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No, he is not empty calories.
You have to think that before you type it brah. Everyone's laughing at ya. Stop it flammer.
No, he is not empty calories.
Agree. Gasol is just a stopgap measure for a year to placate the fans rather than falling dramatically in the standings. He duplicates a lot of what Aldridge brings to the table, and doesn't bring what we need - elite D and rim-rolling athleticism. He'll be fun to watch, but the team isn't going to win in 2016-17, not with a past-it PG and two PF/Cs who aren't a complimentary fit.
I'm treating this season as a transition year - it's all about the growth of the young players and setting up for 2017. If we find a few players this year and set up to bring in a strong young PG and a proper C I'll call it a success. Then again, I don't think Aldridge is the long-term answer either, so maybe full rebuild would have been a better option.
Ya transition years people. 2ND best record last year.
LJC looks like crap that's only here because he was guaranteed a contract for being a first round pick. Murray is an interesting prospect but I expect him to get a lot of D-League burn (though maybe LJC will get more
I think Pau will be an excellent asset as long as he is healthy. Once he absorbs the defensive schemes, I think he will be a much better rim protector than many in this forum believe he will be.
Some of the pessimism in here around having Pau is astounding. He'll be a tremendous addition to the team and a huge contributor. He's a 7 footer with Championship experience and poise. He's a legit 3rd offensive threat down the floor too. Guarding the Spurs will be a nightmare for most teams next year.
You hit the nail on the head. LMA and TD were not complementary players last year, and LMA and Gasol are not complementary players this season. If the Spurs are to be more successful this season than last, Dedmon will be the key. He almost needs to be this season's Hassan Whiteside. Two issues: 1) will he develop enough to warrant the playing time, and 2) will Pop invest the time in him if he does develop? In order to really compete for a le, he will need to play substantial minutes - and minutes when they count. I expect Pop to stubbornly pair LMA and Pau this season as he did LMA and Tim last season, leaving the Spurs with a bench "big" rotation of Kyle/Dedmon/Lee instead of Diaw/West. Dedmon MUST come through or we are left with an under-sized front-line of Kyle/Lee to get killed like Diaw/West did last season.
He's not Drew Gooden. He will be a solid playoff performer and will open up more space for LMA and also give him a spell on O. And teams won't be able to load up on Kawhi either. His passing will help the offense flow. I think Gasol, Mills, Leonard, LMA and Green will be a great lineup.
So much bull in this post. Pop has his many faults, flaws and rode Timmy, Manu and Tony to unprecedented success, but he should be the last worry, IMO. I'd be more worried about the further regression of Parker (shouldn't be a starter), Ginobili having enough in the tank for one last long grind and Danny/Patty finding their touch from downtown.
This upcoming season will be similar to 2003 and 2009 - 2011 when Pop played a lot of different players, line-ups and will likely experiment a ton. Other than Aldridge and Kawhi, everyone else is a bit of an unknown since we don't know what level of performance to expect from them.
Well thanks for calling my bull .
The reality is that I place the entire ship on Pop's shoulders bc he's the only one who can bench guys or alter lineups and designs strategies. Young guys can't progress if they don't get in spots to make choices and take shots, and yada, yada. You see where this is heading.
I do worry about both Tony and Manu. ?There has been an imbalance of Manu fans visiting the forum ting on Tony when Manu himself wasn't that good either in the playoffs TBH. Tony at least had a couple of games. But it's really not my style to on players bc they are not going to bench themselves or stop shooting if its given to them the discretion to be taking shots. Maybe they are the dudes that need to be in short leashes, but really should anyone play in a playoff series like that?
I like to hear from others about prior seasons. I started following the team in 2013, during the first finals appearance when Kawhi sort of broke out and I was like the Spurs are still a strong playoff team? Anyways, I did see the Manu game 6 in 2013, etc. But yea, I am not knowledgeable on the whole Pop career.
I see you just started watching the NBA. You should go to reddit. More your type of basketball knowledge...
