Series Grades: Spurs vs. Suns

[Cry Havoc]

I agree with most of the ratings. I thought Manu's grade was accurate. If he was healthy, I would have given him a D+, but playing through the injury like he did is absolutely huge. The fact that he DIDN'T try to do too much in the close-out game was great for us.

The only other problem I have is that Pop deserves an A+. Has he ever dominated more from the sidelines? His rotations and subs got in D'antoni's head. I have never seen a coach so thoroughly owned in 5 games. Parker/Duncan might have won the series for us, but Pop's head games absolutely controlled the Suns.

He didn't have PERFECT switches, but so what? He had a huge hand in not letting this series go past 5 games, and that is the absolute BEST thing a coach can do. I'm not sure a perfect series has ever been coached. This is as close as it gets. This is a display of why having a great coach makes a difference in a close series.

[spursfaninla]

Vintage performance dusting off the "grades"...I don't remember seeing them in a long while. People will always complain about grades (trust me, I know) so I can see why you might feel less appreciated after whining comments, considering the great work you put in.

Timvp, as a former teacher I fully understand the difficulty in trying to give grades because, as people are mentioning, there are many possible (and reasonable) standards to use, many of which would give significantly different results.

I understand how the measure you used, "expectations," tells us how well they played compared to 1) how they played in the regular season, and therefore 2) If they were play the role assigned well. I think this is a valuable measure, it is really saying "For Manu, you played at 70% so that is a c," or "for a garbage time point guard, you played well Damon, B."

However, the other measure that might also be valuable would be how well they played on an objective continuum, either impact on the game or as an NBA player at their position. I think other people mentioned the former, and your comment was that duncan would get an A, Tony and Manu would get C's and everyone else would get an F if considering game impact. I think but that is probably hyperbole. The other players were important on D for the most part, and Manu and Tony were very important in scoring.

That said, thinking about it as a whole it would be too bersome and time consuming to add these additional factors into the grade or to even have multiple grades, so I think looking back I think good choice on method.

[jestersmash]

Do people always have to ask the same stupid crap after every grade posting?

"wwwwwhoa, LJ, how could you give kurt a B, its almost the same as manu whaaaaoaa"
You sound like idiots.

Is this a joke? It's a forum, genius! You know, a place where you go to discuss and critique one another's opinions?


Same goes for this sentiment:

People will always complain about grades (trust me, I know) so I can see why you might feel less appreciated after whining comments, considering the great work you put in.

Are we always just supposed to hold timvp's hand and say he's absolutely unequivocally "correct" all the time? There's no right or wrong answer to any of this.

I thought we were here to discuss the Spurs.


One more edit:

By the way, I hope this goes without saying but since people seem to be more uptight around this place, I obviously do appreciate the insight he put forth. His post was very thorough and methodical, and clearly he put a lot of work into it so certainly he deserves props for that.

[timvp]

Is this a joke? It's a forum, genius! You know, a place where you go to discuss and critique one another's opinions?


Same goes for this sentiment:



Are we always just supposed to hold timvp's hand and say he's absolutely unequivocally "correct" all the time? There's no right or wrong answer to any of this.

I thought we were here to discuss the Spurs.

Is SR still down?

Why are you so emotional? Take some of your parents riches and go to the doctor to get that checked out. You've single-handedly doubled ST's emo-ness in your 24 hours on the site.

One more edit:

By the way, I hope this goes without saying but since people seem to be more uptight around this place, I obviously do appreciate the insight he put forth. His post was very thorough and methodical, and clearly he put a lot of work into it so certainly he deserves props for that.

I'd rather you insult me.

[theroc5]

I say " A's" for everybody. It was a group project and they got the job done.

Yea, Spurs!

[jestersmash]

Is SR still down?

Why are you so emotional? Take some of your parents riches and go to the doctor to get that checked out. You've single-handedly doubled ST's emo-ness in your 24 hours on the site.

I'd rather you insult me.

What's wrong with my statement? I didn't think it was emotional at all. I was just questioning why someone would call another person "stupid" for providing alternative viewpoints on a forum.

The better question is, why are you so immature to the point where you keep hounding me for no real apparent reason at all? Did I say anything to annoy you in this topic? I thought we were past that little harmless interchange yesterday.

If you would rather me not post, that's fine, just ban me. Alternatively, I can just stop posting all together if it would make you feel better.

I thought this was a Spurs forum. Why is it that every time I try to discuss Spurs, I get jumped on by one of the site owners? I thought coming here to SpursTalk.com I would find a place where people would discuss, you know, the San Antonio Spurs. I'm not going to lie - it's a little annoying having to defend myself constantly against this random aggression.

I'll just leave then, no big deal. Just say it outright next time.

[timvp]

What's wrong with my statement? I didn't think it was emotional at all. I was just questioning why someone would call another person "stupid" for providing alternative viewpoints on a forum.

