Is Murray Ready?

[PopTheGOAT]

Spurs just need to get Murray rolling before LMA is incapable of being the no. 2/3 option

[8FOR!3]

He deserves a chance for some regular rotation minutes, but quite frankly I don't trust Pop to do it. This place will go ape when he gets nailed to the bench with "DNP coaches decision" with no explanation and no questions from the local media.

Questions from the local media? Probably bc they don't want to get yelled at for "trying to do Pop's job"

[BillMc]

He has an advanced transition game which should get him a few points against anyone..

Agreed. He has such a nice transition game that I'd love to be in practice and watch Murray vs Green transition o vs d. That'd be fun.

[MultiTroll]

but he has show the ability to make an impact in limited action. Thoughts?

Is Pop ready?

[Strategic]

Only if Parker or Mills have injuries will be get much burn this year.

[td4mvp21]

Not sure but he should be getting steady minutes. I'd like for him to start until Parker gets back and then eat Patty's minutes, assuming Murray continues to impress.

[cd98]

I disliked the Murray pick, but I was also at the game, the "Cavs giving him shots" is totally false. He finished contested shots in the paint and attacked the rim which is exactly what SA needs. He made a dumb decision to turn his back to the basket dribbling and got it stolen, but that wasn't as stupid as KL picked up dribble in a trap spot in the final seconds of the game.

Danny Green is worthless, and Manu looks really old. Manu is my favorite Spur of all time, but some times it gets really ugly when he doesn't attack. I'm ready to see a healthy dose of Bertans and Murray.


Coaching was abysmal last night.

In the half court, Murray spent all his time on the weak side and never saw the ball after bringing it up. On the weak side, Cavs were about 5 feet away. Again, it's the weak side so defenders to give some space, but less so to shooters like Patty and Green that saw almost no space on the weak side. The one time Murray did get a pass in the half court, LeBron gave him 5 feet of space and Murray got a floater up before LeBron could get there. It was a nice shot, but if he's been Kawhi, he wouldn't of had that kind of space.

in the second quarter he had some nice one player fast breaks. Sure he got them on Kyrie and Love, two bad defenders, but impressive nonetheless. His play in the open court was his pro skill coming into the league, so he uses his dribbling ability and length to finish before defenses get set. Tony used to do the same, but with speed, but I'm not sure Parker has that gear.

Of note, after he scored on Kyrie and pulled that stare down act, Kyrie scored 5 straight points on him and then picked his pocket in the open court and lopped to Thompson for a dunk. That led to the bench. He got benched again after he got picked by Shumpert. That sums up where he is now. If he gets in the open court, he's at his best. If he can hit open shots like he did against the Nuggets, he can carve out a role. But getting picked off twice in the open court leading to dunks will get you benched. If he is not reliable in bringing the ball up, he won't get minutes in crunch time. Until he cleans that up and changes his at ude about his compe ors, he'll be well behind Parker and Mills in any important game or crunch time.

[LaMarcus Bryant]

well played

[MaNu4Tres]

In the half court, Murray spent all his time on the weak side and never saw the ball after bringing it up. On the weak side, Cavs were about 5 feet away. Again, it's the weak side so defenders to give some space, but less so to shooters like Patty and Green that saw almost no space on the weak side. The one time Murray did get a pass in the half court, LeBron gave him 5 feet of space and Murray got a floater up before LeBron could get there. It was a nice shot, but if he's been Kawhi, he wouldn't of had that kind of space.

in the second quarter he had some nice one player fast breaks. Sure he got them on Kyrie and Love, two bad defenders, but impressive nonetheless. His play in the open court was his pro skill coming into the league, so he uses his dribbling ability and length to finish before defenses get set. Tony used to do the same, but with speed, but I'm not sure Parker has that gear.

