Just how good is this team?

[Sissiborgo]

I mean if manu will be back and we will have a 100% team than we are top 3...

[wijayas]

So this may be too close to the romp of the Jazz, with two exceptional performances by George Hill and Roger Mason, but just how good is this team? Albeit this is purely a matter of speculation, but maybe we should start thinking about this given the pending arrival of Manu (within 1 week) and Tony shortly thereafter.

Manu and Tony will obviously eat a lot of Hill's and Mason's minutes, but I don't think that it's a stretch to believe that these two will continue to give us some output. And, given one of our biggest problems last year was the 3-5 minute scoring drought/lack of a dependable scorer -- I think Hill and Mason go a long way to curing that problem.

But do we have enough to beat the Lakers? Will we have enough scoring to do the trick? And what do we need from our bigs in order to match up with Bynum and Gasol? Does anyone here really think that Mahimi will tilt the scales in our favor over the Lakers?

I think this team is pretty ing good -- I just don't know if its good enough to beat the Lakers. Thoughts?

It was a great game against Utah. But let's not get carried away. We allow Utah to shoot 49%! To be the real Spurs we have come to know, we need to keep the opponents at 40% clip, max.

Long season.

[ClingingMars]

nice sig.....i can definitely feel your hostility.....btw....the Spurs have been in the Suns, prison style, for the last 6 years. I wonder if Nash, Stoudamire, Bell, Marion, and D'Antoni have nightmares about SA?

-Mars

[Allanon]

Umm... of course the Lakers were going to get better on defensive with Bynum replacing Pau at center, and Pau moving to his more natural 4 spot. It doesn't surprise anyone, and I gave him and LA credit, saying he's a big interior presence. Where did I sell him short?

Last year, Bynum wasn't strong enough to keep post players from getting deep position on him...he was getting pushed around easily. His added strength now makes him the best defensive Center in the West.

I would beg to differ, having watched Bynum closely since being drafted (as close as I can at least - I've caught at least 20 Laker games that weren't nationally televised in the past two seasons). His offense is going to separate him from many big men, his defense has always been more than decent (what would you expect, him growing up with Tim as his role model? ). But that offense is not going to be there every night, especially come PO time.

Why they would go to Bynum more and not Pau should they change their style of game is beyond me (why change your style of play midway through the season anyway?). Pau is just much, much better on the block, and any additional post plays other than usual should go through him.

The Lakers were a guard oriented team in the first few games. After the Detroit loss, the Lakers are concentrating on getting the ball in the post.

You saw in the first couple of games, Bynum wasn't dunking and was missing lobs. Now he's dunking and able to catch the lob passes. His explosiveness is almost back from last year. His scoring has increased quite a bit and Phil is starting to run plays for him.

Bynum is already averaging 10 points on ~50% shooting and 9 rebounds on a team with 7 players averaging about 10 points. And he's only playing 28 minutes. No doubt Bynum can score, there just aren't enough shots for him to score alot more. I think if Bynum can get up to about 60% on FG%, he should get about 15 points.

Its November and 12 games into the season. January is still a month away and a lot of West teams will be healthy(er) by then. Let's talk stats after they happen, not before. Besides, championships aren't won in January. I think you'll want Bynum and the Lakers playing their best BBall come April.

I agree, let's wait for a better time to discuss Bynum (in a different thread).

Back on topic.

[lotr1trekkie]

Mason is an upgrade over Barry. Hill is a big upgrade over Vaughn and Stodamire. Until we know about Mahimni's abilities we are still short on bigs that can do more than one thing. A true center would be a blessing when Tim is sitting. Rebound and defend the rim. The salary cap is the limiting factor.

[peskypesky]

This team is better than last years team. We are just short Manu and Tony. Once they come back, Spurs will be unstoppable.

I almost agreed with you....but then I remembered how poorly Oberto & Thomas have been playing and I stopped myself. Sure, Mason is a big plus over last year, and Hill looks he's going to be a plus as well....but the minus in the paint is going to be hard to overcome.

Despite what everyone wants to believe, it's not PG's and SG's that lead to Championships. It's big men.

[DPG21920]

I almost agreed with you....but then I remembered how poorly Oberto & Thomas have been playing and I stopped myself. Sure, Mason is a big plus over last year, and Hill looks he's going to be a plus as well....but the minus in the paint is going to be hard to overcome.

Despite what everyone wants to believe, it's not PG's and SG's that lead to Championships. It's big men.

Last game was encouraging from Oberto. He played smart defense, made some nice passes and actually made some very aggressive moves towards the basket on offense. If he can continue to be aggressive on offense that would be a huge help. He also needs to pick up the rebounding.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

I think you guys are being a little too critical of Oberto and KT. Right now, scoring is a tall order for this team, from the few games I've seen Popovich has been forced to go small more often than normal in order to create more baskets. He has also had to worry less about defensive rebounding in order to create more easy baskets on the break. When their two starting guards are out and they basically have no off the dribble offense in the half court, it has a ripple down effect on the rest of the team and the way it has to operate.

Big men do win championships, yes, but SG's also win championships, if you want to be a good defensive team that specializes in half court offense you need a SG who can get to the rim like Ginobili can, they don't have that right now, which is forcing Pop to go to KT and Oberto less and Bonner more in order to spread the floor for the offense to generate points easier.