Quick Grades: 2018-2019 Complete season Edition

Season is over folks. As feared Pop would have a long leash on Mills and Belli that would ultimately cause to end their season Early

Lamarcus Aldridge B Made the All-star team. Solid Defensively the whole year including the playoffs. Didn't really develop a three pointer as we all hoped before the season started and he was pretty much the same guy. Offensively, he was predictable all year. He made some sublte adjustments and shot less fadaways. Disappointing in the playoffs though. And obviously we know what happened in the last 28 seconds of the season...otherwise, decent season.

Demar Derozan C Started the season with a bang but struggled midway. He missed a few games due to injury and sadly he wasnt able to regain the same form to start the season. No changes to his game at all though. Didn't shoot threes ( does not want to improve on that end). Surprisingly a much better defensive effort compared to his days in Toronto. Not surprisingly he was bad in the PO

Derrick White A Bright spot of the season. Continuously improved throughout the season and his defense was a plus the whole year. of course he had his up and downs but as one of the younger guys, and someone we didnt expect much from..He was really a great surprise. Had a 36 point performance in the playoff. Need to work on his outside jumpshot in the offseason

Patty Mills D The nickname wombat was born. Mills was just bad all year tbh. Sure maybe 1 game out of 10 he'd have a good game but his long leash with pop was frustrating. His atrocious game control is one of the WOAT in the league this year. Poor time management and just defensively bad. I can only judge him based on his play on the court. I'm sure those coffee meetups boosted morale but I dont know by how much.

Davis Bertans - C Lost his rotation in the playoffs, but in the regular season he had tons of games that helped the spurs win games. I'm really confused why he had such a short leash compared to say a Bellineli. He was at his best midway through the season. lots of ups and downs but he really helped this team get into the playoffs.

Rudy Gay C+ His performances was like a roller coaster. Sometimes he'd play so well people would say give him the ball over derozan, and sometimes he'd just stink but thats what role players do. Imo, his effort defensively was respectable considering his reputation in the past. I really thought he was one of the very few in the team that was passionate about achieving something. Great playoff run. Hope he resigns to a one year deal.

Bryn Forbes B Another bright spot of the season. The biggest imprvoment he made this year was with decision making and it really helped him offensively. Previously, it was very difficult to watch him when defenses manage to close out but Bryn was able to develop quick counters to that despite his limited movesets and his height. Defensively, many hated him but most times it was really just his limitations physically. I salute him for working on his game.

Marco Bellineli D He'd have 1 good game out of maybe 20. otherwise, we're always going to wonder why a guy who cant defend, do any sort of playmaking and play that many minutes. He shot under 38% too from the three point line. Way too inconsistent the whole year.

Jakob Poeltel B Impressive season. All year he showed that he's a big guy that we can rely on to guard wings and guards in switches. We havent even seen how much he can really contribute in one season since Pop struggled to play him minutes early on. But eventually he's proven to be valuable. Smart passer, good PnR player offensively. Should play more minutes if possible.

Dante Cunningham C Had some crazy games early on. Remember the Pelicans game? We thought we had a 3&D in our hands :lol..As the season progressed and teams woke up from their long off-season his lack of basketball skills showed but his contribution early on should be given tons of consideration.

Loonie Walker INC Wasnt able to watch him that much this year.

Pop C Another playoff appearance. Well done in allowing White to improve as a player. Understood how Jakob plays and derozan transitioned pretty well imo. His weakness this year is the same as always though. Playing midgets too much and some poor playcalls, otherwise it was a decent season considering he's probably sick and tired of coaching.

RF Buford D Not judging him with the toronto trade. We dont know what offers were made, but he failed to address the big issues in the wings. I would have given him an F if not for getting rid of Pau.

Pretty good grades. Bit tough on Davis I thought, who had a pretty good season. Thought DD actually played pretty well through 6 games in the playoffs, particularly by his standards

They should probably sound out offers for Forbes as he has the highest trade value of the guards. He played pretty well in the playoffs & he is now what he is - an elite 3 pt shooter, can attack closeouts & finish with a pullup or a floater.

