Will our 3rd stringers fare better in blowouts?

[spursistan]

Remember how awful that Ayres/Bonner/slumping Mills/Reggie Williams/Joseph line up Pop trotted out in the last 5/6 minutes of blowouts games especially in March? They single-handedly destroyed our point differentials in our final dominant stretch :lol ..I quite recall half dozens games where they got handed 30 point lead at around start or mid 4th quarter only to see it evaporate to 12-14pt in couple of minutes or so prompting Pop to insert back Tony/Kawhi/Diaw and even sometimes Timmy to stave off the choke..

Do you guys think our newly-minted 3rd stringer squad will do better in protecting leads..It is likely going to consistently feature the quartet Boban/KA/Simmons/Mccallum..If you throw in Diaw with them, i would certainly feel comfortable about its ballhandling/playmaking compared to the incumbent one, chemistry aside....

[Nathan89]

Simmons is going to destroy whoever they put in front of him tbh. It's only be worse if it's a 3rd stringer.

[MI21]

Reggie Jackson was a real sparkplug off the bench, angry that Detroit offered him such a big contract and stole him from us.

[steeledl]

Simmons is going to destroy whoever they put in front of him tbh. It's only be worse if it's a 3rd stringer.
I agree with this take .

[spursistan]

I have mentioned this in the summer..your point differential is bound to balloon when you stop trotting out useless stiffs like Ayres/Daye :lol..rim slashers like Simmons and high IQ guys like Butler have done great job with these +25 point leads..

[SAGirl]

Well I probably am wasting my breath here, but Anderson had a good game, so did Bonner.

Defensively, rim protection will always be an issue when you have Bonner as a center, but at least Bonner was shooting well tonight.

This is a pointless issue though...

[sasaint]

Well I probably am wasting my breath here, but Anderson had a good game, so did Bonner.

Defensively, rim protection will always be an issue when you have Bonner as a center, but at least Bonner was shooting well tonight.

This is a pointless issue though...

Which of the issues you addressed did you deem pointless? Frankly I was very pleased to see Bonner have a vintage night. I thought his chances of remaining on the roster the entire season were very slim until the Lakers game and this game. With Danny slumping, I can actually see Pop finding situations for the Red Rocket to play a few meaningful minutes as he has done throughout his career (until last year). A three point insurance policy is looking more and more prudent, if not downright valuable.

Besides, you cannot see one of his interviews without getting in his corner. He was great tonight with Andrew Monaco.

[SAGirl]

Which of the issues you addressed did you deem pointless? Frankly I was very pleased to see Bonner have a vintage night. I thought his chances of remaining on the roster the entire season were very slim until the Lakers game and this game. With Danny slumping, I can actually see Pop finding situations for the Red Rocket to play a few meaningful minutes as he has done throughout his career (until last year). A three point insurance policy is looking more and more prudent, if not downright valuable.

Besides, you cannot see one of his interviews without getting in his corner. He was great tonight with Andrew Monaco.
Mostly wondering whether our subs will ruin a point differential seems pointless.

I think the most useful is actually to wonder whether we are using garbage time usefully.

Bonner and Butler will do well to play garbage time just to keep their own game rhythm, their effort on defensive rotations and their conditioning. And I have to say, both guys have played well whenever they have been out there. Few minutes or not, they do their thing. But they are veterans and you expect that.

But there are three guys you have to wonder about:
Ray,Boban and Kyle.
Ray and Boban have been banished to sit on the stands and watch. Boban in a way is a vet... a European vet, so he will come in and do his thing. But he still has a lot to get adjusted to specially defensively.

Ray is a project for us. He hasn't looked super great, but he has also not been terrible. We have very high standards for players, but he's been in the league 2 years and last season had 3 coaches and played in a terrible team. Despite his experience, I consider him a project. What is he doing if he's not in the dleague?

