Entries Tagged as 'Richard Jefferson'

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Standing still, Richard Jefferson struggles

With apologies to Manu Ginobili, when the Spurs acquired Richard Jefferson fans were expecting more than a (sometimes solid) bench player. Starting alongside Duncan and Parker, Jefferson was suppose to help move the Spurs to the top of the standings.
The only movement Jefferson has seen so far this season, however, is his name up and [...]

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

San Antonio Spurs 95, Cleveland Cavaliers 97

The unstated position of my Dime piece is straightforward: the Spurs’ defense is failing.
“Defensive transition was really poor in the first half. I thought we did a horrible job with that and we gave away 8, 10, 12 points just because they ran it right down our throat and our transition was God-awful. That was [...]

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

Best Bets Without Parker

Wayne Winston, who achieved celebrity status at Dorkapalooza 2010, emailed this morning to say the Spurs should be fine without Parker, at least over the balance of the season. Obviously, they’ll need Parker in order to compete in postseason play.
The APM answer to Tony Parker’s injury, at least in the short term, is to mitigate [...]

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

San Antonio Spurs 102, Memphis Grizzlies 92

The Spurs were able to down the Grizzlies in a steady but unspectacular performance last night. The game continues an encouraging uptick from the Spurs, but this one will be remembered as the game in which Tony Parker fractured the fourth metacarpal in his right hand.

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Notes from Wayne Winston, part 4

One of the most fascinating aspects of Wayne Winston’s work is the ability of adjusted plus/minus to, in the words of Gregg Popovich, “indicate trends.” My conversations with Wayne Winston have mostly operated at the level of 5-man units. But last night he sent me an email that’s worth posting because of its focus on [...]

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

Phoenix Suns 110, San Antonio Spurs 113

San Antonio began the fourth quarter of this afternoon’s game against Phoenix with a three point lead. Over the next 12 minutes, the Spurs did not make too many defensive stops; Amare Stoudemire, Steve Nash, and Jason Richardson all scored with ease. Luckily the Suns aren’t exactly known for their lockdown defense either, and the [...]

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Notes from Wayne Winston, part 2

Recently, 48MoH has discussed the struggles of San Antonio’s interior defense.  Please see The Roots of Defensive Decline and The Root of All Defensive Evil for discussion of these points.  But a struggling interior defense is often an indication of a prior breakdown on the perimeter, which seems to be the case with San Antonio this season, Manu Ginobili’s [...]

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

Philadelphia 76ers 106, San Antonio Spurs 94

When a team is playing well, it typically moves from lesser to greater certainty as the season progresses. All the big questions that lead the season find a satisfactory resolution in a sharp player rotation, efficient scoring, and a defense that can, at least, get the necessary stops that winning requires. Those things come together, [...]

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Repercussions: When Good GMs Do Nothing

Throughout the Tim Duncan era the Spurs have operated on a certain stonecutters credo. Ironically, they now operate between a rock and a hard place. With a broken chisel.
The rock? Richard Jefferson’s burdensome contract. The hard place? The NBA Salary Cap. In the short term, there will be those who are disappointed that the Spurs [...]

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Notes from Wayne Winston, part 1

Wayne Winston, who served as a statistical consultant to the Dallas Mavericks for the last nine years, and is the author of Mathletics, was kind enough to explore a handful of Spurs-related questions with me. Over the next few days I’ll put up a series of short posts detailing the more salient moments of our [...]

Monday, February 15th, 2010

Spurs Face Expiring Time and Contracts

Leaving the All-Star weekend, perhaps no theme encapsulated the Spurs more perfectly nor enemy loomed so big–well, maybe the Laker’s frontline–as time.
And not just time, as in the amount of time left in their stars’ careers, but timing. Timing is everything.

Friday, February 12th, 2010

The Roots of Defensive Decline

If you wrote a book about this season, which story lines would play most prominently in your retelling of the story. The decline of Spurs’ defense? The slight but unmistakable devolution of Manu Ginobili’s game? Tony Parker’s game-weary legs? The promise of DeJuan Blair and George Hill? Tim Duncan’s squandered brilliance? The emergence of small-ball [...]

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Closing One Window, Cracking Open Another

Last week we ran a series of features exploring three options for the Spurs: Make no move; make a minor roster move; and make a major roster move. There was supposed to be one more- a post arguing that we should make moves focused on future seasons- that for various reasons was never published. After [...]

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

The Science Was Sound

I’d argue that the science was sound. Three past-their-prime vets for a dynamic wing. In a vacuum, you make that move every time. It was a good move. Kudos to R.C. Buford.

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Sacramento Kings 113, San Antonio Spurs 115

The Spurs prevailed in their first game on the Rodeo Road Trip in a contest that wasn’t quite as close as the final score makes it seem. And again the Spurs are able to beat a team with a record below .500.
It’s important for this team to start the trip with a win. Tonight the [...]