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Gotta give Pop some credit too with how he handled his physically and mentally tired star all season. Best coach by far
Give me 8 players you'd take before Parker.He didn't blossom last year tbh...He was the focal Point of a much improved spurs team ( Better shooters, Great defenders etc) of course he's going to look like he blossomed..The guy has always been a Stud, but it wasn't until Pop made an effort to make him the focal point of the offense..That's when he started to look really good in the RS and to a lesser extent the playoff.
He's just being Tony parker..He hasn't really changed much aside from the fact that the offense looks to him more than Manu and timmy so it's easy to see him have a great season when you get a bunch of other guys that are really good at doing what they're doing.
He's dominating this series, but where was he against Miami last year? Dallas this year? Golden state Last year?
He was somewhat OK, but his success is largely dependent on what the opposing team gives him...He;s not a top 8 player in the league...It's just him getting attention from the change in the system.
Gotta give Pop some credit too with how he handled his physically and mentally tired star all season. Best coach by far
1. Lebron
2. KD.
3. Blake
4. CP0
5. Duncan ( the best spur this year in the RS)..I wouldn't take him in the long run obviously
6. Dwight
7. Goran Dragic was miles ahead better this year
8. LMA
I confident he can handle the other teams go to move of switch a big defender onto TP better than he ever has before. He doesn't have to keep up the level of POR play for the Spurs to win. Spurs are crushing a Western Conference Semi-Finals team by 20 a game
He won't be as good as he is now because other teams have better team defense and individuals to throw at TP, but with his improvements in handling that move, it will help. Spurs almost won a le last year where he handled that move worse than he is handling it now is my point.
I have to chuckle some at people saying TP has something to prove. Anything he theoretically had to prove, he proved last year as the clear cut leader of the Spurs (hat tip to Duncan turning back the clock as well) and almost delivering a le. It's silly to me to say he has something to prove. My observation was not a series prediction either - it was an observation about one aspect (albeit an important one since so many teams deploy this strategy) and how TP has adjusted.
He didn't blossom last year tbh
He's just being Tony parker..He hasn't really changed much aside from the fact that the offense looks to him more than Manu and timmy so it's easy to see him have a great season when you get a bunch of other guys that are really good at doing what they're doing.
He's dominating this series, but where was he against Miami last year? Dallas this year? Golden state Last year?
He was somewhat OK, but his success is largely dependent on what the opposing team gives him...He;s not a top 8 player in the league...It's just him getting attention from the change in the system.
He is not going to dominate every series, but he is the best decision maker in the NBA and he is now improving how he handles his biggest weakness IMO which is the point of saying he continues to blossom. He struggled vs the Mavs but I think a lot of that was he was not feeling physically well. He got off to some blistering starts in the Mavs series then faded. I think he even improved from the Mavs series to this one with regards to mentality. The Mavs were asking TP to score a ton and he didn't feel comfortable doing that even though it was the optimal decision with how the Mavs were defending. He finally made the decision to say if teams are going to do that, I will continue to shoot over and over. That's huge.
Totally agree with OP. Even when Batum was on him, Parker got two good mid-range looks and blew past him with layup and-1. Not to mention that Tony was destroying Matthews (another good wing defender) and that's what forced the switch in the first place. Plus, as an added bonus, now that Batum's on Parker, that forces Matthews to guard Kawhi, which is another exploitable mismatch for Game 4.
However, as good as Tony has been on offense, he's been just as impressive on defense. He's been charged with guarding Lillard straight up for the most part and has limited Lillard to 1 made 3-point shot. He's taken an all-star PG and rendered him ineffective for 3 games.
Bravo to Tony Parker.
He's had a great series, props to TP and hope he continues it throughout the playoffs.
It doesn't hurt that Terry Stotts has apparently never seen him play and took him 2.5 blowout games to finally put Batum on Parker. Batum can't really guard TP for the points illustrated by DPG, but he's a much better option than slow ass Wes Matthews and Dame Nash tbh.
Batum has played Parker at various times in all three games. The thing about putting one player on him is that you can effectively subtract that player from your offense. Parker will run his legs off if nothing else. Batum has been their best 3 point shooter. Did you notice that after they put him on Parker, he hit only one more 3 pointer, and it was that slop bank shot?
also: "When there is talk about the best point guards, sometimes they don't talk about me. But that's not my main motivation. They can talk about Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Deron Williams and Chris Paul. I still have the most rings."
They also had the best supporting cast since like Forever..
He is not going to dominate every series, but he is the best decision maker in the NBA and he is now improving how he handles his biggest weakness IMO which is the point of saying he continues to blossom. He struggled vs the Mavs but I think a lot of that was he was not feeling physically well. He got off to some blistering starts in the Mavs series then faded. I think he even improved from the Mavs series to this one with regards to mentality. The Mavs were asking TP to score a ton and he didn't feel comfortable doing that even though it was the optimal decision with how the Mavs were defending. He finally made the decision to say if teams are going to do that, I will continue to shoot over and over. That's huge.
What's your point? The fact is when it comes to "talent" Spurs are very rarely ever mentioned as a top team. In fact, most people call the majority of the guys TP plays with either old (Tim/Manu), scrubs (Tiago, Danny Green, Patty Mills, Bonner) or overrated (Kawhi Leonard).
