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Yes. The Spurs are going to miss competent bigs at times this season. I'm just hoping Pop tries to play to the strengths of the roster he has rather than trying to force the current guys to play the same old game.
True. He did not seem to care last year about his performance. Didn't look like he was in shape. His play on court tailed off last year IMO. I always thought he might be sulking because we brought in West and that took some of his minutes. The more he didn't play, the more his at ude sucked and the more his play deteriorated.
All that being said, I will always love the way he played previously and the work he accomplished in our Championship season. That will indeed be missed.
Yes. The Spurs are going to miss competent bigs at times this season. I'm just hoping Pop tries to play to the strengths of the roster he has rather than trying to force the current guys to play the same old game.
We've missed Diaw since he disappeared after 2014. Unfortunately for us it took two years for Spurs to realize it
Competent bigs?
We have Aldridge / Gasol / Lee / Dedmon....I know Dedmon is young and Lee is somewhat of a reclamation project, but that seems like a pretty solid front-line to me. Most teams would love to have that combo.
The one real question mark is how much time Anderson will see at the 4, which may or may not even factor into this equation.
did not know you were part of this krew tbh... disappointingtruthbomb tbh
vai tomar no cul
Yes, there will be times when only three of those four will be available to play, and there will be times when Dedmon regresses to his foul-happy play (and I only say "regresses" because I'm projecting him to be improved on that end; only looking at last year, he'd be likely to be a foul-machine). And you can make the argument that the Spurs have four centers and four SFs while having no PFs, though I think that isn't likely.
Personally, if the Spurs are going to start Gasol and LMA, I hope they go with a Mills, Manu, wing (an actualized Garino would be perfect here), Anderson and Dedmon bench. Then having Lee as the 11th man should be pretty strong center depth with LJC and Bertans being prospects for PF depth. But if Pop starts Dedmon and plays Lee, then, yeah, the team will be hurting for competent bigs.
Agreed....excellent take.
sorry bro, you guys got rid of the wrong french fatty tho
I think we may see Bertans at the 4 as well.
Or fit square pegs into round holes, which he has been excelling at lately. I can give multiple examples just on last season alone.
I wouldn't mind to start the season with a Mills, Manu, Anderson or Bertrans, Lee and Dedmon bench and see how we go from there...
Me too. It's actually what he said he would play. We shall see if Pop changes his mind or not.
No one could successfully argue this
Of course you can. Lee, Gasol and Dedmon are obviously centers while Kawhi is an obvious small-forward. So now you're down to showing LMA isn't really a PF (which will eventually be true as he ages) while Anderson is too skinny to play PF and Bertans and LJC are too inexperienced in addition to being too skinny.
, there were already people complaining about the lack of PFs before Lee, and anyone who's bothered to look him up knows he's not a PF anymore
They won't miss 2016 Diaw or West. They won't miss post AS break 2016 Duncan either.
Duncan will still be very involved and around the team to provide some leadership still.
Aldridge will be better and more comfortable in his 2nd year.
Gasol will be an improvement over the Duncan we saw last year when it mattered.
Dedmon will have a bigger impact on the ball movement and offense than West ever could last year-- mainly because the diving action with an effective roller opens up the weakside action so much more than the pick and pop action (I've elaborated so much on this on ST and twitter this summer). He'll also provide some solid interior D, more so than West ever could. Dedmons' skill set on both ends were needed desperately, and even though his stats won't be eye popping, his skill sets will make a very positive impact on the team -- a lot more than West did.
As of now, Anderson and Lee will compete for limited minutes at the PF. Anderson will also compete with Bertans and Simmons for minutes at the SF.
Gasol and Aldridge should see 60-65 minutes per game, more so than last years' starters in Duncan/Aldridge because Gasol is more capable of putting in more time on the court than 39 year old Duncan (Gasol played 32 mpg last yr). Dedmon should also see around 15-18 minutes per game, that leaves a little for Anderson and Lee to fight for. Sure there will be times when Gasol or Aldridge take a game off and rest, or there will be blowouts and Lee or Anderson should get more time in those scenarios. However, when it matters, I think you'll see Pop go to a three big rotation of Gasol, Aldridge and Dedmon with Kawhi getting some minutes at the PF if the situation calls for it.
Overall, the Spurs will be in much better shape in the front-court this upcoming season. This team will be better, maybe not from a win/loss perspective in the regular season but this upcoming group should have a much better end product once the playoffs roll around.
Last edited by MaNu4Tres; 08-31-2016 at 08:05 AM.
When the "good" Boris knocked down 3's, the Spurs had a big man who can shoot/spread the floor.
Hopefully Pau can make those shots, it would give the Spurs more versatility on offense.
