Official 2017-18 NBA Season Thread

[SAGirl]

[TD 21]

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...-atlanta-hawks

According to a Woj report on the Belinelli buy out talks the Spurs were among the teams interesting in trading for him. I wonder which player on our side was going out in a possible transaction? It sure as not Green.

After the Splitter fiasco the Hawks weren’t doing any salary-dumps favors for them, not of this magnitude, and not without including our first. With the uncertainty around Leonard return and a brutal schedule coming, the Spurs weren’t ready to let go of a pick that is practically an Aldridge health flare-up (knee, heart..) away from dipping into the lottery. .

I hope though that’s the real window into their thinking. Dumping Mills should be the first order of business this summer. He’s turned into a bigger abortion than I expected. Between the roster redundancy and ample evidence of him proving terrifyingly useless against the Warriors and other contenders for about 3 years now it is time to move one.

As for Parker, I think his relegation to the bench should help in greasing the wheels for him getting talked into a major paycut. I think you had him at 9-10 millions per annum salary in previous thread. I don’t think he is going to get that barring another rollback the years playoffs performance. Not happening.

Again, I’m afraid to say, they NEED an embarrassing playoffs sendoff for this front office to be awakened up from its slumber. You could feel this whole edifice is teetering here..

Don't know if Nets would still be interested in Mills, since they took on Crabbe's contract, but even if they aren't, Marks should do Spurs a solid. There's no chance he'd have even been on the radar to being a GM (his "pedigree" was 1 season as an assistant coach and 1 as Toros GM) if he weren't affiliated with them at the time when their star was shining brightest.

They've got to pay Lin slightly more next season anyway, so if they're swapped, it's really just 2 extra seasons. It's not like they're going to be a free agent destination anytime soon anyway.

Said yesterday that I admittedly overshot it on most Spurs in that thread. Parker definitely isn't getting $9-10M. Think his number will ultimately be largely dependant on whatever they have left after they take care of most of their business.

[TheDoctor]

[Robz4000]

Kawhi is gonna be shut down for the season. Makes zero sense to bring him back with a few weeks to go in the season.

[Leetonidas]

Kawhi is gonna be shut down for the season. Makes zero sense to bring him back with a few weeks to go in the season.

Agreed. If he isn't back after the RRT there is no point to keep bull ting the fans. Just rule him out so the team can stop worrying about it and focus.

[Seventyniner]

Kawhi is gonna be shut down for the season. Makes zero sense to bring him back with a few weeks to go in the season.

Completely disagree if he is actually 100% healthy. The Spurs have to see what they can do with a full roster.

[Robz4000]

Completely disagree if he is actually 100% healthy. The Spurs have to see what they can do with a full roster.

Even if he's 100% healthy if they only have 4-5 games to go it won't be enough time for him to get into basketball shape or build chemistry; , he could just as easily get hurt again. If the Spurs are barely hanging on to a playoff spot or are on the outside looking in it makes even less sense.

[TimDunkem]

Even if he's 100% healthy if they only have 4-5 games to go it won't be enough time for him to get into basketball shape or build chemistry; , he could just as easily get hurt again. If the Spurs are barely hanging on to a playoff spot or are on the outside looking in it makes even less sense.

Which is one reason why the roster was downright ugly to begin with. With a healthy Kawhi, the team will go back to relying on him on just about every possesion. It's going to put a lot of stress on those legs.

[YGWHI]

[YGWHI]

Can't see Lakers/Clips/Pels making playoffs.

[Chinook]

Which is one reason why the roster was downright ugly to begin with. With a healthy Kawhi, the team will go back to relying on him on just about every possesion. It's going to put a lot of stress on those legs.

If they go back to relying on him, it will be because of Kawhi holding the ball more than anything. You can think the non-Kawhi Spurs suck as much as you want, but LMA is not going to defer to Kawhi unless Pop forces him to, and Murray not having the ball would pretty strongly up the spacing. Unless Bertans starts instead of Pau or Kyle, Green's going to be the only starter who should be giving the ball up to the point of dependence.

