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I never thought I was that popular.
I know this looks crazy, but hear me out:
PG - Parker
SG - Ginobili
SF - Hill
PF - McDyess
C - Duncan
6th Man - Blair
It looks more and more to me like these are our best guys. RJ isn't one of them. However, if he came off the bench, he could surely do well against the other teams' bench. At least we could hope. Hill is a great defender, so he could still stack up well against the other SFs in the league... not ideal, but you've got to get Jefferson out of there. Also, Ginobili is older and he needs to start. It's insane to bring him off the bench any longer in my opinion.
Blair has also continued to play well... I wouldn't start him because I wouldn't want to run him out of steam by the end of the season, but he needs to be ou there 25 minutes a game unless he's having a bad one. If you have Parker, Hill, and Ginobili out there starting, you've got plenty of playmakers and you can sit either Ginobili or Parker by sliding Hill over into their spot at a subs ution. The other thing too is that this brings back some Spurs defense. RFJ unfortunately just doesn't play D so many times... especially on transition defense.
What do you guys think? I think it's time to stop with the mad scientist Popovich crap.
(BTW, I was right about Ginobili going off... 2 straight 20 point games)
BL
I never thought I was that popular.
George Hill at SF is pretty crazy. I suppose if you switch Manu and Hill it could work.
PG - Parker
SG - Hill
SF - Ginobili
PF - McDyess
C - Duncan
6th Man - Blair
That's pretty small ball.
I don't know if there would be enough punch in the bench to give the starter's rest though.
The thing is, I don't like small ball... I didn't like it when the Suns brought it in, and I sure don't like it with the Spurs. But what other option do you have when Jefferson is sucking this much (its the defense that is worse than the offense) and there's no other big to bring in for him?
You're right about the lack of punch coming off the bench, but you just gotta believe that Jefferson can turn it up against the other teams' bench. Surely if he gets plenty of touches against them and you run the offense through him, maybe he can be something of the myth we heard about. Maybe the fact that our bench is the top bench in the league actually means the wrong people are in the starting lineup?
BL
This would not work... GH is too small for the SF position. He would struggle against big SF... He needs to be our primary PG.... Parker could be our SG.... since Parker likes to take a lot of shots.
And Jefferson is not used to coming off the bench. He just needs to play better basketball. Or lets just trade him again....
But....is only February.
This team had a lot of unknowns going into the season. We were unaware of the Pitt rookie's abilities transitions to the big stage; we weren't sure how Ian and Hairston would affect lineups, if at all; we didn't know if RJ would have worked himself into a rhythmic role by now; we didn't know how Hill and Mason's situations would unfold in the logjam of perimeter talent.
Some of these are still unknown, and it's partially because we don't have a set rotation by this point..
RJ sucks,that is a known
Hairston, and Ian probably should have been played at the beginning of the season before the team needed to start making a playoff push, Ether it worked or didn't, but at least it wouldn't have been an unknown.
Agreed. With all Pop 'tinkering,' he still wasted away even trying out what could have been 2 regular season rotational players. Both fill needs we desperately want filled right now.
Unfortunately, barring a trade/injury, I think we saw the set rotation last night. It's looking like it will shake down like this...
Starters: PF- Duncan, SF- Jefferson, C- McDyess, SG- Hill, PG- Parker
Bench (rotation): SG- Ginobili, PF- Blair, SG- Bogans
Bench (sparingly): SG/SF- Finley, PF- Bonner
Bench (out of rotation): SG/PG- Mason, C- Ratliff
Inactive: SG/SF- Hairston, C/PF- Mahinmi
Assuming Duncan and McDyess play extended minutes in the playoffs, we could see strictly a three-big rotation with Blair. We could also see a second unit big tandem of Blair-Jefferson or (at least in the 1st half) Blair-Bonner.
I miss "It's only January" already...
I'm not totally opposed to this line-up in certain scenarios, but I don't think that it is realistic as a "set" rotation. Hill is a good defender, but he would be pretty vulnerable against bigger 3s who could post him up or just shoot over his head. Like it or not, Jefferson is the best option at the 3. He is really the only true SF the Spurs have. Point is, the Spurs have made their bed on this one.
Also, I prefer Manu on the bench now that he and Blair have developed into a solid tandem. I used to believe that the Spurs should start their best player at every position, but I have given up on Tony and Manu being on the floor at the same time until the 4th quarter. It just seems like one has to sacrifice his game for the other a little to often.
I think it's a foregone conclusion that Manu is gone next year. He doesn't seem happy this year. It's obvious to me that the chemistry on this year's roster is the worst in the Duncan era. Coupled with a roster overhaul that requires half of the squad to learn a new system and we are seeing the results.
Maybe there is a trade out there that will help these two major issues, but that seems like a tall order. The best we can hope for is that this team comes together in enough time that they will be cooking come playoff time or at least, that Tim can hang on long enough to get a legit post parter in next couple of years so we can send him off into the sunset Admiral style. I, for one, am not ready for rebuild mode yet.
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