alamo50
05-19-2005, 11:44 AM
Late-first and late-second round draft picks give San Antonio an outstanding backcourt
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San Antonio's talented point guard Tony Parker could enhance his game by improving his outside shot, says Matt Guokas of NBCSports.com.
COMMENTARY
By Matt Guokas
NBCSports.com contributor
Updated: 5:16 p.m. ET May 18, 2005
San Antonio's scouts have historically done a good job in the draft, particularly with foreign players. One reason the Spurs have a solid shot at another NBA title is their talented backcourt of French point guard Tony Parker and Argentine shooting guard Manu Ginobili.
Overseas talent
Parker was the 28th and final pick of the first round of the 2001 draft. Ginobili was a second-round selection, the 57th player chosen in the 1999 draft, who didn't begin his NBA career until the 2002-03 season.
Parker's better than most at his position and Ginobili was an All-Star this past season.
It's not easy finding this kind of talent when picking late in the first and second rounds, but the Spurs have done it and that's a tribute to the organization headed up by general manager R.C. Buford.
San Antonio's scouting of the European Leagues may soon pay another dividend as Slovenian rookie guard Beno Udrih, the 28th pick of the 2004 draft, seems like he'll be the type of player who will fit in with the Spurs if he can get some meaningful playing time down the road.
The draft is not an exact science and no team can project what a player will do two, three or five years down the road.
And while there may be some luck involved, the Spurs have their strategy and player evaluations well mapped out and that's helped them make the most of drafting late in rounds.
Energy-driven Argentine
Ginobili, who wears a fierce look on his face, plays extremely hard and he has just gotten better and better.
His style of play is appealing. He goes out there with seemingly reckless abandon. He drops his head, drives hard to the basket and looks for contact. His presence and his activity is contagious.
The 27-year-old is a better-than-average outside shooter which complements his driving to the basket.
He's so quick he constantly gets his hands on passes and gets deflections. He dives on the floor for loose balls and comes up with big steals in the backcourt.
The Spurs are going to get an extreme effort from him for every minute he is out on the court. Going all out is his whole approach to the game and he does so many little things well that don't show up in the boxscore.
Ginobili's style of play helps ignite scoring runs for the Spurs that can turn a game around. And there's just no way to measure his game purely in statistics at either end of the floor.
More minutes a must
I think what Ginobili has to do because he is approaching the prime of his career is find a way to stay on the court for longer periods of time.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has always been very conscious of the amount of minutes logged by his players.
That approach has worked for Popovich and the Spurs, but from the outside looking in when you have a talent like Ginobili and he's only playing 30 minutes out of 48 -- if I'm the opposing team I'm thrilled.
Whatever Ginobili and Popovich have to do to get him on the court for longer periods of time they should do it. Maybe Ginobili should drive a little less to the basket as sometimes he gets a little out of control when he slashes inside.
Ginobili can improve on his outside shot as any player can and his decision making, and more court time would help him do so. He is just too good of a player to be averaging just under 30 minutes a game.
Running the show
Parker had the opportunity to play right out of the gate which has been helpful in his development as an NBA player.
The Spurs were a good enough team when Parker joined them that they could withstand some of his deficiencies and mistakes which are a part of any young player's game.
Parker has taken his share of verbal tongue lashings from Popovich, but he seems to have the personality and the demeanor to deal with that.
There's a fine line for Parker as there are times when he has to look to be a scorer, times when he must look to distribute the ball, and times when he has to settle things down.
Deciding what's needed on a given possession is an ongoing challenge for Parker, and making the right choices doesn't come easy for him -- just as they don't come easy for any point guard in the league.
It used to be that the Spurs were considered a halfcourt offensive team. They would punch the ball inside to Tim Duncan and then run their offense from there.
But now because they defend so well they want to run a little more and so for Parker every game is different. Some nights the running will come easy and other nights it will have to be a slow-down game.
For Parker it's really about making good decisions. He doesn't always have to force the action as some nights he should let the game to come to him a bit.
Parker is also showing more leadership skills than earlier in his career, and that's taken some of the load off of Duncan.
Struggles from outside
One thing that has not improved for Parker over the last few years is his long-range shot. And in today's NBA you want your point guard to have the ability to hit from the perimeter from time to time, but Parker's not confident with launching from outside.
His outside shooting is not part of the Spurs' makeup as a team and because of that Parker seems even more determined to drive into the lane and create havoc. Most of the times when he does that he creates havoc for the other team, but sometimes he creates havoc for his own team.
Parker's role is really different this year than it has been the past couple of seasons because of the emergence of Ginobili, but the change underscores the need for Parker to get consistent with his outside shot.
In some games teams will do a real good job of sealing off Ginobili and that means Parker will have to be a spot-up guy. But because Parker doesn't shoot well from outside once he passes to Ginobili his defender can go and be a disruptive force defensively.
Keeping to the plan
At times Popovich's facial expressions and demeanor show that he's not quite sure of Parker's decision making or Ginobili's unpredictability.
It's an ongoing job for Popovich to make sure Parker is acclimating himself to whatever the game needs and Ginobili's aggressiveness isn't getting him into trouble.
But Parker and Ginobili are going to continue to develop into even better players and the Spurs have signed them and former MVP Duncan to longterm contracts
And there's more good news for San Antonio. The team will have significant cap flexibility this summer and it may use some of that money to try and sign one of its former draft picks, Argentine forward Luis Scola, who some think is Europe's finest player.
The Spurs pursuing foreign talent -- now that shouldn't take anyone by surprise.
