littlecoyotecoin
06-08-2013, 06:39 PM
You're right...
I have a box. It bides most of its time, untouched, perched atop a metal cabinet in my garage. Residing within are objects pertaining to my disease that I have been unable to part with. There is a Spurs 1999 NBA WCF T-shirt that got some bleach or battery acid on it and sprouted several holes. I endeavor to keep it from my wife's gaze. She would be compelled to throw it away, and I'd have to throw away her face. Please don't tell her I said that. I have my "#1 Spurs fan zipper couzie" that occasionally makes it into the rotation - sometimes just to sit on the table next to my glass pint. The box used to house my BFF. Big foam finger. As a gift between tribes, I surrendered it to their Chief. At our next Pow-Wow, only two moons following, I witnessed it on their floor, chewed carelessly by their mongrel as if it were nothing but a used paper towel. Had it not been foam, and myself more fleet afoot, I would have checked that animal's prostate with the remainder. Various other sundry Spurs artifacts are in the box, mingling with my bootleg "stylized silver Spur logo u-incorporated into the words 'Lakers Suck' t-shirt" and all of my other Spurs shirts. My Spurs shirts just don't make it into the rotation. I am, after all, supposed to be a grown-up. However, there is one, and only one Spurs shirt that I will flaunt. I didn't get THIS one at a Thrift Shop, but I just got back from another continent, and I rocked that mutha even there. He's internation-wide.
The Super G.
I have seen imitations. I have seen some that are even resonably good. I am sure that it is not the only one that was minted. Maybe someone is wearing one in Africa, an undiscovered, hidden gem, somehow meandering its way down there through some donation box and proselytizing. Who knows.
And, maybe, somewhere on the planet, or long since dead, there is or was a basketball player like Manu G. He may have been incorporated as a butcher or a baker. He may have been chased and eaten by a lion before there were professions. Or, he may be extant, yet unknown to us.
However, in my lifetime, visible, tangible...
There is no one like Manu Ginobili.
That being said, eleven seconds is an eternity, against the Miami defense. Against a good pressing defense you may not even cross the half-court line with much more than that to begin an offensive set. Eleven seconds, for one of the most creative players in the league should have been plenty of time for him to probe and explore or pass around the horn, etc. The shot that has been debated in game one by Sean and others was, simply, a bad shot. Any defense of that shot seems ludicrous, and all arguments in that defense have been nothing more than specious. Had that been the last shot of the game, and we had the ball with eleven seconds left, to lose or win, would it have been a good shot? Of course not. Because the weight on that shot was not this great doesn't excuse it. We had a lead. So, we could absorb the negative outcome of the poor shot selection with greater ease, but it doesn't make it a good shot. It's still a bad shot. The fact that we would have all soiled ourselves with joy and simultaneously accidentally bathed ourselves with our own beers with abrupt standing ovations if he made the shot - would not have made it a good shot selection. It would have still been a bad shot. Trust me. Those of us being pragmatic about the shot don't necessarily dislike Manu. Some of us love him. With tongue.
It's all about expected value. ANY points in that situation would have been a dagger. We didn't need three. Three would have been wondrous. But, not required.
From three feet beyond the arc, what would one guess the expected value of that shot to be? (.10)(3) = .3 points?
I would imagine, against the Miami defense, with eleven seconds to go, The Spurs offense could have generated a plethora of looks at the basket that netted an expected value of .3 points. A Matt Bonner running hook probably has a significantly higher expected value. If nothing else, you probe for the eleven seconds, look for something better, as Parker did, and you settle on something with that kind of expected value. You don't skip right to it with eleven seconds remaining. No matter how open you are. Shooters are usually open at the half-court line, too. There's a reason for that.
Did Pop react as negatively as during the Golden State cringe? No. The shot wasn't AS bad. And, you must pick your battles. Manu gets some lee-way.
Manu is a cold as ice fierce mutha. I don't hate him for the shot. I understand it. He is a BAD man.
He just took a bad shot. Bad shots are always available. Especially for badasses like him, against ANY defense. Work the offense more.