Of note, after he scored on Kyrie and pulled that stare down act, Kyrie scored 5 straight points on him and then picked his pocket in the open court and lopped to Thompson for a dunk. That led to the bench. He got benched again after he got picked by Shumpert. That sums up where he is now. If he gets in the open court, he's at his best. If he can hit open shots like he did against the Nuggets, he can carve out a role. But getting picked off twice in the open court leading to dunks will get you benched. If he is not reliable in bringing the ball up, he won't get minutes in crunch time. Until he cleans that up and changes his at ude about his compe ors, he'll be well behind Parker and Mills in any important game or crunch time.

Just try to find anything you can to turn into a negative when the kid goes for 24 and 14 in back to back games shooting over 65% and impressing everyone, including national media.

You're pretty pathetic.

[apalisoc_9]

In the half court, Murray spent all his time on the weak side and never saw the ball after bringing it up. On the weak side, Cavs were about 5 feet away. Again, it's the weak side so defenders to give some space, but less so to shooters like Patty and Green that saw almost no space on the weak side. The one time Murray did get a pass in the half court, LeBron gave him 5 feet of space and Murray got a floater up before LeBron could get there. It was a nice shot, but if he's been Kawhi, he wouldn't of had that kind of space.

in the second quarter he had some nice one player fast breaks. Sure he got them on Kyrie and Love, two bad defenders, but impressive nonetheless. His play in the open court was his pro skill coming into the league, so he uses his dribbling ability and length to finish before defenses get set. Tony used to do the same, but with speed, but I'm not sure Parker has that gear.

Of note, after he scored on Kyrie and pulled that stare down act, Kyrie scored 5 straight points on him and then picked his pocket in the open court and lopped to Thompson for a dunk. That led to the bench. He got benched again after he got picked by Shumpert. That sums up where he is now. If he gets in the open court, he's at his best. If he can hit open shots like he did against the Nuggets, he can carve out a role. But getting picked off twice in the open court leading to dunks will get you benched. If he is not reliable in bringing the ball up, he won't get minutes in crunch time. Until he cleans that up and changes his at ude about his compe ors, he'll be well behind Parker and Mills in any important game or crunch time.

You're missing whole plot of Player development.

19 year olds make mistakes, actually, they make tons of them snd they are naturally going to look incompetent in many areas. The point of evaluating 19-20 year olds is to realize the damage they can do on the court and work on some apparent weaknesses.

As a 20 year old 29th pick, he's got an impressive burst that can provide San Antonio with that needed penetration gravity as Parker declines even more...

It was an impreesive game simply for the reason that he was able to show his talents in a tightly contested game against a top team.

Of course he got scored by Kyire. Kyrie is like the best one on one PG in the league. He scores like 2 or three straight on virtually every guard in the league. Can't expect a rookie to stop that.

[LaMarcus Bryant]

anybody got video clip of Dejounte mean muggin Irving???

[apalisoc_9]

People should really concentrate more on Strenghts and potential when talking about rookies. It's alwayd going to be about what they can potentially provide for their respective teams.

Unless you're Micheal Jordan, Tim Duncan or Lebron James..Your first year is going to ve riddled with ty games and a lot of apparebt weaknesses..Weaknesss that will fade as players progress with their careers.

That's why an open mind, character and hard work is importabt when recruiting rookies as cliche as that sounds. Anderson was picked for having character and Murray and Leonard are both hard working guys.

[GSH]

You're missing whole plot of Player development.

19 year olds make mistakes, actually, they make tons of them snd they are naturally going to look incompetent in many areas. The point of evaluating 19-20 year olds is to realize the damage they can do on the court and work on some apparent weaknesses.

As a 20 year old 29th pick, he's got an impressive burst that can provide San Antonio with that needed penetration gravity as Parker declines even more...

It was an impreesive game simply for the reason that he was able to show his talents in a tightly contested game against a top team.

Of course he got scored by Kyire. Kyrie is like the best one on one PG in the league. He scores like 2 or three straight on virtually every guard in the league. Can't expect a rookie to stop that.

