Whatever. We'll have to agree to disagree on Jack. Dallas isn't smallball? Did you not watch the series? They sure as are against US, and we'd better be prepared for it again. Sacto also went smallball, and had we advanced one more round, Phoenix probably would have, too.
They played with two seven footer. Spurs have played small ball, not Dallas.
Howard at SF, Dirk at PF and Diop/Dampier at C isn't small ball at all.
The only small ball thing they have done is playing Terry at SG and it was mainly to avoid Duncan to be able to defend on a perimeter player.
Just look at the 14 western conference teams, jackson can defend on 2 or 3 PF and we will still be in rebounding trouble.
SA played small because in spite of his height, Dirk plays small most of the time with his shooting and penetration, and none of our bigs could stay in front of him. You need another TALL perimeter-oriented player to stick on him.
I'm not proposing that Jack be plugged into the starting 4 spot and play 35 minutes there. I said he could SCAVENGE some time there to up his minutes. RIF.
Jackson wouldn't have benn better against Dirk than Bruce. If you put a player like Jackson on Dirk, you are killed on the board. You can't play with only one good rebounder in your lineup, have you look the serie agaisnt Dallas ?
A lineup with Parker/Manu/Bowen/Jackson/Duncan is an horrible lineup and even against Phoenix. Understanding BB is fundamental.
"he could SCAVENGE some time"
SJax would be pissed if he weren't starting and forced to scavenge minutes from the bench. Who wants to deal with pissed off balla who as a selfish scorer-only doesn't shoot well, won't hustle RBs with his 6'10" height, doesn't more ASTs than TOs, and is in general pretty stupid about how to play basketball?
SJax is too ing lazy and stupid to play stopper defense on a Nowitski or a Diaw.
The thing is, we have a streaky shooter who hit clutch shots in the playoffs for us: Finley. And he brings more to the table in terms of consistency, professionalism, keeping his cool, etc. This post season, on a per-minute basis, Finley and Buckets scored and rebounded evenly. Jack averaged twice as many assists, and three times as many turnovers though, shooting 36.6% overall and 23.1% on 3's. Finley shot 47.6% overall and 38.3% from three-point range.
Yes, we wouldn't have won the 2003 le w/o buckets. But everybody forgets that in the Dallas game that he and Kerr mounted that great comeback, it was his ty shooting and poor decisions in the first half that helped Dallas get that big lead to begin with.
The Diggler matchup wasn't the problem this year. It was the two fast as 6'2" 1.5 gaurds playing in Dallas' backcourt that caused the biggest matchup problems. Two of the three games SA won in the series were games where the Terry-Harris tandem wasn't AJ's strategy (Games 1 and 6). If the Spurs want to address a weakness exposed by Dallas, they need Speed in the backcourt.
Actually, they need Speedy in the backcourt. Speedy Claxton would have been perfect to run with Parker and defend Dallas. Less help defense on Terry/Harris means defenders can stay home on their men more of the time.
Back to Buckets for a minute, though. The biggest obstacle to bringing him back is money. He makes $6.1 Million next season. If the Pacers are interested in Barry, Rasho, or a sign and trade for Nazr, it might be possible. But the S&T option would also require a salrary dump move of one of Rasho/Barry/Horry to give the Spurs enough flexibility to make other moves under the luxury tax. While it looks like Indy IS looking to upgrade the center position, I have to wonder if they would consider Rasho or Nazr as a worthwhile upgrade.
I can't believe you morons wouldn't bring him back.
Get Granger
Hedo could cover Dirk better than Jax. (Ducks for cover.)
Granger is not available.
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