48 MOH: Are the Spurs Tony Parker’s Team?

[Mel_13]

Are the Spurs Tony Parker’s Team?

It’s the quarterback controversy that never happened.

Increasingly, the San Antonio Spurs offhandedly refer to Tony Parker as their leading playmaker. Parker’s budding status as team pace setter began last season, and in some ways it was foist upon him because of the injury-hampered seasons of Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. The team needed Parker to evolve into a top shelf star, and he owned-up to the challenge. 55, 10, and 7 on November 6 placed Parker safely amongst the league’s best players. By February, Parker had progressed to the point of dominating entire teams. Good teams...

http://www.48minutesof .com/2009/...eam/#more-4776

[Blackjack]

Are the Spurs Tony Parker’s Team?
by Timothy Varner


It’s the quarterback controversy that never happened.

Increasingly, the San Antonio Spurs offhandedly refer to Tony Parker as their leading playmaker. Parker’s budding status as team pace setter began last season, and in some ways it was foist upon him because of the injury-hampered seasons of Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. The team needed Parker to evolve into a top shelf star, and he owned-up to the challenge. 55, 10, and 7 on November 6 placed Parker safely amongst the league’s best players. By February, Parker had progressed to the point of dominating entire teams. Good teams.

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[siraulo23]

Mel_13 posted it 2 mins earlier~

[Scola]

lol, You guys both posted the same story within 2 minutes of each other? Anyway, I'm off to read the article.

[Blackjack]

Nice thread, Mel.

Brilliant post.

[Mel_13]

Oops.

[CubanSucks]

On a team without any major egos it doesn't matter

[timvp]

Good article but I don't exactly agree. The way I see it, there are three distinct categories: leading scorer (AKA the first option offensively), the best player on the team and the team's leader.

Due to cir stances, Parker will likely continue to be the team's leading scorer. However, I don't think that translates to him automatically being the best player on the team and I don't think that the Spurs become Parker's team. Even if TD pulls back and plays at 85-90%, he's still clearly the best overall player on the team. And he's still the leader of the squad. Thus, I disagree with the notion that there is a changing of the guard.

Parker is a damn good player but Duncan is still a better player and a healthy Ginobili is also a damn good player. I still see the dynamic of the team as Duncan being the best with Parker and Ginobili falling in as equal parts behind him. Ginobili is arguably better than Parker on a per-minute basis, although it evens out since Parker can play more minutes.

All that said, the great thing about this group is that they all genuinely don't care about this type of stuff. Each member of the Big 3 would sacrifice personal accomplishments if it meant that the team could reach its goals.

[HarlemHeat37]

TimVP covered it well, as usual..

I don't think there will necessarily be any "changing of the guard" here..Parker will be our #1 option offensively, but we saw that last season, and we even saw that a few times in the playoffs the last few years..it won't really be any different..

[benefactor]

This team is Tim Duncan until he retires.

[Texas_Ranger]

no way.

[Samr]

I might be stating the obvious here, but Duncan and Robinson both played similar positions, thus it was easy to directly compare one to the other and "pass the torch" because one was more clearly effective at the position than the other.

But comparing Duncan to Parker is apples and oranges. Parker absolutely destroys teams from the point guard spot. He breaks down their defenses and passes to the open man when he can't. Duncan absolutely destroys teams in the post. He dominates defensively and is still the number one option offensively -- which is what the post should be, if you have a good player down low. He's the top option because he's closer to the basket, and thus can make a higher percentage with less work.

It's not someone's team, it's a Spurs team, run by an extraordinary front office and some HOF players.

[lefty]

Duncan's

[RobSM64]

This team is Tim Duncan until he retires.

Ditto

[UnWantedTheory]

I completely agree with Timvp on this one.

[spursfaninla]

Good article but I don't exactly agree. The way I see it, there are three distinct categories: leading scorer (AKA the first option offensively), the best player on the team and the team's leader.

Due to cir stances, Parker will likely continue to be the team's leading scorer. However, I don't think that translates to him automatically being the best player on the team and I don't think that the Spurs become Parker's team. Even if TD pulls back and plays at 85-90%, he's still clearly the best overall player on the team. And he's still the leader of the squad. Thus, I disagree with the notion that there is a changing of the guard.

Parker is a damn good player but Duncan is still a better player and a healthy Ginobili is also a damn good player. I still see the dynamic of the team as Duncan being the best with Parker and Ginobili falling in as equal parts behind him. Ginobili is arguably better than Parker on a per-minute basis, although it evens out since Parker can play more minutes.

All that said, the great thing about this group is that they all genuinely don't care about this type of stuff. Each member of the Big 3 would sacrifice personal accomplishments if it meant that the team could reach its goals.

Credit Timvp with the analytical a en to see how the discussion was too loose; by breaking "whose team" into the proper categories, the discussion is definitely more precise and gets rid of less important but related concepts.

In terms of scoring, Tony will continue to be the "leader," although the difference is small-he will average just a few points more than Manu and Tim, but it will not be a big difference.

In terms of leadership, I think the Big Three all contribute in this regard, and will continue to do so, so that will not change either.

In terms of "best player," that is fairly subjective. It is hard to argue that Duncan has not diminished (as has Manu slightly), while Tony has improved. That is why this is a question. Duncan was, at his peak, the best player in the league; Tony has had nights that put him there, but not whole seasons. Duncan is a game-changer on both sides of the ball, where Tony is most dangerous on offense. Duncan changed the game with his passing by creating open shots for his team-mates; Tony is still most dangerous scoring the ball.

I think Duncan, even diminished, still effects the game on both sides as a whole much more than Tony, even though Tony arguably is the most important offensive piece on the team now. Thus, Duncan is probably the most important "player".

With that said, without all 3, this team can't do what it needs to repeat, so this is all primarily academic. This is the offseason, so I guess it is worth thinking about anyway.

[TIMMYD!]

This has and will be Tim Duncan's team until he retires.

[Brazil]

This has and will be Tim Duncan's team until he retires.

and this is exactly what TP thinks which is perfectly fine. The most important thing about the spurs is that nobody gives a about who is the best or who is the leader or who is the scoring leader...

[EricB]

Duncan has and always be the 'chise.

The day he hangs up the Adidas shoes, is the day that le is up for grabs.

[ducks]

no way.

why

[ducks]

Duncan has and always be the 'chise.

The day he hangs up the Adidas shoes, is the day that le is up for grabs.

same thing could have been said of david robinson but duncan changed it

[hater]

It's clearly Manu's. He's already the best player of this training camp. Pop said so.