Author: Stephen Hale (Page 15 of 22)

Week 2 in Review

November 11, 2014 /

Not much has changed in a week. The Spurs went 2-2 and have yet to return to championship form.

But not all is lost. It’s still early in the season. Seven games mean nothing. And flashes of light are being seen amongst the rubble. It hasn’t been championship basketball, but it also hasn’t been the 76ers.

I want to focus on three numbers: 98, 26 and 9.

It’s no surprise that the Spurs have been playing some pretty ugly basketball to start the year. To summarize how they have been shooting, I would like to offer you a few cliches to lighten the mood. Without further adieu…

The Spurs couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with a shot gun.

The Spurs couldn’t hit the water if they fell out of a boat.

The Spurs couldn’t hit sand if they fell off a camel.

The Spurs couldn’t hit the floor if they fell out of bed.

The Spurs couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo.

(I think five examples is enough. Let’s move on).

The point is, the Spurs are shooting horrendously. I mean it’s really bad. It’s like they all know it, and we know it, but they can’t do anything about it. But the missed shots, especially from the three point line, don’t bother me much. Shots will fall and just as the Spurs had nights five months ago where they shot about 72% in a half, they will have nights where they shoot 7%.

In order for shooting woes to be the least of all your problems, you have to be able to say that you are doing everything else right. The truth is, as of now, the Spurs are not. I genuinely believe that the Spurs are playing like a team that is trying to be the Spurs instead of just being the Spurs.

Throughout the first week, we saw a whole lot of junk and not a lot of Spurs basketball. The offense is a wreck. We are seeing less and less Hammer action and Thunder down and more and more Zipper action.

Thunder action is basically when BoBo or the “4” screens down and brings Duncan to the elbow from the block for a jumper. Hammer action is when the Spurs swing around the baseline to find a guy wide open in the opposite corner. Both depend on intricate and precise ball movement.

Zipper series requires a lot more ball movement with the ball, versus off the ball. It’s very basic. Hammer and Thunder action are used when you are getting action away from the ball to get an immediate shot.

The offense is so stagnant, the team can’t even get into the Hammer and Thunder movements. In fact, the Spurs gave it a shot on Monday night about midway through the fourth quarter and Duncan almost walked up to the elbow to receive the ball, practically destroying the offensive set single-handedly.

Tim pump faked and passed back out to Boris and I tossed my iPhone halfway across my living room.

Our offense is in JELL-O® and oddly out of sorts.

I guess it’s because of all the new players the Spurs have. Oh wait. Nope that can’t be it.

Actually, I think it is because the team may have turned on the telly a bit too much.

For the last year or so, people have finally been talking about how good the Spurs are. Spurs fans have finally heard “they move the ball so well.” It seems to me the Spurs have heard this too and are now thinking, “Oh hey, people know we move the ball, so we have to move the ball.”

As a result, our team appears to be overthinking, over-passing and mucking up the offense. It throws the rhythm off, it throws the spacing off and it wrecks the team’s strongest asset… chemistry.

One thing which has been surprisingly good is the defense. Even in the loss, where Dwight Howard went bonkers, the Spurs only allowed 98 points, which is the first number I mentioned earlier.

Think about that. No Duncan, no Tiago and a half-blind Kawhi. No Manu. Still under 100. It was a blowout loss that was shorter than it should have been and the Spurs still showed life. Plus, they allowed only 92 to Atlanta, which is a bit much, a 100 point explosion of sorts to the Pelicans, and a mere 85 to a title contending Clippers team. Speaking of Kawhi…

I think the eye is ok. I mean, last night he matched his career high points against the Clippers with 26, our next number to consider. I know it was only one game, but he certainly seems to have dusted off the cobwebs. As bad as he was guarding James Harden, he was just as great guarding CP3.

Had Kawhi hit either of those game winners against the Pelicans, we wouldn’t be too concerned now, would we> If anything, I am more concerned about Kawhi’s increase in facial expressions. Did you see that stare down he gave Kyle Korver?

(Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)

In reality, the offense has been bad, but the D is still there, even though it’s still below par. It would be nice if the Spurs got the concept of “team defense” together, but we are honestly seeing some individual defensive plays strung together. That’s actually all that matters. The shots will fall and the defense will get better.

Other things I have noticed…

  • CoJo is playing like a guy who doesn’t want Patty Mills to take his spot when he comes back.
  • Baynes wants to play like that, but we can all agree that we never knew how much we missed Tiago until we noticed he was gone.
  • Bonner continues to be the scariest player who doesn’t have to make a shot.
  • Kyle Anderson is fun to watch as long as you don’t need instant production. Slo-Mo needs a 20-point lead or a 20-point deficit in order to be fully appreciated. He’s sooo slow.
  • No more Austin Daye. Please. No mas. Daye and Ayers for Zach Levine, please. No more.
  • Manu looks like he is 27 instead of 37. He’s still wildly erratic, but he doesn’t seem old and slow.
  • Danny Green sure is dribbling a lot more. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but he seems to be putting the ball on the floor a bit more.
  • Parker has yet to do anything spectacular. He’s been wildly consistent, meaning… he’s consistently average. Never absolutely terrible, but certainly not great. Certainly not an All-Star.
  • Pop’s beard makes me want to move to Montana, wrestle a bear and live in a log cabin. I hope November never ends.

This week, the Spurs have their West Coast swing: the Los Angeles Clippers last night (see Jeff’s recap), the Golden State Warriors tonight, who I regret saying will miss the playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Sacramento Kings.

