Grantland: The Bonner Effect: How Shutting Down the Spurs' Shooter Could Be the Key

[ace3g]

The Bonner Effect: How Shutting Down the Spurs' Shooter Could Be the Key for the Grizzlies



Stopping the San Antonio Spurs offense, one of the league’s three best over the last three seasons combined, is always going to be a chore. Smart defenses can construct wonderful theoretical game plans centered around limiting the Spurs to midrange jumpers off Tony Parker pick-and-rolls by cutting off Parker around the foul line and staying home on San Antonio’s unfair army of deadly shooters. And some of those smart defenses are good enough to actually execute that kind of game plan over long stretches, or even entire games.

But the Spurs have top midrange shooters at key positions, and they are so good that over time they're going to find cracks in even the most well-meaning team defenses. Parker and Manu Ginobili, even this aging and limited version, are brilliant ball handlers who can slice through the gut of a defense with wily crossover dribbles, tiny bits of misdirection, and pinpoint passing. The constant whirring of the Spurs system often gives them a head start by putting their defenders through all sorts of off-ball movement before Parker or Ginobili finally catch the ball in position to attack — and with their defenders off-balance and/or fatigued. And no group of NBA big men is better versed in the art of setting screens in tricky little ways that disguise which direction the Spurs’ ball handlers might jet around those picks.

All of which is to say, there will be days when the Spurs just light you up, and days when they will obliterate you if you provide them a bit of help here and there — as the Grizzlies did Sunday on at least a half-dozen really bad breakdowns. Teams can talk all they want about taking away Parker’s pick-and-roll attack, but they are never really going to take it away entirely.



http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/62659/the-bonner-effect-how-shutting-down-the-spurs-shooter-could-be-the-key-for-the-grizzlies

[Budkin]

Was just about to post this.... laughable! :lmao

[Dex]

They haven't even seen our final form, yet.

[hater]

meh, going to Memphis will automatically stop half our shooters (Bonner, Neal, maybe green)

Manu never even booted up. nigga is in some sort of BIOS blue screen :lol

this is gona be a long series. Homer spurs fans will suicide by game 4 IMO

[T Park]

meh, going to Memphis will automatically stop half our shooters (Bonner, Neal, maybe green)

Manu never even booted up. nigga is in some sort of BIOS blue screen :lol

this is gona be a long series. Homer spurs fans will suicide by game 4 IMO


If Green was gonna fold up, wouldn't have the games in Oakland done that?

[hater]

If Green was gonna fold up, wouldn't have the games in Oakland done that?

that's why I said maybe green. This is WCF and Memphis much better defensive team, he could fold on the road.

[ace3g]

The biggest thing with Green now is that when he does go cold he has some other things he can do now such as cut to the basket and doesn't always settle for 3s; sometimes he will take a dribble and shoot the mid range or take ball to the basket; has more of an impact defensively this season.

[TDomination]

Well that is one thing Phil Jackson always did against us, he stayed home on our shooters. And it would work.

[Spursfanfromafar]

Great read, expected per Zach Lowe..

Essentially, the Grizzlies don't have a proper shooter to allow them to go small a la Warriors and compete against the Spurs. They have to go big all along and that exposes them to the Spurs' pick & pop.

I do think that the Grizz will try to adjust by playing someone like Ed Davis more minutes as Randolph's backup and even reduce Randolph's minutes if he is unable to adjust.

My money is on the Grizz managing to adjust as the series progresses though. And the Spurs reverting to four-down, Manu P&R as alternatives. Either ways, this series looks good for me and my prediction of 4-1 is quite achievable.

[Spur|n|Austin]

that's why I said maybe green. This is WCF and Memphis much better defensive team, he could fold on the road.

Hopefully even if Green folds offensively, he will still be able to maintain the level of defensive play he's currently at.

[Mugen]

Definitely agree on how Allen/Prince kills their spacing and is hugely beneficial to the Spurs. The Lakers had the same issues when Nash/Blake went down. It's why we can front so effectively.

I just hope that Hollins is too stubborn to realize that Bayless/Pondexter are the guys that can hurt us in this series.

[Seventyniner]

I like the line about how Bonner raises the Spurs' ceiling. That was my thought going into the series, that the Spurs have a higher ceiling than the Grizzlies. If the Spurs play an A+ game, they won't lose, while if the Grizzlies play an A+ game, the Spurs still have a chance with some hot shooting. I didn't think Bonner would factor into that, though.

[spurraider21]

Well that is one thing Phil Jackson always did against us, he stayed home on our shooters. And it would work.

except that time Bruce outscored Kirby by making 7 or 8 threes

[HarlemHeat37]

Zach Lowe is solid, but he tends to fall in love with basketball nerd- fetish teams like the Grizzlies, tbh..

[T Park]

that's why I said maybe green. This is WCF and Memphis much better defensive team, he could fold on the road.

