The three games I've seen over this last stretch, I have to say that Parker's biggest improvement is on the defensive end. That either results in more aggressive play on the other end or is just a bonus byproduct of it. It seems pretty clear that when you have a scoring point guard coming off his best season, poised to enter the rarified air of best players in the league at his position, telling him that he needs to fundamentally change into a passing point guard is a major mistake, particularly with there still being questions about your backup point guard options.
That seems a good segue into my next point: I also agree that Popovich is responsible for at least the Raps loss. He has a track record of overestimating his impact during good stretches and his attempts to coach are frequently disastrous. Let's hope benching Tim Duncan is a big enough mistake to remind him not to meddle for the rest of this year. Gotta give him credit that it only took 20 games for him to see what most of us already saw in Dejuan Blair and make him a starter.
Isn't it amazing how much better the Spurs suddenly get when Michael Finley's not there to leave his man or fail to rotate?
Roger Mason's finally showing signs of getting out of his shooting funk, and just in time. If he'd waited another week, he might not have gotten his job back.
I guess the Spurs have just outright decided that Ian Mahinmi isn't an NBA player. If they aren't going to give him any minutes under any cir stances, they should be looking actively for someone in the league who still thinks he might be and get what they can for him. If Pau Gasol is healthy during the playoffs this rotation of bigs isn't going to be able to match the Lakers. If there's any chance that Mahinmi's going to be able to give you ten or twelve minutes of guarding the paint, then now's the time to be throwing him out there. I like Malik Hairston, but I'd much rather Ian be getting those two to three minutes in garbage time going forward.
Richard Jefferson's numbers, while disappointing to many fans, really aren't a huge departure from the numbers he's put up his whole career. The only big difference I've been able to see is that he's not getting as many shots, and as Timvp mentioned, who are you going to take shots away from to get him the ball? He's starting to figure out when he's expected to do certain things, and it's not a stretch to think that going forward he's going to be much more careful with the shots that he does get to make sure they're good looks. When RJ's putting up his averages every night instead of going for 25 one night and three the next, his value to the team will be much much higher.
The Spurs need to realize that, as good as Bogans has been on defense, that Bruce Bowen isn't walking back through that door. The Spurs' days of being the best defensive team in the league are behind them. That said, there's no reason not to think that they can't play good enough defense to have a lot of success, particularly when combined with this new group's vastly improved athletecism, offense, and rebounding.
Excellent point. In addition, I think his shooting and Mason's have improved because they're not worrying so much about keeping their toes behind the line, and instead are shooting when open, in rhythm, from the spot they're at. The Spurs' percentage from three point range helps them win games they should lose most times, but that's about it. This group should be shooting outside jumpers in order to soften up the defense for opportunities to go into the paint, and that's all.
Agreed. Well, at least one cameo. Let him at least try on the jersey. Mahinmi would be a lot more interesting to watch than Hairston or Haislip.
Good point. Knowing what they'll get from RJ on a nightly basis will help this team. If he can get his production without having to break the offense, that would be even better.
one play i'd like for the Spurs to run more is where RJ gets it in the low block (right around where Timmy does his banker) and faces up and drives. he can get to the basket with his quickness and/or upper body strength against any defender and elevate as high as anybody. and as of late he shown a recognition of where everybody is when the D collapses. i'm sick of seeing Parker try to do too much and lose the ball when they can allow RJ to operate. Pop was pissed off at Parker right after he did something like that against the Pistons...
OMG your french is almost perfect except for the "anneaux". We don't use "anneaux" in that context "bagues" is much better but connasse is quite good.
To sum-up "Quatre Bagues, connasse !" nevertheless I think the closer thing to 4 rings got is "Quatre Bagues, enculé" or "Quatre Bagues, salope".
I was actually shooting for '4 rings, '...
OMG your french is almost perfect except for the "anneaux". We don't use "anneaux" in that context "bagues" is much better but connasse is quite good.
To sum-up "Quatre Bagues, connasse !" nevertheless I think the closer thing to 4 rings got is "Quatre Bagues, enculé" or "Quatre Bagues, salope".
I've been to Paris about 7 years ago and it's a gorgeous city. I didn't get to learn much of the language, but I still remember a thing or two...
According to hoopsstats, we're actually ranked even worse than 15th in points allowed in the paint, 23rd according to them, which truly is scary, but kind of expected..Nice analysis.
Even if they played mostly against bad teams, Spurs are looking better than they did few weeks ago. Spurs are a damn good offensive team and there are still room for improvement.
However, there is one stat that is plain scary:
Spurs are right now 15th in the league for points allowed in the paint with 41.2 pts/game. That's bad and it's even worse when you also consider that Spurs are playing at a slow pace. As long as they don't fix that, I won't consider them as a serious contender.
The p&r D has been especially bad, which is leading to a lot of these points..Duncan has been fine at defending 1 on 1 in the post, he hasn't been getting beat there, which is kind of surprising based on his lacking man to man D the last 2 seasons, but he hasn't been able to defend the p&r well at all this year..
Our other bigs are usually getting beat in most 1 on 1 situations..I don't really see how that's going to change though, we don't have the tools to change this with the current personnel..
like voulez vous coucher avec moi ?I was actually shooting for '4 rings, '...
I've been to Paris about 7 years ago and it's a gorgeous city. I didn't get to learn much of the language, but I still remember a thing or two...
Indeed, no Pop thoughts of any sort.Dice will turn it up a notch when it matters... thanks timvp!
No comments on Pop
Would have liked to see some words on the scrubs too...
To submit my own theory to timvp, I believe Blair is indefinitely more valuable than Bonner or Dice (defense extending bigs) because he is the perfect big man to allow Timy to shoot his damn near perfect jays, bank shots, and at least face up.
Bonner almost never gets beat up in the paint to save Tim from it, but Blair lives there (and does not get in Duncan's way, like many presumed he would). He might not be too much of a defensive presence, but he's a of alot better than Bonner at getting steals and not backing down. The taller dudes just cannot move him. Like Theo said, he gets in their legs. Makes him sound like a horrible disease.
I would like to add that starting Dice in a Spurs vs. Mavs series is most likely paramount. But if Blair starts on Dirk, maybe he can extend his streak of blocking the big german everytime they meet... or get in early foul trouble.
Considering the way the Spurs are playing, I don't get why aren't we seeing Manu running the show as a PG, at least for short streches, specially when Dice and RJ are on the floor.
Great read. Thanks.
Parker, Bogans, Jefferson, Duncan, Blair seems set.
Ginobili, Bonner, McDyess, Hill.... that's a good playoff rotation.
No, more like 'Je ne parle le français'
Manu is all but the team's backup point guard at this point. Hill is listed a point guard but his job is basically to bring the ball up the court. After that, it's usually in Manu's hands.
I used to think that Manu should let Hill do playmaking with the second unit but now I've changed my mind and don't care if Manu handles all the playmaking. Hill just hasn't shown me PG skills this season when it comes to creating, while Manu's decision-making and passing might be at career best levels.
Hill plays off of Manu pretty well as well. He's developing a nice little pull up mid range jumper.
Having Manu as the quarterback for the second unit, getting time with McDyess and Hill, is the only good reason to have him coming off the bench. So far it's been a convincing one.
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