GT: Suns vs. Spurs

[SomeGuy785]

I'm a little concerned about the defense. Now obviously we won and that's good and all, but we gave up pretty much two 30 point quarters. That's not Spurs like and this is against a team that lost JRich and Amare and have yet to suit up the new guys (Carter, Pietrus, Gortat). I'm loving the fact that this team is 24 and 3, but we are winning games by scoring the hell out of the ball. That is not how we won 4 titles. As of right now our defense is currently rated 9th in the league which is pretty good, but I don't know if that's good enough. I can't remember the last time a team won the title without an elite, championship caliber defense. Now watching the game a few things stood out to me regarding our D. One, Pop is playing small ball which is pretty much a double edged sword. We score more points by playing Parker and Neal together at the expense of our D. Dudley was having his way with Neal all night. Two, Dyess, Bonner, and Blair are still not so good defensively. 82games.com shows that Dyess, Bonner, and Blair give up more production wise than they muster up themselves. That's not good and for a team wanting to make one last run with the Big 3 I think a change needs to be made. Here are the stats BTW [url](http://www.82games.com/1011/1011SAS.HTM)[/url]:

Ginobili 25.1 11.9 +13.3
Duncan 22.9 15.1 +7.7
Parker 21.2 13.3 +7.9
Jefferson 17.7 9.9 +7.8
Hill 17.5 14.8 +2.7
Bonner 14 16.8 -2.8
Neal 12.7 12.9 -0.1
Blair 17.1 22 -4.9
Splitter 15.9 18.6
Dyess 12.0 19.7 -7.7

Offense is simply amazing BTW. There's no other way to put it. This is probably the best offensive Spurs team I've seen in a long time. In fact it could be up there as THE best. Guys are unselfish as all hell and take smart shots. Gary Neal is great and a pretty darned good scorer. Hell even Chris Quinn was pretty good tonight, making good and smart passes and taking good shots. For all the ragging I do on Blair (really it's nothing personal, I'm just concerned about our D and Blair is a big part of our little deterioration) he is a pretty good finisher and even has a little floater of some sort in his arsenal. Bonner is great and a guy I will always love to have on this team for the simple fact that he is a big who can knock down the 3 fairly consistently. The Big 3 were all great tonight and so was Jefferson. He is a guy I always had faith in even dating back to his "disappointing year". He really takes a lot of offensive burden off of Duncan and Ginobili and is a big reason why this Spurs team is the best or 2nd best offensive team in the league right now. I would like to see a little more Splitter. He didn't get to play much but when he did you can notice right off the bat that his defense is better than all of Dyess, Bonner, and Blair. I know it's still pretty early and he missed a hell of a lot of time with that injury but we need to him to be great if we want to win a title this season. I'll put my trust in him that he'll deliver.

[co_laper]

We've always had a small ball lineup is short stretches from what? 2006 or 2007? That's nothing new. Thankfully, RJ is the best Smallball PF we've had because he's got the best size and rebounding ability compared to our previous smallball PF (Bowen, Finley). Just about every team have a small ball lineup and use it short stretches. If you're saying we used it a lot, then I don't think we're watching the same game. I personally don't even recall us using a smallball lineup in this game.

I also recall Dudley not exactly having his way with Neal. Dudley was making jumpers after jumpers and even posted up Parker 2 or 3 times. If anything, I remember Dudley having his way with Parker on the post, but not exactly Neal. Could be wrong on that one though. I just remember thinking Parker getting killed and the Spurs had to send a double team on the post to help out Parker.

