tony parker is a one man show..doesn’t know how to involve his teammates!..doesn’t know how to make them better!

“How dare guys suggest Tony come off the bench in favor of Tony parker “
The top argument given by who those who find Tonys benching ludicrous is that he’s “A top five point guard”.
I don’t see how benching tony necessarily means that George is thought of as in the same class as Parker. Is George Mason or Michael Finley APPROACHING the class that Manu Ginobili is in?

I don’t see why this should be thought of as such an insane suggestion when most other teams have an offensive punch coming off of the bench, rather than the luxury of a Swiss army knife like Ginobili.

Besides, Tony would still be seeing starter’s minutes and be on the floor for most of the crunch time minutes (sound like another all world talent on the Spurs?)

Clearly Manu is a better passer than Tony and would be better suited to distribute the Ball to Tim RJ and Hill.

Wouldn’t the following scenario encourage Tony? “Tony, the lanes will be open because Timmy and Dice are not going to be in the game. Drive to the hoop like a madman and occasionally dish the ball to the open man” …isn’t this what Tony already does? He may even be more productive off of the bench with the knowledge that the lane won’t be as clogged.

The belief that maybe Tony should come off the bench doesn’t make me less of a fan.

Last but not least, we all know that Pop would probably try bringing RJ off the bench before he did Tony, and who knows, that scenario may work very well.

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No. I’ve seen Parker make as many non-assist passes and hockey assist passes as any point guard in the NBA. I’ll concede on occassion he can be caught over driblling, but it’s not a very frequent habit.

I think Hollinger sums it up best in this season’s scouting report on Parker in that he keeps his passes simple (i.e. kickouts on drives and swinging it around the perimeter). He can hit cutters on some P&R when the passing lanes are open but he doesn’t wrap behind the back passes through three defenders. Nor does he thread a bounce pass the length of the floor while running full speed. That’s what seperates Chris Paul from Parker. That’s what Manu Ginobili does. But in the case of Manu, his passes do lead to turnovers too.

If you want to see if you have a dominant ball hog on your team don’t look at individual assists. Look at team assists per game (Spurs were above average last year), factor in pace (Spurs were among the slowest teams in the league…less possessions) and look at percentage of baskets assisted. In rare cases where these are down for a successful team, check team field goal percentage. Again I want to stress an offense’s true goal is not to have everyone fit a specific role according to their position. It’s to generate the most efficient shot. The Spurs (and Tony Parker do that).

And I still think the Hill is better than Parker crowd should step away from the crack pipe. Slowly, and thank you.

one of the things [a geek like me] takes the most pride in as a spurs fan, is our managment’s flexibility with the cap and our personnel. okafor kills it. in every which way (and i like okafor’s game and as a person, not just because he’s a fellow texan and child of immigrants). if he could be had more cheaply and for a shorter contract length, then i’m all for it, but since we live in the real world, no. camby would be a far better solution, and i’m not sold on him either.

let the guys do their business, and then if the sky is falling during the second half of the season, make adjustments, not 8 games in.

in prevailing to the more level headed amongst us, i think jesse makes the strongest points. i agree that those torching tony to praise george are downright nuts, as well as denigrating the work both have done to become the players they are. tony’s assist numbers are where they’re at because that is what pop and the system ask of him. calling him a shoot first point guard is misguided. comparing him to allen iverson (for shame! a man of his ilk?) is also fallacious, as the past year and change have revealed iverson to the world to be the cancer and one-man show most of us close observers already knew. tony is not such a person, and any spurs fan would and should know it.

look, when it all comes down to it, the lakers are the gateway to the finals. what gives the lakers the most problems? it’s not post play, but the blazing speed and quickness of guards like aaron brooks and tony parker that give them problems. is tony a defensive liability? hardly, and especially not against the likes of fisher. i think tim’s suggestion of ending games with hill NEXT to parker is spot on. if it’s against the lakers, a lineup might look something like: tp, gh, manu, mcd, timmy. but honestly, i wouldn’t mind putting in jefferson for dice. sure, we go small, but that didn’t seem to stope houston from taking the lakers to game 7. jefferson is a decent rebounder for his size, and if he’ll work his tail off at the end of a game, i don’t see why his size should be an issue.

