DUNC'D ON PODCAST: West nearly better than Pau; Spurs maybe disrespected West?

[tonight...you]

Pau Gasol is 10x the player West is and can actually play center and grab a rebound to save his life

Seriously. Anybody that watched the two players last year could easily see it.
Pau can still carry a team from time to time. West? Uh... yeah, umm.... He's carrying coattails, not teams.

And Pau is what this team needs to replace Tim, not bringing back West. That's just stupid and begging Aldridge to play the very position he loathes.
The hugest thing is Pau is going to be synergistic with the team very quickly. He has such a high B-ball IQ, such a feel for the game (like Manu) that he's going to surprise the team with how well he does with them as quickly as he will.

[Mouth is Bleeding]

Pau Gasol is 10x the player West is and can actually play center and grab a rebound to save his life

One myth that needs to die is that Spurs in general lacked defensive rebounding. For much of the season we had the best defensive rebound rate in the league and we ended up in top 3.

A lot of that is Timmy and it doesn't get much better when it comes to defensive rebounding than him, LMA and Kawhi on the floor together.

Yes, then it all went to against OKC in the playoffs for a variety of reasons, partly of course Timmy not being on the floor for various reasons.

But we should absolutely expect a drop in defensive rebounding with Gasol instead of Timmy. We just have to hope that the overall defense won't drop too much either and the perimeter, system and Gasol himself can somehow hold the fort.

[Spur|n|Austin]

I'll do it after four Baby A's purple margarita's.
Must see podcast...

Too bad they cut you off after, two - sometimes three if you're cool with the waiter.

[tonight...you]

Too bad they cut you off after, two - sometimes three if you're cool with the waiter.

That's when you have someone take you to the other Baby A's... or be friends with the standing manager.
I gots these things worked out, my man!

[coachmac87]

One myth that needs to die is that Spurs in general lacked defensive rebounding. For much of the season we had the best defensive rebound rate in the league and we ended up in top 3.

A lot of that is Timmy and it doesn't get much better when it comes to defensive rebounding than him, LMA and Kawhi on the floor together.


Spurs rebounding hurt on both ends tbh. It's been a major weakness for awhile tho..Spurs are really becoming super late long on the front court especially if we get Boban. If Spurs can really improve their offensive rebounding..our offense would REALLY improve

Yes, then it all went to against OKC in the playoffs for a variety of reasons, partly of course Timmy not being on the floor for various reasons.

But we should absolutely expect a drop in defensive rebounding with Gasol instead of Timmy. We just have to hope that the overall defense won't drop too much either and the perimeter, system and Gasol himself can somehow hold the fort.

Spurs are becoming really long on the front court. Getting rebounding has been a weakness for awhile..especially offensive boards. If we improve that our offense will be a lot better

[Atl Spur]

West hasn't ever been good as Pau Gasol even in his prime........are you guys on dope?!?! Pau just gave a team 46pts and 18rbs last year.............. who on our frontline could do that outside of LMA???? I'll wait for a rational reply.......

[HarlemHeat37]

Pau Gasol is 10x the player West is and can actually play center and grab a rebound to save his life

Of course he's better than West, didn't say anything to the contrary..

[Kawhitstorm]

West was actually really, really good during the RS, tbh..

He was good when he was feasting on backups & teams that weren't scheming against him. Even Blair was effective as a STARTER in the regular season during his first 3 seasons.

The only team that really schemed against him in the regular season were the Duds who absolutely raped him in the paint when he was playing center (he barley played in the game the Spurs won). Kanter also ate his lunch in the season opener & also the final meeting of the season where Boban had to rescue him from getting mauled.

His advanced metric don't pass the eye-test, his DRPM was rated 4th & none other than Amare is 7th.

The post-season is a tougher read, though..he only played 30 minutes or so vs. OKC, he became unplayable, but was that strictly due to matchup? Or exacerbated by elevating his role with Duncan struggling and Diaw being a non-factor?

He was getting outplayed by Scola/Lavoy Allen last season.

These were the results when he played heavy minutes (aka had a LARGE sample size) before he fell off:

Lowest shot Contest Rates Among Frontcourt players, 2013-14

1. David West: 23.4 percent
2. Mike Scott: 23.9 percent
3. Josh McRoberts: 25.1 percent
4. Blake Griffin: 25.3 percent
5. Jeremy Evans: 25.6 percent

He'll thrive in GS..they won't ask for much out of him, he'll be a superior version of Speights

I don't think they need help on offense after they swapped Barnes for Dominos. They need guys who can rebound & protect the rim, D-Worst isn't the guy for that job. He also has brick feet so he's a liability on the perimeter & doesn't take charges or dive for loose balls aka he's isn't a garbage man. He's a very good team defender (he can anticipate plays & communicates well) but he has to play w/ a rim protector at all times (i.e. Hibbert).

Sideshow Bob was playing over Speight b/c they needed a dude that would do the dirty work instead of spread the floor.

As for the Spurs, while I'm not a huge fan of Gasol, he's unquestionably a better shot-creator than David West..the lack of creating outside of Kawhi/Aldridge and the occasional flashes from Parker was very evident vs. OKC..

If you swapped Diaw/D-Worst/Tim w/ Pau, the Spurs would have beaten OKC.

[DMC]

Better doesn't matter. Better fit matters.

[UZER]

I don't defend West, but it's not his fault he had to keep playing next to Diaw, even in the playoffs.

[Atl Spur]

DMC are you serious or are you joking? This isn't really an argument/debate of who is the better fit.......

[Atl Spur]

we need scoring, rebounding, length, and lastly someone that can get us buckets in the half court sets! Posting these little teams up truly helps slow down the game......

[SuperCam]

isn't this the podcast full of warrior suckers? of course they're gonna pump up West since their favorite got team picked him up..

