Nice analysis.
Even if they played mostly against bad teams, Spurs are looking better than they did few weeks ago. Spurs are a damn good offensive team and there are still room for improvement.
However, there is one stat that is plain scary:
Spurs are right now 15th in the league for points allowed in the paint with 41.2 pts/game. That's bad and it's even worse when you also consider that Spurs are playing at a slow pace. As long as they don't fix that, I won't consider them as a serious contender.
I don't think it's any coincidence that Hill's numbers have fallen off as Manu has begun to hit his stride and truly "QB" the second unit as you put it. While I agree that Hill can be effective if he defends well and rebounds, he'll certainly need to make some adjustments in learning how to play with a healthy Manu.
If not, I wouldn't mind seeing a switch with him next to Parker in the starting unit and Bogans paired with Manu off the bench.
I've missed these!
I'm waiting for RJ to really find his niche. I'm confused as to his lack of rebounding as well. In person he looks like the second biggest Spur after Duncan. With his athleticism he should be a beast out there.
Yeah I know. But that last time a talked to him, I really had him stumped. It was kinda funny. He is a radio guy, thats why I used him. There supposed to be experts. All in all there no different than us. People who get to voice there opinion in front of alot of people. The difference is the have diplomas, I dont.
I won't argue with you about Tony, but using Mike Taylor to validate your take is amusing.
How you been? haven't seen you for a while. It sucked not having people intelligently disagree with me.
was it that game where you about him ? wait, you do that almost every game....
go create a club with portnoy, dbestpro and others and stop bringing your hate in every damn thread.
For those of you who missed a game ore two of this 10 game stretch,
here are some Youtube-clips of the NBA.com-Recaps of those games:
You can also get those on NBA.com in higher quality!
(But those are not as linkable as these...)
112-92 win vs DET
86-91 loss @ TOR
97-86 win @ WAS
108-78 win vs MIA
117-99 win vs MIN
95-88 win @ NYK
112-97 win @ MIL
94-98 loss vs POR
103-87 win vs LAC
100-99 win vs IND
Hopefulls this is legal.
And Thanks for your game thoughts timvp!
I personally give him credit when he is due. Which mainly means when he doesnt stop ball movement and take bad shots. He had a 3game stretch where he would take the first quarter of every game to pass and get everyone in a groove offensively. After that he would do his thing. I loved that and commented on it favorably. The game was so much easier for everyone including himself. If he would have kept doing that, I would be elated. Cause then if he scores 9pts or 30pts everyone else got some touches already in that first quarter to see if they got it going for the night.
Salut Bruno !Nice analysis.
Even if they played mostly against bad teams, Spurs are looking better than they did few weeks ago. Spurs are a damn good offensive team and there are still room for improvement.
However, there is one stat that is plain scary:
Spurs are right now 15th in the league for points allowed in the paint with 41.2 pts/game. That's bad and it's even worse when you also consider that Spurs are playing at a slow pace. As long as they don't fix that, I won't consider them as a serious contender.
Tu étais où tout ce temps là ?
As you mention, Mason has been consistent and energetic and last night's game is evident of this. The game was much contested throughout and Mason came in the fourth quarter and helped spark a run. He scored 7 of his 10 points and did it with his patented 3, a jumper and then a driving layup. He is finding different ways to contribute by having a good handle of the ball and not second guessing his shot. Even though Mason is currently 29th in 3pt shooting, if the continues to play with confidence, I expect him to rise to the upper echelons of 3-point shooters.Quietly, Roger Mason, Jr. has played really well over the last ten games. Not only is he shooting well again, Mason is showing growth in other areas. He's rebounding much better, he has been able to drive the ball to the basket to keep the defense honest, he's creating for others, he's playing passable defense and he's limiting his turnovers. With Michael Finley out of the lineup, Mason has stepped into his role and is playing it at a high level.
I know Spurs fans are in a wait-and-see mode with Mason since he faltered at the end of last season and stunk it up to begin this season but his last ten games showed a lot of promise. This team needs Mason's ability to shoot and make plays from the bench. Let's hope he can find a groove and become a consistent weapon.
Je n'étais pas bien loin. J'ai juste fait une pe e pause.
^ Toi et timvp vous avez choisi le même jour pour faire votre comeback !
Thanks for the analysis Timvp
Blair has been a pleasant surprise, but given his history it shouldn't of been. The beast can ball, and he knows how to win as shown by his high school/college career winning record prior to entering the draft.
