DEN tossed out a zone in the 1Q and stopped Knick penetration, leaving the Knix to clang outside shots. The DEN announcers noted that Coach Malone dislikes zones and rarely uses them, but it worked against NYK. Likely other teams will take note.
Knick transition D still a disaster.
About the 3rd play of the game, NUGs push the ball, two go down the left side. Randle follows his man, but nobody picks up Harris, as Elf (likely at fault) and Bullox both stare at Jokic and the other NUG straight ahead. Happened in the UTA game as well where no one picked up Bogdanovic who just walked to the left corner unguarded. Other poor transition D plays as well, but the ones where two guys pick up the same assignment and one opponent goes unnoticed are particularly egregious. Communicate. Know who your man is. Turn your head right and check the left side.
Knick bench got thoroughly outplayed.
No rhythm, not much teamwork.
DEN bench better than I thought.
Mont Morris is a lethal shooter.
JaMike is solid. PJ "Bull" Dozier looked terrific, boarding and bombing.
I kind of forgot about Hartenstein, a big who likes to bang. He looked interesting for HOU but Dantmanbee went ultra-small and IH wasn't involved there.
Campazzo has poise, even if he is 4'11"
BolBol a project but can block and pops 3's.
Cancar? Nnaji? I don't even know what country these names come from.
(Slovenia and father from Nigeria, respectively)
Nnaji and RJ Hampton 5 were both late 1st round picks.
So a young unproven deep bench.
And when porter returns you have Barton as well.
Mix and match and have one of Gary Harris or Murray or Jokic out there with the bench, and it works. I'm not sold on DEN being any real threat in the West, but they are a quality team.