Preseason: Spurs vs Rockets -- Friday (10/23) - NBA TV - 7:30pm CST

[SAGirl]

Diaw, Anderson, Ginobili and Mills..... going to absolutely toy around with opponents. Wait, who's the fifth guy..... Duncan! Stacked!!

The second unit is possibly more fun to watch TBH. I am a sucker for good passing. These guys are incredibly thrilling and creative.

[SAGirl]

Kyle has made a believer out of me this season, but what the is wrong with you. Kyle can never be the 2 way threat that Kawhi is because his defense can never really be anything above passable tbh. That alone makes his ceiling much lower than Kawhis.

Yea, one of the things that generates the most negative attention in this board is fans that feel the need to diminish a team member to prop a favorite player up. (Too much of that going around, Kyle's just the latest apparently, lol)

We should only be so lucky if Kyle continues to improve and him and Kawhi become the real foundation of the team moving forward. Saying that particularly bc they are 24 and 22 yrs old. Kawhi is already a part of the foundation, but the bench will need a centerpiece as well, and a guy who gives the team different looks and switches the dynamic a little bit when he checks into the game. We still have Manu, but moving forward, Kyle has the potential to be that man. These two (Kawhi/Kyle) can be a fun tandem to watch play together for years to come. I also feel like a lot of Kyle's improvement defensively has to come from having teammates such as Kawhi and Danny. I mean, what better wing defenders to learn from? I can only imagine how he's improved his defensive awareness guarding these two in practices as well.

Who knows what Kyle can achieve yet? It is really early in his career and the man has been a winner at every stage. He can only get better from here, so lets all just enjoy our team.

[hater]

Read the second post above yours.

thanks bro

watched it. great outing by our guys

[BillMc]

These might have already been posted, but not going to scroll through the thread to look

[DMC]

It isn't stat keeping time yet, so people like Harden won't be going all out. You won't know what you have until you face teams going all out.

[GSH]

I was at the first pre-season game Danny played in, and I was cheerleading for him when people here were calling for him to be cut. (You can look it up, if you're bored.) But, no, he does not have one of the best contested FG% in the league. And it went way down in 14-15 because teams stopped sagging off him. If you've got a good source that breaks out 2P and 3P contested FG%, post the link. If you're just spouting what you think, take a number.

I'm a HUGE Danny Green fan. But he doesn't drive the ball to the basket well, and he can be taken out of the 3P game. On certain nights, when he's in the zone, he can make them from the parking lot. But closely covering Danny Green is a big part of how Miami won Games 6 & 7 in the Finals.

And if you look at the clips from the Houston game, you'll see that they were giving him space on most of those 3-pointers. If a team does that, he'll torch them. So they won't very often. Its preseason.

That's what the I'm talking about.

[weeks]

why do you guys think west only played 9 minutes? it was the least of anyone on the team. he was 2/3

[SAGirl]

why do you guys think west only played 9 minutes? it was the least of anyone on the team. he was 2/3

He shared minutes with Butler at the 4, who I think was still being tried out b4 cuts were made. Boris played more this time as well, since he needed to get in rhythm.

Houston went perimeter/small for most of the game, and West is being played as a center. He's not mobile enough to defend shooters on the perimeter as a 4, he's too bulky/heavy to come out all the way out there and stop on a dime if they drive on him, so if there isn't a traditional 2 big lineup out there, he's limited to the 5. We had TD, LMA, and Boban play the 5 for most of the game.

Perimeter based Houston (without their bigs --Howard and Montiejunas were out) is not friendly to West. Even a lineup of TD/LMA was used sparingly and not super efective. The best big lineups in that game included Kyle and Boris at the 4 with any combination of TD, LMA or Boban at C.

My .2 $.

[sasaint]

I was at the first pre-season game Danny played in, and I was cheerleading for him when people here were calling for him to be cut. (You can look it up, if you're bored.) But, no, he does not have one of the best contested FG% in the league. And it went way down in 14-15 because teams stopped sagging off him. If you've got a good source that breaks out 2P and 3P contested FG%, post the link. If you're just spouting what you think, take a number.

