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Solid takes, keep doing it if u have time...
State of the Spurs
The Spurs arrived to this game versus the Timberwolves after a solid win on the road against the new alleged superteam in the the league, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Undermanned, struggling with the 3 point shot and and with an unconvincing offense, the Spurs have been relying in their surprisingly solid defense to build a 7-4 record to start the season. The Timberwolves are currently undergoing their own injury woes (Rubio, Pekovic, Martin and Young all out), so this seemed like a good game to iron out some of the offensive struggles, and in that sense, the Spurs did not disappoint. While tonight’s rival was extremely limited, the Spurs took a step in the right direction. They’ve played some games previously where they dropped down to the level of the compe ion, but tonight, starting with Tony Parker, there was not going to be any of that.
The Starters
Tony Parker: A+ Tony came out extremely aggressive from the opening whistle. He took 5 of the Spurs’ first 10 shots, converting 3. Whether it was an easy or difficult finish around the basket, the floater, inside or outside the 3 point line, Tony was dominating whoever was in front of him. With Cojo going down in the 1st half, Tony came out extremely aggressive again at the half, and was extremely important for the Spurs to build their 20+ lead during that period. His defense resembled the last few games, which is improved. Mo Williams is a player that’s nearly unstoppable in the regular season anyways. Perhaps what’s most impressive on Tony’s night, is that he did all of that in just 25 mins.
Tim Duncan: B+ Tim only logged 22 mins, only took 3 shots (made all of them), but he produced well (9 and 10, 4 blocks). His defense against Dieng wasn’t the greatest, but he did a solid job manning the middle. Another day at the office for Tim.
Boris Diaw: B+ I thought this was one of the better Boris games. He started the game knocking down a 3 pointer, a good sign after passing up some open shots in prior games. He boarded well, which isn’t necessarily his strength, shot extremely efficiently (5-7), and overall made good decisions. He also ran the point against the Wolves scrubs in garbage time, and he did that well too. The only knock on his night is the 3 turnovers, but all of our bigs more or less had the same problem tonight.
Kawhi Leonard: B- His shot selection wasn’t very good on a night where he took the 2nd most shots in the team. Some of his decisions on offense lead to turnovers (team high 4), and he uncharacteristically did not rebound well (2 boards). All that said, he was excellent on defense, and the Spurs’ overall defense improve with his presence on the floor.
Danny Green: A Danny had a great night. His solid defense was there and then some (4 blocks tonight), but he finally found his stroke from the 3 point line, and it was such a great sight to see. Due to Corey getting hurt, he also logged the most minutes tonight (35), and when he was the most senior player in garbage time, I thought he showed leadership and good play making (3 assist). While it’s unreasonable to expect him to score 18 pts every night, if he can get his 3 point shooting at his averages for last season, it completely changes the complexion of the Spurs offense.
The Bench
Corey Joseph: C+ He only played 7 mins, but the Spurs struggled to get into their sets when he was running the offense. This was a night where he wasn’t as aggressive as his better games this season. He was diagnosed with a mild ankle sprain, and hopefully it doesn’t keep him away from the court for long, as the Spurs could use the extra body, plus he seemed to be finally getting the handle on his role on the team.
Manu Ginobili: C+ Manu had a modest game. He’s still struggling with his shot, even though he’s not taking many. He opened up with a 3 point make, but that would turn out to be his only basket. His playmaking was there (4 assists), but nothing flashy. He only played 18 mins, as the game got out of hand early in the 3rd quarter.
Aron Baynes: B The big banger had one of his better games of the season. He rebounded well, and eventually padded his scoring stats in garbage time, but while the game was still compe ive, I thought he gave us good minutes. Nothing otherworldly, but at his talent level, if he can provide this kind of performances, you have to be satisfied.
Marco Belinelli: B+ Marco was on a time limit (10 mins) coming back from injury, and he looked good. He hit the two shots he took, including an and1 on the second one, and I thought his chemistry with Gino, the ball movement when the two are out there, was great to see. He left to the locker room after his second stint on the court, but apparently just to work out in a stationary bike.
The Rest
Austin Daye: D+ He got the looks, but until garbage time, he couldn’t knock them down. While he rebounded well (team high 11), he needs to show the coaching staff that he’s a better option than Bonner on the floor, but unfortunately he has not so far. He took the 3rd most shots in the team tonight (11), and only knocked down 4. The Spurs will still use his body while we have guys hurt, but time is running out for Austin to earn more than spot minutes on the team’s rotation.
Kyle Anderson: C The Spurs’ real life bobblehead, and apparently human victory cigar this season had a quiet game. He was the only Spurs besides the injured Corey Joseph that did not score tonight. He’s clearly still not trying to do too much, and soaking up minutes of experience is always a plus for a rookie.
