The lane is already clogged with LMA, Duncan and even Leonard. A drive and dish player like Simmons will see nowhere to drive. The only lineup that makes sense would be for Simmons to replace Tony.
The defense will be much better but there's a big drop off in ball handling.
Simmons in place of Tony makes no sense, including defensively. He can't guard a school girl if a screen is set, he'll get lit up like a christmas tree. He's also not a drive and dish player. There are no dishes in his drives. He's a downhill rolling snowball.
I agree about the defense part. Simmons has great defensive energy, and he has the athleticism to keep up with PGs, but his technique and discipline are not up to snuff yet. He's not an upgrade to Parker defensively.
I think you're selling Simmons short on offense, though. He is a pass-first guy, and he has shown that this season. If he gets into the lane and can create an good look from someone, he'll do it readily. The only thing that might be holding him back is chemistry -- he may not have enough experience with guys to know where they're going to be at any given time. That makes finding teammates much harder.
I would have to disagree on this. In the preseason he wasn't. But he has really improved his technique off his drive. He had 4 ast the other night for a reason.
But replacing Simmons with Parker is absurd. Parker and Manu wouldn't work coming off the bench. Simmons and Manu do as Manu is probably the best passer on the team when finding cutting players. A lineup of Mills, Simmons, Manu, West (Boban), Diaw (Anderson) is a great combo to have coming off the bench. The Spurs are destroying teams right now and people want to rock the boat.
I'm genuinely surprised you're so high on Simmons as an NBA player. I see no chance Pop would allow a rookie to initiate offense by driving and kicking outside of garbage time. it took him 4 years to give the rock to Kawhi.
Hope you're right though, but I see his absolutele max potential as a Will Barton type. Which is not bad at all IMO.
I feel like you misinterpreted my post. I'm talking about Simmons' tendencies, not his prognosis. Simmons' is a drive-and-kick guy because he looks to suck in the defense and pass to the open man. That's just who he is, and as he and his teammates figure each other out more he'll know where to hit them for passes without having to search for them.
That doesn't mean that I see him running the offense consistently for any unit in the future. Pop seems like a big believer in Jonathon, but he still picks Anderson to be the de facto PG when they run with no-PG lineups or in end-of-quarter situations. I think Simmons projects to be the secondary penetrator for the bench. He's never going to be the PG, but he'll get some opportunities to create after the defenses are already moving.
Oh I absolutely agree with you re Simmons' projections. I think the misunderstanding came from the original post I quoted, which suggested that he could replace Tony directly.
The entire thread has an absurd suggestion of replacing Green with Simmons. I just suggested a less absurd suggestion of replacing Tony with Simmons. I'm not going to disagree that its absurd, but maybe for certain defensive situations, then a quicker taller guard may be better than having Tony in the play.
Nope. Simmons replacing Tony is far more absurd than Simmons replacing Green.
I agree, Simmons is a drive and kick guy. Why some folks don't see that tells me they haven't seen him play enough.
I like the idea of no-PG (or rather, no Parker/Mills) lineups because they plug holes in the defense. So if Parker or Mills is subbed, who takes their place? Either Manu, Simmons or Anderson.
Manu, Green, Leonard, LMA, Duncan <--- best defensive five
Simmons, Manu, Anderson, Diaw, Boban <-- best defensive second team
I disagree.
Simmons doesn't improve on Green defensive. Simmons doesn't spread the court as well as Green. Simmons has a clogged paint. You can't find a single case where replacing Green with Simmons makes sense.
in contrast
Simmons improves on Parker defensively. So just in one special case it is better.
Absolutely not.
That makes sense. I just assumed that everyone but ceperez knew that Simmons replacing Parker was a bad idea and that I didn't have to even refute it.
There is absolutely zero evidence to support the assertion that Simmons could defend NBA PGs better than Parker. Certainly not enough to overcome the massive decrease in playmaking skills on the offensive side.
Well there isn't any numbers at this time. I'm basing my suggestion on having a 6'6" over a 6'2" player in defense.
Besides, Simmons is being groomed to play defense. He's not in the court to be an option in offense.
I'm also only talking about a special case in a defense situation (which you conveniently ignored to make your case).
ChumpDumper or SAGirl, was Simmons even an exception d-league defender? I can see he tries hard, but I don't look at him as a plus on that end at all yet.
The guy was tasked on defending Kobe (granted Kobe isn't close to his former self). Still you don't see Parker being assigned to guard a 6'7" player like Kobe.
The reason why Simmons gets to play is because of his better defense relative to a guy like Ray McCallum. He isn't on the court because the Spurs need more offense.
Heck, the entire suggestion of this thread is that Simmons defends as well as Green. Which obviously isn't remotely true.
You keep moving those goalposts. Eventually, you'll get one to go through.
Simmons is a trash defender now. Can't even stay in front of his man one on one. Too late to get better that he is 27. The Spurs bigs and team defense bail him out though.
You don't have any argument to stand on other than 'I don't have any data'.
You keep moving those goalposts. Eventually, you'll get one to go through.
I'll quote that for posterity. Remind me to bring it up in the future.
I really think #ceperez should become a thing.
I don't agree with what that guy says much but Simmons is a better rebounder than parker. And their man to man defense is about the same. Any 5 man team would get better defensively if your options are simmons over parker.
You don't have any argument to stand on other than 'I don't have any data'.
Having no data to support your assertions is a serious, even fatal, flaw in your assertions. That you think otherwise is telling.
I'm really starting to think ceperez is timvp's troll. I used to think kobyz was but ceperez seems to fit a little better.
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