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You realize he's following the game plan by doing that, right? So basically, you're criticizing Neal for listening to Coach Pop.
That Chalmers and James pick and roll is lethal. Any thoughts on the best way to defend it?With about 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, Manu made a brilliant pass to Duncan deep in the post for a dunk to put the spurs up by 3. It felt like the spurs were starting to solve the heat defense. Then it all unravelled from there. Thanks, in part to Gary Neal. Not everything was Gary's fault, but he was a major culprit IMHO.
Next heat possession Neal shades Chalmers (a right handed player) to go right (which would be natural for him to do). There is also no help defense in that direction. Neal should have been routing Chalmers to the middle where the help was (Duncan and Diaw). Since Neal is basically just giving him his right hand and an open alley to the rim, James recognizes this and sets a screen for Chalmers who promptly scores an AND-1 (Green was hesitant to fully commit to the switch and leave James, gets his 3rd foul in the process).
Next spurs possession Manu sends a crisp on target pass to Neal at the top of the key, hits him practically right between the numbers and the ball squirts right through his hands out of bounds. Turnover.
After Ginobili gets stripped on dribble penetration the heat get a 4 on 2 with James leading the way. Neal initially stops the James' penetration and he kicks it out to Chalmers. Instead of going out to contest Chalmers (or Allen or Miller) out on the perimeter Neal basically sits next to the rim (for what purpose I have no clue). Chalmers could have buried the 3, instead he kicks to Allen who is also wide open, splash. Neal sits under the basket the entire time. Apparently he was waiting for a long rebound or something.
After Duncan misses a bad fadeaway, Chalmers & James run another P&R that nets James a layup. Not much the spurs could have done, it was executed to perfection and Duncan was late in helping. Neal was on the other side, so wasn't his fault on this possession.
Duncan finally makes an aggressive move in the post on Birdman, resulting in free throws. Leonard corrals Ducan's 2nd miss and Parker makes a floater to pull the spurs back to a reasonable 4 pt defecit.
Gary Neal then does what Gary Neal does on a regular basis.. leave 3pt shooters open. Caught trying to help from the weakside on a James P&R (not sure what help he would have been anyway) he leaves a wide open Mike Miller whom James promptly finds for 3. Splash.
After a terrible miscommunication turnover by Duncan and Ginobili on an out of bounds throw in, Chalmers again is given his right hand (this time by Parker) and the heat capitalize promptly with a James' screen (hardly needs to even set a good one the way Parker was shading him). Chalmers gets into the paint easily with only Leonard as a help defender. Leonard meekly fouls him (?) on the arm instead of blocking his shot (which he could have easily done, IMO). At this point I have to question what the strategy on Chalmers is.. apparently Pop is a secret Chalmers fan because he seems to want to make things easy for him.
4th quarter starts spurs down 10, and with a Gary Neal turnover trying to make a pass on the baseline. Which just outlines that his ball handling is not good enough against a swarming defense like the heat and he should not be playing in this series. A bigger player like McGrady who can make a pass over a defender might have helped, or one with better handles (like Mills or CoJo). Why does Pop have these guys on the roster if he never uses them?
On the next James-Chalmers P&R it seems something was said because Parker is finally shading Chalmers to his left (like he should). He goes that way, Leonard switches but again is reluctant to contest the shot (just lets him shoot an easy 5 footer with no contest). Is this because he is not supposed to be switched onto Chalmers? Has Pop told him to stay with James on those P&R? The heat feasted with this all night and the spurs need a game plan to slow it down going forward into game 3.
You realize he's following the game plan by doing that, right? So basically, you're criticizing Neal for listening to Coach Pop.
There's also a difference, between "helping" and "standing there, lost and leaving your man wide ing open for no apparent reason."
He feels Neal can contribute. He's going to have to lack at past series and see how much Neal really helped. We didn't win the past two series because of Neal playing lots of minutes.
Why wasn't Cojo put in instead? At least Cojo trys and can play solid defense.
Cojo does n't have the talent of Neal in making threes and ballhandling. They need Neal for these reasons.
Neal's ballhandling
3 point shooting?
I would try the following.
1. Have the guy guarding Chalmers go under the screen and concede Chalmers the long 2pt jumper or step back 3. He's been mostly a catch and shoot 3 pt specialist all year so this could throw him off a bit. And better than letting him in the lane or allowing him to feed the roll-man Lebron with a pinpoint pass (which he showed he is quite capable of also).
