Quick Grades: Spurs vs. Warriors - Jan. 18

[timvp]

Tim Duncan B+
Huge shots in the 4th; instrumental on O throughout. Decisions slow at times. Interior D okay, perimeter D iffy.

Tony Parker B
Inconsistent controlling the reins. Subpar D. Eventually found a rhythm and provided vital production.

Kawhi Leonard D
Good energy on D but many poor decisions. Decisions also poor on offense. Was totally out of sorts all night.

Danny Green B+
Hit key buckets in the second half. Rebounded well. D against Thompson got better as game progressed.

Tiago Splitter A-
Very efficient on offense thanks to strength and decisiveness in the paint. D adequate; rebounding a plus.

Boris Diaw B+
Outstanding on the boards. Passed the ball well. Limited miscues. Passiveness shooting-wise was maddening.

Stephen Jackson C+
Appears to be rounding into form but there are still rough edges. Needs to shoot better. D was mostly positive.

Gary Neal D-
He was a chucker extraordinaire. Broke plays too often. Hurt ball-movement. Did next to nothing elsewhere.

Patrick Mills C-
Scoring mysteriously vanished after given backup point guard job. Passing okay but ballhandling was dicey.

Matt Bonner C
Stretch at end of the first half was fruitless. Didn’t find open space. D was mediocre with a couple good plays.

Nando De Colo C
Lively going after loose balls. Made good passes. A couple horrendous defensive plays torpedoed his value.

Pop D+
Played too many guys in a tight affair. Can’t decide on a backup PG. Almost played a prominent role in a loss.

[playblair]

mills/neal/decolo are not pgs......

playcojo.......

[Brunodf]

Great game by Splitter, Diaw was good but should shoot the ball...Pop grade is too low. TD was killing it.

[TheSkeptic]

Thanks Timvp. Was only able to catch pieces of the game so your grades really helped. Did check the boxscore though.

Maybe Pop should consider putting a cap on Neal's minutes when he isn't hot. 12 FGA is too much and those possessions would've probably been better off going to one of the bigs.

As for the back-up pg position, Spurs need to resolve that somehow. Depending on who would be going/coming back, I wouldn't be opposed to a trade at this point.

[TDMVPDPOY]

tim duncan the over glorified scrub

dude has the hot hand for the first quarter, comes back in the second quarter...the fkn oxymorons on this team forgot or never intend to continue to feed the guy with the hot hand but continue to go away from hot hand player for own individual stats and glory....same can said for splitter tonight, they just basically stop going to him when his playing with the starters, when his with the bench...lol GARY NEAL fkn happens...

this fkn team seems like they have basically not only stop playing defense, but also making plays from the playbook...whatever happen to exploiting mismatches and shit, continue to feed hot hand...

[Chinook]

timvp I wanted to know you thought about Festus Ezeli. I've been trying to keep up with him due to him being drafted with the Spurs' pick and all. He's being pressed into the starting lineup because of injuries and all, but it was clear Duncan had his way with him. Did you (or any other poster who wants to jump in on this) see anything different?

[racm]

I think the Spurs did well, considering Golden State is a team that likes the jumper. A lot.

That's why Jarrett Jack goes off on then, because he's not a Rondo who can't really drive or a Harden with no midrange pullup game.

[Boomersgold]

tim duncan the over glorified scrub :bang

dude has the hot hand for the first quarter, comes back in the second quarter...the fkn oxymorons (Do you even know what "oxymoron" is) on this team forgot or never intend to continue to feed the guy with the hot hand but continue to go away from hot hand player for own individual stats and glory....same can said for splitter tonight, they just basically stop going to him when his playing with the starters, when his with the bench...lol GARY NEAL fkn happens...(This is true though)

this fkn team seems like they have basically not only stop playing defense, but also making plays from the playbook...whatever happen to exploiting mismatches and shit, continue to feed hot hand...

Gary Neal has one role on this team, and that's to score. If he can't do that well, then I don't see why he should be on the court.

