Do you think Marco can recover from his late-season/playoff slump tbh

[Chinook]

I think Marco's safe regardless. He took such a huge pay cut to come to San Antonio, that the Spurs wouldn't do him dirty by trading him to a bad team. I almost wish the team gave him the full MLE last year so they could move him with a clean conscience.

[littlecoyotecoin]

of course i do, i mean who doesn't...

I dunno, like 75% of the respondents.

[Raven]

I dunno, like 75% of the respondents.

not spurs fans tbh

[BranderC]

Belli needs to become the new Robert Horry, bouncing from contender to contender, picking up rings. And he has to get another huge, ugly-ass LOB trophy tattoo every time. Big Shot Belli!

[ducks]

everyone year a player on the spurs fails to play well all playoffs marco was it last year
spurs are deep for a reason
they can win with one not playing well for the hole playoffs

[kobyz]

He hit a huge shot in game 3 of Miami series when Spurs blew that huge lead.

That buys him another year.

And because of who we blew that lead?

[Seventyniner]

I think Marco's safe regardless. He took such a huge pay cut to come to San Antonio, that the Spurs wouldn't do him dirty by trading him to a bad team. I almost wish the team gave him the full MLE last year so they could move him with a clean conscience.

That would also have saved the FO an unforced Errors.

[Chinook]

That would also have saved the FO an unforced Errors.

Indeed, there wouldn't be this Ayres of discontent hanging over Spurstalk.

[Baseline]

Marco played more minutes than anybody not named Tim Duncan during the regular season en route to 62 wins. He started 25 games when Green was slumping and others were injured and was key to the Spurs maintaining their momentum.

He shot .430 from three over the course of the season, and .421 during the playoffs. He played great against Portland, including pouring in 19 points in Game 1.

He hit one of the biggest shots of the playoffs during the third quarter of Game 3 when the Heat were making a charging comeback and had whittled the Spurs 21-point halftime lead to 7. The Spurs were spiraling at that point and his shot put the ship back on an even keel.

So yes, I think Marco can recover from the perfectly acceptable season he turned in last year. I know he's never going to be a great defender, but one more year in the system should help cover that up. Otherwise, I'm really not sure what else Spurs fans are hoping for out of det dude Beli. I guess they need a scapegoat even when we win the championship.

Great post. The fact that Marco can get hot at any second was huge for us, and he definitely had asome big moments in the playoffs this year. Let's not forget that this was his first year as a Spur - and we've learned to expect very little from a first year guy. Brent Barry took way longer than that to click in the Spurs' system - so did Steve Smith. So in my opinion, especially considering how many minutes Pop gave him, Marco greatly exceeded expectations in his first year.

[sandman]

He was terrible in the playoffs, incredibly terrible, he put the spurs at severe risk and probably cost them at least a couple of games.

Vince Carter destroyed him. Spurs won the Dallas series when he was benched. And he wasn't that good against Portland, pop had to bench him in the second half of one of those wins because Marco was ruining everything.

I don't think he can be counted on for anything better. He is who he is. He can be a decent regular season player, especially against teams that are lotto or unmotivated. He will still be a liability against well coached teams, but he can eat minutes in the regular season.

Not a Beli apologist, but let's play with real numbers. After that Dallas series, the Spurs went 12-4 with an average margin of victory at almost 20 points. They knew they were probably going to lose the Portland Game 5 because the Blazers were playing not to get swept, and they came within one shot of sweeping the Heat in the Finals. So which couple of games did he cost them? Where were they at severe risk?

Was it the Dallas series when everyone played like crap? Maybe the Game 2 loss to Dallas where he played 29 minutes? Fair enough. But you think his 15 minutes in Game 3 or his FIVE WHOLE MINUTES in Game 6 were the reason the Spurs lost those other two games? Game 2 was the only game in the entire series where he played more than 15 minutes. He only played 54 total minutes in the other 6 games.

And the Portland series? The one where the Spurs average margin of victory was over 21 points per game? Where he went 13-19 in the first three blowout games, including 6-11 from behind the arc? Yeah, that is some horrible play that really put a 35 and 28 point win at severe risk.

C'mon, we all know he is not the best player on this team. But outside of Game 2 against Dallas, you can't point to a single loss or an almost not-win that was heavily influenced by his play.

[BatManu20]

Marco is still my niqqa tbh. People saying he sucks need to kick rocks. Yes, he's a poor defender due mostly to his lack of athleticism, but he played well for us most of the regular season while eating up valuable minutes for Manu. He also came up huge against Portland in the playoffs and hit some big shots against both OKC and Miami. He's got value, especially with the payout he took to come to SA. Give him his due IMO.

[ironman2886]

Belinelli is a skilled player with a year's experience in the Spurs system. I didn't think he was really in a slump anyway. Was this thread warrented?

[timtonymanu]

I'm not a Marco fan. Thankfully the Spurs have enough guys ahead of him in the rotation.

He'll be fine in the regular season though.

[BatManu20]

Belinelli is a skilled player with a year's experience in the Spurs system. I didn't think he was really in a slump anyway. Was this thread warrented?

[littlecoyotecoin]

Indeed, there wouldn't be this Ayres of discontent hanging over Spurstalk.

Bahaha, I thought we had exhausted all the Ayres jokes. Let's keep 'em coming I guess. Poor guy.