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Against the warriors he got decent minutes and didn't do much at all except get tackled by barnes. He doesn't seem to have much of an offensive game, he couldnt hit any of the wide open jumpers the warriors were given him.
I notice he didn't get any PT tonight...he's looked pretty good to me when he's beein the game.
But I've only seen him play one game...
Anyone have any thoughts on if Pop will give him PT in the playoffs, and if he'll be kept?
How's h is D, o, J, etc?
Against the warriors he got decent minutes and didn't do much at all except get tackled by barnes. He doesn't seem to have much of an offensive game, he couldnt hit any of the wide open jumpers the warriors were given him.
Pop will give him garbage time in playoffs. That's about it.
Definitely somebody to keep around for the moment. He has what this team desperately needs: youth and athleticism. Plus, he can play either the 2 or 3, two positions of considerable need in the near future (especially considering the geriatric state of most of those players).
Don't kid yourself though. Hes not going to explode in the playoffs and give you 20 mins a night with quality production. Hes a long-term plan. Hes not a solution to any of our problems either, but a definite start. I can see him as a potentially admirable player for this team in the future (a fan favorite perhaps...if not already), but hardly a player to build around.
he's good but if we keep living by small ball our championship days are over
If you want an honest opinion, you need an unbiased opinion. That, I believe, will be very hard to find, as pretty much every Spurs fan who's seen a youtube clip of his dunking wholeheartedly believes he is the second coming of Dr J.
I think he has potential, but he is still very raw. Linton Johnson III had good games, Derrick Dial had good games, Cory Alexander had enough good games to land with the Harlem Globetrotters ("paging White...."), Gerard King, Andrew Gaze even had a game or two. But so did Stephen Jackson, Jaren Jackson, Derek Anderson, etc.
Truth is (I think), we can't really tell. His skill set is good, but the dude has gotten too few game minutes, and frankly his at ude and work ethic is all optimistic speculation at best.
So, I guess if you want an answer, I think James White is good, and I believe he can be a solid contributor next year. But I wouldn't bank on it. The number of project players who turn into trivia questions far outweighs the Stephen Jacksons of the franchise.
Way too early for a consensus
James White!
He's the second coming of Dr.J .... oh wait never mind.
Here are some other thoughts on James from the other night...
Let Me Say
You can't even get a board consensus on Tim Duncan, much less James White.
Him and TP will be the combo in the post-Duncan era - 2011 or so.
White=Scrub
Wow, voice of truth is really doing some damage on the forum right now.
He needs to practice with Chip a little more on that jump shot. I like his explosiveness. James White!!
I like White's defense more and more. At first, he was overly aware that Pop would eat him for dinner if he allowed an opponent to go middle, so it made him slow to close out on shooters.
The more he played, the more aggressive he got defensively. In his last game, he fought hard around picks and seemed to know what he was doing. Although he's still a step slow on help defense, he might already be the Spurs second best one-on-one perimeter defender as far as swingmen go.
I was also impressed with his rebounding. Inexplicably, White has never been that good of a rebounder in his career even though he can almost literally jump out of the gym. But so far with the Spurs, he looks like a capable rebounder. In fact, for the month of April, White averages more rebounds per minute than Francisco Elson)
Offensively, I don't really care that much. He's never going to be that good of a shooter, but if he can develop a corner three-point shot ... that'd be enough for him to play for the Spurs. His best attribute offensively will always be his ability to get out of the break and finish.
Overall, I've liked what I've seen. He plays fearlessly and tries hard defensively. If he can have a good summer league showing and a good training camp next year, I can imagine him being at the outer fringes of the rotation to begin the season next year.
Good future, lucky to get 20 minutes of garbage time in the first round.
His rebounding is nice. He doesn't make bad decisions and his defense is at the worst, acceptable. If he can guard Dirk, give him a long-term contract, but until then be happy that the Spurs got him for nothing. He has only shot 16 times so I have no clue about the shooting but from what I hear he could use some practice, who couldn’t. For now this is a nice pickup, next season will allow further evaluation. He won't see any active roster time in the playoffs unless someone is injured.
His role wouldn't be ball handler, but the times he's had the ball, he's handled it well, and made the right, crisp pass, esp to the outlet man or, moving it up court.
He looks very confident, got a reasonable feel for the game, unlike Elson who is totally flummoxed.
He's 25, I'm not sure he has much potential to play with. At 25, if he had potential and work ethic, he'd be more accomplished than he is now.
there is still hope he might have a Bowen like late bloomer career in a special role, but I agree in general.
the point is, that he might be the odd man out in the long term plans at the swing position.
Spurs need a SF, who can contribute right away, they will try to find him in free agency or via trade and they likely will add a young swingman via the draft to develope with the team, because this year there will be a big number of such players on the board when Spurs pick, players with likely much higher potential than White.
would the Spurs use two spots on rookie swingmen, (I count White as a rookie, since he almost didn't play this season) considering that there are some other needs on other positions?
I think they would rather add a young PG instead of White.
IMO the future of White will be decided on draft night. if the Spurs find a promising SF (I don't doubt they will), White will be gone.
maybe they try to use him in a package to trade up, or for a trade during summer.
if this fails, they can just waive him in oktober, since his 2nd year isn't guarranteed. (not 100% sure about this, guess it would work this way)
I'll echo many of the comments made so far about White's defense and agressiveness, which impress. I'll also echo the comments about his inconsistent jumpshot, but he should be able to at least get comfortable with it and it's good to see him working with Chip to improve.
On PT, I don't think he'll see the active roster again for the rest of the season unless another nagging injury occurs....the Spurs' roster is set at the swing positions and White is the odd man out, for now.
It'll also be tough to see him getting much more PT next year as all of the swing players will be under contract. But, I could conceivably see him getting more time in place of the aging Bowen if Pop is comfortable with his defense, and maybe even more time if Barry is traded or Finley opts out (depending on who the Spurs bring in to replace them).
Bottom Line: This kid hustles, is aggressive, has great defensive potential, and will get paid less than $1M next year....it's tough to see him being let go, but how much PT he gets will depend on a alot more than just his performance...
BTW...working with Chip has really helped Tony, but does anyone know if Jacque Vaughn has been working with Chip? For a guy who was supposed to be a horrible shooter, he seems to be knocking down the open shots he's given more often than I expected....
In his favor, he hasn't had much coaching. He did have Huggins in college for a while, before he got the axe, but otherwise not much. And I wouldn't say Huggins is necessarily a good player coach compared to others. With a better coach for four years, he'd be much further along at this point.
Rebounding has less to do with leaping ability and more to do with position, tenaciousness, timing, and, if you have it, width. It's pretty easy to come up with a list of premier rebounders who could hardly jump for squat, starting with Tim Duncan and going back to guys like Bill Laimbeer, Wes Unseld, and Paul Silas.
Little need to say, no longer am I worried if he comes in into a game. He won't totally screw us up, but I believe that his worth is severely overrated.
He has alot of upside to me.......his athleticism cant be overlooked. There will be a time when the Spurs will need a player like him. Especially against teams such as Dallas and Phoenix who have alot of athletic players.
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