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He's playing very good ball right now.
Wow.
TP gets plenty of credit from most Spurs fans. He also receives a healthy amount of hate from the same fan base. He's even started to receive more media love although that only comes in spurts when you can't ignore what he's doing because it's the only game on. Players seem to really respect him and give him his due.
This isn't an underrated or overrated post. This is an appreciation post. At his age, with all he has accomplished, it's awe inspiring that he's still improving. Much like Duncan, who adds subtle but important wrinkles to his game to say elite, so has TP. Specifically, in this series. Compared to what we saw even last year, he is doing something different when facing immense pressure/defense: staying aggressive. He is the best decision maker in the NBA in my opinion and it is on full display vs Portland.
TP struggled this year overall because he was ailing and tired. With him seemingly healthy and focused, that wrinkle is most impressive to me. Given, POR is not MIA and don't have near the defenders/team defense capable of putting pressure on TP/Trapping, but how TP is handling the bigger defender switch that almost all teams deploy vs TP is fantastic. It's the single biggest reason IMO that SA's offense is crushing POR so badly. He simply blew up the biggest ace-in-the-hole blue print to slow TP. The fact he is still making an effort to go North/South as much as possible even when hounded in addition to his tireless work on that jump shot, have really given an already great offense an even better chance at advancing vs the OKC's of the world. Other teams have better overall defense and it will be tougher, but this new wrinkle from TP should bode well in the long run.
He's playing very good ball right now.
I was watching some ESPN bs this morning and the talking heads agreed that lebron, Durant and Parker were the 3 best players in the league. That is pretty huge. I think the spurs fans are hard on Parker because they watch every game and see his shortcomings. Ok so he isn't Michael Jordan, and if you put the right defender on him he can be slowed. But that is true of every player in the nba not named James or Durant. He is a great player, a hof player. His ability to attack and collapse the defense is the key to the spurs offense. Even if the spurs lose to the thunder or heat, he is still a great player. Steve Nash was never good enough to single handedly win a championship, or any other number of great players.
It's more than that though. What MIA (and many teams have done) vs TP last year was make "The Switch". The "put our best and biggest/longest wing defender" on TP. He was content on picking up his dribble, making the pass, and letting the other guys do some work. It almost worked to the tune of a 5th le as well, but ultimately, the others did not come through.
This time, he's taking that defender and treating them the same way he does a PG that guards him. He's making the decision very early in the possession to move North and he's keeping that dribble alive a lot longer and it's paying off. It's a subtle change, but a great one that really helps in negating that strategy. Like I said, the drawing of the best wing defender should result in a mismatch else where so him stopping that dribble, drawing that attention and giving the ball up was a good decision in previous years, but it was tough on the offense. This (as you can see in the results so far) has really ramped up the Spurs offense.
He has a tendency to wear himself out sometimes, but it's hard to knock someone for that amount of effort. It's really up to Pop to make sure TP has something left in the tank at the end of games.
By the way, the amount of "hate" for TP is nothing compared to what some fans have for Manu, which has reached epic levels of stupidity.
Doug Collins pointed out last night that Pop sitting Tony The Tired-er for 3 weeks was absolutely brilliant, seeing the return.
This underlined part of your post is exactly the change in TP's game I was referring to. It may not look like much, but it's an addition to his game. Much like Lebron understanding he needed to work on his post game because it could open his game up, TP after seeing what other teams do to defend him worked on this. He worked on keeping that dribble alive, making a North move very decisively and mentally he worked on being aggressive (which for some players, that is very difficult).
It was a smart move. I think Tony was a bit burned out.
I'm really hoping we get the Clips because that OKC matchup has been pretty tough on TP.
TP has owned CP3 historically. But, even though OKC has better horses to employ the usual strategy against TP, I think you will see with this addition to his game, that it will be more difficult for OKC than before. However, obviously, it's not apples to apples seeing that the Spurs have their own problems in having to guard Durant/Westbrook.
I don't remember TP ever hitting those mid-range shots with the consistency he has against Portland. He needs to keep shooting like that for spurs to win it all, but I think he'll come back to reality, unfortunately
I agree on Parker seemingly being able to handle bigger/longer defenders better than in the past. Hopefully, this is a trend that will continue.
If the Spurs can keep up this current assist to turnover ratio, they can beat either of those teams. I just think OKC can force more TO -- and when you have Westchimp and KD on breaks, foggetabou .
In 07, he was living off those
People are focusing just on the jumper which is obviously huge and I agree he won't hit at this clip always, but it's more than that. He's still, despite facing a lot of attention, getting into the paint. He's making near perfect reads on when to pull up and when to get into the paint. His ability to get in there while having that bigger defender is bad for business for these teams. The reason you make the switch is to prevent that. If TP can still do that, you now have mismatches all over the place usually and SA is now getting the same looks they were before. It makes it a losing strategy.
