Random Thoughts

[TD 21]

Since I know you've all been dying to get my take on things . . .

- On the one hand, as awful as they've looked, injuries notwithstanding, with the exception of a healthy Thunder, I still don't think anyone else can beat them in a series if they're playing at or near their capacity. On the other hand, will they have the legs, after a WCF Finals and consecutive Finals appearances, to play at or near their capacity?

- Speaking of the Thunder, if they don't open up a virtually insurmountable lead between on them in the next month, they're probably going to rue squandering this opportunity at the end of the season.

- I'm concerned that we're eventually going to come to find out that Splitter's injury is worse than they've either realized or let on and he's either going to be out long term or it's going to be something that's nagging all season, like Ginobili's hamstring two seasons ago.

- Short term, the biggest issues, apart from injuries/lack of motivation, is Parker has not bounced back and though he's almost exclusively played C offensively with Splitter out and therefore hasn't taken many, neither has Duncan's mid ranger.

- As a unit offensively, they're not even running much of the offense and most of what they are is at half speed. This is probably because, with the injuries, the other six rotation players are having to play more minutes and it is the most taxing offense in the league. They're also figuring out on the fly how much responsibility to give Leonard.

- Despite all this, even though on the whole the looks may not be the same caliber as they're accustomed to, sooner than later the shooting is going to at least somewhat progress to the mean. They didn't collectively forget how to shoot during the off season.

- The lack of a rotation quality fourth big is beyond glaring when they can't mostly rotate the top three and don't have the most depth of firepower in the league to blow the majority of their games open and render it a virtual non issue.

- Even if Splitter were healthy, I still think it needs to be addressed. Keep an eye on Kirilenko. He's not in the Nets rotation and though he's battled back issues since signing with them and might be on his last legs, if he could be had for Ayres and Daye (works financially, saves them some money, get's rid of a probable malcontent), he'd be worth a shot.

[spurraider21]

gutless worms

[siraulo23]

Good takes :tu

[Uriel]

Good takes. :tu It's nice to finally get some basketball discussion up on this board for once.

[Malik Hairston]

I agree with the concerns about Splitter's injury, the 4th big and Parker being finished as a star-caliber player, as well as the point about the lack of top-tier competition in the West..

I'm not concerned about the offense, yet..I'll be concerned if they're still struggling once Mills, Splitter and Belinelli return..

The biggest concern about the offense is the lack of shooting..last year's Spurs ranked 1st in 3-point %, this year's Spurs rank 26th in the short sample size..

Mills and Belinelli returning will be huge for spacing and shooting, but the Spurs desperately need Danny to get his shot going, it's been the biggest difference in the offense, tbh:..

2012-2013 Danny Green: 48% from 3 in wins, 31% from 3 in losses
2013-2014 Danny Green: 46% from 3 in wins, 21% from 3 in losses

He's shooting 32% from 3 this year, which is atrocious for a shooter of his caliber..he's missing great looks, too..

I'm not concerned yet, as he has gone through slumps of this type before, but it's a huge factor in the team's success..

[DMC]

Spurs always start out playing a hybrid version of one on one basketball. One pass, guy goes one on one, tries to create, turns it over or has to do something creative and you can see the teammates not ready for the pass. It will smooth out.

These games are not important. It's better to have guys out now than out after the break. Having TD and Tony in limited minutes will give others a chance to gel. That's what happened last year but with different guys. That's when Patty got minutes and other players had to step up, and did. We are missing vital pieces, but it's going to come together again.

[DMC]

I agree with the concerns about Splitter's injury, the 4th big and Parker being finished as a star-caliber player, as well as the point about the lack of top-tier competition in the West..

I'm not concerned about the offense, yet..I'll be concerned if they're still struggling once Mills, Splitter and Belinelli return..

The biggest concern about the offense is the lack of shooting..last year's Spurs ranked 1st in 3-point %, this year's Spurs rank 26th in the short sample size..

