There's been much talk about the weaknesses that Tony Parker's injury may reveal for the Spurs. If Tony goes down, the conventional wisdom holds that George Hill takes the reigns and either Mason or Ginobili will pick up duties as a backup point gaurd. But how important is it for us to follow this traditional formula of having a guard bring the ball up the floor? If we have a forward that can pass the ball with more skill and precision than Mason, why should we try to force something that isn't meant to be?
Imagine this hypothetical (though admittedly horrible): Tony Parker has to miss 20-30 games next year for some reason. George Hill would be the starting backup, but what if RJ brought the ball up the floor? We could play Mason and Manu both as free SG, Tim and The Other Big could play down low. This would be be even more effective if we made the other big the distributor. If any of The Other Bigs (yes, it is its own proper noun) like Ian, McDyess, or Ratliff turns out to be a good passer, or if it's a skill Blair could master with those big hands I've heard so much about, then we could put one of those bigs out at the top of the court, have Mason, Manu, Jefferson each trying to get free for their own shot and that big will have drawn out the other team's center/PF to the top of the floor leaving a vacuum for Tim to be dominant down low or we've created an open shot or a ridiculous mismatch.
Hell, Tony doesn't have to be injured, he could be inserted into this formation and make him a pure scorer for stretches instead of the creator/distributor, this should help out Tony because the other team's PG would be guarding him instead of the 3/4/5 who's playing quarterback and would defiantly [ed: should be 'definitely', but defiantly has some PtR flair to it] be out of their element. I'm not saying this should be our game plan every time up floor, but if we had this formation down to the point where we could execute it well, we could run it for the first half of the 3rd or 4th quarter to confuse the hell out of our opponent and then switch back to our traditional system without warning. This would probably nullify any game plan worked out by our opponents during halftime.
We'd see dividends in playing time for young guys, accentuating different talents than the other side is prepared for, and on pretty much every possession we would be creating easy baskets, mismatches, and a good chance of drawing some fouls in the confusion. Opponents would hate having to prepare for us, most players have never played this way, let alone defended against it. We all know we have the smartest team in basketball, now let's really exploit it.
(PS I've been a long time reader, but this is my first fanpost, so I hope this looks right)
