Quick Grades: Spurs vs. Kings - March 1

[timvp]

Tim Duncan A-
Still a bit arrhythmic but looked better. D was very active in all areas. Athleticism still lacking but improving.

Manu Ginobili A
Wow, congrats on the career-high 15 assists. To say he passed well would be an understatement. Amazing.

Tony Parker B-
Up and down play forgotten after he twisted his ankle. Let's hope for the best.

Kawhi Leonard B+
His decision-making was atypically slow and got in the way at times but continues to produce across the board.

Danny Green C+
Shot well. Passed well. Defended well. But ballhandling and decision-making were so poor it torpedoed his positives.

Tiago Splitter A
Quietly a monster this evening. Fantastic on the boards. Finished efficiently. Played with chutzpah.

DeJuan Blair A-
Second straight quality outing. Converted flips plus a few Js. D was underwhelming but he's providing energy.

Matt Bonner A-
Rabidly aggressive on O. Looked to shoot or make a play when he got a touch. Lively on D but limited effectiveness.

Cory Joseph B-
Looks in great shape. Made his shots, handled well and orchestrated nicely. Peppy on D. Way too many fouls.

Nando De Colo C-
Looked awkward on O shooting, dribbling or passing. Played off the ball more than usual with limited success.

Patrick Mills Inc.
Came in when the Spurs were up a whole bunch. Buckets in garbage time helped keep cushion hefty.

Aron Baynes Inc.
Wow, congrats on the first career assist.

Pop B+
Was reportedly agree about the lack of passing vs. Suns. The 41 assists tonight say message got through.

[KaiRMD1]

The Dejuan Blair improvement tour continues, let's see how long it lasts. Go Blair Go!

[apalisoc_9]

TIMVP, It's march already brah.

[Mugen]

CoJo's come a long way since last year. He'll be a legit role player in the league soon.

[racm]

CoJo should have been given a chance to play backup point earlier in the season.

Timmy with 12/10/3/3/3 :wow

If this keeps up Blair could retain his rotation spot barring facing against LAC/LAL/MEM in the playoffs

[superjames1992]

I didn't even notice Tiago tallied a double-double tonight. Nice!

[Arc]

i seriously hope pop doesn't add blair to the line up... his defense is so bad it's not even funny. whatever you do pop, don't fall in love with blair's offense. we're a defensive team this year, goddammit!

[Hoops Czar]

Tough break with TP, hopefully he's back soon but the silver lining could be that De Colo will finally play himself out of the rotation. He's so many shades of awful this season. I'm not really sure what Pop promised De Colo when the Spurs signed him, but he's D-league quality and that's where he belongs. The Spurs win by 28 and little old Nando has a +/- of -7.

[Robz4000]

Tough break with TP, hopefully he's back soon but the silver lining could be that De Colo will finally play himself out of the rotation. He's so many shades of awful this season. I'm not really sure what Pop promised De Colo when the Spurs signed him, but he's D-league quality and that's where he belongs. The Spurs win by 28 and little old Nando has a +/- of -7.

I agree partially. Guy has been frustrating as hell to watch, but he's shown flashes of being a competent NBA player. IMO he's playing out of position and still trying to find consistency in a new league. He's prolly a year away from being a solid rotation player.

[TheGoldStandard]

There is a steep learning curve especially at PG for the Spurs system so lets not expect De Colo to be confident his rookie season with limited minutes and a role that usually involves him not having the ball in his hands more than 30%-40% when he's on the floor.

[playblair]

The Dejuan Blair improvement tour continues, let's see how long it lasts. Go Blair Go!


CoJo should have been given a chance to play backup point earlier in the season.

Timmy with 12/10/3/3/3 :wow

If this keeps up Blair could retain his rotation spot barring facing against LAC/LAL/MEM in the playoffs

word.......................... blair has earned a legit playoff rotation spot ......................

[racm]

Nando would probably be better if he could either shoot well or learn to drive.

You can't be a rotational PG in this league if you can't keep defenses honest with a modicum of scoring ability.

[Hoops Czar]

There is a steep learning curve especially at PG for the Spurs system so lets not expect De Colo to be confident his rookie season with limited minutes and a role that usually involves him not having the ball in his hands more than 30%-40% when he's on the floor.


I'm sick of these kind of excuses. Don't expect much but use him as the backup pg. De Colo is the de facto poster boy for everything the D-league stands for. Why should he be playing 10-12 inconsistent minutes per game at a level he's clearly not ready for when he could be getting 20+ minutes/game for the Toros while fine tuning his game for this level.

[KaiRMD1]

word.......................... blair has earned a legit playoff rotation spot ......................

Not yet, he's still got a lot more games to get better but it's a contract year and he wants to go elsewhere so I don't see why when given minutes he's nt gonna go balls to wall crazy.

[spurraider21]

Danny Green C+
Shot well. Passed well. Defended well. But ballhandling and passing were so poor that it torpedoed his positives.

So which is it :lol

[FilipinoSpursFan21]

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[Baynes]

How did CoJo got fouled out in just 10 mins o_O

[DapDaGenius]

Parker gone...time to put our PG situation to the test. Also Kawhi shall get the ball a lot more.

[quentin_compson]

Manu Ginobili A
Wow, congrats on the career-high 15 assists. To say he passed well would be an understatement. Amazing.

Yeah, that was unbelievable. Amazing court-vision and precision (most of the night), even for a guy of his high standards.



Tiago Splitter A
Quietly a monster this evening. Fantastic on the boards. Finished efficiently. Played with chutzpah.

He sure did. That dunk in the third quarter was great and showed some determination and nastiness. We haven't seen many of those from Tiago.