I respect your opinion as far as Parker is concerned, but the fact of the matter is there is a such thing as a pure point guard we’ve seen them before, and assist tells more about the true IQ of a player then any other stat. A pure point guard understands personnel, game situation, and when to shoot and when to pass…I think some of the bloggers think I hate Tony, they couldn’t be more wrong, I see greatness in his ability. I would like to see him trust his teammates more.

8 games into the season and George Hill, who has less minutes in the NBA than Parker does playoff minutes, is a better option to finish the game with than Tony Parker?!

I’m surprised that you guys haven’t started calling for Popovich to be fired yet…

Parker has got a ton of talent. I don’t think he should be benched, but that I said, I do get frustrated with him sometimes. I feel he should be better at getting everyone else involved.

Next game (when he’s on the floor), don’t look at Parker. Instead, try to follow the 4 other Spurs on the court.

Look for the following:

1) Is everyone else just standing there? Are they just waiting for either Parker to take a shot, or are they simply clearing the floor to TD to get the ball down low.
2) Are they working hard to get loose and curl off screens? If they are open, do they get the ball passed to them at the right time — when the defender is a step behind?
3) Are they NOT working hard to get open? Maybe Parker has overlooked them a couple of times and they might be half-assing instead of cutting hard to the open spot.
4) Look at the shot clock – how much time has the ball been in TP’s hands?
5) How many touches do the four other guys get per possession?

Just take a look at judge for yourself.

On a side note, I like what Jesse has to say about 3 point shooting. However, I disagree with his conclusion. He says, “If the team hits then Duncan or Tony usually shoot something like 11-16, because you can’t guard them one on one. When ALL of our shooters are cold, you get games like the other night and a whole bunch of you making stupid decisions like benching or trading Tony Parker.”

TP and TD will definitely go nuts if guys are hitting 3’s. But hitting 3’s is not simply a matter of luck. I think that cold shooting is DIRECTLY related to a lack of ball movement. Something that Parker himself may be responsible for.
It’s hard for our shooters to find a rhythm if they haven’t touched the ball in 4 trips up the floor, or if they are asked to bail out the team with a 3 point chuck with 2 seconds left on the shot clock (and a hand in their face).

Anyway, like I said…watch the 4 other guys in silver and black.

I don’t think it should be called trashing Parker more as to pointing the obvious, it is hard to go one on one in the NBA, specially with the big front courts we are up against. Pick and rolls are important and assist do provide and show good ball movement and I don’t think is an overrated stat. We have a lot of offensive weapons this year and we need Parker to be a facilitator, why is that so hard to understand. If Parker will be scoring most of the time, then whats the point of having Jefferson and the guys we just got, we could have stayed the same, I know they also are good defensively, but I still think we need a good distributor and I hope the Parker/Hill combination can provide that need.

please, guys, cleveland is not trading lebron for anybody. lets keep the conversation realistic.

there is no REALISTIC trade out there that would benefit us more than it costs us. give the guys some time- if parker and timmy hadnt gotten hurt, now is about the time i would expect to see everyone gelling. their injuries set us back about a week though. i’d say give it through the end of the month before we start getting anywhere near the panic button.

On the Parker criticism, i DO think he is one of the top 5 pg’s in the league. I DO NOT think he is a ball hog, nor do i think he hurts our offense more than he helps it. I’ve got to agree with Jesse. Most of you are using assists per game as your primary stat, and much of that is out of Tony’s hands. He makes good passes, but when other’s shots arent falling, how is he supposed to get assists?

He should be a better defender than he is though. When it comes down to it, i’m not sure if we would notice a dropoff. Allowed points vs what tony makes, then looking at what George allows vs what he would make. George is quick on the dribble too, and he is improving. Honestly, i think he could end up being one of the most underrated players in the league when all is said and done. He wont have enough flash to ever get to an all star game, but he is going to be damn good, starter quality pg/shooting guard material.

Bottom line, though, is RJ needs to stop deferring and start attacking. If he does that, and Tony keeps doing it, and Manu keeps doing it, eventually everything is going to open up.