There is not a single player on this team who is good on offense, and defense.
Tre - Can't shoot, ok defense
Malaki - Quite literally the worst defender in the NBA this year
Sochan - Leaves the 3 point line for no reason on a consistent basis
Wemby - Bad offensive game if he doesn't have an easy dunk
Keldon - Turnstile on defense
Champagnie - Very inconsistent shot and bad defense
Zollins - Turnstile in the paint
McDerm - Terrible defense
Wesley - Can't score
Vassell - Inconsistent scoring and defense
Cedi - Bad defense
Not an inaccurate assessment tbh but imo the biggest problem is the team being coached to collapse the paint and leave shooters wide open over and over again. Spurs have been getting demolished from three all year long and it's because their defensive schemes are archaic and Pop thinks everyone should leave their man wide open to pack the paint for some reason. Until that changes the team is going to keep getting face ed night it and night out
Five defenders in the paint. Nobody on the coaching staff seems to notice.
Many of you old guys know that back in the day the Spurs had some stat that percentage of a three pointer goes down dramatically if the defender is in a certain range of the shooter The only reason I know it is because the Spurs knew it.
Clearly Pop was not the person who knew it.
Bingo. Dithering old fool out there.
I just can't get over how much this team helps, giving wide open threes constantly. It has to be by Pop's design because no one ever gets benched for it. You got guys scared to shoot at the rim on Wemby but it, let's send Sochan or Branham off his man and after the driver anyways.
Outside of critique of Pop, I think the coaching staff seems fairly poor in terms of talent. Young and unproven at the least. When we got Wemby, they needed better assistant coaches, but then some say we can't hire any until Pop retires. I don't know. Seems like upgrading our assistants would have been a no brainer even if they want to tank another year.
The biggest problem is 74yo and s himself twice a day tbh
I legit let out a white woman feinting gasp last night when our whole team collapsed on KRISS ING DUNN
he cant even wipe his own ass tbh
Well put.
Somehow this team tries to pack the paint (leaving shooters open) but also is not in position to rebound because they all want to try to sprint up the floor for "easy buckets"
So I have been wanting to see if my theory that the Spurs are poorly coached is legit. I figured if I want to see if the Spurs are a bad defensive team, I should see what a good one does. So I went into my replays folder and found a playoff game between the Knicks and the Cavs from last year.
Very small sample size, but here are a few things:
Not nearly as much pick and roll as you see against the Spurs. I think Spurs' opponents keep running it because it's so effective. If one of you guys has a stat tracker that sees what sets are run the most and against whom, that might be interesting.
Second, defenders never back away and give up space. When a Spurs defender gets picked, the dribbler goes toward the paint and the big backs up, giving him space to shoot. Meanwhile the original defender sits there on the dribbler's hip doing nothing but waiting to be called for a foul. The Knicks and the Cavs step up and defend the dribbler, and teammates rotate in to cover his man or block out. They also manage to do so without leaving anyone open behind the arc, let alone three or four like the Spurs typically do.
Lastly for now, the teams look like they are moving at a completely different speed. They switch quickly, if they go under a screen they do it as fast as they can, when they are changing position they are sprinting.
And finally, here is why I now think this is 100 percent due to coaching: halfway through the first quarter of the playoff game I mentioned, I saw a defender making a quick switch, using his feet to recover position and aggressively defend a 12 foot shot. I suddenly realized I recognised the player. It was Cedi Osman. Defensively, he looked like a different dude. I bet you gotta defend hard on that team if you want minutes.
Must be nice.
It's also shocking how often the Spurs have two or three or four guys down in the paint and the opposing team gets a putback dunk or an offensive rebound. San Antonio is 25th in steals this season, so nearly every single thing that could happen in the paint is bad.
There is literally one 1 player on the Spurs that has any type of defensive game. Wemby. And his defense ain't that great either.
If you want to know the real reason the Spurs suck...it's defense.
And if you want to know why our Defense sucks...it's Pop.
The assistants look like they're just there for decoration, and not much else. Definitely nothing but yes men it appears.
If you look at EPM (not perfect, but best catch-all stat out there I've seen yet), while a couple spurs have been actually decent to good on defense (Vassell decent, Wemby great), not a single spur clears 0.5 offensive EPM (Vassell and Keldon sit at +0.4, Victor -1.4). Spurs, Wizards, and Pistons all have this in common, while the next tier up of bad teams (Hornets, Blazers, Jazz) have at least one and sometimes multiple players that clear +3.0. Hard to have a good offense when even your best offensive player is bad offensively. Thus far only player on the roster who's both (slightly) positive offensively and defensively is Vassell.
Which is extremely puzzling considering on the offensive end they will pass up a wide open 7'5" Victor Wembanyama to pass cross court to a semi-contested, 33% three point shooter. They obviously value the 3 more than the 2 on offense, just not on defense.
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