Reply With Quote
Who knows, we could see some changes this coming season.
I originally posted the following in another thread, but I realized that I was really just going off on a tangent and straying too far off topic. So, I started this thread because it's something I felt the need to put out there in it's own context.
The Spurs and, in particular, Gregg Popovich have been trying to find a replacement for Bruce Bowen for a few seasons now. This has occurred because Pop would rather plug someone into the system in place instead of adjusting the system to suit the talent he has. The strategy is failing. Ime Udoka and Keith Bogans, obviously, did not work and it's time to move on. If it was so easy to replace Bowen the Spurs would've done it by now. The only two players that could come close to filling that role are Ron Artest and Shane Battier and the Spurs aren't getting those guys. Elite wing defenders do not just magically exist and Pop is not going to be able to turn just anybody into one.
If the Spurs are going to get back to being a top 5 defensive team, they will have play like they did against the Mavs in the 1st round last season. Quick rotations, double teams on penetrations and forcing good scorers into taking bad shots. The problem with that is it is a grind on the players. It wears down the vets and tests the limits of the young guys. The Spurs played their best defense of 2010 in the 1st round of the playoffs and it wore them down to the point that they could not keep up with a much quicker Suns team in the semis.
The solution to this, unfortunately, will be for the younger guys to become the leaders on defense. They will have to supply the energy and carry the vets for a large percentage of the season. Duncan, Ginobili, Parker and McDyess are still good defenders, but they are going to need big time help. Especially when the big three will have to bear a large portion of the offensive burden.
Blair, Hill and Jefferson are going to have to step up and take their defense to the next level if the Spurs have any shot at all. Splitter should help a lot, but I do expect him to struggle a bit. Hopefully, one of the young perimeter players is going to be a defensive diamond in the rough, but I'm not counting on it.
If I were Pop, I would strap RJ to a chair with his eyelids propped open, ala the brainwashing scene in A Clockwork Orange, and force him to watch Bruce Bowen's defensive highlight films for 72 hours straight until he believed he was a great defender.
Last edited by ohmwrecker; 08-02-2010 at 08:54 PM.
Who knows, we could see some changes this coming season.
So far, it doesn't seem like they are desperately trying to find a Bowen plug in. I'm taking that as a good sign. Of course the options aren't really there either. I'm still not opposed to signing a vet SF, but not to try and force somebody to be the defensive wing in that specific role.
i don't recall the celtics having a stellar perimeter defender but they did quite well in the finals.
if you got a lot of quick and long guys in the back court and a solid front line you can be reasonably disruptive in defense. celtics have shown that you can do a lot with much less. the weak link.... tony parker?
Somehow in the midst of my interweb burnout (which I'm trying to soldier through here Kellen Winslow-style) I failed to make a thread to acknowledge one of the key dates in Spurs history.
2001-07-30
Spurs sign free agent Bruce Bowen (from Heat) to a 2-year, $1.5M contract (second year is player option)
Friday was the 9-year anniversary of Bruce Bowen becoming a Spur. Time flies.
Ray Allen played the best defense I've ever seen him play in the playoffs last season. Tony Allen is a good defender, and at 6'4", does pretty well with taller guys. They have, arguably, the best defensive PG in the league and Rasheed really stepped up in the playoffs too.
I think the Spurs are better equipped to be a much improved defensive team this season, but Pop has his work cut out getting this team to commit to executing on a consistent level.
On a side note: Why do you feel the need to bash Tony Parker at every opportunity? Tony is not a bad defender. He is quick enough to stay in front of anybody and really only struggles with big PGs like Deron Williams and Andre Miller.
There are no more Bruce Bowen's. He was unique and fit like a glove with a team that had interior defense and allowed Bruce to do his thing. He was a lockdown defender that allowed the rest of the team to excel. Think Darelle Rivis! Once in a lifetime.
Like said before, Celtics had Tony Allen as their defense specialist - in fact, that's all he can do. The Spurs defense was impressive in the first round but their poor showing in the 2nd round showed a lack of discipline dealing with the pick-n-roll. I've always believed that Pop is a genius in scheming against a playoff opponent yet somehow he's been coaching for for most of these last few years. I would fear that Pop would go out and acquire a quality defense-oriented wing only to sit him and play an older, slower vet that can shoot 3s, instead.
The whole "pop trying to find a bruce bowen replacement" is being blown out of proportion IMO. The Spurs wouldn't have made the trade for Jefferson if they were worried about replacing Bowen with a player like himself. Of course Pop looks for a perimeter defender on the wing. Whether it was Ime or Keith last year but that's because every team needs a solid wing defender, not because hes sitting back in his office thinking "who's the next bruce bowen". He knew Jefferson didn't posses the same skills defensively as Bowen when trading for him. Obviously he wants RJ to improve on that end though.
