Fact or Fiction
Small Ball has been a complete disaster
FICTION: You wouldn’t have expected that Gregg Popovich, of all people, would implement an untraditional brand of basketball with the Spurs. Nevertheless, here we are just over halfway through the season and George Hill is starting opposite of Tony Parker. The key to successful small ball is realizing when it is and is not effective. George Hill did not become Pop’s favorite player through laziness and complacency. Hill has earned his spot in the rotation and is a very able, physical defender. Furthermore, with Tony’s plantar fasciitis, it’s vital to have another option that can be plugged into the line-up when Tony is resting or heaven forbid he goes down for any lengthy amount of time with his injury. Therefore, small ball not only serves a purpose to help train and prepare Hill for an increased role should Tony get injured or happens to not be playing particularly well, it also gives Pop another tool to throw into his bag of tricks come playoff time.
Richard Jefferson was the wrong piece to get this summer
FACT: Jefferson has been mediocre at best this season. In the last five games Jefferson has accumulated a measly thirty-nine total points. In Jefferson’s past, he was either the main scoring option, or he was the number one option offensively and consequently had the ball in his hands. That being said, Jefferson is most effective when he’s the playmaker and thus has the ball in his hands, or he’s got a great passer feeding him the rock. In order for a wealth of talent to co-exist and mesh well, it all goes back to guard-play and the fact of the matter is, Tony Parker is a scorer first and a passer second. I wouldn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, put him into the hybrid category of a Ben Gordon or a Jason Terry, but he is a very average distributor. To Parker’s credit he has adapted his game and enhanced his playmaking ability over the years. Now that Jefferson is locked in, Parker will need to again, re-tweak in order to get Jefferson more involved offensively. Jefferson has never been the fourth option offensively and I think he’s having a difficult time knowing when to be assertive and when not to. Again, with time and adjustments by the PG, hopefully these circumstances will be ironed out in time for a playoff run…hopefully.
Manu Ginobili will be back in a Spurs uniform next season
FACT: As I touched on in my article last week, Ginobili has every reason to come back and play for the team that he has played his entire career for. Manu has given every indication that he wants to remain a Spur and realizes that he may not get a long-term contract or a huge sum of money for that matter. The only way the Spurs don’t get Manu is if someone tries to way overpay for him (i.e. Golden State Warriors—Corey Maggette) or if his injury issues are too much of a liability for the organization to justify absorbing.
DeJuan Blair should continue to be the Spurs starting center
FICTION: It’s time to quit being stubborn Pop. You need to slide McDyess into the starting PF slot and shift Timmy to center. McDyess is more of an offensive threat than is Blair and he can still hold his own defensively. The lack of size in the starting frontcourt as hurt the Spurs who are 1-5 with Blair starting since he blew up with his 28-21 game against the Thunder a couple of weeks ago. The beauty of Blair is that he’s a beast on the glass and doesn’t need plays to be run for him. In that regard, his game is reminiscent of Shawn Marion when he played for the Suns back in the day. He was extremely good at getting clean up points off of fastbreaks and put-backs put never really had his number called when it came to running plays. Blair’s ability to score in such a manner makes him equally productive with the second unit as with the first. I think the best way to manage Blair would be to spot-start him given certain situations but to bring him off the bench with the second unit.
The Spurs need to make a move before the trade deadline
FICTION: The Spurs have plenty to contend for a title. Popovich is a masterful coach and has done much more with much less in years past. There’s no reason to believe that this season is any different. Spurs aren’t strangers to slow starts and despite how painful and longwinded this current slow start may seem in comparison to past seasons, it’s vital that this organization and fan base stay focused. The team has shown progress and flashes of brilliance throughout the season here and there. The key to winning, and what separates the good coaches from the great coaches is the ability to rally the troops and get all of the players to show up and perform consistently with those brilliant efforts. Has that perfect storm contest shown up this season? No, but Popovich has a history of peaking at the right time, and for now all we can do is wait and hope.
Related posts:
