Grades: Spurs vs. Thunder - Feb. 3

[timvp]

Geez, Pop oughta get an A+. Bottom line: Any win with Manu and Ford out is a great job.

But I hear a lot of niggling criticisms about minor issues when we beat the best team in the league.

Just win, baby.

The big picture is just as important as each game. Otherwise, Pop should play his best players 40+ minutes and go to a seven-man rotation right now if winning today is all that matters.

The win over the Thunder was great. But failing to give Parker sufficient rest and possibly wearing off some of the tread is a concern. And I wouldn't consider the failure to carve out a consistently large role for Splitter as "niggling".

In fact, those are probably the two most important issues right now. So while Pop deserved an A for the win, he scored low when it came to doing the things necessary to maximize San Antonio's chances to win a championship.

[timvp]

Splitter TO per 36 minutes: 2.9

Parker career avg TO per 36 min: 2.8 (3.1 in 09-10, 3.3 in 05-06)
Manu career avg TO per 36 min: 2.7 (3.1 in 07-08)
Duncan career avg TO per 36 min: 2.6 (3.1 in 97-98, 3.0 in 99-00 and 06-07)

I agree Splitter's TO rate is a bit too high compared to the time he spends handling the ball, but it's not extraordinarily high compared to his teammates.

I think turnover percentage is the better measurement when comparing players at different positions. Splitter's TO% is 19.8 this season.

Duncan's career TO% is 12.8 with a high of 15.7 when he was a rookie.

Ginobili's career TO% is 13.9 with a high of 17.5 when he was a rookie.

Parker's career TO% is 14.1 with a high of 17.5 when he was a rookie.

So Splitter's TO% this year is 13.1% higher than the worst of Parker and Ginobili. And the jump has been a surprise since Splitter's TO% was a very respectable 11.2 last season.

The good news is Splitter has been improving as of late in the turnover department. If he can get back to at least around 15, that will give Pop one less excuse not to play him.

[Bruno]

Parker playing so much minutes has a lot to do with Spurs not having a backup PG. Joseph, Neal and even Green haven't been able to be decent backup PG.

I wouldn't be too harsh on Pop for playing that much Parker because it's a temporary thing which should end in a few weeks with Ginobili and Ford back. If Pop continues to overplay Parker with the full team healthy, he then should bb criticized about it.

Spurs' FO, which include Pop, deserves way more criticism for not having signed a vet PG when Ford got injured and when it became obvious that Spurs didn't have a decent backup PG in their roster. It's a little miracle that Spurs haven't been more hurt by that lack.

[dunkman]

Not Manu coaches would down the NBA best team without their best player. IMO Parker is still young he can play 38 mpg sometimes. His average for the season is 33.7 mpg. While Parker gets more assists then in the previous seasons, his offensive efficiency is awful around 1 pt per shot this season. It was great to see an quality game from here.

BTW, the grades analysis is a quality work.

[Em-City]

Splitter doesn't have a lot of obviously bad turnovers this season. Most Spurs fans wouldn't even know he's been turnover prone because his mistakes usually happen in the flow of the game.

His offensive fouls generally go under the radar in the heat of the moment, but count as turnovers none the less.

[wildbill2u]

The big picture is just as important as each game. Otherwise, Pop should play his best players 40+ minutes and go to a seven-man rotation right now if winning today is all that matters.

The win over the Thunder was great. But failing to give Parker sufficient rest and possibly wearing off some of the tread is a concern. And I wouldn't consider the failure to carve out a consistently large role for Splitter as "niggling".

In fact, those are probably the two most important issues right now. So while Pop deserved an A for the win, he scored low when it came to doing the things necessary to maximize San Antonio's chances to win a championship.

Yeah, but the grade you give is for the single game. You need to keep the parameters of the grading system intact or you start getting off into the 'what ifs' of potential game performances past and future.

IMHO Pop is probably looking at the 'big picture' as you call it with the moves you find incomprehensible as to rotations and minutes. You don't get to be a coach with his number of wins, les, and percentage of winning without some idea of the big picture as well as the minutae of the single game. Or do you think he really makes moves because it's Tuesday???

