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lonnie and djm — put them on the texas eagle to austin. one way ticket
Yes, so what's the root of that issue?
>>>> Lack of ball movement because the "head of the snake" Mills won't run plays
It wouldn't be so hard to score if our players got open looks.
lonnie and djm — put them on the texas eagle to austin. one way ticket
You're a damn fool.
Forgetting about Trey Lyles.
Mills and Murray are Terrible PG but since White is out that is what will probably see and the end result will be a big fat L.
Honestly, the momentum was swinging our way in the middle of the third quarter. We were only down 5 after being down 20. Then Pop subbed all the youth in. The game was winnable, but there was no need to win it.
I'm not as down on Murray as others. Yeah, he shot terrible but it wasn't "pull my hair out" terrible like several times during the bubble. Like I said earlier, he looked explosive. Maybe he wouldn't look as bad if the players around him didn't play bad too. Finishing around the rim still leaves much to be desired, but being quicker? That should open things up for him.
Eyetester
74. And it is not like OKC is prime Warriors. ugh
I see alot of criticism of Lonnie but do people remember he has back spasms, and was a late add. He was likely trying to toughen it out.
On the other hand, I think the reality is Dejounte might have peaked as far as natural basketball point guard skills. He will likely not improve much further. He cant play alongside Derrick White. I think either Devin Vassell or even Keldon Johnson would be a better option to start.
Dejounte is not running the offense playing alongside White or DeRozan anyway, and his growth is being stunted. If he moves to the bench, he would be surrounded by primary scorers in Patty Mills and Lonnie, Gay. It's time for Popovich to move off the Dejounte idea of the next great Spur and except him as a bench/role player. Beside he would strength/balance the bench defense & offense
Honestly, the big letdown about Murray's shooting isn't the numbers per se (I'm not going to worry about a bad shooting night on the first preseason game), but the mechanics behind it. I'd have to go over yesterday's tape to confirm it, but I definitely saw his weird motion that he had pre-COVID, and which hasn't been fixed:
He's still pulling his knees together before he takes a jumper. He's still hesitating when catching the ball on the perimeter whilst open. His shot still doesn't look fluid - he has a middle motion after catching the ball, where he brings it down before shooting whilst setting his feet, but it's way longer than a normal "dip" and definitely something opposing wings can and will block; and in his single made 3, his feet weren't pointing at the rim, it was more of a sideway shot, even after having a lot of time to set himself.
I'll try to get a screencap of the shot so you can see what I'm talking about. But overall, the point is, he can have better or worse shooting splits on a given night, but the structural issues preventing him from being an NBA-caliber shooter (and therefore NBA-caliber SG) are still there. That's what worries me, at least, can't speak for others.
Fair points. I didn't pay attention to his shot as much as I paid attention to his movement on the court.
Honestly, if his shot doesn't improve and if the improved quickness is for real, he could pursue to be a Giannis type role player - pushing the ball in transition (like he found Patty in that one fast break last night) should be his focus. Aside from outstanding D, that's all Giannis really is.
Other than that, his other hope is to be a 3 and D but like you said, his shot stinks.
To be a natural PG who has vision and can reliably shoot the 3? That's out of the question for him.
Hmm, will this image post correctly? I think I've got it down now... Anyways, Dejounte, here's the stuff I was talking about. Keep in mind this awful shooting pose was after being granted several seconds to set his form by a defensive mismatch/bad closeout from OKC, and included the way-too-deep dip that I mentioned. Shooting sideways just isn't gonna cut it at the NBA level, sadly, even if it leads to occasional hot spurts.
Here's food for thought:
Would Giannis be as effective if he played with DeMar and LMA?
The ball would stop so much (if we're thinking pre-bubble, and assuming it doesn't continue this season)
So... I don't think he would be as effective.
This is how I view DJ. Just a bad fit for him to be effective at all.
I'm not saying DJ is NOT a scrub. He very well could be. But I think his potential would be unlocked with a different type team. And maybe that's why he complains so much about LMA being on the team.
Haha, you're selling Giannis way short there. He's an unnaturally fluid ball-handler for his size and length, a walking mismatch for opposing PFs who have been trending the opposite direction since the early 2000's, and also a scoring machine (in the regular season at least), on top of DPOY-level defense. It's important to mention this, because it explains why Giannis hogging the ball and bringing it up actually has value; on that same note, I cannot say that Dejounte particularly doing the same, while lacking court vision and shooting threat, is worth nearly as much as Giannis, who can also explode towards the rim in a way that Dejounte never will (not to mention actually score when he gets to the rim, another area DJ lacks in). Why would I rather have DJ take the ball up instead of White, every single time? No reason at all.
