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The San Antonio Spurs have started to get the ball rolling following their second win in a row. Once again, the Spurs largely relied on the efforts of their bigs in Pau Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge in the 109-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets.
Despite the Spurs' solid performance recently, Gasol would still like to see some changes to the offense. According to Tom Orsborn of MySanAntonio.com, he feels San Antonio should try to take advantage of their size with him and Aldridge in the frontcourt:
“I'm a big pusher, promoter of staying big,” Gasol said. “Not only for self-interests, but because I feel it is our strength. We do have the ability to go small and be versatile, but I like when we take advantage of our size and we capitalize and we play off our bigs. It's kind of more traditional, old school, I guess, for me. But it's worked and I think it still can work, especially when teams go so small. Yes, they have their advantage, but you have yours.”
Gasol's comments may come as a bit of a surprise considering how the league has transformed into a small-ball style of play. Often times, teams find it a liability to have a lumbering big man who is not as quick up and down the court as his smaller counterparts.
That said, the Spurs have not one, but two big men who are strong presences in the paint. Although San Antonio may feel pressured to fight fire with fire with the other elite teams in the Western Conference, one would be hard-pressed to find a better combination of big men outside of the New Orleans Pelicans. Furthermore, a slower pace may make sense with superstar forward Kawhi Leonard still trying to get his feet under him since making his season debut two weeks ago.