The problem with Lyles is he has shown flashes of being a rotation player. He plays well enough to fool the coaching staff that he should play more. Then he completely disappears for games at a time.
There is a reason why the Spurs got him for cents on the dollar.
If we are going to be losing games, I'd rather be doing it while developing our young players than by playing some guy who is going to end up on the scrap heap. We can still "soft tank" by giving Devin and Luka more minutes.
The problem with Lyles is he thinks he's Rudy Gay on offense, when he's actually worse than Kyle Anderson. He was working on all kind of turnaround jumpers over the left shoulder in the offseason, things he will never be able to do in the NBA due to being too slow and not athletic enough
No doubt on your assessment of Lyles. He's been given chances and I wouldn't be surprised if they give up on him soon. Guy has a lot of talk in him but can't back it up.
I think it's a combination of different things: showcasing is the cause and soft tanking is the result that comes with it. I don't think losing is the ideal result, but they live with it and adjust their moves on the chess board because of it.
Spurs need to right this ship and fast
I'm grasping at straws here. He had a decent few games before these last three. Pop used to also start the third-stringer when the normal starter was out to keep the bench rotations the same.
I do agree with your overall point, though. Starting Lyles doesn't make much sense.
That 3rd quarter was torturous. Philly looks good though. Thanks for the grades, hopefully today we can grab a win.
It's the only explanation, really. You don't have to start a guy like Lyles - not even a case like LMA, where he's been starting his whole career and you'd be hurting his image by making him come off the bench - to try and up his trade value. If it was that high of a priority, you could have him come off the bench, but stay in the court longer, and close out the game even, a nice 20-25mpg could be had. But no reason for starting him, and definitely moreso when it's consistently led the Spurs to some of their worst performances of the season.
The fact that Pop cannot see Lyles' negative effect on the SL is a big, big problem, and it cannot be chalked up to "CIA Pop" stuff, because if Pop was truly invested in upping Lyles' value, he wouldn't put it in such a position to fail. Playing him alongside a non-shooter in Poeltl and forcing him to take a brunt of the offense because the rest of the lineup is low on 3pt shooting and shot creation doesn't make Lyles better - it makes him look overmatched, unproductive and a part of the problem, instead of a solution. This is just Pop ing the roster up, just like it was when he was benching Lonnie after 10m to close the game out with Forbes (and he did that as well too yesterday, only gave him 15m - and there's similarly no way that was supposed to "build up Lonnie's confidence" like people were saying last season).
An F- for Pop wouldn't have been enough, but it would've been a start.
it's easy to talk about fit when you support a team with D-Rob, Duncan, Manu, Parker and Kawhi for 20 years, in 2021 SA needs talent, and that is clear when facing elite teams. I get confused when people really believe that it is not worth having a guy like Collins or Vucevic on the team because of a possible "bad fit", these guys would automatically make the game easier for youngers just by being on the court.
We need to stop acting as if there's hope in Lyles' career for him to become a significant rotation player... He had had many chances in his career... Bench him completely and let's see what Luka has
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