How would y'all feel about moving Mills to SG and letting CoJo remain backup PG?

[SpursFan86]

With as well as CoJo has been playing, I feel like it'd be a shame for him to go back to the role he had last year where he hardly played outside of garbage time. How do you guys feel about essentially playing Mills at backup SG, and letting Joseph remain the backup PG? Obviously they'd be undersized and that's the main worry, but I think we need to find a way to keep Joseph in the rotation even once Mills returns (assuming Joseph continues to play as well as he has).

His defense could really be helpful come playoff time, and he's really impressed me with his slashing and mid-range shooting this year. If only he could develop a reliable 3-point shot.

[Brazil]

doin so... you give Manu minutes to Mills ?

[SpursFan86]

doin so... you give Manu minutes to Mills ?

Main bench unit would be Joseph/Mills/Manu/Diaw/Baynes. So Belinelli would be the odd man out, but it's not like there wouldn't still be minutes for him (and as always, it'd depend on certain matchups). He'd just be seeing a bit less.

[testies]

No. The healthy solution is less Parker minutes

[lefty]

No

[lefty]

No. The healthy solution is less Parker minutes

And this.

[playblair]

cojo = the right choice for back up pg.............. patty is an spark plug off the bench when needed.........a line up of cojo/manu/allen/diaw/baynes or
manu/allen/beli/daye/baynes will be the rotation...............

[Richie]

A Joseph/Mills back court is way too small.

[BillMc]

A Joseph/Mills back court is way too small.

Yeah. It'd be nice to give them both playing time but Richie is right.

[urunobili]

Cojo was the backup in 2013
Mills was the backup in 2014
Make the numbers...

[Darkwaters]

I'm curious how much money CoJo will demand this offseason? After the Spurs committed so much money to Mills, theres basically no chance that CoJo stays. But I'm still curious what his going rate would be.

[PingPong]

Nah. ReEgular season is one thing. Playoffs are another thing.

[Richie]

I'm curious how much money CoJo will demand this offseason? After the Spurs committed so much money to Mills, theres basically no chance that CoJo stays. But I'm still curious what his going rate would be.

I think we will tender a qualifying offer and let the market decide his value. If he signs with a team early or or too much, I expect we'll let him go. We can withdraw the qualifying offer if we need his cap space to sign a free agent but if we don't bring anyone in I expect we'll extend him on a Mills-level deal around $3m per.

[Tuddy]

Would be good for small lineups. Like Westbrook/Jackson, Ellis/Harris. Mills already plays off the ball predominantly so that wouldn't change

[Malik Hairston]

Joseph is pretty bad at creating for others(relative to other PGs), tbh..

You would have to play Manu at the 3, but a Joseph/Mills/Ginobili backcourt would probably get killed defensively, even against opposing benches..

[100%duncan]

No. Why the need to destroy what's working/worked?

[Raven]

that's how it has always been, mills has never played pg with the spurs(unless you count those stretches when he was getting blown out on the defensive end). Manu is the de-facto playmaker pg and everyone else moves without the ball, that is why he plays off the bench, otherwise he would start alongside parker. What will happen after manu/timmy are gone, that is a whole different question, but generally speaking, mills is a shooter and can't defend pgs so it's strange that anyone would consider him at pg. He is a great guy, but you can't call him pg just because he's small.

[ElNono]

that's how it has always been, mills has never played pg with the spurs(unless you count those stretches when he was getting blown out on the defensive end). Manu is the de-facto playmaker pg and everyone else moves without the ball, that is why he plays off the bench, otherwise he would start alongside parker. What will happen after manu/timmy are gone, that is a whole different question, but generally speaking, mills is a shooter and can't defend pgs so it's strange that anyone would consider him at pg. He is a great guy, but you can't call him pg just because he's small.

Debatable. Just re-watching some the Finals games the last couple of days, he largely played the backup PG role. For stretches, without Manu out there. Patty is certainly a scorer (so is Tony Parker), but he played the PG position his entire career. He isn't a situation like when Neal had to play backup PG, which was more of a cameo and you really needed a safety valve out there if things got ugly.

That said, the position is a bit overrated for the Spurs. Outside of Gino who has the green light to do whatever he wants in the creation department, the Spurs offense is highly choreographed. You do need a guy that has good handles and just plays hard on defense (I though Patty showed some improvements in that area last season)

[Fireball]

We know that Mills will not be backup PG immediately when he comes back. Pop takes it slowly and we have to see how Pattys shot is looking after the injury. If he looks solid again, more experimentation by Pop may follow even if it is the second half of the season already. But I do not think we will see much Cojo and Patty on the court together ...

[Raven]

Debatable. Just re-watching some the Finals games the last couple of days, he largely played the backup PG role. For stretches, without Manu out there. Patty is certainly a scorer (so is Tony Parker), but he played the PG position his entire career. He isn't a situation like when Neal had to play backup PG, which was more of a cameo and you really needed a safety valve out there if things got ugly.

That said, the position is a bit overrated for the Spurs. Outside of Gino who has the green light to do whatever he wants in the creation department, the Spurs offense is highly choreographed. You do need a guy that has good handles and just plays hard on defense (I though Patty showed some improvements in that area last season)

Miami is a special team, in that their pg is the sf meaning mills could hold his own(big understatement) against pg since they were pretty much shooters. That isnt likely to happen much this year or the year after, the likes of reggie jackson would eat him alive.

[exstatic]

Patty already is a SG. Manu is the bench PG.

[dbestpro]

I wish CoJo much success as he might be our best trade chip come the deadline. We need help in the post if Splitter does not recover, and or a SF who can hit the three when coming off the bench.

Mills instant offense is more valuable as a bench player, while CoJo may actually be better as a starter on another team.

[tmtcsc]

You can call them what you want but our point guards are all 1.5's - a mix of 1's and 2's. They handle the ball, are relied upon to score, and are pretty much interchangeable.

[ElNono]

Miami is a special team, in that their pg is the sf meaning mills could hold his own(big understatement) against pg since they were pretty much shooters. That isnt likely to happen much this year or the year after, the likes of reggie jackson would eat him alive.

That's called matchups. Patty actually guarded Ray Allen most of that series, and he did an admirable job at it. That's why when the playoffs come around, we let Green guard Curry and CP3, etc... the reality is Spursfan now has a fairly distorted view of what the average defense in the perimeter looks like when you have two elite defenders there in Danny and Kawhi. Patty was "poor" prior to last season, but I thought he reached "average" last season, which really is enough to play against 80% of the league.

[downunder]

I am staggered by this blog. Joseph cannot offer this team something extra. Mills wins games with his 3 point shot. He is vital to Spurs especially if the veterans are injured, Parker or Ginobli have an off day with their shooting etc Their shooting is inconsistent already. With their age & given a long season, the vets will fade . Sounds like Pop also needs to be handled with kid's gloves.