Parker's game has evolved over the past 15 years in the league. Let's take a look back at his development as a player. Feel free to add any additions, comments, things you disagree with, or valuable krew insight.
2001-2002 - Speed & ball-handling - Parker came into the league with basically two great skills: quickness and handles. But by the end of the season, those were enough to help him put up 17 PPG on 50% shooting against Gary Payton and be our #2 offensive option in the playoffs behind Duncan as a rookie.
2003-2004 - Scoring - In his second year, the Spurs won a championship with Parker as the #2 scoring option throughout the regular season and playoffs (15 PPG in both). He was leading the team in assists, but it was his ability to score that increased his value most to the team immediately.
2005-2006 - Finishing at the rim - By the 05-06 season, Parker had improved his ability to finish at the rim (65 FG%) and was getting into the paint at a much higher clip than previous seasons. He developed one of the best floaters and spin moves in the history of the game. During the Spurs '05 championship run, Parker averaged 16.6 PPG in the regular season and 17.2 in the playoffs.
2007-2008 - Volume scoring - Parker continued to increase his scoring production as the Spurs made another le run in 2007. He averaged 19/6 in the RS and 21/6 in the playoffs, his best series coming in the Finals where he averaged 25/5/3 on 57% shooting to win FMVP. The following season he had one of his best playoff series against Phoenix where he averaged 30/7 and later one of his best games against Minnesota where he went for 55/10.
2009-2010 - Mid-range - Part of Parker's development was adding his mid-range jumper to his signature floater and spin move. This made him borderline unguardable when he was hot. In 2009, he put up 22/7 in the regular season and 29/7 in the playoffs, where he had an astounding 39.1 usage percentage. For perspective, Duncan's highest usage percentage in the playoffs was 33.5.
2011-2012 - Passing - By 2012, Parker was averaging 8 APG. He still led the team in scoring in the RS & playoffs, but it was his increased distribution that caused him to go from simply being a "scoring PG" to the head of the snake. This was the beginning of the a Spurs team that would later become one of the best passing teams in the history of the NBA.
2013-2014 - MVP discussion - Parker peaked in 2013, adding two top-6 MVP finishes to his previous two top-12 (he actually led the 2013 race at one point until he was injured near the end of the season). He finished the season with a 23.0 PER and .59 TS% while averaging 20/8. He led the Spurs to two more Finals appearances by leading the team in scoring and assists throughout the regular season and playoffs both years and being the only All-Star and only All-NBA player on the team for the 2013-14 championship run. Those runs were marked by a signature WCF for Parker against Memphis (averaged 25/10) and elimination G7 against Dallas (32/4/4) the following year.
2015-2016 - 3-pointer - In his 15th season, Parker has taken on reduced minutes which has pushed him to develop other areas of his game. Never a great shooter from beyond the arc, Parker worked to add a reliable 3 pointer to his game. Parker has led the Spurs in 3P% the past 2 seasons (43% last season and 52% this season).
Last edited by SASdynasty!; 12-31-2015 at 01:47 PM.
Good takes. He never developed as a great passer though. In this system he should have double digit assists in the regular. He still makes horrible scripted passes that bail him out, but put his teammates in bad positions. He is growing in that aspect this year, but it really is long over due. He has been a sg in the pg position most of his career.
You didn't include him almost single handedly winning two games for us and the championship in 2013. Remember the sick off balance side ways three pointer from well outside the top of the key over LeBron? Then the clutch lane pump fake short jumper to virtually clinch the championship? On a bad hamstring? Yes we choked it all away but leaving that out of the TP chronology seems remiss to me. We would still be talking about it to this day if we had closed the game out properly. It was one of the most clutch performances in Spurs history.
Top 10 PG of all time.
That 3 point shoot that started last year is getting pretty accurate..... 50%.... is that's ridiculously good?
He might be past his peak (2013-2014), but definitely Spurs second best offensive player.
Top 25 PG of all time. Top 40 at worst.
This is my favorite Parker sequence of all-time. I read somewhere (Simmons I believe) where it's just as good if not better than what Jordan did to close out game 6 of the 1998 Finals against the Jazz - on the road, clutch shot, steal on the other end, go-ahead bucket. In my opinion this would have been one of the most clutch sequences in Finals history if we didn't choke it away. I think it secures Parker's 2nd FMVP (his and Duncan's stats were pretty similar at that point) and with his G1 clincher and that, along with being the best player throughout the playoffs, no way he doesn't win it IMO.
Edit: here's the article (not Simmons) - http://www.poundingtherock.com/2014/...of-tony-parker
Last edited by SASdynasty!; 12-31-2015 at 05:31 PM.
I agree with saying Parker was never an elite passer in terms of court-vision. A notch below Manu for sure. I do think he made up for it with his ability to penetrate (he didn't get as many "dump it to Malone" assists as Stockton for example). I also think recently his assist numbers have been limited by the "extra pass" mentality of the Spurs. All in all, it's probably a wash and Parker truly is a career 6 APG guy.
I remember when he was drafted thinking "who the heck is this guy" but you could see early on he was very talented.
Didn't he beat antonio daniels for the starting pg spot his rookie season? He used to come off the bench and just destroy 2nd units then eventually started. But I may be way off though.
