Corey played very well and he has crazy upside (he's only 21), he has great size and he's determined to win the job. Just have to hope Pop gives him the ball to run with during this month long run and not Gary Neal which spells disaster.
Parker about the backup PG slot on his radio show:
Pop was a little disappointed about what Mills and De Colo have done lately and that's why he called up Joseph. The compe ion is open between all three for the spot and, without me, they will have 3 weeks to show what they can do.
You mean like the guards who shredded Parker and Neal two weeks ago?
If he can play "fairly pedestrian" for the rest of the season, he's a shoo-in to back up Parker. Pop has a few requirements for his backup point guard:
1. Don't turn the ball over
2. Don't stall the offense
3. Don't break down defensively
4. Don't let the defense cheat off you
If Joseph can continue to play good individual and team defense, he can impact the game without having to score, leaving him only to shoot or penetrate when open, which he's shown an ability to do. As you pointed out, the Spurs' offense will take care of itself so long as he brings the ball up and gets it to the right spots without turning it over. He seems to be pretty clear on that. Notice that "take over the game" is nowhere in Pop's list.
The pick and roll doesn't always go through Parker, so Joseph isn't going to need to run it 40 times a game. If he can hold the fort for 25 minutes while Parker's out, he's more than equipped to handle it for 12 when Parker comes back.
Except that the playoffs can be a different beast. CoJo will have only been with the varsity for a month and a half when the playoffs start, so we'll have to see how he looks, and also what Pop's comfort level is with giving him run.
You got that right. He's only started one game, so we definitely have to see how he looks before we even think about the playoffs. I still maintain that playing no better or worse than he played last night going forward is enough to earn him the backup point job.
A fair concern. But to be totally honest, in the playoffs he would probably serve soley as Parker's backup. And I imagine in playoff games that Parker will be playing right around 40 minutes. So we're probably talking about fewer than 10 minutes a game. While it'll still be concerning, I think it's a survivable hurdle if hes surrounded with the right supporting cast when hes on the court.
Is there anywhere online where I can watch the full game from last night? Or are we not allowed to ask for video of it?
NBA League Pass. Although I know I had to drop like 200 euro on that last year.
Other than that, I don't know.
Better to let Corey get as many games under his belt because we don't know for sure if Tony will be back April 1st, we don't need that scapegoat if we get run in the playoffs because of bad PG play.
I want to see Joseph stay in the starting lineup rather than put De Colo there. Not having Parker is forcing the other players to step up. Green and especially Leonard are going to have to have the ball in their hands more now. We've seen Green have games recently that gave us hope he can be a plus facilitator, but Leonard hasn't gotten the chance since the summer league, really. I liked seeing him run the offense last night. If he can build on that, then he, Green and Joseph should be able to provide enough play-making from the perimeter.
De Colo playing with the bench is not ideal for his skill set, but if he has any hope of finding a long-term spot in the rotation, he has to be able to play with Ginobili. If Parker and T.J. Ford can find a way to play together, De Colo and Ginobili should be able to, as well.
Finally, I found the Ginobili/Green/Leonard/Splitter/Duncan lineup interesting defensively. Without the team's best point defender, there will be stretches where Green or Leonard will tasked with checking players like Irving and Westbrook. Them getting more experience defending ones could pay dividends come playoff time. Also, for teams like the Heat which often go for stretches without a traditional point-guard, the Spurs may find it easier to switch pick-and-rolls without having to worry about Parker being on put a big.
I think Joseph fits better next to Manu and therefore wouldn't be too upset with De Colo getting the start. He does seem like he fits better with the starting unit. I mean asking Green to dribble the ball too much is just going to turn into a disaster and the last thing he needs is to start in up and losing confidence. As long as Cojo is still the guard down the stretch and is still getting good minutes I would mind a flip there. The starting unit with CoJo makes for some great defense though.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Joseph is given the proper minutes and doesn't disappoint.
However, I'm still irked that it wasn't until March that Pop gave him his chance. Smh.
Pretty hard when you have so many options. Somebody had to get the boot. Patty looks like the odd man out here IMO.
AT least he is a real PG unlike Parker
IMO patty + decolo gonna be fighting for the 3rd string by the end of the week. I think Decolo has great potential but is way way too green. Patty might be a better 3rd string as he brings sparks off the bench.