Good and fair grades tbh....

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Originally Posted by Down Under

They should probably sound out offers for Forbes as he has the highest trade value of the guards. He played pretty well in the playoffs & he is now what he is - an elite 3 pt shooter, can attack closeouts & finish with a pullup or a floater.

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Forbes is ridiculously cheap. I will only trade him if teams are so inlove with him they'd be willing to take Mills and Belli

DD hate is completely misguided. Bad in the playoffs? He out played LMA. Scores more. Shot better.

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Originally Posted by tbdog

DD hate is completely misguided. Bad in the playoffs? He out played LMA. Scores more. Shot better.

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He was pretty bad in PO. This is a whole season grade tbh. LMA played worse in the PS but not by much since he's always been a postive contributor defensively.

Derozan had way too many I'm so depressed games in the RS.

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Originally Posted by tbdog

DD hate is completely misguided. Bad in the playoffs? He out played LMA. Scores more. Shot better.

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Game 7 was already over before halftime because of Derozan's terrible 1-10 chucking to start the game. In the closing minutes of the game, he missed a dunk, choked free throws, and got blocked(predictable) on his last drive to the basket. He had the worst On-Off of all Spur players in the post-season. He was awful.

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Originally Posted by Down Under

They should probably sound out offers for Forbes as he has the highest trade value of the guards. He played pretty well in the playoffs & he is now what he is - an elite 3 pt shooter, can attack closeouts & finish with a pullup or a floater.

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So he is what we need more of.

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Originally Posted by Kurgan

Game 7 was already over before halftime because of Derozan's terrible 1-10 chucking to start the game. In the closing minutes of the game, he missed a dunk, choked free throws, and got blocked(predictable) on his last drive to the basket. He had the worst On-Off of all Spur players in the post-season. He was awful.

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And comparing to the regular season, he played well in the PO...

Spurs are paying Mercedes price for an old Saturn.

DeRozan should be a B- if Aldridge is a B.

Demar also played solid in the playoffs overall this season. Even when his shot wasn't dropping he still attacked and created looks for others. He actually had his best playoff efficiency numbers of his career with us and he was more efficient than Aldridge in the playoffs. Now Aldridge was better defensively and did have the tougher matchups between the 2 players.

Overall I thought Demar was better than I expected him to be coming here and my main gripe with him is kind of the same gripe I have with Aldridge. Both guys seem to settle a bit too much with taking tough fade away shots as opposed to taking it to the rim and sometimes being too prone to hero balling.

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Originally Posted by Kurgan

Game 7 was already over before halftime because of Derozan's terrible 1-10 chucking to start the game. In the closing minutes of the game, he missed a dunk, choked free throws, and got blocked(predictable) on his last drive to the basket. He had the worst On-Off of all Spur players in the post-season. He was awful.

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Yeah he helped get us in the hole but he didn't totally choke and take your view of the game being over at the half. He also along with Forbes sparked the come back in the 2nd half by being aggressive and not settling for fade away jumpers.

I will say at the end the missed free throw did suck but the basket interference call didn't matter because he was fouled before he committed it.

The guy was solid in the playoffs this year and one of the reasons we almost made it to the 2nd round. If we had the team we had last season against Denver we would've maybe won 1 game at best

I think your grades are generally too low. Spurs were not expected to make the playoffs, and yet they did. They were expected to lose to the Nuggets, but they pushed it to the last minute of Game 7. Forbes deserves an A- for stepping in as a starter and doing pretty well given his limits. Despite your post, DDR did expand his game if you look at his assist numbers. I’d give him a C+. Rudy Gay should be a B.

I'd twist a bit some grades here and there based on results vs. expectations.. like White A+ Jakob A... but that's cosmetics.. overall solide grades tbh

RC should be higher. His drafting should be graded on a delay given the redshirting the spurs do in year one, and Derrick White’s emergence alone should bump him up. Getting rid of Pau was clutch.

