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Moving up to get him? Most places I've seen have him as a late second with some having him go undrafted. If anything, I don't see why we'd have to move up to get him.
Good find! Thank you
Moving up to get him? Most places I've seen have him as a late second with some having him go undrafted. If anything, I don't see why we'd have to move up to get him.
Sure, but it depends on the matchups.
Partially true. They didn't lean heavily on it, plus they also led the league in "clutch time", which is statistically proven to be heavily based on luck. The Rockets were also missing their 2nd best player for much of the series.
Nah, it's more so a team playing by far their best five available players, but why does it work? Because they essentially have 2.5 big wings (Smart is short, but can credibly defend them).
You're taking small sample sizes, reading too much into coin flip situations and being prisoner of the moment.
Size on the wings is crucial. Do you pick Bey, for example over Nesmith strictly based on it? Of course not. But at some point, they have to address it.
You could be correct but most drafts I have seen him have been early second before our pick. To be honest most mock drafts have been pretty weak I don’t think will see any changes until we get there measurements and then will see people rise and fall I am thinking he will be rising just a guess though.
Leaned on it pretty heavily, tbh. Tied for their most consistently utilized threesome and that trio was one of their top five trios minutes-wise in the fourth quarter. It had an ungodly net rating of +35 in fourth quarters, IIRC.The Thunder made the playoffs largely due to the success of their three point guard lineup of CP3, Schroder and SGA.
Positionless basketball is obviously the future. Don't get stuck in grandpaball of the 2010s and earlier where players had to be certain heights in order to play certain positions. Today, you need some amount of talented height (which the Spurs admittedly lack) but as long as you can rebound and not get completely steamrolled in the lane, height doesn't matter as much as it used to.
Agree with this. Pretty crazy to think we might have actually already found our 3 of the future in Keldon... Though we definitely need some real size at the 4, a gritty defender that's a plus on offense but can stop or slow down the big wings of the league. If we draft Smith, I could see him being that guy on defense, not so sure on offense, but he could slide to the 5 there if we get a good sized wing/forward in the future.
What we lack isn't height per se. We lack real playmakers besides White (and DD who is not a long-term piece (hopefully)), and ball-handling at the wing. That's the future of the league - Boston IMO is the perfect blueprint for "team of the future". Gotta get ourselves a Tatum/Brown kinda player and we're pretty much set.
Could have swore I saw something a while back that they mostly saved it for "clutch time" in the regular season. As for the second part, that's naturally because they were in so many close games.
They don't have to be certain heights necessarily, but if they're going to be relatively short, then they need to make up for it with some or all of length, strength and athleticism. Guys like DeRozan and Johnson can't get by as starting nominal fours.
KD and Red discuss today's defensive schemes:
I'm not quite sure I buy this narrative. Consider tonight's LAL-HOU derby. The Lakers won, and they started the 3 biggest men on the court : Davis (7'), Lebron (6'9) and Markief Morris (6'8") (the other 2 LA starters were green 6'6" and KCP 6'5") ; the largest HOU starter was Covington at 6'7". The Lakers won handily...
Tbh, the Lakers having two of the five best players in the league is the difference. Not their height advantage.
Their height plays a part of them being top 5 player if they were 6ft5 their effectiveness would probably be at 70-80%
I agree with you myself. I don't see teams trotting out 5 little guys when Jokic is on the floor...or Embid...and even Adams had an effect on Houston at times. I get that most teams are going small but, I don't see those teams winning it all unless you have a KD level player (and he's right at 7' himself).
I like small lineups, they're fun to watch and they serve a purpose but I dont think they're better than a lineup with a skilled big. Admittedly there aren't many bigs that are skilled so the small lineups are born out of necessity and teams have to be versatile but, if you can get one...and you have a coach that knows how to use him, its an advantage.
Tell it to CP3 or Harden. They’re All NBA.
I think part of timvp’s point is that it’s ridiculous, in today’s NBA, for all of the posters who want to draft someone because they’re 6’8” or higher. Spurs draft BPA, and if that’s another 6’5” guard that they think is the best option, so be it.
Yeah. If they need taller guys, that's what free agency is for. Need factors into draft boards, but it's not supposed to be a deal-breaker. Plus drafting another guard may lead to them trading one of the guards they have for something else. Two of the four most likely trade candidates are guards, and if even one of them goes, there are minutes for a new guy.
