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NBA Playoffs

Jingled said:

View: https://twitter.com/NateDuncanNBA/status/1521333920683417601
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Its not even close now - Booker overall is a better player than Mitchell, especially now that Booker is shooting 38% from 3 (heck he had a stretch where he was shooting 43% from 3 this year).

He's better on offense AND defense.

The Mavs repeatedly tried to run stuff for Brunson on Booker last night in the 1st half, and NONE of it worked.

If the Suns can let Booker just guard Brunson, they can let Bridges focus most of his energy on Doncic. And last night the Suns played SINGLE COVERAGE (!!!!!) on Doncic like they didn't care that he was getting 45 lol. Doncic got 45 and the Mavs got absolutely dominated - that final score wasn't close to how that game went.
 
NUMBERICA said:
Dude just took a major hit on his reputation nationally.
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Booker thought he was a good defender and took on tough matchups even when he wasn't a good defender. Mitchell was a good defender, decided to not be a good defender, and then more or less acted like "it's not my job" whenever the issue came up. It's been said many times, but they really did switch in terms of perception. When Booker was winning 25 games a season his irrational confidence came off as annoying because he wasn't winning, but Mitchell was always seen as the winner....because he started his career with Gobert on his team. You can tell it irritates Booker when he loses or gets outdone. He understands how hard it is to win in the league and how important it is to take advantage of the opportunities you have. Don has no sense of urgency to win, and I do kind of wonder if he was spoiled into thinking that he would always win. He's in for a wakeup call if he trades away his free ticket to the playoff who was also his shield for all of the ball....until now that is.
 
KqWIN said:
Booker thought he was a good defender and took on tough matchups even when he wasn't a good defender. Mitchell was a good defender, decided to not be a good defender, and then more or less acted like "it's not my job" whenever the issue came up. It's been said many times, but they really did switch in terms of perception. When Booker was winning 25 games a season his irrational confidence came off as annoying because he wasn't winning, but Mitchell was always seen as the winner....because he started his career with Gobert on his team. You can tell it irritates Booker when he loses or gets outdone. He understands how hard it is to win in the league and how important it is to take advantage of the opportunities you have. Don has no sense of urgency to win, and I do kind of wonder if he was spoiled into thinking that he would always win. He's in for a wakeup call if he trades away his free ticket to the playoff who was also his shield for all of the ball....until now that is.
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I think this is dead-on accurate.

Which also means a lot of this is on Quin never holding Donovan accountable and always having the greenest light since his first game.
 
NUMBERICA said:
I think this is dead-on accurate.

Which also means a lot of this is on Quin never holding Donovan accountable and always having the greenest light since his first game.
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It always bothered me that Don had this built in excuse that it was ok and acceptable for him to not play defense because he was carrying the offense. If we still had the roster that couldn't throw in the ocean against HOU that would be one thing, but the supporting cast we put around him and Rudy is mostly offense-only players. Mitchell is one of the best offense talents in the league, but if he was going to improve it would have to involve toning things down anyways. Less hero ball and other ways to score besides a 17 second dribble combo without passing. He was doing too much on offense. Putting energy into defense would have been best for the team and best for his own offense too.
 
KqWIN said:
It always bothered me that Don had this built in excuse that it was ok and acceptable for him to not play defense because he was carrying the offense. If we still had the roster that couldn't throw in the ocean against HOU that would be one thing, but the supporting cast we put around him and Rudy is mostly offense-only players. Mitchell is one of the best offense talents in the league, but if he was going to improve it would have to involve toning things down anyways. Less hero ball and other ways to score besides a 17 second dribble combo without passing. He was doing too much on offense. Putting energy into defense would have been best for the team and best for his own offense too.
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And focusing on distributing more also. And really focusing on his shot selection.

Without going into a deep analysis, he seems worse now than when he was a rookie.
 
NUMBERICA said:
And focusing on distributing more also. And really focusing on his shot selection.

Without going into a deep analysis, he seems worse now than when he was a rookie.
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Nah... he had some stretches in those first couple years where the floaters were a finger cross and a prayer. He didn't shoot the three as well but made some offensive improvement imo. Defense at times was better than the year prior but still not consistent. Thought he'd put more energy and effort during the playoffs but it went the other way.

He is the player he is at this point... may have some slight improvements but some of the creation and passing stuff is instinctual. He seems to not be able to toggle between the two well... will look to pass a lot sometimes and then other times has blinders on. If he had CP next to him it isn't a problem of course.

Booker deserves a ton of praise... Ayton too... lots of young guys and stars have bristled at CP's annoyingly competitive nature... they embraced it and Booker has a bit of dog to him now... its kinda wild the transformation.
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
Yeah the thing with Mitchell is that I don't expect him to guard stars, but God damn if you in your athletic prime and can't guard Jalen Brunson a you're a POS player.
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Even worse, it isn't "can't" it's "won't". The number of times Mitchell just took one step to the side then watched Brunson and others waltz to the rim was staggering. No effort whatsoever to stay in front of or even pace his man. Just let him go right on by. Just pathetic for a max player. Hell it would be pathetic for a minimum player. But our best player simply cannot be a shorter version of Jabari "they don't pay me to play defense" Parker.
 
NUMBERICA said:
And focusing on distributing more also. And really focusing on his shot selection.

Without going into a deep analysis, he seems worse now than when he was a rookie.
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Nah, he's a much better player now. Defensively he has gotten progressively worse, but Mitchell is an elite offensive engine now and I'm not going to let a bad playoff series (especially with the mental state this team was in) sway me too much.

His efficiency was good this year, and one thing that kinda went under the radar is that his catch and shoot game was wack. He's been terrific every year of his career and was significantly worse this year. Methinks that this year was outlier and that he's likely to return to his previous catch and shoot form. If's he able to return to for on his C&S while maintaining his improved scoring inside the paint I think we're looking at a top 5 offensive player in the game.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Even worse, it isn't "can't" it's "won't". The number of times Mitchell just took one step to the side then watched Brunson and others waltz to the rim was staggering. No effort whatsoever to stay in front of or even pace his man. Just let him go right on by. Just pathetic for a max player. Hell it would be pathetic for a minimum player. But our best player simply cannot be a shorter version of Jabari "they don't pay me to play defense" Parker.
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The preserving his energy argument also falls on deaf ears when you see how much effort Booker puts in on defense and off ball... ain't like that guy isn't doing **** on offense too. Giannis is a two way cyborg too... Donovan doing that was always our best chance at being a true contender but being Trae Young is more fun I guess.
 
NUMBERICA said:
And focusing on distributing more also. And really focusing on his shot selection.

Without going into a deep analysis, he seems worse now than when he was a rookie.
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It's a massive problem in the last few minutes of close games. I said before that I think we might've been the 2 seed if we just benched Donovan at the end of close games, and I believe it. 3 seed at absolute worst.
 
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