For all of the Spurs faults this year, one head scratcher for me is how even when the Spurs defend the 3 well, the other team still swishes them through. I guess they’re present for the shot, but aren’t effectively contesting?
Lonnie has been the bright spot in the three-point category.
Mills looks washed. Gay is okay but only when he is wide open. White hasn't shot great and also can't stay on the floor. Johnson goes from putting up some of the most beautiful, high-arcing threes I've seen in a while to completely missing the rim. And Murray would rather break his man off the dribble and attempt a contested two-pointer than try to rise up when he is open.
And DeMar, well...he's just being a at this point. He has flashed the ability to shoot and hit threes, but suddenly just decided to stop trying at this point.
Last edited by Dex; 05-09-2021 at 09:37 AM.
For all of the Spurs faults this year, one head scratcher for me is how even when the Spurs defend the 3 well, the other team still swishes them through. I guess they’re present for the shot, but aren’t effectively contesting?
Dieng was having his best 3 pt shooting season before the Spurs picked him up, and Eubanks supposedly hits threes with great regularity in warm ups, but Pop refuses to use this aspect of the game. What better way to draw centers with better talent than the Spurs away from the basket? Nurkic, instead of killing us on the offensive boards, should be drawn out of the paint to defend the perimeter-- that's his one glaring weakness. I feel like most other coaches at this point would at least try to take advantage of a C with 3pt shooting potential, but Pop's bias against 3 pt attempts and unending patience for the midrange game is the impediment here. Dieng has the highest seasonal 3pt% on the entire team-- a team deeply flawed & screaming for better three pt opportunities-- and that useful tool goes entirely unused.
Thanks for grades TIMVP, but it seems you too have lost some optimism.
Popovich has to make the tough call: change up the lineup, rest some guys for 2 games, possibly the rest of the season. Let it be DNP-Coach's decision so the organization does not get fined.
Spurs need to start Luka at the 4, let Lonnie be the 6th man off the bench. I would even swap Keldon for Vasell.
Tough final 5 games
You did not watch the last UTA game? Dieng went 0-2 on those wide open threes Gobert never defended him in the perimeter after that.
I did watch, unfortunately.... so based on that tiny sample size, you abandon the concept of the three (as opposed to every other nba team) and revert to a midrange game and still get slaughtered?
Eubanks is 100% on the season.
Granted, he is only 2/2...but he can definitely shoot them.
Huh? Though it was about using a stretch big to get a rim protector off the rim.
It is... once the inevitable odds kick in and the threes start dropping, Gobert would be forced to defend out on the perimeter.
How many times has Mills not hit on the 3 and yet he keeps on shooting
DDR standing around while Portland crashed the boards
The team is not good enough to have to carry a diva along. DDR half assing it on defense and effort is too much to overcome when the margins are so small.
DDR at ude and en lement is destroying the team. He is the cancer. He needs to be excised.
They 100% are vulnerable but lol at this Spurs team beating any team in the play-in. Not with their antiquated style of basketball and major lack of 3 point shooting. I’ll eat crow if they prove me wrong though
That’s one of my issues with Poeltl. He sucks majorly against any big man with talent. Bc he has no talent he doesn’t know what to do or how to defend big guys who can actually put the ball in the hoop. But we got him ata steal
The problem is that we can't really make good bigs work on defense in most games.
Jakob is offensively challenged and we don't have a single PNR ballhandler who can just pull up and force bigs to step outside every time.
We're running 2001 offense in 2021.
One can only hope that Pop is secretly giving Mills his farewell tour.
Timvp, thanks for the grades. These must be painful to prepare after such a promising start to the year.
This home stretch tells me clearly that the Spurs would be dumb to resign DDR. Mills needs a much smaller role if he were to return. Gay is the only veteran I'd even consider keeping, and in my opinion anyone on this roster is fair game for trade material in the off season.
Pop should shut down the vets and play the young guys bigger minutes these last few games and see who you want to keep and who makes good trade bait. Maybe with rested vets we surprise a team or two in the play-in tournament, should we qualify. Playing them now really only hurts the Spurs at this point -- we're not winning with them, and those guys will be too tired to perform should we have a play-in game.
If you don't want DDR back, you should be glad the Spurs started relatively strong and have faded late rather than having had a slow start and strong finish. Last year's bubble probably emboldened the FO to run it back this year (not that they wouldn't have anyway: the 2021 cap space plan appears to have been in place for a while), while the end of this season makes it clear that changes are needed.
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