When you think that all Spurs' main scorers are front-court players...options from the perimeter are welcome.
I don't know how Boris got worse and more reluctant from 3. In 2014 playoffs he probably should've a 38% clip. No bad but respectable. He stopped shooting them for no ing reason. I mean he wasn't even attempting threes at all. Very strange.
Agree. Pop wanted to exploit the mismatch-advantage in the post with Boris over smaller defenders, especially against Warriors. But we missed his shooting against OKC, it would have helped LMA's offense in the last games of the series.
He was a huge disappointment throughout the season and a ghost in the playoffs, but I'm going to miss his deft passing and chemistry with both Manu & Tony. I'll miss the absolute uniqueness of the Big Croissant's game especially down on the block.
Hopefully, Kyle added some muscle/weight to his frame and can mitigate some of the impact of losing Bobo. Although, as you can clearly see from the highlight reel that he probably won't have that exact same skillset. His low post game is nowhere near as advanced as Boris'.
Last edited by J_Paco; 08-31-2016 at 11:33 AM.
I agree here that there is a possibility that Spurs front court is better than last years.
Duncan by the second half of the season was not contributing. Diaw was not aggressive enough. West was a liability in defense.
... vs ...
Pau has a better offensive game and can hit the 3. Pau may be better than Duncan and Diaw combined! Dedmon should be able to put up better defense that West. Lee is probably as good as Diaw in the post (can't say the same about spreading the floor).
will miss diaw
but excited that west isn't here anymore
and that gasol, an all time great imo will be a spur
Pop's trump card has to include some changes and innovation. He has to play some of his "PF"--who are very unorthodox--to their strengths. The league is changing. Have Bertans be running big guys off screens like a big Kyle Korver. Tire the out of guys like Diaw, D west, et all. Those guys cannot ever keep up with a Bertans. They will need to be ran off the court. POP has to present problems like that to other coaches at this point instead of the same old . Then on the other end they have to blitz and deny passes to these dudes etc. D west doesn't even like to post up. He's a PnP midrange dude, very weak game for a guy whose only advantage at this point is his strength.
The only area of concern really is the boards. If Bertans cannot box out and rebound he's in trouble. I know Kyle can, unless the dude is a behemoth, but we shall see. There are some behemoths out there so I am sure Pop will have to adjust lineups at times. But really Pop needs to be creative and feature his guys at this point. If he's having Bertans be a Bonner 2.0 and Kyle stand in a corner like a 3 and D dude with a limited offensive game then he doesn't deserve to coach them. You can just give him Garino and bring back Bonner and it would be the same and that team is not going places.
If Pop is not maximizing what KA and Bertans can do, the team isn't going anywhere. POP won't deserve to win a championship and he won't do it like that. It would be disappointing to see such a lack of creativity.
Imagine Kerr trying to fit Draymond, who was a "tweener" who couldn't shoot worth a lick when he came into the league into Pop's square system. If it's not bc Draymond is placed in a spot to do what he does best he would be but a roleplayer and not a very good one. An uncreative coach would have forced him to a 3 and D kind of style and would have completely wasted him. That's maybe why Raymond is not a traditional star, but placed in spots to do what he does well he can help a coach win games and kill other teams. That's all that matters.
Anyways, Pop hasn't been maximizing his young talent at this point and he won't if he keeps them in an anticuated system.... Not sure if if was ceperez or who that was, who was criticizing Messinas lack of offensive creativity. Pops needs to move on too and start thinking outside the box how he's going to use both Bertans and Anderson. They can be better options than Lee if they are used correctly, but if Pop wants to stay traditional he deserves what he gets and probably doesn't deserve the talent he's been given with these two. He has reformed his system over the years and needs to do so again. We shall see. I am not holding my breath though .
Despite his physical tools, Aldridge is more of a power forward, offensively and defensively. As he ages, post Gasol, they might pair him with a Splitter/Oberto type center, that has enough mobility to defend power forwards. But if Garnett and especially Nowitzki, can remain power forwards (Garnett played a lot of center out of necessity for his respective teams from '12-'14) through their late 30's, then Aldridge probably can too.
Besides, move all these types of power forwards to center and they'll be a shortage of starting power forwards and even more of an overload of centers than their already is.
Outside of Aldridge, Lee is more of a center offensively, but more of a power forward defensively.
Jean-Charles may not be a true power forward, but he'll be classified as one by default. He's probably more of a center offensively and more of a combo forward defensively though.
Because as he got bigger, his game went inside. Also, being older, he didn't have the legs he had. Making threes at a high clip requires a routine. Ray Allen wasn't shooting however many hundred threes a day b/c he just liked it that much.
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