Getting blown out at home by a team with 4 starters out is just pathetic. That Nets team has no clue.

Some guy named Bryn Forbes is hitting 3s for SA.

Pop and Chip Engelland could turn me into a 40% corner 3 shooter.

Forbes made the team largely because of his shooting in summer league and then training camp.

Pretty good win tonight in Toronto. Kawhi and Simmons both sitting out in addition to TP and Pau. It wasn't pretty but it was a road win in the second half of a back to back against the second best team in the East.

Zach Lowe is a huge Aldridge fan:

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/18546871/zach-lowe-2017-nba-all-star-picks-east-west

Quote:

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LaMarcus Aldridge is their next-best candidate, and he's a victim of the annual Western Conference frontcourt bloodbath. If the Spurs had a borderline guard, I'd have slotted that player in

I even thought about cheating a bit, sliding Hayward into a guard spot, and finagling an extra frontcourt spot for Aldridge. You can argue that Hayward kinda, sorta plays "guard" in super-big lineups featuring the Hayward/Joe Ingles and Hayward/Joe Johnson combos on the wing, but that feels like a stretch given how rarely such groups play when Utah is at full health. (It also highlights how silly it is to distinguish between the wing positions for All-Star purposes.)

Aldridge has been on fire over the last month after another slow start, and he's an underrated, reliable defender. He just does the right stuff on almost every possession. He moves the ball, sets smart screens, shoots when he should and never coughs up the rock. He'd have better counting stats if the Spurs needed them.

He marks an interesting contrast with Gobert. The French Rejection could never approximate the load Aldridge carries for San Antonio's offense. Gobert has made a mega-leap, but he still looks clumsy with the ball now and then. He rarely shoots outside dunk range, and he's taken just 17 shots via post-ups all season, per Synergy Sports. Imagine what might happen to the Spurs' offense if Aldridge and Gobert flipped teams, and the Spurs actually asked Gobert create more. (Just kidding. The Spurs would be fine, because they are the Spurs.)

Gobert needs really good offensive players around him in order for his transcendent skills on the other end to flourish. Aldridge can do what he does anywhere.

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Interesting night. The Cavs lose at home in OT to the Kings and the Rockets lose on the road to the Celtics. The Warriors are also down by 4 on the road at Charlotte but still alot of time left while I'm typing. One can hope!

Terrible effort tonight. Kinda tired of watching Aldridge stand flat footed trying to tip rebounds to himself while opposing bigs go get the ball. Interior defense was terrible, rotations were late.

Ulrich said:

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Terrible effort tonight. Kinda tired of watching Aldridge stand flat footed trying to tip rebounds to himself while opposing bigs go get the ball. Interior defense was terrible, rotations were late.

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I blame Pop's bow tie.

Defense looked terrible and the offense (other than Bertans) couldn't buy a bucket. The struggles continue in NOLA.

Parker looked slow

This may be it

F Dallas

Parker clearly read this thread

But Dirk is flat out awful
What a shame to watch as he is a HOFer

Davis has replaced Mills as my favorite spur

Parker clearly read this thread

But Dirk is flat out awful
What a shame to watch as he is a HOFer

Davis has replaced Mills as my favorite spur

It would be nice if the Spurs could play like they cared for more than just the last two minutes of the game.

MookieBlaylock said:

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But Dirk is flat out awful
What a shame to watch as he a HOFer

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Lol

Spurs best offense yesterday was running Parker right at Nowitzki. He couldn't even get in the play, let alone contest the shot.

Nowitzki can still shoot, but defensively he's a shell of his already deficient self.

It's funny because who would expect a 38 year old who has played over 46k minutes and has no knees and who wasn't a great defender in his prime to be good now? And it's somehow a shame.

It's not funny or unexpected, just somewhat sad. Just like it was sad watching Tim Duncan on offense after his legs went.

But also not sad because f Dallas and Dirk. Seriously, that other guy's comment was more of a compliment than a slam in the context of a rival's thread.

Pop needs to cut his political bull**** out and focus on winning a damn championship

azulAg said:

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Pop needs to cut his political bull**** out and focus on winning a damn championship

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Again with this stupidity? You think he is ignoring the team to focus on politics?

We just need LMA to start making some damn shots.

Don't always agree with Pop, but to say that he needs to stfu is ridiculous. I bet if he was coming out and glowing over Trump's policies you would not be complaining.

