Has Parker lost a step or was he shut down?

[Cant_Be_Faded]

I cant wrap my mind around Tony Parker's 2010-2011 season.

He started out playing lights out defense, smart, averaging more assists than ever (perhaps due to our run n gun style)

But towards the end of the season and especially against the Grizzlies, he just did not seem to have that extra gear.

In game 1, he did seem to have this extra gear....he was throwing his body into the court to get layups and foul calls constantly.
Where was that step in the subsequent games? Or was it a lack of will?

He used to be a low TO point guard, and was Turning it Over constantly this series.

Did Tony Parker lose a step and is he already losing his speed?
Or did he get injured in game 1, forcing him to be hesitant?
Or did Memphis just flat out shut down Parker and we're too pompous to admit an 8 seed with mostly no-names shut down our supposed franchise PG?


Also, what the ever-loving hell happened to Parker of 2008? What happened to his jump shot form?


Anyone?

[DesignatedT]

Memphis was too big inside. Tony didn't have any confidence in his jumper until OT in game 5.

[stealthjbravo]

He lost his balls and refused to drive and attack the basket

[PublicOption]

Herpes flair up.

[Crookshanks]

What happened to Tony? I think the Eva/Erin crap really messed up his focus and concentration. Tony let his personal life get in the way and this season showed it.

[NewJerSpur]

Memphis was too big inside. Tony didn't have any confidence in his jumper until OT in game 5.

That jumper showed up too late...if he has confidence in it and is stroking early it's a different series imo. Funny enough, in the most pivotal game in the season, after being shut down all series, he wreaks havoc in the lane and MEM has no answer for him. He settled and deferred too much.

[Brutalis]

TP follows instructions (from Pop). When he says GO, TP goes. When he says do this stupid play, he does it.

Robots, mannn. The fucking robots.

[mexicanjunior]

Memphis had too much size in the paint and Conley was quick enough to stay in front of him and forced him to work on defense...once his jumper failed him, he was done.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

Trying to be as objective as I can, I truly do fear that it was half Memphis defense and half Tony Parker not being as fast and quick as he used to be.

If he is already losing a step, even I would be more open to trading him. And I cringe at the thought of trading any of our big 3.

[TE]

Mike Conley outplayed him... hilarious.

[Kori Ellis]

Parker slumped at the wrong time. He was pretty consistent all year. But then in the last few games of the season/first couple games of the playoffs, he got really frustrated and out of sync when his floater/layups weren't going in. I'm not sure I've ever seen him more frustrated. Plus, the Grizz doubled onto Parker a lot, and the Spurs outside shooters weren't doing anything to help Parker get any space.

[HarlemHeat37]

Until game 5, he was shooting 18% off of jump shots, that was the main issue..

As fast as any player is, any D can shut them down if they focus on closing the paint and making them shoot..

Parker's jump shot failed him, until OT in game 5 and the 2nd half in game 6..

I hope nobody blames it on the Eva/Erin incident..

[Cant_Be_Faded]

TP follows instructions (from Pop). When he says GO, TP goes. When he says do this stupid play, he does it.

Robots, mannn. The fucking robots.

This is true, I asked in the game blog why the hell Parker keeps getting the ball in the corner, while Hill was the one handling it at the top of the court. Parker's asset should be his speed and quickness....why the hell would Pop put our quickest player in the corner where he's easily surrounded by two Grizzlies????

[MannyIsGod]

I don't know, but I do think Tony is as good as he'll ever be and is likely to start getting worse. I still love him though. There's just a lotta milage on those legs.

[Homeland Security]

Parker has played ten years in the league with many deep playoff runs.

He is highly dependent on his speed to be effective.

2008-09 was his peak year. He is still in his prime, but you can expect to start seeing his plateau in production become a slight decline.

[Homeland Security]

Doppelpost.

[NewJerSpur]

Parker slumped at the wrong time. He was pretty consistent all year. But then in the last few games of the season/first couple games of the playoffs, he got really frustrated and out of sync when his floater/layups weren't going in. I'm not sure I've ever seen him more frustrated. Plus, the Grizz doubled onto Parker a lot, and the Spurs outside shooters weren't doing anything to help Parker get any space.