Then you have Kyle, still in sufficient regard by Pop to not be banished to sit on the sidelines, but he's in a development stage, and I am not sure at this point that garbage time helps him much. It helps to play against NBA level competition, but 3rd stringers on garbage time do not really have an organized offense, and the position you have him playing is whatever is needed, not necessarily what you want him to work on. It may not be much above a dleague team competition at that point.

I would have liked to have used garbage time to develop the end of the bench, but Pop is juggling a balancing act, and he does need to give the veterans sufficient playing time to keep their rhythm and conditioning. You can't send the veterans to practice in the dleague. lol

I would not be surprised to see Kyle getting sent back to the dleague and maybe it will help his game more than garbage time.

I can't say what is in store for Boban and Ray either. If Kyle is sent to the dleague, maybe one of them can sit for garbage time practice.

[sasaint]

I was discussing Ray with another poster earlier today. I said that he was a disappointment largely because he had barely played not because he had played poorly. I thought he played good position D against the Lakers, but he is just too small to contest shots. The other poster pointed out that he's not only short, but has a short wingspan. I think RC kind of oversold him, and he will be gone after the season. The other poster said Orlando Johnson's wingspan was remarkably long (I forgot the exact length). But I was hoping he was more of a PG, where we could use some length.

I don't know what Kyle needs, but - something! Tough love doesn't seem to have produced the desired result, but I doubt that the D league is really the answer at this stage of his development. I feel like Simmons will be a better contributor this year, but I hope that Kyle will become a reliable rotation player next year.

[SAGirl]

I was discussing Ray with another poster earlier today. I said that he was a disappointment largely because he had barely played not because he had played poorly. I thought he played good position D against the Lakers, but he is just too small to contest shots. The other poster pointed out that he's not only short, but has a short wingspan. I think RC kind of oversold him, and he will be gone after the season. The other poster said Orlando Johnson's wingspan was remarkably long (I forgot the exact length). But I was hoping he was more of a PG, where we could use some length.

I don't know what Kyle needs, but - something! Tough love doesn't seem to have produced the desired result, but I doubt that the D league is really the answer at this stage of his development. I feel like Simmons will be a better contributor this year, but I hope that Kyle will become a reliable rotation player next year.

I am not sure about Ray. He, like Kyle, could possibly have been edged by Simmons emergence. By that I mean, Ray can possibly play and have helped, but Simmons is better for the team right now as he's a wing, and playing with a lot of confidence. Ray can only play PG and we have both PG healthy... Maybe the Spurs would consider him a finished product... perhaps my disappointment with him is that I don't. I remember myself that CoJo looked infinitely marginal in his first and 2nd year, and Ray had very poor coaching in the league with all the SAC issues.

He really could use dleague time I think, but its tricky with him bc he is in a contract year, and if the Spurs will not resign him, he can't undervalue himself by agreeing to too much d'league time.

Because of this, I kind of expect that if Pop has decided he's going to roll with J.Simms for the season, he will send Kyle to the dleague. That way you have at least garbage time for Ray and can see where he stands and what he can do getting the garbage time crew in sets and such.

Maybe like you said, he's been a disappointment and the Spurs are ready to move on with him. We really don't know.

With Kyle, I consider him to be in a development stage. For comparison sake, Simmons at 22 was not even playing in the dleague... It took him 2 years in the dleague and hard work to get to this level. Cojo spent much of his first 2 seasons in the dleague and has turned into a really nice player.

Patty Mills played overseas (basically continued to develp his game abroad before getting to the Spurs).

Overall, my point is that Kyle needs to continue to work on his game at this point because he has shown flashes, but he's still too insecure on himself.

Not sure which way Pop is going to go with the 3 of them in terms of playing time. I think Pop is still in experiment mode a little bit and not ready to send Kyle to the dleague completely. He could just be there for insurance against Danny/Simms boneheaded plays, but as both guys continue to get confident and play well, maybe a dleague stint is in the furure. Young guys in development stage need reps to keep getting better.

[DAF86]

We need Beastjanovic for some garbage time entertainment, tbh.