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Sean Bradley had great shot blocking numbers, but he was still a trash defender and overall player
The spurs were vastly better with Dedmon starting last year over Gasol... What the numbers don't show is the amount of shots Gasol allows simply because he doesn't want to play defense, the offensive rebounds he allows, and the horrible pick and roll defense
Sean Bradley had great shot blocking numbers, but he was still a trash defender and overall player
Stats do show those things
And they would show Dedmon is better than Gasol on defense... In similar situations with the same players, our defense was MUCH better (went to best in the league) with Dedmon starting
I wish he would cut down the unforced turnovers. That's my complaint.
yup.. and they usually happen at times he's passive. Sometimes he has enough separation for a jumpshot bc his defender is defending against the pass and sagging and he still wants to jam the ball in a space that is crowded. I preferred him when he's taking his jumpshots.
It seems like they come at particularly inopportune times, too. They seem to kill our runs or fuel those of our opponents - but that's just my perception.
Pau gets his blocks in statue mode. Every game, little guys are taking it right to him for and ones. It's f'ing ridiculous.
I think that's a function of new players, less preseason, and a lot of time with the second unit. Pau has to use his passing skill, at this age, other than his length, its his best asset. He's our starting center yet leads the team in assists. Pop has clearly instructed him to look for lobs to LMA (like Timmy did LMA's first year). With such limited guards these days Pau has to initiate a lot. Gonna be turnovers especially early in the season. Many are on Pau, some are on the intended recipient.
Actually not true but hey ho.
The Gasol-Aldridge-Kawhi-Green-Tony lineup had a better Net rating (7.4 vs 5.4), as well as better all around metrics (except for Reb%) than the same lineup with Dedmon in place of Pau in comparable number of minutes - these were the two most used lineups last season. The only lineup where Dedmon was a clear positive was small ball with him as the sole big, however, in much less minutes.
And since you like to talk about 'when it matters' in the playoffs the difference in Net rating between these two lineups was an amazing 26.7.
Bottom line people fail to realize is that say we had paid for Dedmon instead of Pau, what are you paying for? Pau has experience in the postseason while Dedmon has no experience. Look what happened in his first go round. Dedmon is also foul proned. You are risking a lot by making him your featured big. Factor in that he is only a finishing big, offensively you give up a lot. Pau is a safe bet that is more experienced and a much better all around player. You know what you get with him in the playoffs while with Dedmon you don't even know if he can play. But it's hard to defend the contract other than they know what they are doing. They must have something up their sleeve.
Pau also has been playing really well. From my point of view he has been taking the defensive end very personally this year. I've seen him react to miss assignments on d very passionately, unlike last year. But it's clear the message is d and he's getting it. I was ragging on him before but can't complain. He's a highly skilled big.
Agree to all of this. What was the line "He knows how to play the game". Pau shoots .400 from 3, leads team in assists, blocks and is right on LMA's heels for rebounds while playing less minutes. He's third on the team in Per behind LMA and Rudy. Obviously, that's not a be-all-and-end-all stat. But he's hardly the trainwreck all these guys mad about his contract are claiming. Their agendas are obvious. If at his age he has limitation (mobility on the perimeter) and paces himself (especially with Pau being only 1 of 2 true bigs healthy now) I can understand that. Dedmon lost his starting role and was let go for a reason. His bball IQ is low, his hands are terrible. Pop sees them both in every game, every film study, and every practice. I trust Pop to make the right decision.
I don't like his contract either, because of the additional year he got, but it's difficult to deny he's worth this year's $16 mil for his experience and leadership alone, despite of the coasting, which is normal. He has obvious limitations due to age and he might not be playable in some match ups in the playoffs but then again it looked obvious that would be the case against Houston and he ended up finding a role and having a very good series. So there's something to the 'He knows how to play the game' that BillMc referenced.