I'm a HUGE Danny Green fan. But he doesn't drive the ball to the basket well, and he can be taken out of the 3P game. On certain nights, when he's in the zone, he can make them from the parking lot. But closely covering Danny Green is a big part of how Miami won Games 6 & 7 in the Finals.

And if you look at the clips from the Houston game, you'll see that they were giving him space on most of those 3-pointers. If a team does that, he'll torch them. So they won't very often. Its preseason.

That's what the I'm talking about.

I don't have any sources to cite, but your evaluation is consistent with my own eye test. That is why our ball movement will likely be more critical this year than ever. It is also why a return to form by Patty is so critical. It is also why Beli's loss looms so large and finding another reliable 3-point shooter seems so critical. Teams will definitely guard Danny more closely. We need Patty and at least one more 3-point shooter to give him some relief.

[BackHome]

Well good for us that Patty is looking really really good this year.

[GSH]

I don't have any sources to cite, but your evaluation is consistent with my own eye test. That is why our ball movement will likely be more critical this year than ever. It is also why a return to form by Patty is so critical. It is also why Beli's loss looms so large and finding another reliable 3-point shooter seems so critical. Teams will definitely guard Danny more closely. We need Patty and at least one more 3-point shooter to give him some relief.

There are some sources like NBAMiner that claim to have contested FG% stats. I don't know where they get them, or how accurate they are. But the players with the best contested % are mostly bigs. They pretty much always have someone within 4' of them when they shoot. Also, they don't break out 2P and 3P shots, so it still doesn't tell you that much about what we were talking about.

What I do know is that Danny was having a record-setting 3P performance in the playoffs that year. In those last 2 games, Miami put a man on him, and he quit making them. That's not saying anything bad about Danny. The Harden/Kobe-type players can create their own space for a 3P shot, but there aren't many of those. My point was that Danny got a lot of space to shoot in the Houston game. Don't expect it every night.

Sure ball movement is important. But if LMA and West are draining those mid-range shots that they like, it's going to cause defenders to sag, and Danny will get his open looks. Danny could help himself out a lot of he got better at driving the ball and finishing or kicking to another open man.

[Kawhitstorm]

There are some sources like NBAMiner that claim to have contested FG% stats. I don't know where they get them, or how accurate they are. But the players with the best contested % are mostly bigs. They pretty much always have someone within 4' of them when they shoot. Also, they don't break out 2P and 3P shots, so it still doesn't tell you that much about what we were talking about.

What I do know is that Danny was having a record-setting 3P performance in the playoffs that year. In those last 2 games, Miami put a man on him, and he quit making them. That's not saying anything bad about Danny. The Harden/Kobe-type players can create their own space for a 3P shot, but there aren't many of those. My point was that Danny got a lot of space to shoot in the Houston game. Don't expect it every night.

Sure ball movement is important. But if LMA and West are draining those mid-range shots that they like, it's going to cause defenders to sag, and Danny will get his open looks. Danny could help himself out a lot of he got better at driving the ball and finishing or kicking to another open man.

The whole point of putting corner shooters is the discourage defenders from helping when someone breaks down the defense & drives into the paint. Danny not making 3s against Miami in Gm 6/7 had nothing to do w/ the Spurs losing since he prevented Wade from playing help defense. It was the fact that Tony was trash in the final 2 games along w/ Manu having a nightmarish Gm 6 that cost the team a championship. If Tony or Manu were able to breakdown the defense then they would have been able to get into the paint undeterred. Danny's gravity when he isn't making 3s is just as valuable as him making open 3s, it's up to Tony/Kawhi/Manu to take advantage of it.

[jyra]

I was at the first pre-season game Danny played in, and I was cheerleading for him when people here were calling for him to be cut. (You can look it up, if you're bored.) But, no, he does not have one of the best contested FG% in the league. And it went way down in 14-15 because teams stopped sagging off him. If you've got a good source that breaks out 2P and 3P contested FG%, post the link. If you're just spouting what you think, take a number.

