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Yes, Bruce has silently but unquestionably improved his game this year. Props.
Much of the talk on this forum has been about Manu vs. Parker, Rose and Nazr, and even Rasho, Beno, and Barrry.
Meanwhile, Bruce Bowen is having a career year offensively. His offensive shortcomings are still evident, but his ability to make threes and put the ball on the floor a little bit is reflected in his numbers.
At this late stage in his career, he's averaging a career-high 8.2 points. He's shooting a solid 38 percent from behind the arc, and most impressively of all, he's shooting a career-high 63.6 from the free throw line. In today's NBA, that's not too far away from being acceptable.
Players often lose some offensive ability when they get into their early/mid 30s. Props to Bruce for working hard and adding more to his game every year. He's not Tracy McGrady on offense, but his solid offensive play hasn't gone unnoticed...at least by me.
Yes, Bruce has silently but unquestionably improved his game this year. Props.
Bowen is shooting that corner 3 pointer pretty well this year.
Bowen is having a good year offensively, but I don't think he's to the point he was during the 2003 championship season. That year, his shooting percentages were amazing. He's doing a great job of sticking to corner threes and running the fast break more, but he needs to dribble less and take that pullup jumper out of his bag of tricks.Meanwhile, Bruce Bowen is having a career year offensively.
IMo, his defense has tailed a bit.
James tonight, it was a good job on him, but if James had the flu that would explain a little bit.
Bowen, IMO, might have about 3 years left in him.
Good effort tonight though, Bruce had a couple VERY clutch shots.
Whats up with his free throws though. He was doing so damn well early and midway through the year.
I agree he needs to stop trying to dribble penetrate, but I would like to see some stats on that pullup J.
He's had stretches this year where that's been a decent shot for him. In fact, I think that shot is the single reason why he's at his career high PPG.
Less pullups, more floaters. Seems to work best when he doesn't penetrate so deep.
He is dribble penetrating now because he knows he can hit the FTs when he gets fouled, that is why is more aggressive this year. By him doing the penetrating, it keeps the defender honest and that makes it more likely that they will lay off him some, so he can get those open looks from the 3 pt line.
Keep it up Bruce
Yeah he had a very nice layup against Houston in i Think the second quarter, which was all dribble penetration.
I agree his defense has slipped a bit. He has been burned by guys like VC and McGrady this year pretty badly. He is getting long in the tooth so it's to be expected though. It's really too bad LJIII wasn't healthy this year to be mentored by him.
No comment. Bowen is the man even though he did undercut my boy Carter.
I don't think his D has slipped that much. He has had some really, really stellar stretches on defense (i.e. when he won player of the week). There's going to be times when even the best defenders in the league get scored on big by the All-Stars. For the most part, he's kept everyone's shooting percentages lower than average, except Ray Allen. Even TMac's big games, he didn't shoot that well IIRC.
Bruce is also a better rebounder this season than he's been in the past. He's more inconsistent from 3 than I'd like ... some games horrendous, then the next awesome. I'd rather that balanced out.
I don't think his defense has slipped like everyone says.
Remember, scoring is up across the league because of tighter rules on how you play perimeter defense. As a result, everyone's defense is "worse".
I think people are throwing lots of picks at him after watching what PJax did to him in last year's playoffs. Other than that, I think relative to everyone else in the league, his defense ranks the same as where it was last year.
I think his D has slipped. He's already been lit up as many times this season as he was in each of the last 2 years. He's still capable of shutting anyone down on any given night but IMO he' been torched more this season than in the past.
No one player got him two games in a row the past two years, I don't think anyone other than Kobe got him more than once...Allen has gotten him twice this season and the games where he's been off, he's been off worse than the past 2 years.
He has improved his offensive game though, when he used to put it on the floor it was death...that pull up he's got has worked consistently all season. There have been some nights this year where he's the guy who got hot to end a scoring slump...and I didn't see him do that much in previous years.
I will say this though...he couldn't handle LeBron the last time he played him last season....that game was ugly and it looked like Bowen had met his match. I didn't see tonights game, but obviously Bruce remembered that game last year.
I just don't like wasting the dude by playing him heavy minutes in the regular season...his performance(mainly his three) has slipped as the Spurs have gone deeper in the playoffs the past two years...Then again, we don't have the Kobe Shaq combo to worry about any longer. Our challenges now are most definitely bigman related.
I think the rules changes have more to do with him getting "lit up".
Scoring is up league-wide across all teams. That means players are going to get more points, even against Bruce.
I also think that we have to remember that a lot of the guys that are getting to him this year, Allen, McGrady etc... are on better teams than they were in the past. That makes a big difference.
I don't see a big change in the totals of the leading scorers though...last year was kind of a down year...but there were a few guys that averaged over 30ppg the year we won the le. He's 34 or something like that...it matters.
I like that he is scoring, make the guy you are playing against work on both ends of the court....
Just because you fell apart at that age . . .
Agreed, just the threat of being able to score helps the spurs as a whole. he used to be no threat to drive and dish, now although he is not great he is a threat.
Maybe spending more energy on the offensive end of the floor takes a bit out of him for hsi defense.
I like the dribble penetration. Instead of flying at him to contest the corner shot, the defender has to honor the possibility that he may drive and shoot the mid range or pass. When a defender does fly past him, another defender must leave his man, and havoc ensues. He's added an element, howver small, of "creation" to his offensive repertoire, and as a result he is having one of the best years of his career assist-wise.
I think his offensive improvement has far offset whatever supposed defensive decline he has experienced in the eyes of some, though I would also side with those who attribute that to the rules changes. He's still 1st Team All-NBA and a viable DPOY candidate. And he's still the most underappreciated player on the team.
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