Still I think Decolo's potential might be bigger than Patty/Cojo in the end.
I agree that Green is possibly the worst dribbler in the rotation (including the bigs), but it seems like he is facilitating more than he was earlier in the season. He is usually the one to gives Parker the entry pass off the around-the-world play the Spurs use so much. I think he facilitates much like a big man does: He doesn't (shouldn't) rely on driving to get assists as much as he relies on a knowledge of the offense and being able to hit cutters with an accurate pass as soon as the window opens up.
If Danny and Kawhi can pretty much switch roles offensively It wouldn't be as big of a deal. I mean the 2 and 3 are pretty interchangeable in the Spurs system already but letting Kawhi get more opportunities to put the ball on the ground and letting Danny stand in the corner more often makes more sense. It seems like Danny gets a lot more opportunities to "drive" the ball.
Green has been awful at scoring at the rim until recently. He's doing better against bad teams (Kings, Pistons), but you have to start somewhere. Parker going down definitely takes the team out of its comfort zone, so it is up to Pop to pull something positive from it.
I still think a Green/De Colo backup backcourt is possible if Pop decides to start Manu again. I hope he doesn't, though; the starters (Parker, Green, Leonard, Splitter, Duncan) are an elite 5-man unit defensively and do a great job of setting the tone.
Danny has good court vision, and is a good passer. He's not even a terrible ball handler. There are just situations he shouldn't allow himself to get into. It's not really that hard to pull up on the break or give it up in most scenarios before he runs into trouble. He doesn't make those mistakes often enough to make him a bad player, but if he could eliminate them it would make him really reliable and would probably do some good for his confidence.
I think the tone in the playoffs if CoJo gets backup minutes will be , Cojo playing in the second unit or Ginobili/Mills in the backcourt.
cojo = avery bradley ........................
word............. add blair..........hanga.............richards........b ertans...........
If a player can't handle the intensity of the playoffs, 10 minutes can be 10 minutes too long. It's excruciating watching someone who's flailing even if it's only for a possession or 2. Think about watching 10 minutes of Playoff Matt Bonner if you have any doubts.
Not that I'm saying that Cory will be one of those guys, it's just that you never know how a player will respond under playoff conditions until you see them play.
How many games between Ginobili's return and Neal's exit were there though? And even then, consider the stretch it came during. Ginobili wasn't playing much more than spot minutes and there was no semblance of a set rotation period.
Thank you for (unknowingly) proving my point. Bledsoe is a great example, because despite the amount of trouble he gave them, the end result was a sweep.In the playoffs last year, Neal got shredded by Eric Bledsoe and couldn't even hang with the corpse of Derek Fisher.
On a whole, the bench sucked last year in the playoffs ... and the backup point guard issues played a huge part in that, IMO.
The bench sucked, but Ginobili, Splitter and Bonner, were bigger issues than Neal. If you take Neal for what he is, he had a heck of a playoffs. He shot the lights out (fg% - .476, 3p% - .444, ft .846), while posting a turnover rate only slightly above his regular season and career average, despite playing out of position.
Pop, in the grand scheme of things, what impact did Bledsoe have? The Spurs swept them with relative ease. Besides, Bledsoe can give a lot of PG's problems and it's not like Joseph has an A+ handle himself, so he'd probably have great difficulty with him too.
CoJo isn't quite there defensively. I mean he can be something great on that end, but Bradley is just monstrous against opposing point guards. CoJo does seem to have a better offensive game than Bradley though. At the very least he's a competent jump shooter which is more than Avery Bradley can say... he's literally the Tony Allen of point guards.
There is zero chance of Blair resigning with the Spurs. Probably less than zero. Whatever contract he signs next will be the biggest contract he'll ever get, even if its only for 2-3 million per. The Spurs aren't going to be that team, especially in a summer we're about to have. Blair is not in the long term plans of the team, and he clearly wants out, the Spurs want him out too. In the meantime he was worth hanging onto as a ridiculously cheap depth body. I still don't know about Hanga. He seems to have a pretty average all around skill set. Bertans looks like he could become a shooting specialist, and at his height, wouldn't be a bad idea. At best he could be a Keith Van Horn type or a poor man's Peja. Just doesn't seem to have a diverse skill set. Richards is intriguing but he is incredibly raw.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