Folks need to understand it's ok for people to have different opinions.

Enzo The Baker said:

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It would be nice if the Spurs could play like they cared for more than just the last two minutes of the game.

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I think this is normal for this time of the year; take a look at the standings.

Besides the Warriors, the teams who have been in the playoffs the last couple years all seem to be in that 4-6 to 6-4 range over their last 10 games. The (near) playoff teams who haven't are teams like the Wizards, Jazz, and Nuggets who haven't been in the playoffs, and are young & fighting to get in.

I think that's true for the most part. But what's a little worrisome as a Spurs fan is that so far, they have really only put together two complete games (the first game of the year against GSW and a home game against Toronto). They've been extremely inconsistent this year and have squeaked out more games than I can remember.

The Spurs do have the second highest point differential in the league at +8.1 on average. For comparison the top 5 are:

GSW +13.2
SAS +8.1
HOU +5.8
TOR +5.0
CLE +4.9

I wouldn't necessarily say we are struggling to put teams away.

Malcolm52 said:

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Don't always agree with Pop, but to say that he needs to stfu is ridiculous. I bet if he was coming out and glowing over Trump's policies you would not be complaining.

Folks need to understand it's ok for people to have different opinions.

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no i hate politics in my sports even if it does support my point of view

This post made me curious how we've actually been doing this season compared to the last 4 seasons.

Here is how the Spurs have done through 47 games from 2012 to this season.



The one thing I notice is that we killed teams a lot more last year than this year, but last year was more of the anomaly than this year.

For reference:
1 Possession = 1-3pts
2 Possessions = 4-6pts
3 Possessions = 6-9pts
4+ = 10+pts

Data is from basketball-reference.com.

Yeah people have very short memories. Last year was an anomaly because the bench was destroying the league. I don't think anyone everaged more than 30 minutes a game. This team might actually be built better for the playoffs.

Honestly, every spoiled Spurs fan should make it a point to watch one random NBA game every couple of weeks. Not Cleveland or GSW. Watch a Nuggets vs. Hornets game. It's freaking brutal to watch most teams.

Ag Natural said:

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Yeah people have very short memories. Last year was an anomaly because the bench was destroying the league. I don't think anyone everaged more than 30 minutes a game. This team might actually be built better for the playoffs.

Honestly, every spoiled Spurs fan should make it a point to watch one random NBA game every couple of weeks. Not Cleveland or GSW. Watch a Nuggets vs. Hornets game. It's freaking brutal to watch most teams.

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Definitely agree with your latter point. I watched one half of LA vs Portland the other day and it looked like summer league. Really sloppy, dumb play by both teams.

On the former, I'm not so sure. It's a pick and roll league and this year they are much worse at guarding the pnr. I don't have advanced stats to prove it, but my eyeballs say that pretty much any combination of defenders can't defend it because the weak side awareness and recovery just isn't there. The play is so developed by the time the help notices that even when they get there to challenge the layup someone has cut to the gap or filled the corner for an easy assist.

Really hoping Gasol will figure it out after the all star break. The spurs have tried having the guard jump over the screen aggressively while the big plays back. It's burned them a few times when both players got caught on one side of a screen, but maybe there's something there to make up for Gasol's slow feet.

It's still an adjustment to make up for the weak side bigs not doing their work early, so that part has to change. The ball handler coming off the screen HAS to see a rim protector already closing off the lane.

My assessment is based more in the offense and the team makeup. Thought they hit a wall last yeAR in the playoffs partly because of the physicality of OKC and partly because the starters hadn't grown accustomed to playing big minutes. I think thats why Kawhai and aldridge started the series strong and tailed off.

This year Kawhi is ready to play big minutes. Aldridge now has Pau, Dedmon and Lee to help him. And the PG rotation with Mills and Parker is solid. They need everyone healthy but I like their chances better than I thought when the season started.

Based on the same data, here is how the Spurs' offense and defense is trending. The offense has been getting consistently better, but over the last 15-20 games the defense has fallen off a cliff.

I really thought the defense would improve without Gasol, but that really hasn't happened.



Used 10 game rolling average to smooth the data.

Another blown double digit lead.

Second half Spurs suck right now.

Holy sheet that play by Kawhi was crazy.

StillNotAnAggie said:

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Holy sheet that play by Kawhi was crazy.

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He's no George Hill, but he'll do.