Props to Coach Erman

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The defensive gameplan ahs been brilliant and really well executed/adjusted throughout the series. Blitzing Dame/CJ on the PNR and forcing them to take contested shots

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they run that high screen & roll like 3/4 of the time on offense. the pels guards trapping up there was a great move, one you can only really do if you have confidence your bigs will cover the roll man

they got burned some in the 1st half but overall it paid off handsomely

Yeah they weren't really blitzing the ball handler in the picks in the first half, and it left our big having to decide if he wants to step out and stop the 3, or defend the roll, and he was in no mans land.

2nd half they started hedging the picks real hard, or going under them if the pick was happening high up, and it allowed guys like Jrue and Moore to stay with their man so the big could prevent the roll guy from having an open lane.

Etwaun played pretty good last night defensively. I don't expect him to be able to guard Lillard, but he did pretty good last night.

I know Jrue has been awesome, but that's b/c he's a great individual defender. If you switch everythign, or are forced to switch the picks, then he does you no good b/c then Jrue is guarding a guy like Davis or Collins. The Bigs deserve a lot of credit in executing the game plan so Jrue gets to stay with his man.

I said before the series starts that was going to be one of the biggest deciders in how we can win the game, the pick and roll defense and then trying to limit their 2nd chance points. I'd say we aren't doing great with the 2nd chance points part of it, but we are excelling at the pick and roll defense.

I'll tip my hat to the coaching staff. They have been great these first two games. Gentry is making it hard to not love him and his staff right now.

Other big thing Gentry did last game was calling timeouts in the 2nd half. I'd say for most of the season he is absolutely terrible at calling timeouts. Was great last night.

In the first game it seemed like they hedged those high Pick N rolls the whole game and then by the end of the game Nikola and AD seemed dog tired. Do you think they purposefully didn't do it in the first half so they would be fresher in the second half?

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If you can play Small Ball with 2 stretch 7 footers on the floor every minute of the game that can all defend and score inside, outside and from the mid range too

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I am really intrigued with a Boogie/AD/Niko 3 big rotation. Being able to almost always have 2 of them on the floor is going to overwhelm teams if Boogie can return to reasonable form. I see a lot of people saying Niko pairs better with AD, but Boogie/AD was fire and the Niko/Boogie pairing is really going to open things up for Boogie against benches too.

Dell built a playoff squad. Now his job is to go build a championship team.
Guys I ideally want to keep (obviously somehow keep rondo, Clark, and cousins. Jackson as a red shirt rookie has a year to replace Clark or Moore).

PG: rondo/clark/jackson
SG: holiday/moore
SF: ---/miller
PF: davis/niko
C: cousins/---/okafor

At first I thought Moore should be bait. But for the cost and production, can't get much more for a 3rd/4th guard.

Hill and diallo somehow needs to turn into Covington or something viable as a rim protecting big.

Mek?

I'd like to think he can give you 10-15 minutes when needed

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To the rest of the league next year:

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Next year? I realize the Pels have to finish off Portland first, and then the Stephless Warriors, but I've gone from rooting against the Thunder so we can have a 5% chance at a Paul George trade to rooting for the Thunder so we can have a 5% chance at an OKC/NOP Western Conference Finals, which of course leads to the Pels winning it all.

ATL, I love where your head is at.

Mannix and other national writers are starting to give him press as a head coaching candidate that teams should be interviewing.

Assistants usually take at least 1-2 years of being mentioned before actually being picked. The good thing is that Gentry will let outside voices in unlike Monty. So if we do lose Erman or Finch they'll hopefully replace them with someone comparable.