Player The Methodical Meritocracy of Maestro Mitch Johnson and his Many Minions

[scott]

People want to just throw CB to the wolves and assume his current performance will just scale. Thankfully Mitch is an adult who isn’t going to simply turn over a major part of our rotation to a rookie while we are in the middle of a title chase. Things are progressing exactly how they should.

 

[LeBowen]

This isn't a perfect analysis because its not over the same time period since HB hasn't played much in March, but if we look at his Feb game logs, he has an average game score of 8.18. CB in his 8 games in March, where we all acknowledge he's been better, has only gotten above that mark 3 times and and his average is 5.1. Part of this is a minutes mismatch as CB has averaged 15 in March and HB averaged 22 in Feb but even with that they're pretty much the same. Game Score isn't a great metric, but it allows us to compare the two against each other since both were playing reserve roles in these months.

I want CB playing more as the year goes on and I hope he's a meaningful contributor. He's got way more potential and his ceiling is much higher. But just understand that he is NOT there yet.

Now check Champ's game score and how much better we got after the Fox/Castle/Devin/Champ/Wemby starting lineup was introduced.

 

[MannyIG]

Now check Champ's game score and how much better we got after the Fox/Castle/Devin/Champ/Wemby starting lineup was introduced.

Whats the relevance here? I'm not arguing HB should play more. I'm not arguing he should start. I'm not pulling stats from when HB was a starter. He wasn't playing with the starters in the games I used which is why I used them.

The move of HB to the bench was clearly the right move and there's statistical evidence for that decision and after that decision. You should be able to provide the same for CB over HB if the case is the same.

 

[LeBowen]

Whats the relevance here? I'm not arguing HB should play more. I'm not arguing he should start. I'm not pulling stats from when HB was a starter. He wasn't playing with the starters in the games I used which is why I used them.

The move of HB to the bench was clearly the right move and there's statistical evidence for that decision and after that decision. You should be able to provide the same for CB over HB if the case is the same.

The argument is that Barnes wasn't missed whatsoever while he was injured and that he doesn't deserve more than ~10 guaranteed minutes.

 

[Paramore]

 

[Paramore]

 

[spursistan]

You can't play without bigs in this league. I'm not going to blame Mitch too much here. But if Wemby wanted to play he could have pushed for it knowing how hazardous our big situation especially with Jokic slated to play and no Kornet confirmed early on. Sometimes your best player has to make that call.

 

[Dbreiden83080]

You can't play without bigs in this league. I'm not going to blame Mitch too much here. But if Wemby wanted to play he could have pushed for it knowing how hazardous our big situation especially with Jokic slated to play and no Kornet confirmed early on. Sometimes your best player has to make that call.

He didn’t need to risk getting his rib all jacked up in this last game of the season. I was fully on board with him not playing.

 

[spursistan]

He didn’t need to risk getting his rib all jacked up in this last game of the season. I was fully on board with him not playing.

Not everyone is a maniac like Kobe or Jordan. I'm not saying that he should be, but he could have played but opted not to according to Mitch..

 

[spursistan]

Why are Spurs fans laying into Mitch for not playing Wemby? he was never going force him to do it if he didn't push for it. That's just the unspoken rule for these type of situations. A player has to badger the coach to play and twice against Denver Wemby has opted to be a late scratch..

 

[Fabbs]

Force feeding Harry Barnes was super lame.
The offense seemed clueless for much of the game.

Not calling a challenge when Plumlee swatted the ball away. Huge momentum changer. Went from 6 point game into the shitter.

 

[spursistan]

Force feeding Harry Barnes was super lame.
The offense seemed clueless for much of the game.

Not calling a challenge when Plumlee swatted the ball away. Huge momentum changer. Went from 6 point game into the shitter.

I'm starting to get sick of all the corny stuff this team has started doing (headbands, meaningless scoring benchmarks and other inanities). We are the fuckin' Spurs and we are here to win Championships...

 

[dn0774]

If Wemby wasn’t playing we should’ve punted completely. Got cute, showed we cared and lost anyway. If mental edge is a thing the Nuggets just took it from us.

 

[dn0774]

I'm starting to get sick of all the corny stuff this team has started doing (headbands, meaningless scoring benchmarks and other inanities). We are the fuckin' Spurs and we are here to win Championships...

Putting guys back in for a rebound for a triple double in a blowout. Couldn’t help but my roll my eyes at that one.

 

[Quentin_Compson]

I'm absolutely fine with Wemby not playing, but in my opinion, this loss is mostly on Mitch for playing a lot of small ball. These small line-ups are just terrible defensively, no rim protection, not enough rebounding, and they lack offensive firepower to make up for the defensive issues.

 

[Raven_]

Why are Spurs fans laying into Mitch for not playing Wemby? he was never going force him to do it if he didn't push for it. That's just the unspoken rule for these type of situations. A player has to badger the coach to play and twice against Denver Wemby has opted to be a late scratch..

we could have done it different; either punt the dallas game f their tank or just win without playing wemby, then beat denver with wemby or just outright don't play our top 7 guys at all. we got the worst of both options

 

[Fireball]

I'm starting to get sick of all the corny stuff this team has started doing (headbands, meaningless scoring benchmarks and other inanities). We are the fuckin' Spurs and we are here to win Championships...

yeah Dylan probably hurt his thumb when trying to get the headband back off ... I hate these things

 

[STAT88]

Should have rested Wemby against Dallas and played him against Denver for his game 65.

Seemed obvious at the time. A few people said as much before the Dallas game, including myself.

Maybe they were stat chasing and Wemby wanted the 40 to get the average up to 25.

Who knows.

