Originally Posted by
SAGirl
Its possible, but I don't think that's it.
Davis has nothing to do with it. Even in the summer when guys were arguing about Bertans being a 3, Pop had already told Davis he was going to play the 4. That was always the plan.
For Kyle, it's complicated. He is not fully developed as a player. Much as guys criticize that he's a 3rd season player, he is young enough to have entered the league this season and his real rookie season was spent in the dleague learning how to play as something else than what he had been successful at in college. Ppl ignore that his learning curve was huge. He wasn't so much progressing from what he did in college than just going in a separate direction altogether. That is tough to do.
On top of that, Pop didn't know for certain what his ideal spot was, playing him all over the map in his second season trying to figure that out. So he enters his 3rd season still in a developmental stage and apparently with Pop just as undecided. It's just not the kind of thing that's going to generate success or be solved by just putting pressure.
The benchings are going to come bc of fit at this point (Heck when Dedmon gets back to health one of the bigs is going to get benched at times bc someone is going to have to sit regardless). He's going to have to shoot the 3 more, but he's not going to outshoot Davis or be a better athlete than Simmons. He can only be a better version of himself and the Spurs don't currently have a need for what is special about him based on last season and what's worse, they are not blowing other teams out which means that there's not even much garbage time at all to iron out kinks in guys games or work on getting confidence back.
As a still developing player he should have been better than last season in the right situation for himself, but the Spurs aren't the right situation bc they went in a different direction spotting him up off the ball even more than b4 and using him even less. What little they have him doing, you can ask of Garino. Garino can be your 5th wing if you like, and Bertans might give you some spot minutes at the 3 if you are desperate with an injured guy. Heck for what the Spurs are asking Kyle to do you can call Rasual Butler back, that tells you all you need to know in terms of how little the Spurs are asking of him and how underutilized he is.
I guess what I am saying is that I still like Slow-mo but the one from last season. This season's guy has been restricted to a kind of 3-D role that's ill suited for him and that's painful even to watch. It's not who he is and its a waste of what made him unique. He has to improve on his 3 ball and his off the ball play anyways, so maybe in the long term the struggle from this season makes him a better all around player, but he would have to play to even get a chance to improve and I don't see that happening bc of fit Chinook. It's not about him, it's about the team, yada, yada.
I think a trade might best for both player and team, but I doubt it happens.
It is what it is. I don't expect him to do much at all this season at this rate, though it's early. And once one doesn't expect much from him why have him in the team at all. I still like his game, but again the Kyle from last season, who was more of a playmaker and off the bounce scorer than spot up shooter. The guy Pop is trying to box in a very small role is going to struggle in that box... then he's not playing enough to gain and retain confidence even in that box. So whatever. Let the troll have his day celebrating how a 23 year old Spur player has been unable to build upon success last season. That great for the Spurs right?
