Reply With Quote
he doesn't fill any particular need that any of the players already on the roster cannot address. whatever minutes he spends on the court is better served by having mason and ginobili play.
We're not going to get a quality big at a bargain price. Especially not one with a high basketball IQ, who plays strong on both ends of the floor, and who is a good fit in the Spurs locker room.
But there is one other player I wish we could pick up, who I think would legitimately improve our chances of winning a le, and that's Raja Bell. I hate the bas when he's playing against us, but he's a damned good perimeter defender, and he can put points on the board. (He shoots 3's better than Finley, and he's got an in-between game.) With him in the lineup, I think we could survive with the bigs we already have.
If we had him on the roster, I don't think we would have lost that game to Orlando, or the two to Milwaukee. Or even the one to New Orleans, where we outscored them in each of the first 3 quarters, then got crushed in the 4th. (Before you start flaming, look back at those losses and think about what he brings to the court.) Those 4 games alone would put our record right there with the Lakers and Cavs - close enough, anyway.
Charlotte is already out of the playoffs. Is there any chance of making a trade for him?
he doesn't fill any particular need that any of the players already on the roster cannot address. whatever minutes he spends on the court is better served by having mason and ginobili play.
I haven't watched many Suns or Bobcats games, but Xylus said he looks washed up, at least defensively, IIRC.
Horse ! He can lock down on defense almost as well as Bowen could, which is one of the big things this team is sorely missing. ( , Luke Ridnour dropped 21 on us that last game.) That's like saying that Bowen's minutes would have been better served by someone else - not on any team coached by Gregg Popovich.
With him shutting down some of the perimeter scoring, we also wouldn't have as many players slipping in behind our bigs for easy baskets, because they would be able to stay home more. It's just a bonus that he is a tough, clutch 3-point shooter.
Say what you want, but I think we would be no worse than 29-8 with him on the roster. And short of finding a bargain big man, he is one player that would measurably improve this roster, because of his perimeter defense.
I wonder if that's because of him, or the players around him in Charlotte? I thought he looked pretty good at the beginning of the season with the Suns. But I really haven't watched Charlotte enough since the trade. If he really can't lock down defensively, then I guess it's a moot point. We have good 3-point shooters already.
I like our guard rotation right now. Raja Bell was shining reflected glory from Nash with those high shooting percentages due to all the open threes he got in transition.
spurs should get him just so bell can clothesline bryant again in the playoffs. another alternative to acquiring a big is to get a SF who plays inside instead of camping the 3 pt line like finley and bowen.
minutes are already at a premium for the guards/small forwards of this team. mason's arrival has already eaten a lot of minutes off of bowen's. and bowen already does what bell could potentially give the spurs. besides, mason has already shown that he can be trusted to guard a kobe-type player for stretches.
here's another thing i have noticed about mason's defense. big guards often try to post him but they often fail to score on him. he is a disciplined post defender.
having raja bell on this team will be redundant unless you wish to trade bowen. xylus knows better than most around here when it comes to the suns and he has stated that bell is way past his best. "washed up" is what he called him.
that's the only reason i could think of.
the reason why kobe sucked that night was not mason's pressure on him, but just he sucked. lakers had played a pretty tough game against rockets the night before and the almost lost to the rockets who were short-handed with artest sidelined (though tmac was sidelined too, I mean it's a good news for rockets to sideline that ). only gasol played well against the spurs that night so that's undoubtedly not enough to beat the spurs. Lakers played the final minutes with both the rockets and spurs but the result were quite different. If kobe hadn't hit the 3 then the winner would probably be the rockets instead of the lakers, and battier should be blamed to that 3 because his palm didn't fully cover kobe's sight. though mason has learnt some defensive skills since he joined spurs but his defense is still pretty mediocre. he just locked up a sucking kobe who would anyway suck even no one had took care of him.
Raja bell is pretty old but that just makes him fit the spurs well which are even older generally, and he can also hit 3s on other positions than the two corners.
11-19 29 points 10 assists 7 rebounds and he's sucking? he played to win. and before you get your panty all in a bunch, i am not claiming mason is a kobe-stopper () which seems to be your intent. what i'm saying is that mason can be trusted to be able to keep an eye on kobe, to be able to at least put up some resistance on kobe by trying to stay in front of kobe, be able to put a hand up whenever kobe takes a shot.
Someone help me, But How is Raja Bell Big in Size?
he's a freaking giant.
Raja Bell got traded from the Suns because by his own admission since the birth of his son he just doesn't want to have the nasty reputation that comes with being a lock down defender. His priorities have moved away from basketball and he resents the time on the road away from his new addition. In short, he has lost his passion for the game....pass.
Uhm, he would still get those open threes thanks to timmy and all of our other shooters, if he doesn't he still commands respect defensively and will take yet another defender away from the middle. Imagine playing small ball against those teams and we need to lock down their shooters, you can play bruce and bell together to lock down. If he would be a gift then I would take him on this team. Pop has tried to get him in the past, I don't see why he wouldn't be interested again.
Mason is the man. Spurs seem to have a talent for finding great players that others miss. It is kinda scary. If I were a coach of a ty team, I would hire some private investigators to follow the Spurs' scouts around and just outbid them on whoever they spent a lot of time looking at.
bruce and bell? who would be the other guys on the floor? tony, manu and tim, i assume. spurs would be awfully small.
He isn't quite as big as Taco Bell because that guy is grande.
What about Linas Kleiza? I heard the Nuggets might be interested in moving him....
People I know who watched him play nightly in PHX considered him to be on the downslide. Not sure how he'd fit in here.
Or not...
Last edited by GSH; 01-19-2009 at 03:51 PM.
Yeh... Bell is looking pretty washed up.
Doesn't matter. Bell is a fine player and a prototype Spurs. However, there are more obvious needs for this team than adding another shooting guard. The Spurs are already stockpiled at that spot anyway. Therefore, I don't see Bell being an alternative solution to the need for a big.
I see charlotte getting the 7th spot in East, so why trade a good defender, and good 3pt shooter.
That's funny. I heard Sean mention this exact thing the other night. When your perimiter defense breaks down, your bigs can't stay home. And the other teams' bigs slip in behind for easy scores. And that's been happening to us much too often lately.
The solution to that particular problem is better perimeter defense.
You make a very good point and when you have Finley playing no D whatsoever, how can we expect Tim to guard the paint.
BTW nice D Bonner. How the fu$k do you expect Tim to guard both your's & his man.
Enough with this Bonner experiment, we'll ing go nowhere.
And Pop, enough with the small ball crap, Tim is getting no help whatsoever when you go small ball. Kurt has to be on the floor for us to get boards.
Again i just can't help notice the helplessness look on Tim. He needs help right now and fast.
...And Aaron Gray?
Del Negro isn't giving him many minutes... He might help us.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