Š 2005 MSNBC Interactive
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050518/050518_tonyParker_vmed_11a.vmedium.jpg
San Antonio's talented point guard Tony Parker could enhance his game by improving his outside shot, says Matt Guokas of NBCSports.com.
COMMENTARY
By Matt Guokas
NBCSports.com contributor
Updated: 5:16 p.m. ET May 18, 2005
San Antonio's scouts have historically done a good job in the draft, particularly with foreign players. One reason the Spurs have a solid shot at another NBA title is their talented backcourt of French point guard Tony Parker and Argentine shooting guard Manu Ginobili.
Overseas talent
Parker was the 28th and final pick of the first round of the 2001 draft. Ginobili was a second-round selection, the 57th player chosen in the 1999 draft, who didn't begin his NBA career until the 2002-03 season.
Parker's better than most at his position and Ginobili was an All-Star this past season.
It's not easy finding this kind of talent when picking late in the first and second rounds, but the Spurs have done it and that's a tribute to the organization headed up by general manager R.C. Buford.
San Antonio's scouting of the European Leagues may soon pay another dividend as Slovenian rookie guard Beno Udrih, the 28th pick of the 2004 draft, seems like he'll be the type of player who will fit in with the Spurs if he can get some meaningful playing time down the road.
The draft is not an exact science and no team can project what a player will do two, three or five years down the road.
And while there may be some luck involved, the Spurs have their strategy and player evaluations well mapped out and that's helped them make the most of drafting late in rounds.
Energy-driven Argentine
Ginobili, who wears a fierce look on his face, plays extremely hard and he has just gotten better and better.
His style of play is appealing. He goes out there with seemingly reckless abandon. He drops his head, drives hard to the basket and looks for contact. His presence and his activity is contagious.
The 27-year-old is a better-than-average outside shooter which complements his driving to the basket.
He's so quick he constantly gets his hands on passes and gets deflections. He dives on the floor for loose balls and comes up with big steals in the backcourt.
The Spurs are going to get an extreme effort from him for every minute he is out on the court. Going all out is his whole approach to the game and he does so many little things well that don't show up in the boxscore.
Ginobili's style of play helps ignite scoring runs for the Spurs that can turn a game around. And there's just no way to measure his game purely in statistics at either end of the floor.
More minutes a must
I think what Ginobili has to do because he is approaching the prime of his career is find a way to stay on the court for longer periods of time.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has always been very conscious of the amount of minutes logged by his players.
That approach has worked for Popovich and the Spurs, but from the outside looking in when you have a talent like Ginobili and he's only playing 30 minutes out of 48 -- if I'm the opposing team I'm thrilled.
Whatever Ginobili and Popovich have to do to get him on the court for longer periods of time they should do it. Maybe Ginobili should drive a little less to the basket as sometimes he gets a little out of control when he slashes inside.
Ginobili can improve on his outside shot as any player can and his decision making, and more court time would help him do so. He is just too good of a player to be averaging just under 30 minutes a game.
Running the show
Parker had the opportunity to play right out of the gate which has been helpful in his development as an NBA player.
The Spurs were a good enough team when Parker joined them that they could withstand some of his deficiencies and mistakes which are a part of any young player's game.
Parker has taken his share of verbal tongue lashings from Popovich, but he seems to have the personality and the demeanor to deal with that.
There's a fine line for Parker as there are times when he has to look to be a scorer, times when he must look to distribute the ball, and times when he has to settle things down.
Deciding what's needed on a given possession is an ongoing challenge for Parker, and making the right choices doesn't come easy for him -- just as they don't come easy for any point guard in the league.
It used to be that the Spurs were considered a halfcourt offensive team. They would punch the ball inside to Tim Duncan and then run their offense from there.
But now because they defend so well they want to run a little more and so for Parker every game is different. Some nights the running will come easy and other nights it will have to be a slow-down game.
For Parker it's really about making good decisions. He doesn't always have to force the action as some nights he should let the game to come to him a bit.
Parker is also showing more leadership skills than earlier in his career, and that's taken some of the load off of Duncan.
Struggles from outside
One thing that has not improved for Parker over the last few years is his long-range shot. And in today's NBA you want your point guard to have the ability to hit from the perimeter from time to time, but Parker's not confident with launching from outside.
His outside shooting is not part of the Spurs' makeup as a team and because of that Parker seems even more determined to drive into the lane and create havoc. Most of the times when he does that he creates havoc for the other team, but sometimes he creates havoc for his own team.
Parker's role is really different this year than it has been the past couple of seasons because of the emergence of Ginobili, but the change underscores the need for Parker to get consistent with his outside shot.
In some games teams will do a real good job of sealing off Ginobili and that means Parker will have to be a spot-up guy. But because Parker doesn't shoot well from outside once he passes to Ginobili his defender can go and be a disruptive force defensively.
Keeping to the plan
At times Popovich's facial expressions and demeanor show that he's not quite sure of Parker's decision making or Ginobili's unpredictability.
It's an ongoing job for Popovich to make sure Parker is acclimating himself to whatever the game needs and Ginobili's aggressiveness isn't getting him into trouble.
But Parker and Ginobili are going to continue to develop into even better players and the Spurs have signed them and former MVP Duncan to longterm contracts
And there's more good news for San Antonio. The team will have significant cap flexibility this summer and it may use some of that money to try and sign one of its former draft picks, Argentine forward Luis Scola, who some think is Europe's finest player.
The Spurs pursuing foreign talent -- now that shouldn't take anyone by surprise.
Š 2005 MSNBC Interactive