To add to timvp's point, I don't think he's talking about playing like Houston. Basically everyone should've noticed by now that the Rockets don't actually know how to put together a winning team. They keep trying to game the system, and the system keep bucking them. He's talking about the constant insistence on the part of some posters that guys like DeRozan and Johnson need to play SG because they aren't 6-8 and that smaller wings and guards would be useless on the team because they aren't forwards. SF in particular is a position where the team is decently set at, and folks keep trying to shove obvious bigs into that spot, making every other spot on the court worse for it.
Williams is a PF. No one cares about Precious' potential to play SF. Vassell/Neismith aren't bad picks because they're "more SGs" and drafting smaller players doesn't force Johson and DeRozan to play SF rather than their "natural position". All things equal, the taller player is probably the more impactful. But all things aren't equal, and there are factors that matter a lot more than an inch or two of height.
Having 3 pgs is fine when two of them are CP3 and Gilgeous plus Danilo and Adams are a great 4 and 5 with size and talent. We need a workhorse 4. Not sure if Trey is that guy. Luka is defjbitely not that guy.
Spurs defense has been the worst in decades that and the lack of 3 point shooting is what is hurting this team. So it doesn’t matter what size just as long as they can defend get rebounds and be able to shoot the 3 that is what we need a plus it would be nice if they know how to dribble the damn ball. It still amazes me that there are guys in our team who can barely keep there dribble alive I mean we learned that in high school.
Chinook
I'm more inclined to change my stance on Vassell not being a bad pick if we didn't have a strength and toughness issue overall. If the bar for overall team height is lower due to where the league is progressing, that's fine. But this past season shows our overall toughness, grit, and strength was lacking, and was only truly shown by one player = Keldon Johnson.
That's why I'm more favorable towards players like Smith, Precious, Isaiah Stewart, Okoro (I know I'm missing a few other players).... Players who can hold their ground. Players who can be dogs on the court. That can be either from PF or C position, doesn't matter to me.
I agree with draft BPA (or a trade down for multiple picks) - we purely need talent. I'm just not sold on positionless small ball as the future. It's having a day in the sun now, because the current rules/ref's call favors it. That could change - there are plenty of people saying the 3 pt shot is too valuable/easy currently. But more to the point - look at the recent champions by minutes played their 8 or 9 man roations - TOR - Gasol+Valancuinas/Ibaka/Siakam are not small. GSW - Durant (6'11" + tall)/Pachulia CLE - Lebron/Love/Thompson/Mozgov; these teams aren't playing small ball. What they do have is high skill bigs.
I am not saying shorter player is definitely worse off, but if Harden and Paul are a couple of inches taller they will probably be even more devastating. Talent and work ethics are probably 2 of the more impt points but if all else are equal height does gives them an advantage. Chris Paul probably could not do much to prevent Bertans from shooting a 3 as compared to Anthony Davis, at least in my opinion.
I think people are trying to solve problems that don't exist. It doesn't matter if the Spurs can match up with LAL or LAC right now. They aren't good enough to even play those teams. Right now, the goal is to get two or three building blocks. At best White and Johnson are those guys, but the Spurs still need an ace above those guys. Getting that player is way more important than getting a James or Durant defender. They could prime Bowen himself and still not be a playoff team.
Well seeing as how both of those guys are top 3 picks you going to have to bottom out to get them. You are not going to find guys like that anywhere else. Are the spurs going to bottom out ? I have my doubts.
The only reason why they were not a playoff team this year is because they played Bryn and Marco to much. If they don't do anything else this year but not have those two on the team they will be back to being an 8 - 6 seed.
Subtract Marco and Bryn, ramp up the minutes for the five first rounders in the last four years, and throw another first rounder on the stack.
I remember last year, you were pretty down on Brandon Clarke because his wingspan & standing reach measurements came in much smaller than expected. Iirc, you said he'd have a hard time competing because his measurements were similar to Danny Green's. If that draft could be redone, would you be much higher on Clarke now?
Trying to match up with the Lakers or Clippers is silly imo. The Spurs' window for "contention" (used very loosely) doesn't start until around 2023-2024. By then LeBron will likely be out of the league and the exhaustion of draft capital will make itself felt for both teams. The Rockets will likely also be similarly depleted and Harden will be 34.
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