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Poetl showed promise of being a big rebounder but ultimately sucked. Foul machine
Ninja Edit: OH HEY, WELCOME BACK SPURSTALK! IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!
Game Grades might be back at some point, but they are incredibly time consuming. I also missed a significant portion of the 1st Quarter so everything I say here applies to Quarters 2/3/4.
First off, I'd like to say a few things about the TWolves
Towns: At one point I sincerely believed this guy would be a perennial top 3 player. He has every tool in the ing toolbox. I'm starting to wonder if he'll ever sniff the top 5. On a night when the Wolves NEEDED some length and pressure on the interior, Towns quietly fouled out and couldn't get out of his own way. Pop targeted him on defense and Towns has no idea how to play D without fouling. Funnily enough, he actually fouled out on a charge. Just an awful night -- if you want to be a top guy in the league, you HAVE to play smarter than this in basically every single aspect.
Teague: ing torched us. But was also a night worst -9 at the time of this writing. Great on O, horrible on D. Teague also benefited from a few whistles to put him at the line.
Wiggins: You know, he still doesn't have a feel for when to turn it on, but Wiggins is quietly becoming a very solid player. He showed good decision making and was a solid all-around player for the Wolves. Wiggins is the kind of guy that would just flourish under Popovich, I think.
Coaching: Putrid. This team has so much length and athleticism. They should be a top 4 squad in the West. I think Butler has some legitimate criticism because it's clear the coaching staff has no idea how to draw up plays to take advantage of the guys they have. Defenders are in silos, offensive players play 3 on 5 more often than not, and it generally looks like a team in disarray.
The Spurs
LMA: Was playing like a monster all night. This dude is still a beast. He's strong, he doesn't force the issue, but man Minny had no clue how to handle him, and their announcers said as much.
DeRozan: I ing love DD's play. One completely underappreciated aspect of his game is just how well he can be a playmaker from out of an ISO set. Several times he got into the lane and made a smart pass to a waiting teammate. DeRozan at this point might, and one could argue, must fill the role of Manu. So far he looks absurdly comfortable for the most part when he is drawing defenders, and that's a good thing for a scorer to be aware of. And holy god, his play in the 4th quarter is something the Spurs have needed for ages. He is a fearsome scorer.
Poeltl: Looked just "Okay" in 8+ minutes of action. He's gonna need some time.
Gasol: About what I expected. He's on the very last bit of tread. He might be the most immobile player I've ever seen, and I've seen Cherokee Parks play. That said, what can you expect? Dude is only a few years younger than Mount Rushmore.
The 1: I'm... somewhat pleased? Don't get me wrong, the Spurs are going to routinely trot out one of the worst starting point guard combos in the league. But with the promise Forbes shows, maybe we'll just be in the 20-25 range instead of dead last. And hey, if we can use DeRozan to create shots, we may not need to lean on Patty and Forbes as much to do so. However, I'm not sure we want to use DeRozan as a natural PG -- he needs to save his energy because we're gonna need him to at least hold his own on the other end. Also, Teague blowing up our PGs is obviously concerning. We have basically 0 defense at the 1 spot. Gonna be a lot of long nights on that front this season.
The 3 point shot: 11-25 @ 44%. ing amazing. Against a team like the Wolves that's laudable, even with their schizophrenic defense.
Final: A W. Hey, we won. On pace for an 82-0 season. Can't start better than that. Lot of promising things to look at from this team and they didn't look nearly as abysmal on offense or with the shooting as I feared.
GAME BALL: DEMAR DEROZAN. Although LMA was a ing monster on both ends tonight, DeRozan stepped it up in the 4th to give us the win.
OLD MAN GOT GAME AWARD: Yeah, I know he's younger than LMA, but this goes to Rudy Gay. Love the heart he's showing on this team.
HEADED FOR THE D LEAGUE AWARD: Dante Cunningham. In 7 minutes he looked like he got lucky to be given those. Yikes.
THE DAVIS BERTANS AWARD FOR BEING DAVIS BERTANS: Davis Bertans.
THIS DUDE STILL IN THE L? AWARD: Quincy Pondexter. Dude played in 23 games last year and averaged 2ppg, and somehow is still on a roster. The NBA is a weird place sometimes.
Last edited by Cry Havoc; 10-17-2018 at 10:13 PM.
Poetl showed promise of being a big rebounder but ultimately sucked. Foul machine
KAT... Never believe in a John Calipari player. Only a couple have ever turned out to get better in the pros than they were coming in, and often their at udes are just bull .
Did gay get injured??
I don't believe so. He looked good all night.
I'd like to see us find a cheap veteran point guard to be a defensive specialist and setup man.
Great job!
Ricky Rubio would be a godsend to this team.
In a million years I would have never guessed DDR was such a willing passer and playmaker
Def need perimeter defenders, it's going be a train ran on both forbs and 50 mills
I saw him holding his hip and didn’t see him return the rest of the night .
I'd just settle for a PG who could play passable defense. If Teague can drop 27 on Fifty and Brynn just imagine the matchup with Curry, CP0, or Westbrook.
A notch in the Win column feels good.
*Demar performed as one would hope.
*Aldridge put in a strong game. Logged a lot of minutes.
* Gay looking much improved year 2 in the silver an black.
Defense didn't look good. But hopefully this team can still manage to not be at the bottom of the list for defense.
Walker an White can improve the defensive rating hopefully when they return later into season.
I'm just glad we got Spurs season in full swing again.
Kind of hard on Pau Op. Dude had 7 boards and 6 assists in 23 minutes and was robbed of at least 2 more assists by blown layups. He's not prime Pau, but last legs? Not quite. Last legs was Sjax his last year here. Pau is still a contributor in the right roles.
BUT MANY THANKS FOR THE GAME THOUGHTS. Cheers.
I saw him holding his hip and didn’t see him return the rest of the night .
Its well established that Paddy sucks on defense but I don't think that about Forbes. Teague just hit some tough, contested shots on him.
Aldridge played 41 minutes....Not good, hope he doesn't have to do this on nightly basis
LMA was 7-23 shooting, not sure I'd consider that beastly tbh.
Gay with a solid 18 points in 23 minutes.
I have been wanting Rubio on this team for a while now. He just sets up people so perfectly it's pretty amazing to watch
He also had 19 rebounds (8 of them offensive) and 3 blocks. That is the definition of beastly
Mills 6 points and 1 assist in 30 minutes. Wow.
Forbes elbowed him in the abdomen going for a rebound
Can you imagine Forbes and Mills chasing around Steph and Klay? Lolz.
I'm usually a Pau hater, but I thought he looked AWESOME coming off the bench. His playmaking was incredible tonight and he actually looked better than last season. He got a few man's rebounds and didn't slouch as much on D.
Forbes is looking actually decent. The muscle he put on is helping him on D and I'll admit he's busting his ass out there.
Gay is exactly what we need at the SF position. He's hitting open looks, can create, pass out of the double, long defender, and hustles.
I was disappointed in Patty. Bertans played nice with some good 3s, same with Ferrari (god I love having him back). Poeltle looked ok rebounding and can be a decent shot blocker, just needs to learn not to foul. I like him starting with Gasol off the bench.
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