Simmons was horrendous, defensively, as usual, despite playing vs. their poor bench..
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From 2011-2013 Tony was the consistent "head of the snake" of the Spurs offense, but now he's taken on more of a Manu-like X-factor role. He and Danny are the biggest barometers for our success, mainly because you don't quite know what you'll get from them every night, but when they're both on we're damn near impossible to beat.
Danny looks toast mentally on the offensive end. He still hustles and plays solid D, but he's done offensively as far as I can tell. Tony should be fine. Beverly is an amazing PG defender and gives everyone fits. It doesn't help that his teammates decided to play like complete vaginas on the offensive end. Hard to make your teammates look good as a PG when they can't be bothered to remove their heads from their asses, tbh...
tl;dr: Tony will be fine, but Danny is now a major concern offensively.
It was Manu that fucked up guarding Terry & gave up 2 consecutive jumpers to Terry. Simmons was checking Brewer & drew a charge after hustling back on D following a brick from Patty. Pop proceeded to bench Simmons after Manu topped his defensive efforts by throwing the ball out of bounds. Maybe they were supposed to switch on the Terry's 2nd jumper but Manu was out of wack tonight.
Simmons was the only guy that was completing passes in the entire team & Patty/Manu/Diaw were the ones guilty of terrible defense amongst the bench crew.
The pretend Spurs fans trashing the latest struggling Spur; no surprises.
:toast
Team is already championship calibur. One game does not define a team or season. The spurs destroyed the warriors last year but it was the warriors who won. There are many factors in winning a championship. You either are competitive or not. The spurs are competitive and can compete with any team. That's literally all you can ask for. With some good fortune, they stay healthy and continue to mesh well. They're considered by everyone to be the second best team in the NBA. When the other team is the champion, you're not going to get much better.
Pop will not sell out his gameplans during the season. He never has, and never will. They're winning and have a comfortable lead on 3rd. You put people in position to better themselves. He has consistently done it with Kawhi and he has benefited. He did it with d league players like green and Joseph and they have bemefitted. He knows how to groom young players, and that's giving them the opportunity to fail, to learn and become better.
The spurs title window has legit been open since Tim Duncan has been with the team, even after Tim lost the ability to carry a team. Pop knows what he's doing. Kawhi had these same struggles two years ago, fumbling possessions. Just this season he struggled with TOs before adapting. Coaching is not just winning, its Developing. I'll stick with the tried and true, and reality that we can not win every time, even if we were the best. The ball bounces for and against you.
You can't have an mvp at every position. Our SGs have played their part to the tune of 2nd best record wise. I'll take it.
This is true.
Some guys also shit on players even if the have a good game bc for whatever reason they wanted someone else to take more shots, or to play more or whatever. Spurs fans are divisive bunch.
Still it's part of fandom for me to follow the team and analyze what they and Pop are doing, much as we follow game adjustments, we like to follow season adjustments. I respect Mkny and such views, but I reserve my right to analyze and question. It's part of really following a sport actively.
Some of you seem to believe Danny's increased dribbling, passing, and driving this year is his own bad idea or something and not Pop's attempt to expand his offensive capabilities.
Why not? Manu has been great all year. Runs in 2013 and 2014 weren't flukey. Those were great teams; and this one may be better than both. Green may turn this season around. I wouldn't overreact to one game. The Spurs have been the 2nd best team all year. Every team plays their A game against Spurs. No surprise the Rockets were ready to play and Spurs played horrid and lost by 4 points.
I agree, specially with the first unit where Green´s deficiencies are most noted.
Kyle doesn´t make many sense along Manu and Boris who ar our best playmakers by far. But with the first unit he has the opportunity to guard the worst of the other team´s SG or SF, because Kawhi will be guarding the best and is good enough to create his own shot and play on the flow of the starters which is way slower than the second unit and he can occasionally create for others.
I like the analysis. Would probably be okay to swap Kyle and Danny against a few teams to experiment. But I doubt this would work against elite teams. Having Tony and Kyle on the floor to start games would give us two players we would need to hide on defense. Especially not good against the Warriors or the Wiz.
I'd really like to see Tony or Tim, or even both, go to the bench. The starting unit has a bunch of ball dominant players, which is odd to me why They're pushing green so much, since it seems to be having a negative effect on his shot confidence.
Tony would be much better on the bench, where they often struggle to find someone who wants to shoot. When he decides to ISO several times in a row and take the ball from our two best players in Aldridge and Kawhi, we always struggle to put points up, as does our rhythm.
He really needs to develop his vision and passing, and become a true point guard. When he defers, the spurs always play better. Danny, I think still fits perfect with Kawhi on the wings. He allows Kawhi to be a star every night, as he doesn't take up space or ball time. A help defender, who can spot up and hussle on both ends makes Kawhis life easier.