The official NBA stats page has these numbers (and a lot more if you dig through it), they are listed under Shots Logs or Tracking Shots:

2014/15
http://stats.nba.com/player/#!/201980/tracking/shots/

2013/14
http://stats.nba.com/player/#!/20198...gular%20Season

You can see that he shot about the same percentage on contested long 2s but was a lot more accurate on contested 3s in 13/14 compared to last season.

[Chinook]

These might have already been posted, but not going to scroll through the thread to look

Rachel Nichols (I'm pretty sure that who's reading the script) did an awful job on those highlights. Her gravely voice is fine for reporting, but it's annoying to listen to it for a long time. Not to mention that whoever balanced out the audio for that video sucks.

[HarlemHeat37]

The whole point of putting corner shooters is the discourage defenders from helping when someone breaks down the defense & drives into the paint. Danny not making 3s against Miami in Gm 6/7 had nothing to do w/ the Spurs losing since he prevented Wade from playing help defense. It was the fact that Tony was trash in the final 2 games along w/ Manu having a nightmarish Gm 6 that cost the team a championship. If Tony or Manu were able to breakdown the defense then they would have been able to get into the paint undeterred. Danny's gravity when he isn't making 3s is just as valuable as him making open 3s, it's up to Tony/Kawhi/Manu to take advantage of it.

Yep..not to mention that it's not a coincidence that Duncan had his best games of the series(by far) when the Heat began focusing on Green outside..

[Chinook]

The whole point of putting corner shooters is the discourage defenders from helping when someone breaks down the defense & drives into the paint. Danny not making 3s against Miami in Gm 6/7 had nothing to do w/ the Spurs losing since he prevented Wade from playing help defense. It was the fact that Tony was trash in the final 2 games along w/ Manu having a nightmarish Gm 6 that cost the team a championship. If Tony or Manu were able to breakdown the defense then they would have been able to get into the paint undeterred. Danny's gravity when he isn't making 3s is just as valuable as him making open 3s, it's up to Tony/Kawhi/Manu to take advantage of it.

Exactly. People don't seem to understand what spacing is. Danny's job is for teams to be so concerned with preventing him from getting shots that it opens up other players. He does that job by having games like the last one where he destroys teams that don't game-plan to stop him. That the Heat made stopping Danny their number-one defensive priority is amazing, especially considering that the rest of the SL had three HoFers and a future fMVP.

The Spurs rarely try to get Danny open looks outside the flow of the offense. If Pop wanted him to score more, he could definitely adjust the team to make that happen. But he's content with having a role-player draw star-level gravity while just standing around.

[apalisoc_9]

Rachel Nichols (I'm pretty sure that who's reading the script) did an awful job on those highlights. Her gravely voice is fine for reporting, but it's annoying to listen to it for a long time. Not to mention that whoever balanced out the audio for that video sucks.

To each their own. I really like her voice.

[Chinook]

To each their own. I really like her voice.

It's fine normally. But she had such little expression during those highlights that it just drug on.

[Kawhitstorm]

Rachel Nichols (I'm pretty sure that who's reading the script) did an awful job on those highlights. Her gravely voice is fine for reporting, but it's annoying to listen to it for a long time. Not to mention that whoever balanced out the audio for that video sucks.

I actually think it's Kristen Ledlow (the tall blond chick that works w/ Grant Hill on Inside the NBA). Nichols works for Turner not NBA TV.

[Chinook]

I actually think it's Kristen Ledlow (the tall blond chick that works w/ Grant Hill on Inside the NBA). Nichols works for Turner not NBA TV.

Could be Ledlow, but Turner owns NBATV.

[DeRozan m8]

NBA highlights usually suck tbh
Too short, don't show enough, etc...

[ace3g]

Coach Popovich: Practice 10/25


Rasual Butler: Practice 10/25


Tony Parker: Practice 10/25

[Mugen]

Rasual seems like a chill guy.

[spursgu]

Loved the things Butler said. He seems very humble and fits perfectly with this team.

[Dex]

Butler seems like classic Spurs material. Quickly becoming a fan of this guy.