Will Manu ever score a single point again?

[The Whopper]

NY Met Willie Mays thinks Manu hung on too long.

[sasaint]

Pop will not abandon Manu completely, and even Manu can draw shooting fouls.

But for all those ST posters who want the Spurs to bring back Manu for even 1 second or 1 cent: please feel free to move to Argentina if you do not already live there.

[Hoops Czar]

He clearly could have used more rest during the regular season. Damn you Pop.

[UZER]

This thread started as a joke but now it's legit, like Apollo Creed vs Drago.

[rjv]

manu had two airballs last night. i think the question can now become: will manu ever hit the rim again?

[Poolboy5623]

14 million lol!!!

[SAGirl]

heh Timmy Duncan had more fight on no knees last season.
I hope that either Manu gets it together or that if he doesn't Pop is brave enough to realize father time finally caught up with his "bar of soap" and it's time to scale back those minutes.

[bklynspursfan]

Manu had a pretty good regular season, I think that's fair to say right? Amazing, he's had a few games where he's struggling, and people are overreacting as usual.

Conversely, TP struggled much of the regular season, and after his first 2 games, people loved him suddenly.

Some guys are better matchups for different teams. TP could struggle next round and Manu could be great, then there will be no more "he needs to retire!" talk. He's too much of a compe or to not bounce back.

[UZER]

Manu had a pretty good regular season, I think that's fair to say right? Amazing, he's had a few games where he's struggling, and people are overreacting as usual.

Conversely, TP struggled much of the regular season, and after his first 2 games, people loved him suddenly.

Some guys are better matchups for different teams. TP could struggle next round and Manu could be great, then there will be no more "he needs to retire!" talk. He's too much of a compe or to not bounce back.

He needs to retire.

[SAGirl]

He needs to retire even if he does have a bounce back game where he makes a few shots. Having a bounce back game just justifies him keeping his minutes at this point.

I have called Tony done b4. I was happy as a bee that he had 2 good games. It does show how when Tony plays well the team looks very different. When Tony struggles it's very hard to overcome, but Manu is less important to the team right this moment and his minutes could more easily go to someone else. Considering Pop, he may just shorten Manu's leash, but he will get an opportunity to get out of this rut.

[bklynspursfan]

I'm not one to say whether he needs to retire, only Manu knows if he Needs to. What if he's willing to stay and play even fewer minutes and be more of a guide on the bench to some younger guys? No one can say if he Needs to. You may want him to, but that's different.

I mean if he played an amazing games 1-3, I doubt people are talking about he needs to retire. Like how many people said he needs to retire after 2013?

[SAGirl]

I'm not one to say whether he needs to retire, only Manu knows if he Needs to. What if he's willing to stay and play even fewer minutes and be more of a guide on the bench to some younger guys? No one can say if he Needs to. You may want him to, but that's different.

I mean if he played an amazing games 1-3, I doubt people are talking about he needs to retire. Like how many people said he needs to retire after 2013?

There have been guys saying he needs to retire the entire season.
I think it's time. He has nothing left to give at this point. He's on fumes and he's taking playing time from players that are hungrier than he is.

HOpefully he's upset with himself and will come back with some fire. If he doesn't, one has to seriously consider benching him and not as a trolling move, but for real. It would be a shock bc much as I like the younger players they also were deprived of an entire season's worth of playing time to develop their confidence and their games bc Manu was playing those minutes instead to now look done in the playoffs. That is what we are looking at.

[UZER]

I'm not one to say whether he needs to retire, only Manu knows if he Needs to. What if he's willing to stay and play even fewer minutes and be more of a guide on the bench to some younger guys? No one can say if he Needs to. You may want him to, but that's different.

I mean if he played an amazing games 1-3, I doubt people are talking about he needs to retire. Like how many people said he needs to retire after 2013?

Shhhhh.... It's time.

[bklynspursfan]

Shhhhh.... It's time.

lol.. I guess we'll see. I will say, if we had another reliable ball handler where Manu could just shoot the ball and facilitate less, that would've helped tremendously. He had to do far too much this season

[rjv]

, paul pierce has been better in the playoffs than manu has been. and vince carter has been exponentially better.

[kaji157]

LOL at the overreaction, its been 3 games, he took 9 shots, missed them all.
Was not needed during the first two games, and barely played in the third one.

And something else, those who prefer Manu to play all out now, and not later are plain and simple losers, you need to win this series no matter how Manu does, he will be needed later when the usual suspects shrink under pressure.

