Creating San Antonio Spurs All-Decade teams for the 2010s

Shooting Guard: Manu Ginóbili (2009-10 to 2017-18)

Statistics for the Decade:

• 12.1 points, 4.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds, 1.1 steals per game
• 44.0 percent from the field, 36.3 percent from 3-point (5.2 attempts), 83.4 percent from the free throw line
• 56.4 true shooting percentage, 46.6 win shares, 19.7 value over replacement level

The further we inch from a player’s career, the easier it becomes for the average fan to gloss over a highlight or two, a stat or three and come to a definitive conclusion on how good said player was.

Should they pick the wrong stat, Manu Ginobili has a chance to become one of the most undervalued players in basketball history.

The numbers don’t necessarily stand out; Ginobili finished as a dynamite, frenetic, do-it-all guard, but with just a 13.3-point per game average to show for it.

Some have already begun to point to Ginobili’s games played vs. games started ratio to point to the notion that he was better served as a bench spark or that his lack of gaudy numbers could throw his Hall of Fame induction into question.

As for the turnover portion, there’s some truth to that. Manu Ginobili — or “Turnobili” as some fans refer to him as — did sometimes have a propensity for ill-timed miscues. Think, his nine-point, eight-turnover Game Six of the 2013 Finals.

Perhaps just as fittingly, in his scouting of Ginobili, R.C. Buford told Zach Lowe of ESPN something in 2016 that many of us would eventually come to know:

"“He was like a wild colt out there,” Buford said, “just doing crazy s—. Some of it made sense, and some of it didn’t.”"

Two decades later, we can at least say it worked, even if it didn’t always make sense.

And through that truth, lies an even bigger truth. The bad was rarely ever outweighed the good.

ESPN senior writer Zach Lowe theorizes that soccer — ever the spectacle in Argentina — could have rewired his brain. That, or he was blessed with the acute ability to see things differently than any player we’ve ever seen. In whichever case, you take the trade-off, and respect it. There will be turnovers, but there will also be beauties like this along the way.

Or, even this. The first ever 3-point alley-oop.

For Ginobili, where per game numbers neglect his impact, advanced metrics do quite the justice. With No. 20 on the floor, the San Antonio Spurs were essentially a guarantee to outscore their opponents by sizeable margins.

Take a statistic like BPM (box plus-minus) for example. For those unfamiliar, BPM is a a non-arbitrated, per-100 stat that combines a player’s box score numbers with team performance and long-term data to access a player. Take a look at where Ginobili ranked for the decade:

No. 2 in 2009-10 (trailing only Dwyane Wade). No. 4 in 2010-11 (Chris Paul, Wade, Derrick Rose). No. 2 in 2011-12, No. 9 in 2012-13, so on and so forth.

Unapologetically, I couldn’t care less. Having gotten the chance to watch Manu Ginobili produce throughout the prime of his career, advanced numbers aren’t the cake, like they are for most fans — merely the icing. Does it necessarily make Ginobili say, a top-8 shooting guard ever? That’s up for debate.

But when you read about the Spurs outscoring opponents by 10.2 points per 100 with Ginobili, it absolutely reinstates the fact that he’s bigger than a box score.

Just like Parker, Ginobili’s (arguable) two best seasons — 2004-05 and 2007-08 — were in the previous decade. Still, Ginobili was a guarantee to ratchet his play in the postseason, even with only 10.1 shots attempted per game.

For all the numbers that come to mind in describing Ginobili, there’s one on-court memory that sticks out above all else. The last game of the 2010-11 season: Ginobili is curling around a Tim Duncan screen, gets his arm caught, and ends up dislocating his elbow.

Ginobili, ever the warrior, decides missing the playoffs isn’t an option. He spends the rest of the postseason wearing a thick black brace that looks as though it could tip his weight over at any given time.

And there Ginobili was. Shooting free throws with one hand, and pouring in 33 points in an elimination game. That’s always meant more than any net rating in these eyes.

But hey, if the metrics float your boat, I’ll take that ride too.

Others considered: DeMar DeRozan, Danny Green