Mills and Belinelli returning will be huge for spacing and shooting, but the Spurs desperately need Danny to get his shot going, it's been the biggest difference in the offense, tbh:..

2012-2013 Danny Green: 48% from 3 in wins, 31% from 3 in losses
2013-2014 Danny Green: 46% from 3 in wins, 21% from 3 in losses

He's shooting 32% from 3 this year, which is atrocious for a shooter of his caliber..he's missing great looks, too..

I'm not concerned yet, as he has gone through slumps of this type before, but it's a huge factor in the team's success..
This is the comforting factor. If he was forcing up garbage, that's one thing, but his shots will begin to fall as long as we're getting the looks. Teams can practice shooting all day, but almost no other team gets the looks that our shooters get.

[ElNono]

good post, OP, tbh...

I think the Spurs will check how the team looks whole before diving into any trade scenarios... while it's true our end of the bench guys look like Lakers' starters, well, they're end of the bench guys...

[Mr Bones]

Mbah a Moute for Ayres & Daye works. Philly's in tank mode and it would save them some money, and Mbah a Moute's in the final year of his contract and probably not in their future plans.

[Brazil]

I'm not concerned by the Offense, this squad is not gonna regress from being one the best oiled offensive machine of all time to a mediocre offensive force.

Most important is Defense and it is here despite missing Tiago.

I prefer loosing based on lacking of offense than defense fwiw

[Ice009]

I'm not concerned by the Offense, this squad is not gonna regress from being one the best oiled offensive machine of all time to a mediocre offensive force.

Most important is Defense and it is here despite missing Tiago.

I prefer loosing based on lacking of offense than defense fwiw

I can't disagree with that. Defense is what I've been asking for every year since 2009 and the Spurs definitely are putting in the effort on that end of the court. Just got to get everyone healthy and get the offense going again.

[benstanfield]

Most of the problems on offense are easily fixable or will eventually dissolve when the shooting gets better. If you turn the ball over 3-4 less times and turn those possessions where TP dribbles until there are 5 seconds left on the shot clock, tries and fails to make a move, then gives it to Danny Green into actual good looks, Spurs are easily 7-2 or 8-1.

[benstanfield]

If our 3PT shooting were even league average right now we'd be 8-1 with a game @HOU thrown away by Pop

[BillMc]

I'm not concerned by the Offense, this squad is not gonna regress from being one the best oiled offensive machine of all time to a mediocre offensive force.

Most important is Defense and it is here despite missing Tiago.

I prefer loosing based on lacking of offense than defense fwiw

Yeah, the D has been pretty good considering no Tiago and Leonard coming back slowly. O will come around. Injuries and Pop's experiments and some dumb luck (on the 3 ball) all are contributing to it.

[jsandiego]

1. We beat LAC and Golden State on an away B2B.

2. Wasn't there just a thread about how the next 17 games are against sub-par competition? We narrowly lost to the Kings, but could very well get 12-15 wins in our next 16 games.

We'll be alright.

[TD 21]

It's looking more and more like this team is out of gas. This was an absolutely alarming performance, given their previous performance, the amount of rest they had and the fact that they were mostly healthy. They should have eviscerated this team.

The usual excuses no longer apply. By this point, almost without fail teams have shown what they're capable of, even if briefly. I'm not sure we've seen a single game, let alone stretch, that resembled last season.

They remind me of the Heat last season, in that a bunch of key players clearly aren't the same, they're too reliant on a single player, can almost never sustain and have fallen off on one side of the ball. The difference is, the player the Heat were too reliant on is the best player in the world and they were in a terrible conference, where even in their diminished state there was no one capable of beating them.

[ElNono]

Some guys are under performing badly, tbh... Diaw, Splitter... also not sure what's the answer to the starting lineup being so underwhelming... there's still time, and we finally have a complete roster, hopefully at some point we can start stringing a few games together where we play for 48 mins...

Also, Pop is still messing up with the rotations... I don't know where Cojo fits in all this. Hopefully after the All Star week we start getting a clearer picture.