Tony was the 28th pick, and was starting on this team at 19. If I remember right, the night he won his first championship he was still 20, because he wasn't old enough to legally go to a club and drink after the game.

And, yeah, if having Kyrie Irving score on you meant that you aren't NBA-ready, there would be a lot of empty rosters around the league.

[SAGirl]

^^^ Definitely. It will be interesting to see what Pop does after this stint... about the banter he had with other players allegedly.. I admit I missed it.

[apalisoc_9]

Tony was the 28th pick, and was starting on this team at 19. If I remember right, the night he won his first championship he was still 20, because he wasn't old enough to legally go to a club and drink after the game.

And, yeah, if having Kyrie Irving score on you meant that you aren't NBA-ready, there would be a lot of empty rosters around the league.

Tony was more talented than Murray. Far more talented. Plus, teams didnt build their teams around perimter players in the early 2000. If Murray would start today, his responsibility and role would be much bigger because lf the style teams play today.

Ball handlers/creators are like the most vurneable position for rookies.

[cd98]

I'm just making an honest assessment. I'm not saying he can't be good down the road or that you can't be excited when he has a good scoring game. I'm just saying he's not ready to replace Parker or Mills anytime soon.

[spurraider21]

he's exceeded my expectations so far, that's for sure

dude needs to add to his frame and continue refining his shooting form, future is bright

[cd98]

Tony was the 28th pick, and was starting on this team at 19. If I remember right, the night he won his first championship he was still 20, because he wasn't old enough to legally go to a club and drink after the game.

And, yeah, if having Kyrie Irving score on you meant that you aren't NBA-ready, there would be a lot of empty rosters around the league.

Tony has big problems his first couple years in the league. He was also great in the open court bc he was fast, but in the playoffs, teams would pack the paint and give him the jumper and he became useless. In fact, Murray is a better outside shooter than Parker was. But Parker didn't have a Mills or Parker on the roster when he was a rookie. So he played, but held the Spurs back until he got that midrange and the floater.

I only added the Kyrie part bc I'm sure Pop was peeved about him giving Kyrie a reason to score 50.

[SpurPadre]

Tony has big problems his first couple years in the league. He was also great in the open court bc he was fast, but in the playoffs, teams would pack the paint and give him the jumper and he became useless. In fact, Murray is a better outside shooter than Parker was. But Parker didn't have a Mills or Parker on the roster when he was a rookie. So he played, but held the Spurs back until he got that midrange and the floater.

I only added the Kyrie part bc I'm sure Pop was peeved about him giving Kyrie a reason to score 50.

TP did have Speedy Claxton, who bailed his ass out in '03, tbh.

[BillMc]

well played

[cutewizard]

[boutons_deux]

TP did have Speedy Claxton, who bailed his ass out in '03, tbh.

Speedy didn't play most of that season, while TP carried the PG load. TP was so good that there were people mentioning Tony as FMVP.

Speedy hit a couple shots late in one playoff game, then disappeared from the league. Tony when on starting for 10+ years.

[lefty]

Much better than Porker tbh

[dabom]

Tony with his usual disappearing act.

[NameLess Scrub]

I liked that he was aggressive on D versus Irving but wasn't fouling. That was huge. This was a game where he made shots he probably won't be able to make consistently against NBA defenses (whereas in the DEN game, he can have those shots provided his three-point stroke is real). But you can never overrate a rookie who is able to have a great game under the brightest lights.

I don't think the Spurs should rush Parker back. Tony should get periodic rest periods anyway, as should Manu. Parker tends to have a good spurt after resting, so just keep doing that and see how much of DeJounte's game is consistently transferable. If he's really this guy at the ASB, you have to consider how to get him in the rotation full-time.

Agreed. Maybe the amount of lesser teams in the league helps assess him.

I love what he did with the Cavs. Considering it's a top team, we can't help but be excited for the kid.
Just don't want to get hopes too much up