Anyone who knows Pop or how he operates knows Lonnie Walker will not see the court next game. Marco will March out there bricking everything
Pop’s process makes some sense, but he dragged it out too long in my opinion.
Anyone who knows Pop or how he operates knows Lonnie Walker will not see the court next game. Marco will March out there bricking everything
Totally fair assessment. The youngsters will eventually get more minutes on the court, once they learn 'The Spur's Way". Fans hate Pop's system, but it is what is.
Not if he did what you're talking about. He'd be as crazy as a loon.
Agreed.
Some claim to think Pop should treat all players the same. That's a terrible idea, in reality. You have to coach everyone differently based on their personality.
For example, someone like DeRozan you can criticize behind closed doors but you wouldn't want to criticize him in public. With Aldridge, Pop has learned it's a bad idea to criticize him behind closed doors or in public. Walker appears to be someone Pop can criticize both behind closed doors and in public and he won't crumble.
Going back in history, the most effective way to get on Duncan was to get on him in front of everyone else during games. Parker responded well to all criticism. Ginobili was self motivated and self critical so it was best to just stay out of the way because he knew what he was doing and getting mad at him had no real impact, anyways
Sniffer obvious conspiracy: we know Marco was on trade block, play Marco to inflate value, don't play Walker because admitting a raw talent is better than Marco destroys Marcos value. Marco suck, teams don't offer trade, Marco benched
In other words, The Big 3 all had HUGE Balls that no one in this roster has a smidgen of except for perhaps Walker.
If Walker goes on and continues to play hard on both ends of the court, do you really think two years from now any of us will even remember the losing streak or the few games Walker didn't play?
The big picture we're talking about here dwarfs the here and now to a laughable degree.
Your honorary edgelord badge has been revoked now that you're back to sniffer status. It was a good run.
This is excellent writing. I was there and saw all that you spoke of and I agree. The manner in which you made the statements is excellent. Have ever thought of writing professionally?
This kind of entry makes this a great website.
You have lost perspective. You seem to think Pop is Lonnie's personal trainer. That is not the case.
Pop is the head coach of a major professional sports franchise. The losses the team suffers go in the permanent records of all Spurs personnel. They also go in the permanent history of the franchise.
Pop knows that. Do you? Do you understand what that means?
You think Pop said, "sorry Tim, sorry Becky, and sorry to all you guys on the team, but I'm going to have to put 3 or 4 more losses on your permanent records, and on your professional resumes, to teach this kid - who isn't even a starter - a good lesson. You guys won't mind, I'm sure."
Are you nuts? Or do you truly think Pop has gone insane?
The reason why Pop was playing Beli instead of Lonnie is simply that Pop thought Beli was the better player. That is the truth of it. The sane truth. There was never any grand motivational scheme going on. It was merely questionable judgment by a coach who may be getting a little old for the job.
I've lost perspective? I'm saying Walker's improvement is more important in the big picture than the here and now. A win or loss here or there is not important compared to the improvement of Lonnie Walker IV. You apparently disagree and you think I've lost perspective?
Huh? Part of Pop's job description is to make Walker better.
Pop: "We have to get through to Lonnie that he has to be a two-way player in order to earn minutes. He has that ability but we're not getting it out of him yet. He seems like a strong kid who can take criticism. Let's coach him hard and push him to be the best he can be."
Duncan: "But what about my permanent record?"
Becky: "Yeah, my professional resume hangs in the balance, Pop."
did you even read what I said? I never said getting him to play hard was wrong, I said you didn't have throw 14 games to get that performance out of him. And if he had gotten consistent minutes right away, he'd probably be even better right now, cause he would've had gained some experience already. Your point is ridiculous
Those are assumptions, my friend. You could be right, you could be wrong.
My point is the end justifies the means and that the means don't matter in the big picture in this scenario.
So you're take is not an assumption? You are clearly assuming that it took Pop benching him for Belinelli to get that type of performance out of him while me and many others have said that it was obvious that he can do this before the season even started. You're sniffing really hard right now
The thing is, he was a ing lazy ass on defense in that first Clippers game, consistently failing to pick up Load Management in transition, forcing players like Forbes to end up on him in the half court, multiple times. That kind of dogging it isn't dealt with by talking. If you want something from someone, make them want something from you...in this case playing time. It's just basic psychology and motivation. His offense has never been in question, but then again, offense isn't the problem with this team. Having the #27 rated defense is.
Just wait until Lonnie misses a defensive assignment in the next game and promptly gets benched again for the next 10 games. Then you'll really see the true genius of CIAPop.
I'm curious, how did you know when Walker was ready for consistent minutes? Hasn't it always been the "The Spur's Way" under Pop for young players to earn their minutes, and not just for him to throw them out on the court. You can and moan about it, but the system works, more often than not
Humor me, ex. How much of that do you put on Pop?
But how come with all other players Pop believed in they received constant opportunities? And that was on sure fire playoff teams too.
TP, Manu, Kawhi etc all got hounded but didn’t they all get consistent opportunities?
So then do you think if this season doesn’t matter, even making the playoffs, that the time is now to dump Derozan and LMA since none of this matters and the future trumps all?
Do results matter in this business? That Sa opted for a “win now team that isn’t winning?
You think Lonnies talent and abilities went from “can’t handle NBA minutes” to “best player on the floor” in 14 games? That’s some damn good development!
Late in the 4th quarter, he was a bit slow in transition, and Harden got a shoulder by him and it was 'game over'. Pretty clearly a missed assignment. He wasn't benched.
He WAS benched by Pop for consistent crappy non-effort against Load Management in the first Clipper game. If it happens that obviously again, he'll get benched again.
Which part of my message says that?
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