The desired end result of the ac ulation of winning single games is to make the playoffs and so far Pop is doing a damn good job of winning individual games, however he does it.

If he was a player, he'd be playing at a high level with a gimpy leg and a brain injury and we'd all be amazed.

[therealtruth]

Yeah, but the grade you give is for the single game. You need to keep the parameters of the grading system intact or you start getting off into the 'what ifs' of potential game performances past and future.

IMHO Pop is probably looking at the 'big picture' as you call it with the moves you find incomprehensible as to rotations and minutes. You don't get to be a coach with his number of wins, les, and percentage of winning without some idea of the big picture as well as the minutae of the single game. Or do you think he really makes moves because it's Tuesday???

The desired end result of the ac ulation of winning single games is to make the playoffs and so far Pop is doing a damn good job of winning individual games, however he does it.

If he was a player, he'd be playing at a high level with a gimpy leg and a brain injury and we'd all be amazed.

Pop didn't do such a great job of looking at the big picture last season. Otherwise he would have integrated Splitter into the rotation by playoffs. He's still not getting Splitter enough minutes even though his defense and scoring will be more valuable in the playoffs.

[TJastal]

The big picture is just as important as each game. Otherwise, Pop should play his best players 40+ minutes and go to a seven-man rotation right now if winning today is all that matters.

The win over the Thunder was great. But failing to give Parker sufficient rest and possibly wearing off some of the tread is a concern. And I wouldn't consider the failure to carve out a consistently large role for Splitter as "niggling".

In fact, those are probably the two most important issues right now. So while Pop deserved an A for the win, he scored low when it came to doing the things necessary to maximize San Antonio's chances to win a championship.

Expecting certain spurfans to pay attention to anything other than whether a game was won or lost is asking alot.

[TJastal]

Yeah, but the grade you give is for the single game. You need to keep the parameters of the grading system intact or you start getting off into the 'what ifs' of potential game performances past and future.

IMHO Pop is probably looking at the 'big picture' as you call it with the moves you find incomprehensible as to rotations and minutes. You don't get to be a coach with his number of wins, les, and percentage of winning without some idea of the big picture as well as the minutae of the single game. Or do you think he really makes moves because it's Tuesday???

The desired end result of the ac ulation of winning single games is to make the playoffs and so far Pop is doing a damn good job of winning individual games, however he does it.

If he was a player, he'd be playing at a high level with a gimpy leg and a brain injury and we'd all be amazed.

This is Timvp's website therefore he can grade any damn way he pleases.

Pop clearly isn't seeing the bigger picture with Splitter's role on the team. This is likely going to bite the spurs in the ass once again. And Timvp has every right to draw attention to it and use it in his grading system.

You may think Pop knows best with Splitter but last season's debacle in the playoffs begs to differ. And this season he has shown even more of his skillset yet continues to take a backseat to inferior players like Blair and Bonner. There is no excuse for this.

[maverick1948]

Having watched the game a second time with stop action, I have a couple of comments to make.

First, our bench got too happy shooting 3 pts and not working the ball for a good 2 pt shot. When you are ahead by 24, you look for the best shot. By looking for the game closing 3, we failed to find the 2 pt shot that would have put them over the top. 6 - 14 from 3 pt is fine, but 1 - 10 from 2? What the heck?

Second, things that dont show in the box score are called intangibles. Some of the Spurs players have the nack for doing things that dont show up. Ibaka, Perkins, Nazr, and Collison had a total of 13 rebounds. What caused the low number for those 4? On a large number of rebounds, the ball went to the backcourt for guard to rebound. But something else, our lesser name players who didnt have big stats stepped up. Every one of the Spurs, Bonner, Blair, Jefferson and Leonard, all blocked out well. Timmy reaped the reward from the hard play of the others.

Like I have said before, we do need another big. But I watch the play of those we have and realize that Pop does look at the replay of every game and evaluates the team. Yes, Bonner is weak on defense, but he is strong on offense. Blair is undersized but he works as hard as anyone to get his position.

One other thing, our defense is doing quite well. Over the last 10 games we have given up between 90-91 pts a game. That is well below the level we started out.

I love the grades from Timvp, but sometimes the little things are missed in grading.