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Oh Pop’s starting Cunningham. Bet on it. No way he lets a chance to start centerpiece v.2 slip away. He has the easiest excuse to do so now.
Another game, another 30-plus point blowout. That makes three such blowouts in the last four games. The Spurs latest debacle was a 139-105 dismantling at the hands of the Jazz.
San Antonio went down early, trailed by 14 at the end of the first quarter … and that was about it. The Spurs never really made a serious run.
-After losing three games by a combined 104 points, the blame has to start at the top. It’s not like Pop’s coaching an expansion team that lacks NBA talent. The coach has two really good players and enough talent overall to not get embarrassed this badly.
While I don’t think the team has quit on him, I do not believe Pop is putting the team in the best position to be compe ive. I was happy that he started Davis Bertans again tonight but he went away from featuring Derrick White in a major role off the bench. Instead, he allowed the return of Marco Belinelli to diminish White’s role.
Not leaning on White is damning in itself because White is far and away the team’s best perimeter defender. Without the second year player leading the charge on defense, the Spurs simply don’t have the manpower to slow any team down.
And while Dante Cunningham isn’t starting, Pop hasn’t yet excised him totally out the rotation like is necessary. Cunningham isn’t a good defender and is a poor offensive player so there’s really no reason to play him, especially in a situation where you’re struggling on the road. That’s when you put high upside lineups on the court – not lineups featuring a player like Cunningham who at the very best won’t hurt you.
Following how good the offense looked last game against the Blazers, I think Pop should have kept Belinelli out of the rotation completely tonight. Not only is Belinelli’s shooting in the toilet this season, his shot selection is so bad that it breaks the team’s rhythm. And that’s not even factoring in his terrible defense.
-While Pop’s not exactly helping matters, the main reason why the Spurs are struggling so bad is their defense. The adjectives don’t exist to express how absolutely horrible their defense is right now. It’s truly some of the worst defense I’ve witnessed played on the NBA level.
It starts with the starters. I’ve previously praised Bryn Forbes for trying hard on defense but that effort hasn’t been there in the last six to seven games or so. That lack of intensity has caused Forbes to go from bad to worse on the defensive end. DeMar DeRozan had moments earlier in the season but now, true to his pre-Spurs reputation, he’s full-blown atrocious on defense. It’s sad to report but Rudy Gay has been defeated by his nagging injuries and has lost all his mobility and is now a major liability on defense.
Bertans is never going to be a good defender based on how he’s built but his number of mental mistakes tonight in Utah was quite high. LaMarcus Aldridge can’t be bothered most of the time to shift his defensive effort out of first gear. Tonight, I don’t think it would have been possible for him to give less effort on that end without the use of sedation medication.
The only bench players who show any defensive upside are White and Jakob Poeltl. I don’t think either one of them was too impressive tonight on D but at least they have the tools.
-Speaking of Poeltl, he was the bright spot tonight. He exhibited a relatively wide array of offensive moves on his way to a career-high 20 point on 9-for-11 shooting from the field. From pick-and-roll finishes, to an off the dribble penetration starting from beyond the three-point line, to a midrange jumper, to buckets on the fast break … he showed a little something. It’ll be tough to find Poeltl more minutes with Aldridge around but the Austrian is getting better and better by the game. His PER of 22.9 is now actually the highest on the team.
-Another silver lining tonight was Chimezie Metu. Sure, it was extended garbage time but it appears as if things are starting to click for him. He had a few nice moves with the ball, illustrated very good mobility on both ends for a bigman and just looked way more comfortable than he did just a couple weeks ago. I’m not ready to say Metu deserves a spot in the rotation … but that could come sooner rather than later if the blowouts keep stacking up.
-Offensively, DeRozan and Aldridge were okay. They were both a bit too ball-dominant but they were productive in their limited minutes. The issue was San Antonio’s defense was so pathetic that the offensive end of the court really didn’t matter much tonight.
-To put some statistics on the disastrous defense, the Spurs now boast the league’s second worst defense, allowing 113.3 points per 100 possessions. Only the tanking Cavaliers (113.5) are worse. In their last ten games, the Spurs are allowing 120 points per 100 possessions – more than three points worse than any team in the NBA over that stretch.
