SpurSwag
03-24-2015, 02:17 PM
Whats up guys, every now and then I like to make a post on here just discussing the state of our team, things I've noticed, and just how I'm feeling about the team just to get some discussion going about where we are and what's to come.
1) Tiago. This has been my favorite development over the past couple weeks, and it couldn't have come soon enough. I firmly believe that Tiago is ultimately what takes us from good to great defensively, and offensively he does things that really fly under the radar and make our team much more explosive. Baynes is our most powerful big, Boris is the most crafty, Tim is Tim, but Tiago's pick and roll game and his cuts lead to so many open shots when he is an actual threat to score the ball. He's also an extremely underrated defender both in terms of basket protection and guarding threats like Dirk and Aldridge who like to hang out on the perimeter. If we're going to accomplish anything this year, we need an engaged Tiago. It's that simple
2) Kawhi has been a joy to watch all season long, and his development into the league's best perimeter defender is finally getting national recognition. He's one of the few examples where his steals numbers actually undermine his defensive value, as he rarely gets himself out of position going for steals as that Grantland article pointed out and he does a fantastic job forcing star players into awkward shots and passes, even though he may not get credited for anything on those plays. Offensively, he has been much more aggressive as of late. My number 1 complaint of his earlier in the season was that he looked to have become obsessed with the Melo shot, where he gets the ball in the mid post, faces the defender and just pulls up for a long 2. It's not a bad shot, but there was a point it seemed as if every post touch resulted in that. Glad to see he's aggressively taking it to the rim now, and that can only help us moving forward.
3) The Big 3. Rumors of both Tony and Manu's demise have been greatly exaggerated in my opinion. Tony was clearly not right for a long stretch this season, and his reemergence as a threat has been nice to see. For the spurs to win a championship, Tony doesn't need to be 2012 Tony. Anyone saying that didn't watch us last year. However, all he needs is to be a threat to be 2012 Tony on any night. There was a stretch during the season when he was consistently scoring single digit points, and at that point we were struggling immensely cuz Tony was at no point a threat to really score in bunches. Now, it appears as if he's letting the game come to him, putting up points when he needs it, and letting the other guys take over more. I love it. Manu coming back will be great so we can have another distributor on the floor and a play maker for the second unit, and his absence has definitely been missed. Turnovers and dicey decisions aside, he's personally my 2nd favorite player of all time and I will never take watching him for granted. It's amazing that I can't really say much about Tim because he's been so damn consistent, so all we as fans can ask is that he keep this up. There will never be another Tim Duncan again. Ever. At near 39 years old he's a top 5 defensive big and can put up 20 any night. Amazing.
4) The bench. As great as I'm feeling about this team, there's one thing that's bothering me. Patty has just lost his shot it looks like, and unfortunately that takes away so much explosiveness from our 2nd unit. If there's anything we as spurs fans should hope for in these last few weeks of the regular season besides pristine health, it is that Patty rediscovers last year's magic. A lot of people like to complain that Marco is a subpar defender, and I won't try to defend his defense, it can be pretty bad, but I really love having him in the role he's in. He filled in pretty nicely for Manu at times and, in what I think is an extremely underrated aspect of player's games, he isn't afraid to take the big shot. Marco is someone that, with the game on the line, wants the ball and knows how to get himself a good, quality shot. That's an invaluable quality that we are lucky to have off our bench. Boris looks to have his moments when we need him, and to me that just means he's coasting for the bigger moments. I'm perfectly ok with that honestly.
