Will we see a major change in Spurs offense?

[devindixen]

I think for the last few years, our offense is predicated on drive and kick. Everything starts by basically trying to get into the paint and attack, and then from there it opens up everything on the perimeter. With Duncan getting older, we rely less and less on post ups. We were stronger on the drive and kick game with Parker and Manu leading the way, but now they're older. Our best players are now post up guys. We have a bigger supply of post up players with LMA, Kawhi, Diaw, Duncan, West and not enough guys who can drive and kick on the perimeter. I remember last year when we start posting up Kawhi a lot that it takes away from the team's offense and ball movement. I have a feeling that this year, there's going to be even more post ups because we don't really have guys who are great P&R players outside of Parker and Manu (who is probably ready to retire right now).

[Russo21]

You may be right there. There could be a change in offensive philosophy. Maybe back to the early TD system days? Hopefully not quite that bad but you know what I mean where it was 4 down every single play with a stagnant offense. Seriously go back and watch some old games, our offense was pretty shit. LMA will play Duncan's role with further range, Duncan will play the Admirals role. With their big paydays Green and Leonard will want their shots.

I don't know how it will work out but as long as our Point Guard doesn't lead the team in shots per game the team will be well rounded. No knock on TP but with a prime Leonard, prime Aldridge, and to a lesser extent prime Green all on new fat contracts the offense should be theirs. Will Leonard and LMA get their shots per iso's or within the flow of the game? Will be an interesting season. Hopefully they don't force feed specific players to get their shots and effect the system because the box score doesn't say they are getting enough shots.

[houston spurs fan]

Probably, we'll see

[ginobilized]

I see the possibilities as being almost endless offensively. My hunch is that Pop will employ many different approaches as the season unfolds and it will be interesting to watch.
The offensive versatility will be incredible, barring injuries.

I'll be watching for the two-man games of Parker/Aldridge, Kawhi/Aldridge especially. Gonna be fun!

[Bruno]

Pop talked about it earlier this summer:
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25258764/popovich-on-lamarcus-aldridge-im-just-going-to-sit-back-and-watch-him


Obviously, to add a talent like that to one's team makes it a special situation. I'm just going to sit back and watch him to begin with to make sure I don't screw him up.

Pop's approach won't be to fit Aldridge into Spurs system, it will be to tune the system to use Aldridge offensive abilities. One of the reason of the HWSNBN failure was that played a role for Spurs instead of playing his game. Pop surely has learned from it.

[freetiago]

Spurs will go back to a more 2013 style offense. One that was a high volume mid range offense with an emphasis on Duncan/Parker pick and roll. This time with Aldridge instead of Duncan in the pick and roll.

[dabom]

Spurs will go back to a more 2013 style offense. One that was a high volume mid range offense with an emphasis on Duncan/Parker pick and roll. This time with Aldridge instead of Duncan in the pick and roll.

Are you a dumbass? :lmao

[TD 21]

We were beginning to see it last season. It was somewhat awkward because that Leonard's ascension happened on the fly and he was often playing with two centers, who'd clog his post ups. Still, until the playoffs, he was transitioning towards becoming the number one option, though I don't think his game will ever really be suited to it.

In Aldridge's case, it'll be a combination of both: Them tweaking the system to fit him and vice versa, but more so the former, given that he's an offensive foundation caliber player and they lack that at this point.

[SAGirl]

One of the reason of the HWSNBN failure was that played a role for Spurs instead of playing his game. Pop surely has learned from it.
I am sorry but I don't understand what you mean by HWSNBN???

[Bruno]

I am sorry but I don't understand what you mean by HWSNBN???

He Who Shall Not Be Named is a former Spur player who stint was such a disaster that even saying his name is painful.

I can only show a picture of him to let you know who he is:
http://i36.tinypic.com/9zyu5u.jpg

[sasaint]

I see the possibilities as being almost endless offensively. My hunch is that Pop will employ many different approaches as the season unfolds and it will be interesting to watch.
The offensive versatility will be incredible, barring injuries.

I'll be watching for the two-man games of Parker/Aldridge, Kawhi/Aldridge especially. Gonna be fun!