[TimDunkem]

If they go back to relying on him, it will be because of Kawhi holding the ball more than anything. You can think the non-Kawhi Spurs suck as much as you want, but LMA is not going to defer to Kawhi unless Pop forces him to, and Murray not having the ball would pretty strongly up the spacing. Unless Bertans starts instead of Pau or Kyle, Green's going to be the only starter who should be giving the ball up to the point of dependence.

Between all the inexplicable things Pop has done this season, I don't exactly think that it's a forgone conclusion that Pop will figure this roster out. At least not this season.

[Chinook]

Between all the inexplicable things Pop has done this season, I don't exactly think that it's a forgone conclusion that Pop will figure this roster out. At least not this season.

I think that's very true. And depending on when Kawhi would return, I don't know how much I'd blame him. Something has to give on the three PGs thing. Either Parker has to start again or Patty has to get out of the rotation. If Bertans is going to be the 11th man, then either Gay or Kyle is going to be an awkward fit with a post-centric first unit. Forbes is getting regular rotation minutes inexplicably (not because he sucks but because there isn't room for that many guards). It just makes matters that much worse that pretty much every rotation player other than Bryn and Patty have suffered some type of moderate injury so far this season, so it's not like Pop can really depend on guys to play regular minutes here.

[SAGirl]

If they go back to relying on him, it will be because of Kawhi holding the ball more than anything. You can think the non-Kawhi Spurs suck as much as you want, but LMA is not going to defer to Kawhi unless Pop forces him to, and Murray not having the ball would pretty strongly up the spacing. Unless Bertans starts instead of Pau or Kyle, Green's going to be the only starter who should be giving the ball up to the point of dependence.

I think it was early January that I said I would stop "worrying" as in discussing potential fully healthy rotations bc the way it was looking, they weren't going to be. I can't claim I was prophetic or anything, the tea leaves didn't really require much foresight to read. Pop hasn't really committed to Bertans starting the way he has been firm that Dijon is the team's starting PG. He said Bertans is going to start for now. We can consider it a trial, but he has played reasonably well. I'd assume he starts. Dejounte and Kiwi have to figure things out. I don't think Pop will demote him after the fanfare about him starting. I think they will continue to park him in the dunker spot under the rim when others are posting up, they can have him cut too as he's doing. The amount of midrange shots he's taking and floaters off the dribble will go down, specially coming off screens, but as far as cutting he can have whatever he wants.

Kyle is the one who is going to the bench which is probably a big help to them since they have munckin lineups galore and could use his help. He has reasonably good chemistry with Gasol and he is the one you can park in the dunker spot when Rudy posts up in the bench. Anyways, I have no doubt they will figure it out. Kiwi is a tremendous talent and they will be so much better.

Problem is I don't see them fully healthy... hope to be wrong. I'd like to see the team fully healthy after the ASB.

Edit... I don't know how you play Tony, Patty and Manu and bench Kyle the rest of the season once the team is fully healthy and if that happens, it doesn't seem right. That would for sure signal the end for him staying in the team this summer, though they may be heading in that direction anyways.

[YGWHI]

and Murray not having the ball would pretty strongly up the spacing

Dejounte and Kiwi have to figure things out .

I always wonder why the Spurs drafted a PG that can't shoot if his life depends on it...I mean, I really like DJ but I expected he would develop that aspect of his game.

Most teams -cause Kawhi's game- would surround him with reliable 3-point shooters but they drafted Murray and Kyle as main picks in last 3 years...

If they truly believed that DJ could improve his 3-p shooting...This is not happened.

[Ice009]

So Rudy isn't even back first game after the All-Star game?

And what the is the point of Kawhi coming back if it's not shortly after the All-Star break? What, is he going to play 10 games with minutes restrictions? That would be a waste of time. If he comes back with 20 games to go, I'd like him back to see him in full form so the team can decided for sure on the Supermax.

What a ing joke this has all turned out to be.

