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Irrelevant - he might eventually score less on Kawhi/Jack, which is the purpose of the thread.
Well there is one difference: Harden and Harden>Kevin Martin...though tbh, Martin does do well against us. I'm hoping we make a move for some front court help at the deadline, we'll see.
Irrelevant - he might eventually score less on Kawhi/Jack, which is the purpose of the thread.
The whole point is if you can beat up teams inside they won't go small. The key to getting a better inside game is playing more Duncan-Splitter. You can always use a zone defense to counter bad matchups but a zone defense won't help you rebound better if you're undersized.
As long as it gets to work well in the post-season . . .
That's actually what a good zone defense is designed for: rebound better when you are undersized.
Spurs just need to let Durant get his like they used to do with Amare, and shut down everyone else.
Diaw could be a stretch 4 if he would just take his open shots. Dude passes up more shots than a nun a bar. He is a really good shooter and can even hit a decent rate from three...but knoooow...let me pass up this wide open 18 ftr and pass to Duncan down low with 3 guys on him.
Someone last year mentioned on this board (mightve been a suns fan) that Diaw was good but his over passing and refusal to take open shots was gonna frustrate Spurs fans.
There are basically 2 cases where Spurs could go small.
The first one is if the other team go small and Spurs had to adjust to defend them. It's an almost automatic case because Spurs don't have the quality at PF/C to impose a will of staying big.
The second one is Spurs going small to create a mismatch. Spurs/Pop rarely did that in the past.
Since the majority of the cases where Spurs will go small will be as a response, it's interesting to see against what team in the playoffs Spurs will need to go small in the playoffs. If you assume that teams that made the playoffs last year will still make the playoffs this years, Spurs will face at the PF slot:
- Memphis: Randolph, Speights and Arthur.
- Clippers: Griffin and Odom.
- Thunder: Ibaka, Collison and Durant.
- Mavs: Dirk, Brand and Brandan Wright.
- Nuggets: Farried, Gallinari and Wilson Chandler.
- Utah: Millsap and Favors.
- Lakers: Gasol, Jamison and Jordan Hill.
Thunder and Nuggets are the two teams against who Spurs will be forced to play some small ball. Going small against Mavs could be too necessary if Dirk can't be handled by Spurs bigs. For the 4 other teams, Spurs will have no problem to stay big.
In addition of this WC teams, Heat will likely win the EC and there are a team against who Spurs will need to go small.
Spurs must work on small ball lineups because they will need to go small against some opponents but it's a solution that won't work in most cases. Spurs must work too on big lineups and that's why Pop is doing when he starts Splitter against the Lakers. If Spurs work on all these lineups during the redular season, it will help them in the playoffs. With Diaw, Leonard/Jackson and Splitter playing PF depending on the matchups, Spurs will be able to do a good job to defend all the players other teams could thrown at them at the PF slot.
The Spurs are not going to win a championship by playing better small ball than the Heat. The Heat have better players to play small ball. That's not how the Grizzlies beat them a couple of nights ago. Their going to win by punishing the Heat for the lack of an inside presence. You don't win championships by simply adjusting to other teams. You win by imposing your will and style of play on them and doing it better than they can.
Only if you have the players to do so, imposing Splitter's will on LeBron or Durant won't win a le either. The Spurs' best chance is to adjust to small ball line-ups because they'll face plenty and fortunately Kawhi and Jack are very decent in this role. It's not what's going to win them a series, of course, but it's what might lose it, so it's about damage control when Thunder or Heat go small.Then the Spurs could try to counter them in other areas.
Yet not starting that way, so the argument makes zero sense.
AKA, this team is extremely weak at PF and extremely deep on the perimeter and in order to get many of their better players on the floor for more minutes than they'd otherwise get, they'll play small when they can. Which makes sense. This isn't 2-3 years ago, when going small inevitably meant that a soft, mentally weak, poor rebounding SF had to masquerade as a PF. Now they've got one of the toughest SF's in the league and one of the best rebounding SF's in the league, to do the job.
As stated already, I like our small ball line-up going against other teams that are running it. Jack-Leonard combo is nice.
Reason it is looked down upon so much on these boards is because we were running it with Finley. RJ, Udoka, etc. in the past.
I'm still not seeing a reason NOT to play Duncan and Splitter a healthy amount of minutes together.
I'd like to see Duncan/Splitter start but we need another big who can play with Diaw in the second unit. Not Blair.
The league has changed, the Lakers had better bigs and they didn't do well the last two seasons. This season they seem to have problems too.
It's not the league has changed. It's the league has had to adjust to the Lakers in order to beat them. Why do you think the Thunder got Perkins or the Mavs got Tyson Chandler. In both cases it was the right move to make because it allowed them to matchup against the Lakers.
The Spurs added Dice to guard one of the Lakers bigs and RJ for Odom. The Spurs usually start Splitter vs the Lakers at this point.
If Bynum/Gasol didn't work the last two seasons, Duncan/Splitter wouldn't win the le either. And the Lakers have trouble with Howard/Gasol too.
If teams go small, the Spurs can do that well with Jack and Kawhi. If they have a traditional center and a more mobile PF, the Spurs will start Diaw, and if they face the Lakers they go with Duncan/Splitter.
Splitter isn't a great offensive player to command an adjustment from the opposite team.
Bump. Spurs 24-6 with Splitter and Duncan starting. Thanks for playing.
But But Blair should start!!
And the Leonard-Splitter-Duncan frontcourt is even more ridiculous. IIRC they're 22-3 together.
47.7 From 3. Since arriving last season thru post season and this season. Not bad at all.
Jackson is completely capable of playing the four full time. He guarded Aldridge, Milsap, & Griffin late in games.
No way in Perkins helps OKC. He is a non factor on offense. 4.6 ppg, 5.9 rpg. 1.2 bpg, .P.E.R-9.48 while playing 25 minutes per game. Collison is a significantly better player.He is essentially Eric Dampier on Dallas.
The Spurs can definitely win a le playing small ball
Parker
Neal/Green
Manu/Green
Kawhi/Jackson
Duncan/Splitter
vs
Cole/Chalmbers
Wade
Allen
Lebron
Bosh/Lewis
We'd have at leas 3 big advantages PG, Center, & Small Forward.
Jackson and Leonard are long defenders who can help limit Lebrons damage and provide 25 (combined) points as well. The Heat are are the worst rebounding team in the league while Duncan and Splitter combine for for than 15 boards a game in limited action (neither plays more than 28 mpg) No way Bosh can out board them playing Center in that lineup especially offensive boards.
Bosh Per 36 (10 year veteran)
Offensive Rebounds-2.3 (Tied for 2nd lowest of career)
Defensive Rebounds-5.5 (2nd lowest of career)
Total-7.9 (lowest of career)
Rebound Percertage-13.4 %
Splitter Per 36
2.5 Orpg,
6.8 Drpg,
8.8 Rpg
Rebound Percentage-14.3%
Duncan Per 36
2.2 Orpg
9.6 Drpg
11.7RPg
Rebound %-19.0%
We can play 2 big or small ball and still beat them. The spurs have went to small ball throught out the season, and have only relatively recently went big. The heat have ball small ball most of the season and have had to go "bigger" by adding Birdman. They'd be adjusting to us not the other way.
I like the versatility of this roster. When Smart rolled out Thomas/Fredette/Thornton all on the floor at the same time Pop went with Parker/Green/Ginobili/Leonard/Duncan to finish the game. Sure, they had an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 3 but the Spurs were never really threatened.
I think a lineup like this could be useful against LAC. Of course, going big with Duncan and Splitter on the floor at the same time would be better.
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