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White was announced as the starting point guard before his injury.
How would that not be meaningful?
Forbes is playing as well as could possibly be expected. Mills is terrible. White can play defense. He'll play.
He wasn't if everyone was healthy.
Not everyone is healthy.
How would that not be meaningful?
Forbes is playing as well as could possibly be expected. Mills is terrible. White can play defense. He'll play.
It was meaningful, but I think it's quite possible things changed with Bryn playing as well as he has. Forbes (so far) has played way better than expected before the season. He's earned his minutes. I'd love White to take Mills minutes, but I don't see Pop doing it.
How would that not be meaningful?
Forbes is playing as well as could possibly be expected. Mills is terrible. White can play defense. He'll play.
I'm sure Pop doesn't want to play Forbes 31 mpg all season nor DeMar 38.
Forbes may be playing well, but I still feel like White has much more upside/potential. It has taken a lot of effort for Forbes to get to this point. White has the potential to be much better IMHO
Forbes is playing about as well as one could expect White to have played. Like maybe White could handle the ball a bit better and more effective defensively, but he could also be hurting the team hardcore there. Bryn is taking care of the ball, making the right plays, hitting his shots and sticking his nose in there on D. Considering what a mess the bench has been without any play-maker, having White go down there just seems to make more sense.
Bryn doesn't do any ball handling really. Maybe take the ball down occassionally. White would be better fit with Derozan I think still. White has a good 3 point shot as well. Its just that the bench could improve more with White going there considering Patty is soooo bad. I'd be happy if Patty just got benched permanently and played about 10 mpg.
White just has a much bigger ceiling than Forbes. Bryn won't ever do much better than he's doing right now. White has shown flashes of very good playmaking.
I have no problem with keeping Forbes as the starter once White comes back. Like Chinook said, the fit does seem better pairing Forbes with DeRozan and Mills with White, but I would like to see Derrick getting more minutes than both Forbes and Mills, and have him finishing games.
A lineup of White, DeRozan, Gay, Bertans and Aldridge to finish games is about the best we can do both in terms of offense and defense, imho.
Disagree, my expectations for White were higher than Forbes is delivering.
I do though think it's fair for him to play off the bench because the bench has no playmakers or penetrators and Pop would rather vote Trump than stagger his best players.
Forbes is active on defense but not very effective. I think White is a better defender, better transition player, better at getting to the rim, better at creating his own shot, a serviceable shooter (I trust him more than Mills), better rebounder, and most of all for me I think he makes 'winning' plays, intangible plays, hustle plays, loose ball plays, hit ahead plays, defensive plays, etc
Yeah, I can't ride with you there, I didn't expect White to come in and average 15/3/3 on 48-percent shooting from three and carrying a 5:2 A/TO ratio. I might have had hopes that he could be better than that, but I wasn't going to expect him to do anything more than provide inconsistent scoring and ball-handling and decent defense and shooting. While shooting a good percentage and taking care of the ball. He's playing as a legit fourth option right now. That's way more than I'd ask of a guy making his first few starts at a new position, whether that guy is Bryn or Derrick.
You do have to consider that the whole league is playing at a ridiculous pace right now. A lot of people numbers are inflated right now. Things will normalize a bit but the league is changing. Just like how the NFL now has crazy QB numbers.
True, but how many minutes will he shave off? If Bryn keeps playing like he is, I doubt he'll play less than 25/game. DeMar's mines might go down to 32/game. I think it'll be closer to 35/game, but let's assume the 32. That frees 12mpg for two guys. Maybe 5 more shaved off Mills playing time, but that would still only be 17 minutes between White and Walker.
Don't forget that the more players like White play two-guard minutes, the more two-guards will play SF minutes, and the more SFs will play PF minutes and finally the more Aldridge will play center minutes. Bertans/Cunningham and Gay will lose minutes, especially if the former doesn't play well enough to justify it. If everyone is good enough, you'll see less Gasol/Aldridge combo minutes and significantly less Poeltl. The rotation will go where the talent is. If there are more talented guards, the team will play smaller. With the guard problems they currently have, they're playing bigger.
Sounds nice in theory. Hopefully you're right.
^ This is a good point.
Anyway, I think offensive talent shouldn't be the main criteria to decide who plays or not. This roster's offensive talent is above the average of the league IMO. Scoring or TOs are not the problems. Who can play any defense? That's a better question to make in order to know who has to play more or less minutes. How defensively good is this or that unit? This is another point of discussion for our coaches.
Speaking about White and Forbes, I think the average defensive contribution from White will help the team more than the current global contribution from Forbes, regardless how White's offensive game goes, as long as Derrick doesn't turn the ball over more than Brynn is doing (this is PG Forbes' biggest success).
Same about Walker. Can he play defense without damaging too much the offense? Then he deserves some court presence. Although, I still think the plan for him is to learn the system with the Toros, away from the NBA pressure. And I believe this plan is correct looking forward his long-term progression.
Popovich said the team is "defensively challenged" so they have to be working on some defensive adjustments. These can go from working on small individual key details to changing the playing time distribution(I won't be surprised if Metu starts playing). From a coaching perspective, I don't think the current help system, the rotations, the screens and p&r covers are wrong by design. I would put the emphasis on players to improve defensive execution but it's undeniable that too many of them are really limited in this area of the game. The team (and the roster) needs desperately anybody that can make defensive plays. The Spurs current defense is so weak that NBA unproven Derrick White could be a key player.
Walker's gotta play. His defense will likely be better than most of the roster. I think he'll also be OK on offense. There is absolutely no reason for him not to play when he get's healthy.
Completely agree. Same as you mention Metu. If he plays with effort and keeps making defensive plays and grabbing a board he could start getting minutes,even though he’s a second round pick that Pop would normally send to the Gleague too. They are just starved for a hustle/effort defensive player.
White would be about 5 steps above Patty's current contribution level. Hopefully he'll get better pretty quick.
I am OK with Forbes just as long as he is your 15th or 16th best player on the team. The Spurs need to
upgrade starters and also bench in a big way.
I disagree and agree. From a one on one standpoint.. yes. but as a specialist standpoint he could easily do what Patty did for us early in his career. Coming off the bench for 15 mpg and igniting a well-oiled bench is his perfect role. Once Patty had to start and eat the bulk of the minutes you saw he ended up looking like a 15 or 16th man but if he goes back to his role and there is the right team around him, he could be a super bench player.
The way Forbes has played, he isn't giving Pop a reason to bench him. White has better defensive potential and is more of a actually PG but Forbes is a better, more proven shooter. I have been very critical of Forbes in the past but he makes sense in the SL. Poeltl on the other hand....
Forbes has been somewhat of a bright spot and has made patty expendable
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