All championship caliber teams have good supporting casts - it doesn't make what the leaders of the team do any less amazing. TP has blossomed and almost got the team a le just last year (of course it was a team effort, but the point remains).
Again, this wasn't a huge celebration of TP thread or a prediction thread. It was a very specific observation about one key area of improvement that should bode well moving forward. Teams have always used that big defender switch as the go to move for slowing TP.
It's worked to varying degrees throughout his career culminating last year in a near le. Any improvement in that area, since it's a much used strategy will go a long way in getting the Spurs back to the finals. It's not the only thing needed obviously, but it's a big thing.
Blah, Blah, Blah.....Tony Parker is a star player. Get over it! How will he match up to other Star Players as the series continues.....just wait and see. For now, his play is great! Thankful that he is playing well and a huge asset to the Spurs! I just wish he would pass the ball to other players on the team. But, he knows when he is HOT so he goes for it.
Although I'm criticizing Parker for this season's play and last year's Finals, I still don't understand why there are criticisms of him not passing enough in these playoffs, tbh..
Both Dallas and Portland are asking Parker to beat them, particularly the Mavs series, where they essentially begged Tony to dominate by shutting down passing lanes and the spots of shooters(Beli and Danny)..Portland can't play defense, at all, and their coverage is allowing TP to shoot open mid-range Js all game..if he wants to shoot 20-25 attempts per game against soft defenses that are giving him open looks, he should take them all day..
Tony has actually chosen his spots very well in these playoffs, he's taking what the defense gives him..
It will be different against Miami and/or OKC, since they defend the pick&roll well and have the perimeter defenders to limit him, so we'll see how he picks his spots in those games..
He's taking care of the ball and still getting a healthy amount of assists (with an unreal assist to to ratio right now). On top of that, he's doing the bulk of the scoring and defending POR's best player
But yes, OKC/LAC/MIA are much better defensive teams as a whole and with the players they can switch onto TP. I do think any improvement (which to me, despite the fact POR sucks at defending PnR, he has shown lately) will help against those teams.
Parker has been amazing against Portland, no denying that..
been praising him on my MVParker thread since Game 7 of last series... the Spurs are tough to beat when he's playing like that...
TP basically is coming into his own, he takes what the opposing team gives him IMHO.
He seems to have many games where he dishes off after penetrating for high assists, and other games where he scores at will, and then even other games where his attack is pretty balanced.
So far he and Tiago are the co-MVPs of this series IMHO.
I do think though that TP keeping his dribble alive more and not just settling when he is trapped or the opposing team switches a bigger guy onto him is a big deal. As he keeps that dribble alive and makes more decisive moves North/South (that is the physical improvement) it really makes it tough and teams will not continue to let TP beat them which then opens things up.
The biggest improvement is mental though. The fact he seems to finally understand that if a team is giving you those looks and you need to shoot 25 times, he will do it. It's not natural to anyone on SA to shoot that much even if it's there. It's natural to give that ball up when trapped/swarmed over and over. However, with him keeping that dribble alive longer and moving North/South vs East/West it creates a ton of problems for that strategy. It will still work at times and obviously be tougher to do against OKC/LAC than POR, but if he can just do it more than usual in previous years you have to like SA's chances.
Thank this guy, tbh
http://grantland.com/features/the-shot-doctor/
You make a valid point.
So far there is no one on either opposing teams, Mavs and Blazers who were/are able to cover him.
If they make it to the finals, he will probably have James guarding him again like last year.
Hopefully TP has learned how to, and will be able to, handle James this time around, provided both teams meet again.
This is the improvement I was alluding to though. Without looking up the data, it just seems that the Spurs are still scoring in the paint at a decent clip whereas before when teams deployed this strategy that went away. Basically, POR has tried to take that away from TP and it hasn't worked very well.
He's made the improvement on this strategy mentally (you saw that click in game 7 whereas before in that series he would start out strong and then just be fine sitting back) and physically.
Excellent thread.
On top of keeping his dribble against long defender, IMO the most improvement he has made since last year is the use of the screens.
the fact tiago is playing great is awesome news for Parker because tiago is having pt and gives good screens everywhere.
as mentioned by dpg last year he would simply give up the ball and go to the corner. Nowadays he recognizes extremely well where the screens are gonna hurt his defenders. Dude keeps his dribble gives up the ball and starts his crazy runs all over the floor using multiple screens to take the ball back with a tired late defender on him he then makes the good choice: js, drive or pass the ball to an open mate.
using the screens is the area of most progress vs last year. Big difference between game 2 of mavs serie an now since game 7 is his health, a fatigued injured tp is not capable to do it.
we also overlook the fact he is quite old, not a lot of pg with his size and without a great 3 pts shots are capable to maintain their level of play at his age tbh. Again the amount of hate from spurs fan base is totally unexplainable at this point. Look at this thread and the dumb posts of apocalypse.
I agree with ya Brazil he has not received the love he should be getting I can't imagine how terrible we would be without him. What I like about Tony is he is taking things personal he is playing with some "Nasty" playing with a chip on his shoulder and is dialed in.
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