[TDMVPDPOY]

sit the fuck down wanker

[Boomersgold]

sit the fuck down wanker

:bang

[TDMVPDPOY]

i thought jackson deserve a higher grade, the vet after the tech foul really hyped him up and evolve into hakeem for one night....

[timvp]

timvp I wanted to know you thought about Festus Ezeli. I've been trying to keep up with him due to him being drafted with the Spurs' pick and all. He's being pressed into the starting lineup because of injuries and all, but it was clear Duncan had his way with him. Did you (or any other poster who wants to jump in on this) see anything different?

I didn't like him much coming out of college but he hasn't been a total disaster. He has an NBA body, moves well, good overall athlete and passes the eye-test. That said, his production is really iffy. He's not that good of a defender yet (lacks fundamentals) though he can rebound and block shots at a decent to good clip. But he fouls a ton, turns it an amazing amount for someone who rarely touches the ball, has bad hands, can't finish and has no touch away from the rim. It's shocking that he has nearly as many fouls (89) as points (95).

His ceiling is a competent backup center on a team that doesn't require much skill from their bigmen (he wouldn't work on a team like the Spurs, for example). He could learn to be a plus defender, good rebounder and someone who won't kill you on offense. The problem is that he's already 23 years old and he's probably not going to improve much.

I'd compare him to a poor man's Ian Mahinmi with a ceiling a little bit better than where Mahinmi is now (better defense and rebounding but worse offensively).

[Chinook]

I didn't like him much coming out of college but he hasn't been a total disaster. He has an NBA body, moves well, good overall athlete and passes the eye-test. That said, his production is really iffy. He's not that good of a defender yet (lacks fundamentals) though he can rebound and block shots at a decent to good clip. But he fouls a ton, turns it an amazing amount for someone who rarely touches the ball, has bad hands, can't finish and has no touch away from the rim. It's shocking that he has nearly as many fouls (89) as points (95).

His ceiling is a competent backup center on a team that doesn't require much skill from their bigmen (he wouldn't work on a team like the Spurs, for example). He could learn to be a plus defender, good rebounder and someone who won't kill you on offense. The problem is that he's already 23 years old and he's probably not going to improve much.

I'd compare him to a poor man's Ian Mahinmi with a ceiling a little bit better than where Mahinmi is now (better defense and rebounding but worse offensively).

Thanks for the evaluation. I know some Spurs' fans I know thought the team was going to trade Blair for him. He can't be too bad if he's starting, I guess. It's hard to evaluate big men when they play the Spurs; Duncan can make even the best defenders look bad.

[TDMVPDPOY]

Thanks for the evaluation. I know some Spurs' fans I know thought the team was going to trade Blair for him. He can't be too bad if he's starting, I guess. It's hard to evaluate big men when they play the Spurs; Duncan can make even the best defenders look bad.

any big who can jump or any sort of basketball skillset is still better than blair....even a fkn traffic cone is more useful then blair atm

[gee]

Usually when Mills is playing PG, he always has Manu on the court (excluding garbage time) ready to bail him out, and often. Neal's filling that position at the moment, and we've already had the privilege of watching him try to run back up PG for about a season and a half being constantly bailed out by Manu. When you chuck Mills and Neal out there together, the offence becomes very very stagnant. There's just no movement, and when there is movement it never really leads to anything.

Neal was doing everything he could early 4th quarter to shoot the Spurs out of the game - 3 or 4 really bad contested shots to blow the lead, what was he even doing?

You could tell pretty early on that Tiago was going to have a big game, he was in absolute beast mode (at least by Tiago's standards). The usual mistakes that cause Pop to have near brain hemorrhages were still there, but there was no sign of softness. He was playing with a killer instinct and was fucking shit up down low.

I haven't really given Kawhi's progress very much thought at all tbh, just assuming that he's at best going to develop into a Rudy Gay type player with better defence, and not freaking out every time he has a bad game, but this game got me thinking. This seems to be more than a rookie/sophomore slump he's got going on, he really just seems to not be as good offensively as he was this time last season. Apart from the last MEM game, he's been virtually invisible the last 10 or so games (not sure about MIN, didn't see that one). He's just not involved / involving himself, and when he does get involved its usually of little to no consequence.
He was never going to keep up at 5 steals a game, but now we're lucky if we nabs one, etc etc
Is this cause for concern?