No doubt. The fact TP can blow this strategy up better than before and the fact that POR can't force TO's is the reason why you are seeing 20 point beat downs. Like you said, OKC can force way more TO's, so the score won't be 20 point leads but it should help the Spurs to have a good shot at being in most games.
He's been effective against this team. He's the straw that stirs the drink, and my only complaint with him is that he's not always willing to stir the drink. When he hangs back and just settles for long contested 2pt shots or allows Manu or someone else to control the offense while he's on the court, or when he gets blinders and only sees Tim Duncan on the floor while other players are wide open, that's a problem. It's a problem that's going to rear it's head in a more compe ive series where Tim doesn't have easy looks or open lanes, and where hands are stripping the ball from him. When Tony's shot starts to drift, and it will, or when he gets flattened while trying to force a switch in the paint, he's going to defer a bit more and do it earlier. That's when you start to see the hesitant look on his face.
What allows Tony to thrive is players like Kawhi having the ability to go coast to coast, rebound or block to spot up jumper or lay up. That lets other teams know Tony isn't the only person they need to watch on offense, and it forces Kawhi's man to stay with him instead of cheating off to help cover the paint. One wrong bounce and Leonard could be dunking at the opposite end before you can recover. Then you have Patty Mills who can come in and really change the entire tempo of the offense, making the other team work their asses off in transition. Since Portland has no real bench, they are dead tired by the time Tony returns and they slack off of him, round off their cuts and they go under screens.
So yeah, Tony has been great, but the rest of the team has to be in that Finals mode for him to have that space and freedom to execute, and he does.
He's had 1 dominant series after being mediocre(by his standards) all year, tbh, including a sub-par Mavs series..
There's also the bitter taste of Parker's awful games 6 and 7 of the Finals, tbh, ting the bed in the 2 biggest games of the season..
I'm far from a Tony Parker hater, but he still has a lot to prove, and it's an insult to his ability to give him credit for anything this season, so far IMO..as I said in my series preview, Parker was built to destroy a team like Portland..they have had problems against PGs all year and they were 28th in defending the pick&roll..Tony was built to kill them, and thankfully, he has carried the Spurs in this series..
However, it's all meaningless if he can't play well against OKC and Miami, tbh..otherwise, he's just another great PG that gets shut down when he's matched up against a long defender..
Portland is a series where he was bound to dominate..I mentioned this before the series started. He should have dominated the Mav series as well, but he didn't...
The problem with Parker he can only dominate with scoring, he's either off, have blinders on and passes the ball to timmy only and a whole bunch of other problems that could spell trouble against OKC and Miami.
Tony is not Blossoming, he's just dominating against a team that's allowing him to dominate..( Not putting Batum on him)
Parker had a mediocre time when Batum started guarding him in the third.
He's a great player, but he's not a top 8 player and should not be depended on to carry a team.
Tony doesn't get anywhere near the proper respect he should, even when he's off he's constantly attacking or trying his hardest. I've never understood this Enrique idea about him, there's no doubt he is a superstar so there are times where he feels he needs to take over. I will never complain with him shooting 2 or 3 straight wide open jumpers, that's his game and he needs to take them. I feel like he generally doesn't take really contested jumpers anyway
Sure - but all that matters is the playoffs. Everyone knew the drill in the regular season. But since game 7 and all 3 games vs POR he's played pretty much perfectly. He played well last year even against MIA against the best MIA has looked IMO, and it almost led to a le.
He will have a tougher time vs OKC/LAC as I have already said, but the fact he is doing a few things different vs the same old strategy bodes well.
Wrong IMO. This thread was not about this series - it was called the "continued blossoming". TP blossomed last year to the tune of almost a le. He's destroying a good match up in POR. All you can do is look at what matters and in only the second series of the playoffs he is playing perfect ball. Many guys get good matchups and don't do what TP has done (especially on defense as well) so far vs POR.
He should dominate this series as mentioned and he is doing so in spectacular fashion at the moment.
Are you fully confident TP can score at will against Bron/Sefolosha/Battier? Although TP has really improved and has been MVParker the last 4 games can he keep this up? Because if not then we're screwed.
He didn't blossom last year tbh...He was the focal Point of a much improved spurs team ( Better shooters, Great defenders etc) of course he's going to look like he blossomed..The guy has always been a Stud, but it wasn't until Pop made an effort to make him the focal point of the offense..That's when he started to look really good in the RS and to a lesser extent the playoff.
He's just being Tony parker..He hasn't really changed much aside from the fact that the offense looks to him more than Manu and timmy so it's easy to see him have a great season when you get a bunch of other guys that are really good at doing what they're doing.
He's dominating this series, but where was he against Miami last year? Dallas this year? Golden state Last year?
He was somewhat OK, but his success is largely dependent on what the opposing team gives him...He;s not a top 8 player in the league...It's just him getting attention from the change in the system.
Spurs Fans should be sucking TP's every chance they get . . . instead, some assholes rip him off whenever he has a bad game (which is not that often, these days).
As I said before, some of you asshoels should be shipped to Charlotte so you can about a team that really deserves the ing . . .
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