[dabom]

LOL at the overreaction, its been 3 games, he took 9 shots, missed them all.
Was not needed during the first two games, and barely played in the third one.

And something else, those who prefer Manu to play all out now, and not later are plain and simple losers, you need to win this series no matter how Manu does, he will be needed later when the usual suspects shrink under pressure.

porker missed more in a row in one Finals game I remember.

[rjv]

LOL at the overreaction, its been 3 games, he took 9 shots, missed them all.
Was not needed during the first two games, and barely played in the third one.

And something else, those who prefer Manu to play all out now, and not later are plain and simple losers, you need to win this series no matter how Manu does, he will be needed later when the usual suspects shrink under pressure.

it's not just the missed shots. it's his presence on the court. even last season there was a certain steadiness that manu would consistently bring to the game (he even did this occasionally this season), but that has not been evident as of late or in this series. last night he just seemed too frantic and almost eager to get rid of the ball, and the three which he missed so badly was a wide open three that he missed because he hesitated to take the shot. that reeks of a lack of confidence in his offense. yes, he'll still hustle and get a rebound or a loose ball but not sure that is enough to justify his presence on the court in light of the other deficiencies. he is manu though and he has always been able to get back with that game where you see that championship persona, but whereas before i was sure we would get that i am now just hopeful we will.

[SAGirl]

LOL at the overreaction, its been 3 games, he took 9 shots, missed them all.
Was not needed during the first two games, and barely played in the third one.

And something else, those who prefer Manu to play all out now, and not later are plain and simple losers, you need to win this series no matter how Manu does, he will be needed later when the usual suspects shrink under pressure.

There is no such thing. If you are in the rotation you need to come to play.
This loss was not on Manu. Others played poorly, specially the bigs. Lee was terrible on defense for example. Pau too, he missed many easy shots, and gave things on defense as well. Dedmon: the team needs him to play better than what he's doing out there. He's been making too many silly mistakes when in reality the team needs him bc Lee can't guard any of their bigs except maybe J.Green (and probably not very well)... That loss was not on Manu frankly. But that is just it, Manu can't just save himself for later either. If he doesn't play right now Spurs could underachieve, and one has to consider benching him the rest of the way, bc it's unfair to his teammates if they are playing well in this round in his stead, not to mention it won't work well for his confidence.

I expect Manu to be better next game. If he isn't, Pop really needs to look at Simmons, Anderson and possibly Murray depending on what's going on in the court.

[cd98]

Manu has been pretty bad, but it's not like he's shooting 15 times and getting zero points. Pop went away from him in the last game, tho.

[DPG21920]

Manu has to look to score. Passing up attempts or just flat out bricking open ones is massive.

Manus value is not typically tied to scoring but in a series where there aren't going to be a ton of assists Manu has to score some.

[kaji157]

There is no such thing. If you are in the rotation you need to come to play.
This loss was not on Manu. Others played poorly, specially the bigs. Lee was terrible on defense for example. Pau too, he missed many easy shots, and gave things on defense as well. Dedmon: the team needs him to play better than what he's doing out there. He's been making too many silly mistakes when in reality the team needs him bc Lee can't guard any of their bigs except maybe J.Green (and probably not very well)... That loss was not on Manu frankly. But that is just it, Manu can't just save himself for later either. If he doesn't play right now Spurs could underachieve, and one has to consider benching him the rest of the way, bc it's unfair to his teammates if they are playing well in this round in his stead, not to mention it won't work well for his confidence.

I expect Manu to be better next game. If he isn't, Pop really needs to look at Simmons, Anderson and possibly Murray depending on what's going on in the court.

I think if you can play those players over Manu against real compe ion then pop should do it. I just suspect that it won't be the case most often than not. Aside from Anderson who performed well the first two games, Murray and Simmons just had their best performance during the last three minutes of the game when Memphis threw the scrubs in.
Manu has, again, had a lot more workload than we all wanted all year because the usual suspects took weeks and months off during the season. Whether it was because of clubbing, mental issues, not coming into shape or suspect injuries.

[Spurtacular]

Turnobili f'd up my first quarter bet, giving the ball away instead of getting a shot for the team.

[DeRozan m8]

$15m

Fifteen ing million

[ace3g]

I hope age is just catching up with Manu because I haven't seen him play this bad for this long of a stretch, in terms of scoring. Hoping he doesn't have some type of injury that he isn't talking about.