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interesting read.
"An opposing NBA coach, speaking on the condition of anonymity, shares his insight on the Spurs and Oklahoma City entering the Western Conference Finals."
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursna...-an-nba-coach/
interesting read.
I'm impressed with how nuanced and accurate his assessment of Leonard is. He's absolutely on point. It's as though he's seen all or at least most spurs games this season.
I don't know why he thinks Beli would guard Jackson, though. That would be about the worst move Pop could make. He also thinks Green has trouble guarding PGs, which is quite a weird thing to say. I also don't know if I've ever seen Leonard take a pull-up three in transition. He takes pull-up twos on the break and spots up at three, but he almost always tries to get to the rim whenever he has the ball.
I'm going with Monty Williams as the anonymous coach.
Carlisle?
what makes u say that.
Carlisle makes sense. He just had finished scheming against San Antonio in round 1 which would explain why this coach's takes are so on point.
Too concise to be Mike Brown or Avery, IMO...
He was pretty accurate, but obviously it was not like he full on scouted the Spurs. Danny normally does well against PG's (even elite ones like CP3) and I think he meant Danny who takes pull up transition 3's instead of Kawhi. I would imagine TP guards Westbrook for decent portions, which allows Kawhi to guard Durant and Danny to guard Reggie. The biggest issue is Westbrook and Durant will play 45-48 minutes every game so who's guarding them those times TP is not?
You could also put TP on Reggie and Danny on Westbrook. Obviously, Manu has an opportunity to be huge, but I don't trust him Reggie let alone Westbrook.
The whole time I was reading that I was thinking "Bud"
I'm on the Kawhi-Durant, Green-Westbrook, Tony resting on Sefolosha wagon to start the game... but that made a lot more sense when OKC started big. Not sure what they're going to do now without Abaka...
However, Danny seems to be better at guarding the pass first PG's. A guy like Westbrook who likes to truly attack/shoot will be a much more difficult task. Danny did well on Curry, but Westbrook is a lot more athletic.
Well, with the results you saw against POR where TP did a fantastic job of guarding Lillard while still dominating on offense, it lead to an unreal advantage for SA because one of your top 2 perimeter defenders can now guard an "other" and really keep them from doing damage which is big against OKC..
I think there's a few major differences from that series to this one. For one, there's no penalty for resting Tony on Sefo. He's primarily out there to stretch the floor from 3. There's no post-game he can punish you with, and at most you're looking at backdoor cuts. Another issue here is that Westbrook is amongst the top foul drawing guards in the NBA. You don't want to get into a situation where Tony gets in foul trouble early, that would be a major issue for the Spurs.
Lastly, Tony is banged up. Even if he's recovered now, you don't want to unnecessarily risk him chasing around a quick guy like Westbrook.
Just my 2c.
Last edited by ElNono; 05-18-2014 at 08:43 PM. Reason: typo
Got a Doug Collins vibe out of that article.
Good one BTW.
Danny did well on Monta generally in the 1st round. He's closer to the kind of attack Westbrook has.
Oh, I agree, I was just pointing out that if TP could manage that for stretches that it's a huge win for SA defensively. It would be unreasonable to expect that however.
I don't see how that doesn't happen unless Brooks starts Jackson for Ibaka. I think that whenever OKC runs with Jackson/Westbrook and Durant, Green will get the assignment on Reggie and Parker will "rest" on Westbrook. As awesome as Russ is athletically, he's really not that tough of a cover, since there's not much you can do to shut him down. You just give him space and let him shoot. Anyone can do that. The rest is up to the bigs.
I think that's because pass-first PGs are just easier to guard in general. Danny was fine guarding Wall/Lin (back when that was an accomplishment)/Ellis. As I said to Nono, of course you can't really stop Russ. But Green can take some parts of his game away. Danny has the length to contest shots without fouling and get back into the play when he's beaten. Him having the size advantage over Jackson (whereas he's about the same size as Westbrook) is why I prefer Green to guard Reggie.
I have to imagine Scott starts Westbrook/Thabo/Durant/Adams/Perkins. Then you see a healthy dose of Westbrook/Reggie/Caron or Thabo/Durant/Adams or Collison with the latter being more of a concern.
Maybe he has Kawhi confused with all the other Spurs who like to pull up for 3 on the break: Green, Manu, Belinelli, Mills, and of course Neal from last year.
I agree; I would rather Danny shut down Reggie. You can survive Westbrook - if you manage to take out Reggie who has to be their 3rd option now, that is a big win. Danny is best equipped to do that.
My biggest concern is wearing out Tony on the screens. Obviously, if Reggie and Westbrook are out there at the same time, there's not much you can do about it, both are likely going to get screens to drive. That's why I said "to start the game" and mostly when Sefo is on the floor.
He might surprise us all by benching Perkins and playing Adams and Collison together. Adams may have decent mobility for a center, but the Thunder aren't going to be mobile enough to stop penetration if they play two fives. Not to mention the Spurs have the size to counter a two-C lineup as it is, an neither Perk nor Adams can space the floor. If Brooks starts them, he makes the Spurs' main burden of keeping Russ and KD out of the paint so much easier.
I'd say there's a 90% chance Collison starts.
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