before this week i always felt Head just one of the roll player, ordinary part of a rotation. after the game he missed, i realized Head has become a very reliable force off the bench, and is getting closer to Stackhouse/Barbosa/Ginobli's(their 6th mans) caliber, maybe not there, but pretty close, in terms of providing instant scoring off the bench. which gives me confidence about Rox's playoff chance for having a reliable offensively talented 6th man. in order to go further in playoff, we need Head to have a great playoff performance, have a scoring burst coming off the bench when starters get cold. Head's performance is the key for ROx to close the gap between Mav/Sun/Spurs. and with all the hype and attention Bonzi gets, i think Luther is already a lot better than him. so for those who have high expectation for bonzi, give that up. cuz luther is our real 6th man.
i agree that head is our primary offensive punch off the bench, much like stack/barb/gino however, head, unlike the former three, cannot really create his own shot off the dribble and he cannot break down defenses like the former three, limiting his ability to soley feeding off of Mac and Yao Im not saying that is bad, persay, but it just means that he is not yet of the same league as those 6th men (isn't Ginobili mainly a starter once he playoffs roll around?)
Luther has been hot offensively. But he's been getting torched on defense regularly. And he doesn't handle well. That's the tradeoff. Snyder and Bonzi both looked really bad out there tonight. I wonder if JVG is going to continue to go to them these remaining games.
I agree. Bonzi is a style of player that doesn't fit our team. He's good to have out there to keep one of the defensive players away from Tmac/Yao. I think Bonzi can be good, he just needs some better players on the court with him. Double team Bonzi and you get a steal or a traveling call. Easy to defend him when Tmac and Yao isnt out there. As for Luther.... he is the MAN right now. Sad thing is, he is a shooter. Not a scorer. When his shot is off, he doesnt bring much besides a pass to the open 3 point shooter. Hes not good at passing on the dribble. When hes hot, MILK it, when hes not, live with it.
what head lacks, which the others have, is consistency. I think that will come with more experience and a more defined role.
I'm loving what Luther is bringing at the moment, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Luther has much more apparent deficiencies in his game than any of those players...maybe even all of them combined. Plus none of them are undersized for their position.
Luther is an ok player, but I would rather have all 3 of the guys you mentioned that he is better than. My rankings. 1. Ginobli 2. Barbosa 3. Stackhouse 4. Head DD
Good point. Still, it does seem like he's done a better job in the last few games creating shots for himself (especially 3s).
Luther has been on fire since returning. He made the game against the Warriors close pretty much single-handedly. His back-to-back threes are what won the game tonight against the Kings. He's been huge. My only concern is that he has a tendency along with Shane to disappear on the offensive end against the Mavs, and I think we'll be seeing them soon.
Ginobili's not really a 6th man...just that Poppo likes to throw him there when he's pissed at Manu. Usually the Spurs's 6th man is Brent Barry and Luther is better then him IMO. And Head is on par with Stackhouse at this point. And Head is below Barbosa. 6th manwise, if Luther works on his ball handling over the offseason just like he did with his shooting, we could be in for one hell of a ride. Someone should correct his shooting stroke though, if that's at all possible...it goes in but its so...wacky. Just me being picky but still. Wacky.
The last 2 games have been great but he isn't there yet. Physically, Luther is very limited, much more than those guys. In addition to becoming even more of a deadeye 3 point shooter, if he does ONE of these 3 things for next season I will be happy: 1 Develop serviceable PG skills so he can play serious minutes at the position. 2 Learn how to score off the dribble instead of being just a spot up jump shooter. 3 Become a bulldog on defense who makes dribbling a major task for his opponent.
you gotta be smoking something.. what is it?? a couple of misses from him today and you'd be singing a different tune.. but i will admit, he looks more assertive out there and decisive with his actions.