I just don't see where Memphis is better. I just don't see it and it isn't just in this game, they defended the three point line just as bad against OKC...

[manufan10]

I love the way Zach Lowe breaks these down. Great insight.

[DejuanorwhatDude]

Agree. Spurs will lose a game or two. But I'm not seeing where Memphis suddenly generates enough offense to win four out of the next six unless SA suddenly forgets where they should be rotating on d. They just seem entirely too predictable.

[GSH]

For a couple of minutes I thought I must be hallucinating. But nooo... there really is an article that suggests that the way to beat the Spurs is to contain Matt Bonner. I'm speechless.

The thing that seems to have been lost on the media is that in the last four games of the series, the Spurs held Golden State to an average of 90.5 points per game. That's 11 points less than their season average of 101.5 PPG. In Game 1, the Spurs held Memphis to 83 points (including garbage time), which is 10.4 points less than their season average. When the Spurs are defending like that, you better have a better strategy than shutting down the Red Mamba. Pack the paint, and Tony and Manu are going to challenge and (usually) draw whistles/FT's. It makes for one hell of an ugly game, but the Spurs are masters at winning ugly. How many times over the years have you thought, "The Spurs had no business winning that game", but they did?

Memphis had one of the least potent offenses in the league this season, averaging just 93.4 PPG. (Three teams were tied for last at 93.2) San Antonio was fourth best in the league, averaging 103.0 PPG. Memphis' point differential was +4.1, while the Spurs differential was +6.4. Put all that together, and it says that when the Griz play their game, the score is still likely to be close at the end. And as long as the game is close, it's a huge advantage for the Spurs because they are much more capable of making a quick flurry of points.

In Game 4 against Golden State, the Spurs shot just 35% from the floor, and 26% from the 3P line. They got their asses kicked on the boards, and no Spur player had more than 3 assists. And they STILL had to miss 11 FT's to allow that game to go to overtime. So go ahead - shut down Matt Bonner's shooting. Pack the paint against Tony and Manu. You're still going to have to figure out a way to score against this Spurs defense if you want more than a 50/50 chance of coming out on top.

[SpursRock20]

For a couple of minutes I thought I must be hallucinating. But nooo... there really is an article that suggests that the way to beat the Spurs is to contain Matt Bonner. I'm speechless.

The thing that seems to have been lost on the media is that in the last four games of the series, the Spurs held Golden State to an average of 90.5 points per game. That's 11 points less than their season average of 101.5 PPG. In Game 1, the Spurs held Memphis to 83 points (including garbage time), which is 10.4 points less than their season average. When the Spurs are defending like that, you better have a better strategy than shutting down the Red Mamba. Pack the paint, and Tony and Manu are going to challenge and (usually) draw whistles/FT's. It makes for one hell of an ugly game, but the Spurs are masters at winning ugly. How many times over the years have you thought, "The Spurs had no business winning that game", but they did?

Memphis had one of the least potent offenses in the league this season, averaging just 93.4 PPG. (Three teams were tied for last at 93.2) San Antonio was fourth best in the league, averaging 103.0 PPG. Memphis' point differential was +4.1, while the Spurs differential was +6.4. Put all that together, and it says that when the Griz play their game, the score is still likely to be close at the end. And as long as the game is close, it's a huge advantage for the Spurs because they are much more capable of making a quick flurry of points.

In Game 4 against Golden State, the Spurs shot just 35% from the floor, and 26% from the 3P line. They got their asses kicked on the boards, and no Spur player had more than 3 assists. And they STILL had to miss 11 FT's to allow that game to go to overtime. So go ahead - shut down Matt Bonner's shooting. Pack the paint against Tony and Manu. You're still going to have to figure out a way to score against this Spurs defense if you want more than a 50/50 chance of coming out on top.

Agree. The Spurs offense doesn't even need to be that efficient to win games nowadays. Couldn't say that for the Spurs of the last few years.

[TD 21]

Zach Lowe is solid, but he tends to fall in love with basketball nerd- fetish teams like the Grizzlies, tbh..

Yeah, I blame him for spawning the national love fest with the Grizzlies. His unhealthy obsession with Gasol specifically and the Grizzlies in general, combined with his increasing popularity and that leach Simmons regurgitating what he says on air/in articles, has led to it becoming fashionable for writers and on air personalities alike to pretend they too love the intricacies of Gasol's and Conley's games (as if they even noticed beforehand), like they think it makes them look more intelligent.

It's also abundantly clear that while he admires the Spurs, he doesn't like them. He must have wrote something like 10 articles each on the Knicks, Thunder and a few others, yet mostly disregarded the Spurs the entire season, only occasionally chiming in when they looked vulnerable.

[100%duncan]

Got them right where we want em to be. Hell yeah, sure put all your attention to Bonner. :smokin