The better question is, why are you so immature to the point where you keep hounding me for no real apparent reason at all? Did I say anything to annoy you in this topic? I thought we were past that little harmless interchange yesterday.

If you would rather me not post, that's fine, just ban me. Alternatively, I can just stop posting all together if it would make you feel better.

I thought this was a Spurs forum. Why is it that every time I try to discuss Spurs, I get jumped on by one of the site owners? I thought coming here to SpursTalk.com I would find a place where people would discuss, you know, the San Antonio Spurs. I'm not going to lie - it's a little annoying having to defend myself constantly against this random aggression.

I'll just leave then, no big deal. Just say it outright next time.

Friendly ribbing, bro, friendly ribbing. Stick around

[Agloco]

SPURS 4 - SUNS 1


Michael Finley

FIRST ROUND STATISTICS
Points: 7.0
Rebounds: 1.8
Assists: 0.8
FG%: .433
3P%: .364

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Despite playing significantly more minutes per game than he did in the regular season, Finley stats were almost all down. Only his field goal percentage was up (.433 versus .414).

ANALYSIS
Michael Finley hit a three-pointer in Game 1 to send the contest into overtime. After that, though, Finley didn't do much in the series. His defense was poor, he wasn't rebounding the ball and he wasn't finding many shots in the offense. However, to his credit, Finley also didn't force anything, as evident by his one turnover in 165 minutes of playing time. The Spurs will need more offense out of Finley going forward, although the Suns do deserve credit for covering Finley well throughout the series.

FIRST ROUND GRADE
C
Finley didn't play well defensively and wasn't producing much overall, but he also limited his mistakes.
--------------------------------------------------

Who stole Finley's jersey during halftime of Game 2 and got the Spurs started on that epic run? The Spurs got another win due in large part to the great start in the third period of that game.

I say C+.

[Que Gee]

I honestly don't agree with your "C" grade for Bruce Bowen. His defense on Nash throughout the series was spectacular (especially in that pivotal game 5 near the end).

Good lord...give me a break.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

Wow! Game recaps and series grades from Timvp?!

I have to admit that I kept surfing into Spurstalk after game 5 looking for Timvp's recap and was disappointed that it was taking him awhile to get it posted. He sums up the games amazingly well. So then I basically just steal what he says and look like a stud basketball analyst when I'm talking to other people about the games.




I'm telling you, that guy should have his own website or something.

[polandprzem]

Wow! Game recaps and series grades from Timvp?!

I have to admit that I kept surfing into Spurstalk after game 5 looking for Timvp's recap and was disappointed that it was taking him awhile to get it posted. He sums up the games amazingly well. So then I basically just steal what he says and look like a stud basketball analyst when I'm talking to other people about the games.




I'm telling you, that guy should have his own website or something.

Or forum or something

[FromWayDowntown]

I could see the argument for bumping Finley up a notch, if only because his heroics in Games 1 and 2 forced the Suns to spend at least some defensive energy to deny him looks, which opened things up a bit for Parker in the middle if only because at least one additional defender was forced to keep in touch with Fin (and Barry). I'd compare it to that LA series in '04 -- LA might have thought twice about packing the lane completely if someone like Hedo had drained a few big shots on them earlier in that series. With that, Finley, as you said, did a good job in not forcing shots once the Suns put a bit more attention on him and the other perimeter guys. Those aren't very tangible contributions, but I think they were meaningful.

Of course, you're right that Finley's defense was really, really bad at times, too. Perhaps the balance works out right in assessing his performance as average.

[Kori Ellis]

I'm not going to lie - it's a little annoying having to defend myself constantly against this random aggression.
...

I'll just leave then, no big deal. Just say it outright next time.

1. You get worked up too easily when someone comes back at you. You probably need thicker skin to post here or you are going to end up whining every day.

2. It's not random. You started a thread just to trash our site and tell us how strict we are compared to SpursReport. Now you are saying how uptight it is here.

3. Asking to be banned or whining and saying you are going to leave is funny. You haven't done anything to be banned, and we aren't going to beg you to stay. So leave, lurk or post. It's not that serious.

[T Park]

I could see the argument for bumping Finley up a notch, if only because his heroics in Games 1 and 2 forced the Suns to spend at least some defensive energy to deny him looks, which opened things up a bit for Parker in the middle if only because at least one additional defender was forced to keep in touch with Fin (and Barry). I'd compare it to that LA series in '04 -- LA might have thought twice about packing the lane completely if someone like Hedo had drained a few big shots on them earlier in that series. With that, Finley, as you said, did a good job in not forcing shots once the Suns put a bit more attention on him and the other perimeter guys. Those aren't very tangible contributions, but I think they were meaningful.

Of course, you're right that Finley's defense was really, really bad at times, too. Perhaps the balance works out right in assessing his performance as average.

Agree.

His impact on the first round wasn't as huge as it was last year, but, it was close to as meaningfull.
I'm very interested to see how he starts out against New Orleans, who historically doesn't guard the SG well.

[Spurs Brazil]

Great read timvp