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West a starter next to LMA?
Tim is the franchise in a way Manu never was. It's a much bigger deal to bench a GOAT candidate than it is to essentially keep a career sixth man on the bench. You don't do that, especially when that player is still often the best player in the starting unit.
Anyway, it's not obvious that Tim and LMA are an awkward front-court pair, and I don't think recent history has born that out. I do think LMA is an NBA center, but he can play PF, and Tim isn't a space-hogger. No one's refusing to acknowledge that, and if anything, the pairing was wonderful to start the season. So I don't agree with you. But the bench could perhaps best use Tim's skills, and West is still a great starter. On terms of personnel, it wouldn't be bad. But I wouldn't consider it this year. It would be much more appealing to me if this were done next season once they have a better rotation set.
West a starter next to LMA?
We just have to agree to disagree about how awkward the Tim/LMA pairing has been for the entire season, recent history included. But Tim will not be here next season.
Excellent points about the lessons for Kyle and Simmons. Making them guard for some extended play a trash-talking legend who can still bring it on some nights, had to make them grow up some. Despite his much ballyhooed last shot, he still hit his patented fade-away last night. Kyle was on him as well as he could have been on most of those shots.
Rasual/Simmons is a real luxury in that regard, but I doubt that Rasual has enough left in the tank for us to see much of it. Plus, I doubt he makes it back next season. In this regard the future is the next 3 months.
LMA had a career year playing with Robin Lopez who isn't exactly a stretch 5.
The issue is that he is being asked to postup rather than play on the perimeter chucking up jumper.......Pop just needs to stop force feeding Softridge in the post b/c he doesn't want it against legit post defenders.
LMA is 100% better facing the basket. I wish he would mix in some rolls to the bucket, but I am very happy with his PnP role. It's his fade-aways I hate.LMA had a career year playing with Robin Lopez who isn't exactly a stretch 5.
The issue is that he is being asked to postup rather than play on the perimeter chucking up jumper.......Pop just needs to stop force feeding Softridge in the post b/c he doesn't want it against legit post defenders.
Question: where did RoLo line up in Portland's half court schemes? Timmy and LMA are competing for the same spot on the left side post.
Also some of the switching with Kyle seems by design. I saw Manu, Tony and at times Danny ask for switches with him. Sometimes, or often if you want, very often it's Kyle asking for the switch.
That has to be by design. When you see those things happening most of the game it's a green light from Pop to switch, and I am thinking perhaps even part of Anderson's training is to handle the switching. He was switching with Tony unto Chris Paul. It left a few possessions of Tony on Paul Pierce, but as in always in Pop's defenses he's picking his poison. Pop preferred to give the mismatch to Pierce, who's looked done at times, that the C.Paul PnR or penetration and dish, off Tony...
It's even more interesting if you project KA as a 4, bc atm even LMA is switching with some success. Boban unfortunately does it too and he shouldn't... Timmy zones back and doesn't switch giving up open jumpers, so sometimes he appears to not be guarding anyone, he's just preventing a drive. Diaw and West switch too, but West ideally you don't want him to do that. He's reluctant, and usually the switch is in the negative bc Patty is too small to guard effectively anyone. Diaw allowed us to be versatile bc of his switching ability too, but him being so heavy atm has reduced his effectiveness guarding in the perimeter. He switches rarely now and looks to recover back quickly.
Kyle is very versatile, just long and agile enough to handle a perimeter player for a possession, while also long and tall enough to switch onto a big and bother a pass or a shot and discourage a lob. He's in between, neither fast enough that you want him on quick players all the time, nor strong enough that you want him on strong big s all the time. Just gives you enough of not being a huge mismatch in either direction, that he will be able to handle switches better than any other big and that development has value.
He's still a project in that regard bc his switches have also been unsuccessful. But he's been good enough at it, that he switches more often than any other big and seems yo be encouraged to do that by Pop. That is the good aspect of the good tweener. The bad tweener is the one who is neither the 3 nor the 4 adequately (like Blair, too small and heavy and with no perimeter game, etc.) The good tweener, the one that the league is trending towards is the one who can shoot and has a dribble drive/3 pt shot/post up game like a 3, but can switch and guard 4s. I think KA is trending in that direction, or at least it's kind of what I have seen. He's given real minutes at the 3 and 4 in SL with some success. He just needs to add that 3 and some additional strength. If and when he does that we have ourselves a special guy bc he's already very crafty, skilled and with a high BBIQ. I think he's special even as he is, but I am a homer. If he adds the 3 and some additional strength he's for sure a keeper.
RoLo used to set screens for the shooters & crash the offensive boards ala Baynes.
We don't really have a comparable player. Tim is a great screen setter, but he isn't gonna crash the boards anymore. Back before the deadline that was why I had asked you about how Leuer compared to the Plumlee boys. If we could have swung a deal for MCW and Miles P, I might have been on board - just not MCW by himself.
