Author: Stephen Hale (Page 13 of 22)

Portland Trailblazers, Memphis Grizzlies, Portland Trailblazers, Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, New Orleans Pelicans, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans.

Those are your Spurs’ last 10 opponents, folks. Results: 4 wins, 6 losses.

Last month the Spurs played 18 games in total. Most were against likely playoff teams. Most were played without Kawhi Leonard or Tony Parker.

Overall, it was the worst December of Tim Duncan’s career.

Raise your hand if you are glad December is over?

(Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports )

Yep. Me, too.

So now, while you have your hand raised, let’s try a few more.

• Raise your hand if you thought the Spurs overpaid for Splitter.
• Raise your hand if you rolled your eyes when the Spurs signed Boris Diaw.
• Raise your hand if you were mad that Marco Belinelli was the big free agent signing two years ago.
• Raise your hand if you took way too long to really like Corey Joseph.
• Raise your hand if you wanted to keep George Hill.
• Raise your hand if you ever said, “This is probably going to be Duncan’s last year.”
• Raise your hand if you have ever said, “It’s time to fire, Pop.”
• Raise your hand if you are balding like Manu.

I can raise my hand for all but one of these, and I’ll let you guess which one.

In the last month, for every above example I can raise my hand, I have been wrong.

The last month of Spurs basketball has been the most difficult month of regular season basketball to watch in a really long time. It was grueling, brutal and painful.

And sooooooooooooo worth it.

It has genuinely shown me that the San Antonio Spurs, the organization, is far more intelligent, far superior, and possesses far more fortitude than you or I or any one amongst us.

The reason I raised my hand is the same reason why this team won four of its last 10 games with a bunch of D-Leaguers, a 59-year-old power forward, a pudgy 5-man off the bench, no Finals MVP, no All-Star Point Guard and a mad scientist at the helm. It’s also the reason the Spurs lost only 6 games and not 10.

There is enough analysis out there right now to describe December for this Spurs team. Worst in the Duncan era, blah blah blah. Raise your hand if you’re fine with not talking anymore about it. Ok, cool. On to the other stuff.

Here are my key stats on Tiago Splitter. Ready? Here it goes: Tiago Splitter is 6’11’ and weighs 245lbs. That’s it. Expert analysis.

I want you to look around the league and think about the second best big man on each team. Not the first, but the second. Then compare that player to Tiago Splitter.

But before you do, imagine that second best big man playing in the Western Conference, playing in a 10-man rotation, and averaging less than 30 minutes a game.

There aren’t too many comparable players out there, are there? Big men are at a premium in the NBA. You can’t teach height. You can’t teach size. You can’t teach vision.

We silly little Spurs fans can bash Tiago Splitter all we want, but notice the difference in our substitution rotations, our defensive rotations and our second unit rotations when Splitter is on the court.

The reason Duncan can do what he does, the reason the guards can get where they get, is because Tiago is there, in the right spot, on time, and getting it done.

Put simply, Tiago has to be healthy for the Spurs to succeed. I’m so glad he is back.

Tiago Splitter is the 64th highest paid player in the NBA. That may sound like he’s paid too much. But here is a list of NBA Centers who get paid more to play than Tiago Splitter:

Amar’e Stoudemire
Brook Lopez
Andrew Bogut
Roy Hibbert
Kendrick Perkins
Javale McGee
Larry Sanders
Andrea Bargnani
Anderson Varejao
Derrick Favors
Nikola Pekovic

Now I realize it was dumb to think Tiago is overpaid.

Some other thoughts…

* The Boris Diaw we saw in that Wizards game (which I attended with my one-year-old son, who was glued to the action for 48 minutes) is the Boris Diaw who makes a difference. I don’t mind a pudgy BoBo, as long as he using the pudge. The Boris against Memphis and Portland is fat. The Boris against LAC and Washington is Big-Boned.

* I’d like to extend a personal apology to Marco Belinelli (thanks for reading, Marco) for my lack of enthusiasm when you joined the team. In December, you averaged 11 points a game, shot over 43 percent from the field and 40 percent from beyond the 3-point line. Thanks for being such a good fit here in San Antonio. We all think you are really great. Also, I think it is very neat when you surprise us with a dunk.

* CoJo. Man, oh man, CoJo. How sweet has he been this month? How much has his game developed? How much does he represent everything that the Spurs are? How excited were you when he faked out Chris Kardashian in that Wizards game? (Like I said, I was at the AT&T center and I am pretty sure my son said his first words: “Ball Fake.”) CoJo has earned himself a batch of minutes. I’m as glad as the next person to see Tony Parker come back, but I really hope Pop finds a way to keep Corey Joseph playing at a healthy clip.