 

[Quentin_Compson]

Should have rested Wemby against Dallas and played him against Denver for his game 65.

Seemed obvious at the time. A few people said as much before the Dallas game, including myself.

Maybe they were stat chasing and Wemby wanted the 40 to get the average up to 25.

Who knows.

I think they just wanted to make sure that Wemby gets to 65 games without having to rely on the last game to reach that threshold. And I can understand that line of thinking. Also, as you said, the Dallas game was a good opportunity for Wemby to stat pad a little.

 

[Ice009]

If Wemby wasn’t playing we should’ve punted completely. Got cute, showed we cared and lost anyway. If mental edge is a thing the Nuggets just took it from us.

Unfortunately, I agree with this. I think if there's any mental edge gained, Denver may have got one.

Putting guys back in for a rebound for a triple double in a blowout. Couldn’t help but my roll my eyes at that one.

Personally, none of that is my thing. I'd be hard pressed to wear a headband, but if it was a teamwide thing, I'd try to do it for unity, but if it affected my game, I'd chuck it.

 

[spursparker9]

Should have rested Wemby against Dallas and played him against Denver for his game 65.

Seemed obvious at the time. A few people said as much before the Dallas game, including myself.

Maybe they were stat chasing and Wemby wanted the 40 to get the average up to 25.

Who knows.

The average 25 pts is totally pointless as it has no impact for his MVP race and SGA is winning for sure

 

[ginobilized]

It was hard to tell what the Spurs game plan was on game 82. Was it a stealth planned loss? Were we trying to win a basketball game against two behemoths with Plumlee and Biyombo at center? Why not punt the whole thing? Instead, we allowed the Nuggets to increase their psychological edge. The other side of it I see from a coaches perspective, we have no reason to be cocky in our prep for PHX/POR in the next week.

Sean Sweeney looked pretty frustrated last night as our defense was reminiscent of early last season and pre-Wemby times. Our D is the key!

I hope we start over with our back-up bigs this summer. Mara could be a nice player just for practice to give Wemby some challenges and vice versa. Playing against Wemby everyday would be a great way to progress unless Mara thinks he's already deserving of a bigger role. His passing and defense would allow us to play the same sets with him as we do with Wemby, similar to how Denver uses Valanciunas as Jokic Jr.

 

[SpurSpike]

I don't think this game gave Nuggets a phycological edge. If anything it kinda phycs them out into thinking they can beat us. We had almost zero interior defense against a team with great interior offense, a loss was almost expected. Nuggets cannot take anything from this game and apply it to the playoffs. If they think they can score inside at will now, then good. Let them try that when our 2 real centers are playing and see what happens.

Now we get to lul OKC to sleep with an easy path to the wcf and with their guard down sucker punch them in the face and give them a nice reality check if we can make it to the wcf! Meanwhile Spurs will be battle tested against some of the teams that gave them the most trouble. Its really a great way to be introduced to playoff basketball. Don't want our guys coasting they need to be honed in and sharpened by the toughest in the league.

 

[Mugen]

It was hard to tell what the Spurs game plan was on game 82. Was it a stealth planned loss? Were we trying to win a basketball game against two behemoths with Plumlee and Biyombo at center? Why not punt the whole thing? Instead, we allowed the Nuggets to increase their psychological edge. The other side of it I see from a coaches perspective, we have no reason to be cocky in our prep for PHX/POR in the next week.

Sean Sweeney looked pretty frustrated last night as our defense was reminiscent of early last season and pre-Wemby times. Our D is the key!

I hope we start over with our back-up bigs this summer. Mara could be a nice player just for practice to give Wemby some challenges and vice versa. Playing against Wemby everyday would be a great way to progress unless Mara thinks he's already deserving of a bigger role. His passing and defense would allow us to play the same sets with him as we do with Wemby, similar to how Denver uses Valanciunas as Jokic Jr.

Definitely not a planned loss. They were playing guys heavy minutes right down to the buzzer last night.

It was just them trying to have their cake (resting Wemby/Kornet) and eating it too (still getting the W).

We didn't show the proper respect to the game and they got rightly punched in the mouth. By the time they started giving a F and trying to take the game seriously, Big Daddy Val was dragging his nuts across the small ball Spurs and David Roddy was flexing on our best players.

 

[scott]

It was hard to tell what the Spurs game plan was on game 82. Was it a stealth planned loss? Were we trying to win a basketball game against two behemoths with Plumlee and Biyombo at center? Why not punt the whole thing? Instead, we allowed the Nuggets to increase their psychological edge. The other side of it I see from a coaches perspective, we have no reason to be cocky in our prep for PHX/POR in the next week.

Sean Sweeney looked pretty frustrated last night as our defense was reminiscent of early last season and pre-Wemby times. Our D is the key!

I hope we start over with our back-up bigs this summer. Mara could be a nice player just for practice to give Wemby some challenges and vice versa. Playing against Wemby everyday would be a great way to progress unless Mara thinks he's already deserving of a bigger role. His passing and defense would allow us to play the same sets with him as we do with Wemby, similar to how Denver uses Valanciunas as Jokic Jr.

I tend not to buy into "4d chess" move types of theories... but with a young inexperienced team you could make a case that it's better to go into the playoffs having a taste of blood from being punched in the mouth as opposed to being high on the scent of our own farts...

...but I think ultimately it's really just a case of our guys not taking the game seriously and being locked in. I have no doubt Mitch and staff wanted to win this game, but I don't think the players entered with the correct mentality at all, whereas Denver-G were all hungry to prove themselves. Very reminiscent of that loss to Memphis's G-Leaguers. It's just the shit that young teams do. Are only two plus players (in terms of +/-) on the day were two vets (Fox and Keldon).