RMR Day 4: In-person impressions

[DPG21920]

Hill will start off the season backing up Parker.

Pop is gonna throw him in the fire, gauranteed.

Good to hear about hairston developing, I really like his potential, hes got the NBA shooting guard body and seems to have a great shooting touch.

The legend of James Gist continues and I think its a forgone conclusion this guy is gonna be the 12th man, emergency energy rebounder, small ball 4 defender guy.

Could the Dirk stopper been found?

We shall see.

Man, when I mentioned Hairston after game 1 of the SL I got ripped on this website. Buncha ing amateurs (says my pic).

[SPURSGOAT]

I still see Hairston spending some time with the Toros unless he really shows more in training camp and pre-season...

[DPG21920]

He probably will spend time with the toros, but people on here threw him under the proverbial bus after SL. I said he definitely looks like he has NBA tools and they gave me the usual jack-ass, fruit-less remarks.

[homer]

Final day for the Spurs at the Rocky Mountain Revue, where they played an exciting game against Atlanta. I also saw most of Dallas/Golden State. Impressions from previous days can be found here:

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101704
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101557


Spurs players:


Ian Mahinmi: Did not play today. I thought this was kind of odd considering it's their last day, but I presume it was more so that they could get a last look at the other big men such as Tolliver, rather than that Mahinmi needed rest.

George Hill: George definitely did not have one of his better games today. He started out well, but looked kind of fatigued from the second quarter onward. He was a little sloppier than usual, and his defense against Acie Law IV was far from what I've been used to seeing from Hill. Acie was able to get past him several times on the drive, and he was the first guy I think I've seen get past Hill more than once. Hill does a good job of recovering when he gets beat initially (more on that in a second).

Despite the poor game, Hill came up big in clutch time. Spurs were down one with about 20 seconds to go. True to typical Spurs form, they had Hill dribble the ball between the circles and sent everyone else off to the wings on an iso play. Hill made a good move to get into the lane, almost lost the ball for a second, but then recovered and went up strong near the hoop, drawing the foul. He hit two clutch free throws to put the Spurs up 1, 83-82. Hawks got the ball with 6.9 seconds left and, after using a timeout, ran a similar iso play for Acie Law. Hill let Law penetrate all the way to within 5 feet of the hoop, but when Acie went up for the shot, Hill got all ball and got the jump ball call with 2.0 seconds left. (Side note: Hill blocks a very good amount of shots for someone his size, especially on help defense.) On the jump ball, Acie Law didn't really seem to try for some reason; Hill did the smart thing and knocked the ball to the other side of the court, and time expired before the ball went out of bounds.

I wouldn't worry too much about Hill's performance in this game, though I guess there should be some slight concern for his inability to play well in back-to-back games. I think this is just the need for some more conditioning, as college players almost never have to play 60 minutes in 48 hours.

James Gist: Gist had another great rebounding game and was very aggressive on the boards, on offense, and on defense. He's a good shot blocker and uses his long arms to his advantage. On offense, he still needs to work on his perimeter game (especially his long jumpers), but you can definitely tell he played PF in college, as he looks comfortable down in the post and has some nice moves to get to the basket against larger defenders. We'll see what training camp brings, but based on what he did in summer league, I'd be very surprised if Gist didn't make the 15-man roster.

Malik Hairston: Hairston had his best game of the Revue and, based on what I've read, his best game of the summer. He was very aggressive on offense, and was successful both in driving to the hoop and hitting his 20-footer consistently. When he's aggressive, you can see his athleticism much more easily; he got a monster drive-and-dunk through traffic in the first two minutes of the game, and I think that fueled his confidence for a while.

As I've mentioned before, Malik has shown signs of being a very good passer. However, to be a good passer, you need two things: the physical skill of making crisp passes, and the mental skill of making good passing decisions. Hairston definitely has the former; however, he'll have to work on the latter. Passing decision-making should be a major emphasis in his development.

In all, I can definitely see a lot of potential in Malik Hairston's game, but it's going to have to be developed a bit. As a second round pick, I think he was basically guaranteed a training camp spot, but if not, he clinched one with this performance today. Personally, I think Hairston's final fate will be decided not by whether the organization thinks he's worth developing (the upside is definitely there), but rather whether they feel they can afford to use the roster space to send him down to Austin for a year.

Anthony Tolliver: Okay, so either this guy can really hit the 3-pointer, or he's just had the hottest streak of his entire life. Either way, his ability to make the long-range shot was impressive today and all summer. He was also a little better today at rebounding, banging down low on offense, and rotating a little better on defense. That being said, I don't think his defense or rebounding are on nearly high enough a level for the Spurs to use a roster spot on him. I think if the Spurs don't offer him a spot in training camp, someone else definitely will, and it will be up to him whether he wants to take that or go to Europe sooner.

Other impressions will come later; if not tonight, then definitely tomorrow.

