Gameday Thread: Spurs at Kings

[Nolan]

Also was really impressed Bertans limited minutes in this one. He's still a little hesitant to shoot it but he made a few really nice defensive plays at the rim. This kid can block/contest shots, he's going to be a very valuable player in the future.

[inDe_eD]

I'll add my observations to this conversation.

First, Kawhi Leonard doesn't seem physically ready to carry the load as the primary scorer throughout the season (a la MJ or Kobe). At this point, I don't believe he's there. Over the past three games, he's played with low energy. His baseline fade-away has looked flat. At the end of Friday's game, Kawhi was strangely breathless when Pop pulled him to the bench. On Saturday, the Spurs wisely countered with a more diversified offensive game from Leonard/LA/Gasol, although Kawhi still looked fatigued. And yesterday Kawhi seemed to struggle with the Heat's in-your-face defensive physicality.

Second it's been reported that Pop wants Tony to play more as a facilitator this season. When healthy and fresh, Tony has done this well, I thought. Against the Rockets in one sequence, Kawhi looked flat missing jumpers on consecutive possessions. Next possession, Tony handles the ball early, opts not to pass to an open Kawhi in the corner, dribbles around the horn (for 5-8 seconds), and dumps to Gasol who drains a mid-range jumper. At first, I was unhappy with Tony for not passing to an open Kawhi. But when Gasol took the shot, I could see that Gasol's legs looked fresh. In this case, I thought Tony made the right call.

Lastly it seems to me that the Spurs need to develop into a 'team' rather than into the Kawhi Leonard Show. Reason: the Warriors are integrating 4 All-Stars into their starting lineup. I believe the Spurs will need to do the same with Leonard/LA/Gasol if they expect to beat the 'integrated' Warriors during the playoffs.

Honestly, I get where you're coming from, and while your analysis is good, I disagree with your conclusion.

Kawhi definitely does look a little tired. I've seen a lot of very uncharacteristic defensive lapses in the last few games too. I have a hard time believing it's due to the increased usage though. If anything, just reduce Kawhi's minutes, but keep the high usage. I don't know if I've seen him run more than a single P&R the last few games and that's just not a good thing. We should be using this RS to develop and evaluate the young guys, and push Kawhi into superduperstardom. Trying to make Pau a focal part of our offense is going to lead to a first round exit. To be clear, I don't expect to get past GSW or possibly even LAC, but I'd feel like we'd have at least a punchers chance if we had a guy we could lean on offensively like first 5 games Kawhi.

??? You prefer the Pau of first 5-6 games who looked like a zombie because he didn't touch much the ball?? If you have sign Gasol to a 15m per year deal...it's to use him as a focal point on offense, not the 1st option, nor the 2nd...but at least 3rd, and to be the third option dosn´t mean that he takes 15-18 shots per game, since he moves the ball very nicely and he's unselfish enough to make at least 4 - 5 assists per game per 36.
I don't know where the Spurs leaded by Pau would or could end...but a superdominant Kawhi hasn't show something much better...especially since he's having his worst season in efficience since 3-4 years...
We don't need a Kobe Leonard, we need an improved and more dominant Kawhi, but that's not happening with him taking lot' of 3s and long 2s. The Spurs system is based on efficiency and great ball movement, something that lacked in many games this year beacuse Kawhi's high-usage.
Kawhi is clearly the best player of the team by far, but he doesn't need to take the Westbrook/Harden role when we have a very deep and talented team, he needs to have the ball, attack the rim, shoot open 3s or at least not difficult ones...and obviuosly he needs to play the pick & Roll and get to the FT line.
You can see the stats of the team when Kawhi is taking a lot of shots this year and the result when he had take less than 20...giving Pau and LA more usage...

I think it's kind of hard to say whether Pau's struggle was due to decreased role or just fitting into a new team. Either way, if the Pau expirement is really going to be successful, he needs to space the floor, move the ball, and finish around the rim. Taking 4-5 possessions a game to let him post up on meh efficiency isn't a good thing, and it's certainly not building towards the future, especially when we already have two guys that need multiple post-ups a game in Kawhi and LMA.

I do agree, the long 2 attempts probably need to decrease, let LMA have those, but the P&R handling needs to go way up. He was really good at that the first 5 games, and we went 4-1 (He was shooting really poorly from 3 too).

Do you not think we could have used Kobe Leonard last year against OKC in the playoffs?

[inDe_eD]

Also was really impressed Bertans limited minutes in this one. He's still a little hesitant to shoot it but he made a few really nice defensive plays at the rim. This kid can block/contest shots, he's going to be a very valuable player in the future.

Loving Bertans. The Matt Boner comparisons don't do him justice.

[Nolan]

Also was really impressed Bertans limited minutes in this one. He's still a little hesitant to shoot it but he made a few really nice defensive plays at the rim. This kid can block/contest shots, he's going to be a very valuable player in the future.

Loving Bertans. The Matt Boner comparisons don't do him justice.

No he's far more useful that Bonner. Bonner was just a shooter, Bertans has already shown that he's so much more than that.

[jptremblay]

[quotetnDe_eD"]

Honestly, I get where you're coming from, and while your analysis is good, I disagree with your conclusion.

