Blackjack
02-03-2010, 01:25 AM
Best may be yet to come for Spurs, McDyess (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Best_may_be_yet_to_come_for_Spurs_McDyess.html)
Mike Monroe - Express-News
The Spurs left Tuesday for the first long leg of the rodeo road trip, five new players getting their first taste of an annual trek that began in 2003.
Inquiring minds wanted to know: What do the newcomers make of an experience that has helped to define a team that won three titles since the trip began?
Antonio McDyess briefly rolled his eyes, then mouthed a response impossible to refute: “Road games are tough, but it's not something I'm not used to.”
Indeed, McDyess has been in the NBA for 14 seasons, on good teams and bad. He's experienced nearly everything, including long road trips.
There are patterns to every season for every team. For the Spurs, team chemistry always seems to coalesce while they are jetting around February.
There's a pattern to McDyess' career, too, and it is a reason to believe the second half of the season won't be the struggle a brutal, road-heavy schedule suggests it can be. Typically, his numbers improve significantly after the All-Star break.
In his last 32 games last season, he scored in double figures 20 times and had 15 games with double-figure rebounds. For February, March and April, he averaged 12.7 points and 12.7 rebounds.
Denver's Chauncey Billups has seen this first-hand from his good friend and former teammate. After he made two huge plays that sent the Spurs off on this trip with another homecourt loss, “Mr. Big Shot” recalled four seasons in Detroit with McDyess.
“We always gave him so much slack,” Billups said. “Because the first half of the season, it was always like, ‘Come on, 'Dyess, the summer's over. ... Christmas is past. ... It's Valentine's Day now ... Let's start playing.' He always has been a second half sort of player.”
There have been signs that McDyess' surge is under way. Four straight double-figure games, his perimeter jumper more reliable and frequent, show why the Spurs signed him last summer.
“He looked like the McDyess I always knew,” Billups said after his friend kept the Spurs in Sunday's game with 13 second-half points. “He's always going to make that 15 to 16-foot jump shot, and he's going to rebound and play good defense.”
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has heard about McDyess' slow starts and fast finishes.
“I've been told,” Popovich said. “He's playing much more confidently now than at the beginning of the year. You see him making little moves under the bucket, and offensive rebounds are getting better. If he's going to continue to improve on that, that would be great.”
It may be part of what the Spurs need to survive this rodeo trip and a 36-game finishing schedule that includes only 12 at the AT&T Center, but even his good friend knows the Spurs' fortunes remain tied to their Big Three.
“'Dyess is at a point in his career he just needs somebody to get him those looks,” Billups said. “He's not going to go work for 20 points a night and get on the block and do all that. He's just a complementary role player, and if he's used like that, he's super-valuable.”
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Mike Monroe - Express-News
The Spurs left Tuesday for the first long leg of the rodeo road trip, five new players getting their first taste of an annual trek that began in 2003.
Inquiring minds wanted to know: What do the newcomers make of an experience that has helped to define a team that won three titles since the trip began?
Antonio McDyess briefly rolled his eyes, then mouthed a response impossible to refute: “Road games are tough, but it's not something I'm not used to.”
Indeed, McDyess has been in the NBA for 14 seasons, on good teams and bad. He's experienced nearly everything, including long road trips.
There are patterns to every season for every team. For the Spurs, team chemistry always seems to coalesce while they are jetting around February.
There's a pattern to McDyess' career, too, and it is a reason to believe the second half of the season won't be the struggle a brutal, road-heavy schedule suggests it can be. Typically, his numbers improve significantly after the All-Star break.
In his last 32 games last season, he scored in double figures 20 times and had 15 games with double-figure rebounds. For February, March and April, he averaged 12.7 points and 12.7 rebounds.
Denver's Chauncey Billups has seen this first-hand from his good friend and former teammate. After he made two huge plays that sent the Spurs off on this trip with another homecourt loss, “Mr. Big Shot” recalled four seasons in Detroit with McDyess.
“We always gave him so much slack,” Billups said. “Because the first half of the season, it was always like, ‘Come on, 'Dyess, the summer's over. ... Christmas is past. ... It's Valentine's Day now ... Let's start playing.' He always has been a second half sort of player.”
There have been signs that McDyess' surge is under way. Four straight double-figure games, his perimeter jumper more reliable and frequent, show why the Spurs signed him last summer.
“He looked like the McDyess I always knew,” Billups said after his friend kept the Spurs in Sunday's game with 13 second-half points. “He's always going to make that 15 to 16-foot jump shot, and he's going to rebound and play good defense.”
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has heard about McDyess' slow starts and fast finishes.
“I've been told,” Popovich said. “He's playing much more confidently now than at the beginning of the year. You see him making little moves under the bucket, and offensive rebounds are getting better. If he's going to continue to improve on that, that would be great.”
It may be part of what the Spurs need to survive this rodeo trip and a 36-game finishing schedule that includes only 12 at the AT&T Center, but even his good friend knows the Spurs' fortunes remain tied to their Big Three.
“'Dyess is at a point in his career he just needs somebody to get him those looks,” Billups said. “He's not going to go work for 20 points a night and get on the block and do all that. He's just a complementary role player, and if he's used like that, he's super-valuable.”
[email protected]