The Tony Parker Thread

[dabom]

I wonder what was Enrique's 3point percentage in the playoffs last year.

[ElNono]

You can find people like ElNono stating that Parker doesn't score at the rim any more, hasn't developed a jumper (WTF his jumper has always been good), and probably hasn't developed a 3pt game. Yet he is shooting .498 this season, .406 from 3 (clearly the best of his career and breaking news: over .400 from 3 is quite good). His per36 asists are better than his carer average, his turnovers per36 are the lowest of his career. People say he can't adapt to a reduced tole because of his ego yet he's taking far fewer shots than in the past.

he's taken 64 3s this season. He's not 'transitioning' into a 3 point shooter. Over 90% of his shots are 2P attempts. BTW, the best of his career was last season at .427 (except for the playoffs).

You look at his shooting and where he's taking his shots, and it's in-line with all his career. Paint rules (32%), long 2s (27%)... I didn't say his shooting is bad, but he's not really 'changing' where his shots are coming from.

My main concern with Tony this season has been his struggles in the past couple of months. This is the 2nd season he starts with a bang in November, and by around this time looks completely gassed. And it's worrying because he's one of three people on the team that can handle the ball with any kind of security. I want November Tony back, I just don't know if he's going to be there.

[Obstructed_View]

he's taken 64 3s this season. He's not 'transitioning' into a 3 point shooter. Over 90% of his shots are 2P attempts. BTW, the best of his career was last season at .427 (except for the playoffs).

You look at his shooting and where he's taking his shots, and it's in-line with all his career. Paint rules (32%), long 2s (27%)... I didn't say his shooting is bad, but he's not really 'changing' where his shots are coming from.

My main concern with Tony this season has been his struggles in the past couple of months. This is the 2nd season he starts with a bang in November, and by around this time looks completely gassed. And it's worrying because he's one of three people on the team that can handle the ball with any kind of security. I want November Tony back, I just don't know if he's going to be there.

Mills and Parker are by far the worst PG rotation in the league for assist to turnover ratio.

[Brazil]

Parker is part of the committee and while his biggest flaw (hero ball) is frustrating and can lose you a series, hes there biggest hes experienced at trying to make shots out of nothing when the flow or a set call generates no offense. Hes still valuable. The key for him is to know when not to hero ball and when to take advantage of the opportunuties he gets when teams start reacting to Leonard and aldridge.

Good post that pretty much summarized a bit of everything.

In the fourth agaisnt raptors it has been a one man show to feed the score board... Kawhi went just perfect 3/3 FG, 8/8 FTs and 1 assist... he scored by himself 14 pts over 31 (29 if you don't consider the last FTs by Mills when game was out of reach for Toronto) and assisted a FG for Aldridge. Parker entered with 7 mn to go and scored 6 points 2/4 FG and a couple of FTs, next contributor was Mills with 5 points including those last FTs.

I thought he had quite a bad game untill the fourth but he did a solid job in the fourth when offense was being stagnant and Raptors were pushing to stay in the game.

[will_spurs]

He's not 'transitioning' into a 3 point shooter.

I didn't claim he was "transitioning".

You look at his shooting and where he's taking his shots, and it's in-line with all his career. Paint rules (32%), long 2s (27%)... I didn't say his shooting is bad, but he's not really 'changing' where his shots are coming from.

Well nothing has changed in the Spurs system to let him take any kind of other shots, except the corner 3 from time to time which seems a bit more scripted than his other 3 points attempts. What kind of shots would you want him to take?

My main concern with Tony this season has been his struggles in the past couple of months. This is the 2nd season he starts with a bang in November, and by around this time looks completely gassed. And it's worrying because he's one of three people on the team that can handle the ball with any kind of security. I want November Tony back, I just don't know if he's going to be there.

That's a different narrative

Parker had two main roles so far offensively, apart from bringing the ball up the court (which is still a skill that makes him stand out among Spurs guards ) and it was being in "attack mode" (the whole defense collapsing thing) or running the loop. He's not doing the first much any more, deferring instead to Kawhi-LMA (as explained), although he seems to have good success when doing it (maybe the surprise element as teams aren't really expecting it any more). He still has quite a bit of "burst" in his legs and shows a few times per game but that's obviously not what's being asked of him any longer. And the Spurs don't seem to rely on the loop quite as much as before, so he's just trying to find LMA whenever possible (at which point there are usually 3-4 postgame threads about how he didn't pass the ball to Kawhi).