Quickness in a vacuum isn't too valuable, at least combined with the rest of DJ's game. At least for the time being (and it's been a few years now), he can't convert too well once he gets to the rim, he's not good in the PnR 'cause he's got no pull-up or shooting game, he's not a good distributor due to lacking vision, and to top it off, he's unequivocally convinced that he's actually good enough at all these areas to warrant that ball-hogging. That might actually be what irks me the most about him.
The more I write about Dj's game, the less encouraged I feel, tbh. I might have to stop altogether, at least until the season begins...
Can't disagree there, even though I don't like the rethorical question and feel compelled to answer that yes, Giannis would still be effective paired with DD+LMA. Dejounte is just a bad fit on the Spurs, first and foremost, and can't be ruled out as a Certified Scrub until he's given a chance in another team. The question being - how much do the Spurs have to suck for Pop to realize this?
True, I did sell Giannis short. But I did say a 'role player' version of Giannis, whatever that means.Haha, you're selling Giannis way short there. He's an unnaturally fluid ball-handler for his size and length, a walking mismatch for opposing PFs who have been trending the opposite direction since the early 2000's, and also a scoring machine (in the regular season at least), on top of DPOY-level defense. It's important to mention this, because it explains why Giannis hogging the ball and bringing it up actually has value; on that same note, I cannot say that Dejounte particularly doing the same, while lacking court vision and shooting threat, is worth nearly as much as Giannis, who can also explode towards the rim in a way that Dejounte never will (not to mention actually score when he gets to the rim, another area DJ lacks in). Why would I rather have DJ take the ball up instead of White, every single time? No reason at all.
Quickness in a vacuum isn't too valuable, at least combined with the rest of DJ's game. At least for the time being (and it's been a few years now), he can't convert too well once he gets to the rim, he's not good in the PnR 'cause he's got no pull-up or shooting game, he's not a good distributor due to lacking vision, and to top it off, he's unequivocally convinced that he's actually good enough at all these areas to warrant that ball-hogging. That might actually be what irks me the most about him
The more I write about Dj's game, the less encouraged I feel, tbh. I might have to stop altogether, at least until the season begins...
Giannis is ridiculously strong and bullies his way into the rim, with length to maneuver around players for easy lay-ups and/or dunks.
Dejounte is really lacking in strength. If he amped up his strength, to the point of where he can give inside bigs a little push back, he could score much easier. But the fact is, he's the one being pushed down which in effect makes him lose the ball instead of an easy 2.
Some quality passes, too bad his teammates couldn't cash those checks.
Tre needs to make the open shot
Last edited by GAustex; 12-13-2020 at 04:56 PM.
Tre Jones and Derrick White are the only two natural point guards on the roster.
Based on the fact, that as soon as he was off the court, the entire Spurs defense colapsed. Rethink your statement.
sad to have to get Spurs bball from YT highlights, but Vassell looks good
Samanic better be the white Robert Horry (clutch af) because he looks slow and useless
Looks like everyone but Mills and Vassell were just going through the motions out there. Meanwhile OKC guys were trying to win jobs.
I will give Luka another year as he was a project pick and bigs usually take longer to figure things out in the NBA but I still want to see some improvement or just plain hustle
Real effort and want-to is a of a thing.
Lineup should be
LMA
Gay
Vassell
DeRozan
Jones (while White is out)
tbh
with Mills/Purrtl as a good bench PnR duo, and Walker/Lyles and whoever. I guess Murray. But Murray sucks ass. His decision making is poor, his defensive effort seems poor (1st preseason game I know). He hit a 3 which is good, but other than that bright spot I don't see the same impact on the game he had when he was year 1/2.
prediction for this year, the vets will hurt the youth's development. Needing to find minutes for guys like Gay, Mills, even LMA and DeRozan, is making guys like Walker, Murray, and later, Keldon, White and Vassell struggle to get meaningful PT. And useless players like Lyles don't help either. Team really needs to commit to developing their youth. They're not making the playoffs, and they shouldn't, because making 7 or 8 seed and getting blown out by a contender in the first round isn't worth wasting another year of the team's young players.
Last edited by phxspurfan; 12-13-2020 at 06:20 PM.
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