Reply With Quote
Really impressed with Gay. Curious to see how he meshes with LMA and Kawhi sharing the floor with him.
Anderson was solid tbh. I thought he balanced him looking for his shot with finding the open man he had three assists and had a couple more that should've been one. His length and anticipation caused a couple of deflections and a steal. He finished 5-6 with his only miss was a botched lay up. I really like his game.
Really impressed with Gay. Curious to see how he meshes with LMA and Kawhi sharing the floor with him.
Kyle was also great defensively, especially when he had the sidelines or baseline to help him. There was a play where he was one-on-one with Harden, and James kept trying to fake him out but eventually just had to pass it. They've come to respect that trying to dribble around Anderson is more likely to result in him picking your pocket that it is in a score.
Not a big enough sample size to say whether the improvement is there or not; I'm just saying that some of the same issues could still be there. In fact, I expect significant weaknesses.
I think the key is if he can adequately space the floor, and so far the returns look good.
I think Spurs ed up here!
They coulda taken Jordan Bell, they blew it!
I’m really starting to believe that PATFO is spiting this whole forum with yet another build from within season. It’s too early to say for sure but these guys seem primed and ready.
I think White will be a better all around player than Bell. He's just gonna have to wait a couple years to move up the ranks. He's got Forbes, and Paul ahead of him on depth chart.
Manu retiring and Forbes free agency might have an impact tho. He could see rotation minutes as early as next year. As for Bell, he's gonna look great some nights cause who he plays with and cause they lack depth at that position, so he'll get minutes. White will be at the bottom of the bench and playing a lot of minutes in Austin.
But all in all, Bell's skill set isn't hard to find, but what makes him exciting is his motor. I'd rather have Joff.
I'm seeing a roster that is deep if not star quality after Kwahi comes back. There isn't a huge drop off except after Kwahi. All of these guys look like legitimate NBA players. Frankly, I was surprised that we handled the Rockets so easily with Harden playing big minutes.
Pop may be looking at splitting minutes and using hard pressure on offense and defense to wear down teams with a more star-laden starting five. If this is the strategy to beat those star heavy teams, and if our players like LMA and Kwahi buy in to the idea that the team winning is worth more than personal stats., then this could be a throwback to the "beautiful game" teams. I hope so.
I think the overall length on the perimeter between Green, Leonard, Gay and Anderson is both unusual and a plus. They all possess freakishly long arms with varying degrees of athleticism. Anderson doesn't have athleticism but he's figured out how to use his length; he has good anticipation and timing which allow him to deflect passes or swipe the ball when he is defending the ball or playing off it. He had a game against Cleveland last season where he had four steals and a block, two of his steals came from him helping off his man and reaching in as the opposing player drove by (pretty sure it was Lebron both times).
A large part of the reason why I am so high on his is because of his defense; considering it was a probably his biggest question mark when he entered the league, it's impressive that he has managed to work his way into being an above average defender.
I actually wouldn't be surprised if Murray filled Manu's backup SG spot if Manu retires after this season, assuming Parker is brought back for another year- a final season hopefully. After that, Murray would hopefully be ready to slide into the starting lineup and White would then have a shot at rotation minutes.
I think that there were probably more talented players than White taken after him but I think White could have a very solid NBA career while some of those other players may or may not.
yeah he def was a safe pick but I think he has some upside as well. I think elite role player is his ceiling and solid rotation player is his floor
After rewatching the game this past weekend... I paid attention to Brandon Paul and I think he will surprise this season. He's very solid on defense and can shoot. Once he knows the system, etc and has chemistry, I think he will be a good addition to the team.
gay, kyle, LMA, green and joff were great. forbes pissed me off on the play where the ball swung around to him and then he passed up the shot. dude is here to shoot and that was a flashback to last regular season.
My only issue with Paul is that he's not nearly the athlete I expected him to be. He's like Kawhi without the length. Simmons was probably the best on the team, but Paul is possibly the fourth- or fifth-best. That certainly hurts his upside. But the shooting, D and over all maturity makes him a guy I could see actually being re-signed ... well if the Spurs hadn't just drafted two guards and given Mills a long-term deal.
Pop was visibly upset about that with Forbes. I daresay if he's passing up shots in the regular season he will be sat down until he's hungry enough about his playing time to go back to the loaded magazine.
You are absolutely right. Paul is a good athlete, but Simmons is an elite athlete. Offensively their games are different, Paul likes to shoot the basketball a lot more, whereas JSimms passed up open shots bc he liked to drive to the hoop. Paul might be a better system player due to his shooting but like Ime said, Simmons was ahead offensively with the basketball.
I have thought about the guard situation and I think the exaggerated guard depth is in anticipation of guys they will find difficult to retain next season. Some guys will play their way off the team. The better some guys play, the less likely it is that Spurs can afford them. That is more speculation than on topic for this thread, but I have thought they have a lot of FA next summer anyways and some guys inevitably won't be back. So, while not all of these guards will be rotation players this year, they will get enough experience between injuries and rest games to play more next season if they develop well, when inevitably the roster changes again.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions