Gonna miss that dude - very underrated player in his prime who was strongly skilled in so many areas of the game (ball handling, perimeter shooting, finishing, getting to the line, team defense, playmaking) and played the sport like his life was on the line every single night. Had superstar caliber impact for the Spurs and from a performance level standpoint he should definitely be ranked among the top ten SG's all time.
Agreed. He was incredible in 05. His peak has a case against any SG ever not named MJ, Kobe, Wade or Jerry IMO. He was the best player in the NBA in the 05 playoffs and finals and shouldve won FMVP IMO.
He was an underrated defender, mad underrated. Always felt he shouldve been on All D teams. Honestly overall not just man defense he did more on D than Bowen to me who was overrated. In that 05 postseason he played great perimeter D, sht on Denver in the 1st round, outplayed MVP Nash, outplayed peak Ray Allen, butchered Detroits historic D in the finals etc. Incredible postseason and nikkas forget how clutch this dude was on BOTH ends in his prime. A bunch of clutch plays in that postseason.
Hes one of the most skilled and high IQ players ive ever seen. Really no weakness in his game. If not for injury issues and if he had durability like Stockton hed by seen way, way higher on the alltime list.
And also hes the greatest passer ive ever seen from the SG position. His court vision is Magic/Bird like. He made routine
passes, sht that 99% of players in history cant make sometimes. In an average week of NBA regular season games dude would have 5 of these passes a week
This dude damn neared blocked every great of his era (i know he got TMac, Pierce and Ray at least once but cant find shyt) and shotblocking was one of his weakest aspects
He was a mad underrated dunker in games too.
the way he manhandled Ray and Bosh in 14
I just cant get past the flopping and head snapping tho. Respect his game and if it wasnt for the damn flopping hed be one of my alltime faves