[TDMVPDPOY]

kl is only invisible out there cause we are all use to watchin him being a spot up shooter and nothing else, when ur not hitting ur shots u are doing nothing out there.....give him the green card to roam free and u see other facets of his game that could benefit the spurs, he isnt allowed to do shit what neal does every night, he doesnt get alot of touches even when his a spot up shooter like danny green.....maybe he looks non-existent out there cause his playing against starters compared to the bench scrubs....

[HarlemHeat37]

Splitter has had beast runs in the past, this isn't the first time..it seems like he has suffered injuries after gaining momentum and confidence in his game, hopefully he'll stay healthy and achieve his potential this season..even his ugly hook shots are beginning to fall..

It's evident that he has more confidence in the paint, and that could produce an additional dimension to the Splitter-Duncan high-low game..

Also, I'd like to see Jackson and Leonard in the post more often when Diaw is on the floor, Jax's post game looks better than I remembered..

[td4mvp21]

43 pts, 19 rbs for Duncan/Splitter, and the Warriors held to 28 points in the paint. I love that.

[gee]

kl is only invisible out there cause we are all use to watchin him being a spot up shooter and nothing else, when ur not hitting ur shots u are doing nothing out there.....give him the green card to roam free and u see other facets of his game that could benefit the spurs, he isnt allowed to do shit what neal does every night, he doesnt get alot of touches even when his a spot up shooter like danny green.....maybe he looks non-existent out there cause his playing against starters compared to the bench scrubs....

but when he does get opportunities, he has a habit of blowing them bad.
They guy must have the one of the highest 'attempted drive being called as an offensive foul' % in the whole league.
I'm not expecting the offence to be run through him, I'm more comfortable with him just being a spot up shooter atm. Every time he picks that ball up and goes to the rim.. you just know its not going to end well

:depressed

[Dr. Robert Lee]

Gary Neal is fucking worthless. I've been saying it for months/years.

I'm still waiting for Leonard to blossom into the elite player some of you like to proclaim him as. He's a good role player, but nothing more and that's okay, but let's not proclaim his as the next Spurs star, okay?

In any case, it was a good win for the Silver and Black.

[Darkwaters]

43 pts, 19 rbs for Duncan/Splitter, and the Warriors held to 28 points in the paint. I love that.

Yea, our bigs pretty much just got whatever they wanted. All night. Great games for both Splitter and Duncan. Even Boris Diaw had an amazing game on the boards.

[Spur|n|Austin]

Boris Diaw B+Passed the ball well.

BOUDINI!

[Josepatches_]

2 wasted years or 2 years later but it's ok Duncan/Splitter are the best starting frontcourt of the league while Gasol is a shooting forward in LA. If they can stay healthy they only can be better playing together. This is where 2 years wasted hurts more because TD isn't young anymore although he seems to be

[cd021]

Gary Neal has one role on this team, and that's to score. If he can't do that well, then I don't see why he should be on the court.

14 shots per 36 minutes, is appalling. 3rd on the team in that category.

[TDMVPDPOY]

2 wasted years or 2 years later but it's ok Duncan/Splitter are the best starting frontcourt of the league while Gasol is a shooting forward in LA. If they can stay healthy they only can be better playing together. This is where 2 years wasted hurts more because TD isn't young anymore although he seems to be

its going to hurt when the spurs have to overpay for splitter once his contract ends this season, i cant wait for him to leave for greener pastures

[AFBlue]

Quick thoughts...

Time to see what the Spurs have in CoJo. Mills out of his element running sets, De Colo with at least one cringe-worthy play every 2 minutes.

Splitter manning the eff up is encouraging. Wonder if it has anything to do with Baynes signing?

Parker showing clutchness once again, but it was also good to see Green hit that three-ball.

I wish Neal was traded. Then again, I may change my mind if he goes "hero ball" against Atlanta, scores 25pts in 20 minutes, and nets the Spurs a win.

