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I'm wondering if there is, besides Pop waking up in a cold sweat, after Hill constantly morphed into Beno, and Fin threatened to murder his family if he didn't get 20+ minutes a game.
Agreed.
If he would play George Hill as the backup point guard then IMO things would be perfect.
But for some reason POP has soured overnight on Hill and there has to be a reason we are not hearing for why he has.
I'm wondering if there is, besides Pop waking up in a cold sweat, after Hill constantly morphed into Beno, and Fin threatened to murder his family if he didn't get 20+ minutes a game.
To be honest with you, I think it's entirely because George is a rookie. And I don't event think Pop is doing it for the wrong reasons. I think he wants George to learn from Parker, see what the playoffs is about, and make sure he's not placed in a pressure situation like having to run the team in a game 7 on the road, where if he makes a bunch of mistakes it ends up costing the series and the season. Then you have a rook with a psychological burden.
I think Pop likes George a lot (what's not to like), and I think he wants him to burn one bridge at a time. I actually thought the reason Vaughn played the last week was to lower George expectations a bit. I see Hill getting spot minutes in the playoffs, purely as a defender but without major responsibilities.
Obviously, this is just my opinion.
I don't buy the rookie opinion because he has gone with rookies in the past, Beno, Ginobili, so I again wonder whats gone on.
Other than Parker and Manu, not really. Barry ended up running the point for us in Beno's rookie season in '05. What other rookies did he play consistently in the playoffs other than those two? And don't forget that Manu wasn't exactly a rookie-rookie.
We were playing better then and they were playing worse.
Beno ran the point up until game 5 of the 05 NBA Finals.
So again, I don't buy it.
They weren't playing THAT bad.
True, true. And Portland sucks on the road.
But still, we beat them w/o Tim because Parker shredded them for 39. I don't think that happens again.
He averaged 11 minutes a game... spot minutes at most.
Bonner is still a better defender and his shooting percentage has been good over the least few weeks. That said, his lack of rebounding is tough to stomach. Plus his lack of athleticism is more noticeable now that the Spurs on a whole or less athletic without Manu's explosiveness.
Gooden is far from perfect but he's bringing more to the table right now than Bonner. And the ceiling for this team is higher with Gooden than Bonner.
Yeah, I agree that Hill brings more to the table than Ime. Ime's biggest asset is he's a tough, physical presence who can play a lot of positions. His actual skill level and athleticism level are severely lacking but Pop really seems to like that physicality he provides.
Good points.
I liked seeing some chemistry starting to form between Duncan and Gooden. Pop even called a few plays that involved them feeding each other. It's not inconceivable that Gooden could turn into a 15 and 10 player now that Ginobili isn't around.
I'm seriously starting to think it's time to start Gooden and just pray for the best. I like his offensive game when he's next to Parker and Duncan because he doesn't dominant the action as much as when he's with the second unit.
Oh and the LOL moment of the game was when Gooden held the ball for about five seconds looking to score even though he was double-teamed the entire time. You could literally hear his teammates yelling at him to pass the ball. But yeah, that's the type of stuff you have to live with if Gooden is on your team.
I could have sworn Pop dusted off some old Hi/Lo plays for a few sequences tonight...
Too bad we don't have more time to develop that. Duncan's passing is 3lit3 this season. And Gooden is taking shots at an Iverson rate.
I thought tonight's Gooden LOL moment was when he caught the ball inside the 3, dribbled baseline into the defender, and shot into the defenders face, and swished the shot. Parker was like
I think even though Bonner is clanking, if we start Gooden instead, we might find the lane getting far too clogged, and Gooden will become a turnover machine, instead of a classical black hole. Maybe Pop can dust off some more sneaky Hi/Lo plays from the Spurs vault.
Last edited by Cant_Be_Faded; 04-08-2009 at 01:11 AM.
Bruce Bowen a +13 while in the game?
The funny thing is Pop might like the fact that Gooden ball hogs. Pop probably gets tired of having to preach for players to look for their offense.
The challenge then is getting him to play team ball and defense. Given how Pop favors offense (which in theory is why Bonner is out there) then the move to Gooden may happen soon.
The other way to look at it is we may have less than 12-15 games in the whole season. We need to hurry up and figure something out with Gooden quick before it's time to talk contracts. The future roster is so wide open right now, we need as much knowledge as possible on Gooden before heading into the off season.
Bowen was a 1 man defense after he caught his 2nd wind. As Oscar De La would say, I don't know what it is, but I want more Bowen.
I think at this point the rotation going forward should be obvious.
Parker
Duncan
Gooden
Bowen
Mason
Thomas
Finley
Hill
Udoka in matchup situations
I agree with you about not pushing Duncan all out when there does not seem to be a high reward for doing it as compared with what is coming up.
Looks like Bonner will be the odd man out come playoff time.
Thank god.
i keep saying that for a while now. i don't see any specific Pop's coaching weakness about backup PG or anything against Hill personally in Pop's reluctance to give him more playing time.
Pop almost never trusted rookies. nothing different for Hill.
Beno: not true
Manu: NBA rookie, yes but was as much a proven winner as any NBA players. i would't call manu a true rookie when he came here in 2002.
i guess Parker is the only one.
If I had it my way I would go with a rotation of :
Starters: TP, Mason, Bowen, TD, Thomas or Gooden.
Bench: Hill, Finley, Udoka, Gooden or Thomas (depending on who starts), and Bonner. at this point Bonner is really sucking. I'd even consider Oberto over Bonner.
Beno played 12 mpg in 21 games in the playoffs in 2005, after playing 80 games in the regular season.
So Pop definitely gave him a decent leash in his rookie year.
But I think maybe Beno is the reason why Hill doesn't get a chance.In 36 playoff games in a Spurs uniform, Beno shot 33% and 24% from 3.
Bonner should be the odd man out, but nothing Pop has done indicates that he will give up on Bonner yet, I hope Pop gets his act together and starts playing the only team that has a chance in the playoffs:Looks like Bonner will be the odd man out come playoff time.
Thank god.
4 Duncan----Gooden
5 Gooden--- Kurt Thomas-- Oberto
3 Bowen ----Finley---------Udoka
2 Mason-----Finley---------Hill
1 Parker-----Hill/ Mason
That's a damn good team- it resembles the Spurs of old and not the jump shooting team we have become. And I don't think we've seen this spurs team together enough to know how they will match up in the playoffs, but I wouldn't feel bad if they started the season with that kind of lineup.
^^^^
I don't understand why Spurs fans try to say Pop didn't give Beno a chance in 2005. Beno was the backup point guard from the first preseason game all the way until the point he literally couldn't bring the ball up the court 100+ games into the season. Pop stuck with Beno no matter what prior to that point.
Hill, on the other hand, was like the fourth point guard on the depth charts heading into preseason. It took him playing better than expected to even become the backup point guard in the first place. And while his play had hit a wall, I agree with the sentiment that Hill was mostly benched due to Pop's bad memories of what happened with Beno.
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