[TheGoldStandard]

Some guys are under performing badly, tbh... Diaw, Splitter... also not sure what's the answer to the starting lineup being so underwhelming... there's still time, and we finally have a complete roster, hopefully at some point we can start stringing a few games together where we play for 48 mins...

Also, Pop is still messing up with the rotations... I don't know where Cojo fits in all this. Hopefully after the All Star week we start getting a clearer picture.

Frankly, Cojo should be starting and feeding the ball to Kawhi. Parker can come off the bench to Spell Manu to start the 2nd

[Robz4000]

It's looking more and more like this team is out of gas. This was an absolutely alarming performance, given their previous performance, the amount of rest they had and the fact that they were mostly healthy. They should have eviscerated this team.

The usual excuses no longer apply. By this point, almost without fail teams have shown what they're capable of, even if briefly. I'm not sure we've seen a single game, let alone stretch, that resembled last season.

They remind me of the Heat last season, in that a bunch of key players clearly aren't the same, they're too reliant on a single player, can almost never sustain and have fallen off on one side of the ball. The difference is, the player the Heat were too reliant on is the best player in the world and they were in a terrible conference, where even in their diminished state there was no one capable of beating them.

Made this exact comparison to a friend earlier today tbh. Its pretty alarming, but the difference is Parker is the only player that's really fallen off; maybe Splitter too but i think he'll get it together. Pop could fix a lot of the problems by starting CoJo and benching Parker.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

get parker smith off the team and you guys will be fine.

[TD 21]

Made this exact comparison to a friend earlier today tbh. Its pretty alarming, but the difference is Parker is the only player that's really fallen off; maybe Splitter too but i think he'll get it together. Pop could fix a lot of the problems by starting CoJo and benching Parker.

Diaw has really fallen off, too. Not counting Leonard and Mills, who both missed a lot of time, the only ones who look spry are Joseph and Baynes and that was the case even before December killed Duncan, Ginobili and Green.

Collectively, they just look like a team that's played too many high level games the past three seasons (throw in the motion offense being the most taxing in the league, though they've barely run it this season) and it's taken it's toll.

[coachmac87]

Just jump off the bridge already....

[Horse]

They should be fine after the break they are getting great shots they're just not falling as much as usual. As far as tonight the magic got a ton of horrible garbage ass shots to roll in.

[Robz4000]

Diaw has really fallen off, too. Not counting Leonard and Mills, who both missed a lot of time, the only ones who look spry are Joseph and Baynes and that was the case even before December killed Duncan, Ginobili and Green.

Collectively, they just look like a team that's played too many high level games the past three seasons (throw in the motion offense being the most taxing in the league, though they've barely run it this season) and it's taken it's toll.

Diaw's clearly coasting, and Duncan, Manu, and Green will be fine by the end of the ASB. Still, a trade would be nice to seeto shore up the bench. In the end it comes down to Parker and Pop making the right decision should he keep sucking.

[G-Dawgg]

By NBA standards the Spurs are doing well. They are winning games and are in the playoff picture.But by Spurs standards, they're playing like shit. Sure we're winning games, but there is no way we should be getting blown out of the water by the Clippers at home then barely scraping by vs Orlando the next game. If they simply want to place, then everything is fine. However if they want to win another championship this year they need to elevate their game to another level because their current level of play will get them booted at best in the 2nd round.

[Richie]

Diaw has lost confidence in his 3 point shot which is hurting us

[wildchild]

Frankly, Cojo should be starting and feeding the ball to Kawhi. Parker can come off the bench to Spell Manu to start the 2nd


Pop could fix a lot of the problems by starting CoJo and benching Parker.

We should be realistic since Pop will never bench Parker.
He'll deal with Tony's low effectiveness until Diaw, Splitter, Belinelli and the rest of the guys get the last-season level, that'll make it easier to hide TP's bad performances, like last WCF and finals.

[ChumpDumper]

lol