against Denver and their supreme talent? Answer that question Where was all that superstar defensive impact in the playoffs? Gobert and all his regular season impact stats just got exposed and taken advantage of. So Rudy has superstar/franchise player cache now? Really? I’m not talking about NBA circles, u moved the goalpost to that. I am talking about what gets said on here and all over basketball message boards. Ty Lue had respect in NBA circles, yet was still seen as trash.
and Conley averaged 20 and 5 on 48/53/86 shooting splits, yet somehow he was playing like trash against Denver in that series
See, you might have a point here if they didnt do that to the Clippers the very next round. Who had the top 10 player, how much better do you think Jokic is than Donovan and Gobert? Denver was playing ass defense and Jamal Murray hadnt started heating up yet. They were abusing Jokic in the pick and roll. But if a dude starts averaging 40 PPG then things get tough. That doesnt take away all the work you put in. Gobert is one of their star players. You are asking a coach to bench one of his stars. How many coaches would do that? Was Doc supposed to bench Paul George when he was underperforming? Yes? What? He's getting paid like it too in Utah. Bro, how many people do you see what people have been saying about Lue say those same things about Dantoni? Obviously he got an unfair shake. But coaching Lebron will make most dude's look like that.
Denver had a top 10 player, yet Utah was well on their way to beating them in 5. Murray had already had a 36 and 50 point game by the time Denver was down 3-1. Mitchell was the best player in that series, and Conley who u claimed played like trash averaged 20 and 5 on 48/53/86 shooting splits. Clarkson averaged 17 on 58% TS. Gobert averaged 17 and 11. So let’s please stop acting like Utah was just so terribly outmatched against the almighty Denver Nuggets. the Clippers choked, and rightfully got clowned and ridiculed for it along with Doc missing shots offensively like Paul George was doing and getting targeted time and time again defensively like Gobert was are 2 completely different things he’s getting paid like it because Utah had no choice, he’s nowhere near worth that kind of deal nor is he actually that caliber of player Rudy has clout like he’s Bron, Harden, Luka, Kawhi, etc just because he’s getting paid like them? Snyder doesn’t play him 40+ minutes in games 5 and 6 of this series since he’s being targeted and this just isn’t the series for him and what’s gonna happen? Gobert is a low level All-Star at best. He has no clout or cache.
u can not compare this to benching Paul George because he’s simply missing shots…Clippers whole game plan was to take advantage of Gobert because he wants to camp in the lane and not defend the perimeter
Props to Playoff P and Kawhi. They have routinely shut up doubters and haters this year like Lebron did last year.
Simmons barely played in the 4th because even stubborn Doc finally realized that sometimes u need to get a guy off the floor when he’s hurting u if he had left Ben in there so that the Hawks could successfully do hack-a-Simmons yet again, he would’ve been an idiot, and yeah, the Sixers season is probably done
