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Always a joy to read you! I'm not too concerned by Leonard's offense as we were pretty good last year as an offensive team but were ty on defense! If he starts to suck playing defense I'll start to worry...
Consider me already concerned with Leonard. For a guy billed as a high energy, athletic guy compared to the likes of Marion or Gerald Wallace I've yet to see a glimpse of either of those. The concerning part is that those traits have nothing to do with learning a system or rust & you still don't see them at an NBA or even average level.
Always a joy to read you! I'm not too concerned by Leonard's offense as we were pretty good last year as an offensive team but were ty on defense! If he starts to suck playing defense I'll start to worry...
Last night I was watching the backup PG role. TJ had two different halves. The first half was a train wreck. Once he entered the game, the offense came to a screeching halt. He was overdribbling and was passing up easy looks for turnovers. Ford just keeps trying to break down defenses using only his handling. It looks like he wasn't realizing that you can break it down by moving w/o the ball. In the second half, TJ came out looking 200% better. He was getting rid of the ball earlier and wasn't passing up scoring opportunities. I guess Pop had a talk with him or something.
Joseph was pretty darn good last night. I expected a drop in team production when he entered the game but there was none. He was moving well, and was shifting the opponents defense w/o the ball. For not having much time with the team, he really seems to grasp the Spurs style. I was thinking that this performance was only due to him being on the court with starters, but it wasn't the case. He continued to play well in the second half.
Currently, I would prefer Joseph over Ford as the Spurs backup PG. TJ just looks like he is trying to do too much. Joseph it seems to let the game come to him, or he is pulling of a great Forrest Gump impression.
Blair is the EOP man of the Spurs. He makes a play and gives up a play. This way both teams are happy, or er' unhappy.
Add this thread to your future viewing: "We passed up Chris Singleton.., for this...!?
Here's a comment from an wizard fan who appears to have watched an actual game. No offense to your stat pages, of course.
http://www.wizardsextreme.com/forums...?t=4808&page=2Singleton impressed me. I think he is going to be a really good player in this league for a long time. He could easily jump ahead of Rashard right now and contribute way more then him. He disrupted plays right from the start of his play and looked like he had confidence in his jumper, even though he only knocked down 2 from what I can remember.
Congrats. You found a Wizard fan who likes their new rookie.
Thanks for the writeup, LJ. Enjoyable read.
What I definitely see coming is the "Free Lawal" threads whenever Matty/Blair rolls the red carpet to the rim. In a way, I wish he wouldn't have pulled off his obscene block on Scola, tbh.
Leonard sucks right now. But so did George Hill in his first camp/preseason....give him time.
What does BNSF/GNSF mean!?!Looks at all the fancy BNSFs in here.
Thanks for the write-up!
Here's hoping Joseph gets a shot at the backup point guard spot. He showed more potential as a rookie than grit Ford showed as a vet. Things just looked smoother out there when he was running the offense, and I'd rather have a player who has a high ceiling make some rookie mistakes, than having a guy who is prone to mistakes just being himself.
Also, I hope these are the Spurs active players once playoffs begin:
Parker/Joseph
Manu/Anderson/Neal
Leonard/Jefferson
Duncan/Lawal/Hassell
Splitter/Blair
Yeah three open court steals from playing passing lanes perfect is considered below average dee? Its like you wrote up Blair's piece before the game was played tbh. Our season didnt actually start turning to last year til the starting lineup was tweaked to give dice the starting role and more minutes. Some players just arent stat guys. That doesnt mean they dont help win. Was bowen a stat guy? to the no but we dont hoist the obryant w/o him. No Blair is not Bowen but you should get the point.
Not to mention a whole lot of Manu hate during the early part of his rookie season too. There arent many rooks who can join a team with a well established core without an offseason and super condensed camp and looking like they are the future right off the bat. Give him time to pick up probably the most complicated offensive and defensive systems around. He will continue to get better in all areas. His work ethic will make sure of it. Wanting the ball in you hands in crunch time (preseason or not) and hitting a clutch j to win the game with dee in your face is still a very good sign. We know the season isnt a normal one but we still have to be a little more patient.
All in all though i did like the write up Timvp and look forward to the next breakdown from ya. Thanks.
Thanks for the write-up Timvp.
I thought Tiago did pretty bad but it also seemed he only got the ball when there was a lot of traffic around him. Other Spurs players may have been out of position and it gave Tiago the short end of the stick that lead to 2 or 3 turnovers. Seems like every time there was traffic he simply got the ball stripped. This may have not been completely his fault since he was also playing with the second team, pretty much everyone there has been with the team for less than a year or two so everyone on the floor is learning where they need to be.