Kawhi definitely does look a little tired. I've seen a lot of very uncharacteristic defensive lapses in the last few games too. I have a hard time believing it's due to the increased usage though. If anything, just reduce Kawhi's minutes, but keep the high usage. I don't know if I've seen him run more than a single P&R the last few games and that's just not a good thing. We should be using this RS to develop and evaluate the young guys, and push Kawhi into superduperstardom. Trying to make Pau a focal part of our offense is going to lead to a first round exit. To be clear, I don't expect to get past GSW or possibly even LAC, but I'd feel like we'd have at least a punchers chance if we had a guy we could lean on offensively like first 5 games Kawhi.

??? You prefer the Pau of first 5-6 games who looked like a zombie because he didn't touch much the ball?? If you have sign Gasol to a 15m per year deal...it's to use him as a focal point on offense, not the 1st option, nor the 2nd...but at least 3rd, and to be the third option dosn´t mean that he takes 15-18 shots per game, since he moves the ball very nicely and he's unselfish enough to make at least 4 - 5 assists per game per 36.
I don't know where the Spurs leaded by Pau would or could end...but a superdominant Kawhi hasn't show something much better...especially since he's having his worst season in efficience since 3-4 years...
We don't need a Kobe Leonard, we need an improved and more dominant Kawhi, but that's not happening with him taking lot' of 3s and long 2s. The Spurs system is based on efficiency and great ball movement, something that lacked in many games this year beacuse Kawhi's high-usage.
Kawhi is clearly the best player of the team by far, but he doesn't need to take the Westbrook/Harden role when we have a very deep and talented team, he needs to have the ball, attack the rim, shoot open 3s or at least not difficult ones...and obviuosly he needs to play the pick & Roll and get to the FT line.
You can see the stats of the team when Kawhi is taking a lot of shots this year and the result when he had take less than 20...giving Pau and LA more usage...

I think it's kind of hard to say whether Pau's struggle was due to decreased role or just fitting into a new team. Either way, if the Pau expirement is really going to be successful, he needs to space the floor, move the ball, and finish around the rim. Taking 4-5 possessions a game to let him post up on meh efficiency isn't a good thing, and it's certainly not building towards the future, especially when we already have two guys that need multiple post-ups a game in Kawhi and LMA.

I do agree, the long 2 attempts probably need to decrease, let LMA have those, but the P&R handling needs to go way up. He was really good at that the first 5 games, and we went 4-1 (He was shooting really poorly from 3 too).

Do you not think we could have used Kobe Leonard last year against OKC in the playoffs?[/quote]
Yes, Spurs should use him in that role when his teammates aren't showing there...like last year playoffs.
But even with a SuperKawhi, if the rest of the team doesn't make their work it still would be unsuccesfull.
The main problem last year was that we were old, predictable and with washed up guys playing several minutes ...(David West, Diaw, Parker..) and with Timmy in several physical problems...
Now, we are still old, but not predictable, we are much more deeper and with young and athletic guys to give the old guys rest.
-Lee is clearly an improvement compared to West.
- Dedmon is what we needed last year, a big and athletic center.
- Gasol is an upgrade on offense and a downgrade at defense with Timmy, but since we are still good at defense and we have Dedmon to replace him that doesn't seem to be an issue.
- Jonathan Simmons seems better than ever .
- Bertans is a quick and athletic Bonner type player...
- Parker seems to have something left in the tank as he showed it on some games...And Patty is playing more and better than last year ...limiting Parker minutes .
So for me, the answer for that last year disapointing playoff run is a better Kawhi, but with a better team around and playing like a team.
We aren't winning anything if Kawhi don't show more agressiveness and dominante in the game, but we aren't too if the rest of the team doesn't step up.

[inDe_eD]

Yes, Spurs should use him in that role when his teammates aren't showing there...like last year playoffs.
But even with a SuperKawhi, if the rest of the team doesn't make their work it still would be unsuccesfull.
The main problem last year was that we were old, predictable and with washed up guys playing several minutes ...(David West, Diaw, Parker..) and with Timmy in several physical problems...
Now, we are still old, but not predictable, we are much more deeper and with young and athletic guys to give the old guys rest.
-Lee is clearly an improvement compared to West.
- Dedmon is what we needed last year, a big and athletic center.
- Gasol is an upgrade on offense and a downgrade at defense with Timmy, but since we are still good at defense and we have Dedmon to replace him that doesn't seem to be an issue.
- Jonathan Simmons seems better than ever .
- Bertans is a quick and athletic Bonner type player...
- Parker seems to have something left in the tank as he showed it on some games...And Patty is playing more and better than last year ...limiting Parker minutes .
So for me, the answer for that last year disapointing playoff run is a better Kawhi, but with a better team around and playing like a team.
We aren't winning anything if Kawhi don't show more agressiveness and dominante in the game, but we aren't too if the rest of the team doesn't step up.

Yea but that's the thing, we can't expect Kawhi to go super-nova in the playoffs with a 5 game test drive at the beginning of the season. He needs to develop confidence and rhythm in that role. I'm not worried about the team success or winning it this year, because quite honestly, without a couple big injuries, we're the 4th best team in the league. I standby what I said earlier, this season should be about developing the young guys (Simmons/Mills/Murray/Bertans/Dedmon/Etc.) and Kawhi's ascendance. If we're able to go to the WCF or beyond because of good health and the opposite for the other contenders, then hell ya, I'm on board. But either way, Pau is fool's gold, as he's unplayable against Golden State, Cleveland and probably the Clippers in a playoff series.