Senile hack finally realizing Fatty Mills sucks and should only play 20 min max a game.
I think one of the assistants is the real MVP. I cant pin point who though. The natural trend for teams is to play more zone considering todays offense and since their turnaround they've played times three the zone than they were playing previously.
The 111 today could have easily been 135. The Spurs are clesrly challenged as a team though.
The emergence of white and consistent solid play from Forbes helps too
With less Cunningham
Good stretch is tied directly to playing through Fat Lamarcus to make sure he's engaged on both ends...
They've got an iden y now and it's allowed them to feel more comfortable whether it's running their O or switching everything on defense tbh
And limiting cunningham’s Minutes
It’s a shame Aldridge can’t play this hard 90% of the time
Last edited by Amuseddaysleeper; 12-30-2018 at 03:13 PM.
I think it's Udoka. They ice the pick & roll a lot and that's his specialty
Becky tbh
People say the zone can get picked apart in today's NBA. Maybe. Usually. But this may be the right tonic for the space and pace era. The Spurs may be once again on the cusp of the next thing.
Nah, it's directly related to Pop realizing Cunningham should play in garbage time only
The Heat have been playing zone the most this season. They deserve a lot of the credit if we’re giving any.
Yeah, not saying it's just the Spurs, but this seems to be the next defense against teams chucking endless barrages of threes. It helps when players don't automatically collapse on drives. Stay closer to home on the shooters.
Yeah I agree.
Pau hurt plus DNPs
Let them drive 1 on 1 and hope the guy misses the contested layup?
Again, ST's need to on players is amazing and pathetic. Just last week, folks were trying to pile on me for defending Aldridge. Before that it was Beli. The need to hate at least one guy on the roster at any given time is just bonkers.
Chin, I'm offended. I hate several of the players at any given time.
No need to have the entire defense collapse, especially when most drivers are thinking kick-out instead of trying to score nowadays.
Spo is one of the best in the league
Facts, tbh. ST has multiple personality disorder. One day it's love, the next day, it's love, err scorn.
I've hated the same players since the beginning. mills and LMA. Both are scrubs.
Don't forget Forbes even though Forbes is actually good.
Belli is awful though tbf.
'Tis strange, indeed. It's been that way for 15+ years now, though, tbh.
Premise of this thread -- and the searing Mills hate, in general -- is divorced from reality. I guess with Parker gone, unfounded hate had to flow somewhere and Mills was the next target.
Mills has had stretches of sub par play but he's far from being the problem. In fact, this team plays worse with Mills off the court than any other player on the team (-3.4 points per 100 possessions compared to +5.4 when he's on the court). Spurs would definitely be worse off without him ... and that's not even factoring in the intangibles he brings to the team. Sure, it's impossible to tell how much stability, leadership or corporate knowledge is really worth, but it very likely has some value.
My dislike for Mills and his awful contract go back years and have nothing to do with Parker.
Mills and his misleading on/off is just fools gold and nonsense.
I appreciate you probably weren't watching the last 4 years but Mills has largely been a disaster. Destroyed by every scrub he faced in the playoffs, being fat and en led, making public statements about how he didn't have any pressure because he was being paid money to make up for past performances.
His great locker room leadership has seen the franchise player force his way off the team and the one big free agent signing demand a trade.
The best thing that could happen to the Spurs now is a Mills injury that would allow Walker to get minutes.
If you want 'divorced from reality' go read the thread that broke news of his new contract. Everything posted by me and a few others was spot on and proven out, it was the others who liked the deal that were divorced from reality
Too many posters think a team is just an addition of players. This society of highlights is unable to notice the value of the work behind the scenes, the dirty stuff.
Everybody recognizes Tim Duncan's greatness above his stats but they can't recognize the true value of those same virtues in other players like Parker, Ginobili, Mills, Gasol, etc. Sad they can't find basketball stuff to discuss rather than hating players or coaches.
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Regarding the good stretch, IMO Aldridge's overall improvement and White's play have been the main reasons. LaMarcus started playing better during the losing streak, finding his rhythm offensively and playing better defense progressively. White has helped LaMarcus running the playbook as expected, allowing LA to have the ball in better positions which established Spurs offense and pace, and helped transition defense thanks to a better shooting selection (into the schemes). Biggest improvement has been Derrick's defensive performance as we all have seen.
During the stretch, DeRozan has decreased his offensive production, Mills and Gay's % are worse, Gasol is out and even so the offense is still very good. Poetl started getting better soon, Bertans is benefiting from team's play, Marco refocused after a few games in the dog's house and Forbes has stopped creating and just takes the shots he has to take. Running the offense through Aldridge makes all the pieces fit together but more importantly sets the tone in the game, slowing the tempo, pushing opps defense under the basket and allowing Spurs to return to their court and set the positional defense.
White's defensive versatility allows Popovich to hide Forbes and DeRozan assigning Derrick to whoever the best offensive player the other team has on the court. White has been assigned to pick&roll players, shooters, 1on1 scorers, etc. and has done a good job against all of them. He helps the team to get stops and even run the fastbreak. When LA plays solid defense, protecting the rim, Derrick becomes even more effective and opponents have to put the offensive focus over Forbes or DeRozan.
Thanks to White+Aldridge offense, DeRozan doesn't need to play hero basketball and can put some work on the defensive end. He still can score +20 and assist without forcing the issue. For this team to go to the next level, DeMarr must play better p&r/screen defense, avoiding the contact with the screener and recovering his man faster. IMO he can do it well (there was a good example yesterday when he even blocked a shot). This will only happen if DeRozan feels he doesn't need to spend 90% of his energy running the offense.
Rudy Gay is on a similar situation. The more 1on1 he's demanded to play, the less good help defense he will provide. With offense flowing, Rudy can find naturally his shots. The more fastbreak the team runs, the more easy scoring for him, so he needs to contribute to team defense.
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It's hard to change something is working well so I understand Pop benching Gasol being available. Popovich might be waiting for the next thing to happen (injury, individual bad stretch of play...) to make a change in the rotation. If I had to insert Gasol now, I'd do the following:
Start Poetl instead of Gay. Make Gasol the C in the second unit. Start reducing DeRozan, Aldridge minutes, giving the second unit leadership to Gay surrounded by Pau, Bertans, Marco, and Patty. It worked well during the first month of the season.
Our starting five would be Poetl, Aldridge, DeRozan, Forbes and White. Now that Aldridge is scoring his midrange shots and White is starting to hit the threes, I'd give a chance to this unit. Maybe they struggle vs super small ball teams or maybe they dominate them inside. We're still in January, there is time enough to return to the Aldridge-Gay-DeRozan frontcourt .
Last edited by Coach X; 12-30-2018 at 05:36 PM.
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