One of the biggest problems the Spurs have faced in the past in the matchup with Dallas is the question of how to guard Dirk. Obviously in the past Bowen has had the most success with him, but when the Spurs have gone to that for extended stretches Josh Howard has gone off on them quite handily. George Hill has the ability to change that in a big way.
If you go to Bowen on Dirk and you put Hill on Howard, I believe you're able to effectively contain both players for extended stretches. You're not likely to shut either player out completely at all, but George Hills athleticism and length gives them something they've severely lacked when matching up with a team like Dallas.
Now, it remains to be seen how this would hurt the Spurs on offense as Hill has shown a bit of a knack for disappearing on that end of the court but I think his defensive abilities give him the opportunity to place a solid mark on this series.
Now, the worst possible thing that could happen would be for Pop to try to go to Hill on Dirk because when he tried that earlier this year it turned out horribly. (Really the worst thing that could happen would be for Pop to put Ime on Dirk but I've resigned myself to the understanding this is a certainty - unfortunately)
Here's to hoping Pop manages his players correctly in this series.
I'm hoping Kurt Thomas and Duncan get the majority of the time against Dirk.
In transition oh well, but when hes posting up and facing up, put KT and Duncan on him.
I like Ime and Bruce switching off on Terry and Howard.
Ideally, Hill would guard Terry or Kidd and Parker kidd or terry.
Won't happen though.
Thomas will probably see limited time in this series because there is no way in he'll be able to guard Dirk. This series is a horrible matchup for Thomas and Id' rather have Bonner in the game guarding Dirk than Thomas.
Hmm. Yeah maybe, but Thomas has shown he has alot more lateral movement this year than in years past, and with the two day break before game 1, it would be nice for a couple minutes to see how he would do.
I think Bonner, if he can stay out of foul trouble, has the potential to guard Dirk well. He can stay in front of him and his length is enough to bother. My worry however is Bonner gets a horrible amount of respect from the refs and won't stand a chance against the great white hope.
I've got my fingers crossed, hopefully the Spurs have better options this time around.
A key could be, if they put Dirk to guard Drew Gooden when he comes in and Drew takes him in the paint and MAYBE get him in foul trouble. Doubtfull, but something to keep an eye on.
I know people worry about the Spurs offensive lineup, but I think Hill's defense more than makes up for his limited offense.
When it comes to his offense, he just needs to stay aggressive since he is very good at getting to the basket (his finishing could use some work).
I agree that he could a nice factor in this series, but I hate to admit that I doubt Pop will play him. Hopefully he'll surprise us all.
No one on the Spurs has been able to guard Howard. Not even Bowen. He plays like a combination of Scottie Pippen and Larry Bird against the Spurs for whatever reason.
Hill might be too small to guard him but I wouldn't mind seeing Pop go to it if everyone else is helpless, per usual. Playing Hill in general is a good idea because the Mavs have dominated the Spurs on the boards for last handful of years and without Manu around, Hill is by far the best perimeter player on the Spurs at pulling down contested rebounds.
I would not put much hope in Gooden forcing Dirk into foul trouble even if Dirk has extended time guarding him. I'm not sure what the numbers are, but from what I've seen I would be greatly surprised if Gooden draws many fouls due to the nature of his game. He's not a banger.
Pop may have no choice but to play him depending on how things go.
Gooden has been amazing in going to the charity stripe for the Spurs. It's one of his best attributes.
Thats a good point I didn't even think about. Hill's length might go a long way to addressing the rebounding dominance the Mavs usually display. If the Spurs are able to win the rebounding war then they win the series running away.
Yeah the Hill Parker back court was something we all pointed at early on in a "when they play the Mavericks we would like to see this" sort of way.
Won't happen, but, it would be nice.
Yeah I pointed that out in the other thread about the series, for the Spurs to win, Bonner, Gooden, Thomas, everyone has to crash the damn boards. When the Spurs rebound the ball against the Mavericks they kick the living out of them IE the late February game.
When they don't they lose IE the early march game.
If I knew what we could definitely expect from Hill offensively I'd put him in there with Bruce, but his offense is a Wild Card and the offense will already be a bit strained without Manu. I'm okay with putting him in in general, even against forwards a bit taller than he, but we don't have the defensive makeup this postseason to compromise ourselves on offense. One stopper at a time IMO.
Exactly. What great points these are.
The Mavs have too many good offensive weapons. It simply doesn't make sense not to play Hill in this series, despite Pop's obvious qualms and mistrust to the contrary.
Eh, I think the Spurs showed me alot in that 4th quarter tonight.
While David West was left painfully wide open to put em up 5, I think their defense is what kept the game from a 10 point loss. The defense kept the Hornets at 76 for the longest damn time.
If Pop goes with small ball (and you know he will), he better have at least one of Hill or Udoka on the court to rebound. Duncan surrounded with Bowen, Finley, Mason and Parker would get absolutely curbstomped on the boards. Ginobili is usually the second best rebounder in small ball. Without Ginobili, small ball turns into midget ball.
I think Pop is likely to try him out at some point in the series. My hope is that he doesn't put him in a position to fail (read - ON DIRK) and puts him in a position for success. If it goes well I believe he'll try to ride him until it fails, but the problem is the leash will be short and if Hill does poorly he's likely to get yanked and unlikely to see a second opportunity.
Down the line we definitely will more often....they'll be the Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars of the Spurs.
Eh, I think the way the rotations look, Ime is ahead of Bowen in the rotation, and if he did go small, IME would be the PF with Mason Parker and Duncan.
The Mavs may prove to be a tougher guard on the offensive side of things. They have more guys that can create shots for themselves so you have to keep up with them offensively.
While true there is no Chris Paul to wreck havoc, and I think you play Dirk the same way you play David West.
You muscle him and make him uncomfortable and he will force up wild shots.
The Mavericks are such wildcards its hard to pinpoint how the perfect way to play them is.
I would be surprised if George doesn't get some minutes in the series..Dallas has a number of good perimeter players that can score, so Hill makes sense, even though he hasn't been getting the minutes we expected..
I'd like to see him vs. Terry especially..
I was encouraged for a short bit tonight when he put George Hill in with Parker.
The time of the game Hill was in was still a bit of a blur to me, but he wasn't in long I know that.
Hill would be fun to throw at Kidd every once in a while. Hill has the potential to throw Kidd completely off for the entire series. Kidd would be forced to work for every rebound. Hill with those long arms can create havoc with ball denial. And I don't think Kidd could make a single shot over Hills long wingspan.
We aren't going to lose to the Mavs....AJ's not the coach anymore so Pop probably won't be an asshat about things like he was then.
If Dirk is a problem in this series then Pop needs to be fired for not watching the 06 finals and being the only person in the world outside of those discussing it earlier in this thread that doesn't realize that if you knock Dirk on his ass a couple of times, he completely sucks, will miss open shots, including FT's and can pretty much defended by any stiff you want throw out there. Since the failure to do that was entirely reason we lost to the Mavs in 06 and since the Mavs can't beat us without Dirk playing like Wilt...this shouldn't be a very compe ive series....
This doesn't even take into account that the Mavs have a guy that's been Tony Parker's since he was 20 years old as their PG....which they didn't in 06. Jason Terry and Josh Howard going off for 20 per game apiece shouldn't keep this series from going more than 5.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