Remember how a lot of folks wanted a Leonard trade highlighting Fultz+Covington+10th pick? With hindsight that would have sucked ass.

Some guys are crazy with Derozan on this board.... C- ? without him no playoffs for sure. I'm not a fan and i can understand a lot of things about him : decision making, defense, just a mid range game but it seems crazy that a lot think he is that bad.

i saw a thread with a batum trade ? are you crazy ? did someone watch batum this year....

I also think Gay deserves a way better mark, he was solid all season long....

Those ratings where like Playoffs Ratings but not season, like you write it just after the Po with a lot of bad thoughts. I'm not agree with the majority of it.

A bit of recency bias.

If we grade the whole season:
1. Pop deserves at least a B-. Nobody expected us in the playoffs (except Spurs fans). We outcompeted more talented teams: Lakers, Pels, Timberwolves. We played surprisingly well against western conference rivals. We took the #2 seed to Game 7. Yes, the Game 7 itself was really bizarre but let's not forget about the rest of the season.

2. Bertans deserves at least a B. In the regular season he was solid and had the best advanced stats on the team. He was a part of our best lineup.

3. Would give Marco and Mills C-s or Cs. True, they were bad in the playoffs and inconsistent but they were winning us games in the regular season. They were parts of our best lineup.

4. Would switch Poeltl and White grades. Sure, White has a much bigger potential and he had great games but Poeltl was more consistent. Poeltl had a higher PER, win shares and any plus-minus.

5. Totally agree with LMA and DDR grades

Thanks for the grades. I thought you were very fair . :bobo

Ooh more random thoughts

Good grades OP, agree with most of em. People in here forget that Aldridge was the one who got double teamed and had the harder match up. DeRozan got locked up by Torrey Craig, although his shooting numbers were solid C+ or B- for the season I'd say. Where is Pau's grade? :rollin

Surprised that you gave Qpon a grade and not Cunningham... Cun played more minutes (Did you get the 2 of them confused? Box scores say Cun had some strong games against NOP, while QPon was pretty meh).

Overall, I'd be more generous with Pop, this team is seriously unbalanced (especially with injuries) and yet we made the playoffs. Admittedly, he also gets a strong negative for the playoffs, as that was a winnable series, and perhaps the biggest factor in losing it was the coaching - that Wombat - Beli pairing that kept on showing up...

Nice work OP :tu

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Originally Posted by pad300

Surprised that you gave Qpon a grade and not Cunningham... Cun played more minutes (Did you get the 2 of them confused? Box scores say Cun had some strong games against NOP, while QPon was pretty meh).

Overall, I'd be more generous with Pop, this team is seriously unbalanced (especially with injuries) and yet we made the playoffs. Admittedly, he also gets a strong negative for the playoffs, as that was a winnable series, and perhaps the biggest factor in losing it was the coaching - that Wombat - Beli pairing that kept on showing up...

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Yes sir. I got them confused. I meant Dante.

Overall pretty good...maybe a little harsh on Patty. Yes, Pop overused him, he sucks on defense, and his shot abandoned him in the playoffs...but overall, the offense usually looked better with him on the floor. As usual, the bench unit saved the Spurs in several games after the starters came out flat, and Patty had a big hand in that.

The real problem is that Bryn and Patty are basically the same player (undersized SGs in a PGs body and only valuable if they are making 3s)...and I'd argue Bryn has surpassed Patty at this point in his career. Would really not mind if that was the last we've seen of Mills in silver & black. Dejounte can't get healthy soon enough.

Also...a C for Cunningham? Dude was an absolute waste of space on the bench. Despite being played for his "3&D", he somehow managed to make both the offense and the defense worse anytime he stepped on the floor. Absolutely atrocious at finishing at the rim. His only bright spot was his 3PT%, but he still only shot 1 a game. The only reason that was so high was because teams were perfectly glad to leave him wide open and he was still scared to shoot.

I saw the title and initially thought timvp. But good stepping out and doing your take. I think a couple grades deserve a slight curve personally but a pretty fair assessment:bobo