Quick Grades: Spurs vs. Jazz - Mar. 22

[timvp]

Tim Duncan B+
Had trouble putting it in the hole; give credit to Jazz for physical D. But otherwise, he was good. His passing was magnificent. He was a monster on the boards. His D was above average. And despite field goal woes, he remained aggressive and was able to make his living at the line.

Manu Ginobili C-
Mental mistakes continue to pile up -- as do turnovers and missed shots. However, give him credit for hitting two key baskets late. I loved his energy on D -- even if his decisions on that end were iffy at times. He's not far away from playing really well but he hasn't been able to piece it together recently.

Tony Parker A+
Spectacular return. Despite the layoff and only moving with about 75% of his normal explosiveness, he gutted out a great showing. He was efficient scoring-wise and passed it well. He competed on D. The Spurs needed him to play big minutes to get the win -- and he did just that while authoring huge plays.

Kawhi Leonard A
Give this man more touches. Despite subsisting on scraps and broken possessions, he was productive on O. Hit a number of momentous shots. His D was good -- not great -- though he boarded well and thrived inside and out. Overall, he did splendid work but it's painfully obvious that he needs to be more involved.

Danny Green B+
Parker's return really helped him out. Those open looks that were missing the last few weeks were back. He took advantage -- plus added in a couple made layups! His D was mostly good outside of a lapse here and there when he got sucked too deep into the lane when helping.

Tiago Splitter B+
His finishing hasn't been as good lately. I'm not ready to panic but he's missing more than usual lately. To me, it looks like he's trying to draw contact rather than concentrate on the finish. But everywhere else he was dandy. He rebounded well, passed spiffily and was great at protecting the rim.

Boris Diaw B
Commendable aggression level on O; he fired enough shots to keep the Jazz honest. His passing -- particularly in the open court -- was a plus. On D, he was hit or miss. A few times, he just didn't offer enough resistance in the lane. He didn't rebound well… but at least his one board was a hotly contested one.

Cory Joseph C-
Had the first crack at the backup PG spot. Unfortunately, he dropped the baton. He didn't look comfortable with the second unit. On O, it was as if he couldn't figure out how much of the pie was his -- which happens often with young PGs in new roles. On D, I liked his feistiness but he also had a couple miscues.

Nando De Colo B-
He was another player Pop played at PG. He was better than Joseph -- but still didn't run a smooth attack. He was successful in bursts but his orchestration was lacking. That said, his passing was a strength and his D continues to show a streak of nastiness -- which undoubtedly helps his cause.

Stephen Jackson C+
More missed shots. Even worse, it appears as if teammates are untrusting of his long-range shot so his mere presence is making the O stagnate at times. Despite that glaring flaw, he did do some good. His passing was nice and he defended with chutzpah.

Matt Bonner A-
I really can't complain. On offense, he hit two clutch shots that tied the game in the fourth. He had an important pass. He gave everything he had defending the post. True, he got overwhelmed at times by Utah's athleticism and he failed to pull down a board -- but all in all I was happy with his performance.

DeJuan Blair C+
Too many fouls -- and then added a technical foul to the mix. He was lively … but that liveliness wasn't always pointed in the right direction.

Pop C
I didn't enjoy the 3-headed backup PG of Joseph, Ginobili and De Colo. With Leonard's hurt knee, him playing 32 of the final 35 minutes was questionable. Pushing Parker 37 minutes in his return was risky -- at least in my view. The playcalling was monotonous. That said, he pushed a lot of right buttons late.

[Bruno]

Thanks, timvp.

[Brunodf]

:tu
TD too low
TP/Splitter too high

[hooperflash]

Right on the money, the Spurs looked impressive early first quarter & in OT. I just hope the sloppiness was due to Tony Parker returning. Really looking forward to how the team plays in next few days/games.

[Obstructed_View]

Tiago Splitter B+
His finishing hasn't been as good lately. I'm not ready to panic but he's missing more than usual lately. To me, it looks like he's trying to draw contact rather than concentrate on the finish. But everywhere else he was dandy. He rebounded well, passed spiffily and was great at protecting the rim.


This is excellent news. Far too often, Splitter tries to avoid contact and compounds missing a shot with not drawing a foul. I'd much rather he spend some time working on ways not to come away with nothing. We all know he can go back to dodging if the whistles aren't friendly or if he just doesn't feel the timing coming together. The potential upside if he figures it out is pretty huge.

[ElNono]

thanks

[racm]

Splitter is trying to score the Harden way instead of the LeBron way. IMO him striking a balance between attempting to finish and attempting to draw contact would significantly increase his scoring threat.

From the game, one would think it was Ginobili who missed 3 weeks with an ankle sprain and not Parker.

