Manu's back

BUENOS AIRES (Martín Seldes' Brave New World) - If you have an NBA team which is second in the Western Conference standings and suddenly you add Manu Ginobili to your roster, that has to be good news.

The San Antonio Spurs have continued their winning streak after Manu returned from left hand surgery last Saturday and that’s good for everyone.

As I announced in my “Manu has learnt when to get hurt” column last month, as soon as the Argentine got injured, he said this could end up being a blessing both for the team and for him. And don’t forget about Argentina at this summer's London Olympics.

The NBA schedule is forcing more and more players to miss more games than ever before.

Ginobili could suffer from a lack of rhythm for a few games, but once he rediscovers it, he could be refreshed when he has to be.

“Maybe some of the other players in the league will be a little bit tired after 66 games in 120 days, but I won’t go through that”, Ginobili told Argentine newspaper La Nueva.
 
More rest is coming for Manu with the NBA All-Star break.

However, not everything is as positive as it could be.

Over time, the 2004 Olympic gold medal winner has changed (or added) things to his game.

At the start of his career he wouldn’t have had any doubts between penetrating or shooting.

In recent years, Ginobili became a reliable shooter while his impressive penetrations became more and more infrequent.

When he injured his left (shooting) hand, he was trying to get a steal. That was something he had never changed. But after this comeback…

“I think more before I put my hand out to try and steal the ball”, he wrote in his column in La Nación, another Argentine newspaper.

“The two times I tried it since my comeback, I used both hands to protect myself from an injury."

In his first three games since returning, Manu didn't get a single steal. Not even one, for a player that averages 1.5 steals per game in his career.

It's well-known that Manu is great at getting steals, recovering loose balls and taking charges.

The same way he replaced penetrations with outside shooting, every time Manu lost something in his game, he replaced that with something new.

As he started to lose speed, he became better and better at piling up assists and controlling the flow of the game. He perfected his play as a point guard for portions of the game more and more.

Manu also swapped his ability to jump for his intelligence to place himself in the right spot for getting rebounds.

If he stops stealing the ball by putting his hands, how will he replace that?

Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Manu and the Spurs will probably have a last shot for an NBA title in the same year Argentina’s Golden Generation - led by Manu and Luis Scola - will be a medal contender also for the last time in London.

Martín Seldes

FIBA

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