Is he fast enough to play the 3?
I say he could play it situationally. Especially against a KD at SF line up for 15 mpg. He is a perfect new age PF if he can reliably shoot the 3. I would never want to see him gaurd Adam's, Gobert, DJ, Cousins, etc.. would rather he gaurd Lebron, KD, or PG ar the 3 than that.
Hopefully he's not too slow to guard wings and too small to guard bigs
Makes absolute sense. Just enough length, speed and athleticism to bother them sometimes.
I'd call Mezi a "tweener," since he's between a 3 & a 4. According to nba.net, they list him at 6-10 (no shoes?) and 6-11 (with shoes?) at 220 lbs, a 6-11 wingspan, & has a quick first step off the dribble for his position as they labled him, as a 4-5. Of coarse, in traditional NBA lineups, he couldn't possibly play the 5, but in small-ball lineups, he could. I've read somewhere where it said that he's played soccer when he was younger, so for him, that's a big plus, because that would help him with his lateral quickness, even if he were allowed to play the 3, which is important of coarse, for that pos ion, especially if he is to guard up to 4 positions. Mezi is a hybrid who's athletic; has a high motor, when he wants to bring it, but to be honest, the ball is in his court to develop his body & his skills if he wants to be sucessful in the NBA, but for a late 2nd rounder, if he can live up to his potential, SAS has another great steal! GSG!!
Will Metu and Cady be the small ball twin towers???
Cady is gonna retire in Austin if anything
Just signed for an ACB team in Spain.
So long, Cady. He's already 26
Seems like he found a pretty good middling first Euro level if he can stick for more than a season. Same team on which Gervin scored 25ppg as a 38 year old.
Labeled positions don't matter. Spurs have more perimeter creators and facilitators than they did last season. They don't need a short 6'0-6'2 labeled PG just to have depth in writing.
Here are players they added this year that can facilitate from the perimeter: DeRozan, White, Belinelli, an improved Dejounte, and to an extent Lonnie.
Facilitators they lost: Manu, and to very small extents -- Tony and Kyle. Even though Tony didn't really pose as a significant threat to score. Most of his facilitating had to do with redundant and telepathic PnPops that were given up by the defense on purpose on most occasions.
This "Metu is a 3" thing is really getting out of hand. He is an NBA 4 that may play some small ball 5
Nope. Lonnie and Beli aren't facilitators. DeRozan is better than Kawhi, but he's not a PG. It's not defensible to argue they have more facilitators this year. It's just not true.
Beli isn't a bonafide ball handler by any means, but he is capable of moving the ball and making plays for others as exhibited by the work he put in during the Beautiful Game days.
His movement on offense also loosens opposing defenses, which makes plays without him being directly involved.
I used to love watching the ball whip around when both he and Manu were on the floor.
A traditional PG on a 2-way makes sense. I could see them having interest in Ulis. They liked him in '16 and I suspect would have picked him had Murray not fallen. The 15 man is fine with DeRozan, Murray and White, serving as primary ball handlers, with Mills and Forbes as ancillary options who can defend the position.
It never ceases to amaze me how many of you people don't get it. In shoes and rounding up, Metu is 6'10'', 225, with a 7'1'' wingspan. If he's going to stick long term, it'll be as an undersized, rim running C. There's plenty examples of this archetype: Faried, Nance, Thompson, Vanderbilt, Bell, Looney, Chriss, Harrell, Diallo, Randle, etc.
Two big lineups are becoming extinct. The league is in a holding pattern, waiting out the dead money C contracts and feverishly scouring for wings. Eventually, hybrid bigs like Aldridge will be converted into full time C's and big wings like Gay will be converted into full time PF's.
They are in PnRs in small doses from secondary action, not primary action.
Spurs have more facilitators coming into this season than they did last season. Thats not a question.
Metu is definitely not a 3. He may be able to match up okay with 3s on the occasional switch if he can improve his lateral movement and awareness, but anyone thinks he is going to play the 3 clearly didn't see him in Summer League.
Rose and Blair were able to survive in the post being 6'7. Metu will be fine at 6'10 (with possible some room to grow) as long as he bulks up. Capella is only 6'10, and I see Metu fitting that mold.
, Duncan was closer to 6'10 than he was 7', and he seemed to turn out okay.
Small ball lineups usually consist of a legit center/of as the 5 with a combination of gaurd and wings at the 1-4. There are obviously some exceptions but ultimately it all comes down to positionless basketball. Even if Metu is the 5 against GS, the biggest weakness for the Spurs is when the center or smaller guy switches onto KD and making sure Klay is chained down. As long as Metu can gaurd KD/Lebron/Harden on switches for few stretches it will give us the best chance to contend for a championship. We really don't care what position you call him. Especially on our roster say you have Aldridge and Gay in there along with Metu for length which of these guys has quicker lateral footspeed? I think most would say Metu.
Cir stantially:
Aldridge
Gay
Metu
DeRozan
White/Murray
For when length and size is needed.
They lost Tony and Manu and replaced them with DeRozan and White. Walker doesn't count, because he's going to play just as much as White (whom you didn't count for last year) did last season. Anderson at least cancels out Beli. Moreover, last year, the team had offensive issues without Kawhi, so merely replacing that output isn't good enough. The offense would have been fine had they had Leonard's scoring and gravity, but this year's team won't get that. When you lose as much D as they did, you can't just tread water offensively.
Even so, last year, the team had White and Murray as PGs behind Parker and Manu. Murray started because Tony was still hurt, but they still had the depth to take two injuries. Now we're expecting every one of the "facilitators" to be in the rotation. If one of them goes down, they aren't being replaced by Murray or White. They are being replaced by Forbes, Pondexter or Cunningham.
Metu isn't a three. No amount of jargon makes that true. Chim's agility isn't better than the average center at the combine. I'm sure he's not a stiff, but he's not guy who's going to do well if he gets iso'd on a guard or wing. At least he won't just because of his physical standing.
Anyway, there are a lot of different ways to do "small-ball" lineups. It's not just a five and four smalls.
Exactly lots of ways to do it. His agility is much better than most centers. You are ignorant to this fact. Ultimately I agree he is not a true 3 or 5. His natural position appears to be a 4. But against some lineups we need to switch it up. Hope Popovich was watching Messina coach last year against the warriors isn the playoffs. Metu is quicker than both Gay and Bertans.
Lebron used the term "live" to describe that sort of ball-moving ability. Beli is live, sure. He can dribble and finish, maybe make a kick-out. But you don't go "damn, one of the PGs is hurt; good thing we have Beli to fill in." You have two young PGs with little experience with being primary facilitators, another guy who facilitated well but also played with three PGs in the rotation, and a couple of decent scorers who can make the right pass if motivated, and a PG who makes great reads but can't force the action. All in one rotation, I can see if being good enough. But there's no margin for error in that unit. You lose any of those top four facilitators, and there's just a huge hole. No one on the deep bench can run a team at all.
Look at his combine results before popping off like that. Him driving and pulling up doesn't make him mobile, especially defensively. , Bertans can that better than Metu can, and I don't see you saying he's a three.
Did Kyle Anderson even do those tests?
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