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was attacking your opinion or stance. I just get frustrated with how people attempt to undersell the accomplishments of certain people (Pop and Tony in particular) around here.
I'll elaborate more on how he made key changes or "experimented" with prior teams sometime tomorrow unless someone else beats me to it.
On topic, Gasol is definitely a huge concern (age, mileage and natural regression) but they had limited options other than him. They could have gone with Boban, but his ceiling might be too low as a NBA caliber center, or signed a young, up and coming center - the price tag being even higher than Pau - meaning losing more key contributors (Patty, Danny and either Ginobili or Parker) from a "dipilated" roster. Even an unproven (and injury prone) commodity like Meyers Leonard got paid starter money to stay in Portland for Pete's sake.
He'll be a solid stop gap until they can bring over Nikola Milutinov (best option/should be here right now IMHO) or sign/draft another center. I'd go with the former since that allows them to allocate resources in replacing Manu (which will likely be Murray) and either Tony or Patty.
Talk about setting guys up for failure right?
How about playing Bertans as a 4 too? Already he said he would.
I hope J_Paco is right and Pop goes mad scientist to in the end find some good lineups. It would be for the best if he was really into mixing it up, rather than go same old, same old, but I can't predict Pop like that.
Maybe Pau will start but still come off the lineup first and boost the bench for the most part. They likely need a dominant scorer anyways... but as you said. How will Dedmon do? They have a lot of issues.
From what I have seen, against most lineups Bertans will be even more vulnerable than Kyle and Lee. He seems strictly like a small ball 4 to me. Big 4s will eat him alive on the boards and posting him up.
You are right about the moves offseason. I don't think there was much else they could have done after the move for Durant didn't go through.
Overall I am happy and very excited for the season. I specially look forward to watching the teams' young drafted guys develop but Pau is a concern bc I remember last offseason when the team got DWest and we fans (I know I did) ignored warning signs and posts from others about poor fit and rebounding issues pairing him with Diaw. It all turned out to be true, so I am wary now when someone who does know some basketball comes with a warning sign and TD 21 usually comments from a knowledgeable base and he backed up his concern with stats.
Agreed. I think the bench will play a small ball style but will need Bertans for it to work (and Pop might have to switch up his forwards maybe) bc of his explosive 3 pt scoring and he's an athlete in transition. The problem with last team's bench was the they were small but it didn't work bc they were not athletic or explosive scoring. The best 3 pt shooter in Mills had the balls in his hands a lot and was taking a lot of off the dribble midrange shots, while a guy who was deadly from the midrange and setting up others for shots was played as a corner 3 pt shooter. That wasn't even the worst of it. The bigs didn't fit and were not athletes either of them. I think the actual bench with JSimms or Bertans and Dedmon is athletic and would be explosive scoring and Pop would need to use Kyle more as a point forward or trade him somewhere. Much as I like the dude, I will enjoy seeing him play somewhere else if Pop continues to waste his talent. Anyways, I think they are really better prepared in the bench to play a small ball style but it still is a question mark for sure. If Pau plays in the bench it's going to have to be a different style. I can't say which is best. Pop will know on that one.
No doubt, it is very, very concerning especially with the age/mileage of Gasol, Parker and especially Ginobili but I'm sure the front-office understood his strengths/weaknesses before signing him. They just need to hope that he has one really good season (and another okay one) in him until Nikola can be brought over. Nikola's build and profile almost exactly fit Tiago's role/profile once he arrived in the NBA. Hopefully they bring him over soon because he is likely the future starting center for the Spurs.
I remember a fan named "raybies" who was speculating that they maybe didn't bring him this season to stagger the rookies, not just to avoid having too many at the same time, but to avoid having contract extensions at the same time as Murray who if he reaches his lofty ceiling in 4 seasons will require a potential max or near max contract. It's possible. I was kind of disappointed they didn't bring him and we didnt see him in SL. I hope he gets minutes wherever he's playing at. The experience developing LJC abroad didn't go that well and I hope that's not the case for Nikola.