Thanx Lurker, for all the great reviews and a hearty welcome to ST. I love your assement of Hill and agree totally. I'm also glad to see that someone else on this board has recognized Hills performance in Back to backs verses games after rest. When rested, most of his games, if not all(some of you stat people check, please, and report back), were pretty damn good on both ends of the floor. On b to b's he pretty much the bed offensively. I really would like to see those stats side by side. ANYBODY, PLEASE.

[lurker23]

Lurker, you da man!

Love these summaries. Very well-chronicled.

By the way, on the comments regarding Tolliver. Is he any worse defensively than Bonner? Sounds to me that at least he is young enough to where he can improve his defense. I would think with Horry not coming back, there would be room to develop another "good-shooting" PF like him. Bonner moves up in the rotation and Tolliver could take his roster spot - even if it meant him spending time in Austin. Thoughts?

I have to admit, I'm not the most unbiased when it comes to Bonner. I think Bonner is better defensively than Tolliver. However, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of Tolliver coming to camp and him and Bonner going head-to-head for a rotation spot. I'd fully expect Bonner to beat him out. However, if he didn't, then Bonner isn't the player I thought he was, or I've massively underrated Tolliver. Either way, let them go at it and see what happens.


I'm not sure how much people really care about other players at the RMR, but I figured I'd finish up my thoughts from earlier.

Golden State Warriors players:

Anthony Randolph: To put it simply, this guy is very raw. Purely basketball skills-wise he shouldn't have come out of college after one year. However, if an NBA team is going to take you with the 14th overall pick and pay you for them to develop you, why not come out early? No doubt he has a tremendous upside and could become a phenomenal player, but that's down the road. I said in a previous thread that he needs at least one year in the D-League. Re-evaluating, Randolph was born on July 15, 1989...and I'd be surprised if he's NBA-ready before he's able to drink alcohol legally in the United States.


Anthony Morrow: In a previous thread SenorSpur asked me if there were any "bubble players" that I'd like the Spurs to invite to training camp. After seeing this guy twice, he would definitely be my pick. Undrafted out of Georgia Tech, he is a 6'5, 210 SG. Despite scouting reports to the contrary (on some of these points) he appeared to me to be very athletic, has a nice shooting touch, is a good slasher, and played good defense in the RMR so far.

Unfortunately, according to DraftExpress, "Morrow surprisingly already signed a contract to play all the way out in the Ukraine, leading many disappointed high-level European teams here wondering what exactly his rush was to sign in a league like that."

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/...y-Morrow-1003/

I'm not entirely sure why he's playing in American summer leagues, unless he has some kind of generous NBA opt-out clause. (Though I doubt this to be the case.)

I suppose those are all my thoughts for now. I'm probably unlikely to attend the final two days of the Revue on Thursday and Friday, but the Spurs aren't playing then anyway. As always, feel free to ask me questions about some of these guys.

I'm not entirely sure how much I'll post from here on out. For the sake of my free time (and sometimes my sanity) I've resisted posting in the past, but this has been an enjoyable experience, and everyone's been so complimentary that it might have just sucked me into posting every once in a while.

[bobbybob0]

Thanks a lot Lurker for the great read !

[Obstructed_View]

Final day for the Spurs at the Rocky Mountain Revue, where they played an exciting game against Atlanta. I also saw most of Dallas/Golden State. Impressions from previous days can be found here:

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101704
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101557


Spurs players:


Ian Mahinmi: Did not play today. I thought this was kind of odd considering it's their last day, but I presume it was more so that they could get a last look at the other big men such as Tolliver, rather than that Mahinmi needed rest.

George Hill: George definitely did not have one of his better games today. He started out well, but looked kind of fatigued from the second quarter onward. He was a little sloppier than usual, and his defense against Acie Law IV was far from what I've been used to seeing from Hill. Acie was able to get past him several times on the drive, and he was the first guy I think I've seen get past Hill more than once. Hill does a good job of recovering when he gets beat initially (more on that in a second).

Despite the poor game, Hill came up big in clutch time. Spurs were down one with about 20 seconds to go. True to typical Spurs form, they had Hill dribble the ball between the circles and sent everyone else off to the wings on an iso play. Hill made a good move to get into the lane, almost lost the ball for a second, but then recovered and went up strong near the hoop, drawing the foul. He hit two clutch free throws to put the Spurs up 1, 83-82. Hawks got the ball with 6.9 seconds left and, after using a timeout, ran a similar iso play for Acie Law. Hill let Law penetrate all the way to within 5 feet of the hoop, but when Acie went up for the shot, Hill got all ball and got the jump ball call with 2.0 seconds left. (Side note: Hill blocks a very good amount of shots for someone his size, especially on help defense.) On the jump ball, Acie Law didn't really seem to try for some reason; Hill did the smart thing and knocked the ball to the other side of the court, and time expired before the ball went out of bounds.

I wouldn't worry too much about Hill's performance in this game, though I guess there should be some slight concern for his inability to play well in back-to-back games. I think this is just the need for some more conditioning, as college players almost never have to play 60 minutes in 48 hours.

