MAN GRADES!!! And HH officially takes over the game thoughts. Tbh.
No one else can create consistently for themselves though. What the is Parker supposed to do?
Is he supposed to go one on one and carry the whole load when he teammates can't do anything by themselves, and also create all the open shots for his teammates all the time? Spurs are asking a lot of Parker.
I like the ball movement offense, but you can't win with just a ball movement offense IMO. You need to have a couple of creators that can go one on one and score for themselves every now and then. Kawhi needs to step the up, and Manu needs to start driving to the rack and score in one on one situations. If these guys can't do it, the Spurs should have tried to sign at least one more player that can do this to take a little bit of pressure off of Tony Parker. I think the Spurs should look at making a trade for player that can go one on one and score when the offense breaks down.
This is why I was interested in Monta Ellis. I thought he still has great potential, and on the right team, with the right coach, he could be very, very good.
Last edited by Ice009; 12-01-2013 at 02:24 AM.
MAN GRADES!!! And HH officially takes over the game thoughts. Tbh.
Tired of losing to real teams.
Came for the thoughts, stayed for the ass.
I think you're oversimplifying the Spurs offense. Parker doesn't have to create one in one. The team ran different sets to get him open shots last year. The problem is that he was making the correct reads last year and passing to Green when Danny filled the open spot in the defense or to Splitter as he rolled. Now, Tony is driving to take contested layups and passing as a last resort. Like he'll run to Green's corner and dribble-pitch him the ball with the shotclock running down and two defenders right there. Or he'll flip it to Splitter when there's already a clogged paint. I would say many of his assists tonight were due to Duncan making his bad drives work.
I think he has lost confidence in his teammates ability to score, and then in turn, he is putting more pressure on himself to try and score more, especially against the good teams. I mean, TD started the season awful on offense, Danny couldn't score at all in some games, so Parker is probably not looking for them as much anymore. Kawhi hasn't really shown much on offense at all yet either. I don't think Tony is doing it on purpose, I think it is more his teammates haven't stepped up. No one has stepped up as a running mate for TP all season. We don't really have a consistent second scorer, and that is not good at all.
The fact that Green is still shooting a high percentage suggests that his lack of scoring is due to him not getting many clean looks. So Parker doesn't have the ground to lose confidence in him. Splitter scores well when given timely passes. So Parker doesn't have ground there either. Leonard's issues are both personal and schematic. For the most part, they arent Parker's fault.
I don't buy the idea that he's the only one stepping up. He's been taking quarters off, too. That's really my biggest issue with him now. He's not consistent enough to act like he is. There's no reason why he should continuously barrel into bigs instead of kicking.
Chinook, this isn't new. But you have to let the process take place, and give it time, tbh... Tony is coming from winning the Euros being "the man", and he's driven by some of that confidence at the moment, IMO. It might look ugly at times, but I also think it's a time of exploration, both for him and Pop as far as how does the team comes together with an extra aggressive Tony. Hopefully the pieces will align and things will come together. I also think Tony likes to find the "hot hand", and shooters being cold make him look for them less often.
Sure, I get that it will get better. I expect it to. But I don't think Parker's aggressiveness was the missing ingredient. If anything, the Spurs need Parker healthy at the end which didn't happen in June. Therefore, I see no upside in his current play, especially after the summer he had.
Pop also likes to stick with what works, so I'm not sure how much he appreciates Parker breaking off so many plays to go iso. I slightly more aggressive Parker could be useful, but not at the expense of Green and Leonard.
As you said, it's a process, but I don't see the harm and critiquing it on the fly. It's not like I'm cliff-jumping.
HarlemHeat37 with a huge steamy on the chest of PlayNando's grades. Good read
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BTW,at "OKC female fan".
I don't think you are, but I also think Pop uses these months to experiment, and this is part of the experiment.
Exactly, that is what I was trying to say. Tony looks to be more aggressive when he thinks the shooters are cold and tries to do more himself.
No one has been consistent enough from game to game for him to have full confidence in them.
Last edited by Ice009; 12-01-2013 at 05:20 AM.
Harlem, can you make this a regualr thing tbh ?
Solid write up and I like the grading system.
Too many role players/betas right now, start Beli, pretty sure TP respects the stallion and will pass him the ball. Then trade at least one of the betas : Splitter, Kawhi or Green.
Splitter is the obvious choice to go Btw, PO non factor since he has no post game and can be taken out at will by he opposite coach, better not rely on him in the RS, it'd be fools gold...
The defense sucks against smallball because the Spurs only have one SF... But hey they knew that this off season, the roster is built to win against Memphis and to have a hard time with every smallball team... Unfortunately there's more smallball team than "big" teams...
This team as constructed can not get passed The Warriors, Portland and OKc consecutively, the odds of doing that are terrible... They have to luck out and get Memphis and the Clips somehow...
Meanwhile Derrick Williams gets traded for a bag of potatoes...
Last edited by Baam; 12-01-2013 at 08:41 AM.
I don't follow you. Tony was trying to set-up his teammates in the 2nd quarter, and what was the result? brick, brick, brick, brick, brick... and a 23-point lead for Houston.
Then he got fed up, scored 10 straight points (including 2 baskets in one possession), had a very nice assist for Duncan.
Then he started to pass the ball around again and guess what? brick, brick, brick...
But of course it's Tony's fault that Green, Kawhi or Bonner can't make one frigging wide open shot.
The reality is that only 3 players came to play last night: Parker, Beli and Duncan. The others took the night off.
Seriously? the offense breaks down WHEN they go iso.
Isolation always results in fast breaks for the other team when it fails.
Best game thought of the seasondidn't see the game I liked the writing. If Harlem could do that for at least the marquee games that would be awesome.
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