Bonner, Dice, and Blair are likely to have their opponents score more than they do. I mean most games Duncan is the help defender especially if the big scorer on the opponent is the PF. Like say.. againts Memphis, Duncan is mostly on Gasol than Randolph. Same with againts NO where Duncan mostly guards Okafor than David West. You can't hardly expect guys like Blair, Bonner, and Dice to outscore the best post presence on the other team. You can expect that from Duncan though.

and as far as making a change, what trade is out there that makes us instantly a top 3 defensive team? You'd have to switch Blair to Dwight or Jefferson to Artest to make that happen. Realistic option? Okay maybe Camby and Gerald Wallace can transform our defense but there is no way in hell we can get those guys without breaking up the big 3. Teams won't take Dice for Camby. or Jefferson for Wallace. That's just not happening.

Our hope of becoming a better defensive team have to come from within.

[Frankie23]

Seems like other teams/players are very motivated to play against the Spurs..

Against Dallas we have problems on D, with Tyson Chandler being fouled cause of bad (late) transition D. But yesturday Dudley just score by jumpers, same as Grant Hill in the 1st half..We can adjust that, of course.
Everybody knows defense wins championships and offense just games, but it's still regular season and we are getting better on defense, even though the energy on that area is not playoffs calyber.

[SomeGuy785]

I dunno, maybe Dyess and Blair for Nazr Mohammed or Diop? Nazr was part of the front court that helped us win a title in '05 and Diop played a huge role in slowing down Tim Duncan (in overtime) in that game 7 overtime loss to Dallas in '06. I just think having both Dyess and Bonner on the same team is redundant since they're both out there for primarily offense (Dyess to shoot mid range shots, Bonner to shoot 3's). Blair is a good role player but I don't think he is the type of player that will help us win a title unfortunately as his lack of size will be a major problem against the Lakers and other contenders. I just hope management realizes that we are a lot more vulnerable than our record suggests otherwise and that trades shouldn't be out of the question. I think a Diop/Duncan/Bonner/Splitter front court or Nazr/Duncan/Bonner/Splitter FC is overall more balanced offensively and defensively than what we got right now.

[co_laper]

You're saying a switch from Dice+Blair to Nazr+Diop transforms us to a top defensive team?

[SomeGuy785]

It was just a suggestion. I'm thinking more of it as addition by subtraction. Like we're already a pretty good defensive team (9th in the league) with guys that aren't so good defensively in Blair and Dyess. If we can somehow move those two for any decent to good post defender then our defense has to improve no? Right now Duncan is still pretty much alone as Splitter is not playing enough minutes yet to make a huge impact. Our offense is incredibly elite as is. We'll probably lose a little bit of firepower by moving Blair and Dyess for a more defensive minded big but it is all worth it in the long run. I just don't think we'll win the championship with our roster as is unless we get incredibly lucky (ie all the other contenders lose key players to injuries).

[co_laper]

Gotta disagree with you here.

I don't think Diop and Nazr is better than Dice defensively.

You also have to factor in other stuff too.

For example, we're taking a huge step back to incorporate the new guys into the system (Nazr re-acquainted). Most first year guys don't do well so Diop will not likely help us much.

Nazr was paired with Duncan when we had better 3 point shooting from the perimeter (Bowen, Finley, Barry). The reason why we need Dice or Bonner on offense is because their ability to spread the floor and open it up for Hill, Parker, Manu, RJ. What I'm saying is, if Splitter has a hard time getting playing time NEXT to Duncan, how in the world can Nazr or Diop? Even in our championship and with a younger Nazr, the guy is only good for 20 minute.

I also don't recall Nazr being that good of a defensive player anyways. Diop's best defensive skill is his shotblocking. He doesn't help out defense much. What guys like Blair and Dice can do is guard the opponent's best low post scorer. These days, most of them are PFs who can step outside. What we need is a defensive PF. Diop or Nazr will force Tim to guard the Boozers/Bosh/Dirk etc. No way.

Not to mention contract here. I don't remember the details, but Diop sucks big time.

In conclusion, Nazr and Diop sucks. I see Splitter as the better player.

Anyways, I agree that I don't think we win the championship with our current roster unless other contenders get injured, but I sure as hell also don't think trading for Nazr and Diop puts us on a higher level. If anything, it makes us worse.