Yes
No
Okc with no Durant at the 2nd seed?
Part of it also was Ty Lue's coaching change. He stopped playing Delledova and pretty much decided he was going to play his best players the most minutes. It's something I wish Pop would do. There's no point in resting the players if your season's on the line. Leonard/Aldridge should be average 40+ when necessary.
My main concern is that we're extremely top heavy, but Pop won't hesitate to rest guys, even in the playoffs. That's a pretty huge disadvantage against teams like the Dubs, Cavs, Clippers and potentially some dark horse that might come around.
Obviously, if our bench looks a lot better than last season, Danny is hitting, you can find a way to hide Tony on D, some injury to another team... there's a bunch of variables that can tilt the perception. But we'll know more as the season moves along.
The impression I have is how we finished last season, and there were a lot of question marks (including LMA when the going gets tough, etc)
Now, I do think we're going to keep the 55 win streak going, but that's no guarantee of anything.
We have every reason to build chemistry throughout the RS and be ready for a few swings for the fence in the playoffs. We sweep under the radar into the WCF when Durant, Curry, and Thompson start imploding before our eyes in game 6 sending us to the Finals.
It's game 7 in the Finals and it's Manu Ginobili's final game. We are down by 1 with the ball. Manu throws the ball in to Kawhi who bullets it LMA in the post. Manu rolls to the basket catches LMA's pass mid-air and throws it up as the clock expires and it rolls in as 20.000 people explode with cheers of joy. In the trophy ceremony Manu is carried onstage by Green and Tony to get his FMVP trophy saying through tears "Muchisimas gracias San Antonio! I love you all!!"
We have every reason to build chemistry throughout the RS and be ready for a few swings for the fence in the playoffs. We sweep under the radar into the WCF when Durant, Curry, and Thompson start imploding before our eyes in game 6 sending us to the Finals.
It's game 7 in the Finals and it's Manu Ginobili's final game. We are down by 1 with the ball. Manu throws the ball in to Kawhi who bullets it LMA in the post. Manu rolls to the basket catches LMA's pass mid-air and throws it up as the clock expires and it rolls in as 20.000 people explode with cheers of utter joy. In the trophy ceremony Manu is carried onstage by Green and Tony to get his FMVP trophy saying through tears "Muchisimas gracias San Antonio! I love you all!!"
We'll be better than last year.
No, but only because there's only one real championship contender this year. Any other year, and we would easily be in the running.
Too many new faces... Too many youngsters. I don't see this team being serious contenders. MAYBE next year after the team has had some time to gel and develop some chemistry. But even then, I don't really see it....
well, everyone said that before the 2003 and 2012 seasons, other semi "transitionary" years
Warriors have 4 legit stars, Cavs have 2, Clippers have 2, and the Spurs have 1 in Lamarcus.
The others gotta step up
Pau Gasol seems to be underestimated.....
if he is motivated, watch out!!!!
Problem is that among your top heavy guys you have Manu, Tony and Pau all 35+ and paid hefty sums. They are supposed to carry a large share of the burden and supply that depth. They can't like they used to, and maybe that's that. For the bad outcome to change Pop has to realize that it's 2017, not 2007 and that this is not the Tony and Manu team and incorporate others.
Now my hope is that Pau can give additional firepower that relieves the pressure, while possibly all of Anderson, J.Simms, and Dedmon grow up as players and can contribute in the postseason (Lee to me is in the team in a KMart/Butler role). It's on these 4 to give a different dimension to the team and depth. If they can do it, it changes things. There's less pressure on Tony and Manu. Maybe Mills hits a hot streak somewhere too, while Danny keeps his shooting swag that he finished the season with and the whole team looks very different and all of a sudden a lot younger, similar to the 2014 team. That's what keeps me optimistic. But for that to happen, other guys need to be involved and relied on. The 2014 team wasn't the Tony and Manu show. They each had their moments in that run but so many different guys helped along the way and that's the only way they win again.
If you don't believe suck a !
Only if Pop incorporates younger guys. The improvement isn't coming from the same old guys.