James Gist: Gist had another great rebounding game and was very aggressive on the boards, on offense, and on defense. He's a good shot blocker and uses his long arms to his advantage. On offense, he still needs to work on his perimeter game (especially his long jumpers), but you can definitely tell he played PF in college, as he looks comfortable down in the post and has some nice moves to get to the basket against larger defenders. We'll see what training camp brings, but based on what he did in summer league, I'd be very surprised if Gist didn't make the 15-man roster.

Malik Hairston: Hairston had his best game of the Revue and, based on what I've read, his best game of the summer. He was very aggressive on offense, and was successful both in driving to the hoop and hitting his 20-footer consistently. When he's aggressive, you can see his athleticism much more easily; he got a monster drive-and-dunk through traffic in the first two minutes of the game, and I think that fueled his confidence for a while.

As I've mentioned before, Malik has shown signs of being a very good passer. However, to be a good passer, you need two things: the physical skill of making crisp passes, and the mental skill of making good passing decisions. Hairston definitely has the former; however, he'll have to work on the latter. Passing decision-making should be a major emphasis in his development.

In all, I can definitely see a lot of potential in Malik Hairston's game, but it's going to have to be developed a bit. As a second round pick, I think he was basically guaranteed a training camp spot, but if not, he clinched one with this performance today. Personally, I think Hairston's final fate will be decided not by whether the organization thinks he's worth developing (the upside is definitely there), but rather whether they feel they can afford to use the roster space to send him down to Austin for a year.

Anthony Tolliver: Okay, so either this guy can really hit the 3-pointer, or he's just had the hottest streak of his entire life. Either way, his ability to make the long-range shot was impressive today and all summer. He was also a little better today at rebounding, banging down low on offense, and rotating a little better on defense. That being said, I don't think his defense or rebounding are on nearly high enough a level for the Spurs to use a roster spot on him. I think if the Spurs don't offer him a spot in training camp, someone else definitely will, and it will be up to him whether he wants to take that or go to Europe sooner.

Other impressions will come later; if not tonight, then definitely tomorrow.

Good stuff.

PS: Suck it Sequ.

[urunobili]

this guy deserves a Spur...

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

Thanks.

It's pretty clear that Hill will be on the active roster and Gist should either be 12th or 13th man, but Hairston still has a long way to go if he wants a roster spot.

[Manufan909]

dude he is backing up tp
tp sits maybe 10 minutes a game
he can not be worse then what the spurs had last year
except when manu did it
spurs do not have barry anymore

Somehow, every single ducks post seems to have a Manu burn. I might as well try that, so I can see what being an ass consistently feels like. And I'd like Hill and Ian to be put in the fire early, and Gist as well, if it's possible. If the Spurs are up by 15+ put in the rookies, see what they have.

Parker's a ball hog.



EDIT: Thanks Lurker, great stuff. Soon we'll be starting you over Timvp, cuz he's getting old. JK, TIMVP!!! Your summaries are the bees knees.

[lurker23]

EDIT: Thanks Lurker, great stuff. Soon we'll be starting you over Timvp, cuz he's getting old. JK, TIMVP!!! Your summaries are the bees knees.

lurker is a better poster just lacks experence. It won't be long until he surpasses TIMVP as a top poster. Bet on it.

You guys give me way too much credit. timvp is the man, and I certainly doubt my posts will ever compete with the popularity of his Game Thoughts, especially considering 1.) I don't usually get league pass, partially because I see 20+ Spurs games a year anyway with national coverage and 2.) to get these impressions on ALL the players (and not just focus on 3-4), timvp watches the games 2-3 times. I don't think I could do that, especially on the losses.

[AFBlue]

i disagree simply because Pop said the kid will have an immediate impact which conveys to me that Pop fully intends on this guy being on the active roster and getting key minutes at the back-up PG. i fully expect g.hill to be thrown into the mix and being allowed to work through his mistakes. if he isn't allowed to do that, i will be shocked given Pop's statement.

Pop said that immediately following the draft and before Hill set foot on the court. What followed was a very inconsistent showing in both Vegas and Salt Lake City.

I think he has the defense and at ude to contribute right now, but he clearly has a LONG way to go offensively. And if all he's going to bring is hustle and defense, I think Pop would rather go with the guy who brings the same thing and knows how to play within himself.

Who knows, you may be right...but at this point I don't see a reason why his development should be rushed. Time in Austin learning how to be a PG on the court for 30 minutes a night could really benefit him.

[timvp]

Great job lurker23. You came to the rescue when the rest of Spurs fandom couldn't see the games.

lurker23 > timvp

[lurker23]

Great job lurker23. You came to the rescue when the rest of Spurs fandom couldn't see the games.

lurker23 > timvp

What can I say? Thank you for the compliment.

(I reserve the right to quote the above post as a "get out of jail free" card if I say something extremely stupid in the future. )

[sabar]

Hope you keep posting throughout the season!

[Bruno]

Thanks for all your games thoughts. I have greatly appreciate reading them.