Except that he actually said RJ would be taking on the oppositions best scorer night-in-and-night-out. He wanted RJ to be their stopper, however misguided that was...
we just got rid of bruce bowen 2.0 aka malik hariston.... real talk. This teams d is still good only problem we have is leaving 3 point shooters wide ing open we need to fix that
Who else would? He knows Manu can't expend that much energy on defense and that is the only other feasible option, plus RJ is younger so of course RJ will be guarding the best defender and I think him saying that was him just trying to motivate RJ to get better defensively.
It's one thing to say, "Who else would?" and another to suggest with less offensive responsibility and a little weight loss he could actually do it.
I don't think Pop is that far gone, though. He did attempt to make Bogans their stopper and would've likely preferred to play him alongside RJ so he could focus more on scoring from the 3 and Bogans taking on the defensive assignments -- two very failed notions.
The inconsistent team defense all year long was the undoing of the Spurs as much as anything last season. I have serious doubts the ghosts of Spurs D past can be resurrected for many reasons...and that's why I don't think this team is a contender anymore. I pray they prove me wrong.
I still say that our best chance of "replacing" Bruce Bowen is already in our lineup. There are four other positions on the floor, with the PG position arguably the most important. Is it too much of a stretch to think that our defensive stalwart can be the PG stopper instead of the SF stopper? I think George Hill's defensive ceiling is still decently high, why couldn't he become our defensive perimeter stopper? Of course, I mean that only if he sticks to guarding PG's. Putting him on SF's and PF's is ridiculous.
What do you suggest he do? It's easy to say how much of a failure it is now but I understand completely what he was trying to do on both those issues. The fact that he didn't abandoned the Bogans experiment much earlier after everyone saw that it wasn't happening is a different story.
Based on how this team is constructed, even if they re-sign Bogans, sign Hayes, or sign anyone else of that ilk, by default Jefferson is going to be guarding quite a few top opposition wings. Because even if they sign one of them, they'll probably be the tenth man in what will probably primarily be a nine man rotation.
Whether people want to call it the "stopper role" or not, Jefferson will be taking on that role. Obviously, depending on matchup, Hill will also be taking on that role. Anderson and Ginobili will inevitably spend some time guarding those types as well.
Every legit contender and even most pseudo contenders has at least one above average wing defender to play this role. If the Spurs want to get back to being the former, then at some point they're more than likely going to need to address this role.
If the Spurs want to find a Bowen replacement, starting with small stocky guys with slow feet and very little basketball skill is not the way to do it. Nor, I might add, is signing every guy that hits a two three pointers in a row in Las Vegas.
So this is really a Hairston thread, right?
His Omnipotence, Blackjack -- this Guy -- isn't second-guessing. I was fully aware of the type of player RJ was and wasn't one of the people enthused with the trade.
I'm not hating on Pop -- the only real problem I have with his handling of the situation was choosing to be stubborn with Bogans instead of play the player that clearly outplayed him (Hairston) -- and I knew and know exactly what he was trying to do.
What people seem to completely miss whenever Hairston's involved with one of my posts is that I've never suggested he was the difference in making the team last year a le contender or not. He would've have been a better option the Bogans, there's not a doubt in my mind, but Bogans was literally one of the worst players in the league last year that had a significant role on a team with le aspirations (some with even lower aspirations).
I was just never one of the people that felt RJ could make this team a legit le contender without a legit perimeter defender playing alongside of him, and given that they don't grow on trees or are readily available, I came to the conclusion the Spurs just weren't going to be winning a championship without a trade -- had they been able to get a solid 2-way player like Salmons or the Thomas-Salmons package I brought up way back when, they'd probably have given themselves a much better shot. But you need another team to oblige you when it comes to trades.
Bottom line, the Spurs can't rely on RJ to be a player that closes games and someone they're absolutely reliant on to win. But for that to be the case they're going to have to have some of their young guys go all Stephen Jackson on the league, a la '03, or they're going to have to make a trade. That's the only real chance they have, IMO.
Malik Hairston!
RJ's defense is severely under rated here on these forums.. It's true last year his defense was lacking but before last year, he was known in the league as an excellent defender when he put in some effort. Hopefully we see a more motivated Richard Jefferson this year, both offensively and defensively.
Last edited by G-Dawgg; 08-01-2010 at 05:51 PM.
Not as far as I am concerned. With Pop willing to try just about anything to fill that role the last three seasons (I'm counting the year he decided that Bruce Bowen couldn't be Bruce Bowen anymore), I've got to believe that if Hairston was anywhere close to fitting the bill we would have seen enough of him to unequivocally say he was the heir apparent and he would, most likely, still be here.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