As for the hypothetical situation where he opts in and the Spurs re-sign Dedmon then they wouldn't have been able to fit Rudy under the cap if I remember the numbers correctly. So it'd be Dedmon instead of Rudy, not instead of Pau. Of course I'm dismissing the possibility of Pau opting out and the Spurs doing him dirty by not re-signing him.
So was every other one of his coaches then from high school to the pros
Tim Duncan did this at age 37 in the finals:
(Sorry to bring up 6, but this was a vintage Duncan performance...had the Spurs closed out this game, he certainly would have won Finals MVP)
I don't think Gasol is going to "run out of gas when it counts" but comparing him to Duncan seems...a strange comparison.
Dedmon can switch and move better than most bigs away from the basket, then potentially be really valuable defensively that way.
Gasol can function defensively within, the into the bigs really disciplined D that Spurs are executing better than most teams, but against the best teams, not least GS, he'll very likely be a costly liability.
Dedmon had the potential not to be and him able to shoot some 3s is obviously a huge boost to his value.
But it also goes without saying that on the offensive side of things Gaso canl do many many things better than Dedmon and is something of an all time great. Just an old fading one.
Yeah, generally there's no questioning Pau's BBIQ or passing skill. There are a lot of moving parts on this team. Without Kawhi and Tony, it has actually amazed me how well the team has come together. Even so, Pau has caused a few unforced turnovers that I hope he cuts down on, as things gel better.
Personnel-wise the team is very promising. As far as schemes are concerned, though, I think the Spurs are in a more fluid state than any time I have been following them. So, it is really hard to project: How much of the current offense is a stop-gap that will essentially get jettisoned when Kawhi and Tony return? Specifically, with regard to Pau, won't his role as a playmaker be diminished? Will Kawhi just get plugged into these same schemes, taking minutes that currently go to Kyle, BP3 et al, and transforming the offense through his skill and not through any alteration of schemes? OR will we revert more to iso-ball for Kawhi and Touches? What about Danny's role? Will he revert to being a spot-up 3-ball specialist, or will he continue to be the new, dynamic Danny? Will the old man relegate Forbes and BP3 to garbage time and continue to ride Manu for better or worse?
I personally wish that Pop would pretty much give all of Manu's minutes to BP3 and Forbes (unless they just fall flat) so that we can see if they are going to be legit contributors beyond this season. Both have contracts to be earned (or not). If they continue to develop, the Spurs would have some difficult off-season decisions to make, but also quite possibly have a nice young core for a change.
A lot of people say Dedmon is a better defender on the perimeter, but that didn't seem to really matter in the playoffs last year. He was virtually unplayable against Houston and Golden State, two teams where a "mobile big" should have really come in handy.
Pau's role as a passing big man is way underrated here. His defense is adequate except for the pick and roll. And his three point shooting really spreads the court. People forget how important he was in the overall defense of Harden last year in the playoffs.
It still hurts:-(
But seriously Timmy was one of a kind. One couldn’t use the word coasting with Tim. Aging? yes. Bad knees? Yes. Coasting? No. I still miss Tim, but I can’t currently complain about Gasol. He started off really passive, not shooting well and not necessarily making good decisions (like I said sometimes passing when he needed to shoot, forcing the ball in tight spots at times and being somewhat careless getting a lot of traveling violations and the like). He has played with more effort lately. We can’t complain unless ppl are trolling or have weird agendas at this point.
Last edited by SAGirl; 11-09-2017 at 01:17 PM.
Gasol isn't going to dominate a Finals this side of 2010, but it goes to show that 37 isn't necessarily ancient and decrepit.
Last edited by Arcadian; 11-09-2017 at 02:32 PM.
Difficult to tell, they will be a better team, but guys will have to make adjustments to playing with them again, etc. Danny's usage will certainly go down, and we will just have to see what happens with everyone else.
He will still ride Manu. Also, though you don't mention him, he will also ride 50mills.
Last edited by SAGirl; 11-09-2017 at 08:14 PM.
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