I understand there are concerns with Parker, and some of them are actually real, but most of them come from some totally unrealistic expectations from fans (or, ahem, "fans"). He's far from useless or washed up, no matter how much some people would like it to be true. Rather we should realize that he's going to be something different every night: sometimes shooting, sometimes passing, sometimes D (like against the Warriors, before the krew jumps on me for putting Parker and D in the same sentence). At this point in his career he could transition to a bench role like Manu EXCEPT the Spurs have no starting caliber PG on the roster. Actually for most of Parker's career they haven't had a 2nd string caliber PG on the roster either.

[Brazil]

definitely a homer and my favorite Spur, tbh, a guy I was fortunate to meet in person many times, but I never put him over the team. When he sucked in 2013, I said so, no excuses, even said he might retire. I never said the foul on Dirk was good D, I simply said the Spurs had more options to win that game after that foul, and that we largely were in that game thanks to Manu in the first place, little things that fans forget over a single play.

I don't hate anybody and I always hope our players do well. I do run some schtick here and there with Parker fans, but they even know it's a schtick (ask Brazil). I want our players to do well, and when I think they're not doing well, I just say it.

Manu just happens to be very, very good, and has done a whole lot of great things for this franchise, even this team this season, which makes it very easy to root for. And I'm hardly alone in that sentiment in here, IMO.

I always said you are by far the best Parker hater on this board and it is not even close tbh... Deep down you dislike Parker for all sort of good and bad reasons but at the very least when you reasonable side is on you are fair and I'm sure you wish Parker do well for the Spurs. Now there are situations when you cannot hold it tbh... then the subtle jabing starts especially when Manu is in the conversation.

I believe that's the main difference between you and me, I genuinely like Manu, I do like the basketball player (Spurs player + the fact he butt ed USA is a +10000 in mybook) but also the man. I do like a lot Argentina, the country, the people, the Argentinean football (Diego is my favorite all time) so I have a lot of very positive vibes with your country bro. That's not the case for you towards neither France nor Parker.

Fans are usually unfair with Parker on a bb perspective or human perspective for also a lot of good and bad reasons... at the end him he does not give a neither Pop and FO give a abouth what fans think... fortunately.

[ElNono]

I didn't claim he was "transitioning".

But that's the point you appear to be responding to. My first post about this in this thread is how difficult will it be for him to transition to a different/lesser role. He's not going to turn into a 3 ball specialist. His jumper, while decent, will never be as good as his bread and butter, which is finishing in the paint. It's not a knock on Tony, it's hard to do something different after so many years. It's not trolling. I haven't even complained about Tony much at all this season, other than particular plays during game threads, which are more in the moment stuff...

And FWIW, about expectations, I totally agree some stuff is crazy. Some peeps also think we should have SuperManu every game. Not going to happen.

[ElNono]

I believe that's the main difference between you and me, I genuinely like Manu, I do like the basketball player (Spurs player + the fact he butt ed USA is a +10000 in mybook) but also the man. I do like a lot Argentina, the country, the people, the Argentinean football (Diego is my favorite all time) so I have a lot of very positive vibes with your country bro. That's not the case for you towards neither France nor Parker.

I actually not only genuinely like France (visited and loved Paris), I even have family there, so that's really not true. Parker the person certainly not my fave, but that's ok, I don't know him or hate him either.

[SAGirl]

Tony was outplayed by Cojo but he was fine deferring to the guys that had it going and the shots he hit in the 4th were needed. It was a bit shocking to our psyche though bc in the past there's is no way he gets outplayed by Cojo. That shock element is probably spawning this criticism.

[RD2191]

Wtf are we talking about?

[Brazil]

His jumper, while decent, will never be as good as his bread and butter, which is finishing in the paint.

wtf is that tbh ? he has in fact one of the most reliable JS in the league... never as good as his lay up is kind of funny too... give me a player that has a better JS than lay up

compare with Manu for instance, Manu career from 3 to 10 is .412 / Parker .460. From 10-16 Manu .392 / Parker .395. From 16 < 3 Manu .395 / Parker .411... So yeah he is not as elite as Chris Paul or Steve Nash but @ "while decent"

[Brazil]

I actually not only genuinely like France (visited and loved Paris), I even have family there, so that's really not true. Parker the person certainly not my fave, but that's ok, I don't know him or hate him either.

point taken about France... the bold part is my point tho... you don't hate but dislike him which is ok but one can feel that on your posts

On a side note, Parker is a good dude... the fact he does not wave towels don't make him a bad person... From people who know him well, you will never hear he is not a good guy.

