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He had team-high 9 assists tonight... at least that was working for him...
Remember last season? He had similar weeks with struggling on offence. Terrible % FG, and suddenly (no reason) he started beasting every night till Dirk's elbow. Hmmm.. Don't know how to call it.
He had team-high 9 assists tonight... at least that was working for him...
He's the worst player on the team tbh we need to cut him. No spot on the roster for him, that's PT Novak or Quinn could be having...
I don't think people forgot, that was more attributed to him "working off the rust", getting into game shape and collectively, the entire team having to get used to one another and in many cases, learn the system, since there were a lot of new faces.
I agree that he can't be a #1 option throughout the course of the grind that is the NBA season and that he's not the best player on the team, but this is beyond a slump at this point and beyond "pacing himself", too. He has shot the ball horribly for roughly two months now and this is with his minutes gradually decreasing. I also feel he's taken less bad shots in that time (though obviously, there's no way to prove or quantify that; it's subjective). He's shooting the second worst mark of his career from the field and from three, despite playing on a team with arguably the most scoring depth in the league.
Ginobili's struggles aside, this is the way it was supposed to be going into last season. Parker has emerged as the #1 option and is generally the guy carrying the offense, or at least coming as close to that as possible in what's essentially an equal opportunity offense. It just took a while for them to settle into this, since Ginobili started off this season picking up where he left off last season.
You can't hit a ing rainbow. Impossible. It's ing science.
nothing new here
ducks this isn't trolling now, it's just true. You have to make these comments when Ginobili is playing well. Don't ruin the shtick.
popovich needs to drastically reduce manu's minutes back down to the 25 minute range. if this means moving him to the bench then so be it. ginobili has become fatigued/injured in the playoffs before and there's no reason to think that it won't happen again. therefore, either reduce his minutes or watch him tire out in the playoffs.
I told people manu should not have went to allstar game!
Parker sucked in the second half. I've never seen him miss so many layups. He was out of control, and was bailed out on calls several times.
He and Manu each had one big shot, fortunately.
Typical fan overreact. Calm down. I think Manu knows how to be Manu.
Dont put too much into each game.
This type of react should be reserved for playoff series.
I know i was glad he had the ball in his hands at the end of a game they (not we) won.
IMO
It's exactly this kind of that vindicates mookie's view of manu
Regular season games?
He's been shooting like crap since the end of November. It's not a rough stretch at this point. The ONLY month of the season that he shot above 41% was November.
I still think he's just fatigued, but maybe it's more than that.
he has been fatigued since nov?
if that is true spurs really over paid IMO
His driving less to the basket is causing him to shoot a lower percentage from three and a lower percentage overall. I said this before and I'll say it again: Manu was not a pure shooter 9 years ago and he's not a pure shooter now. He's always built his game on his driving ability.
I still think he's an elite driver to the basket--when he wants to be. Right now he shouldn't want to drive though. It makes him more injury prone. He's doing the right thing right now by taking jumpers. It saves his body for the playoffs, when he will need to drive and his jumpshot will be secondary. This is what having a 6 game lead over the guys in second place affords him. This was the plan, wasn't it?
There's a couple things that evidence why I don't thing that his bad shooting has anything to do with fatigue (other than what I already said about him never being a great shooter in the true sense of the word):
1. Manu can still drive, and he can still get up in there and finish with the best of them. Maybe not like the Manu of old, but he still can. The latest example of that is in the Chicago game when he hammered it down. He was determined to get the rim and he was able to not only do that but go go up and dunk it with authority.That is the Manu we will see in the playoffs more than likely. In other games, esp. when the game is on the line he will drive to the basket and usually score. Take tonights game for example. He was 1/11 at one point, but with a couple minutes to go he drives and I think scores over Ibaka with a tough bank shot. He knew he had to score and he successfully got to the rim.
2. He has been on this so-called "slump" for a good 2 1/2 months. To the people who say his poor shooting now is due to fatigue: was he fatigued 2 1/2 months ago as well? No, he wasn't. It has nothing to do with his legs, and his more to do with him not getting easy buckets for himself.
3. Manu is demonstrating that he has his legs under him in other ways. For example, he's been soaring for rebounds. He's also been stealing the ball. If he was tired, you'd see it permeate every aspect of his game, which is not the case.
4. Manu has said he feels great. A couple weeks ago he said he felt great, why would he lie?
I think what Manu is doing to atone for his not shooting a high percentage is passin the ball well. Guys like Neal, Blair, and RJ are feeding of Manu. That'll only help in the playoffs.
I'm not worrying one bit.
Spurs paid Manu to have at least one player that can hit FTs during crunch time, IMO.
If Manu starts nailing 3's like gangbusters, all of this becomes irrelevant
Manu has been terrible all month: 35% FG% and 24% from 3pt.
it's time to put him back on the bench. his best game in Feb: against the Wizards off the bench.
When was the last time Manu did NOT shoot 2-12?
Actually a couple weeks ago, he said he was tired, bruised and banged up.
"I’m a little banged up,” said Ginobili, who played with a padded black sleeve on his left bicep to protect a recurring bruise. “Aches and pains. Nothing that threatens the season, but they add up, and I needed a rest.”
At least he was able to sink a layup and some FT's in the 4th of tonight's game. He's definitely been in one of a shooting funk though, likely fatigue and nagging regular season pains. Manu's also one of a streaky shooter and he's been shooting a lot of jumpers this season, probably an effort to save his body for the playoffs like the rest of the old guys.
Manu's reputation can backfire on him though. He's arguably been the Spurs best player for the past two seasons so he gets plenty of defensive attention from the opposing team. But he still manages to contribute in other ways at least, its great that the young Spurs players get to learn from Manu's hustle and unique game.
He's also been playing a decent amount of minutes at small forward which he can be significantly undersized for which likely equals more fatigue and more difficult shots.
Last edited by Cane; 02-24-2011 at 12:36 AM.
Horrible shooting night, but still able to make a critical shot and sink clutch fts down the stretch. Plus, he had 9asst. I want to bang on him, but he's contributing in other ways. Nevertheless, we don't sniff a championship with him shooting this way. He needs to be balla #1 for us to have a chance.
It may be fatigue, it may be a lack of confidence, it may just be a long slump. But Manu needs to realize he isn't shooting well and stop taking contested step back 3's. Manu takes 2-3 shots per game that make me yell "No!" at the TV. Its one thing when he's taking bad shots when he is in rythm.. but when he is playing like this he needs to slow down and let the game come to him.
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