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Tony Parker is a hall of famer.
Lost in all the All-Star hype for Tony Parker this year, and well-deserved accolades about his improvement on offense, are some observations about his defense.
For long stretches of last year, Tony's on-the-ball D was as good as anyone's on the team, Bruce included. By mid-season I was prepare to argue that he deserved a spot on one of the All-Defense teams. He maybe tailed off a bit toward the latter third of the season, but then had some good stretches during the playoffs (remember the key end-of-game stop on Rip in Game 5?).
This year, I just don't see the same intensity. He's not horrible, but it's nowhere near last year. Is because he needs to conserve energy for the added offensive burden with Tim and Manu at partial strength? Is it because Pop told him to spend less effort on D and more on Eva? Is it because he's trying to think of new ways to not pass the ball to Manu?
Tony Parker is a hall of famer.
I know you can't actually read that fast, unless pseudo read it to you.
Tony is the only reason the Spurs are one game back from Dallas and one of the best teams in the NBA.
Manu and Duncan are still on Christmas break.
I just answered your le...
It has slipped. Particuly bad was the game in Miami when he had 38, Jason Williams was just going hard right and straight at the hoop. It might look a little worse this season too, because there have been a lot of different rotations and lineups due to lack of chemistry, injuries, Pop's crazy head etc..this usually leads to the team defense being a little weaker, making everyone look like a slightly lesser defender.
On the ball I still think he is very good, pressuring full court and so on but that has slipped as well, I think that could be due to the increased scoring load. I'm sure he will be fine come playoffs.
His defense is nowhere near where it was last season. , I believe last season he "Bruce Bowened" AI!
I think the slippage is most likely due to the fact that he is concentrating more so on offense than he has in years past.
Due to Timmy's foot injuries, the overall team defense has been lacking in spots this year...I think that it shows a bit more because TP's man gets more uncontested shots near the rim.
Part of this may be a regression of TP as well, but overall, I really think it all starts with Tim.
I hope Timmy gets healthier.
The irony that this past summer was the 1st in years that both Manu and Timmy didn't play and yet instead of being more healthy, they have been less healthy. The scarey thing is they are still at the top of the league and can get better.
Umm, actually Tony DID play in European championship. And he's the most healthy Spurs out of the big three up to this point (knock on wood)
It happens to every star PG in the league... no matter how good they start off on defense, once they become offensive stars and have the responsiblity of dribbling the ball for 20 secs every position and making every decision on the floor, they start to relax on defense, they simply don't have the energy to do both.
Tony is handling the ball more this year than ever, going to the hole more than ever, dribbling more, etc. Last year both Manu and Tim had the ball in their hands a lot. Remember, pretty much every end of quarter or last minute of the quarter possession during the home stretch and the playoffs last year was Manu and the 1-4 because Pop trusted him to make the proper decisions, and if the got fouled, he'd hit his FTs. Now Tony is getting all the end of quarter possessions.
Either Tim and Manu are really hurt, or Pop is saving them for the big show. I'm really hoping this is the case. I kind of hope Manu has been playing possum this whole year and teams in the west who saw floating layups all year will all of a sudden get flushed on...
Less Manu 1-4 at the end of quarters is more a reflection of his injuries. Although having TP now as a viable option isn't bad.
My opinion is that last year and the year before that Tony would pickup his man at full court and force him to use more energy to just get down the court and run the play. This year with the amount of driving and running that he is doing he has to hold back on the full court pressure to conserve energy.
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