I still think the Spurs will most likely beat Golden State and lose a game to one of the weaker California teams. But a tack on the 76ers Monday and a 5-game win streak before they face Cleveland next Wednesday would be very nice.

Finally, the last number I want to direct you to is the number 9. Nine years has come and gone since the launch of SpursDynasty.com. Well, we are chugging right along and we have even more to offer you.

Our podcast is how it all started and we are back to our roots. It may be the best 12 minutes of your day, so check out the SpursDynasty.com podcast every week and don’t be lame.

Week 1 in Review

November 4, 2014 /

Now that we’ve had a summer to gloat and boast about our team’s accomplishments in last year’s NBA finals, it’s time to pour some water on the fire and fuhgeddaboudit.

Opening week has come and gone and, if you’re at all like me, the summer of pride was not long enough, especially after this dud of an opening week.

Dud, not in the aspect of gaming, but just in the action. I couldn’t wait for game 1. I didn’t sleep a wink the night before. I re-watched game 1 of the NBA Finals last year and even the Championship Parade from last summer. I wore Spurs socks to work, carried my Spurs coffee mug around all day, and triple-checked my DVR to make sure the ring ceremony was being recorded.

Eric Gay/Associated Press

I watched the rings be handed out from the break room of my office and stayed a few minutes late at work to finish watching the first half of the game. The 22-minute drive home from work turned into 38, because some idiot on the 215 lost a mattress from the bed of his truck, just as Manu apparently started going bonkers in the second half.

Fortunately, after a final check of the DVR from my smartphone, I felt certain that I could watch the game later that evening. So I did. Twice. Back to back. And I felt good about it, too.

Then all the action seemed to fade.

For an opening week, it was pretty boring. Quite. A dud. With only two games amounting to an equal number of wins and losses, I found myself YouTubing old highlights and Spurs’ practices, looking for some sense of action.

But it wasn’t to be found.

If anything, the “action” we received was a lack thereof, referring of course to the stalemate between the front office and last year’s finals MVP. I think the boredom of all Spurs fans in general really sent that situation into an unnecessary frenzy.

Our Spurs had a great opening night, where they didn’t really play that well, but because our team has the chemistry it has, they were able to win against a Maverick team that has three new starters, one of the most dangerous shot blockers in the league, and Devon Harris… who apparently was built to destroy the Spurs.

By the way, heads up everyone: Dallas is pretty terrifying.

After such a night, when the Sprs were without Swaggy Mills, without Tiago Splitter and without the future of the franchise, Kawhi Leonard, the action seemed to die. Until it died so low, it created reaction.

Why didn’t the Spurs re-sign Kawhi?

(Getty Images/Chris Covatta)

As we are all asking ourselves this question, the Spurs went out and played like doo-doo butter and lost to Phoenix. Isaiah Thomas looks like he’s going to be a pretty good basketball player and that Suns team is freakishly athletic, freakishly young and freakishly freakish. They are probably a playoff team this year and they kind of embarrassed the defending champs a bit.

I know. I know. It’s early. But it’s also early saying we are better than this new Dallas team after beating them on opening day. So, same thing, right?

Anyways, back to the action, or lack thereof again. Jeff summarized the Kawhi situation quite impressively after Friday’s recap of the Suns game.

The thing to remember, without sounding like a know-it-all, is that there is a significant difference between Cap Space and Cap Holds. By not resigning Kawhi, the Spurs absorb a lot of risk that he could walk.

Here is a glance at projections for next summer and who has cap space. For instance, a savvy and quietly rising team like the Portland Trailblazers (who are one of two teams that will have more cap room at the end of this season based purely on total cap), could swoop in and snag him. But also remember, the Spurs are number three on that list. And because they drafted him, the Spurs can offer that fifth year that other teams can’t, which is important considering that we could (and we should) start having CBA discussions again in 2017. Derek Fisher and Billy Hunter didn’t do Kawhi any favors back in 2011. It’s no surprise that he would consider other options.

Regardless, it’s a long shot that Kawhi walks. What I am more concerned about is what this does to his mental state. But we can’t baby him. He is the finals MVP and he has to play like it now. He has to play with a contract talk over his head.

The other thing this can do that will help the Spurs is that it kind of allows Kawhi to set the market for himself. If he plays like doo-doo butter, then the market probably won’t call for such a high price. If he plays like an All-Star, then the Spurs will sign him to a max contract anyways. It’s genuinely a win-win, if Kawhi plays like he should.

The ultimate takeaway from this week is a whole lot of build up, but not much else. The Spurs had two raw games and didn’t extend their future guy. But everyone can relax and remember how we all held our breath when Tim Duncan took a trip to Orlando a couple decades… years… ago.

Let’s all back away from the ledge, switch to decaf, and remind ourselves that this is an 82-game season. As of now, l have a bold prediction for you of the 8 teams making the playoffs in the Western Conference, in order.

  1. Los Angeles Clippers
  2. San Antonio Spurs
  3. Portland Trailblazers
  4. Dallas Mavericks
  5. Phoenix Suns
  6. New Orleans Pelicans
  7. Houston Rockets
  8. Oklahoma City Thunder

Let’s focus on the Thunder potentially being the most dangerous 8th seed in NBA history, the Warriors missing the playoffs, and the arrival of Tony Parker’s 3 ball and stay positive.

Go Spurs Go.

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