SAGirl
11-04-2015, 11:23 PM
Trying to keep a temperate vibe among all the blaming.
This was a loss as a team. Many guys played badly for long stretches. It places things in perspective, why Pop has been going with a very tight rotation. These guys don't have good chemistry yet, and one guy being out of sync throws everyone else off.
The Spurs when they are clicking are like the beautiful machine. When they are not clicking, they look like this early season Spurs. Going through adversity early should make them pull together, but it is a process.
Positives:
(1) At least Danny found his 3 pt. stroke.
(2) Manu keeps looking fresh and playing well.
(3) I think the 4th wing ridiculous issue can be put to rest. In limited minutes both Rasual and Kyle can give you quality play. Rasual played really well and hit his shots. He was very active defensively as well. Kyle also played really well and in case nobody noticed the minutes he was in, Washington had a 3 guard backcourt, with Beal at the 3, then Neal at the 2 and Sessions at the 1. Kyle did a credible job on Beal for a few minutes, hit his shots. Both were positives in their respective lineups. Rasual just happened to play in a stretch when Patty and Danny played out of control and turned the ball over and had klutzy plays, but Rasual himself played very well. Its encouraging to see these two produce after so many Chicken Little-the sky is falling overreaction over the 4th wing. An observation: It seems against guys who can put the ball on the floor and drive besides just shoot, Pop prefers Kyle, against your traditional, less quick wings, Pop feels more comfortable with Rasual. Either way, they should be fine and are likely to be used situationally depending on match-ups or what Pop feels he needs.
Negatives:
(1) Too many guys played badly, turned the ball over or took poor shots. The most worrisome though is that the first unit's offense is not working out and putting guys in positions to succeed. Pop started the game with a post up for Timmy on the left block. That should have been called for Aldridge, with as much offense as he's supposed to be giving us its better to get him going early than Timmy, who gets a lot of shots out of motion or being set up by guys. I am not sure what Pop was trying to do here, maybe get Timmy some shots early since he didn't expect Timmy to get many later in the game? I don't know, but Aldridge needs to be fed the ball a little bit early.
(2) Kawhi and Aldridge both were getting doubled pretty badly and guys just stood around watching what was going on. There was insufficient cutting and off the ball movement to provide an outlet pass for both of them which resulted in TO for Aldridge and poor play by everyone else.
(3) Defense was very uneven. There were some good stretches, but a lot of bad.
(4) Don't want to single out anyone or any one thing in particular because overall, so many guys played poorly and made so many mistakes that they truly lost this one as a team. Hopefully they pull it together and Pop makes adjustments.
Weird peculiarity (Pop Experiment Mode):
To close out the third Q and start out the 4th, Pop went to a lineup that included Patty, Danny, Rasual, Boris and Manu. Patty handled the ball most of the time, Manu played off the ball a whole lot. This group played completely out of control outside of RAsual. They turned the ball over looking for outlet passes, and Patty did a very poor job orchestrating this offense. Pop is clearly looking for answers to give Manu a rest and turning more ballhandling and playmaking responsibilities to Patty. We can safely say, that so far, Patty is struggling in this role. Manu has possibly been playing so well because he's picking his spots more, but Patty's play is something to keep an eye on. This is a new role for him, and he can potentially improve. He got into the paint when he wanted to, but his court vision is not quite there. The busted hammer play with Kyle against the Celtics was nothing compared to the debacle Patty put forth in this game. At one point he threw the ball away looking for Manu in the corner, when Manu was already getting ready to run back in transition. Patty got bailed out because he drew a blocking foul. Still Patty was a little out of control.
There is nothing that can be done about this. The team is slowly decreasing Manu's burden. Pop also stated that Manu will rest more in B2B. He got away with playing the 17 minutes in the NY game, but that is not likely to be norm. The previous game was an early afternoon game, and its early in the season. Hopefully Patty improves.
This was a loss as a team. Many guys played badly for long stretches. It places things in perspective, why Pop has been going with a very tight rotation. These guys don't have good chemistry yet, and one guy being out of sync throws everyone else off.
The Spurs when they are clicking are like the beautiful machine. When they are not clicking, they look like this early season Spurs. Going through adversity early should make them pull together, but it is a process.
Positives:
(1) At least Danny found his 3 pt. stroke.
(2) Manu keeps looking fresh and playing well.
(3) I think the 4th wing ridiculous issue can be put to rest. In limited minutes both Rasual and Kyle can give you quality play. Rasual played really well and hit his shots. He was very active defensively as well. Kyle also played really well and in case nobody noticed the minutes he was in, Washington had a 3 guard backcourt, with Beal at the 3, then Neal at the 2 and Sessions at the 1. Kyle did a credible job on Beal for a few minutes, hit his shots. Both were positives in their respective lineups. Rasual just happened to play in a stretch when Patty and Danny played out of control and turned the ball over and had klutzy plays, but Rasual himself played very well. Its encouraging to see these two produce after so many Chicken Little-the sky is falling overreaction over the 4th wing. An observation: It seems against guys who can put the ball on the floor and drive besides just shoot, Pop prefers Kyle, against your traditional, less quick wings, Pop feels more comfortable with Rasual. Either way, they should be fine and are likely to be used situationally depending on match-ups or what Pop feels he needs.
Negatives:
(1) Too many guys played badly, turned the ball over or took poor shots. The most worrisome though is that the first unit's offense is not working out and putting guys in positions to succeed. Pop started the game with a post up for Timmy on the left block. That should have been called for Aldridge, with as much offense as he's supposed to be giving us its better to get him going early than Timmy, who gets a lot of shots out of motion or being set up by guys. I am not sure what Pop was trying to do here, maybe get Timmy some shots early since he didn't expect Timmy to get many later in the game? I don't know, but Aldridge needs to be fed the ball a little bit early.
(2) Kawhi and Aldridge both were getting doubled pretty badly and guys just stood around watching what was going on. There was insufficient cutting and off the ball movement to provide an outlet pass for both of them which resulted in TO for Aldridge and poor play by everyone else.
(3) Defense was very uneven. There were some good stretches, but a lot of bad.
(4) Don't want to single out anyone or any one thing in particular because overall, so many guys played poorly and made so many mistakes that they truly lost this one as a team. Hopefully they pull it together and Pop makes adjustments.
Weird peculiarity (Pop Experiment Mode):
To close out the third Q and start out the 4th, Pop went to a lineup that included Patty, Danny, Rasual, Boris and Manu. Patty handled the ball most of the time, Manu played off the ball a whole lot. This group played completely out of control outside of RAsual. They turned the ball over looking for outlet passes, and Patty did a very poor job orchestrating this offense. Pop is clearly looking for answers to give Manu a rest and turning more ballhandling and playmaking responsibilities to Patty. We can safely say, that so far, Patty is struggling in this role. Manu has possibly been playing so well because he's picking his spots more, but Patty's play is something to keep an eye on. This is a new role for him, and he can potentially improve. He got into the paint when he wanted to, but his court vision is not quite there. The busted hammer play with Kyle against the Celtics was nothing compared to the debacle Patty put forth in this game. At one point he threw the ball away looking for Manu in the corner, when Manu was already getting ready to run back in transition. Patty got bailed out because he drew a blocking foul. Still Patty was a little out of control.
There is nothing that can be done about this. The team is slowly decreasing Manu's burden. Pop also stated that Manu will rest more in B2B. He got away with playing the 17 minutes in the NY game, but that is not likely to be norm. The previous game was an early afternoon game, and its early in the season. Hopefully Patty improves.