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A Big Four Forming In San Antonio
By: Yannis Koutroupis
For some reason the San Antonio Spurs' big three of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili is regularly left out of the discussion on the best trios ever. It could be as a result of their preference to stay under the radar; the only thing they like doing more than that is hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy, which they've done together on three different occasions.
Winning another NBA Championship could be the only way that they'll get the credit they truly deserve. Dethroning the Los Angeles Lakers, who have taken over the Spurs' spot as the top team in the West during their three-year championship draught, is no easy task, though. The Lakers are hungry for a three-peat and have arguably their best team since the Showtime Era.
Duncan, Parker and Ginobili are still lethal together, but in order to get past L.A. they need someone to join them in playing at an elite level and form a big four. Luckily, forward Richard Jefferson seems up to the challenge.
Jefferson was surprisingly horrific last year, having one of the worst seasons of his career. He opted out of his contract at season's end, leaving $15 million on the table. Many thought that was a sign of how much he wanted to get out of San Antonio, but he ended up signing a long-term contract to stay in the Lone Star State and give it another shot.
There's a widely-believed theory that the Spurs are hard to play with and that it takes at least a season to adjust to the demands of head coach Gregg Popovich. Jefferson didn't just buy into that hoping that things would turn around for him in year two, he put in extra work in the offseason to ensure that he'd bounce back from a 2009-2010 season to forget.
Extensive time with Popovich and assistant coach Chad Forcier during the summer has led to the revitalization of Jefferson. He's back to his old self, averaging 18 points, three rebounds and two assists per game. His efficiency is off the charts as he is shooting 58% from the field and 53% from beyond the arc. Those are monumental improvements from last year, when he connected on just 46% of his shots inside the key and 41% outside of it.
Jefferson's lone poor outing in the Spurs 6-1 start came against the Charlotte Bobcats earlier in the week when he finished with six points, seven rebounds and four assists. Before talk about last year's Jefferson coming back to could start, RJ took it to the Clippers in a 107-95 Spurs' victory on Wednesday night.
"I had some good looks the other night (against Charlotte), but I had been off to a hot start" acknowledged Jefferson, who finished with 22 points and four three pointers made against the Clipps. "Tonight I wanted to be aggressive, not let one game affect my mentality, kind of show this is how we're going to try to play all season."
Nobody has been more excited to see Jefferson re-emerge as an All-Star caliber player than Parker, who is averaging a career-best 8.5 assists a contest right now.
"Richard has been great," said Parker. "He helps me a lot. He's making a lot of shots, lots of threes. I've been finding him a lot at the beginning of the season. I'm just trying to do my job, run the team. I think Manu starting helps too cause he's a good shooter. I think the combination of Manu and Richard playing well is why my assists are up."
Whether or not they're recognized by the mass majority as such, the Spurs are currently one of the best teams in the league. They are far from playing their best basketball, but they're already racking up the wins unlike last year.
"If you look at the way we started last year, there were a lot of new guys trying to figure stuff out," pointed out Jefferson. "We were losing to teams we probably shouldn't have lost to. Finally the final 30 games we got it going. Here we're giving ourselves a little bit more of a cushion to start the season because we're ready and guys understand their roles a little bit better."
Nobody appears to understand their role better than Jefferson. He's figured out how to be effective in Popovich's system. It took longer than everyone expected, but it's happened just in time to make one last serious run before Duncan calls it a career.
Scola thread ?
nice...thanx
Good read!
RJ shot 41% from three last season? That doesn't sound right.
in fact, its not. He shot 31%
Dude your Yoda avatar is doin the douggie!!!!!!
Outside the key. Not the 3 point line. Honest mistake though, I initially read it as 3 as well.
It's safe to say at this stage with RJ coming to his own , we are odds on bets to make it to the western conference finals opposite LA.
The question really is , can we get to the next level and be reasonable treats to beat LA ?
For us to get to that next level, it's got to come from the defensive end and I can't overemphasize the need for Tiago Splitter to play a major role.
We need Tiago to transform the big four to the BIG FIVE. Front court defense against LA's bigs Gasol, Bynum and Odom is critical, so is the last line of defense on switch offs. Tiago showing and switching on Kobe's drives.
Having your 5 best players playing 5 different positions: PG to center is a huge bonus to seriously competing for the ring.
If Tiago can fill that last piece of the 5, and change the complexion of the team from a mainly perimeter offensive oriented team to adding a interior defensive presence compliementing TD for that last line of D. .. Then only can we really say we will seriously be competing for that 5th ring !
Great post! I agree. I hope that they can focus their defense similar to the twin tower defense of Drob and Tim, with Tim and Tiago. High lows on offense, blocks and smothering anyone going into the paint, lock down crazy D. That would be awesome to see again.
hoopsworld came out with a good article and i haven't even drank anything
I like it, even if it came from Hoopsworld. I hope keeps it up (that's what she said)
^haha i like the article, however i disagree with the main point and that is Rj being that X factor for a le run while he is very important with the decline of duncan i think TIAGO is a much bigger variable in how far this team can go.
thats why pop needs to hurry the up and play the guy, once hes defending the post we will become a totally different team rather than having aging duncan and a 6' 7'' center, i mean its pretty obvious that we need tiago to be big for us we dont have strong post players anymore out side of duncan
To compete for a championship I think we need both and The Golden God playing well, as well as the bench contributing, but so far so good, spurs improving with every game and winning at the same time.
Last year we would have been 500 right now. "Our offense is covering while our defense comes a long" and I never thought I would be able to say that.
The fact that I wasn't sure who the fourth player in this article was going to br makes me happy. It could be Hill, Blair, RJ, or (based on potential) Splitter. This team could be lethal, especially if the defense improves.
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