* George Hill who? For those of you who joined Spurs Nation after last year’s NBA Finals victory, allow me to explain: George was one of Pop’s favorite players and backed up Tony Parker for a number of years. He was long and lanky and could match up with short or tall guards. He wasn’t a particularly great shooter, but he was a solid ball-handler. Lifelong Spurs fans grew to like him. However, no one cares about him now, because we dumped him for a younger guy with a 7-foot wingspan and a mellow personality. We never liked George as much as this new guy. So that’s why when the new guy has a torn ligament in his hand and can’t catch the ball, Spurs fans lose their ever-loving minds. (Pop said, “His hand doesn’t work.” – Oh.) Hurry back, Kawhi.

Editor’s note: The Spurs announced Tuesday that Kawhi Leonard could be playing again in two weeks.

* Duncan isn’t retiring. Maybe not ever. He’s going to play when he is 83. He’s going to hobble out there with a walker and put up 12-9. Honestly, I’m sick of talking about him. He isn’t even that good, awesome, great, efficient, solid, durable, incredible, time-defining, monumental, game-changing, the best player of his generation, fun to watch… He is fairly decent at playing basketball.

* Pop needs a raise. And probably a glass of wine. But what he did in the month of December is nothing short of miraculous, given the circumstances. I can think of 29 other coaches in the NBA who would have done worse. Being that it’s a given that Pop would do the best in this type of situation, who would you say would have done the next best? I would say Tom Thibodeau, then Rick Carlisle, then Doc Rivers and… Scott Brooks would be last.

* Finally, have you guys seen Manu’s bald spot? I have. I saw it from the 14th row of section 204 at the AT&T Center. So why can’t Manu see it? What I mean is, Manu refuses to admit that his body can’t do what it used to do. He still plays like he did when he was 25. Come on, Manu. Slow down, buddy. Just a hair? Please? That wrap around the waist between two defenders is cool… until you can’t do it anymore. Then it just looks bad. Please stick to moving the ball with easy and grace, stick to pull-up jumpers in transition and stick to being crafty and leave the silliness to the And-1 mixtape tour (how’d that work out for you, Raefer Alston a.k.a. Skip-to-my-lou). Manu might be one of the most intelligent people in the NBA. If only he played like it. If only…

Watch out Spurs fans: the Schedule is getting easier, the Spurs are getting healthier and the Thunder are making stupid trade decisions. The NBA is just now warmed up and I sense a rise in the rankings.

Raise your hand if you think the Spurs will sweep January.

That’s ridiculous. Put your hands down.

Go Spurs Go

*Addendum: Um… well this is awkward. I said all this nice stuff about the guys and then they went and vomited out that second half last night. Holy Cow, was that bad basketball. I don’t know if you watched the Kentucky-Ole Miss game, but it was kind of the same thing, except Kentucky won.

Instead of trying to play Spurs basketball, the Spurs should just, well, play Spurs basketball.

It’s been a few weeks since my last week in review. I assure you that, while my reviews have been slacking, my Spurs basketball viewing has not. I received my Bachelors degree last Thursday, so the last few weeks have been a whole lot of finals, a whole lot of essays and a whole lot of regalia fittings. In all honesty, I have watched and now, more honesty is required. So here is the truth.

I don’t really like what I am seeing.

Dan, Brantley, Noriel and I spent much of the past Spurs Dynasty Podcast talking about the Spurs playing down to their level of competition. Even still, I wonder how much of that is true and how much of recent results are just a whole lot of ticky-tacky injuries beginning to pile up. Whatever it is, the W-L column should be a better reflection of what this team is and, even moreso, who it is.

I am not so naive to unrealistically believe that the Spurs will go 82-0. Truth is, 50 wins in the Western Conference is admirable. Ideally, I’d prefer to see the Spurs wins total somewhere around 58.

After the Portland loss on Monday, the Spurs are on pace for a 55-27 record. At first glance, that doesn’t sound too terrible. But ask yourself: is the way this team has played the last two weeks worthy of 55 wins?

I say no. Not because of the 8 losses — currently good enough for the defending champs to have the 6th seed in the West — but because of the identity of this team. Currently, our point guards are really struggling. Cory Joseph has been wonderfully surprising. But with Mills still out and Parker suffering from a nagging hamstring injury, it seems that we find the Spurs asking a whole lot out of the young fella. So far he has delivered, but how much longer can he keep going?

There is also a trickle-down effect.

The injuries to Parker and Mills mean more of Manu Ginobili at the PG position. As we discussed in the SDP, our beloved Manu is guilty of committing a lot of bad turnovers. No turnovers are good, but if one must commit a turnover, hopefully it turns into a dead ball, so as to stop the play and allow the defense to get set. (Let’s call these the not-so-bad turnovers). I don’t have a stat, but Manu seems to really have a lot of “bad turnovers.”

