Quick Grades: Spurs vs. T'Wolves - Jan. 13

[timvp]

Tim Duncan A-
A monster on the defensive end; shut down the paint. Active hands on D. Quiet but effective on offense.

Manu Ginobili A
Before his injury, he was the best player on the court. Great energy. Great passing. Got to the hoop with ease.

Tony Parker A-
Another very strong scoring showing. Playmaking started slow but progressed. Pushed the pace well.

Kawhi Leonard B+
Extremely efficient offensively. Made better use of his touches. Solid on defense and active on the glass.

Danny Green B-
Shot was off but played staunch D. He boarded, played passing lanes, challenged shots and even guarded the rim.

Tiago Splitter B
Slowed by foul trouble but played well enough. Finishing was adequate, as was his interior D. Peaked in fourth.

Boris Diaw B-
Passed up shots and didn’t rebound well but played well on defense and found teammates proficiently.

Stephen Jackson B+
His outside shooting is looking better. Competent on D and rebounding was strong. Passing was up and down.

Patrick Mills B
Shot poorly but everything else was above average: most importantly his passing, rebounding and D.

Gary Neal A-
Played strictly at shooting guard and responded extremely well. Got hot and helped build the winning cushion.

DeJuan Blair A
Came in during the first half and provided a spark. Considering his recent play, he was surprisingly competent.

Nando De Colo Inc.
Buried an open corner jumper in garbage time.

Pop A-
Mills at backup PG helped, as did the Blair insertion. Adjusted well to Ginobili’s injury. Ejection sparked his squad.

[racm]

Maybe Blair just needed some time to recover from that ankle injury?

Neal should never see minutes at PG. He's more of a Randy Foye type of player who has decent enough handles to play the point but never enough to play it better than an off-guard.

[Prime Time]

Is it just me or whenever Spurs lose, Most of the players can't get higher than B+. But whenever Spurs win Timvp gives out high grades like he's Oprah :lol

[Strategic]

From the middle of the third quarter forward the Spurs got it done which has been a problem of late. Nice grades.

[Juggity]

Is it just me or whenever Spurs lose, Most of the players can't get higher than B+. But whenever Spurs win Timvp gives out high grades like he's Oprah :lol

Usually most of the players play well if the team wins.

[Prime Time]

Usually most of the players play well if the team wins.
Wouldn't say it's that big of a diffrence though. I think the emotion factor plays a part (Can't complain, who doesn't get pissed when the Spurs lose)

[Dr. Robert Lee]

Danny Green is rated too high, tbh. Dude was scrubby tonight, tbh, imo.

Neal looked much better tonight hero balling from the SG position. That is where he should stay.

[lefty]

I have been asking for more Mills as backup PG for a looong time


I hope Pop sticks with that decision and keeps palying Neal at the SG spot

[freetiago]

The word hero ball should be a bannable offense
and the team as a whole was graded to high
timberwolves threw that game
they didnt play pek/barea/ridnour much in the 4th if at all that i can remember
it wasnt til neal got hit in the 4th that the team broke away
duncan still looked like garbage offensively with his poor decision making and bad hands/turnovers
and the stupid turnovers were still there

memphis is gonna wax dat ass on wednesday
more panic we cant beat top threads incoming

[chapnis]

Love patty at pg, hope he stays there

[Manufan909]

My game observations don't completely line up with timvp's quick grades, but I'm surprised how much we agree on. Also, thanks!!!

[Darius Bieber]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Spurs are unbeaten when they've worn their Alternate Jersey. :toast

[Chase_the_Bass]

I just started watching the game on the midnight replay and had to find the grades thread to see Dejuan's score.

*Oh man that foul on Duncan after the disrupted lob to Kawhi was as bad as it sounded on the radio. AK trying to face up box Tim out while running backwards and Duncan gets whistled

[BillMc]

Missed the game, so a big thanks for quick grades to give me perspective. Thanks as always.

[polandprzem]

tim was 2 steals away from 5x5

[capek]

Danny Green is rated too high, tbh. Dude was scrubby tonight, tbh, imo.

Neal looked much better tonight hero balling from the SG position. That is where he should stay.

He did nothing on offense but he was great on defense. One of his best games on D so far this year imo. That's worth a B - imo.

