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Good defensive bigs in McDyess and Duncan
Good defense on teh wings in Anderson, Hill, Parker, Ginobili when they are working together.
I think this personnel can peak to be a middle of the pack defensively, personally. The elite offense would need to do the rest.
Good defensive bigs in McDyess and Duncan
Good defense on teh wings in Anderson, Hill, Parker, Ginobili when they are working together.
Sounds like 2004-2005 Suns...
I told the good lord I would run down the street naked if the spurs would pull off a miracle
They've shown at times they are better than midpack. They have 47 games to become more consistent...
Tonight your shtick seems to be pointing to the OKC/LA games to convince yourself that we're still a good defensive squad. That's stupid enough already, without including any of your pro-Pop bias.
BTW, Pop himself is pissed at the D as it stands. It's just that hot shooting and some clutch execution had covered it up so far.
Boston
Heat
Magic
LA
Chicago
those are the only teams i see being better than the Spurs defensively by the end of the year. you may be able to throw in a few other teams, but it's disputable.
I have no problem with this, except that they can't play for 48 mins, and the dropoff to Bonner/Blair is huge on the defensive end.
We'll see about Anderson. The rest are good, not great.
Hill being probably the best but mostly at home. None of them can't be tasked to cool a hot guy though, like Allen or Pierce today. They're not inherently stoppers. In the case of Manu and Tony you also run the risk of tiring them and making the offense suffer as a by-product.
I would hope he is.
Again, I was never talking to you and I don't understand why your getting all pissed at me for no reason.
They have also shown at times they are worse than midpack (including the last 2 games). They could use those 47 games to follow the lead of these last 2 and regress just as easily...The games against OKC and LA were great but those types of defensive efforts have been the exception and not the norm...
Utah will probably be there too. Sloan teams always are.
Thanks for the insight.
Can we all at least agree that peskypesky is ghey? I will agree to the Spurs playing great defense (only during the 4 game stretch though) if you accept these terms.
What say you?
Unfortunately, it's not the rank of our defense that will matter in the end. It's how good/bad it is compared to other contenders.
Right now our D is way behind the Heat, Mavericks, Lakers, Bulls and Celtics. Even the Jazz, Magic and Hornets have better defenses.
Our offense is totally dependent on the 3 ball. In a 7 game series, I don't think this formula will work.
Has there been a season in the Tim Duncan era where the Spurs have gotten progressively worse on the defensive end after the all-star break?
This may be Pop's all-time Simulator Crew moment. Somewhere PJ is laughing, and justifiably so.
What a jackass move.
?? Spurs teams never regress defensively as the season progresses no matter the personnel.
Last season was terrible after the Mavs series. You can pin it on matchups or whatever. We couldn't stop people. I don't think we've really addressed that.
You might have to throw in the comeback against the Hornets in NO, tbh
we'll see. i agree and disagree. Hill and RJ have demonstrated 50% of the time that they improved greatly over last year defensively. Neal has impressed at times. Parker has ben great most of the year. there's enough of a sample size to see that the Spurs have the potential to be very good defensively--remember the second half in NO? or OKC the other day. great defense, then you have nights like in NY or tonight against Boston, where they look like defensively.
it's been on of the major issues for the Spurs this year is what kind of D will they bring. it's a ? going into every game.
Spurs don't have the potential to be a top 5 defensive team, that's just silly..this was the main problem coming into the season, nothing has changed..
The only way they have any chance is if they play D like they did against LA on a consistent basis, which is with a lot of energy + swarming, but they don't have the focus to do that on a consistent basis, and it's easier vs. teams like LA, since their shooters aren't scary..
Duncan: good defender, but liability vs. fast teams..
McDyess: above average defender..
Bonner: below average defender..
Blair: average post defender, horrible everywhere else..
Splitter: above average defender, but doesn't get PT, partly due to his poor offense..
Manu: average defender, good at picking up steals..
Parker: average defender, good at picking up steals..
Hill: slightly above average defender..
RJ: average defender..
Neal: average defender..
Anderson: showed flashes of being an above average defender..
The defensive talent isn't there to be a legit top 5 defensive team..then you add the "fit", which makes it even worse..
Duncan is the only rim protector, he's no longer good enough to make up for the perimeter D and the secondary big's deficiencies..he can be exploited by certain quick teams, leaving no other rim protector..
None of the Spurs defenders can run through screens properly..
Blair's defensive IQ is extremely low, and he's a starter..
Manu, TP and Hill gamble a lot, they're often out of position..
The Spurs are a pretty good defensive team when it comes to defending slow teams or teams that don't shoot a lot of 3s, and teams that don't run a lot of screens and move the ball too much..
The D has to be better either way, but the Spurs don't match up very well vs. Orlando, Miami and Boston for these reasons IMO..defensively, if they improve like they should(even with their limited ceiling on D), they should still be able to compete with LA/Dallas, hopefully..
I don't recall a season in the Duncan era where the Spurs started so poorly defensively and had improve this dramatically. Last year I don't recall the Spurs defense getting better or worse from beginning to end but I do recall Duncan's performance degrading, which definitely hurt the interior defense of the team.
You drive a hard bargain, but a fair one. You have yourself a got damn deal.
I was referring more to the regular season. The Spurs were worn down by the time the Mavs series was over. It seemed like they put everything they had into beating the Mavs. Duncan looked pretty bad...they brutalized him on the PnR
Hate to say it, but this is pretty much how I feel.
The Spurs have been slipping defensively for years now, and this squad hasn't shown any signs that they are going to be able to break that trend.
While I'd love to believe that it's still a work in progress and they are just figuring things out now, I am sincerely starting to doubt they will figure things out well enough to become a solid defensive squad. They don't have the personnel or the defensive talent anymore, and that is not just going to magically resolve itself. I don't care how fast these players try to rotate, they still can't move faster than a pass, and the teams that realize that are picking the Spurs apart with backcuts and wide open threes.
If teams are missing shots, the Spurs look decent defensively. But if the other team gets in any sort of rhythm, this defense just doesn't seem to have the punch to knock it out of them. If anything, it just makes the opposing team more confident every time they punch right through the seams.
I think the Spurs can definitely be better than middle of the pack. They might not be ultra consistent on defense, but I only care about their ability to play one good half of defense.
With their offense, if they can be a 2nd half defensive team, I am ok with that and I think they can be a top 8 defensive team if looked at in that light.
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