[coachmac87]

isn't this the podcast full of warrior suckers? of course they're gonna pump up West since their favorite got team picked him up..

Exactly. Reason being their podcast is crap

[Kawhitstorm]

West hasn't ever been good as Pau Gasol even in his prime.

I remember David West at his PEAK getting manhandled by Kenyon Martin whose knees were Amare status at that point of his career. Dude is one of those dogs whose bark is the loudest but can't even bite into Styrofoam.

[Solid D]

No comparison between Pau Gasol and David West. The interior defense will improve with Pau and the offense should flow even better than it did with the 67 win Spurs.

[Kawhitstorm]

I don't defend West, but it's not his fault he had to keep playing next to Diaw, even in the playoffs.

Remember when D-Worst started at center against the Warriors & had a train ran on him.

Diaw got the start in the 2nd meeting & the Spurs shut 'em down. (D-Worst didn't even play until garbage time:)

[Kawhitstorm]

For those who don't know, the Dunc'd On Podcast is the new hotness in the media, with two writers who are usually pretty good and fair, but are slight Warriors homers. They've been down on Pau quite harshly for his defense and defensive rebounding and down on him helping the Spurs.

We're talking about the same muphuckas that said Aldridge would be a disaster on defense compared to TiaGoat.

They also said Mozgov should play over Love when the Cavs went down 3-1.

[EIC]

Gasol averaged a double-double and commanded what would have been regarded as a max or near-max deal prior to this free-agent season. What did West do?

[Mikeanaro]

We're talking about the same muphuckas that said Aldridge would be a disaster on defense compared to TiaGoat.

They also said Mozgov should play over Love when the Cavs went down 3-1.

Love was a total loser... until he trapped Curry on that last play lol he made him choke like a pro, now KLove is worth every penny.

[aal04]

I saw it early in the OKC series. West was pissed off. And so was I.

Pop completely misused him. Pop chit the bed most out of all the spurs in the okc series.

From the final whistle he stormed out immediately and i knew he wasnt coming back. I dont blame him because we should have beaten okc. critically acclaimed team USA coach and Pop was just playing far too many ISO plays and poor lineups. Pop was outcoached by a rookie. he was lazy

But having said that, there is no way West is in the same league as Pau. Pau i know can often play with Dirk impact whereas I pictured West as a constant consistent force.

I still think Pau can still be All-nba material in the right situation. Im just sitting on the fence in respect to the way Pop will play him.

[SAGirl]

Part two of the July 5 podcast, about 35 minutes in has the live reaction to the West news. I think these guys are very sharp and put the work into watch and research, but even someone like me who was not thrilled about Pau can't be on board with this.

For those who don't know, the Dunc'd On Podcast is the new hotness in the media, with two writers who are usually pretty good and fair, but are slight Warriors homers. They've been down on Pau quite harshly for his defense and defensive rebounding and down on him helping the Spurs. But I found the West reaction interesting enough to share:



They know about Duncan's likely retirement and still think West is a better fit for the Spurs ... ouch. Funny stuff.

They also expect Boban's qo to be rescinded, so we'll see how sharp they are.

Wait until they see Dwest defense and rebounding TBH. Thanks for sharing.

[Chinook]

My guess is he wanted money, and the Spurs weren't into that. They needed a bench center. As I've said many times, I don't think he would have been a bad starter. But he can't play the five anymore. So if the team can only afford one bench big, it wasn't going to be West. And getting a bona fide offensive player like Gasol should help then quite a bit more than a role-player like West. I wanted a guard, but in the market they had, that was dicey.

[SAGirl]

I saw it early in the OKC series. West was pissed off. And so was I.

Pop completely misused him. Pop chit the bed most out of all the spurs in the okc series.

From the final whistle he stormed out immediately and i knew he wasnt coming back. I dont blame him because we should have beaten okc. critically acclaimed team USA coach and Pop was just playing far too many ISO plays and poor lineups. Pop was outcoached by a rookie. he was lazy

But having said that, there is no way West is in the same league as Pau. Pau i know can often play with Dirk impact whereas I pictured West as a constant consistent force.

I still think Pau can still be All-nba material in the right situation. Im just sitting on the fence in respect to the way Pop will play him.

Pop will have a lot to answer this season. I was in the camp that gave him a pass this summer in dat thread from ElNono, about Pop going senile...
but the reason is that Timmy really fell off a cliff latter part of the season and it felt like he was in fumes giving all he had but he didn't look right. Can't blame Pop when he had relied so much on Timmy and Boban wasn't ready. The reason Boban wasn't ready? Pop precisely having loyalty to Dwest and not playing Boban at Center. DWest practically made Diaw irrelevant if you played Boban.. and Diaw well, he had reason to be coasting at that rate if he didn't play and the man already had a tendency to coast if you left him irrelevant.

But the point I really wanted to make was that there were issues last season, mainly TD's lack of health that were too much for Pop to cover for. This season Pop will have to coach for real. Youngsters even and he can't afford to misuse these youngsters for several reasons: chief among them the youngest ones are in the formative stages of their games. Whatever he has in store for them needs to be unleashed. He needs to maximize what he has now... maybe that includes not featuring Manu as much.

[SAGirl]

My guess is he wanted money, and the Spurs weren't into that. They needed a bench center. As I've said many times, I don't think he would have been a bad starter. But he can't play the five anymore. So if the team can only afford one bench big, it wasn't going to be West. And getting a bona fide offensive player like Gasol should help then quite a bit more than a role-player like West. I wanted a guard, but in the market they had, that was dicey.

Good reasonable post. If we had to pay market or near market price for a big it had to be 7 ft bc the loss of Duncan was really what did us in. A TD from 2015 playoffs shows up and we are telling a different story.