Reply With Quote
Great to see "superstar PER" Manu emerge tonight
Tim Duncan A
Looked great athletically - by far the best he's looked since return. Great on D in the paint. Great passing. Scoring still a work in progress.
Manu Ginobili A
Amazing in the first half: 17 points on 6-6 shooting in 12 minutes. Also found teammates and defended with energy. Definitely stepped up with TP down.
Kawhi Leonard A-
Performed with commendable tenacity. Attacked on offense. Disruptive on defense. Boarded healthfully. His zest was overflowing tonight.
Danny Green A-
Found ways to get open despite TP's absence. D was a bit inconsistent but challenged shots and grabbed contested boards. He, too, was lively.
Cory Joseph A-
The surprise starter at PG. The results were splendid. His D was outstanding; he was in the middle of countless scrums. Ran the show deftly. Looked legit.
Tiago Splitter B+
His finishing was lackluster and his interior D was missing at times but otherwise did well. Boarding a plus. Passing a plus plus.
DeJuan Blair C
I liked his rebounding, vision and activity on D. I didn't like his shot-selection and his D in the paint -- or against pick-and-rolls.
Stephen Jackson B
His first game without tape since he broke his finger was a success. Impacted the game in multiple areas. Has a ways to go to sharpen his skills.
Patrick Mills B+
Fit well with the second unit; meshed seamlessly with Ginobili. Passing was better than normal. Was too aggressive on D at times.
Matt Bonner C
Drew a rare foul on a drive to the bucket. That was about the extent of his notable plays.
Nando De Colo Inc.
Played fine in garbage time; didn't move the needle in either direction.
Gary Neal Inc.
In his return from a lingering calf injury, he was able to get hot late in the garbage session.
Aron Baynes Inc.
He has apparently been working on a Duncan-like banker. Looks good.
Pop A+
Had his team playing like a wounded animal without TP. Gutsy and ultimately great decision to start Joseph.
Great to see "superstar PER" Manu emerge tonight
ST: Does NDC need some D-league time a la Joseph? Or is he what he's going to be at this point.
my ty opinion...I think D League could help him but i imagine he doesn't want to spend too long there, especially after coming overseas. I think he'll be better next year as I imagine he'll improve his shooting and release. but curious how others predict his tenure with us...
FIFY. Yes, I am entering the bad wordplay joke olympics.Great to see "suPERstar" Manu emerge tonight
Whole team was pretty great.
Definitely a superior team effort. Hopefully Joseph and Mill's point guard production will put an end to the "start Manu at point guard" cow calls.
De Colo's game would be completely different if he could shoot, obviously..
His lack of scoring stalls the offense and puts everybody in a tough position, often with the clock winding down..it's a shame because he's a great passer, but unless you have Rondo/Wall-like athleticism or Andre Miller/Kidd size, it's a rarity to have a successful NBA career at the guard positions without consistent scoring ability..
I suppose he could opt for a Brevin Knight/Jacque Vaughn career, but I assume he would much rather go back to Europe..
nando can't be a point guard in this league, he is too slow to defend quick point guards.
nice.
By the way, can anyone hear the back and forth between Kawhi and some random guy near the beginning of his postgame video?
Kawhi: "...I twisted it up [my ankle] little bit in one game, uh, [I] wore Jordans 2 (too?), but tonight I came out with my new shoes"
Random guy: "That's Michael, [something something] Michael Jordan right there?"
Kawhi: "That's just stupid..." (as he nods his head in slight disgust)
What did that guy say exactly?
Edit: Here's the link to the postgame: http://www.nba.com/spurs/video/2013/...ardmov-2402868
Yea I agree. I like the De Colo, but he almost seems like the Blair of the guards. Meaning that he is a good player but he just doesn't fit very well alongside our other guards. He is not taking a starting spot from Danny, Tp, or Kawhi obviously. But he also does not play very effectively alongside Ginobili either. This makes it challenging to fit him into the second unit. It seems as though he is only effective in specific situations. I think this will change as he continues to develop, but for now he looks like he might be squeezed out of the rotation. Improving his outside shot this offseason would do wonders to his game though
Mills/Ginobili looked a good second unit tbh.
Cory looked really good, maybe a bit nervous, which is to be expected, especially on offence, but defence he looked in the zone.
I like Joseph as the backup point moving forward with Mills as the change of pace 5 mins per game type role.
Does anyone else prefer to see Manu NOT bring the ball up the court? I much prefer him to run, receive and then create than just go from half court all or nothing.
