Reply With Quote
It's been peaches the last 2 games.
tee, hee.
Remember when the last second shot was a set-up play for one of our role players to knock down a corner 3? Or when in the closing minutes of a close game we would continue to run the offense and not simply give the ball to Parker to throw up a contested jumper? I do. Watching the past several games I've realized that we now play like the Milwaukee Bucks at the end of games and simply give the ball to one of our stars to jack up a horrible shot that has very little chance of going in. Is Pop really drawing these 'plays' up out of timeouts? Or is it Parker's ego shining through here? Because I'm confused. As a Spurs fan I literally gape when we take a contested shot and the shot clock isn't close to zero. It's so rare during the course of games that it's literally shocking to see it happen. Except now it's happening all the time, and at the most crucial moments---the end of games. This team is built upon team basketball and it always has been. Our role players let us down last year late in the playoffs and I get that, but they're a crucial element to this team winning games in the playoffs. If they're forgotten at the end of games now, then what's going to happen to them in the playoffs? You think their confidence is going to be high? no. Hero ball has got to stop now, or else the Spurs are done. This is not Spurs basketball.
It's been peaches the last 2 games.
tee, hee.
Parker's "MVP candidate" status went down the drain these last 2 games. The Clippers and Spurs can both be stopped in the playoffs the exact same way. The only reason why the Spurs are better than the Clippers is because Del Negro is easy to outcoach.
I could not have said it better, similar threads I have read but this one worded a little different. The ISO is a joke and so easy stop, why do you think other teams have caught on and stop it so easy? It's predictable and doesn't work.
Pop just don't give a anymore. "just go ahead and do your best guys, oh and you wanna be challenged? Matt Bonner get the in there!"
Yeah, lots of Hero Ball lately. It gets worse when the Hero (Gary Neal ) himself gets minutes.
We take care of Thunder and it becomes a non-bearing game. That said, our D is ty stopping last second shots. Last night there was not enough time at .6 sec left. But the last few games, except for a jumper I'd penetrate and try to draw a foul. But then again I'm not Pop.
The best Parker is Parker who does not think about being a hero. he just runs the show.
But when it is all about him, he fails to deliver.
That's disturbing cause it depends of the outcome.
I think Tony's lauded, successful take-over heroics in 4th qtr and crunch time several games this year may have gone to his head, amplified by the ineffectiveness, if not absence, of Manu.
Without Parker and his "hero ball", Spurs would be a lottery team. But yeah, whatever...
Hopefully we can keep Parker and Neal off the court at the same time, as things devolve into Heroball pretty quickly.
I just love the term Hero Ball. It's awesome.
Even Charles Barkley uses it.
Here's a discussion with Shane Battier about why coaches resort to Hero Ball at the end of games: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txTlGm31NZw
I don't particularly mind Hero ball when you actually have a hero, tbh... that would still be Tim Duncan on this team...
Believe it or not, the last play in the Grizzlies game was designed for Matt Bonner to do a catch and shoot. SJax instead threw it in to Parker.
TP was not at his best last night. He scored 25 pts but his court vision was bad. Perhaps he did it on purpose but he had Bonner wide open at least twice and didn't pass it to him. If you recall, Pop even told him late in the game "Matt was wide open" - you could read his lips.
Maybe Tony didn't feel comfortable giving him the ball. We all know Matt doesn't shoot well under pressure.
Gary f'd up at least twice that I remember. Once on D and the other on Offense. Took a pull up jumper on a break instead of passing to Jackson. Also left Conley to provide help defense inside. --> Really stupid move. Unfortunately, we don't have many shooters right now that can get off a shot under pressure. Neal is one of those guys. Not sure why Patty wasn't used to provide offense either.
+1. If he takes the final shot and it doesn't work, i'm okay with it. He's earned that honor long ago. Besides, Timmy will always hit the open guy if it's there, not like some Spurs who, after all these years, are still struggling with tunnel vision.
I don't mind Tony thinking about himself as the first scoring option. But the problem with the last few possessions is that he seemed NOT to have second option in mind at all (either Bonner who set a half-pick for him or other shooters in two corners).
Tony is a fast PG, but not an explosive guard. When the defense commits on not giving up layups and foul calls can only be called when there is obvious mis-direction jump/contact, Tony cannot just go one-on-one. If he can't drive close to his comfort "floater" area, I would rather him taking a clean jump-shooter after a good Tim/Tiago pick.
But when he didn't use a pick and didn't have other players in mind, he is not among top finishers. Tony's strength is his speed, variety and change-of-pace, and he should use those to his advantage. In terms of making real tough shot itself, let alone LeBron or Durant, even a Jamal Crawford type would be better than him.
The ISO is not the players fault, that's Pop not calling a play and not barking out orders so that's on him. Parker is only doing what he thinks he can do within the moment of the game, he looks on the floor and see's people who are not consistent and thinks that since he leads the team it's his to lose. The biggest problem with this is that we've empowered Parker as our Prime Time Player and this is going to ultimately fail because any team that's lead by a PG is probably not going to win a championship. Every team that has been lead by a superstar PG usually can win a few series, win a crap load of games but ultimately don't have enough to get the job done in the finals. Unless you're Magic Johnson and can play multiple positions you need to have size, Defense and dependable scorers. We are 5 out of 10 on size, our defense is average over 4 quarters and we have non dependable shooters.
Parker distributes the ball too, too much if he's playing Hero Ball. So I would say, he isn't.
Even at this day and age, the only player that prevents this team from being a lottery team is Tim Duncan...
ElNono trolling hard
looks like latest Manu injury really did a number on you
What does Manu has to do with what's discussed in this thread?
It's simply a fact that this team has a major hard time winning without Duncan on the floor, more so that when missing any other player. We've been fortunate that he hasn't missed that many games, especially after that knee scare.
The same happened last year we do good till the end of the season and then we cking fall apart. Are we going to make it out of the first round this year?
your omission of Parker as another player whom without we'd be in the lottery means only
a) you are trolling hard
b) your Manu homerism has blinded you to the point you missed Parker's MVP year
Tony has been doing that to Matt all season. I don't particularily blame him, especially because the night before against Miami, Matt was wide open for a three in the 4th and didn't shoot it. The Spurs ended up with a terrible possession and you could see Tony yelling at him. I think Tony has been fed up with Matt's anti clutchness.
With that said, his final two minutes last night were not enjoyable to watch.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