-The Spurs have the tenth best offense on the season but, again, that doesn’t matter with how porous their defense is at the moment.
-What’s the next step in attempting to fix the defense? I think Pop has a couple options. The first option is to bench Forbes and put White into the starting lineup. The Spurs need at least one good defender in the starting lineup. This would seamlessly accomplish that.
The other option is taking Gay out of the starting lineup. The problem is that there’s really no one to replace him. Gay’s out there on one leg but he’s probably still a better defender than Belinelli, for example. Would a frontline of Poeltl, Aldridge and Bertans work? Probably not but it might be worth a shot. If not Poeltl replaying Gay, maybe actually give Quincy Pondexter a shot. Yes, that’s how desperate the Spurs are for a decent defender in the starting lineup.
-Next up is a back-to-back against the Lakers in Los Angeles. I guess the good news is that the Spurs shouldn’t be tired. I don’t think anyone in silver and black had broken a sweat in Salt Lake City before the game was all but decided. It’s going to be a really difficult to get a road win with how out of sorts the Spurs are right now. Honestly, I’d probably settle for a well-contested match at this point.
-Against the Lakers, we’ll get an idea about how married Pop is to starting Bertans . He’ll be tempted to start Cunningham in order to put him on LeBron James like he did in the two earlier games this season. I think it’d be the wrong move but we’ll see what Pop does.
Oh Pop’s starting Cunningham. Bet on it. No way he lets a chance to start centerpiece v.2 slip away. He has the easiest excuse to do so now.
good effort op
Cheers OP for the thoughts. Only reason to come here after a game in these dark times.
Thanks timvp. Never thought players would quit on Pop, but then again these guys aren't Manu, Duncan, and Parker. LaMarcus is the first suspect on my list if indeed the guys in the locker room aren't responding to Pop anymore. He seems like he would be the most likely to quit on the team or coach. If these losses keep mounting up I wouldn't be surprised if he's moved.
Speaking of moves it's obvious to me that the Spurs need to be on the phones looking for ways to try to improve this team. If I'm the front office I'm looking to get rid of Belinelli first. He is bad. He's poor defensively and on offense he shoots way too many bad shots. It kills the team offensively. Why he's still getting playing time is beyond me. The other players I would look to move would be Cunningham and Forbes. They really don't bring too much to the team.
Walker returning might help, but how much playing time will he actually get? Not only that Walker doesn't solve all the team's problems.
This was awful, and disheartening. The offensive talent is what it is, plus I heard (on Windhorst maybe) that they had one full practice a few days ago after almost 3 weeks. It is hard to build an offense and a difense when not practicing, but still there is zero difensive effort. Zero.
I don't know if the defensive schemes are too complex -there is a lot of situational help-drop-switch-rotate that obviously takes so much time to understand and have in sync. But the body language is awful.
The offense is pretty good and all but I’ve noticed a turnover trend. I don’t know where they are in terms of per game average but they have a way of turning the ball over at the most costly times. Every possession counts but I watched a number of times last night and in other games where they needed a crucial basket to keep momentum and DeRozan (as big of a fan of his I am) and usually Forbes or Gay will just practically throw the ball away. They did it against Portland when the Blazers almost took the game back.
The defense is disgusting but am I the only one who notices these turnovers? It tends to really damn any chance of a comeback without even factoring the defense in
If Pau was healthy they should just go big with Pau--LMA-Bertans-DDR-White. That's good enough as far as a regular season lineup. It does crapify the bench with Mills-Forbes-Marco, but RC and Pop don't know what they're doing anymore with rosters, so it is what it is.
Next is to feature Walker, either off the bench or starting and going ultra small. But Mills and Marco got paid so Walker will stay in Austin somehow unable to play for a team that is getting slaughtered most nights lately
Re: roster fixes/trades/adjustments
But like I wrote a year ago and was proven right in my fears: RC and Pop can't be trusted to fix things, because they don't know that things are broken. They didn't learn from their Mills-pau disaster, couldn't diagnose what was obvious long before those deals. Those guys don't think they signed bad deals.
