Could anyone imagine how disgruntled Kyle Lowry would have been on the Spurs. 1. The Spurs openly and in the media tried to trade Tony Parker away for Jason Kidd. There was no attempt to hide or keep it out of the media. 2. Greg Popovich treats his Point Guards like Bill Parcells treats his Quarterbacks. Last night during a great performance by Tony Parker, Pops was cusing his butt out on the sidelines for not passing more. This is nothing new,Pops has been doing this to Parker since year one. Replace Parker with Lowry and I can only assume you would have had a lot of whinning about wanting to be traded. I clearly don't think Kyle could exist playing for Popovich.
My thoughts as well. For some reason I was led to believe that Finch was brought in to continue running the same system since he had allegedly been running it at RGV. Carl Herrera made a good point about our offense. The same point that I made midseason in trying to prove that this was a worse team than last year's. That being that without Chuck Hayes we had no high-post passer to execute Adelman's offense. I still believe that this team would have been a better team with Chuck Hayes on the roster and starting for us because of all the little things he did facilitating our offense. What we needed was to add a skilled two-way big man with length to play alongside Chuck. But instead we lost Chuck and got Dally. That was a loser from day 1, I don't care how many of you guys were raving about getting an athletic 7-footer to finally start and block shots. That was a very lousy transaction for us, Hayes for Dally. But irregardless of that, we still had Patrick and Scola who knew the system and both guys are capable of being high post passers. But they needed experience and time working in the high post. And we had the whole season to be running through the high post to improve their passing skills. But it seemed to me we never ran through the high post. We ran pick and pops for low percentage 18-20 foot jumpers from Scola and Pat. Very seldom did you see a cutter and very seldom did you see a pass from that position into the paint. They either took the jump shot or they passed it back to the perimeter to run another pick and pop. Did I say pick and pop is a stupid play? If I didn't, let me say it now. Unless the picker is trotting out to the 3-point line to take a 40% 3-pointer, the pick and pop is a stupid play. It is less than a 50% shot, the odds of getting fouled on that shot are very low, it perfectly sets up the defense to get the board and run out and the spacing to execute the rest of the offense is very compressed when your bigs can only go out 17-20 feet. I hate that play. If you want to go to the lottery, base your offense on the pick and pop with big men that shoot about 40-45% out there taking 2-point jumpers and run that play more than you run anything else. Did I say I hate the pick and pop? At this point, I am not for or against McHale. Personally I like the guy. But you can tell he's old school just from his comments. "Hey, we're playing basketball, it's just 5 guys out here." etc. McHale believes (and I agree with this) that you put the best 5 guys out there and they should be able to execute everything to adjust to what any defense will do to you. McHale believes like Adelman in that regard. But he doesn't implement like Adelman does. He does not pay attention to detail like Adelman does. Look, he played on those Celtic teams. Those guys go in the huddle, they're talking to K.C. Jones, telling him what the defense is doing to them, each of them sensing their matchup, and they would go out and make plays. Not to mention, McHale played with undoubtedly the best passing big man ever (Bird). So, all McHale had to do was post up, space out on the weak side, and move to the open spot when a drive to the basket was made. Now, he was a highly skilled post man, one of the most highly skilled post player ever with the length to go with all his moves. But really, McHale spent his whole playing career playing with a bunch of hall-of-famers on championship teams. When you are playing with that kind of talent, the game can be VERY SIMPLE. Because somebody always has a mismatch. So, what I see in McHale's coaching is this generalization that I believe comes from his playing days. Hey, if a player isn't getting it done, if he's missing shots or missing his defensive assignment, bench his booty and run out somebody else. Because they could do that on the Celtics. They had that kind of talent. But on this team, there is not that kind of talent. Players skillsets are limited. They may be great at shooting and cutting and terrible defenders (Kevin Martin). So, the lineup really needs to be mixed and matched to account for their weaknesses and to allow their strengths to shine. Adelman was an expert technician and chemistry engineer. He knew how to get those parts to working together and produce more together than they do just running out "5 guys and a basketball". McHale benches guys because they aren't playing good (Martin). Adelman benches guys because they aren't playing within the system (McGrady). Let's just go back and hit rewind for a minute. If we keep Adelman and his system last offseason, and bring in Pau through trade and re-sign Hayes. Don't even sign Nene. Just bring in Pau and re-sign Hayes. That deal was on the table and got scuttled. But if we had done that, we would have been a much improved team over the 2011 team that wound up 14 in the lottery. That move by itself, combined with the continuity of Adelman's system propels us to top 4 in the West. Maybe not good enough to win it all but very good nontheless and all of a sudden a destination for free agents that want to win a ring. Defensively, it appears to have been a wash. Sampson's defensive reputation precedes him. I'm convinced he's a very good defensive coach. But realistically, you can only coach up guys like Dally and Scola defensively so much. Dally is just not mentally capable and Scola is not physically capable. Very limited capacity when you combine the two. And with Patterson basically being dinged and coming back from injury the whole season we didn't have much else defensively until Camby got here. So, I'm okay with the direction of the defense. I am wondering about the direction of our offense and as I watch the beautiful ball movement of our neighbor down I-10, I can't help but be a little jealous and wonder what could have been if we had at least retained Adelman's offense.
It's kind of mystifying how Morey is only so-so on 1st-round picks, but he is a wizard in the 2nd round.
I don't blame Kyle for wanting to move on, when you are unhappy its understandable. This issue however should be kept behind closed doors. Its becoming very common now for players to talk to the media to let everyone know they are demanding a trade. Previous posts talk about Popovich being rough with his players, Tony Parker was been offered around the league and did not get traded. Parker did not want to leave the Spurs at all, he was happy there. There certain coaches like Popovich and Sloan who will go after players when they make mistakes but they do this to all their players so its a part of the team culture. With a new coach some players are bound to be unhappy because a new coach will foster a new culture, different plays and different rotations. The man who has to resolve this issue is the GM. Git er done Morey.
Pops has a track record. For better or worse . . when a Championship coach screams at you it means more than if a non championship coach does Rocket River IJS
The question always comes back to . . . Why is ok for the Company/Team to cry to the media all the time but not ok for the players to do the same? Rocket River
Actually, teams tend not to cry to the media about individual players. Lowers their trade value. They like to keep things behind close doors and tend to say "we struggled rebounding the ball" "we didn't move the ball" and never "Kyle sucked!" or "Goran lost us the game."
Point taken. Or - - would we see a different Lowry or other. Our man is not unique. Look at 1s who succeed here (wherever 'here' is, fail there. Felton, Dre Miller, Bobby Jax, Jeremy LinSanity for goodness sakes. D-Will is maybe the best 1 out there - - after his Jersey time? Shore not. C'mon, Lowry might not be a candidate for the Pop program but he's been good for ours. I am sorry he's about to ta-ta (but I'll be happy with what he brings back!).
