Hard to believe that everyone who called for Tony Parker to be replaced would get what they wanted. Welcome to the post-Parker Spurs fellas.
I mean most posters here never saw the 90's Spurs, so they just assume that great point guard play is the norm. All the hate Tony got around here for not "playing well," yet they don't know that Avery Johnson ruined David Robinson's prime. Tony's worst performance would've been Avery's best. Easiest double team of all time since you know he can't shoot. And he couldn't defend either, although he was scrappy, but being 5'8 meant that every team with a good guard killed us.
It's really sickening to consider how much shorter duncans career would be without tony (or manu, assuming he could hold up physically). And we won't see any great off ball movement like in the late dynasty years because the young guards can't create gravity to even begin designing plays for them. We might go 20 years until we reach that height.
Interestingly, Tony's significance in running the offense became more obvious late in his career. I remember his last couple of years in San Antonio, you just saw this drop-off in the fluidity of the offense whenever he was on the bench. I think that obviousness was probably due to his minutes getting reduced so we had more exposure to other guys in charge of the show.
But yeah, when the reins were being handed over to Dejounte, you could just see the offense didn't have the same cohesiveness and flow. Tony was perfect for running the Spurs' offense. No one else could do it like he did.
I will say, though, that if we had a healthy and confident Derrick White, with a little more talent around him, I believe he brings a lot of that ability to stabilize the offense.
There is no body on the team that can go where they want like Tony.
Someday Trey. DDR is the closest but he is just not that effective running sets.
GOAT Spurs PG :
Nah, kawhi and lma killed it before. All three are ball stoppers.
Somehow we ended up with a guy who is more Tony Parker-ish than Tony Parker....and not in a good way.
Dejounte hogs possessions but isn't a great dribbler or playmaker. Goes to the rack but isn't a great finisher. Shoots the occasional three but isn't a great shooter.
Tony did all of those things but better...and could be relied on to close out games.
I cant believe a loser like Murray didnt win us anything.
He was really that good. Tony would always light up the opposing teams PG during the playoffs that the opposing team would always have a SG or SF guard him. I still remember him lighting up OKC during the first two games of the WCF in 2012. He was lighting up Westbrook pretty badly that they had to have Sefolosha guard him.
someone didn’t watch much of the Spurs from 95-99
I'm sorry Mr. Avery Johnson. You were an amazing 3 point shooter (13% one year) and totally didn't clog the floor with your putrid shooting. You were also a great defender even though you were constantly trounced by every all star guard we faced out there and Kenny Smith. Teams totally didn't double or triple team Robinson using your defender and leaving you wiiiiiiiiide open. Nope never happened ad I'm sorry for insinuating it.
AJ was a step up from what preceded him. Once Rod Strickland left there were a number of years of searching for the elusive starting point guard. Vinnie Del Negro for God's sake was a point guard at one point in the 90s.
Red Mccombs tried his best to kill the Spurs. Wouldn’t pay for Charles, wouldn’t pay Rod, hired Lucas to coach. Thank goodness for D-Rob. I agree we were at PG once Strickland left and Avery was a step up but he still wasn’t any good. Nice regular season point guard but had too many flaws in his game once the playoffs came around. Lack of size and shooting really killed us in the playoffs and made double and triple teaming Robinson super easy. I mean Houston didn’t even guard him in the 95 CF. They literally left him open every play. He did his best to hit the jumpers but Houston gave zero since they were hitting 3s and limiting D-Rob.
Don’t even get me started on toe on the line no defense Vinny. It’s why I laugh at Manu haters too. Did you ever see Vinny play? I’d rather have 40 year old Manu than prime Vinny Del Negro
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