1. I’ll stop short of a full on conspiracy theory but…upon rewatch, it sure appeared as though Joel Embiid spent several possessions early on trying to keep Jokic from scoring at the expense of allowing some wide open shots for other Nuggets players. No PnR coverage calls for Embiid to jump away from the ball handler on a basic ball screen like he does here.
2. Matisse Thybulle does a great job of flipping the screen against a defense that is trying to switch. By flipping the screen at the last second, Barton is out of position for the switch and it leads to an easy bucket.
3. The above defensive sequence was a miscue from Barton and Gordon. The below defensive sequence is just frighteningly bad perimeter containment. The Nuggets have got to find a way to avoid those types of blow bys. If you have 10 feet of cushion, you should never get beat to the paint.
4. Another thing to watch as we get closer to the playoffs is just how frequently Bryn Forbes gets stuck as the low man in help on PnRs. The 76ers repeatedly put him in position to have to rotate over towards Embiid in the paint for easy baskets. There just isn’t a whole lot Denver can do about those plays. Forbes can meet him earlier and rotations can be more crisp but teams in the playoffs will game-plan similarly if they have a big whole can make plays on the roll, a la Draymond Green and DeAndre Ayton.
5. Speaking of quicker rotations, in this clip the 76ers run the same action two plays in a row. In the first, the Nuggets are forced to have Bones rotate over onto Embiid for an easy score. On the next play, Cousins anticipates the sequence and releases off of Harden a half second earlier, allowing him to get back to Embiid on the block.
6. Bones is in a zone right now so even his “weaknesses” are hidden by his talent. In the clip below, his slow release and footwork turn a wide open mid-range into a semi-contested step-back. He still knocks it down, but the clip provides a great example of where Bones can speed up his release and polish his footwork on handoffs to get these shots off quicker.
7. One of the most exciting things about Bones is that he excels at so many of the skills that are augmented playing alongside Jokic. Here he perfectly times a slip on a split cut and beats his defender. These types of cuts are a staple of Jokic-ball and will become even more deadly as he shares the court with Jokic, Murray, Porter, and Barton.
8. Here, Bones perfectly keeps his defender on his hip while luring the rim protector out of position. This is a skill Monte Morris has perfected and was one of the reasons that the Nuggets beat the Blazers in the playoffs last year. Bones already has a good feel for these types of reads in his rookie season.
9. Bones is also great at getting the ball out of his hands quickly. One of the keys to getting the ball popping is making the right read as quickly as possible. Every delayed millisecond is a chance for the defense to rotate and figure things out. A lot of rookies like to catch a pass and then think about the next move. In this clip, Bones makes the touch pass back to Boogie as soon as he sees both defenders jump out at him.
10. And if you were wondering where Bones’ confidence level is at…
11. I have no idea how officials miss plays like this.
12. The ball is poppin!
