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I was going to mention Melo, although younger, he also has improved most of his stats across the board playing mostly at PF this season. This move would help give NDC some extra minutes as well, all I'm asking is for is around 13-18 min a game.
Stephen Jackson came into the league as a shooting guard. He has since transitioned to the small forward position. Is it time to slide him over another spot and make him a full-time power forward?
What sounds like a peculiar notion the first time the vibration passes through the eardrum actually makes some logical sense after allowing for ample cranial marination.
- The power forward position is by far the weakest spot for the Spurs, to the point that the coaching staff has been forced to start two centers. DeJuan Blair, as it stands, lacks the physical capacity to play in the NBA. Pop is desperately attempting to wean the team from relying on Matt Bonner’s regular season greatness. And then there is Boris Diaw. Undoubtedly talented yet also undoubtedly apathetic. Maybe Diaw will show up consistently when the games really start to matter. But, then again, maybe not. Who knows what he’ll feel like doing when the bright lights shine? I certainly don’t.
- Trading for bigman help sounds reasonable but that’s much easier accomplished on the ESPN Trade Machine than in reality. The Spurs would need a big who is intelligent to fit in without the benefit of a training camp and only limited practice time. That player would also need to be coordinated enough to fit San Antonio’s system. Bigmen blessed with intelligence and coordination aren’t placed on the open market often. When they do appear, the asking price begins at an arm and a leg and goes up from there.
- A few potential candidates are sitting on the sidelines waiting for a contract. Alas, these so-called candidates are rife with maladies ranging from mental makeup question marks to brittle sinews originally formed in prehistoric times. Finding an NBA level contributor in this human recycle bin is improbable at best, foolhardy at worst.
- Jackson’s fit offensively while at power forward would be seamless. He simply needs to space the floor, which is something he does instinctively anyways. Additionally, his ball-handling and ability to create shots would become even larger advantages against opposing bigmen.
- Can Jackson endure on defense if he’s permanently at power forward? Considering that grit and toughness are his two eternal traits, I believe he can. We’ve seen some glimpses of this alignment and Jackson has held up well in the past. If still unconvinced, compare him to Diaw. Jackson is the same height and he’s already posting superior rebounding numbers. When he has played power forward this season, he’s averaging 11.3 rebounds per 48 minutes (last season with the Spurs, that number was 9.7). Diaw, comparatively, is averaging only 7.1 rebounds per 48 minutes when playing power forward this season.
- The Spurs have long been searching for a Robert Horry replacement. If you remember correctly, Horry was a converted small forward who made the switch after his quickness, or lack thereof, on the perimeter became burdensome. Jackson, who will be 35 years old come the playoffs, is already relatively sluggish on the perimeter and his jets will only get cooler from here on out. If he successfully evolves, it could be a career lengthening decision.
- The basketball association famous for the enormous people it employs is, as a whole, getting littler. The small forwards of yesteryear (or even yesterday, in some cases) are becoming power forwards. For example, Carmelo Anthony has spent 90% of his minutes at power forwards this year. He's not alone. Other examples include: LeBron James (69%), Danilo Gallinari (45%), Andrei Kirilenko (35%), Gerald Wallace (29%) and Kevin Durant (17%).
- By sliding Jackson up to power forward, that leaves Manu Ginobili free to absorb the backup small forward minutes. By my subjective observations, Ginobili has been better defending small forwards this season than shooting guards. As he ages, I wholeheartedly believe it’s safer to bet that the Argentine will remain tough enough to defend bigger small forwards rather than quick enough to defend faster shooting guards.
- This alignment also opens up both backup guard positions. Nando De Colo (or Patrick Mills, depending on your hemisphere of choice) would have a clear path to permanently win a spot in the rotation as the second string point guard. Even more significant is the trickle-down effect of Gary Neal being able to play backup shooting guard rather than being shoehorned into a point guard role. Neal is quite possibly too valuable to banish from the rotation completely so, given that near inevitability, I’d much rather see him at his natural position.
In a scenario in which Jackson is moved to power forward and competes with Diaw for the chief backup bigman slot in the rotation, I fail to see a downside. If Jackson proves to be the best man for the job, that allows the rest of the roster to fall into place. If it lights a fire under Diaw, that’d be great as well. If neither happens, the Spurs are basically back to where they are today, and that's not a bad spot to be in.
From imposing shooting guard to courageous power forward is truly a unique career path. However, for the sakes of both San Antonio as a whole and Jackson as an individual, it may very well be a path worth venturing.
I was going to mention Melo, although younger, he also has improved most of his stats across the board playing mostly at PF this season. This move would help give NDC some extra minutes as well, all I'm asking is for is around 13-18 min a game.
Boris has been way better than Sjax in the last few games tho.
I think you're underestimating Boris' impact tbh, I love SJax at PF but the ball movement and the playmakers of this team are still its main strength.
Also it's funny that you question what Boris will do in the PO when Tiago and Green both choked epicly last year... Also you're pushing for the spurs to get smaller overall, I don't like that either.
I wouldn't mind going back to Tim Boris and have Tiago SJax behind that, right amount of tougness in both pairings but if Pop is serious about Tim Tiago I don't see Boris losing his spot.
Interesting stuff timvp. Do you see this as being something we might employ in practice, or is this more of a hypothetical thought experiment?
Loving your work as always
Boris has been good for the last 1.25 games. The weeks before that ....... not so much.
His impact this season hasn't been very noteworthy.
Jackson would be a well above average playmaker at power forward.
