Bj Armstrong gets my "Huh?" award for today.

[Sec24Row7]

Art (San Antonio, TX): Wuz Up B.J. Hey whats your take on Ginobili. Do you think he is one of the premier clutch players in this league? and is there a team in the west that has a chance to stop the Spurs?

B.J. Armstrong: (2:16 PM ET ) Manu is a terrific role player playing along side a great player in Tim Duncan. He's shown the ability to be fearless in giong to the basket and taking clutch shots. On the other hand is Manu on the same level as a Kobe Bryant or Tracy McGrady or Vince Carter, talentwise? Probably not. But championship caliber players need to be championship caliber teammates and that he is.

[Sec24Row7]

Reading is FUNdamental BJ

Colin, (SB, CA): Hey B.J., why is it that duncan isn't getting called for setting so many illegal picks. i know superstars get calls under the basket and thats ok, they earned it, but duncan consistantly shuffels his feet after a screen/pick and never gets blown up for it. what gives?

B.J. Armstrong: (2:36 PM ET ) Setting a pick is a lost art in basketball. It's interesting that you picked up on such a small detail a very good observation on your part. He's one of the few big men that sets screens these days. He gives up his body to set the screen and get his teammates open. What a novel idea. My hats off to Tim Duncan.

[LilMissSPURfect]

Art (San Antonio, TX): Wuz Up B.J. Hey whats your take on Ginobili. Do you think he is one of the premier clutch players in this league? and is there a team in the west that has a chance to stop the Spurs?

B.J. Armstrong: (2:16 PM ET ) Manu is a terrific role player playing along side a great player in Tim Duncan. He's shown the ability to be fearless in giong to the basket and taking clutch shots. On the other hand is Manu on the same level as a Kobe Bryant or Tracy McGrady or Vince Carter, talentwise? Probably not. But championship caliber players need to be championship caliber teammates and that he is.

IF he wanted to take 30+ shots he would be......c'mon compare apples with apples!

[Banks91]

IF he wanted to take 30+ shots he would be......c'mon compare apples with apples!

So all that is separating Manu from kobe, t-mac etc is that he doesn't take 30 shots a game?

[Sec24Row7]

Manu and Kobe's Killer instinct seperate them from players like Vince and T-Mac.

Kobe's athleticism and shooting prowess seperate him from manu.

[NCaliSpurs]

Ginobili is the perfect championship role player. He knows when to take over and when to let other players shoot. I don't have a problem with someone calling him a role-player.

I don't think BJ is off-base here in terms of physical talent. He is not as talented, physically, as the other names mentioned. Not even close really. , basketball-wise Ginobili can't even go right!

On the other hand, he is craftier than any of those "superstars" and is a winner -something you can't say about Vince "Let me tell the other team our final play so that I can get traded" Carter.

[LilMissSPURfect]

So all that is separating Manu from kobe, t-mac etc is that he doesn't take 30 shots a game?

that and his long hair...
.
.
..

and the color of his skin.....
,
,,
,

[ShoogarBear]

Oh, god, here we go again. Manu is "smart" but Kobe is "athletic".

Manu is a role player. The major reason for this is that you can't reliably play him more than 30 MPG over the course of a season.

[Winnipeg_Spur]

Manu is a terrific role player playing along side a great player in Tim Duncan.

Manu's role is to play like a superstar in the playoffs, and last year in the playoffs he did a terrific job of it. Hopefully he can continue to fill this role in this year's playoffs.

[Sec24Row7]

Ginobili is the perfect championship role player. He knows when to take over and when to let other players shoot. I don't have a problem with someone calling him a role-player.

I don't think BJ is off-base here in terms of physical talent. He is not as talented, physically, as the other names mentioned. Not even close really. , basketball-wise Ginobili can't even go right!

On the other hand, he is craftier than any of those "superstars" and is a winner -something you can't say about Vince "Let me tell the other team our final play so that I can get traded" Carter.

If you don't think Manu can go right, you havent watched him play and don't know wtf you are talking about. When was the last time a championship team consistently depended on a role player to "Take Over"?

[Scobe]

Robert Horry is a role player. Barry is a role player. Kevin Martin is a role player. Jason Hart is a role player. Manu is a star who has a big deciding factor over the course of an entire postseason, game in and game out. Role players contribute in spurts when their team needs them, such as Horry with the big shots. Stars contribute the entire game. Manu does that. He was a role player in the '03 Championship, but is a star on this team now.

I don't know why people harp on number of points without looking at fg%. I don't give a if you can score 50 points if you are taking 45 shots to do it. That player is incredibly inconsistent and wastes too many opportunities for his team to score. Scoring 50 by going 17-45 with some free throws is not condusive to winning a game. That is 28 times that player alone gave the ball up without scoring, and a good team will take advantage of that.

[SA210]

Manu's a superstar in my book.

He's definitely got more heart than Tracy and Vince Carter, and that puts him way above them in my opinion. I'll take that.

