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Don't deflect me from my agenda, tbh.
I don't think Pop is trying to motivate Green. If you have to motivate a guy to want to play in the NBA at that level, for that money, he needs to be working somewhere else and Pop wouldn't spend a second on him.
Don't deflect me from my agenda, tbh.
I don't give a damn who starts and who comes off the bench. Danny just needs to be more consistent with his shooting(2pt FGs and 3pts).
Pop tinkering per par.
If you go look at his NBA dot com stats page, Marco plays MUCH better off the bench for SA.
I'd much rather Green be somewhat lukewarm/cold most of the year and then heat up come playoff time rather than use up all his good stuff in meaningless games just to keep the never satisfied sniveling es of spurstalk placated. He showed what he is capable of doing in the 4th quarter of last night's game, and he needs to keep it on ration for later.
About the switch of Bellinelli/Green.. I think it might work out pretty good to add another creator to the 1st unit since Leonard hasn't really tried to step up his game in that capacity and is content to just sleep in the corner and wait for a kick out 3. Green should get more shot opportunities in the 2nd unit and this will also force Mills to step up his playmaking some as well. Could be a win/win all around.
Pop experimenting, tbh. Usual stuff at this time of the season.
If Parker was more consistent(aka played at his 2012 or 2013 level) we wouldn't need Leonard to step up as a creator or add another playmaker to the starting lineup. Parker's assist percentage is 33.6% this year. Considerable drop from the 40% he was at the two previous seasons.
So 1st unit is for defense? Then 2nd unit is for offense? I think Pop is trying to experiment with distributing the firepower...
one robin doesn't make a Spring
Last edited by boutons_deux; 12-25-2013 at 11:12 AM.
Spurs starting unit offense has been very bad this year while it was very good last year. Pop might have decided to just let them figure it out and hope they would be back at last year level but that's a gamble. Last year lineup offense was based on Parker and Duncan being dominant players who put the other team defense off balance. This year they aren't as dominant and don't create such havoc. Parker and Duncan might never be back at last year amazing level.
I like Belinelli starting. He can do way more offensively than Green. He brings a second ball handler and pick and roll player to the starting lineup which would be great. Defensively, it should relatively work because there isn't a lot of great SG in the league to cover.
I also like Green from the bench. Even without Belinelli, Spurs bench has enough offense with Ginobili, Mills and Diaw. Green will help the second unit defense; he can cover the best opposite wing and Manu can be on the weakest one.
In theory, I really like that move. We will see what it will give on the court.
I'm with Bruno on this. Teams are running DG off the line and he doesn't have enough game to compensate where Beli does. DG on the second unit means more D and open looks from Manu and Boris. While Beli didn't shoot well yesterday, he played some pretty darn good defense in spots.
On paper, the move should even out both units as long as DG doesn't get SJax butthurt over his minutes.
Disagree Bruno. I think the second unit suffers without Beli's playmaking. Mills' usefulness would decrease as well. We already saw this all last year, and it led to Pop bringing in another bench ball-handler. Also, Beli has been living up to his old defensive reputation while starting. It's been obvious how much better of a defender Green is. He and Kawhi starting together is a major key to the unit's success.
The offense has been struggling for a few reasons. 1 Green has had two slumps already this season. This is causing him to hesitate when he has the ball making him even easier to run off the line. 2 Leonard is or at least wasn't where he needed to be on offense. The fact that he couldn't shoot from range was killing spacing, and he was too tentative getting his own shots from elsewhere. 3 Duncan isn't spacing the floor as well this season. That makes him a Splitter a tough pair to play together. 4 Splitter hasn't been as good in the PnR. Probably because of spacing. 5 Parker is simply not running the offense as well as he did last year.
Perfect reason to have a secondary playmaker on the starting unit..
The second unit still has Boris and Manu to create whereas Tony is all alone with the starters.
Diaw isn't really a playmaker in the sense of him being the main guy who runs a play with the ball in his hands. He's a smart passer who can get the ball in the flow of the offense and make a good decision with it. Not too different than Duncan and Splitter. He wasn't enough of a playmaker to balance out the second unit last season.
The starters don't need a playmaker next to Parker at all
He and Duncan dominate the ball as it is. Put Beli in to handle the ball, and Leonard never sees it. Also, Parker is an on-ball player. He had some success off the ball when Ford was here, but that's not who he is.
The shakeup may end up being benching Splitter and starting Diaw (second playmaker in your book) or even Ayres if he gets his shot back. I don't think that'll be necessary, though. If Leonard gets his outside shot back, the offense as a whole will improve a lot.
So "Dat Dude" goes to play with Tony in the first unit and he goes 2 for 7, 0 for 5 from 3's while Green gets to play with Manu on the second unit and he ends up with 14 pts on 5 for 8 shooting, 4 for 6 on 3's?
The Manu/Mills combo worked well together even last year as I recall. Pop was just too stubborn to stick with it (or any kind of lineup) last year and it cost the spurs a championship IMO.
If, if. If Khawi starts to light it up from 3 the offense will click. Well newsflash... that may not happen, and you just deal with reality not ifs.
Danny made all those threes in the fourth when he was playing with Tony for all the makes IIRC. Instead of just parking him on the arc where athletes can run at him, he got some space from screens set for him in the paint.So "Dat Dude" goes to play with Tony in the first unit and he goes 2 for 7, 0 for 5 from 3's while Green gets to play with Manu on the second unit and he ends up with 14 pts on 5 for 8 shooting, 4 for 6 on 3's?
He's been shooting really well recently. So it's not like I'm proposing that some miracle needs to happen. Kawhi just needs to stay the course.
It worked well for Mills, but not for the second unit as a whole. The bench needed playmaking and defense. They got the former with Beli, but they still need the latter. Mills playing better defense this year does help, though.
Which is why I've been beating the drum for Green to get a bigger role on offense. Pop's been trying to do so recently, but this is the first time he has hit the shots.
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