Lawal excites me and I hope he stays on the team. He may have the most 'hops' on the team and the knees to support those hops.
I loved Tim's away from the basket game, I hope Pop continues to let Blair, Tiago, Kawhi and everyone not named Bonner do some dirty work under the basket. It will probably come at the cost of rebounds but if it prolongs his career and he's fresher throughout the season for it, I'm all for it. Simply the greatest.
Ford had some big mistakes, he was definitely trying to do too much and needs to play with his current skill set, not the one he had before major injuries - I think his mentality is his biggest problem. He did much better in the second half. If he can duplicate the second half on a nightly basis CJ may have to look for a place to stay in Austin.
Leonard did show some passiveness but he's a rookie and needs to wait for his number to be called on offense. I think once he starts getting his 20 minutes a night he'll figure it out and only get better. This team also has 3 really established players, the Spurs are pop are not asking Leonard to put the team on his shoulders so he just needs to find his groove and niche in the team as has been said countless times. He's got a great build; really the most important thing is that he's able to get his play in to defend the elite scorers we'll face in the playoffs. The spurs have a lot of scorers, if Leonard can defend and grab some rebounds he's A+ because that's what the team needs.
Pop looked bored for a lot of the game. He had a lot of opportunities to tear into the players for botched rotations and such, but didn't. I really like what I saw from Duncan. He looks young!
One thing is for sure, Leonard will need to wake up and start asserting himself sooner than later. The longer he waits the closer Pop gets to the "he's not ready/wouldn't be fair to the team" mindset that will allow him to bury Leonard and forget about him until garbage time late in games.
...probably it's just a thought with no chance of happening, but the clearance of Hayes could give us the player we need...a defensive big man, and a player experienced, high caracter guy, worth been a top or three big in our team.
Really hope Sac goes in another direction...and that we really are in the mix for his services.
I'd be o.k with our 6 big men being pf Hayes - Blair - Lawal
c Duncan - Splitter -Bonner
Everyone looked the same except for one out of shape player.... Blair.... again.
Thanks for the write up. Well done as always.
I didn't see the game. However, I viewed the highlights and the interviews. One thing that struck me about Leonard is that, in addition to being very young - which is obvious - he also seems to be a very mild-mannered kid. From his interviews, he acknowledges that the team "has enough stars and leaders" and he's trying to "play defense and do whatever the coach wants him to do." Could it be this passiveness, that everyone speaks of, be the result of him deferring too much and not wanting to get in the way? Sometimes a perceived lack of aggressiveness could simply be a kid being too deferential by nature?
JA was a bit passive last year, but he's more aggressive in his second year. George Hill made the same leap from year 1 to year 2 also.
Obviously, I don't know this for sure, but wanted to get feedback from the masses.
Black Named Spurs Fan / Gray Named Spurs Fan
I really have the feeling that Kawhi is kind of nervous. He's playing like he doesn't want to screw up. It seems like he's placing a lot of importance on making the right moves, so in effect, he's making the wrong ones. It's extremely difficult to play with energy and passion when you're concerned with where your feet should be placed. I think the more comfortable that he gets with the system and Pop has the obligatory "Just play your game" talk with him that he'll show us a lot. He seems like a guy who may be trying to live up to the billing of "highest draft pick since Tim Duncan" by not screwing it up. He'll be fine.
I agree. That's kind of what I was getting at. Perhaps he's just thinking too much and playing so careful as to not want to screw up. Because of the lockout, it's going to take time for him to develop into a more confident player. I think he'll be fine in the long run, too.
I didn't watch this game but I've heard comments about Timmy playing well from the perimeter this game. In both 08-09 and 10-11, the first game of the season, Tim was hitting every perimeter jumpshot because he would take them quickly with no hesitation. Then as the season went on, he would become more and more unselfish and dish it off instead of just shooting it. I'm hoping he keeps shooting alot this year because when he starts passing them off, he tends to lose his confidence in the shot and hesitating on them.
I'm not concerned about Leonard just yet. Alot of rookies start out playing, well, like rookies. Throw in the fact of the compressed training time, due to the lockout, as well as Leonard making the transition from a post player to a perimeter player, and you have a raw rook trying to find his way in a very short amount of time. Because of all the above mentioned factors, as well as Pop's reluctance to throw rookies out on the court, we might not get a true feeling of what Leanard can really do until he gets a full off season under his belt.
0-3 FGM / 0-1 3P / 0-2 FTA/ +/- -19 and 5 fouls in 23 minutes.
Looks like a beast
The waiving of Lawal is surprising considering how much help we need. Either they have a plan to bring in someone or Hassell beat him out in training camp. Is there something about the Phantom I'm not getting? Zeller wasn't out there much to be fair, but I figured that was for a good reason.
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