We're getting close. It's only a matter of time now before Tiago puts the team on his back.
I thought Duncan's knee stiffened up a bit and he was plodding in the third quarter. He had a noticeable limp although he got down well in his crouch on defense immediately after showing it. Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me?
I like him, but he's still inconsistent out there. If there's little chance of him being part of the PO rotation, why not sent him down so he can play more minutes & work on his game (it helped Joseph & he's been here longer). I'd rather see Joseph at the PG until TP returns & Mills as his backup... as a SG, NDC is just not ready & I like him better as a PG... oh well, hope they know what best for him.
I really like how the stats look from this game(seeing as how I fell asleep before the game came on).
I knew Joseph would impress if he started. Would love to see Dejuan and Jackson rebound like this often. Also, Jackson was relying way too much on the 3 before...he shouldn't.
I wouldn't be surprised if he went back to Europe. If he does, I really hope we bring over Adam Hanga.
I just kept thinking tonight that he is impotent on offense. He just can't score and that hurts the offense, stalls it like you said.
Spurs win a laugher going away with solid play across the board and most of the posts are "what's wrong with Nando?" GMAFB!
No team MVP, but Duncan blocking everything in sight, Manu beasting, Kawhi throwing it down, and a stellar defensive performance from "the rook." I love this team, because that's exactly what it is...a team. A key piece goes down and others pick up the slack.
of a victory...Go Spurs Go!
Wow, quite a night! Before the game it was cool watching Manu nail free-throw after free-throw. He doesn't take losing very well apparently. He and Tim were great. Tim was well on his way to a quadruple double going into the fourth, and Manu's 'quatro' at the buzzer was memorable to say the least. Cory did a great job. I wonder if Nando would benefit in the way Cory did by going up to Austin on occasion. I was wondering if he is very willing for these kind of workouts, or if he would take it badly. I think he has a bright future with the Spurs, and his passing will be needed when Manu goes. I hope he sees the big picture and does whatever it takes to step up his game.
Thanks for the grades!
Last edited by spurs10; 03-04-2013 at 01:18 AM.
IIRC Nando thinks the D-league is "below" him, according to an interview a couple of months ago. I mean, that's not what he exactly said but it's pretty close. It was something like "I'm not really happy going to the D-league obviously, I didn't come here to play in the D-league" when he was sent down there for one game. I'm greatly paraphrasing here but that was the gist of it.
Yeah, I remember that as well, and that's why I mentioned it. I'm hoping the translation was a bit off because it's not the right at ude. If it's going to improve his NBA play, he should be asking them. If Pop got wind of any bad at ude stuff, I'm sure he'd be asking him "to get over himself!'
All this being said, I agree with AFBlue that it was a monster victory!! Bring on the Bulls!!
CoJo needed a lot of minutes to develop a pro-level feel for all aspects of the game. NDC has an NBA-ready game with a giant hole in it -- a hole which, oddly enough, is something the Spurs are expert at fixing. D-League minutes aren't nearly as important as rebuilding his shooting mechanics. The next offseason will be crucial for him -- and anyway, since when do the Spurs give up on a player they've invested in after a single year with the team?
I wouldn't say he can't shoot. Granted, the percentages still don't have much volume to them, but they're not terrible. And he's already a better three-point shooter than Miller, Knight and Vaughn.
I always thought it was more likely than not that he'd be a depth guard, which is good value out of a late 2nd. Besides, every team needs depth, none more so than the Spurs, considering the extent to which they ration minutes.
Meh, he's shooting 36% from 10 feet and out IIRC, on a team with the best offensive system in the NBA..
I'm not suggesting that the Spurs give up on him, I'm merely pointing out that his lack of shooting and lack of confidence in his shot hurts his game and the team offense..
I don't have the adjusted +/- numbers in front of me and I could easily be wrong, but the eye test indicates that the offense is relatively limited when De Colo is on the floor..
lol if this was a good game for jackson
cant make layups
cant make 3s
cant make free throws
foul prone
turnover prone
inefficient 6 pts on 7 shots
but this clown gets 26 minutes
should be getting Leonard 30+ minutes even in blowouts to let him develop his game
i liked what he did in the post tonight and he has a huge length advantage over most small fowards and if teams like to play small (Clippers and Kevin Martin or Westbrook at the 3 when they go small and Sefolosha is guarding TP) thats another matchup advantage they can use to their favor
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