[BillMc]

Good grades as always. Thanks.

I tell you, I hope the Lakers DO hold off Utah. The Jazz seem tougher and play with more heart than LA. While we'd beat them both in a series, I think team Kobe might be easier, massive talent or not.

[racm]

Good grades as always. Thanks.

I tell you, I hope the Lakers DO hold off Utah. The Jazz seem tougher and play with more heart than LA. While we'd beat them both in a series, I think team Kobe might be easier, massive talent or not.

They've also got young, athletic talent in the post in Favors and Kanter. They just need a star-caliber perimeter player to complement those guys and Hayward/Burks and they're gonna make noise.

[Mugen]

With every passing game, I become more and more convinced that the Spurs' title hopes hinge on Kawhi playing like an All Star.

Not necessarily a bad thing tbh. I think he's up to the task.

[Pop]

I haven't watched the whole thing since the ILP is buggy right now but regarding Kawhi I agree, right now he's camping in the corner unless he can grab a defensive rebound, only then can he bring the ball up the court and do something with it. That's too restrictive but very Popesque... He's so rigid...

There's no excuse for the Spurs not coming out of the West this year, you can say what you want but Pop has all the tools at his disposal to do it especially since OKC got weaker, he can still treat KY like a rookie, play his beloved turd towers over a true center like Baynes and so on but if he doesn't make it to the Finals it's on him and you won't be able to tell me otherwise.

[AFBlue]

Pop subbing Duncan and Splitter for Diaw and Blair in the first was mind-boggling. How many examples of poor defense, ineffective offense and no rebounding does Pop need to see in order to figure out that combo is atrocious?

[playbonner15]

Matt Bonner A-
I really can't complain. On offense, he hit two clutch shots that tied the game in the fourth. He had an important pass. He gave everything he had defending the post. True, he got overwhelmed at times by Utah's athleticism and he failed to pull down a board -- but all in all I was happy with his performance.


Keep em As coming Timvp! :hungry:

[chapnis]

I have no problem with TPs minutes. He's been healthy for about a week, or at least that what I hear.

[Mel_13]

Stephen Jackson C+
More missed shots. Even worse, it appears as if teammates are untrusting of his long-range shot so his mere presence is making the O stagnate at times. Despite that glaring flaw, he did do some good. His passing was nice and he defended with chutzpah.

Jack didn't play in the second half. His minutes have been trending downward, but I can't recall the last time he didn't play in the second half of a game.

[John B]

Need to learn to depend the obvious 3. We lost the last game at Utah on a last second shot. Tonight we're lucky it was for a tie or the grades would have been much lower. But the Lakers lost at home to lowly Wizards which is a consolation.

[Hoops Czar]

What I wouldn't do to have last year'rs team back. The offense was better, the passing was better, movement without the ball was better, more depth, less TO's and last year's defense is slowly catching up to this year's. Things are going to have to change if this team is to be taken seriously come playoff time. Another game, another craptacular performance. If Manu doesn't gather himself by the time the playoffs start, the Spurs won't sniff the NBA finals.

[celldweller]

Blair = F-, The miniute he walked in, the game changed. Millsap & Jefferson started playing like 7 footers!

[Thread]

A+. You done good.

Tomorrow nite I'll need the same result.

Chop/chop.

[Spurs Brazil]

Thanks timvp. Do you know anything about Neal? Last 2 or 3 games he isn't even in the 13 men roster

[Thread]

^He back-sassed Poop--Poop blistered his ass (verbally) and sent him to the corn field. But, you know, it's (San Antonio) the asshole of the nation so there it's okay.

tee, hee.

[jjktkk]

Thanks for the writeup Tim.

[eDizzle20]

I wasn't able to watch the game, but it sounds like Kawhi really had a stellar one. It will be interesting to see in this upcoming off-season what the Spurs do to accommodate his growth from a personnel standpoint.

[tmtcsc]

Thanks for the writeup Tim.

Like clockwork and always funny.

[ginobilized]

Spiffily done! Thanks, again!

[EVAY]

Regarding backup pg roles. I was surprised that you complimented DeColo's defense. Not unhappy, just surprised.


In my opinion, DeColo is a better back up so far than Cojo, but I realize that that is a minority position on this forum.

As I watched the game last night, I was trying to pay particular attention to the two backups. It seemed to me that Cojo really does not set the offense as well as DeColo does, and rarely shoots, giving the other team's defense a cushion to ignore him, expecting (reasonably) that his contribution will not threaten a score directly. Having said that though, I thought his defense was more aggressive than DeColo's though, and his speed on the defensive end was better by far than DeColo's.

On the other hand, DeColo has recently become more of an offensive threat, which helps the other shooters on the floor because the opposition defense can't ignore him as much.

