Initial Reaction: Spurs vs. Clippers Mar. 27

[polandprzem]

-If there was one player who benefited most from Ginobili's return it was Roger Mason, Jr. With the Clippers forced to keep an eye on Ginobili at all times, Mason was freed up to make plays. As a result, Mason had one of his best all-around games of the season - scoring eight points, pulling down eight rebounds and dishing out six assists while finishing without a turnover. Mason didn't shoot the ball well but if he can become the fourth playmaker on this team, it'd make the Spurs even more difficult to defend.

This is something I don't get it.

You absolutely smashed Pop about two weeks ago for putting Mase on the point guard spot.
And now you see it as a positive that Roger is having some point guard duties?

[polandprzem]

This is something I don't get.

[timvp]

Thanks for the great breakdown as always...
One thought on Gooden, his defense. Seriously it. I don't care if he is a matador. As long as his body is there and he gives effort, he is bound to make make a few shots more difficult, and he only needs to play as a second string big man.

There are very few teams that have two low post offensive threats, Very few, and most of those are missing one of their tandem (Bynum and Amare) With Kurt Thomas and Duncan to put next to Gooden, he can always be hidden on a weaker opponent. Sure he may give up a few penetrations but he more than makes up for that by rebounding the shots that Duncan and Thomas alter.

But more than that all he needs is to be able to keep momentum going or prevent it from shifting. And tonight I think he proved that he is more than capable of it. When he gets beat he goes and gets it back on the other side. He is capable of ending a run by getting the crowd into with a thunderous dunk.

If he is giving effort he should be on the floor.

I see where you are coming from but I don't agree. Gooden has to become at least a competent defender to be useful in the playoffs. So far, teams like the Thunder and the T'Wolves have been drawing up plays to specifically take advantage of Gooden's defensive shortcoming. Image would would happen in the playoffs against teams that are good. It'd turn into a layup drill at Gooden's current level ... and there's no way he'd be able to make up for that on the other end.

And hiding him against the weaker opponent makes the problem even worse. If he's on the weaker big, that means he has more responsibilities in the defensive scheme to rotate. It'd actually be better to put him on the better big and let him concentrate on individual defense ... but he'd still need to improve.

Against the Clippers, he was scary bad on defense. What worried me is that even his individual defense was bad and that was supposed to be his strong point on defense. If he was playing that type of defense in the playoffs, there's no way any smart coach would have him out on the court.

My hope is that he can at least get to a Nazr level of defense. If he can defend well enough one-on-one and at least know where he needs to rotate (even if it is a step slow), then he'll be useful. The one thing Gooden has going against him is Nazr was much more of a shotblocking presence. We haven't seen Gooden change many shots yet. But Gooden is quick and a better athlete than Nazr so hopefully he'll continue to grow into that role.

[timvp]

This is a tiny bit of a surprise to me, LJ. You really want Manu and Tim playing playoff rotation type minutes against the Clippers? We needed people like Jacques (19) and Bruce (16) eating minutes against an obviously inferior opponent.

I think you missed the rest of that paragraph

Pop pushed all the right buttons on Friday night. He was able to use the game as a confidence builder while at the same time limiting everyone's minutes. It didn't hurt that the Big Three combined for 45 points, 15 assists and zero turnovers in 48 minutes. Or that the Big Three hit 18-of-23 shots from the field. The coaching challenge will come on Sunday against the Hornets. Pop has a roster filled with players who could make a case for minutes. Instead of giving everyone time, it'd be nice if Pop would begin to form his rotation and give his team the best chance to win this important divisional contest.

Pop did a very good job against the Clippers. But he can't keep going with his 12 man rotations going forward. He has to eventually start picking the horses he's going to ride in the playoffs.

[polandprzem]

Gooden was never good protecting the rim.

And yes it would be good for the spurs that he could figure out positioning in defensive system.
But in te playoffs Pop will probably dig him under the bench and will just dust him off from time to time. That's why IQ and other good aspects of Oberto are so needed in the playoffs. In the playoffs that we do not know how much we can count on Bonner.

[polandprzem]

He has to eventually start picking the horses he's going to ride in the playoffs.

TD TP MG

[celldweller]

Man, these are simply the best out there on the web.

I look forward to reading this on every game!

[timvp]

This is something I don't get it.

You absolutely smashed Pop about two weeks ago for putting Mase on the point guard spot.
And now you see it as a positive that Roger is having some point guard duties?

I never had a problem with Mason himself as a point guard. I kept pointing out that Mason was very good at point guard earlier in the season. And that part you underlined about him being the fourth playmaker is something I've been harping on all season. If Mason can be the team's fourth playmaker, that would make the Big Three even more difficult to defend. It'd give them a new dimension because the Spurs haven't had a fourth playmaker since the Big Three was formed.

What I didn't like Pop doing was yanking around Mason and I was worried that Mason was going to lose his confidence. I also didn't like Pop giving up on Hill for the season (last night Pop played Hill at small forward ). But with the return of Ginobili, the pressure on Mason will be greatly reduced and hopefully that will cause Pop to ease up on Mason and just let him play. Mason can be a solid backup point with help from Ginobili and a coach who doesn't pull him after turnovers.

[polandprzem]

I never had a problem with Mason himself as a point guard. I kept pointing out that Mason was very good at point guard earlier in the season. And that part you underlined about him being the fourth playmaker is something I've been harping on all season. If Mason can be the team's fourth playmaker, that would make the Big Three even more difficult to defend. It'd give them a new dimension because the Spurs haven't had a fourth playmaker since the Big Three was formed.

What I didn't like Pop doing was yanking around Mason and I was worried that Mason was going to lose his confidence. I also didn't like Pop giving up on Hill for the season (last night Pop played Hill at small forward ). But with the return of Ginobili, the pressure on Mason will be greatly reduced and hopefully that will cause Pop to ease up on Mason and just let him play. Mason can be a solid backup point with help from Ginobili and a coach who doesn't pull him after turnovers.

Got it - but you wanted Pop to stop this exeriment with mason as PG. I do not want to look at the thread or specific post


yeh well I think we all knew that Gino will handle the playmaking resposibilieties once he will return.
It was a good move from Pop to give mason time to adopt to the situation althoughI still in the last game was mad at Pop that he gave Mason that role when Gino was on the floor and when Hill was on the floor.

All in all Pop want the flexibility with the lineops. Few players playing diferent role in diferent lineups makes it more difficult from the start. Hopefully Pop started to set the rotation up, but still we don't know it from the blowout game.

I would love to see more Bowen though.

[Manufan909]

This is something I don't get it.

You absolutely smashed Pop about two weeks ago for putting Mase on the point guard spot.
And now you see it as a positive that Roger is having some point guard duties?

Whoops I was a page too late.