Final day for the Spurs at the Rocky Mountain Revue, where they played an exciting game against Atlanta. I also saw most of Dallas/Golden State. Impressions from previous days can be found here:
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101704
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101557
Spurs players:
Ian Mahinmi: Did not play today. I thought this was kind of odd considering it's their last day, but I presume it was more so that they could get a last look at the other big men such as Tolliver, rather than that Mahinmi needed rest.
George Hill: George definitely did not have one of his better games today. He started out well, but looked kind of fatigued from the second quarter onward. He was a little sloppier than usual, and his defense against Acie Law IV was far from what I've been used to seeing from Hill. Acie was able to get past him several times on the drive, and he was the first guy I think I've seen get past Hill more than once. Hill does a good job of recovering when he gets beat initially (more on that in a second).
Despite the poor game, Hill came up big in clutch time. Spurs were down one with about 20 seconds to go. True to typical Spurs form, they had Hill dribble the ball between the circles and sent everyone else off to the wings on an iso play. Hill made a good move to get into the lane, almost lost the ball for a second, but then recovered and went up strong near the hoop, drawing the foul. He hit two clutch free throws to put the Spurs up 1, 83-82. Hawks got the ball with 6.9 seconds left and, after using a timeout, ran a similar iso play for Acie Law. Hill let Law penetrate all the way to within 5 feet of the hoop, but when Acie went up for the shot, Hill got all ball and got the jump ball call with 2.0 seconds left. (Side note: Hill blocks a very good amount of shots for someone his size, especially on help defense.) On the jump ball, Acie Law didn't really seem to try for some reason; Hill did the smart thing and knocked the ball to the other side of the court, and time expired before the ball went out of bounds.
I wouldn't worry too much about Hill's performance in this game, though I guess there should be some slight concern for his inability to play well in back-to-back games. I think this is just the need for some more conditioning, as college players almost never have to play 60 minutes in 48 hours.
James Gist: Gist had another great rebounding game and was very aggressive on the boards, on offense, and on defense. He's a good shot blocker and uses his long arms to his advantage. On offense, he still needs to work on his perimeter game (especially his long jumpers), but you can definitely tell he played PF in college, as he looks comfortable down in the post and has some nice moves to get to the basket against larger defenders. We'll see what training camp brings, but based on what he did in summer league, I'd be very surprised if Gist didn't make the 15-man roster.
Malik Hairston: Hairston had his best game of the Revue and, based on what I've read, his best game of the summer. He was very aggressive on offense, and was successful both in driving to the hoop and hitting his 20-footer consistently. When he's aggressive, you can see his athleticism much more easily; he got a monster drive-and-dunk through traffic in the first two minutes of the game, and I think that fueled his confidence for a while.
As I've mentioned before, Malik has shown signs of being a very good passer. However, to be a good passer, you need two things: the physical skill of making crisp passes, and the mental skill of making good passing decisions. Hairston definitely has the former; however, he'll have to work on the latter. Passing decision-making should be a major emphasis in his development.
In all, I can definitely see a lot of potential in Malik Hairston's game, but it's going to have to be developed a bit. As a second round pick, I think he was basically guaranteed a training camp spot, but if not, he clinched one with this performance today. Personally, I think Hairston's final fate will be decided not by whether the organization thinks he's worth developing (the upside is definitely there), but rather whether they feel they can afford to use the roster space to send him down to Austin for a year.
Anthony Tolliver: Okay, so either this guy can really hit the 3-pointer, or he's just had the hottest streak of his entire life. Either way, his ability to make the long-range shot was impressive today and all summer. He was also a little better today at rebounding, banging down low on offense, and rotating a little better on defense. That being said, I don't think his defense or rebounding are on nearly high enough a level for the Spurs to use a roster spot on him. I think if the Spurs don't offer him a spot in training camp, someone else definitely will, and it will be up to him whether he wants to take that or go to Europe sooner.
Other impressions will come later; if not tonight, then definitely tomorrow.
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great read as usual!