[Obstructed_View]

His jumper, while decent, will never be as good as his bread and butter, which is finishing in the paint. It's not a knock on Tony,

Yet somehow you manage to make it sound exactly like a knock on Tony. Yes, the fact that he's probably the most reliable midrange shooting guard in the NBA pales in comparison to the fact that he's one of the best paint-scoring guards in the history of the game.

[Brazil]

Yet somehow you manage to make it sound exactly like a knock on Tony. Yes, the fact that he's probably the most reliable midrange shooting guard in the NBA pales in comparison to the fact that he's one of the best paint-scoring guards in the history of the game.

[NameLess Scrub]

Just put him in ice until the 2nd round.

[DMC]

Parker is being cast in an impossible position.

Pop has decided to slow down the pace (will be useful against GSW which is basically the only team Pop cares about) but fans complain he doesn't bring the ball up the court fast enough. Hint: we're not playing SSOL (against the Warriors starters at least). Against the bench the strategy might be quite different depending on whether they can follow a run and gun game or not.

Parker had to adapt from a "head of the snake" role (where he would penetrate and then either score or pass to an open elite 3pt shooter) to assisting a dynamic duo of LMA and Kawhi on a team that suddenly barely has any 3pt shooter worth mentioning. If he defers to them, he's labeled passive, a waste of a roster spot and so on. If he doesn't, he's heroballing. That's an impossible equation, and it would be the same regardless of the PG. Actually any other guy the Spurs put in his shoes as a starter isn't doing any better (or sometimes noticeably worse). You can find people like ElNono stating that Parker doesn't score at the rim any more, hasn't developed a jumper (WTF his jumper has always been good), and probably hasn't developed a 3pt game. Yet he is shooting .498 this season, .406 from 3 (clearly the best of his career and breaking news: over .400 from 3 is quite good). His per36 asists are better than his carer average, his turnovers per36 are the lowest of his career. People say he can't adapt to a reduced tole because of his ego yet he's taking far fewer shots than in the past.

Whatever he does, people here focus only on the negatives. It's easy to build any kind of narrative, however false, this way.

Your take is a bit naive. Pop tells Tony to hurry the up, that's what all the arm waving is for. There's no legitimate offensive game plan that includes dribbling for 17 seconds and turning the ball over, and when you cannot attack the rim or shoot well from outside, your options after 17 seconds with Tim Duncan and Danny Green on the floor are severely limited. If the Spurs are going to run a set, there's absolutely zero reason to start it with 5 seconds or so to shoot.

[will_spurs]

There's no legitimate offensive game plan that includes dribbling for 17 seconds and turning the ball over

That never happens except in the last 2 minutes of games when trying to burn time. You're just trolling.

[coachmac87]

Tony obviously doesn't finish or score in the paint as much as he used to..but his "role" is still extremely needed for the Spurs. Which is ATTACK the paint. Mills isn't w threat pass the elbow and Manu isn't an attacking threat like he used to be.

Parker is the only Spur that can do what he can do.

[gambit1990]

the parker fans in this thread enjoy what you still can cause the more time goes by, the harder it'll be for you.

[SupremeGuy]

lol @ people acting like tony dribbling the ball for twenty seconds and then passing to Kawhi with barely any time left is just him running the offense

That being said, I don't think we'd complain as much if he was playing for the vet min but since we're still paying elite PG money I think everyone just wishes we got more value for the contract.

[will_spurs]

the parker fans in this thread enjoy what you still can cause the more time goes by, the harder it'll be for you.

Must be tough being a player's fan. It's so much better when we can just enjoy watching the Spurs play rather than just one guy.

I think everyone just wishes we got more value for the contract.

No you don't because otherwise you'd just be complaining that he's not deferring enough to the real alphas on the team.

[gambit1990]

Must be tough being a player's fan. It's so much better when we can just enjoy watching the Spurs play rather than just one guy.

i'm not a player fan, i'm a spurs fan. parker dominating the ball does nothing to help us. he is not chris paul. the less tony dominates the ball, the more other players touch the ball.

i want team basketball. not tony parker basketball.

[SupremeGuy]

No you don't because otherwise you'd just be complaining that he's not deferring enough to the real alphas on the team.

What the are you talking about? As long as he's being efficient and isn't killing our offense, I don't care if he scores. It's just when he does his whole dribble routine, is only looking for his own shot, or starts throwing up brick after brick that he starts pissing people off.

[SupremeGuy]

i'm not a player fan, i'm a spurs fan. parker dominating the ball does nothing to help us. he is not chris paul. the less tony dominates the ball, the more other players touch the ball.

i want team basketball. not tony parker basketball.

[gambit1990]

inb4 parker has a good game and then all the erin barrys on this forum act like he's been playing like that all season.