I can't believe no one commented that Bertans played the 3 while CoJe and LJC were the two bigs. He wasn't very good at it. When he's the 3, his ballhandling is not good enough to drive past real quick wings or guards. He's not a guy who exploits a mismatch either. He can't guard them on defense. Lateral movement isn't good enough and he doesn't do a good job going around screens or anything like that. His footwork needs work.
I do think Will Hardy didn't do a good job until late in the 3rd Q and the 4th of trying to get him the basket on some rolls, or on a lob. I think they could have exploited his height advantage better if he's playing the 3, but he wasn't good in this game in part bc he still plays like a stretch 4 even when he's at the 3.
Agree with almost all of the write up, but I'm a little more down on Murray. He actually played in some NBA games for God's sake, but he didn't look like it. Exum took him to school a lot which may have showed how fast he is or how Murray isn't as fast as I thought. To me the fastest player on the court was Hanlan and he was able to defend anywhere any time all over the court.
Nobody showed much offensive ability. It's like first game jitters affected the whole team.
TIMVP for the Win!
Great to read a much missed classy post.
One question TIMVP, are the Spurs looking at another frustrating redux of the Bogans-era?
Who's timvp and why is everyone all over his nuts
Boom. The really good ones dont ever gave to tell you how hard they are working.
How many of Murray's would-be assists were missed 3s by Bertans? I didn't watch the game btw.
I ask because if the Spurs staff wanted Murray to facilitate more, they might have told Bertans to be his safety outlet, those two need to develop that kind of drive-and-kick chemistry anyway.
Murray made a gorgeous pass to White for a three. He did all right, but it will take some time to find out how many of his miscues were just chemistry and how many are a lack of skill or IQ on his part.
- Too many have gotten ahead of themselves because of Spurs' history of finding gems, scarcity of young talent and Murray's potential, but he has a long way to go. He's not a rotation player yet, much less a starter for a team supposedly trying to contend.
- Considering he's 2+ years older, it's not unexpected that White would look better. They're polar opposites, in that Murray has a high ceiling and low floor, while White has a low ceiling and high floor.
- With rosters essentially expanding to 17, it obviously helps any fringe player, but whether he hangs on or not, Forbes' chance of establishing himself with Spurs all but vanished with White pick and Mills re-signing.
- Their inability to draft NBA bigs is pathetic. Milutinov is only potential NBA player and has low ceiling. Bertans is converted SF going on 25, that fell because teams knew they'd have to wait years for him to come over. Same reason Splitter fell, while Blair did because lack of ACL's. That leaves Mahinmi and Scola as NBA bigs they drafted since Duncan and one established himself elsewhere, while other never played for them.
welcome back timvp. now that we have an admin back, there are a few posters that deserve the pink privilege
Timvp is back!!! Now I'm waiting for Timmy to turn back the clock.... To the rescue!!!
Btw, missed u big fella
From what I saw White, Bertans , Forbes, looked good. Murray looked ok.
Was surprised not to see Ryan Archidiacono and James Robinson was DNP coaches decision.
Want to see Jefferson step up and claim a spot on the roster in case Lee and Dedmon leave.
I can't recall that specifically.
I was impressed that he got the ball to the roll man in crisp good passes as that is one of the toughest reads requiring timing, and one that JSimms wasn't a great master of, for example. In those PnR in SL, JSimms either went for his shot or kicked to the 3 a lot more than he passed to the roll man. Shayne Whittington (Dijon's center in the game) was so bad unfortunately. A few of his passes were to kicks outs that ended in horrendous shots by Blossomgame, who cannot shot, nor drive and finish. In fact I didn't see any positive offensive skillset with Blossomgame... he needs work.
Davis played a lot more with Forbes and D.White. He had some stints as a 3 with CoJe and LJC with Forbes and White as the two guards or Hanlan and White. It was an odd rotation by Will Hardy.