Not sure how that fits into the argument. Besides, Diaw wasn't exactly clutch against the Thunder either. Jackson, though, was.
Any size lost going from Diaw, Blair or Bonner to Jackson would be negligible in my book.
I really think Pop will try it. When piecing together the rotation, it makes too much sense -- and solves too many question marks -- not to at least try it for a game or two.
Probably agree with this - no one is so cemented in that PF role for various reasons that it's not worth a look. Jax seemingly defends better with lesser lateral quickness where he can be physical and that means PF's vs the SF's of the league. However, first priority should be the Spurs lighting up the phones trying to trade.
I basically agree with all of your points. But the question that remains is, what are we going to do with our true PFs? We have three of them, and they are all sucking. No one wants them in a trade. We can't just release them. So do they just go to the bench and rot? Between Diaw, Bonner, and Blair, who would you give consistent minutes in a playoff rotation? I'm thinking Diaw.
I'm' not sure on the full time aspect but I definitely agree Jack should play some PF.
Aside of what is said in the OP is that Spurs bench unit is really slow footed on the perimeter. A Neal/Ginobili/Jack perimeter lineup will get destroyed by quickest lineup (cough.. Clippers...cough)
To me, Spurs best rotation would be:
Starters: Parker/Green/Leonard/Diaw/Duncan
Bench: De Colo/Neal/Ginobili/Jackson/Splitter
Fair points mostly, still Diaw-Sjax is quite a bit bigger than Sjax-Manu and we would lose a lot of playmaking regardless of Sjax passing abilities... You could also just switch SJax and Boris positions, I think that could work but I don't think we ever saw it despite Pop being in mad scientist mode for a while...
For the record I wanted to see how Sjax would do vs Blake Griffin at the beginning of the season, he has shown the best defense at PF, too bad we didn't see him vs more elite PF tho, especially the more physical type, like Zbo/Griffin, we know he can push the Dirk and Aldrigde around.
small ball jax or KL is already playin PF position
if going full time means less court time for turds, then so be it....
I just don't get always trying to over bolster your bench. If Diaw is worth anything, he should be motivated enough to carry a bench unit against 2nd/3rd stringers and dominate, especially when he has De Colo, Neal, Gino, Jackson on the floor with him possibly.
Nice write-up. Seems like it makes sense, though like Paranoid Pop said, Diaw has been looking better. I'm still liking the the 3 man rotation with Tim, Tiago, and Boris eating up a lot of the 5 & 4 minutes, but it doesn't address how to best use Jack. His minutes in the Pelicans game at PF were mostly with Diaw on the floor. It's obviously going to be a better fit next to Tim or Tiago. Hopefully Kawhi starts tonight and we'll see what rotation Pop will use. You make a persuasive argujment for moving Jack to the 4, and it seems he was at least our 3rd best big in the WCF's now that I think about it. Thanks for the ideas. This is why I think ST is a badass thang.....
Anything to keep Bonner and Blair glued to the bench.
Why is nobody questioning Green starting despites him scrubing at least as much as Boris except at a more stacked position?
I like your rotation other than that, I agree that Jack at PF doesn't work that well with the twin towers starting (unless you acknowledge that Boris might be better at SF like SJax is better at PF).
I'd go with something like :
Starters: Parker/Manu/Leonard/Diaw/Duncan
Bench: De Colo/Green/Gelabale?/Jackson/Splitter
But Pop seems obsessed with the twin towers and it's growing on me since inside scoring is clearing where we have the edge over OKC :
Starters: Parker/Manu/Leonard/Splitter/Duncan
Bench: De Colo/Green/Diaw/Jackson/One of the twin tower
Danny is a very good fit at starting SG. They need spacing (he provides), capable defense (he does that) and some rebounding (he's capable). You don't get any upgrade by taking him out and putting Manu in as far as a net benefit because of how impactful Manu is with the bench.
I wondered about this in the Think Tank a couple of days ago. It seems good, but I fear that it would encourage Pop to play Green at the three, which has really been bad for Danny recently. I don't like the prospect of anyone else besides Kawhi and maybe Manu playing as a small-forward. If the Spurs have a plan for filling Jack's minutes at the three that doesn't involve going smaller there, I'd be fine with the shift.
I still think the Spurs need another big, though, if they're not sold on Diaw. Jack may be able to get away with playing the four, but the Spurs can't expect to get by if they have to use a three-man rotation of him, Splitter and Duncan.
With the loss of Boris in the starting lineup we don't need a one dimensional player but another playmaker imo.
Also to go your way timvp, at about 7:30 in the 4th, SJax rejected Anderson and Davis back to back, great stuff. Other than that, that lineup (Tiago at C and Sjax at PF) didn't do very well tho.
I think you're right but I think they made a mistake with Boris, I believe they told Tiago to lose some weight, they should have done the same with Boris so that he would do even better at the 3 (and he has done well already), unfortunately Pop sees Boris as more of a big than Boris imo.
IMO, while spacing may be an issue in a Parker/Danny/Kawhi/Tiago/Tim line up, playmaking will not be. TP and Tim are both excellent play makers and passers. Tiago is a great passer for a big man and set's wonderful screens. Kawhi has improved ball handling and play making (although still needs work).
The Spurs did tell Boris to lose weight ... and he did. He's still pretty chubby but he's as skinny as he's been since he inked that big contract with the Suns. I'm sure the Spurs didn't instruct him to keep some baby fat on him, that's just some excess crepes, IMO.
I disagree but I'm not sure I'm rationnal anymore about Green so I will leave it at that.
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