It was revealed that if the spurs had won, Duncan would've received FMVP.
Say what?
I still wonder how Tony would've done playing with Jason Kidd even if that meant Manu leaving?
[QUOTE=bic50;8347801]I remember when he was drafted thinking "who the heck is this guy" but you could see early on he was very talented.
Didn't he beat antonio daniels for the starting pg spot his rookie season? He used to come off the bench and just destroy 2nd units then eventually started. But I may be way off though.[/QUOTE
IIRC, he only came off the bench for about 5-7 games before Pop started him at pg. Then Pop proceeded to scream at him and yank him in and out of games for the next three seasons. But he did start almost as soon as the season began. For all I remember, he could have been coming off the bench only in the pre-season that year - maybe he started at the beginning of the regular season. But for sure within the first few games he was the starter. I was a season ticket holder that year and remember the guy behind me (at the old Alamodome) yelling "Who the IS that guy" during the first game. I told them the answer but he just kept repeating himself. Tony was THAT fast in the early days.
[QUOTE=EVAY;8348133]Tony was one of the fastest players I'd ever seen. I remember those days pop would really scream at him all the time, I thought pop hated him but seeing how things are now it was more pop trying to keep parker focused.
You might be right, I vaguely remember parker starting very soon into his nba career. You could just see how talented he was, and tell he would be something special.
In general, thanks for your summary of Tony' s development and evolution. I have followed the Spurs for just a couple of years and all if the is interesting to me.
I agree with the extra pass affecting assist rates, and it applies not just to Tony, but guys like Kawhi. Only guys like Manu and Boris really go for the home run assist regularly and Td gets a lot of assists these days out of lobs. In general the shot creation is a lot more spread out by Pop's design. I think no one guy would average 8-10 assists in the current spurs bc of the extra pass and the ball is really handled by different guys by design.
Indeed. If Ray Allen doesn't happen, we're talking about TP winning us the '13 ship (had a game winner in game 1 of that series as well).
There's no way Duncan wouldn't have won it imo. He was our most consistent player that series and he put the team on his back in game 6, having a peak Duncan-esque first half (25 point first half) to carry us to a huge lead before Manu choked it away. Had Manu merely had a below average game instead of a nightmarishly bad game and we won comfortably (or at all), no doubt in my mind Duncan would have gotten FMVP.
Parker was playing like superman the series before against the Grizzlies though. But Duncan was our best that Finals.
He definitely gave Duncan a run for his FMVP money in that finals series.
If TP had Kawhis work ethic he couldve been a top 3 Spur of all time.
When Parker plays like a point guard, he gets over 10 a game easy, and that's on 30 or less minutes a game. A true play maker at the pg position would be salivating at this type of team of shooters.
He has always been an elite penetrating guard form his rookie season. He also shot more confidently from 3 back then and I thought he would be a 3 pt player. Most of his career Duncan handled the ball out of the post, and then Manu took over pg in crunch time which limited his development.
This system is built for a drive and dish. He just really does go hero mode, and shoots more often Than not against a double. If he does decide not to shoot, it's because be dribbled himself into a bad situation and passes it to someone with 3 seconds on the shot clock. The exact opposite of what a pg should do.
Kawhi struggles with this same thing, but this is his first year being a go to player. Parker is barely breaking into his potential abilities as a passer, Which will be the difference come playoff time.
For the first several years of TOny's career, his only job was to bring the ball up the court and then "geev thee boll to Teemy". Tim was then, and for lots of years following, the dominant ball handler for the Spurs. No Spurs pg, regardless of their passing or shooting abilities, was going to change that. That is not a criticism; it worked for the team. Then, as Tim's knees deteriorated and the team suffered with little or no bench, Pop decided to change the focus of the offense and Tim decided to change his diet. With that development, Tony was asked to take on more of the playmaking AND scoring responsibilities, and the loop plays and the hammer plays and a lot of the plays that we take for granted as part of the offense now became embedded as the primary offensive set.
Even as the change occurred, Tim continued to be the person that Tony gave the ball to as soon as he crossed the half-court line. Very few teams are as dependent on a Power-forward ball handler as the Spurs have been. That reality changed the assist numbers for anyone playing the pg position. The Spurs' system would never allow any one player to dominate scoring or assists in the way other teams's systems do. Lots of folks don't realize that and will never understand what the system has meant for the teams' players in terms of individual achievement, statistically. Pop has referenced many times, but you have to buy into it, recognize it, value it and accept it to properly evaluate the particular stats for any given Spurs player in the Pop era.
Does TP overdribble sometimes? Absolutely!!! Is his court vision as good as Manu's? Absolutely not!
But does he do what Pop wants done in every game or get creamed for it? Undeniably!!
Since 04-05 Parker's FG% has averaged over 50%, the worst being 48%. No other guard comes close to touching that including Westbrook, Rose, Lillard, Conley, Paul, Walls, Curry or Lowrey. Currently Parker at age 33 has the highest FG% and 3pt Fg% of any PG in the league. For most of his career he's been the PG for the team with the most efficient or near most efficient offense in the league. He must be doing something right.
System Player
/Durant
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