Not sure what to really say about the rebounding stats. The first thing that comes to mind is: Uncontested rebounds need to be collected anyway, so one could say "he's just in the right spots really often". What else can you say, "luck"? Luck is not that consistent. Maybe he just does his work early which is a good thing.
But being fair, it is a pretty interesting collection of rebounding stats. Especially the team performance ones.
As far as his shooting % with the Bulls though. . .they have some very ty playmakers and an awful playbook. The Bulls offense has been trash for years so seeing bad stats doesn't surprise me. Just about anyone would probably do worse there.
But still. . .interesting stats.
Spurs will be fine tbh.
we need to get him in shape and playing center. that's all there is really, he is a top level player.
Y'all act like there are more than three legit big men in the league.
Okc is a beast, Griffin is legit, but those are two borderline teams. Not true contenders.
Gasol is better than Draymond. That's just fact. This whole " we have lazy fat players" argument is itself fat and lazy
LJC will be irrelevant next year, much like Bonner was last year-- discussing him is pointless unless we are talking about the future and not next season. Murray is in the same boat, however, he'll have a small chance at the back up PG spot if he surpasses expectations and forces Pop to play him -- then making Patty expendable ( very low possibility for this to happen). Murray will likely be joining Livio in Austin for most of his playing time.LJC looks like crap that's only here because he was guaranteed a contract for being a first round pick. Murray is an interesting prospect but I expect him to get a lot of D-League burn (though maybe LJC will get more
West, Diaw and Miller have been competent players in the NBA, but we are strictly assessing and comparing this years team to last. Last years' end product featured West who couldn't do anything positive -- he was a liability in all phases when it mattered and his type of play on offense hindered the ball movement we were used to seeing from the bench in previous seasons. As for Diaw, he's going on 35 years old next year -- for those who still picture 14' Diaw as the player they are losing, those people couldn't be more off-based and wrong. Last year, you saw his confidence and skills deteriorate to the point where Pop couldn't even play him -- he'll be retired in the next 2 years. As for Miller, he should have retired 2 years ago.
Dedmon in 16' was a very efficient player for the Magic and provides the type of skills that will enhance the ball movement we have been accustomed to seeing with the bench in previous seasons. Plus, he'll provide better interior and PnR defense than West & Diaw provided. Not to mention, he's 27 and entering his prime, where as West is entering a ho e facility -- comparing careers of the two is irrelevant.
I won't be surprised when we see a better end product this upcoming season compared to last years' team that had a depleted front-court featuring Aldridge as the only net positive player. Duncan was done, West was done, Diaw was thinking about photography, Boban was irrelevant.
That's a painful bit of reality. I hope for the Spurs' sake that you're wrong, but that's some realistic insight I think. I have no opinion of Dedmon at this point...he's never played meaningful minutes on a meaningful team to show me what he's got. Murray is not ready to impact an NBA roster past perhaps the 3rd string point guard who makes some impressive plays at times (right now that is...we'll see what his learning curve looks like). Gasol is an enigma...he has all the tools to be a huge addition, but then I find myself concerned about his skillset at this point in his career, and him infringing on LMA's mojo. Pop will really need to make people's roles clear this year if the Spurs are going to do well. This is Aldridge and Leonard's team at this point and everyone else needs to fill their roles to perfection and stay out of the way of the Big 2. The one positive with Gasol vs. Duncan is that LMA won't have the 'awe' factor with Gasol that he had at first playing alongside Tim so I'd guess he'll jump in and be the go-to guy and not worry so much about stepping on Gasol's toes. Again, Pop will need to define what Gasol's role is and not let him bring LaMarcus's game down by getting in the way.LJC looks like crap that's only here because he was guaranteed a contract for being a first round pick. Murray is an interesting prospect but I expect him to get a lot of D-League burn (though maybe LJC will get more
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