I think this needs to be talked about. Tonight, especially in the 3rd when the Spurs just couldn't get anything going and Leonard looking sick out there, this is when Pop should be calling for iso's for LMA. And I couldn't understand why he didn't. This continued the whole quarter and later he barely touched it late in the 4th when we really needed to score.
As Udoka explained to LMA during the recruit process on that plane, 'No, we're not trying to change who you are ... we want you to be you.'
LMA explained, 'If y'all want me to come here and average 12 or 13 points, that's not who I am. I like scoring.' They were like, 'No, we want you to play in the system, but you scoring is needed here.' Once I heard that, I was fine."
That is my point. This is why we got him. In the playoffs, this will happen. We will go through droughts, and our defense will keep us in the game. But when you need a score or get a big basket, you feed it to player like LMA. That is why we got him. And we really needed that. We needed Pop to make those iso calls and tell LMA 'Get us back in the game,’ and it never happened.
So why is that? Why are we purely trusting on the ‘system’? The whole point of our team is that we can adapt, and yet Pop didn't.
LMA kept playing hot potatoes when he got the ball, for goodness sake he pitched the ball back to none other than Danny when he was being single covered by Patterson. Basically, nobody is stopping him from backing his way into the paint like Diaw/Kawhi except himself.
excellent thread le
you could probably get a job at buzzfeed
I too have no idea why the we weren't giving LMA 50 points tonight while Kawhi is ill
Pop has gotten into LMA head with the passing schtick.
It's fine to pass and look for a good shot, but too many guys have a shot that is good and pass out for one that is worse or just straight to a TO. It's why guys like Simmons have made an impact coming into the game. He is no more special than anyone else, yes he has a super quick first step, but what made him impact the game was that he had one thing in his mind: go to the basket or get a bucket. If he's stopped, then he'll pass. His best feature is that he's been aggressive.
Lately even Anderson has had to get on that bandwagon, bc he's like Diaw prone to get into a passive, pass happy state , but he's being the first to be benched when everyone else is sucking and its not even his fault. This time, he was more aggressive, and thus he played.
Then we have Diaw who still passes up too many good shots, sometimes into a TO, but you live with it bc that is Bobo.
Danny passes up shots to drive, and has been off.
Lamarcus is the most noticeable because he's a guy that supposedly liked to score. His passing up good opportunities to go to work and draw fouls of his own hurt us.
It is maddening.
"PtR writers HATE him!"
Pop don't want players to get credit over his "system". Simple as that. Same reason he pulls players before they get 30pts tbh
And you're not going to believe what happened next!
Without the system the Spurs are a rag tag group of nomads. Danny ing Green, really? Patty Mills? Boris Diaw? These people were ing WAIVED by their respective teams (ok Boris sandbagged it, he's a phenom).
If it was simple and easy everyone on the league would be doing it, but like some here the other franchises abandon ship and revert to iso ball and "good enough" ball movement. They rely on superstar acquisitions to get them there. The Spurs don't.
You either trust the system or you blow it up. You don't have the raw talent on paper to run basic generic sets, and early in the season is when you have to sacrifice games to get everyone in tune with the system. Abandoning that now just to get a win does nothing for the Spurs except teach the new guys that the system doesn't really work so let's abandon it. That's how OKC plays, how the Clippers play, how Houston plays...
In the last 10 years they have combined for zero rings.
I think it's lma himself who drank the koolaid and went pass happy. I'm sure he hears from the coaches how they want to integrate green. They may also be saving peak iso for the playoffs.
But also it's obvious pop loves his losses. That's the easiest explanation.
Pops is training LMA into good habits so that when he lets him go hes playing within the system. I hope it works but it probably wouldnt work anyways even if Pops just let him do what ever he wanted because it wouldnt be within the team concept. I agree though that if you have an open shot take it but Pops is not just thinking about an individual game he is thinking about the playoffs and hes forcing all these new guys to think pass, pass, pass so its second nature when that time comes.
I think all this stuff is going to come together in the end as long as we dont lose too many games in the process.
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