have parker come off the bench

[djvudoo]

Ever since Parker has been out, Manu has been playing very well as well as Hill. What about a lineup of:

Hill
Manu
Bogans
McDyess
Duncan

Then have Parker and R.J. come off the bench along with Blair. On paper, this starting lineup would be strong defensively. I read this article about R.J. where Stackhouse said he is not as good of a basketball player as billed. He is an athlete and because he had Kidd spoonfeeding him the ball, his stats were inflated. However, when you put him in a half court set, he struggles. As a result, a 2nd unit of R.J., Parker, Blair along with Mason will allow them to run more uptempo and score in bundles. What do you think.

[Donald Kaufman]

Assuming TP's back for the first round of the playoffs, and depending on who we draw, he needs to start. His penetration can set the tone for us early. We need that.

I have no confidence in a starting lineup that features Bogans.

[Nolan]

I'd rather just start Tony with Manu and bring Hill off the bench for the reason DK stated.

[co_laper]

I think Tony needs to be a starter. Thing is, I think Manu should be a starter too.

So i'm thinking why exactly aren't we starting the guys we hoped to be starting all along?

Jefferson wants to play with Manu. Duncan fits in well with Dice. Parker is our best PG. Why aren't we playing that group together?

[AntiSuperstar]

I Jefferson wants to play with Manu. Duncan fits in well with Dice. Parker is our best PG. Why aren't we playing that group together?

Reason #1 is that doing that would result in some disgustingly awful offensive lineups once you go to the bench that would become neccessary in that rotation. It's just imbalanced. Besides, the more Ginobili plays with Parker, the less touches he gets. Oh, and defense? Parker, Ginobili, and RJ would be an awful group there.

I agree with original idea in this thread. But Popovich has developed far too much trust in Tony Parker, there's no hope in this happening. But realistically, the way he has been playing with the injury, the Spurs should definately consider using him a bit differently and certainly should reduce his playing time. He gets as many plays run for him and as much responsibility as he has had in years past, but is just not as effective. And Parker is the type of player that kills his team when he isn't effective because he forces drives, re-sets the pick and roll too many times which often leads to rushed shots because the shot clock ticks down, and does not pass the ball around as well. Ginobili is handling the ball a bit more this year, something he should already have been doing in years past. There's no reason to have this idea of running plays for Ginobili strictly to put him in scoring position. He's actually the best passer on the team, by all means let him create for others.

And in what ways does Duncan fit with McDyess over the team's other big men? I don't follow that.

[co_laper]

I don't get that at all.

When you talk about the starters and the bench being "imbalanced", are you saying that they should be? You'd rather have an average starting lineup and an average bench than a strong starting lineup and a weak bench?

If that's your argument, then maybe.. Lakers should bench Bynum or Gasol because their starting lineup is sick while their bench kinda suck outside of Odom. You know? Say put Josh Powell in the starting lineup so then the Lakers would have a pretty good bench with Gasol and Odom. Or maybe Boston should've benched Paul Pierce or Ray Allen instead of having an awesome starting 5 just so they get better balance from the bench.

And on defense, Jefferson, Manu, and Parker are guys who are going to get 30-35 minutes on this team. Starting or not, they're the 3 guys that has to play defense for us to get anywhere. If they're going to get 30-35 minutes and be the guys on the floor during crunch time, why aren't we playing them together so they develop better chemistry?

Duncan fits best with Dice because of what? You really don't know? Okay, let's break it down.

With Bonner, Bonner opens up the floor but he provides no defense nor rebounding.

with Blair, Blair provides rebounding, but does not open up the floor or provide defense.

With Dice, he provides rebounding, opens up the floor, and the best defense of the 3 guys we have.

You still ask in what ways?

[SApuro_]

Did anyone catch the Miami game? Well I was there in the front row yelling at RJ to be aggressive (haha another story) but Manu was bitching Hill out all game. He was yelling at him like he was a kid. Hill must have some pretty thick skin and be good friends with Manu because I was a little embarrassed for him.

Well anyway no way Parker comes off the bench. Not only is he a better point guard, he is a team leader.

I didn't realize how much of a competitor Manu is. The guy gets very pissed when he makes a mistake. Such drive and dedication to win no doubt we resign him. Its very contagious.

[djvudoo]

From watching these few games, Manu is still Manu even when he isn't scoring. He affects the game so much and when he is in there, I feel he gets everyone involved, more so than Tony. Tony can score in bunches, but I feel Manu sets up the the team better and makes those plays that Tony can't...a timely steal or a block. The reason I think Hill should be starting is because he has been serviceable as Tony's replacement and he is a much better defender. With the usual lineup of:

Tony
Bogans/Hill...the other team's sg usually goes off creating a huge differential. Bogans isn't a scoring threat and Hill is too undersized sometimes. With starting lineup of Manu, Hill, McDyess, Ducan, I feel we can more than compensate for Bogans and have a good offensive unit as there is more ball movement. With Manu, he get can his points while holding his own defensively and Hill can guard pg's better than Tony. Then when the second unit comes in, Tony is just too good to let backups guard him and will score at will. He and R.J. will be able to push the ball more and let R.J. run where he excels instead of traditional half court sets.

[co_laper]

With his injury, I really think Parker needs to focus more on being a distributor this year more than ever. He has RJ and Manu and Duncan to score this year and he's not 100%. I understand that Tony is at his best attacking the rim, but he really should pick and choose his shots this year. He should be deferring.

[Donald Kaufman]

Did anyone catch the Miami game? Well I was there in the front row yelling at RJ to be aggressive (haha another story) but Manu was bitching Hill out all game. He was yelling at him like he was a kid. Hill must have some pretty thick skin and be good friends with Manu because I was a little embarrassed for him.

Well anyway no way Parker comes off the bench. Not only is he a better point guard, he is a team leader.

I didn't realize how much of a competitor Manu is. The guy gets very pissed when he makes a mistake. Such drive and dedication to win no doubt we resign him. Its very contagious.

Cool story. I like reading about how dudes are at the actual games. You only get so much from watching it on TV.

Manu's a leader, that's for sure. I really hope we re-sign him once the season's over, but I don't have high hopes.

[SApuro_]

Yeah I know the numbers don't look good for us to resign him but he brings so much to the game I can't see how we can't. I have never seen so many argentinian Manu jerseys before. He brought a huge crowd out there (this is the miami game).

Everyone was yelling for Manu like it was a home game or something. He made a sick dunk on Wade and everyone was cheering it was nuts.