If they had it to do over again, they would do it the same. So of course the front office that was so catastrophically wrong on Mills would waste their MLE on Marco. Of course they would be fine not having a real small forward when they were fine with Mills defending Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant.
The only way they make moves that matter positively going forward is for them to first realize how incredibly dumb they've been in order to not make the same mistakes.
And I don't expect that to happen. That kind of self-reflection and getting over themselves is just not something old guys who have been successful are typically capable of. , even without success. Ernie Grunfeld isn't capable of it.
The T word was missing in the post. Tanking. Too early for it, but I guess the Spurs should consider this. It's a good season to tank without looking like tanking..I mean the Spurs can finish 14th with a 35 win season too and it could help ..the odds of landing the first pick are no longer much higher for the worst performer. There is a decent chance to land a good top 5 pick even if you don't finish in the Top 5.
Usually I'm not the one to panic but we are truly bad and joyless. What concerns me is the trend of low energy starts. We seem to always drop -10 immediately after the game starts, and everybody on the starting line-up looks accepting and depressed. No energy whatsoever until the bench is in the game. And this team doesn't have the defense for huge comebacks. So being down early just kills us night after night. And I don't really see how to turn things around. We need some Draymond (as much as I hate him) types in the locker room. We are soft.
As for LA game I understand that I'm in minority here but I actually want to start Cun on Lebron maybe with Gay coming of the bench.
And yeah. I think it's time to bench Forbes
Salvage the season, trade LMA, he's worthless and clearly doesn't want to be here.
Playing all our young guys is not tanking when they all seem to be our best players now. I believe PATFO has been playing the vets with hefty contracts out of sheer desperation. Meaning if they are benched their trade values look terrible but when they play their trade values still look terrible. He is hoping to raise them I think. Who knows for sure but Pop and RC have a nasty season on their hands here.
So, what are the chances LMA gets back into last years form?
If he keeps playing like this, Spurs should trade him for a bag of chips. He's not doing any good out there, it's unbearable to watch.
And...lose by 30
If you give up 130 points a game, how many points you lose by is irrelevant. And it seems to me that the will (or ability) to defend adequately is gravely missing.
Spurs are just not good but keep doing the same thing. There is NO defense, not perimeter or interior, and add that to the NBA rule changes, these high scoring blowouts will be the norm.
To save the season, next year, not this year. The Spurs will need to continuously try out Gleague young players and see if they can play and defend to a high level. You cant trade or let leave your defensive players and not replace them.
Even though we have a decent amount of talent the fact is that aside from Walker and Murray, our players are predominately mopey betas and they look miserable out there. We have naggy, excuse-ridden, emo players who can only look at what's wrong with a situation.
If Murray and Walker were healthy they have the charisma to become the young leaders of the team. Players who are _fun_ to be around and play with.
Aldridge can have a role on a championship team, don't get me wrong, but he was picked last at the All Star game for a reason.
No amount of fiddling with the lineup can fix the team as assembled unless Murray and Walker can step up and lead and play and become the centerpieces.
None of this is helped by the fact that Trump completely broke Pop without even trying. Listening to Pop these days makes me suicidal. What an eeyore!
That might be the liste frustrating aspect of the season.
Traditionally, when teams tank, they do so by benching/trading the vets while force feeding minutes to young developing players.
But the Spurs are flipped. For them to tank, they have to play the vets and scrubs the most, which is just awful, awful to watch.
But if the Spurs force feed minutes the inexperienced players then that actually gives them the best chance to win paradoxically. Which might be easier to watch and more interesting, but hurts the tank.
Thanks for the grades!
pop: 'they made shots' in the post game interview
What a sad state of affairs. Spurs defensive iden y is completely shattered...and I don't think even a healthy Murray would be enough to save it. I guess that's what happens when you lose your four best defenders in one offseason.
A quick glance at the West standings makes me feel like it's time to start considering tanks-ville, then I quickly remember that the East is a garbage hump. Spurs are 14th in the West, but only 21st overall. Somehow, there are 8 teams in the East that are playing a worse brand of basketball (record-wise) than San Antonio.
Even if they don't intentionally tank and just keep playing at this poor pace, they will likely only end up with an 8th-12th pick to show for it.
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