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Nice.
-Kawhi Leonard’s return from injury has been a roaring success. While the gaudy individual stats may be lacking, his impact is definitely being felt. Since returning six games ago, the Spurs are outscoring opponents by 32.8 points per 48 minutes that Leonard is on the court. Broken down further, the Spurs are averaging 117.9 points per 48 minutes with Leonard on the court while allowing opponents to score only 85.1 points.
-Though he struggled at small forward, Danny Green has been very good at shooting guard this season. In the 17 games he has started at shooting guard, he’s averaging 10.8 points in 26.9 minutes per game while shooting 48% from the field and 45.6% on three-pointers. Looking at it another way, he has a PER of around 10 when playing SF. When playing SG, it’s approximately 18.
-In the first 16 games of his season, Manu Ginobili had a PER of 16.9. In the subsequent 13 games, Ginobili’s PER has skyrocketed to 24.8. To put those numbers in perspective, 16.9 would be his lowest PER since his rookie season. On the other hand, a 24.8 PER would represent a new career-high. Over those 13 games, he’s averaging 12.9 points in only 23.7 minutes while shooting 49.5% from the floor, 44.2% on three-pointers and 85.4% at the line. Add in 5.1 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game and the Argentine wonder has regained his status as a per-minute superstar as of late.
-Tim Duncan. What more can be said? We all know he’s playing as well as he’s played in a long time. However, when do we start talking about how he’s having one of the best regular seasons of his entire career? He’s averaging career-high rates in defensive rebounding, steals and blocks, while he’s right at career-low rates in turnovers and fouls. Outside of his five-year peak from 2002 thru 2007, Duncan’s 2013 campaign thus far has a very good argument for being his best regular season ever. He’s gone from a player who didn’t make an All-Star team last year to a player who has a strong case of being the best bigman in the entire league to date. Amazing.
-Tiago Splitter is going to be a very rich man in a few months. Last season, some pundits viewed his stats as fluke-ish. This year, despite playing a variety of different roles, he has basically duplicated his numbers from last season. His insertion into the starting lineup has been huge success; teams are averaging only 90 points per 48 minutes with Splitter on the court since he has become a full-time starter. In the entire NBA, how many players average at least 16.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and one block per 36 minutes played while shooting at least 50% from the field? Only two. Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter.
-With Tony Parker, his season has been spectacular from many angles. I’m not sure which is the best way to view it. His shooting percentages jump off the page (51.7% from the field, 40.5% on three-pointers, 82.6% at the line). His PER over his last 21 games is a sterling 25.7. But perhaps my favorite number of all: nobody in NBA history has scored at Parker’s per-minute rate of points and handed out his per-minute rate of assists while turning the ball over as infrequently has he has. Nobody. Ever.
Nice.
Simply amazing. I wonder if there will be an awards coming the Spurs' way this year. Hopefully, there's at least a finals MVP going to someone.
Bonner also is averaging the lowest amount of minutes per game in his entire career.
Damn, that's crazy.
After the struggles last season, I was almost ready to discount the Splitter-Duncan starting frontline. This improving chemistry should bode well for the playoffs.
Damn you Pop for not giving Tiago/Tim more time earlier!
Well, that's way more meaningful that's some +/- stats.
Some of us never doubted Manu would be back to greatness, tbh
In all seriousness, many of us had been calling for the Tiago/Tim pairing (if not at least for more Tiago minutes in general) and the ceiling is so much higher now that it has arrived. It's still very early, but the returns look great and the spacing concern (which was/is valid) does not appear to be a hinderance to this point at all.
Tim's ability to step out and hit that jump shot along with TnT's ability to pass, screen and move have negated a lot of that. Tiago's ability to draw fouls still remains elite too which is great to see.
Elite passing ability from both guys negates the "spreading the floor" issue. Splitter can kill you with a drive or a pass, so defenders can't just leave him alone.
Awesome stuff.
Impressive stuff from Duncan and Splitter. And it's amazing what a difference Leonard makes on the court even if the boxscore doesn't show it.
Checking in the club tbh
So maybe the FO was right keeping this group together eh
And this season is your best season so far LJ
Except you're assuming the tiago out there is same tiago you would have years ago. I think he has come a long way since falling on his butt attempting a dunk. And its not as easy as put them in from the start & you get results early... we needed to stay compe ive while bringing tiago along to where he is now.
I'm unsure how sitting on the bench or playing without Duncan on the floor has been so beneficial for his development. You know he wasn't drafted out of high school, right?
Would a salary starting at 7m/year be enough to keep splitter?
At 7m with max increases he could get 30.1/4yrs or 37.6/5years. I think only we can offer him 5 years so that would presumably give us am advantage?
we talkin bout practice? practice man .. practice ...
I blame pop for signing off on Leonard in the draft.
And think bout how good Leonard could have been earlier this season if Pop had not let him sit so long...
NBA teams don't really practice much during the regular season. Pop's excuse for not giving Splitter any PT prior to the Memphis series was his injury during camp. Try again.
Well, its not inconceivable to think that a new big out of the EU was not fitting in right off the bat and moving tim out of the post for splitter at that point, isnt a straightfwd decision, Esp if the coach hasnt gotten a good look during the training camp. I look at it as, once splitter got enough experience & surpassed blair, he got to be the starting center, especially since we dont have a reliable floor-spreader.
If the spurs were lottery bound or sucking it up then I can imagine plugging in splitter as the savior right off the bat, but unfortunately for the spurs the fools gold was pretty shiny and difficult to just abandon. Even last year, if things went slightly different with okc being another game too slow to adjust or ibaka not becoming dirk, spurs might have made it to the finals with diaw as the stretch 4 and duncan @ the post.
Ridiculous strawman is ridiculous.
I'm getting virus warnings from whoever is loading up doktor.net.
Everybody but Pop knew that Memphis and the Lakers had big front lines. Splitter and Duncan got nearly no time together until the Spurs were getting destroyed by Memphis. Savior is a strawman. The two of them can play together. Too bad they never got a chance to.
I like that smell. Smells like... victory.
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