People don’t think the Latvian Laser can play defense because they’re racist against whites. It’s as simple as that tbh.
Against the Warriors he defends Thompson. He already did a great job against him on the playoffs last season.
Bertans is a much better defender than guys like Forbes, Belinelli and even DeRozan yet I don't see you questioning who those guys would defend. Do you imagine any of those three guys playing the kind of defense Bertans played vs Rose the other night to save the game? No way in .
If, in your opinion, "wings will cross him and bigs will pound him" imagine what those wings or bigs will do to the other rotation players of the team like Mills, Forbes, Belinelli and DeRozan. Bertans is one of the best 5 defenders on the entire team, that's why he should end most games: he's top 5 both in offense and defense for this team.
People don’t think the Latvian Laser can play defense because they’re racist against whites. It’s as simple as that tbh.
I know this is a troll comment but, yeah, there's some of that.
He did okay against Thompson a few quarters maybe but if it becomes a consistent thing they will game plan around demoralizing Bertans on the outside. I'm not saying Bertans is not good and I think he deserves a good amount of playing time but he just gets "beat up inside by bigs and eaten up by guards on the outside." Those players you mentioned minus Derozan are all bench players around 20 mpg.
He is a borderline starter though. Great value and will be cheering for him to prove me wrong.
lol what? Forbes is a 30 mpg starter.
Well. I am definitely not advocating him to be a 30 mpg starter. He plays too much. On a complete team he should be a bench player for sure. Murray, White out and Belli and Mills early struggles thrust him into major minutes. I would expect his minutes to decrease but whoever is playing hot needs the minutes. Seems like everyone gives Pop a reason to play them some games.
I don't care if he starts or not but he has to start getting 30+ mpg from now on. He just brings too much to the table to have one dimensional guys like Bryn Forbes average more minutes than him.
Yep, ended the game with 4 steals and a block tonight. Would be nice to see him develop a fade away from 10-15 ft out.
1 rebound in 36 minutes of action
He's the best shooter in the league and his contract is an asset, but damn does it annoy me how bad he is at something so simple like rebounding.
He grabs 9.4% of the rebounds available. That's adequate enough for a backup SF. Our all-star starting SF (DeRozan) grabs 9.6% of rebounds available, and nobody is complaining for his lack of rebounding, tbh.
Is it time for Pop to try a White/DeRozan/Gay/Bertans/Aldridge starting lineup?
I worry a little about Gay if he's forced to play SF, I believe he has been better as a small-ball PF mostly. But this lineup needs to be tested for a few games, Pop can play with the rotations and make early subs to DeRozan, Gay or Bertans because this move does make the bench very very small with Mills/Forbes/Belinelli.
Actually, Bertans was our back up pf for most of the season. I will say he is looking more and more like a SF than a PF though.
Last edited by SpursDynasty85; 01-30-2019 at 06:04 AM.
he should have done it already.
Pop does not seem to mind this, since he's been using the three of them together on the court.
There is no backup if Gay/Bert starts together. Next in line is Dante. But that could be closing unit.
I'm really amazed at Pop this season. He's really trying things. I did not expect that starting lineup at all. We all knew starting Gasol was the wrong move, but in year's past pop has been too stubborn to change things.
is it pop though? or is he just starting to take the advice from his assistants more than in the past?
This
If it was up to Pop, his pet Cun would start with a sprinkle of Pon off the bench.
Poop has never met a small lineup he didn't like. It's been a disgusting pathogen ever since the Roger Mason scrubbing days and before.
This is an incorrect way to look at it. Bertans plays PF, which puts him at a different spot on the court than DeRozan does. PFs should rebound more than wings because of how they function in plays, not merely because of their height. If Bertans moved down to SF so a bigger interior player could be the PF, it's likely that his rebounding rate would go down. Davis rebounds like he's almost never near the rim, the same as most of the other guards. On offense, that makes some sense due to his shooting skill, and indeed he has one of the lowest oRBRs in the league. Defensively, he should be much higher than he is. That's even more true when you consider how many mediocre or poor rebounders the Spurs have in their rotation this year. The last two years, the drop was excusable, since the team had a lot of really good rebounders for their positions.
A better defense is going to the on/offs and looking at his effect on the team's rebounding rate. He's actually one of the positives there, though not by much. Regardless, it suggests that Bertans not being a strong rebounder hasn't hindered the Spurs' ability to clear the boards this year. Issue is that he was a definite negative in that regard the past two years before this one.
I found an interesting article here:
https://www.bball-index.com/spurs-ba...e-biggest-key/
It basically says that the Mills/Belinelli/Bertans/Poeltl combination is the Spurs' most dominant 4-man combo, with a +24.1 net rating. It also says that our strong bench is responsible for a lot of the team's success, whereas the starting unit has been just OK.
Still making a distinction between SF and PF in 2019![]()
You spent half this thread complaining that Bertans is playing out of position because he's been a PF and not SF. You even have the nerve to refer to him as an SF a few posts ago. Would have just been better to admit you didn't understand how to use rebound rate correctly.
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