Seriously cannot recall Murray and Davis involved in any two man game kind of like JSimms and Anderson who did get each other involved in a two man game that ended up in mismatches for either one or shots for them or others. This team doesn't have much chemistry yet. When Davis screened for Murray (I recall maybe 2 or 3 possessions of this) the Jazz switched with Murray ending up guarded by a big and he chose to attack off the dribble, not with a lot of success there. Davis didn't get to exploit any mismatch but at the end, when he attempted to drive on a smaller player and was fouled. I think the team can get more out of Davis. Murray also played only 16 minutes. A half of the 3rd Q and all of the 4th Q was garbage time and he didn't play.
I think there was a fair amount of lack of chemistry, that is why I expect them to play better with more practices/reps/coaching etc.
Nice to have you back, timvp.
agree with you on forbes. White maybe is not as pure of a shooter as Forbes is (I have no way of really knowing, just speculating for purposes of arguing this), maybe he's not that pure of a shooter as Forbes, but he can pass better and play within an offense better. He's not an elite athlete, I would say average, but he has size and can shoot, he also seems to make the correct play and not get in anyone's way and seemed unselfish. He made some plays that were simple and not flashy but very much within the flow and he got the ball moving and found open people. I had not given a review on him but without being flashy seemed like a solid player. You already saw my review on Forbes. He's a lot more limited and if he's not shooting above 40% from 3 on high volume he's got no shot. He has become kind of redundant. We shall see what Pop does, they do like him but are getting very cramped with guard slots and him being so small limits him too, he cannot credibly be a wing expect for garbage time.
I honestly think White's ceiling is 6th Man of the Year. Like a Eric Gordon Lue Williams Jamal Crawford type.
Yeah, we have to understand that these guys have never all played together and only had 2 practices to get used to each other.
Things should get better as the games go on, but if they don't- then we need to start examining the players themselves moreso.
17 and turning 18 soon in the winter months I believe. I believe that is old enough to consent in Texas?
Anyways, apparently he has a couple girlfriends so who knows which one of them is really breaking his heart.
What happened to Cleanthony Early, was he still on the roster?
Timvp, great write up. I agree with the majority of your insight. I saw no chemistry out there, and the coaching staff should have tried to keep the Austin spurs familiar with each other out on the floor more. This would help chemistry. Murray has to show more leadership and communicate and get guys into position to succeed. i assume the coaching staff wants forbes to be a poor mans curry, but his handle is weak. He is more like steve kerr in the Jordan years. That is how he should be used. Spot up 3 off penetration, unfortunately only Murray can penetrate. I was eager to see Jefferson, but the lack of better guard play hurt him. His defense and rebounding was solid, i dont want him shooting too many deep jumpers, i want a big who can score in the post with some nastiness. White played well on offense, but he was consistently beat on defense, i would expect the same during the season. Dleague might be best for the 1st half of the year. The lack of shot blocking, is the same as the big boys, it's non existent and it showed with the interior defense suffering, along with rebounding.
During Murrays post game interview he said Pop told him to get other player involved to pass first and not necessarily score.
Thank you timvp nice to read this! Game Thoughts was one of the main reasons I ever came to this site. I still greatly appreciate you and your wife making this site happen! Best to you and your family!
Thanks for the details. I was trying to reconcile Murray's emphasis on playmaking with Bertans shooting a ton of threes and not doing much else, thinking that it might have been by design.
I think a lot of their playing was "by design." Murray took few shots and was being a facilitator. Unfortunately we shot poorly. These games are practice games and the coaches are likely getting their players to develop the skills the need to be working on.
Bertans wasn't the beneficiary of much of Murray's playmaking. They didn't coincide many minutes and he was covered often. In fact, one of the reasons he struggled shooting is that he took a lot of bailout 3 pt shots when he was covered and the ball swung to him. He was kind of chucking if I didn't know better. He tried to drive a few times since he wasn't open, but that was my comment that when guarded by wings he's not going to blow by anyone. However, he did drive and dish to someone for a 3 once, (don't remember who it was, but he missed the shot). In the second half of the game, when the game was already garbage time, Coach Hardy did get him involved in other ways, he cut, he got a lob thrown that he converted on, and he tried to find cutters, with some TO unfortunately. I'd say he was a bit out of his element. Either that, or there was definitely lack of chemistry.
7.5/10 Those elbows.Murray would never date a San Antonio land whale. He's dating IG model Jilly Anais
The OP could be read on ESPN Insider in about a week under someone else's name.
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