[SAGirl]

I always wonder why the Spurs drafted a PG that can't shoot if his life depends on it...I mean, I really like DJ but I expected he would develop that aspect of his game.

Most teams -cause Kawhi's game- would surround him with reliable 3-point shooters but they drafted Murray and Kyle as main picks in last 3 years...

If they truly believed that DJ could improve his 3-p shooting...This is not happened.

You can't really be choosy when you draft guys at 30 and 29. They could have potentially targeted other players that we will never find out about but they weren't available when they drafted. They do have Forbes in the team specifically bc of his shooting ability... and he's one of those guys that can be out of the rotation and keep coming back into play bc he can shoot.

I think for Kyle and Murray they hoped they were able to add the 3 pt shot. They drafted Kiwi who was a complete non shooter in college and some guys' shots can be fixed. Kyle's shot is entirely too slow to ever really be that impactful... Murray really just can't shoot. He shot 15 % on 3 attempts per game last season in the dleague and as you can see he's a reluctant and not accurate shooter. For the benefit of his own career, Murray has to figure it out. Kyle too, though he might be on his way out, so who cares?

They did pay big sums of money to both Patty and Pau who shot the 3 well last season, so there you have sort of an answer as to what the Spurs did to address their shooting.

[dabom]

I think Dejounte benefits the most when Kawhi comes back. Murray, Green, Kawhi, LMA, Bertans looks really good.

Kawhi is an elite rebounder and LMA, Murray are good for their size and green can get his own. Bertans is the weakest but it doesn't matter.

You got 3 point shooters Kawhi and Green and Bertans, slashers Bertans and Kawhi and Murray.

Murray is a decent PG and Kawhi can actually take all ball responsibilities and Murray can get the rebound for easy points.

We got good 1 on 1 wing defenders for switches. Bertans has some lateral quickness. LMA is the only bad one but he used to it. And he saves the team energy. And the rotation guys are all good size.

I like this full roster team potential.

[dabom]

It's gonna take time to gel but we got a good team if Kawhi comes back.

[dabom]

Patty Manu Gay fathead Pau looks good off the bench. That's strong right there.

[dabom]

Someone tell me they don't like the line ups.

[YGWHI]

They did pay big sums of money to both Patty and Pau who shot the 3 well last season, so there you have sort of an answer as to what the Spurs did to address their shooting.

But you know the main reason wasn't their 3-point shooting. Culture, chemistry, Pau's loyalty contract after failing to sign CP3, ...were the most accurate versions.

[TheDoctor]

I think Dejounte benefits the most when Kawhi comes back...

...I like this full roster team potential.

No Captain Obvious DJ's gonna benefit when Kawhi comes back. The whole team will do including 50Mills.

As for now, Murray is still raw in talent and besides being lanky (which I dont know if it is a talent) and being able to rebound (sometimes to a fault when tapping his own misses at the rim). His defense in whole is not there tho' sometimes he shows flashes of an elite defender and then other times looks meh.

Another thing is that in the NBA a PG has to show the ability to SCORE consistently to put pressure on a defense. Right now Dejounte is nowhere that. But as a late round pick we don't have much to go on but hope.

I like this team's potential (when healthy) too.

[Ice009]

Man, that trade looks like a good one for the Cavs so far. They're filled with athletic guys that are in that SF size range that you want. I think, if they jell defensively, they have the potential to be able to fly around the court and D up teams.

Meanwhile, the Spurs are filled with unathletic midgets. Who the constructed this roster thinking it would do good/great outside of Kawhi and LMA.

[r0drig0lac]

If they go back to relying on him, it will be because of Kawhi holding the ball more than anything. You can think the non-Kawhi Spurs suck as much as you want, but LMA is not going to defer to Kawhi unless Pop forces him to, and Murray not having the ball would pretty strongly up the spacing. Unless Bertans starts instead of Pau or Kyle, Green's going to be the only starter who should be giving the ball up to the point of dependence.

just watch the games