We have a foursome of versatile, virtually interchangeable bigs who can pass, play the low post, play the high post and knock down mid-range jumpers. I expect quite a bit of high-low action between bigs. And when both bigs are positioned in the mid-range, I think some alley-oop opportunities will open up for Kawhi.

[sasaint]

He Who Shall Not Be Named is a former Spur player who stint was such a disaster that even saying his name is painful.

I can only show a picture of him to let you know who he is:
http://i36.tinypic.com/9zyu5u.jpg

:lol I knew who you meant, but I couldn't decipher the acronym. Thanks for the explanation - especially one that is worth a thousand words! HWSNBN was probably the biggest free agent to ever sign with the Spurs before LMA, too.

[playbonner15]

It will be a matrix-style bulllet time offense, something like bizzaro run and gun, with Boban, KA, Diaw, Bonner

[tbdog]

I suspect that the offense will remain similar with more focus on Post ups than the drive and kick to keep Parker and Manu fresh. They will defiantly keep the TD and Parker pick n roll because they have done millions of them, and Pop will see what Parker and LMA can do together on the Pick n Pop/Roll. I think TD will play the same role as Splitter on offense with most post ops running through LMA and Leonard. I think Pop will play matchups more now. Now the team’s worst big man defender will defend Duncan, which is great. For example, Thunder will play Ibaka on LMA but Kanter on Duncan. Having Duncan in the post against Kanter is just a dream, and LMA will provide enough space to avoid Ibaka from coming over to help. That’s a good example at what we should expect.

We should expect the pin down for the big man to roll for a midrange at the top of the key, similar to the Duncan game winner against the hawks a few seasons ago. Expect LMA and West will be the focus on that. If there is a switch, then you play the mismatch.

I expect there will be a lot of early motion to create mismatches with the amount of good passes we have, Diaw, TD, LMA, and West are just great big man passes. So I think Horns and the big man passing game will come into play a little more. Horns is great for some back door cuts that Pop employees and Parker, Manu are so good at doing.

The second unit may have more changes, or should I say, less flexibility and more disciplined that what we saw in years pass with Beli, Manu and Mills just a free roam.

Pop will rely on the West and Manu 2 man game. It will be interesting to see how Anderson and Simmons will work in the second unit with Manu, Mills, Diaw, and West. This second unit is not an athletic unit. I wouldn’t be surprised if Anderson or Simmons comes on early for Green in the first unit so Green can be the main perimeter defender in the second.

Overall I am very excited to see how things run. Usually your pet go too play is a 2 man game with your two best players. That use to be Manu and TD. Then it was Parker and TD. Now it will be Leonard and LMA. And I am not sure if Leonard as the ball handling to run a very tightly contested pick n roll game with LMA to close out games.

[Kawhi 5-0]

Mills starts
Parker comes off the bench
Green starts
Manu off the bench plays well with Parker
Kawhi as point-forward brings ball up 50% of the time
Anderson off the bench as point-forward brings ball up 30% of the time
Aldridge shoots most 3s of career
Diaw leads team in assists
Duncan shoots most 3s of career
West leads bench players in scoring

[cjw]

RJ wasn't signed. He was underperforming in Milwaukee and got traded. Even after he opted out, there was no doubt he would come back.

[The_Klaw]

Overall I am very excited to see how things run. Usually your pet go too play is a 2 man game with your two best players. That use to be Manu and TD. Then it was Parker and TD. Now it will be Leonard and LMA. And I am not sure if Leonard as the ball handling to run a very tightly contested pick n roll game with LMA to close out games.

We'll see. LMA-Parker will be the most used-pick-and-roll combination, but there is a tendency to forget the definite, visible improvement of Kawhi as pick and roll ball handler.

For all ball-handlers with at least 100 possessions running pick and roll, Leonard was 14th in scoring efficiency with 0.9 points per possession.

That's great for a forward like him, the two man game between LaMarcus and Kawhi is other weapon to consider.

[Dunc n Dave]

RJ wasn't signed. He was underperforming in Milwaukee and got traded. Even after he opted out, there was no doubt he would come back.

