Making Pau the 6th man was clearly a boon to him, personally, and to the team. That gives LMA and Pau both a higher usage rate. Moving him back to the starting unit would greatly reduce the effectiveness of the second unit. It makes me wish that Pop had paired LMA/Diaw and Tim/DWest last season.
All of the experimentation during the year wasn't just Pop fooling around. He knows he has players with experience, with experience with the team, newbies, etc. And that makes a potentially potent team but he sees that the positives and negatives of some players make matchups the key. His eye is always on the championship playoffs and his line up in one playoff series might be different than against a different team. You have to have some regular season experimentation to find the best matchups.
I think Pop realizes that some "starters" may not be the best group against certain teams. Both Gasol and Parker have aged enough to become a problem on defense against certain teams--but they can really tear up the second team.
Pop is coaching this team with matchups in mind and some new players (Lee, Dedmon, Bertans) still learning the system and their Spur teammates still learning their skills. And in a league going small, he's turned that upside down by going long at times.
And yet they are second in the league and knocking on a 60 win season. Is any coach in the league doing a better job? I think not.
Pop has got to have the shortest playoff leash he's ever had on Tony..
@mid
Warriors death lineup on steroids.
Do it right son. midnightpulp
Let's see what he has to say.
Heck, let's throw DPG21920 into the mix too.
According to them, Mills can only work alongside Manu.
Patty "pressured" Mills
It's great that Mills appears to be doing well with the starters. He's younger than TP and many want him to start. Its only 44 minutes for an entire 2nd half of the season basically so ridiculously small sample, but hopefully Mills can finally prove himself in the playoffs and earns that next contract .
Somewhere else.. tbh..
It's a very short sample indeed. Mills starting caps the Spurs ceiling significantly over the next 3-4 yrs.
Let Mills walk.
Parker has been especially awful post all-star break..That's essentially him dragging own the initial starting lineup for most of the season to the tune of -15..ouch....
I agree about Mills, and also if Tony came to his senses and decided to retire in the offseason we would be in a pretty good position, tbh.
What concerns me is the new starting lineup, the one with Dedmon the majority of the season now, is underwhelming with both TP and Mills. It's been better with Mills post all star than TP, but TP has 3x the minutes. Dedmon has fallen off a lot since his peak this season and Danny has been in an extended slump. I think that has more to do with it than Mills/TP.
That Pau lineup has not been a starting lineup the vast majority of the 2nd half. The first half of the season, TP was better than Mills with the same unit.
Like Manu, no one is turning down 15M to play. Even if you are in a reduced role where you look like a TOSB many nights.
Why are you turning this into a Manu v Tony thing? Then you go and cry about folks that do the same. But anyways:
40 year old Manu is still an overall plus for the team, and his 15 millions never hurt the Spurs cap situation.
34 year old Tony is the biggest liability on the team and his contract has ed the Spurs chances of getting better players in previous seasons and will do so one more time this next offseason.
You are under the impression that I on Tony only 'cause I have an Argie flag under my username but the reality is that I have always been a Tony supporter and the only reason I'm currently ting on him is 'cause he's so obviously the biggest reason this team has no real chance of winning a championship and will probably still be that reason next season. If Manu was as big of a liability as Tony, I would be here asking him to stop ting on his legacy and retire already.
Last edited by DAF86; 04-03-2017 at 11:47 PM.
I've never cried tbh...I literally have a medical condition to where my eyes do not produce tears.
TP's contract has been fine. Spurs landed LMA with TP. Pau with TP. Really has not prevented anything. No more than Manu. Manu taking that first Spurs offer would have allowed the team a shot at keeping Boban. So, yes, Manu has hurt SA too even if he's been better than TP (Manu still not worth 15M obviously).
I think it's clear the Spurs best lineups don't feature Tony. Pop might start to look around at how to get minutes out of him with the bench. He did against OKC to start the 4th bc he wanted to close with Patty.
Good news is more than ever, Pop has shown no issues yanking TP. Mills has closed a lot of games so if Pop sticks with TP it's because he believes TP is the best option (not out of loyalty). Mills has had numerous chances either via starting (a few games) or getting just as many minutes as TP/closing games to prove himself.
He will continue to get those opportunities. But again, TP playing well, although rare, is obviously the highest ceiling for this team.
Getting rid of Boban allowed us to get Dedmon, so no, Manu didn't cost us , tbh. Without TP's contract the Spurs could have probably improved the non-Manu wing situation and, more importantly, the PG situation. Which is this team's fatal flaw.
This has already been hashed out by those of us that understand the cap better than you (not knocking you, just saying it's been hashed out). Spurs, if Manu would have taken the lower deal, could have had everything they have now + Boban.
But not to derail the thread. This was a thread about the lineups this year and you brought up TP retiring for some reason that has nothing to do with this topic and I felt it necessary to address your point.
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