He especially looked gunshy on the floater which was strange to see and he normally puts it up no matter who's defending at the rim. Up until Game 5, he and Manu (outside of Game 2 and moments in Game 6) struggled like hell to do anything on offense. Credit to the Grizz's defense, but they seemed to be getting off at the end of the game tonight.....needed that earlier.

[DPG21920]

Conley was just more talented :rollseyes

[crc21209]

TP just went through a bad time to go through a slump. That and the outside shooters werent hitting shit, which led to the Grizzlies packing the paint like crazy, leaving Tony basically no room to drive inside....

[TDMVPDPOY]

Parker's jump shot failed him, until OT in game 5 and the 2nd half in game 6..



1pt lead for us, the grizz puts back in conley who has 5fouls to his name, instead of attacking the rim, the team continue to pull up stupid jumpers and costly turner which made it into a 8-0 run for the grizz to take a lead and never looked back

why didnt he attacked the lane to draw that foul...

[timaios]

19.7 ppg 46.2 % = shut down ?

He was not very good in that serie but come on.
There was help defense everywhere, after conley he had to pass Gasol & Randolph (and Allen and Battier). The Spurs were awful behind the arc, so the help defense could concentrate into the paint.
It was a nightmare for Tony, Manu and George to score in the paint... and it was also a nightmare for Timmy. :depressed

[DesignatedT]

As for tonight... Tony showed up... Manu didn't

[NewJerSpur]

Parker was still getting into the lane at will at the close of the 4th and was making the tougher close range shots. Probably took a few jjumpers to many (the stepback 3 was unneccessary) but he showed up for this game, just needed that level of consistent play/patience earlier in the series. His normal angles weren't there, but the middle of the floor seemed to open up off of screens and even when Conly was on him and it made it harder from there for MEM to double imo.

[024]

grizzlies recognized parker to be the head of the snake. they cut him off and the rest of the spurs followed.

[Cane]

The Grizz got into Parker's head from Game 1 and he started to make all sorts of unnecessary adjustments to his shots around the rim. However throughout the season it seemed like he regressed on his midrange game and overall speed anyway.

Like what the broadcasting crew were saying, the Grizz also posted up and took advantage of every mismatch they had on the floor. Memphis are just overall bigger, stronger, and more athletic than the Spurs. They don't have shooters so they rely on physical play, bully ball, post-ups, cuts, etc. Tony's legs and overall game (like the rest of the Spurs) were undoubtedly challenged especially when wrestling against big vets like Battier in the post.

Parker's dribbling skills were challenged throughout and it seemed like every Grizz player was able to swipe the ball from Tony's hands.

I don't understand why Tony took as many 3's as he did especially since they were the low-% ones on the arc but w/e.

Parker made some of the most careless decisions in this series but thats been a Spurs quality towards the end of the regular season as well after they basically gave away the no.1 seed (ex: Portland loss).

I still remember simply stupid stuff from the Spurs like Parker throwing a pass two feet behind RJ on an easy fast break opportunity and Parker/RJ fighting for a rebound only to lose it out of bounds.

Not sure whats up. Maybe it'll take him another season to fully recover from the injuries he had last season. Give plenty of credit to Memphis for realizing how they could bully the Spurs guards, kinda like how Dudley and some of the Suns did last year. Here's to hoping he can get back to the Tony Parker we saw in Overtime.

[DMC]

TP follows instructions (from Pop). When he says GO, TP goes. When he says do this stupid play, he does it.

Robots, mannn. The fucking robots.

This has a lot of truth to it. Pop micromanages each possession. Spurs need a Pop up blocker.

[Pauleta14]

His last game showed me he had a mental pb to start the series, memphis got into his head, that's it...

Had he played the first 4 games the way he finished the series (epecially game 1), we probably would have won,

but...

Do you really think the spurs had a chance against OKC or the Lakers or Chicago with THESE role players???

I'm not only referring to Bonner, RJ or Hill, OUR FRONTCOURT just can't compete...

I'm thinking more and more about Van Gundy analysis about this year spurs, we have to admit that obtaining 61 wins (could have been easily 64) with THIS GROUP is just insane...

Tony is our last pb...

I just don't know how we're gonna get the players we need in a near future...

And before thinking about trading Parker to get draft picks or whatever, just realise how difficult it is to find a elite PG..