2. If Chalmers is hitting those conceded jumpers I would instead go to a full out switch, and not the half-assed "I'm not really supposed to be switching here because coach Pop says not to.. but I can't let Chalmers have a layup, so I'll just sort of stick close to both guys in a half-assed way and concede the 5 footer to Chalmers in front of the basket and even give him a half assed AND-1 slap on the arm to make it look like I care" we saw Leonard and Green doing last night.
I also have to question the lack of use of DeColo. He was very good against the Heat in the regular season and his height matched up better with some of the Heat wings. Maybe Neal should be the man in the suit.
Neal's ballhandling was better left on the train.
Pops problem is that he is for some reason trying to outscore the Heat when playing Neal. We are not going to outscore the Heat, just impossible. Our best defensive lineups should be playing at all times.
When someone refers to Gary Neal and ball handling I have to assume in a sexual manner because I know it's not him controlling the basketball. That mother er turns his back to the basket too much and gets trapped way too easily then he forces up. Gary Neal should not being playing 20+ minutes. He didn't play that many minutes in any of the other series. I don't see why he's playing so many minutes now given that he's undersized and a defender. If Pop needs Neals contributions so bad then his offensive game plan is . The plan should be drive and kick or drive and score or PnR. Tony and Tim the bed on offense but if we're designing game plans around Neal carrying a large scoring burden we're ed up the ass.
We've survived so far with Neal playing limited minutes and now all of a sudden Pop thinks he's the savior? Neal was a bad matchup against the Grizzlies and he's a bad matchup against the Heat for the same reason. Neal hitting that game winner in '11 hurt the Spurs. To me Neal represents the Spurs of the past few years who would try to outscore the other team with hero ball shots instead of playing solid defense.
Every defender is leaving their man wide open. Pop is taking the ball out of Lebron's hands by bringing help. Blaming Neal is stupid. The big three went 10-33. Let's all blame Neal though.
The rotations were crap and it has to be Pop making the decision to send 3 people into the paint to collapse on James because he wasn't irate when they kept leaving shooters open. The problem is Gary Neal is too short to close out and is too lazy to make any real effort on defense. Pop better have Neal on a short leash and pull him once he starts chucking shots and playing terrible defense.
Right, like those adjustments last year.
Pop's adjustment is "Tony and Time please make shots" sits back and looks like genius if they do.
And you do you expect for him to play Mills, Joseph, De Colo, T-Mac? Neal is an offensive weapon, teams respect his offense and are less likely to help off of him knowing how good he has been in the past shooting the ball. Defensively he is a mess at times but can be passable if he plays with Duncan more. We have to play Neal anyway, someone waived Jackson.
If you are truly a fan of the Spurs, you should unbold yourself.
This threads premise is rather stupid.
1. Jackson waived before playoffs
2. Leonard only plausible option at the 3
3. Leonard needs to rest...so playing Green & Manu at the 3 is a must for 12 minutes roughly.
4. With Manu or Green sliding up to play Small forward for 1/4 of the game. That opens minutes up at the 2 guard
5. Manu shouldn't play more than 30 unless its OT. Green needs rest as well, because he is expending alot of energy defending Wade and Allen...
6. Neal is the most experience of the Mills, Joseph, De Colo alternatives. I'd trust him late in games more than any of those 3
That is all...
Yeah, last time I checked Jackson was waived BEFORE THE POSTSEASON, not before this series. Why switch the line up that got you to the finals????/
And don't say Neal is more useful on offense for "spreading the floor" because a) IT'S NOT WORKING b) He negates anything positive he is a result of on offense(few and far between) with his piss poor defense. Like why is this guy in the NBA? Why is he in the finals?
CJ should get all of hiss minutes, defense wins championships. But if Pop pulling the plug early yesterday was any indication of future events, it's that the Spurs are dead in the water.
You can't criticize PopHe's the best coach in the league
gots.
I'm not sure if he's sitting because of his at ude, or what, exactly. But I do know that if he couldn't get off the bench against Golden State or Memphis, throwing him in against Miami is a disaster waiting to happen.
I'm still optimistic about De Colo over the next couple of years, but it's too late to start getting him playoff experience this year unless it's in garbage time.
Cory Joseph should be the only option for that back up PG.
But again, it's Pop. So yeah.
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