In all seriousness, some of us call him Enrique with love, we're just playing around, but let's discuss Tony Parker's progression in the 2014-2015 season in this thread, tbh..
Tony was pretty bad in the 2014 playoffs, having the 2nd worst on/off metrics on the team and poor advanced metrics across the board..I attributed it to the wear&tear from a deep Finals run in 2013 followed by playing International ball during the Summer..I figured he would bounce back with a full off-season, but so far, he doesn't really look improved IMO..
It's still way too early to judge, though, he's probably still coasting like the rest of the Spurs..
Use this thread to track his improvements, etc..
It's going to be interesting to see what Pop does with the system going forward, too, especially when it pertains to the starting unit..
Tonight saw a lot of Kawhi in the post, they were clearly making it a priority..
Can the Spurs afford to run a lot of Leonard post/iso AND continue to run a lot of Parker iso? Where is the ball movement from last year going to come from?
he has a lot of miles in his legs... would be difficult for the Spurs if he lost a step, tbh... but it's early, he's gonna get the benefit of the doubt from me...
His 3's are much improved..
I haven't seen his 2012 speed though..
if he plays the same way as 13-14 without playing for france, father time is probably getting him..
IMO though, his shooting is still very reliable...If its really a matter of getting old, at least he could depend on his improved 3's and good jumpshot in general.
He was bound to lose a step due to age. I think it might be permanent. Luckily for the Spurs, they still found a way to win even with this Parker last year. Bad thing though that other teams might get wise and stop sticking their best defender on Parker and on Leonard instead.
Well, it's just a reality that we have to consider, tbh..
Last year's performance was either fatigue from a year of basketball vs. beginning of the decline for a PG in his 30s with a ton of mileage..
Hopefully his 3-point improvement is real, as that would negate some of the physical decline..
We take the lead and got goes solo with a bad shot
Thank God Kiwi was there for the offensive rebound
If Parker is still struggling come playoffs (a long ways away, I know), it will incredibly difficult for us to repeat tbh.
Believe it or not, I'm not really a big fan of Kawhiso...
He was awesome in the finals, but his points came from ball movement..
Spurs were literally better when Parker was on the bench in the playoffs last year, tbh..
But ya, although the Spurs won the 2014 championship with Parker being a liability for large stretches, I do agree that they can't win it again this year if he isn't at least occasionally able to dominate..
Might just be recency bias, but it feels like he is getting his shot blocked more. Plus more trouble getting to the rim.
I want tony to be relegated to mainly a spot up shooter role this year. It'll be for the better
All that dribbling and falling down takes its toll
Why don't you track Manu as well? We won't win another championship if he didn't play to form as well..
People used to talk daily about how Allen Iverson would hit a physical wall overnight and it was because of all the falling and hitting the deck he'd do nightly.
Tony Parker seriously falls to teh ground and wipes out at the same clip as AI ever did, if not more.
I've said even in his legendary 2013 season that he had lost much of his quickness he had in prior seasons. Then he twisted an ankle against MEM I believe, and came back to form only to pull a hammy in game 3 of the finals.
He was nowhere near the player last season and last playoffs that we were used to.
It's not a coincidence you see all this talk about 3 point shooting from Parker now.
Tony is the only on of the Big 3 who might actually play for another team before he retires, tbh.
Too early to say tbh...
I'd really like to see him focus more on playmaking rather than flailing around in the paint throwing up shots that have a <5% chance of going in. He's still getting into the paint well from what I've seen...he's just not making smart plays once he gets in there.
It'd be huge if he could get closer to how he was in 2012-2013 as opposed to how he was last year tbh.
He led all Spurs in scoring for the playoffs. Not sure how you can say that.
They had a better adjusted on/off as a team when Parker was on the bench..
Manu hasn't been a star in a long time, Tony was still a star player in the 2013 playoffs, which wasn't even 2 years ago..
Everybody has already accepted Manu's decline, tbh, we know what type of player he is at this point of his career..
We don't know what to expect from Tony going forward, he's at an interesting point in his career following last year's playoff run..
Playoffs are an atrociously small sample size.
Moreover, that's just as much a reflection of the fact that the Spurs shot better in the '14 playoffs than any team in NBA history, likewise for the Finals, as it is Tony being less than stellar. 19ppg in the playoffs as a PG against the gamut of teams we were up against is nothing to sneeze at. But , when everyone from a strawberry milk loving Aussie to a 6'8" baguette hoarding Frenchman is making it rain from 3, and I mean shooting at unheard of clips, yeah, it's going to be tough to compete with that kind of efficiency no matter who you are.
Additionally, at the VERY least, Parker's presence on offense had to be accounted for by all teams. It's almost a given that they gameplanned to stop Tony more than any other Spurs player. We had 3 point shooters getting wide open looks in every series. Not a luxury that likely would have been as frequently enjoyed had we not had such a weapon to scare defenses like Tony. Sometimes the threat of a player is just as much of a weapon as the player itself.
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