I share your optimism though bc I like the team's youngsters and I think they are underrated in these boards just bc Pop doesn't rely on rookies. I think Anderson and Simmons can both contribute and although I don't know Dedmon, I hope he's at least one of those guys that competes by doing the little blue collar things that always go underrated. These 3 can give a very different look to the bench. Pau should help the starters a lot, or the bench if Pop wants to mix and match the bigs up. It's on Pop ultimately how he uses these guys.
I don't really count Manu as part of the top anymore, hasn't in a couple years. Yes, he's been extremely important and normally a good barometer on how our bench is going to work, but minutes-wise, he just doesn't play that much, and if anything, his minutes might just go down even further. There's no chance he's going to give you 30+ mins outside maybe a single game. And frankly, money-wise, he did get a big deal just for this season, but otherwise he's played for a lot less, especially his previous deal, in order for other guys to get paid.
Tony should also be coming off the bench at this stage, tbh, but that's just not how this team is build at the moment. C'est la vie.
Individually Parker would benefit greatly to play off the bench and dude is ready for that. Unfortunately and as mentionned by Nono this is not how team is built
Tony really would do better as a bench player I agree. Frankly if I focus on that I get in a self defeatist mood. Perhaps my escape route is to focus on younger players. I actually watched all of Anderson's games in the dleague in 2015 bc at the time the main team hit a series of loosing streaks including I think their only losing rodeo road trip of the Duncan era and it wasn't looking good at all. I knew then the hope was to look to the future and I haven't gone back. I have only gotten more into the younger players so that's my personal perspective.
Either way you will enjoy the Manu tour and I will enjoy watching Pop's mad scientist mode. The Kawhi fan hopefully will enjoy another MVP caliber season from him, hopefully Danny gets his LDN swag back, J.Simms keep dunking (his fans have enjoyed the summer away from the boards but I am sure they will be back). There's going to be something for everybody to enjoy.
In terms of winning yea, it's a tough year there's a super team out there and while they will need to gel, so would the Spurs. Maybe Kawhi goes on another monstrous heck of a year but I want the team in general to do well, including guys 7-12 bc that's how they won a le the last time and I don't want to take these seasons from Kawhi for granted. OKC at one point was very young, then each of their guys got injured in consecutive years and that's at least part of the reason why they didn't get as many cracks at a le as their youth and years would presumably guarantee. I think it would be a shame to waste some Kawhi monstrous years with having him carry too old a team. But there's hope. Ultimately in all this I always go back to Pop bc I distrust him to realize again that it's 2017 and not 2007. Not sure what he can do about the aged backcourt, but POP has experimented and been an innovator in the past. Maybe he will surprise me and shut my yap up trying point forwards out there, bc it seems like he will have to pull some Jason Kidd themed lineups. If he stays same old, same old I guess all I can hope is that he will find the fountain of youth for Tony.
Forget our feelings. Trust in Vegas: http://www.vegasinsider.com/nba/odds/futures/
Clippers are #5 at 35/1
Spurs are #3 at 12/1
Cavs are #2 at 3.33/1
Dubs are #1 at.....0.625/1.
3rd in line would normally be an obvious "championship contender," and I'd argue that's still the case but who knows.
It basically comes down to, yes, the Spurs are as awesome as ever, but the existence of GSW as an outlier team makes almost everyone but the Cavs irrelevant for championship purposes.
not gonna lie, I
And Duncan was unplayable post AS-break.
Only if Pop incorporates younger guys. The improvement isn't coming from the same old guys.
I share your optimism though bc I like the team's youngsters and I think they are underrated in these boards just bc Pop doesn't rely on rookies. I think Anderson and Simmons can both contribute and although I don't know Dedmon, I hope he's at least one of those guys that competes by doing the little blue collar things that always go underrated. These 3 can give a very different look to the bench. Pau should help the starters a lot, or the bench if Pop wants to mix and match the bigs up. It's on Pop ultimately how he uses these guys.
All the more reason to get athis season.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