I had to drop this here bc it happened.
https://vine.co/v/irgDgF7xlp5
I missed the game today, so thanks for the link. Nice aggressiveness. Overall how was his game/Spurs' team game?
kinda reminded me of what Manu did to Suns back in '05?
I though he played well. He was subbed from the 2 to the 4 so he showed how versatile he is. I noticed Simmons minutes were reduced and Kyle was at the 2 for a stretch and Simmons wasn't subbed in until later in the second Q. The wing rotation was Danny and Kyle, then Rasual came in for Danny, at that point Kyle was the 2. Then Danny came in for Kyle... and it wasn't until like 5 mins to go in the 2ndQ that Simmons came in, proceeded to get hit with a backdoor cut in the first possession, being faked out and at that point Ray saw a couple of minutes. I can only wonder at that...
It was a very hectic and helter skelter game. PNR destroyed Td and LMA... Kyle didn't have anything to do with that but he shared time with them in some very bad defensive sequences involving Tony, LMA and TD. TD looked awful. Alex Len had a career night against him, so he only played 16 mins, but he struggled on both ends. I think that is the most noteworthy aspect of this game.
Kyle did a good job on post defense using his length and was assigned to several different guys from Goodwin to Teletovich, Leuer, and Tucker. He wasn't backed down on post defense by neither Tucker, nor Teletovich and he frustrated both guys with his length. He blocked two shots defending the post but only got credited with one. I think he needs to be stronger, but he overall did well in post defense which is good to see considering he's still developing that body. Seems to have strong legs despite being slim. He had a few TO in this game. One was in a post entry pass to West who grabbed position in the paint. It was a risky pass anyway bc the guy was covered, but rarely are guys open in the paint, so it is a judgement call on wether to enter it or not. The pass itself wasn't bad, but it was deflected off and picked up. The other TO was after a broken up play, he tried to advance the ball to beat the end of the 3rd Q shot clock and it was picked off but there were about 3 seconds left so it wasn't like there were many options and neither team converted on a shot as the clock ran out... I guess what I am saying is they were not egregious like having a ball picked or anything of the sort or a TO from a post up by him like he's had in the past. He did well all things considered, and really the ball really moved really well when he played. You can tell he's always looking to make plays for others and is very unselfish but he took the shots he had to. Only two assists to him but he set up guys who got fouled and was responsible for some hockey assists that are never credited.
The fact D West only played 13 minutes and TD 16, just tells you the kind of perimeter and fast paced game it was. There were a lot of shooters to close out, and the suns threw zone defenses and pressured the ball, including doubling quickly.
Overall nothing special, but he wasn't bad either. He was guarding in the perimeter a lot thus the rebounding from him wasn't noteworthy, but when he had to, he boxed out. The guy who had a special game was Rasual. He's becoming really the best option against this kind of perimeter team (other than Kawhi that goes w/o saying) bc if you can't play your bigs like it happened in this case, Rasual' s uncanny shot blocking comes in handy. He had by far a better game, although I think Pop likes Kyle. He's earned trust IMO. I don't think we'll see him much once Kawhi gets healthy and he doesn't really fit well with the bench, with his lack of 3 pt shooting but he might see time against perimeter teams when TD is unplayable, which really is a big question mark.
I am sure Kyle would be a rotation player in a different team so next season Pop and RC have some thinking to do.
Last edited by SAGirl; 02-22-2016 at 04:48 PM.
Going to drop this here too bc it is really funny.
http://hoopshype.com/2016/02/22/kyle...nt-believe-it/
Yeah he's grown leaps and bounds from last year. Next year he'll grow even more. His defense is especially better.
Kyle Anderson best game ever as a Spur. 7-8 shooting. 8 rebounds. 2 steals.
He's finally separating himself from Simmons and Boban.
Great game last night. Great basketball IQ. If on any other team he'd have pretty decent stats but his game isn't friendly on the Spurs system unless he's the main distributor
Btb, Kyle is the actual secret weapon for the Spurs. More specifically, his defense is. I like that Pop is playing him at the four more, but he's doing it in a reactionary way. He needs to be proactive in playing Kyle there and forcing teams to adjust to it.
I don't think it is "reactionary" per se, but Pop's gradually gaining confidence in his play and extending his leash. The guy is such a unique talent that Pop has experimented with him in just about every way he could, and he is finally figuring out how he wants to use Kyle. Unlike his detractors here on ST and about 28 other coaches in the league, Pop has been patient. Every other coach in the league (with the possible exception of Bud) would have trotted him out as a traditional 2 or 3 or even 4 and never developed his true potential. Pop has made his experiments and methodically figured out how to best integrate his skill set into the team. Kyle is on his way to becoming an integral part of the Spurs TNG.
Kyle did very well. I just hope he doesn't get a big head.
for real though, I like his confidence.
He's got a smooth shot and seems like a high release that makes it tough to block.
Another great game:
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