5) Our overall outlook. As a Spurs fan, I've got to say that I like our chances of repeating if we are healthy throughout the playoffs. As an objective viewer, I've got to say that Golden State looks pretty damn good. It's one thing to look at Steph and Klay's ridiculous shots and to say those won't fall in the playoffs, but if you watch some of their games, their dominance comes from so much more than that. They are relentless defensively, Steph has become a great playmaker, and seemingly everyone on the floor is a threat at all times. The fact that there are games where Draymond Green can hit 4 or more threes is pretty unfair to be honest. However, I really do think that us at our apex is better than them at theirs, and I'd love to see that match up in the WCF. Not to sound scared of them, but I do think it's in our best interest to avoid their side of the bracket for as long as possible, just so we build up momentum and so maybe their jump shooters grow weary with more and more games. If you told me at the beginning of the season that we would be at this point in march and be this healthy and playing in this groove, I wouldn't have complained. This title run is pretty realistic to me, and there's no reason not to believe we are repeating until someone proves us otherwise. Lets get it
1) Tiago. This has been my favorite development over the past couple weeks, and it couldn't have come soon enough. I firmly believe that Tiago is ultimately what takes us from good to great defensively, and offensively he does things that really fly under the radar and make our team much more explosive. Baynes is our most powerful big, Boris is the most crafty, Tim is Tim, but Tiago's pick and roll game and his cuts lead to so many open shots when he is an actual threat to score the ball. He's also an extremely underrated defender both in terms of basket protection and guarding threats like Dirk and Aldridge who like to hang out on the perimeter. If we're going to accomplish anything this year, we need an engaged Tiago. It's that simple
2) Kawhi has been a joy to watch all season long, and his development into the league's best perimeter defender is finally getting national recognition. He's one of the few examples where his steals numbers actually undermine his defensive value, as he rarely gets himself out of position going for steals as that Grantland article pointed out and he does a fantastic job forcing star players into awkward shots and passes, even though he may not get credited for anything on those plays. Offensively, he has been much more aggressive as of late. My number 1 complaint of his earlier in the season was that he looked to have become obsessed with the Melo shot, where he gets the ball in the mid post, faces the defender and just pulls up for a long 2. It's not a bad shot, but there was a point it seemed as if every post touch resulted in that. Glad to see he's aggressively taking it to the rim now, and that can only help us moving forward.
3) The Big 3. Rumors of both Tony and Manu's demise have been greatly exaggerated in my opinion. Tony was clearly not right for a long stretch this season, and his reemergence as a threat has been nice to see. For the spurs to win a championship, Tony doesn't need to be 2012 Tony. Anyone saying that didn't watch us last year. However, all he needs is to be a threat to be 2012 Tony on any night. There was a stretch during the season when he was consistently scoring single digit points, and at that point we were struggling immensely cuz Tony was at no point a threat to really score in bunches. Now, it appears as if he's letting the game come to him, putting up points when he needs it, and letting the other guys take over more. I love it. Manu coming back will be great so we can have another distributor on the floor and a play maker for the second unit, and his absence has definitely been missed. Turnovers and dicey decisions aside, he's personally my 2nd favorite player of all time and I will never take watching him for granted. It's amazing that I can't really say much about Tim because he's been so damn consistent, so all we as fans can ask is that he keep this up. There will never be another Tim Duncan again. Ever. At near 39 years old he's a top 5 defensive big and can put up 20 any night. Amazing.
4) The bench. As great as I'm feeling about this team, there's one thing that's bothering me. Patty has just lost his shot it looks like, and unfortunately that takes away so much explosiveness from our 2nd unit. If there's anything we as spurs fans should hope for in these last few weeks of the regular season besides pristine health, it is that Patty rediscovers last year's magic. A lot of people like to complain that Marco is a subpar defender, and I won't try to defend his defense, it can be pretty bad, but I really love having him in the role he's in. He filled in pretty nicely for Manu at times and, in what I think is an extremely underrated aspect of player's games, he isn't afraid to take the big shot. Marco is someone that, with the game on the line, wants the ball and knows how to get himself a good, quality shot. That's an invaluable quality that we are lucky to have off our bench. Boris looks to have his moments when we need him, and to me that just means he's coasting for the bigger moments. I'm perfectly ok with that honestly.
5) Our overall outlook. As a Spurs fan, I've got to say that I like our chances of repeating if we are healthy throughout the playoffs. As an objective viewer, I've got to say that Golden State looks pretty damn good. It's one thing to look at Steph and Klay's ridiculous shots and to say those won't fall in the playoffs, but if you watch some of their games, their dominance comes from so much more than that. They are relentless defensively, Steph has become a great playmaker, and seemingly everyone on the floor is a threat at all times. The fact that there are games where Draymond Green can hit 4 or more threes is pretty unfair to be honest. However, I really do think that us at our apex is better than them at theirs, and I'd love to see that match up in the WCF. Not to sound scared of them, but I do think it's in our best interest to avoid their side of the bracket for as long as possible, just so we build up momentum and so maybe their jump shooters grow weary with more and more games. If you told me at the beginning of the season that we would be at this point in march and be this healthy and playing in this groove, I wouldn't have complained. This title run is pretty realistic to me, and there's no reason not to believe we are repeating until someone proves us otherwise. Lets get it