As I was convincing myself that deColo was better at running the offensive sets, however, I finally realized that what I was really seeing was Timmy taking over the point function as the point-forward, a role he did for so long in the past, and which he has picked up again in the last few games.

All of which is to conclude that I think the back-up job is still up in the air, but last night DeColo was clearly the better choice. How much of that was Tim's contribution while deColo was on the floor is something I am unsure about.

Summary: Cojo's strengths seem to be his energy and aggressiveness on D, DeColo's strengths seem to be his basketball IQ and his aggressiveness on Offense.

[Biggems]

If KL had made his dunk and layup, he would probably have gotten an A+......btw, that dunk would was going to be vicious, but he bricked it.

[BackHome]

Jackson and Blair D-

[phxspurfan]

Time to sit Jack for a few games. I think he is like Horry in that these games really don't help. He needs pressure situations in the playoffs to get amped up, or some kind of injury to the man in front of him to step up. If they keep playing him in mid season games against non-playoff teams, he will probably just keep putting up subpar performances and lose confidence. And we know this team has the depth to not play him. Just give Kawhi the extra minutes, since we know he needs to be allowed to reach star level and catch up to Paul George :P

[freetiago]

always funny to see all these "hes getting there" footnotes in every Ginobili grade
its about 3/4 of the way in and the same footnote has been there since game 1
or hes just in a slump
to be in a slump would assume his current level of play isnt the norm
can someone point out a good stretch of the season Ginobilis actually had
he hasnt been consistent from game to game or even half to half

also nice to see Parker dominating in his return
he only really missed a wide open shot at the start of the second half and his drives to the basket that were getting weakside blocked
he was also forcing his way inside on a few drives the same kind of way he got himself injured
it was scary to see but it also means that he isnt thinking about his bum ankle which is good
already gotten over the mental aspect of the injury

and its also good for popovich to realize that Jackson is a TOSB and give his minutes to Leonard
no one really knows how bad his knee is but it doesnt seem to be bothering at all
ever since his knee injury, hes had at least 1 or 2 explosive dunks every single game now
no one with hobbled knees would be doing that

also have to add that its nice to see Splitter can actually rebound
hes basically been a double digit rebounder this month and hes averaging 2.3 more rebounds this month over last despite only playing .7 more minutes per game
his other stretch of good rebounding came when Duncan was out and someone had to rebound
but hes been rebounding well with Duncan despite Duncan gobbling up every rebound
if he can keep this up then tallball could actually work vs Miami/OKC

[Brunodf]

Thanks timvp. Do you know anything about Neal? Last 2 or 3 games he isn't even in the 13 men roster
I know right! Pop is back

[Obstructed_View]

can someone point out a good stretch of the season Ginobilis actually had

From November 20 to about 2 weeks ago.

[TD 21]

Jack didn't play in the second half. His minutes have been trending downward, but I can't recall the last time he didn't play in the second half of a game.

Surprisingly, lack of depth is the biggest issue this team has right now. Don't get me wrong, they've got quantity when it comes to useful 10th-12th men. But with Jackson teetering on the brink of being done and Neal being hobbled for the remainder of the season, they only have seven they can rely on and they can't win a championship that way.

[callo1]

Pop C
I didn't enjoy the 3-headed backup PG of Joseph, Ginobili and De Colo. With Leonard's hurt knee, him playing 32 of the final 35 minutes was questionable. Pushing Parker 37 minutes in his return was risky -- at least in my view. The playcalling was monotonous. That said, he pushed a lot of right buttons late.

I don't think Pop pushed the right buttons late. Tiago, not Bonner should have been in the game late, and tbh, I don't know if I would have had Manu out there. There isn't anyone on this forum that respects Manu more than me, but he just looks really bad right now...poor passing, decision making, shot selection, freethrows, and very average defense. Give Kawhai Manu's touches and the last few close games arn't close.

Pop gets a big FAT F once again for his horrid rotations. I swear, it looked like Pop was trying to give the game away.

16-4 lead and then Pop goes to the dreaded Blair/Diaw big man combination and the lead immediately fizzles away. You would have thought by now that Pop may have figured it out...ya know, maybe in the Golden State loss. For as brilliant as a coach that Pop truly is, his combination selections are absolute garbage at times. If we see a Blair/Bonner, or Blair/Diaw combination in the playoffs I think I will cut my wrist with a freakin spork.
:vomit::pop::pctoss

Manu needs to get every other game off now that TP is back imo. I think he is worn out from running the point in TP's absence.

[will_spurs]

he hasnt been consistent from game to game or even half to half

Well, he's been consistently crappy so far this season. That has to count for something.