I didn't expect much so I'm not too upset about the Spurs losing. But boy, this was one of the worst basketball games I have seen in a while. Between the two teams, I thought that only two players overall played well - unfortunately for the Spurs, both Brooks and Valanciunas are wearing the wrong uniforms.
As for the Spurs, Keldon was fine, and Rudy Gay was okayish (he still shot 8-21, though). Murray was pretty terrible (as was his counterpart on the Grizzlies, Ja Morant), and DeRozan was delivering one of his vintage playoff performances - meaning he was absolutely atrocious. MOst of the other guys were more or less anonymous.
I also think that Pop deserves at least some blame for his guys coming out of the gates looking absolutely clueless and timid. Props for the Spurs for making it a game, I guess, but again, this was just pretty terrible basketball all around. I don't see how Memphis will stand any chance against GS playing like this.
Somewhat ironic that for once, it wasn't lack of 3-point shooting that doomed the Spurs in this game - they shot over 36% and made one more three than Memphis. Instead, it was misfiring on way too many of the midrange shots they are usually so good at making. Memphis missed 11 freebies and took seven less shots overall but still ended up winning this fest.
Dieng should have been put back into the game. He looked the most comfortable out there and he was making all the right plays.Now could that have created a win ? I don't know but it was looking like he was going to be the xfactor player that increases that chance, but of course Pop is gonna Pop.
expectations for Vassell need to be a lot higher than not embarrassing himself. invisibility is not a passing grade for a lottery pick.
Poeltl is turning into another player with very misleading stats because while they would show you he is a great defender any big that gets physical with him dominates him, and once the playoffs starts he not going to be playing no trash ass soft bigs who aren't going to get physical with him, so all his metrics will go out the window once the playoffs start.
yeah, i cringed when i saw poeltl coming back in at the 4:30 minute mark. pop should have kept dieng in. jakob then went on to commit an offensive foul and get beat on the other end.
Thanks for the grades all year timvp! It was a tough season to watch sometimes, but your grades and analysis were a bastion of sanity. I’m looking forward to your offseason articles!
They weren't winning either way, but not closing with Dieng and sitting Mills for a spell mid 4th robbed them of their best chance. Sure, a 13-14 minute and 18-19 minute stint for both would have inevitably left them out of gas for the finish, but they desperately needed all the shooting they could muster, plus Dieng at least provided some resistance for Valanciunas on the glass.
Poeltl's offensive limitations combined with his inability to adequately defend overpowering post up behemoths, makes re-signing Dieng a necessity.
Thanks for the grades, timvp, mate. Made following the Spurs on league pass worth even more this season. Here's hoping that the offseason is a good one and the young core improves further going forward. The future is certainly brighter than the present for the Spurs.
Will you be doing season grades? Would be curious to see where folks landed just based on the averages over all games.
Feels like a lot of C+/B-
Valanciunas against Poeltl 5/9 for (11 points with ft)
Valanciunas against the rest 5/7 (12 pts with ft) - 6 points against Dieng
It would have been worse without Poeltl. Playing both could have helped to have someone for rebounding when Poeltl wasn‘t on Val.
Let‘s not forget that Dieng had also 4 fouls in 12 minutes playing time.
Fair enough, but it felt like it predictably came too easy against Poeltl.
Fouls are irrelevant at that point.
this year's body of work is a large enough sample size to affirm that poeltl cannot handle the bigger or more skilled centers. to be fair, poeltl is a good rim protector and works hard but he's in over his head as a starting center.
I'm reminding everyone of what i think timvp said: don't over invest in the center position. Have we lost since games due to pussy poertle? Is it easier to find that perfect shooting center when so much of the team also sucks?
Agreed. Perimeter defense and shooting were bigger holes for the team. There were fewer games that we lost due to Poeltl than due to the fact our guys wouldn't rotate quick enough thus getting killed by 3s. Also, people said Poeltl would never improve his free throws and he did. It's also his first year as a starter. There's room to improve.
i agree that the spurs FO shouldn't overinvest in a center when that's not the most important position in the NBA anymore. but if you look at some of the best teams in the league, a good amount of them have either a pretty good center or a solid big man. there's a reason the nets were looking for big men at the trade deadline. but that doesn't mean that the spurs should open up the bank for a FA big.
Memphis defensive strategy had a lot to do with the horrendous shooting. They wanted to take DDR out of the game and largely did this by trapping him outside and swarming him on drives to the paint. DDR didn't seem to understand the strategy employed against him and he clearly didn't have the energy or character to react well. I wouldn't be against letting him go this summer, even if he was the leader of the team in points for the year. He played well at times without the three point shooting by teammates to space the floor to help him.
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