with manu alone in both games, we probably lose by 30. he would never be able to score, playmake, defend, rebound, pass, as the first option getting double teamed 90% of the time. he's at best a 2.5 type option where he's not the clear 2nd option or 3rd. him and tony parker switch between both. i know you all are frustrated with tmac's playoff failures, but manu is a 30-32 min type of player. he could never be the #1 guy on a team. hell, he might not be the #2 guy on a team. if we can add manu and have him come off the bench, we would be great. but to replace him for tmac, that's a big no-no. if you don't think popovich would trade him for tmac, you're crazy.
the thing is, there's no option with SA. their option is whoever is open. they make team play, that's rhe recipe for nba ring. and they're on the right track again this year.
yes there's an option, everything is around tim duncan. he may not take as much shots as he did in his prime, but it revolves around him. he's usually used in pick and rolls so teams won't trap manu or tony on the perimeter (or not as much anyways). tony parker and manu switch between who playmakes the most depending on the matchups. but duncan is a guy they go to consistently regardless of matchups. there's a reason he has averaged 32 MINUTES IN THE PLAYOFFS. that's absurd for a guy who you would consider a potential player over tmac. 32 freakin' minutes??? let tmac play 32 minutes and we would look like a d-league team.
god no. Weird timing, since Manu wasn't great against the Suns the other night, and T-Mac was the only thing that kept us close against the Jazz. I mean really, how good do you think T-Mac would be if he had a guy who was capable of scoring 40pts against a frontline of Shaq and Amare AND had Tony Parker - probably the 4th best point guard in the NBA - to take pressure off him. Comparing the two is silly, because they play completely different roles. yeah, he had some great regular season games and he had a great lay-in to win the game, but the Spurs revolve around Tim Duncan - one of the greatest players to ever play the game - and Tony Parker. T-Mac is the creative force on our offense - and without Yao and Alston he has to do it every single possession. Can you imagine the nightmare if Manu was on the team last night instead of McGrady? You think the Jazz might pick up on the fact that he goes left, left, left when he drives? You think that without Tim Duncan and Tony Parker there the Jazz might bring over an extra defender or two to swat Manu's drives right back at him? Ginobli would be the perfect compliment to T-Mac, but he'd be a terrible replacement.
bingo. manu is a great COMPLEMENTARY player, but in no way is he a franchise player. you can game plan for manu so easily if you had to face him and ONLY him. he's very easy to defend with double teams if you want to double him. the problem is, he's not the guy you want to double on the spurs.
He also played in more games. On a per game basis, TMac only took about 1/2 a FT less per game than Manu this season, and last season TMac took almost 2 MORE FTs per game than Manu.
If we hypothetically swapped, we'd have an extra $10 mil per year to spend on another impact player. If we could get a $10mil PG or $10mil PF to go along with Manu, I'd think about it. Tracy's days of dominating to the level his salary indicates are long gone. On the other hand, he is missing his best player. Tough call.
Manu would be garbage as the #1 option on a team with no other offensive threats. It's a blessing for him to play alongside Duncan and Parker.
That's the key issue with Manu. You get more bang for the buck than with T-Mac. That $10 million could go a long ways towards picking up a veteran point guard.
Tracy's never won a playoff series on his own, why should he be expected to now with less talent and a tougher opponent? We wouldn't have a $10 million cap space until some of the contracts in the trade expired because you can trade an expireD contract, only expiring. So that means no matter what we'd have to wait until 09-10 AT LEAST to make use of that money. Salaries have to work in trades. So this is what you're looking at: Trying T-Mac for two more seasons, one of which would be *essentially* wasted if we traded for Manu once the season ended. You have to assume we have a healthy Yao because if we don't it doesn't matter whether we have Manu, Kobe, Lebron, or David Stern himself, we aren't getting out of the first round IF we make the playoffs. Yao + Manu + $10mil player sounds enticing, but it's an unlikely scenario. Almost no chance of happening.
you guys are talking about a straight up deal. i doubt if manu was the #1 option, he would only make 10 mil. he's on a team with duncan and parker. he knows he's not the best player so obviously he's being paid like it (and he's one of the guys who are paid for what they do, unlike some guys like marbury). but you can't think of it like that. manu knows he's the 2nd/3rd best on that team and accepts his pay if he wants to win. so if you trade tmac for manu, spurs would have to add 2-3 other players, which won't happen.
I don't think SA would ever part with Manu, so this is strictly a game of "what if". That said, Manu's a gem considering his salary. If Popovitch got bitten by a rabid weasel and went insane and offered to trade Manu for T-Mac I think the Rockets would pretty much have to pull the trigger. $10 million is a sizable chunk of cash to wheel and deal with. Don't forget that Bobby Jackson's contract is expiring next year too.
Yes, I agree that $10mil goes a long way but my point was that because of salary matching, the best you could hope for is getting that $10mil by the 09-10 season and not next season. Who do they have that can make up $10mil and is expiring next season? It's a highly unlikely scenario even if the teams wanted to make the trade is what I meant.
They could do a three way deal to get the salaries to match or they could get somebody else from the Spurs who's making $10 million. The point is that if it's Manu plus another decent player for T-Mac that's going to be an awfully hard deal to turn down. Especially if that other decent player is a point guard.
What to say if the trade is T-Mac-Yao-Rafer for Duncan-Parker-Ginobili? We got to be the Houston Spurs and they became San Antonio Rockets?
No. Mac did everything last night. Manu can score more efficiently but Mac has more all around skills.
So you're comparing Duncan to Scola/Landry/Hayes? And Parker to Alston/Jackson/Brooks? Riiiight. Add in Finley and Barry and who can create their own show to some degree as well. God damn. I don't know how you figure to compare these two teams. Bizarre.