You are correct on the "Wasn't signed" part. He was not a free agent signing. The Spurs traded Bruce Bowen and Kurt Thomas for him. He also was not the biggest acquisition through trade up to that point either. I'd rank Terry Cummings above him (also acquired from Mliwaukee, ironically) as a high profile trade acquisition. Cummings averaged 22ppg and 10rebs his first season as a Spur in 89-90.

RJ though was NOT "underachieving" in Milwaukee, as you stated. He averaged 19.6 points and shot a career-high 39.7 percent from 3-point range while starting all 82 games the season before the Spurs picked him up. Did he underachieve AFTER being acquired by the Spurs? YES. But not in Milwaukee...

[tbdog]

We'll see. LMA-Parker will be the most used-pick-and-roll combination, but there is a tendency to forget the definite, visible improvement of Kawhi as pick and roll ball handler.

For all ball-handlers with at least 100 possessions running pick and roll, Leonard was 14th in scoring efficiency with 0.9 points per possession.

That's great for a forward like him, the two man game between LaMarcus and Kawhi is other weapon to consider.



Interesting. My eye test says otherwise but yet the stats prove me wrong. Hopefully I am wrong, because we are going to need a go to play when things are tight, simular to the Clippers double screen for Paul that we saw in the playoffs.

[cjw]

You are correct on the "Wasn't signed" part. He was not a free agent signing. The Spurs traded Bruce Bowen and Kurt Thomas for him. He also was not the biggest acquisition through trade up to that point either. I'd rank Terry Cummings above him (also acquired from Mliwaukee, ironically) as a high profile trade acquisition. Cummings averaged 22ppg and 10rebs his first season as a Spur in 89-90.

RJ though was NOT "underachieving" in Milwaukee, as you stated. He averaged 19.6 points and shot a career-high 39.7 percent from 3-point range while starting all 82 games the season before the Spurs picked him up. Did he underachieve AFTER being acquired by the Spurs? YES. But not in Milwaukee...

You're actually right - Spurs probably thought they could increase his efficiency by bringing down his usage, but it didn't translate. Made the false assumption that he had an off year in Milwaukee based on the fact that they traded him in a salary dump. Those trades worked out for nobody - Nets originally dealt RJ away for Yi, who was out of the league three years later.

RJ fell off a cliff around age 30 and Spurs dodged a bullet by just having to give up a late first and ended up getting SJax, who almost saved the day against OKC.

[Namundy]

Maybe it's just me but the Spurs system (in the past 2-3 years) seemed to be predicated on countering the opposition with a Swiss Army Knife of options, not necessarily imposing our will and dictating the action. I'm using OKC and Miami as the primary examples where ball movement was a necessity in order to counter their elite athleticism. Our roster balance and ability to throw various competent players on the floor with differing strengths set us apart. I think that will always be up Pop's sleeve but to a lesser extent in the upcoming season. I think Pop goes back to dictating the action more with low post action through Aldridge, Duncan, and Kawhi. That is where the Spurs' strengths lie now. I don't necessarily see a "major shift" in offensive philosophy, but more of a "play to our strengths" movement. Pop knows his personnel and with Parker and Manu aging and the rest of the league getting younger and more athletic at the guard spots, it would make sense to pound the ball down low more often and emphasize an inside out approach. I do think the mid-range shot has to be a staple of the offense now with Aldridge and West occupying the 4 spot. I'm really interested to see how Diaw fits with West and the rotations of the bigs. Lots to think about -- but I think our pace slows down a bit.

[Holden_Caulfield]

yes because everyone can shoot outside

[LongtimeSpursFan]

He Who Shall Not Be Named is a former Spur player who stint was such a disaster that even saying his name is painful.

I can only show a picture of him to let you know who he is:
http://i36.tinypic.com/9zyu5u.jpg

:lol

[pgardn]

It will be a matrix-style bulllet time offense, something like bizzaro run and gun, with Boban, KA, Diaw, Bonner

We got 8 seconds to cross half court.
With the ball.
Boban has 24 to participate in the offense.

"Scotty! I'm going to need more speed."

"Aye cuhnot de eat Captain, thee Injuns r mahltn"