In all fairness, that Pacers defense was absolutely atrocious last night. Gave open lines all game long to spurs perimeter guys. Made Branham and Wesley look like al stars... It was open bar.
Nobody in the league could look worse than Champagnie.
Regardless, Branham looked good. Real Good.
In all fairness, that Pacers defense was absolutely atrocious last night. Gave open lines all game long to spurs perimeter guys. Made Branham and Wesley look like al stars... It was open bar.
That was their defensive scheme, they stay home on shooters so they have the break advantage.
The Pacers defense is ALWAYS atrocious, which is why they have to score 150 points or whatever to win. What’s more impressive is that the Spurs held them to 105 and Halliburton to just 12 points.
We knew Wemby would be good at many things, but we didn't see his passing ability coming. The kid really surprised me on that matter, and it's clearly a matter of time before he notches a quadruple double.
Jokic might be the only player in the league I wouldn't trade for Wemby NOW
I was wondering that myself. It certainly looks like he is, but what do I know?
Feels like pop is actually coaching again, meaning he seems engaged in yelling and stuff. If so, curious what led to this change? A preconceived timeline? "After rodeo road trip, start to give a again and hold the players to higher standards." Or is he feeling heat from the media and Wemby's camp and having flashbacks of Kawhi? Sort of joking.
Probably
He's done this in the past. Even in the heyday of the big 3.
The same with the experimentation with the lineup, subs ution pattern.
He was always coaching, but letting the young pups make mistakes and gently correcting them. Now that a huge amount of work has been done, he's shifting into holding them much more accountable because they're ready for it now. The expectations have changed.
I have been talking with people at work and while it may be true there are two things.
First he is undoubtedly adding muscle mass. His shoulders standout on this regard.
Indiana played a lot of smaller lineups.
It makes sense. He openly said he was going to take a step back and observe, which was smart, and preferable to micromanaging immediately. But the question became: when/is he going to hold higher standards? But the timing in doing so is good.
If they were tanking this year, it's kind of an interesting way to do it: throw games early in the season which no one typically ever does, but then instead of throwing away games at the end, instead, actually turn up the heat to try and win. Any victories are helpful at this point, especially for morale. As we get even closer to the end of the season , we will play some teams that are definitely trying to lose, which can be fool's gold in evaluating, but for me at this point, who cares.
I might take Wemby and $40 million of other things to do with my salary cap over Jokic for the next three years…
And that’s not to take anything away from the best player in the world.
Only consideration is it’s easier said than done to actually USE that $40 million of cap space when it generally goes to guys who aren’t worth that salary. Would want to do better than Keldon + Collins + $5mm, for instance.
couldnt watch most of the game live, but went back and re-watched, and the ball movement was just great. a lot of sequences of quick 1-2 passes, give and goes, extra passes between non-stars like sochan, branham, wesley, collins, etc... as really promising to see those guys being able to create their own offense
Last edited by spurraider21; 03-04-2024 at 12:55 PM.
The best thing about the last 2 games is the resiliency the guys have displayed when the opposing teams make their inevitable run. Too often this season, Spurs get up to a double digit lead before folding as soon as the opponent punches back.
But they hung in there and fought back even after OKC/Indy came back to take the lead these last 2 games. That's a pretty big sign of maturity and a good step going forward tbh. Hope they keep it up.
Totally agree. Other than working on individual skills, game management and reading what's happening throughout the game seem to be really hard to learn together. I guess you take your knocks. But really good teams know how to wipe out worse teams down the stretch. You often see a bad team hanging in, but the contenders know how to - as a group - throw it up a notch or two when needed and maintain those leads or get them back. Matching the intensity and knowing what to do with it. The Thunder win was really impressive.
Wemby keeps upping his game. I'm blown away.
And it's not just one thing that he's suddenly adding to his game:
Handling, 3pts off the dribble, blocked shots, and passing have all improved dramatically in 6-8 weeks.
The only thing holding him back at all is conditioning.
I'm not convinced he can play more than 32 min right now.
I wonder how much weight and strength he can add without hurting his cardio.
I agree, hence the “NOW”…
it’s out of financial or long term considerations, just if I had to switch one player for this season.
If Victor’s keeps the same rythm of progression, he’ll be the best player in the world by mid next season
A small detail I want him to work on is his grip and his defensive agressivity
Wether it's opponents or his own teammates, he's missing too many boards for his size and timing
Vic has definitely been working on his post game and it shows these past few games. He’s clearly also gotten stronger which helps.
I still can’t believe how spoiled we are as a fans.
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