[wildbill2u]

I'm not usually impressed by Blair's offense because it often seems he goes into 'black hole' mode when he gets into the game and tries to impress with his shooting. However, today I noticed something that impressed me. At one point, late in garbage time, Blair kept looking for Baynes and finally got him the ball in position to score. That was a nice thing for a veteran to do for a rookie who is vying for his job.

The more you watch these guys play basketball in such a team-oriented, pass to the open man, offense, the more you realize that this team has to have a very happy locker room. All egos are left behind.

[Pop]

:lol at the guys saying Blair should play in the playoffs, who is he gonna steal minutes from? Some fans make me think we don't deserve anything but the regular season championships we're collecting...

Also Danny Green's handles are atrocious he can make the extra pass, he not that horrible at passing in itself but he should never get the green light to drive ever, much like Bonner who thinks he cute with his shitty off the dribble game.

Cojo should start the next game tbh, wouold show the other scrubs playing PGs they don't cut it and it'd give the kid a big opportunity to show what he can do. And then go from there. The PG situation should have been clarified sooner so that we could still have the option to make a trade but whatever.

[Blake]

So which is it :lol

:lol it was a late game, so I give timvp a pass.

[freetiago]

with Parker and Neal out it looks like Joseph will be getting at least 10 minutes a game now

[timvp]

TIMVP, It's march already brah.


So which is it :lol

:lol The Parker injury had me shook, tbh.

[TheSkeptic]

Like Mills is better.

Bingo. Out of the (admittedly not so great) backup pg candidates, De Colo's probably the best option. CoJo should hopefully be able to get some minutes in, but at least we know that De Colo can play against starters and make sure our offense doesn't get too disorganized. That's valuable since Manu's the only other playmaker left with Parker out.

Thanks as always Timvp. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to catch this one. :toast

[Slippy]

Tiago was a man possesed on the boards.

[spurraider21]

It was promising to see Tiago getting double digit rebounds. Hadn't happened since January 25. He needs to make a more conscious effort at all times, though

[letmk]

I hope Tony's injury is a bless in disguise. Assuming Tony can come back as the same player, his absence will force Pop to see other options to get the offense going.

With LeBron's playing and Wade's return to elite form, the Heat has to be heavy favorite no matter what other teams do. But if Kawhi or one of the PGs can step up, it may increase Spurs' still-small chance.

Last, no matter whether Spurs ever have a chance or not, that the team continues playing "boring" Spurs team-basketball is the best gift to us fans. Go Spurs go.

[Brunodf]

It was promising to see Tiago getting double digit rebounds. Hadn't happened since January 25. He needs to make a more conscious effort at all times, though

I think Pop gave him the green light to chase offensive rebounds in the last couple games...

[Hoops Czar]

Like Mills is better.


Not only is he better, but by the time TP comes back, De Colo will have fallen out of the rotation.

[racm]

Mills is the best off-ball PG on the team (excluding Parker, but he's a top 2 PG in the league tbh)

He just needs to hit his shots and not turn the ball over and he'll be fine.

[FireMicoHalili]

I'm sick of these kind of excuses. Don't expect much but use him as the backup pg. De Colo is the de facto poster boy for everything the D-league stands for. Why should he be playing 10-12 inconsistent minutes per game at a level he's clearly not ready for when he could be getting 20+ minutes/game for the Toros while fine tuning his game for this level.

gago!!! Took Parker a while to learn the ropes in Pop's system. Tangina bobo ka pare

[Boomersgold]

Mills is only good in garbage time, against weak teams and in meaningless games. He can not play against any kind of preasure whats so ever. He is kind Of like Blair who is productive when you have Manu feeding you open shots.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igH0bv5WvUY Mills as the backup Point Guard.

Even I, someone who wants Mills to be the back up over De Colo, don't blindly hate on De Colo just to make Patty seem like the better option. Playing well with Manu seems to be a requirement for the back up point guard, as Manu is guaranteed to remain in the backup unit (if everyone's healthy).

[Hoops Czar]

Mills is only good in garbage time, against weak teams and in meaningless games. He can not play against any kind of preasure whats so ever. He is kind Of like Blair who is productive when you have Manu feeding you open shots.

I hate when posters just regurgitate Timvp in so many words. Mills has pretty much played in garbage time the entire season sans a few games. De Colo has played nearly the entire season as backup to TP but the majority of his contributions come in garbage time, again, sans a few games. Mills is finally going to get his shot and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he overtakes De Colo once and for all this season.

[Boomersgold]

Your video only validates my point that he is only good against weak teams. I am sure you like him and are proud of him being from your home country and that's cool but I think that blinds you some what. I am not a fan of De Colo but he has shown he can play against top teams and against pressure and is a more rounder player. Mills is like Neal but at least Neal can create his own offense and has shown the ability to play in pressure moments. To me Mills is the worst player on the team but everyone wants to make him out to be some kind of allstar and want to rag on players like Blair, Bonner and Neal, I just don't get it. Hopefully he can prove me wrong in the next few weeks wile Parker is out because the Spurs will need all the pg production they can get.

Patty's never played the backup against "good teams", so there's no evidence that backs up your point that he only plays well against "weak teams". Why do we rag on about Neal, Blair and Bonner? Because at some point in the season, they were in the regular rotation, played regular rotation minutes, and underperformed. Patty, De Colo and Cojo have never been in the regular rotation; they've only filled in for when either Neal or Parker are out.

The video was more to show that he is capable of handling pressure. When a third string point guard comes out, scores 18+ points and is the best player on your team and leads your team to a victory, even it's only for a game, folks on spurstalk.com are always going to praise his performance.