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I was just about to write a response about how I agree with you and that Tony needs to be fresh. But then I looked at this:
https://preview.ibb.co/jJpM1Q/parker_rest.png
http://www.basketball-reference.com/...01/splits/2017
The numbers show that Tony has actually played really well on no rest, decent on 1 day of rest, and badly on 2+ days of rest. Pretty much the opposite of what I expected.
I disagree that bad TP has an ability to get anybody great shots. Bad TP tries to get penetration several times, fails, and then has to back the ball out with 7 seconds on the shot clock. He's a total possession killer. And then when he defers, teams don't respect his outside shot as much and the spacing gets difficult (unless he's able to make them pay with the 3-ball like he has thus far against Memphis).
It has been proven unequivocally over a large sample size, that even "bad TP" gets LMA quality looks on a very consistent basis.
He might stifle the 3PT shooters some, but not the post up plays which SA runs more than any team (for a reason). Like that offense or not, that is SA offense and even "bad" TP does that better than Mills.
On top of that, Mills not playing well, while he provides the "threat" of spacing doesn't appear to have the gravity as much as you would think and you get the same issues so far of TP not being able to penetrate because Mills doesn't even bother trying because he can't.
but that's a benefit to patty... instead of wasting possessions trying to get penetration and killing the shot clock, he lets the offense go to work. whereas parker has no problem trying to penetrate when he can't, thus killing possessions instead of swinging the ball around much earlier.
its the same concept of praising somebody for good shot selection
TP takes mostly good shots. Whether he makes them or not does not dictate whether they are good shots. Again, for the offense SA runs, TP gets more consistent quality looks for others than Mills.
I guess the best way to illustrate this point is for the first half of the season TP with the starters vs Mills with the same starters you had TP a + and Mills more of a -.
Over the 2nd half, it was great to see Mills be a + with that unit, even more than TP was, but TP was still a +.
Mills playing great can definitely be a plus, but Mills playing poorly is not. TP playing great has SA being the best version of themselves when TP not playing great can still be a + (to a much lesser degree) because of the "other" things he does when not shooting well.
Boiled down, Mills not shooting well only provides spacing and that has not proven to be enough to be a positive alone. TP not shooting well still gets the PnR sets going, gets guys like LMA higher quailty looks and plays better defense.
I'm speaking overall TP has always been levels better than Mills on defense. Even this year, while the gap may have closed some, TP is better. Vs MEM specifically? TP has been a great Conley defender while Mills has been atrocious and nothing in these first two games has changed that narrative at all.
I am fine with that. Just pointing out that like people that scream "start Murray" just because TP is playing bad does not automatically mean there are better options.
Especially when viewed under the lense of: 1) Is Manu/Mills playing well at that time & 2) Even if Manu/Mills are playing well, does that ceiling make it enough for SA to win or do you just need to hope TP does his thing so that ceiling can be achieved?
If neither TP nor Mills are playing well on a particular game I hope Pop plays another option (Murray, Manu at PG, even Kyle or Simmons), but if I really have to choose between bad Mills and bad TP, Patty should get the nod, if only because of spacing. That's one thing Mills will always provide over Tony. And no, in the real current World that we are living right now, a bad TP doesn't provide any of the things dpg is saying.
start murray never made sense... and patty has been so great in the second unit, it's not worth tinkering with (same with Pau even when dedmon is struggling)
That is simply not true. Look at the Conley vs TP and Conley vs Mills numbers I posted. TP's defense of Conley is better than non-shooting Mills. It just is.
I agree with you though. I would like to see Pop get creative in the event TP stops being so good. Mills and Manu are not the answer at their current levels of play so he will have to try new things and hopefully get contributions from many people.