I love Manu, but I really don’t like when he has to play point guard. When he does, it moves CoJo or Marco to the 2-guard spot and Danny Green to the 3. While they all play quite a bit above their potential for size at those positions, it still makes the Spurs smaller.

What can you do? Injuries happen. But herein lies the saving grace.

Of the eight games the Spurs have lost — to the Suns, Rockets, Pelicans, Kings, Nets, Jazz, Lakers and Blazers — only two of those were against teams above .500. And letss call those Nets-Jazz-Lakers games what they were. A whole lot of Spurs stars sitting and a whole lot of “A” games by the opposition (Teletovic-26, Hayward/Favors-20/21, Nick Young-29).

But of the 17 wins, the Spurs have beaten the Mavericks, the Warriors, the Clippers, the Grizzlies, the Hawks and the Cavaliers. So the Spurs are winning the games they should win and losing a couple here and there, while weeding out some injury headaches.

I’m not going to sit here and try to dissect the season so ar. What I can say is that this is when the Spurs are at their best. Not the basketball team, but the organization. Things are done now in preparation for April. And that leads me into my transition for what I’ll call this weeks, “Don’t underestimate…”

• Don’t underestimate how important it was for Kawhi Leonard to come back in the Denver game and play like he did. Leonard said he wasn’t 100 percent, but yet, he still came out to play, in an early-season game. That shows he has a killer instinct. Also, guys don’t do that for teams they don’t want to play for…
• Don’t underestimate the importance of CoJo, and his ability to play when thrown into the fire because Tony and Patty are injured. His real-life game-time minutes have turned him into a player who could be a starter on probably half of the teams in the NBA. (The same could be said of George Hill.)
• Don’t underestimate how well Danny Green has played at the 3, versus the 2 spot. His rebounding and defending is largely forgotten, since we think of him largely as a shooter. Danny is a couple steps away from becoming a legitimate player in this league. As for now, he is a solid role player who is making himself valuable. He is also a big part of why the Spurs are 17-8 and not 12-13.
• Don’t underestimate how much work the 37 year-old wonder is putting in. Dan left us with a closing stat on the SDP about how he leads the team in win-shares. If you believe in PER, John Hollinger ranks him at 15th currently. In the entire league. Check out this list of players who Old Man Riverwalk is ahead of: Chris Bosh, Blake Griffin, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, LaMarcus Aldridge, Dirk Nowitzki, John Wall, Damian Lillard, Zach Randolph and Kyrie Irving. Seriously. Look it up.
• Don’t underestimate the slow, steady, return of Tiago Splitter. Calf injuries are no joke. It’s important that he is eased back in to this thing. The Spurs can’t afford to sacrifice the future on the altar of the now. In the next couple weeks we should see Tiago’s minutes increase. Then he will probably sit a few game. I expect him to be in full form by mid-January.
• Don’t underestimate how valuable it is to have Boris Diaw on the court at any given time. He is a big reason why Duncan can keep going for so long. A high-low post entry creates movement in the defense and eliminates the banging of bodies. Boris Diaw might have single-handedly added years to Duncan’s career. Additionally, his court vision helps CoJo when Parker is gone, and helps Parker when he is there, too. Just ask LeLron: BoBo can guard a lot of different positions.
• Don’t underestimate Matt Bonner. Bonner hasn’t shot the ball this poorly from this 3-point line since the 2009-2010 season. In his 11th season, this is his 4th worst shooting year. He is averaging an abysmal 6.4 PPG, 2.1 RPG and 1.1 APG. Has any player in the history of the NBA ever had that depressing of a stat line, and yet, still terrified every team he plays with every shot he takes? Seriously, any time the Red Mamba shoots, I think it’s wet.
• Don’t underestimate Pop’s DNC and his ejection in which he surrendered the reigns of the team to Messina. (Am I the only one who thought of Gene Hackman in Hoosiers? No? Ok.). I’m not a betting man, but if I were, he gets my bet for heir to the throne.
• Finally, don’t underestimate December. From December 15 to December 31, the San Antonio Spurs will play the Blazers twice, the Grizzlies twice, the Pelicans twice, the Mavericks, the Clippers, the Thunder and the Rockets. Yeesh. This could very well prove to be the toughest stretch of basketball all season, with the exception of the last two weeks of the season. This could determine a lot about the state of this team. December will be a time for the guys to test themselves and see where they are at and who they can be.

I can’t wait for that Christmas Day game against Oklahoma City.

Go Spurs Go.