Metallikid wrote:dhsilv2 wrote:Metallikid wrote:
I don't get how you can make that statement when Parker had more assists, a higher assist rate, and Manu played a significant amount of his minutes with bench units? When they were on the floor together Tony had the ball in his hands more often. Like, I see your point that Manu was a combo guard, but he definitely played more off the ball than TP did and when they were on together he was the SG for sure.
Assists are one of if not the worst stats in basketball. They completely miss lead what's happening on the floor. Parker had the ball to score. When it came to creating directly for others, that was Manu's role. The spur's system was always about making the extra pass or two. I'd venture to guess nearly a quarter of the open shots made by the spurs over the years were not assists to the player who created the shot.
Even with that if you look at assists to pass you'll see manu was far more effective. Unless you define "point" as the guy who dribbles the most, but then you'd have to classify a lot more scorers are the point.
But he also had a higher ASSIST RATE - "Assist percentage is an estimate of the percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted while he was on the floor." Which means Manu was not the better passer, because he didn't result in more assists for his teammates than Tony when he was on the floor. Not to mention TP had the ball in his hands more, which means a significant portion of Manu's assists came as secondary passes after Tony probed and warped the defenses and made the primary pass. To top it off Tony has the lower career Turnover % as well. So I think the idea that Manu is a better passer or offense initiator than TP is just flat out empirically wrong. What I will give Manu is that he was fantastic at moving off-ball, but that doesn't make him a point guard.
Did you just say Manu wasn't the better passer? LMAO! OMG....
No, assists in ANY metric doesn't measure passing.
Parker's peak AST% is greater than Larry FREAKING BIRD's! Are you going to with a straight face tell me Parker is a better passer than Bird?
Sheer absurdity of the idea that Parker was the better passer, I will admit I was being a bit hyperbolic with my description of Parker's role. Parker was an elite speed player with great handles and he was a far better scorer than passer. Manu is one of the best passing players in NBA history and was also an great scorer. The spurs had the luxery of when those two were on the floor of running often a two point guard offense with parker, the primary scorer on ball and using Manu, the creator off ball. They could have course flip roles, but remember Parker off ball can't shoot which can hurt the flow of offense when running a set play.
Much like the spurs were famous for playing 2 centers, they were also running 2 point guards.
