On today’s episode, Ryan Eichten and Leo Sun discuss the Minnesota Timberwolves drawing the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs and what the series might look like:
— With the Nuggets’ win as huge underdogs while sitting most of their roster in the final game of the season against the San Antonio Spurs, they secured the third seed and a matchup with the Wolves. It ends up as a huge missed opportunity for the Wolves, who could have instead played an injured Los Angeles Lakers team.
— Can
Julius Randle get back to his near All-Star level of play from the first half of the season? If he can, the Wolves will have a much better chance of upsetting the Nuggets in this series.
— Another looming question for this series is whether or not Rudy Gobert can impact the game on the offensive end of the court. Given how good the Nuggets’ offense has been this season, the Wolves will likely need Gobert to play as much as possible and will need to find a way to better incorporate him into the offense to keep him on the court this series.
— The Nuggets do not have a great option to guard Anthony Edwards; instead, they will likely throw double-teams at him whenever they can. How well Edwards can deal with different types of coverage will play a big role in which team advances out of the first round.
— The Nuggets are -350 to win the series over the Wolves (roughly 75 percent implied odds). Is that giving the Wolves enough credit in this matchup?
