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So no one thinks this is a problem at all?
This Spurs team has made so many mistakes this season and shown poor judgment at times I'm starting to wonder if they will ever clean it up.
They've been doing it all season, but won games by out shooting the other team and a little bit of luck. The last few games that poor judgment and mental errors are being capitalized by the other team and they are making us pay for it.
It's been going on all season on both offense and defense. Unless they clean that up and start playing smarter they have no shot at the championship.
Now that we have a lot of road games coming up we're not going to win games playing like that.
It's amazing that we have some high BBall IQ players, but the decisions they are making this season at times are so DUMB.
Will they turn it around or are the low BBall IQ players going to drag us down?
EDIT : Why didn't Tim pass Manu the ball the first time he was open. Poor Judgment is this teams MO.
Last edited by Ice009; 01-05-2011 at 10:14 PM.
So no one thinks this is a problem at all?
Well, we're not even halfway there yet... Some things will probably not change. But I think BBall IQ is one of the lesser problems. There's bigger fish to fry than BBall IQ, I think.
Yeah sure, but do you remember the Spurs continuously making this many mistakes on offense and defense. Even guys like Tim, Manu and Tony are now starting to make this dumb errors in judgment. Can't win road games with all those mental errors.
One example is the Denver Nuggets game that Manu won we had a ton of errors in the last 5 minutes and were lucky to win that one. That is really uncharacteristic of the Spurs.
These guys HAVE to start playing consistently smarter for us to go anywhere.
Agreed.
Their turnovers and I know this sounds like a broken record, but they always turn the ball over terribly early mid season and down the stretches of seasons they clean it up.
the current spurs squad contains more young callows than they ever had in the past decade, so it appears they're not playing smart as they used to. things will only get better as the youths learn more any more about spurs game and start to contribute big
Our top basketball IQ guys are playing less minutes now. Plus there's probably some degree of complacency after the fast start. They're human after all. The focus is obviously not all there. It's reflected in many things, including sloppiness. I just don't think players regress on the basketball IQ department. They need to clean it up, period.
When the minutes get ramped up to playoff level in March, and the squad is hopefully 100% this obviously gets better.
More worried about being outclassed than mental mistakes. Our core problem is Blair/Bonner & McMummy being simply not good enough to compete for a le.
Good enough to rack up some fun regular season wins, but in the playoffs fuggetabou . Unless we see some an upgrade in this area we'll be second-round cannon fodder again.
Good post. The spurs don't have the horses on the frontline to be a serious contender when the playoffs roll around.
not worried about that.
its a long season. WHen playoffs come, the errors will be less and less. this is a veteran team.
Just watched the Pacers Vs Spurs game as I couldn't watch it live and WOW, Spurs yet again made a ton of mistakes. Great game and win, but the Spurs just keep making mistakes.
I just feel the team isn't clicking together. Blair in the starting lineup isn't working IMO. Some of the pieces don't seem to fit together. I don't know if we need a trade, but to me the chemistry and trust just hasn't been there at all this season on the defensive end. I don't know if it's just the pieces that are incompatible or the team needs more time to play together?
I'd try a lineup change first, but that's hard as Pop doesn't want to start Dice and since the current players who know the system are struggling so that makes it even tougher on Pop to try starting Splitter who hasn't shown enough.
Personally I would try starting Splitter and use Blair off the bench. I'd much rather have both players playing than only Blair when he is having a good game. Splitter has been in big games before and I think Pop should use him in the same role he was using Blair. If Splitter is playing well then you can give him more minutes if not then you can sub him out like Pop does with Blair. I think Splitter would bring more defense to the starting 5 and help set a better tone.
Last edited by Ice009; 01-08-2011 at 07:26 AM.
True post Eric but lets be honest. Our interior is a drive thru and when the season tightens if we cant get better defense in the interior I dont see number 5. We wont shoot 45% from three thru the playoffs and cant hang our hats on offense. Defense wins championships as you know and we suck in that category overall barring a few great spurts of D here and there. How we get better D on the interior dont ask me. Im not FO.
It's frustrating to see knowing the way the spurs have always prided themselves on D. We miss you BRUCE.
Soooooo, what's the point? They hold the best record in the league. These sorts of comments should wait until the Spurs face an elimination game in the playoffs.
How did you feel when they played OKC and LA?
Well, OKC was on a back-to-back and Kobe went into chuck-mode. He won't do that in the playoffs if he wants to win another one. I'm hoping he still makes that mistake.
The problem with this team is defense. I think that Pop should use Hill on iso-players and Parker on those who use screens to score (like Allen). When Anderson comes back, hopefully Pop will play him and Neal should get better with more than another 1/2 season left.
Popovich needs to incorporate Splitter so that he will have more choices in the playoffs. I'd willingly give up Bonner's offense for more defense from Splitter. He's got height, quick feet and doesn't get push around (even by Bynum). I know that Splitter is not in his plans for this year but the Spurs have the pieces to get it done.
With the exception of Splitter and giving up on the Knicks game, I think that Pop's done a masterful job this year. After what's happened the last 2 games, down 10 with someone at the free throw line and 3 mins left against a relatively young team wouldn't be impossible to win. HCA is all-important this year (only secondary to health).
Back to the OP, for some reason I had confidence that they'd pull it out against IND and they did. Part of the problem are the youngsters but that's part of the package along with the fresh legs and energy. It was much worse on the 03 team. I think that I'd rather see mental errors than (Hill) passing up so many open shots. Fortune favors the bold and being afraid to take the open shot is not going to cut it in the playoffs.