I'm disappointed in Dice thus far. If he's going to hesitate with his shot, Dice should hustle more defensively and bring in more rebounds. However, he does play Dirk well which should be a huge plus come playoff time. We'll get a little taste of Dice's Defense on Dirk this Friday.
Once his confident returns, and he takes his shots they are a thing of beauty most of us will appreciate.
RJ, as someone said above, looks huge in person, athletic and fast. It's very disappointing that the Spurs haven't found a way to accentuate his quickness and explosiveness yet. Hanging out at the 3 point line is not going to cut it. We need RJ to drive and become more aggressive.
Merci Beaucoup!
Quatre Anneaux, Connasse!
And thanks for the analysis, timvp
Thanks! I've missed these posts and your input is greatly appreciated.
Team seems to be rounding into shape but I will need to see how they play against more elite teams to really judge their progress. With the way TD has been playing, Manu coming around and TP always improving in the 2nd half of the season this team is posed to do some damage.
Blair for a rookie has been great and his learnig curve fantastic. I hear Sean talking about his work ethic and it shows. Now he needs to improve his FTs and mid range J but that will take time.
One question though: Many on this site have advocated trading for a more athletic big this year. Different packages have been proposed for diferent bigs that some think available - Kaman/Haywood to mention a couple bigs.
What's your take on this? Do we stand pat and see what happens since integrating that many newbies into the system does take time or pull the trigger if something became available?
Do you think small ball is one of the reasons for that? Since Bonner is out we've been seeing a lot of RJ at PF. I think it makes things easier for the opponents to score in the paint
And the other thing to consider: are the bigs not doing a good job protecting the paint or the perimeter players are getting beat too easy?
I think TP, Manu, Hill and RJ can improve their D and Dice can do a much better job on rotations and one-on-one D
I'm very happy with Bogans D and Mason D is OK now, much better than the 1st month of the season
how about analysis on hairston, haislip and watever scrub we have playin in scrub minutes....
RJ is clearly not a consistent three point shooter, but i've noticed he does better at them when he gets his 15-18 footers to go down early. he seems to be a consistent threat from that range, and the Spurs have creating opportunities for him to knock it down, which he has. i'd still like to seem him make more cuts to the basket, esp. with Tim and Manu being two of the best passers at their respective positions in the league. he's been utilized in the fast break lately as well as of late, and hopefuly this trend contintues. another thing he's doing well is not putting his head down and driving to the basket with the mindset to only score; he's finding the oping man when the defenses collapse.
id still like to see George Hill try to score more often. he's got great penetration skills and he's athletic. it's amazing to me how he can be so tentative sometimes. it's his tentativeness that is really his only glaring weakness.
just a couple of things i'v noticed...
What a day!!!!!!!!!!
TimVP thoughts and Bruno resurrection
I think Roger being thrust into a point guard role had alot to do with that. He's too big and not agile enough to contain quicker guards and that's what he was asked to do.
Against quick players I agree that Bogans is the better defender. But against guards with length Mason has lately been doing a topnotch job harrassing. Against Hamilton for instance he did a great job of staying in front and contesting him into tough shots. And these are the types of players that give Bogans problems and have been giving the spurs alot of problems the past few years.
And hey, Bogans has had whole threads created celebrating his offensive prowess (usually a 10-12 pt game for him will cause mad celebrations)
So I'm giving Roger his due props for his great defense as of late.
Asterix Obelix
Luis De Fines
I don't think small ball is the main reason why Spurs suck at defending the paint. I don't see Bonner as a significantly biggest paint presence than RJ.
Spurs bigmen are just not doing a good job at defending their man: http://www.82games.com/0910/0910SAS5.HTM
And it's not a big surprise. Blair and Bonner are very average defenders and McDyess has been quite disappointing for the moment.
A few observations:
1) First and foremost, whats up Bruno? Good to see you back and hope all is well.
2) I have noticed that Hill is easily deterred from his path to the basket or bumped out of the play. Every time he uses a screen and his defender goes over, Hill just moves backwards or retreats and holds. He does not try and move forward or side step creatively. It is something he will have to improve. Has anyone else noticed?
3) The interior defense has been a huge problem. Some of that is bad rotations and poor communication and some of it has been just flat out bad play. The rebounding is solid, but far too often there is good shots inside the paint. I don't know if Dice can fix that problem just by elevating his game.
What?
No grade for Pop?
Good to have this back timvp
It will be sorta interesting to see how Pop integrates Bonner back into the lineup when he returns, he was playing arguably his best all around basketball as a Spur when he went down.
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