Yeah, even Prime Pop made his big mistakes, tbh.
George Hill in 2009 against Mavs, was the key player against them the following year
Splitter in 2011 against the Grizzlies, was the key player against them the following matchup.
I’m expecting this to happen to Lonnie if the spurs are lucky enough to make the playoffs.
Yeah, even Prime Pop made his big mistakes, tbh.
White badly needs time off. They did this with DeRozan towards the middle of last season; in his case to rejuvenate him. White just needs to rehab his aches and pains. Bring up Witherspoon since he's a two-way player.
Uh, no. After his turnover fest last game he doesn't belong anywhere near the court. That controversial Harden miss/made dunk was the product of a horrific Carroll pass.
So Belli got a promotion for sucking so much? Now he gets to close games for Forbes instead of just being DeRozan's back-up? Makes sense.
He was the worst offseason acquisition of any team this year, tbh.
Because pretty much all of the spacing issues go away when DeMar plays there, and he's better at handling bigger players rather than keeping up with quicker guys. Regardless, Pop has had little issue getting two that trio out there with DeMar playing the three, so it just sounds like you're complaining to complain.
That's not really a promotion. Beli "closed the game" because he was shooting well, and despite this new-age ST thinking that you HAVE to play defense-first guys to beat teams, you need spacing for plays like the tying three to work.
It's just so weird. Forbes hasn't lost his spot either, nor Walker. It's like folks would rather the team lose playing EXACTLY the way they want them to rather than winning by playing hot hands or by having shooters on the floor.
And they lost that game.
I'd rather lose one game playing Lonnie than win one game playing Belli. You're absolutely right.
Long term, Belli doing anything good is terrible for the team. Just means more minutes.
But they haven’t been winning, so I don’t understand this argument. You shouldn’t need “that play” if you play better to begin with.
Dumping on dejounte makes absolutely no sense to me. He was the player of the game. His defense singlehandedly kept them in the game, and he was one of the few guys who was actually efficient offensively tonight.
Beli has been bad this year, but can’t deny how important floor spacing is with him out there. Mills/Beli is the top two man combo on the team by net points by a long shot.
Not sure how it stacks up on net Rtg (adjusts for possessions) as I’m not smart enough to tweak Basketball-Ref on my phone. But probably pretty high up there.
Likewise, Demar and Aldridge have been had together, even though they’re in theory the best two players on the team
They played both. Pop shouldn't be dumb and close with Lonnie even though Beli was nailing threes. There's just no point in that.
When Pop benches Lonnie to try to light a fire under him, people cry about losing games. But when Pop goes with a hotter hand to win, then folks are wiling to risk losses just to see their dude out there.
He was a disaster on offense. But not as big of a disaster as White and he did bring a lot of energy on defense. IDK about being player of the game though. Even if he was, that's not saying much since this win was ugly af.
FkLA and I were specifically talking about the "closing" unit, so what happened outside of the end of this game doesn't really matter. Anyway, the Spurs have won the last two games with Mills/Forbes and Mills/Beli back courts closing out. The numbers are what they are, but they didn't turn this around by not ending games with two of those three guys.
He actually didn't do in the second half outside of the game tying basket. He was also his normal self on defense. IDC if he made that shot, the Spurs won in spite of him being out there. He really has no business playing, much less closing.
Mills/Beli entered today plus-9 per 100. If they played enough to qualify for the top-20 lineups, that outcome would rank them second behind Mills/Poeltl and ahead of Mills/Gay.
Lol.... Murray was nowhere near player of the game. He did the only thing he can do decently which is play defense and even that wasn't spectacular except for a few good sequences towards the end of the game. Right now our PG rotation is terrible. White is hanging his head like a every possession and Murray just looks out of control most of the time. Pop deserves tons of criticism and I've on the senile bas all year but in no way is Whites mental fragility or Murray's lack of skill Pops fault.
That being said Pops lineups were straight trash. Does this guy forget he can sub players in OT or what?
Spacing isn't about hitting shots. Plus-minus gets misused and contorted a lot, but it exists for a reason, and it definitely tells the tale of Beli's impact tonight.
Belli.
That's your business.
I guess I don’t see the point in discussing something so granular when it doesn’t get to the root of the overall issue. Maybe I can see your argument in a bubble of focusing on the closing unit; but that does not explain why things get to that point, but I digress.
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