Sorry, but TP could never guard Ray Allen. It's impossible. Manu would do a better job with Ray than Parker would, simply because Manu is good at creating turnovers (on both ends). All you can do with Ray is get a hand up, and Parker could do that and Ray would never see it. Manu is so chaotic in his approach that shooters have no idea if he's going to stop or just run over them. I've seen guys airball with Manu slapping all over them. He's no Bruce, but then Tony isn't either.
I do miss Bruce.
Wait until an elimination game? LOL. That would be a little late to sort out those issues don't you think?
TP has chased Richard Hamilton before so why can't he chase Ray Allen around? It's obvious G.Hill sucks at getting around screens. He was schooled badly.
Yep, TP when focused defensively might be a lot better than George Hill chasing players around screens. I'd like to give him a go at that because George got totally destroyed. He really needs to work on that.
I don't see why Pop won't start Splitter? Surely Splitter could help set a better tone defensively and if he isn't playing well you can yank him after 5 minutes or so like Pop does with DeJuan. DeJuan also could be better off the bench and I'd much rather have both these guys play than having Splitter sit. You don't think they are worried about DeJuan's confidence if he was going to be benched do you?
He's done a pretty good job, but he can't keep playing Bonner and Blair and keep getting angry about the defense. Those pieces don't fit together defensively. This is a big glaring problem IMO. He keeps talking about defense, but then you see Bonner and Blair getting lots of court time.
With the example you used I can accept the mental errors if that player is not afraid out there. Stephen Jackson is the example from that team that I like to compare shooters to since then.
George Hill was horrible last night every time he passed up a shot, that pissed me off. I can accept a missed shot if he is not afraid to shoot it and take that shot with confidence, but last night he looked scared as to shoot the ball. Gary Neal on the other hand I had no problem with his shot as he is not afraid to shoot it which gives it a better chance to go in. If you shoot like Hill did last night from 3 point range with no confidence then you may as well go sit on the bench because none of those shots had a chance of going in.
Last edited by Ice009; 01-08-2011 at 08:18 PM.
TP has been going around instead of through screens all year. He's been getting burned when he does. You cannot do that with Ray Allen. George Hill had a bad defensive game, but he's a much better option for Allen.
Like I said before, the problem isn't Ray Allen. You have to be able to stop the role players like Davis. When a role player has 20+ on you, he's nullified your double team elsewhere.
It's not easy to stop Boston. There's no secret combination of Spurs that can make it easier. It's just hard work and sticking to the defensive game plan. If they do that they will be fine.
More mistakes tonight to let the Wolves back into it. Have the players tuned out Pop or is his coaching the problem? He made some weird decisions tonight to keep playing Hill.
They are making a lot of sloppy mistakes. Careless passes, failure to go after loose balls, lapses on defense, although the defense has stepped up not counting the Knicks game. I'm sure it's a concern, the hope is that they will eliminate them as the season goes along and they execute much better in the playoffs. The Spurs have had phases where they can't seem to do anything right and have turned it around what's happening this season is a little strange, since the Spurs have been more of a second half of the season team.
That's actually a point I am saying. The Spurs seem to be playing worse as the season goes on, not better.
Other seasons they've started sloppy and gotten better. This season they are getting sloppier and worse as they go along.
I don't know what Pop is doing with his lineups? Calling for defense, but playing Blair and Bonner a lot of minutes.
EricB says Blair got benched in the second half so Pop has cut his minutes back that way. I disagree. I say Blair has played so poorly that he's still getting too many minutes. If we go by the way he's played lately he should be the one on the bench getting no minutes. Bonner has actually played good enough to at least get some minutes.
Maybe if Pop benches Blair and cuts him out of the game completely we'll see the real Blair show up again.
I don't think Pop is that kind of guy anymore. He used to do that a lot, but mostly because he had a core of solid veterans and some more on the bench to fall back to.
Right now, if he had to sit every player that missed a rotation, then we don't have anybody to play. Again, I'm personally not too concerned about the mental aspect, at least on the offensive end. I am concerned about where that focus, or lack of focus, converges with the defensive end.
Who brings the biggest lack of focus on the defensive end with the most lapses. I understand everyone is making mistakes, but DeJuan is making the most and just shows no focus or awareness at all defensively most of the time. He has had some good games, but more often than not he makes too many mistakes defensively for him to start.
Is it worth giving Splitter a shot or is Splitter that bad that he can't get some minutes with Tim at the expense of Blair? Is Splitter worse defensively than one of the worst defensive starting centers in the NBA?
This team just ain't a typical Spurs team and trying to be, well, it ain't gonna cut it.
Jefferson, Hill, Blair and Neal aren't the cerebral or savvy players that know how to read-and-react to the cir stance in the confines of a complex scheme. They're prone to mistakes and missed assignments at inopportune times. It just is what it is.
It's why I've always stated how important Splitter and Anderson were to this team and their championship endgame. It's not that I know they're the answer, it's that I know they have the potential to be those small pieces of glue that complete the puzzle -- players capable of stepping up to fulfill need for a few minutes, a game, a series or the duration of the playoffs.
But if they're not the answer -- which means you've found out for sure via playing time -- then they've got two choices: make a trade; or play to your strengths and hope you can get it done in a way you never have before (offensively, essentially).
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