<Neal and Bonner need some advocation, as well...but time does not permit.>
I have a box. It bides most of its time, untouched, perched atop a metal cabinet in my garage. Residing within are objects pertaining to my disease that I have been unable to part with. There is a Spurs 1999 NBA WCF T-shirt that got some bleach or battery acid on it and sprouted several holes. I endeavor to keep it from my wife's gaze. She would be compelled to throw it away, and I'd have to throw away her face. Please don't tell her I said that. I have my "#1 Spurs fan zipper couzie" that occasionally makes it into the rotation - sometimes just to sit on the table next to my glass pint. The box used to house my BFF. Big foam finger. As a gift between tribes, I surrendered it to their Chief. At our next Pow-Wow, only two moons following, I witnessed it on their floor, chewed carelessly by their mongrel as if it were nothing but a used paper towel. Had it not been foam, and myself more fleet afoot, I would have checked that animal's prostate with the remainder. Various other sundry Spurs artifacts are in the box, mingling with my bootleg "stylized silver Spur logo u-incorporated into the words 'Lakers Suck' t-shirt" and all of my other Spurs shirts. My Spurs shirts just don't make it into the rotation. I am, after all, supposed to be a grown-up. However, there is one, and only one Spurs shirt that I will flaunt. I didn't get THIS one at a Thrift Shop, but I just got back from another continent, and I rocked that mutha even there. He's internation-wide.
The Super G.
I have seen imitations. I have seen some that are even resonably good. I am sure that it is not the only one that was minted. Maybe someone is wearing one in Africa, an undiscovered, hidden gem, somehow meandering its way down there through some donation box and proselytizing. Who knows.
And, maybe, somewhere on the planet, or long since dead, there is or was a basketball player like Manu G. He may have been incorporated as a butcher or a baker. He may have been chased and eaten by a lion before there were professions. Or, he may be extant, yet unknown to us.
However, in my lifetime, visible, tangible...
There is no one like Manu Ginobili.
That being said, eleven seconds is an eternity, against the Miami defense. Against a good pressing defense you may not even cross the half-court line with much more than that to begin an offensive set. Eleven seconds, for one of the most creative players in the league should have been plenty of time for him to probe and explore or pass around the horn, etc. The shot that has been debated in game one by Sean and others was, simply, a bad shot. Any defense of that shot seems ludicrous, and all arguments in that defense have been nothing more than specious. Had that been the last shot of the game, and we had the ball with eleven seconds left, to lose or win, would it have been a good shot? Of course not. Because the weight on that shot was not this great doesn't excuse it. We had a lead. So, we could absorb the negative outcome of the poor shot selection with greater ease, but it doesn't make it a good shot. It's still a bad shot. The fact that we would have all soiled ourselves with joy and simultaneously accidentally bathed ourselves with our own beers with abrupt standing ovations if he made the shot - would not have made it a good shot selection. It would have still been a bad shot. Trust me. Those of us being pragmatic about the shot don't necessarily dislike Manu. Some of us love him. With tongue.
It's all about expected value. ANY points in that situation would have been a dagger. We didn't need three. Three would have been wondrous. But, not required.
From three feet beyond the arc, what would one guess the expected value of that shot to be? (.10)(3) = .3 points?
I would imagine, against the Miami defense, with eleven seconds to go, The Spurs offense could have generated a plethora of looks at the basket that netted an expected value of .3 points. A Matt Bonner running hook probably has a significantly higher expected value. If nothing else, you probe for the eleven seconds, look for something better, as Parker did, and you settle on something with that kind of expected value. You don't skip right to it with eleven seconds remaining. No matter how open you are. Shooters are usually open at the half-court line, too. There's a reason for that.
Did Pop react as negatively as during the Golden State cringe? No. The shot wasn't AS bad. And, you must pick your battles. Manu gets some lee-way.
Manu is a cold as ice fierce mutha. I don't hate him for the shot. I understand it. He is a BAD man.
He just took a bad shot. Bad shots are always available. Especially for badasses like him, against ANY defense. Work the offense more.
<Neal and Bonner need some advocation, as well...but time does not permit.>