Jeff Ayres: C Also fairly quiet night for Jeff in his 12 minutes on the court. He battled a bit in garbage time, but nothing noteworthy, for good or bad. At this point Baynes seemingly has won over his spot on the rotation, but it’s a long season, he’ll get more opportunities to prove if he should have his backup spot back during the regular season.
Pop: A He kept the minutes to a minimum for the older guys and Kawhi, and despite the Wolves mounting a few comeback attempts, this game was over midway through the 3rd quarter.
As an out of towner I don't get to see many games and used to depend on TIMVP's recaps. Since he is now long gone I will be following your recaps from now on and sure do appreciate them.
Thanks El Nono
Thanks for the grades! When Tony got to 28 I was wondering, who was the last Spur to score 30 or more? I'm guessing it was Tony.
Thanks.
Oi man, why you give Enrique an A+? Just kidding, thanks.
Thanks for the kind words. I'll write when I can, tbh... takes time and feels like work sometimes.
Good write-up; know how tedious it can be during these worthless games so I appreciate the effort. Agree on all fronts for the most part. One thing I noticed about Daye is that he's actually not a bad defender in certain situations, just his help defense is atrocious; doesn't help he can't make a shot to save his life. If he can become a passable shooter he has a place in the system. He's running out of time quickly tho.
Lol
Good write-up, tbh..
Great game from TP9, my ..
Thanks ElNono
Thank you!
Anderson and Errors weren't really better than Daye, but other then that
Perfect game against a crappy team to heat up the offense and the 3s... Low minutes for the starters, solid minutes for our bench, Beli returns... Good night
hope cojo' si jury is not serious
Daye write up was spot on. Dude was in Kirby mode before the 4th; he was a black hole when he got the ball. But he did rebound ok, which was his only saving grace.
Oh and thanks nono... Good read
Good job. I appreciate the effort whenever anyone does one of these. They add to the discussion and they do require quite a bit of work.
Thanks, great read!
Agreed w/ pretty much everything especially Kawhi. His playmaking regressed from the Cleveland game and settled too much for long Js. Him and TP need to figure out how to both be effective at the same time over the course of this reg season tbh.
Thanks for write-up, E-N. It is NOT easy to write one of these things when the game is not overly interesting, and it always represents a lot of work, regardless of how interesting the game is/was.
Couldn't agree more with virtually every one of your takes. Most especially your comment that we have to evaluate Baynes' work in the context of his talent level. Well observed and cogently stated.
Also agree totally with the Daye thing. I noticed in this morning's local paper that they were lauding Daye's double-double, and I could hardly believe it. Admittedly I didn't watch the end of the game, but I thought he just looked horrible out there, and thought to myself "He is not doing himself any favors out there with the coaches or his teammates. Again and again I saw Tony and/or Manu pass him the ball for an open shot, and he just kept missing and missing. His rebounding is not as bad as his offense, but then it would be hard to be worse than his offense.
All in all, enjoyable to read. Thanks again.
These types of games allow us to view the mind of Pop imo.
Of huge significance imo was again playing Danny Green, a starter, at PG during junk time.
Green is actually improving yet again in by far the weakest area of his game, ball handling.
Pop has not given up on Green. I would have. It was obvious to me Green was told not to put the ball on the floor unless absolutely necessary last season. I thought this was our team, always have two good ball handlers in crunch time if Green is in the game. This limited our ability to rotate players and play certain lineups. Pop appears to want to rectify this situation.
Thanks EN, well done.
What's going on with Parker's 3 ball?he's leading the league at 68% (13/19) I thought it was just fluky at the start of the season but this is getting ridiculous.
Oh, and Nono again shows why this board is still worthy without much oversite.
Interesting takes in almost every forum I read.
Daye was NOT the worst player on the Spurs last night as your grade would indicate.
1. Eleven rebounds is a very good night for ANYONE on our team, but especially for a bench player. On one FT attempt he skied from the baseline on a long rebound and got it with one hand near the free throw line. However, some folks here referred to his rebounding effort as "OK" and only "better than his [terrible] offense" while Diaw was praised for his rebounding (properly so) with far fewer.
2. His one on one defense isn't perfect, but not bad. He's still learning the defensive rotations and game experience is going to help with that.
3. His shooting is still suspect and I think he will have to do better than 4/11. However, I don't think it matters whether his shots fall during garbage time since that's when his minutes are concentrated.
This forum is full of folks who remind me of child abusers. They pick out one child and abuse him while ignoring the others. Why don't we look for good things and improvements in our individual players, especially the supporting troops. If they were up to the standards of the starters, they'd be starting.
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