[NCaliSpurs]

If you don't think Manu can go right, you havent watched him play and don't know wtf you are talking about. When was the last time a championship team consistently depended on a role player to "Take Over"?

Settle down.

I love Manu. He is not a "superstar" like those other guys. He can't play enough minutes conistently to be considered a franchise guy.

He is not as athletic as the other guys and relies on his craftiness. Not to take anything away from Kobe's craftiness, he is just more blessed than Manu and can often just jump-over his man, as opposed to misdirecting him.

He is a star on the team, and one of the leaders. Fine. But I don't think it is an insult to call him an awesome role-player.

As far as being able to go right, if he could he would. Everybody knows he goes left. He always goes to his left hand. The trouble is that no one can stop him anyway.

[cheguevara]

I don't think BJ is off-base here in terms of physical talent. He is not as talented, physically, as the other names mentioned. Not even close really. , basketball-wise Ginobili can't even go right!

Ginobili is way way more than just basketball-wise. That boy got mad handles!!! He's top 20 in the league in basketball skills. that plus his experience as euro,olympic,nba champion, his clutchness, his cold blood and his heart makes him top 10 player in the NBA.

Spurs won't win it all this year if Manu doesn't singlehandedly carry us for many of these playoff games.

[RonMexico]

Reading is FUNdamental BJ

Colin, (SB, CA): Hey B.J., why is it that duncan isn't getting called for setting so many illegal picks. i know superstars get calls under the basket and thats ok, they earned it, but duncan consistantly shuffels his feet after a screen/pick and never gets blown up for it. what gives?

B.J. Armstrong: (2:36 PM ET ) Setting a pick is a lost art in basketball. It's interesting that you picked up on such a small detail a very good observation on your part. He's one of the few big men that sets screens these days. He gives up his body to set the screen and get his teammates open. What a novel idea. My hats off to Tim Duncan.

Finally someone other than me notices this! Too bad BJ miffed the response by being an idiot and not admitting to it. The most recent and obvious example is Duncan's clear-out of Mike Bibby (although I think Barry would have still had enough time to get off a clean shot otherwise). If you look at every game of the Western Conference Finals (especially 4th qtr of game 5), then you will see that almost everytime Duncan sets a screen, he is moving and I think he only got whistled once the entire series. People complain that the Suns set moving screens and I'll admit it when they do, but they often do not clear out the smaller defender and continue riding him into the post like Duncan does - and his ability to do it has grown as he's gotten older and slower over the years... the refs just allow it.

Last year, Amare would move, but he would also immediately roll to the basket and not continue to ride the defender the whole way. This year, Kurt Thomas has gotten called for a lot of moving screens and I'm still waiting for the moment when Duncan gets called for it at a crucial moment in the playoffs (my guess is never because he'll just stand there, stare at the refs, or complain heavily until Pop starts complaining as well and then the official will be too intimidated to make the call again).

I'm just asking for a fair shake because it makes it a lot easier for the Spurs to close out games when Duncan can keep moving on screens and Ginobili can keep flopping and fooling the refs.

[Sec24Row7]

Settle down.

I love Manu. He is not a "superstar" like those other guys. He can't play enough minutes conistently to be considered a franchise guy.

He is not as athletic as the other guys and relies on his craftiness. Not to take anything away from Kobe's craftiness, he is just more blessed than Manu and can often just jump-over his man, as opposed to misdirecting him.

He is a star on the team, and one of the leaders. Fine. But I don't think it is an insult to call him an awesome role-player.

As far as being able to go right, if he could he would. Everybody knows he goes left. He always goes to his left hand. The trouble is that no one can stop him anyway.

Watch a Manu highlight reel. Ya know that dunk against the lakers everyone creams over? He went right. A TON of his plays are going right. He may finish more often than not with his left hand at the rim (not always one of the most famous manu plays from Euroleague is when he made an insane behind the head grab of an alley oop with his right hand and slammed it home), but the dude can go right and does consistently.

[SA210]

Manu can go right. I've watched him since before his rookie year in the World Championships.

Anyone who's really watched Manu play for a while knows he can go right.

[Sec24Row7]

People that say he can only go left really haven't watched him for very long or just aren't paying attention.

Maybe they just listen to national media types who are reading a scouting report from someone ELSE who is ill informed.

[NCaliSpurs]

I have watched Manu since his rookie year.

If you look at a tape of every time Manu penetrates, 85% of the time would have him going left.

He CAN go right. But it is the weakest part of his overall great game.

[spur219]

BJ Armstrong is an idiot. He don't know crap

[Solid D]

Manu only goes right when he is forced to do so.

Manu is a pure basketball player with a creative flair and not just a talent. He's not Kobe or T-Mac in the scoring department, but then again, they aren't Manu in his court vision and passing skills.

[jcrod]

Homerism in its finest.

[jcrod]

Homerism in its finest.

[TDMVPDPOY]

imo if gino had his own team and was allowed to put up kobe shot attempts he will get his stats.

BJ armstrong doesnt know , GINO>bj

[T Park]

Homerism in its finest

Who and what are we talkng about here?