[PingPong]

Quick thoughts...

Time to see what the Spurs have in CoJo. Mills out of his element running sets, De Colo with at least one cringe-worthy play every 2 minutes.

Splitter manning the eff up is encouraging. Wonder if it has anything to do with Baynes signing?

Parker showing clutchness once again, but it was also good to see Green hit that three-ball.

I wish Neal was traded. Then again, I may change my mind if he goes "hero ball" against Atlanta, scores 25pts in 20 minutes, and nets the Spurs a win.

The backup PG is the biggest issue for the spurs right now.

Splitter is showcasing himself in his contract-year.

Parker started slow, but get hot in the second half.

Neal is a shooter. Nothing more.

[Captivus]

Im gonna try to rescue Neal here.
His problem is that he has to take a lot shots with a defender in his face, because the backup PG cant run a play to let him open.
It happen yesterday.
I would like to see Neal stat when playing with Parker vs. playing with another PG (which off course has no "game" because Pop cant make up his mind and just pick one of them). Dont know where to get those stats.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I think this was the worst game I have ever seen Leonard play. He was completely out of sorts. He struggled early and it seemed to get into his head. Passing up shots, losing focus on defense, poor passing, the inbound at the end of the half.

I think Pop may need to lay off him a bit. He is playing like he is afraid to make a mistake and we don't want to kill his confidence.

[Ice009]

I think this was the worst game I have ever seen Leonard play. He was completely out of sorts. He struggled early and it seemed to get into his head. Passing up shots, losing focus on defense, poor passing, the inbound at the end of the half.

I think Pop may need to lay off him a bit. He is playing like he is afraid to make a mistake and we don't want to kill his confidence.

It's up to Kawhi to step up. If he wants to be great, he has to take it and improve his game, not let it get in his head and play poorly because of it.

[Paranoid Pop]

Im gonna try to rescue Neal here.
His problem is that he has to take a lot shots with a defender in his face, because the backup PG cant run a play to let him open.
It happen yesterday.
I would like to see Neal stat when playing with Parker vs. playing with another PG (which off course has no "game" because Pop cant make up his mind and just pick one of them). Dont know where to get those stats.

Neal is a fine player and an offensive force, like you say he's just badly used.

Since Pop made it clear he likes Green better, they should just trade Neal, there's just no minutes availlable at SG...

But Neal starting between TP and Leonard could be awesome, Green's D is overrated and Neal can do so much more on O...

[Strategic]

any big who can jump or any sort of basketball skillset is still better than blair....even a fkn traffic cone is more useful then blair atm


20000 post on ST when all along you could have been a comedian. Actually, Blair's skillset is the least of his problems. I might count desire, dedication, and physical attributes as his biggest problems. Oh, and there is that other thing.

[Paranoid Pop]

It's up to Kawhi to step up. If he wants to be great, he has to take it and improve his game, not let it get in his head and play poorly because of it.

Sure but there's also the question of Pop's ability to develop any player not named Tony Parker...

[AFBlue]

It's up to Kawhi to step up. If he wants to be great, he has to take it and improve his game, not let it get in his head and play poorly because of it.

Easier said than done when you have a quick leash. I trust Pop to know what motivates his players, but it's easy to understand how being pulled for a single mistake might make Kawhi hesitant to take more initiative on the offensive end.

[Strategic]

Sure but there's also the question of Pop's ability to develop any player not named Tony Parker...


Possibly Tony hung around not because of Pop but because of the success along side TD and MG? I give Parker credit for his own development.

[BackHome]

I think this was the worst game I have ever seen Leonard play. He was completely out of sorts. He struggled early and it seemed to get into his head. Passing up shots, losing focus on defense, poor passing, the inbound at the end of the half.

I think Pop may need to lay off him a bit. He is playing like he is afraid to make a mistake and we don't want to kill his confidence.

I agree I don't think Pop does a good job with new players..Tiago, Kawhi have all had problems because they are scarred to make a mistake. You can't play scarred in the NBA and Pop need to coach them in a way that they will respond to.