[Bruno]

A- seems very generous for Pop.

Pop shuffled again his rotation. Whether or not these changes were productive, he shouldn't change his rotation consistently. Pop is surely not helping the team to get consistent and have a better chemistry with all these moves.

[capek]

A- seems very generous for Pop.

Pop shuffled again his rotation. Whether or not these changes were productive, he shouldn't change his rotation consistently. Pop is surely not helping the team to get consistent and have a better chemistry with all these moves.

Pop loves SPAM tbh. Shuffles till January, then hopes he deals a Championship. I think we'll have to wait for coach Bud before there's a Spurs coach that might follow your advice.

[Paranoid Pop]

A- seems very generous for Pop.

Pop shuffled again his rotation. Whether or not these changes were productive, he shouldn't change his rotation consistently. Pop is surely not helping the team to get consistent and have a better chemistry with all these moves.

Agreed and let's not act like the backup backcourt can be solved in an instant, be it De Colo or Mills they will need time, changing the rotations every game, especially to play some stupid micro lineup is beyond me tbh.

Especially since there's very little competition with Pop, it's all about coorporate knowledge unless you suck to Blair's level.

Also if you're gonna experiment, change the fucking starting SG once in a while.

[capek]

If Pop would start forcing more of the offense through Kawhi, that would take some of the pressure off Green to produce on that end and leave him free to concentrate on what he's better at, like defending and hitting the occasional corner three.

[Paranoid Pop]

The word hero ball should be a bannable offense
and the team as a whole was graded to high
timberwolves threw that game
they didnt play pek/barea/ridnour much in the 4th if at all that i can remember
it wasnt til neal got hit in the 4th that the team broke away
duncan still looked like garbage offensively with his poor decision making and bad hands/turnovers
and the stupid turnovers were still there

memphis is gonna wax dat ass on wednesday
more panic we cant beat top threads incoming

I agree with that as well, pretty underwhelming showing, Tim's TO and Splitter getting stuffed become a regular thing... Full pretender bball at the moment and that's with TP playing great...

[Chinook]

What did everyone think of Derrick Williams? We've been discussing him in the Think Tank for a while. I thought he played well when matched up against Jack or a power-forward. But Green handled him pretty well. He has tons of potential, but I think he needs to stick to playing the four.

[Paranoid Pop]

What did everyone think of Derrick Williams? We've been discussing him in the Think Tank for a while. I thought he played well when matched up against Jack or a power-forward. But Green handled him pretty well. He has tons of potential, but I think he needs to stick to playing the four.

Green is a future an all defensive first team tho so it can't be helped.

Can't find the blue font for some reason...

But seriously yeah he should be a stretch 4 and he still has ways to go but I would still do Green for him on potential alone.

[ManuTastic]

What did everyone think of Derrick Williams? We've been discussing him in the Think Tank for a while. I thought he played well when matched up against Jack or a power-forward. But Green handled him pretty well. He has tons of potential, but I think he needs to stick to playing the four.

Williams needs to quit shooting 3s until he learns how to make them.

[Chinook]

Williams needs to quit shooting 3s until he learns how to make them.

He's actually a 40-percent shooter from three this year.

[pookenstein]

You guys think Pop was showcasing Blair a little bit by bringing him in so early? Tiago had only one foul at the time Blair subbed in for Tim and the last few games it was always Splitter coming back for Duncan.

[timvp]

A- seems very generous for Pop.

Pop shuffled again his rotation. Whether or not these changes were productive, he shouldn't change his rotation consistently. Pop is surely not helping the team to get consistent and have a better chemistry with all these moves.

Considering his recent mad scientist musings, I thought the rotation was pretty coherent. He actually played the same backup point guard in each half (:wow) and kept Neal at shooting guard (:wow). Blair was weird ......... but it worked so difficult to ding him for that. The main alteration of the rotation in this game was due to the Ginobili injury, IMO.

[Dr. Robert Lee]

You guys think Pop was showcasing Blair a little bit by bringing him in so early? Tiago had only one foul at the time Blair subbed in for Tim and the last few games it was always Splitter coming back for Duncan.
Yeah, looks like we may be in full shopping mode with that Pitt scrub at the moment. Perhaps that is why he actually played well as he hopes to get traded to another team.