What can we take from the preseason?

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co_laper
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What can we take from the preseason? 

Post#1 » by co_laper » Sat Oct 27, 2012 7:28 pm

Honestly, with practically the same roster, nothing changed much.

Despite Pop's complain about the defense, it isn't going to get that much better. This stuff about the team needing to have more of a dog in them or being more physical and stuff, that's not gonna happen. The Spurs defense these days only come in bursts. I'm not saying that because of the game's final score or opponent FG%. When our starters play, the defense is always average at best. For a team so good playing the pick and roll game, we suck really bad at defending it.

Bonner will continue to get minutes. I hope Pop stops experimenting Bonner playing with Diaw or Blair. That lineup is just too slow, too short, and too unathletic. It's not even a physical lineup. Bonner needs to be with Duncan or Splitter or not play at all.

This isn't the year Gary Neal stops taking questionable shots.

Kawhi isn't going to have a breakout season statistically. Perhaps with more minutes, he could get more rebounds. Offensively, he didn't improve his game enough. His midrange shot, something he obviously is working on, has been bricks. His 3 point shots is only good if it's from the corner. He can bring the ball up the court, but his ball handling isn't good enough to get by people. His P&R looks extremely awful. His biggest value will come on the defensive end where he's big and long enough to be our small ball PF and I think he'll continue to get steals. He's got a knack for those. Honestly, after summer league, I was hoping he became something more than what he's shown in summer league.

Our depth will win us a lot of games again. We're as deep as last year and No one has really seperated himself from their competition to a point where they will get 34-36 minutes a game. Even Kawhi still can't beat our Jackson. Green can't beat out Manu. Splitter, Blair, Bonner, Diaw are all locked into the same position and not one of them stood out that much more than the other. So I'm guessing this is going to be another season where we have a bunch of guys playing 20+ minutes other than Duncan, Manu, and Parker.

As good as Nando's passing skills, he's not good enough in other areas of his game to crack the rotation. Plus, the only way I can see Nando getting playing time is if Manu got hurt, which means we could use a Mini-Manu on the floor. Our last preseason game where Manu isn't playing, Pop tried Danny Green with the second unit and it sucks real bad.

DeJuan Blair will likely get traded. This is the last year on his deal. I doubt Blair wants to come back unless Spurs gave him the starting job. And our front office just isn't the type that would force Blair to stay even if he doesn't want to. Preseason, he didn't do anything to beat out Diaw, so he's unlikely to get what he wants. I think Spurs will likely try to get something back for Blair. Perhaps trading him somewhere Blair can actually get minutes, and Spurs get a future pick, probably a second rounder. hopefully one in the 30s.

Patty Mills IMO will win the backup PG position. He's just more of a natural PG than Neal. Last year, Patty was too new to the system and the NBA.

Oh, and Parker's jumper is off, but I'm not really worried about that. He's become good enough at it.
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franktony
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Re: What can we take from the preseason? 

Post#2 » by franktony » Sat Oct 27, 2012 9:18 pm

I pretty much agree with everything.

The positives :

- Tim Duncan is in great shape. It was great to watch him schooling Bosh in the low-post against Miami.

- Cory Joseph played really well in the SL and was solid in the limited minutes he was given in the pre-season. He improved a lot in this off-season. Great defender (probably the best PG defender in SAS roster), can take care of the ball, played calm setting plays. Overall he was solid and deserved to have his option picked for 13/14.

- Danny Green started bad in the pre-season, but in the last games looked very solid. Still good defensively, has improved a lot his passing skills and his 3-pointer is still very good. He is totally worth his contract.

The negatives

- Pop says defense will be the focus this season but still gives Bonner a lot of minutes. It made me sick to watch Blair and Bonner together. It's a receipt to a massive disaster. They are simply terrible defensively. The team's defense without Duncan is complete joke. It's unbelievable how bad it is when Timmy is not out there.
I don't think we're gonna have a top defense this season. SA simply doesn't have the tools to be elite defensively. It's not a matter of effort, it's a matter of the players SA has right now. Old Timmy can't carry this team alone like he used to in the past.

-It' worries me a bit that Manu is having so many minor injuries in the pre-season. I think he won't be fully healthy once again this season. At least we have a lot depth in the guard position this season.

- Leonard looked like mini-Lebron in the SL but then looked average in the pre-season games. I think he was trying to do too much offensively. He still needs to learn to put himself in a good position before shooting.
He will be ok, it's simply not his time to shine yet. I don't expect to see him breaking-out with the BIG 3 still there.

Overall, I am not really excited after the pre-season games. Nando has amazing passing skills but it's pretty clear he is not ready yet. Even though I agree with you that Mills is the best option to take the backup PG spot, I am still not sold in anyone in our roster to take the spot.

It was a surprise that SA waived all the players fighting for the last spot in the roster, but I think they will wait to see what players are waived until the deadline. Hopefully HOU waive Jajuan Johnson and we grab him. And I still think SA should move Blair. He is not part of SA's future at all.

Anyway, I can't wait until the season starts.
Shaq on Duncan:SA won because of TD, a guy I could never break.I could talk trash to Ewing, get in D-Rob's face, get a rise out of Mourning,but when I went at Tim he’d look at me like he was bored and say:“Hey,Shaq, watch this shot right off the glass.”

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