Implications from the Spurs’ Final Five
by Timothy Varner
You know what they say about a team’s final five being more important than its starting five. Well, that’s all true. In a perfect world, one free of foul trouble and injury concerns, a coach finishes the game with his best five players on the floor.
Through 8 games, George Hill is unquestionably the Spurs’ 5th best player, alongside Tim Duncan, Richard Jefferson, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. And he did finish the game in the loss against Oklahoma City, although it was because Coach Popovich elected not to play a gimpy Manu Ginobili in the final quarter. Hill was the Spurs’ best player down the stretch.
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that's our major problem right now --too good players playing the same positions.
You got to think that our closing five would be TP __ RJ DICE and TD.
The blank spot is either Manu or George. Of course I don't want to think about playing TP Manu Hill RJ and TD. How that line up would do against the Lakers of Kobe, Pau Bynum and LO? Or Denver?
Its easy to say Pop will figure things out, what if that's impossible to do?
I think its going to be who plays better on a given night.
That was a really good article.
IMHO, the spurs of this season is very different from the spurs of the last championship and 2005. Those seasons, we make the opponents adjust to our playing style. This year, we are trying to counter our opponents.
I think The big 3 must end close games, but let them rest when its a blow out.
Let RJ and G-Hill play along side Tony for the first few minutes of the 4th quarter and see how it goes. Sub Manu and Duncan in for the final 5 minutes.
Why let us adjust to the other teams?
Make them adjust to our strengths.
Last edited by Sotongball21; 11-16-2009 at 04:29 AM.
Manu is in our clutch lineup. There is no debating that. Dice and Bonner are interchangeable depending on if we are on offense or defense. George can be subbed in for RJ or TP depending on matchups. If we need a 3, Manu-Fin-Bonner-Tim-Hill is probably the best lineup.
I really like the idea of George getting 32+ mpg. He looks really, really good right now.
One thing that wasn't mentioned is the possibility of sitting RJ and playing Hill and Dice together (if the matchup is right… but can Manu slow Odom down? Would RJ do any better?), which should be a consideration. I think all three scenarios will be trialled over the next 40 games, and then we’ll better be able to judge how the team should finish.
As always, excellent commentary from 48MoH.
PS Nice work Blackjack on putting the link in there - these guys deserve the traffic to their page.
First of all I've seen TP sit out closing minutes in 4th qtrs in important games cause of lackluster play. Manu if healthy will never sit out in the closing minutes.
I'll never understand why people act like McDyess can't produce offensively. Did anyone see him hit three in a row, then drive and get to the foul line? When he's given shots, he hits them. He's a perfect screen and roll weapon. Is it just because he doesn't shoot three pointers?
Where does it say in the article, or in the previous posts, that Dice can't produce offensively?
He Probably figures that cause some mention a final 5 not including Dice.
It doesn't. I was refering to one of the posts in this thread.
Dice and Bonner are interchangeable depending on if we are on offense or defense
As much as I’d like George Hill on the floor against, say, Kobe Bryant in a game’s final minutes
Mcdyess >> Hill
I completely agree with this article. Playing a small ball final 5 isnt a bad thing depeding ont eh matchup, for instance it would work perfectly against dallas and (as we almost saw last night) OKC. And then we go to Dice for the bigger teams.
More importantly though we need to get the SF rotation fixed. We have entirely too many shooting guards right now. Either we need to work out a trade for an athletic sf, or Pop needs to give all of the backup sf minutes to either Bogans or Finley (I would of course prefer Bogans but I'm not holding my breath.) Hill should split minutes at SG with Manu and Mason Jr. can get sot minutes as a 3 point specialist.
he plays Kobe better than anyone on the team. His problem, is Kobe's ability to rise up over him. Then again, he may have learned how to deal with that since he did good on Durant.
Dice and Jefferson interchangable in clutch, unless Hill isn't necessary, depending on opponent
the solution, to me, seems fairly simple. In the last five mins of a tight game, you play
Tim, Dice, Manu, RJ, and Hill and Tony takes a seat. You let Manu run the offense. He'll make the right play and get into the right guy's hands for an easy, wide open shot every single time.
Not only is the Spurs best defensive lineup, but you lose very little, if anything, offensively. If you want to go super defense, replace RJ with Bogans. If you want to super offense, replace Dice with Tony.
If you're worried about pissing Tony off, you replace RJ with Tony, until RJ proves he deserves to be on the floor in a close game.
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