duncan228
10-25-2008, 07:13 PM
Spurs' season could easily go either way (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Spurs_season_could_easily_go_either_way.html)
Mike Finger
The Spurs lucked out with Manu Ginobili. If he weren’t so patriotic, the surgery he had in the summer might’ve been required next spring.
They also were fortunate with Corey Maggette. He won’t be helping the Spurs like they hoped, but he also didn’t end up in a place where he can hurt them much.
Among their other strokes of serendipity from the past few months — none of the Spurs had to spend the first night of their vacation on an airport tarmac, Hugo the Hornet has stayed out of sight, and Tony Parker somehow remained upright and pain-free even while Tom Brady and Tony Romo were proving how dangerous hanging with glamorous celebrities can be to an athlete’s health.
But not everything has gone the Spurs’ way lately, and even with an odd-numbered year coming up, there are reasons for concern. Some involve health and some have to do with competition, but the gist is this:
If the Spurs’ every-other-year dynasty is to continue, so will their every-other-year luck.
Just to be clear, this isn’t to say that four championships have fallen into the Spurs’ laps. They’ve been the most consistent, the most respected and the most dominant team in the NBA over the past decade, and that doesn’t come together by happenstance.
But just as the breaks have gone against them when they’ve lost — Derek Fisher, Dirk Nowitzki, Fisher again — they’ve gone their way in the title years. The same can be said of any championship team. They take advantage of every little gift given to them.
So the question isn’t about whether these aging Spurs are still good enough to win on skill, talent and experience alone. No team is. The question is whether they’re still good enough to win if they get a little lucky. Only a few teams fall into that category, and the key is staying in the mix.
The Celtics, clearly, are there. So are the Lakers, who stand to be even better with a healthy Andrew Bynum than they were in last season’s playoffs. The Hornets, Jazz and Rockets each looked like the best team in the league at various points last season, and all of them have been expanding their still-blossoming capabilities while the Spurs simply try to hold their old guys together. They look older than ever, and not just because Gregg Popovich’s beard appears to have come from the Old Testament.
But Popovich is right when he says no roster moves he can make will mean any more to this year’s team than the ones the Spurs made years ago. If Tim Duncan, Ginobili and Parker are healthy and playing at all-star levels in May and June, then the Spurs have as good of a chance to win a championship as anyone. If not, no amount of cosmetic, “get younger” trades or acquisitions will make much of a difference.
That’s where the luck comes in. The Spurs don’t need their three stars to stay healthy for 82 games — they just need them to stay healthy for 30 or so, provided that stretch of 30 or so begins in early April.
If it does? Then people won’t be talking about how the game has passed the Spurs by. They’ll be talking about how Chris Paul still can’t keep up with Parker, about how Ginobili has just as much late-game magic as Kobe Bryant, and about how Carlos Boozer needs help against Duncan.
If the Spurs are lucky enough to see that happen, they might point back to days like last Tuesday. Then, after a practice session players noted as particularly “stressful,” the team dimmed the lights, put down exercise mats and engaged in a long, intensive yoga session. The players laid on the floor, and they stretched their bodies into poses named for mystical animals, and they hoped that somehow, some way, this would all pay off.
It will, of course.
If they’re lucky.
Mike Finger
The Spurs lucked out with Manu Ginobili. If he weren’t so patriotic, the surgery he had in the summer might’ve been required next spring.
They also were fortunate with Corey Maggette. He won’t be helping the Spurs like they hoped, but he also didn’t end up in a place where he can hurt them much.
Among their other strokes of serendipity from the past few months — none of the Spurs had to spend the first night of their vacation on an airport tarmac, Hugo the Hornet has stayed out of sight, and Tony Parker somehow remained upright and pain-free even while Tom Brady and Tony Romo were proving how dangerous hanging with glamorous celebrities can be to an athlete’s health.
But not everything has gone the Spurs’ way lately, and even with an odd-numbered year coming up, there are reasons for concern. Some involve health and some have to do with competition, but the gist is this:
If the Spurs’ every-other-year dynasty is to continue, so will their every-other-year luck.
Just to be clear, this isn’t to say that four championships have fallen into the Spurs’ laps. They’ve been the most consistent, the most respected and the most dominant team in the NBA over the past decade, and that doesn’t come together by happenstance.
But just as the breaks have gone against them when they’ve lost — Derek Fisher, Dirk Nowitzki, Fisher again — they’ve gone their way in the title years. The same can be said of any championship team. They take advantage of every little gift given to them.
So the question isn’t about whether these aging Spurs are still good enough to win on skill, talent and experience alone. No team is. The question is whether they’re still good enough to win if they get a little lucky. Only a few teams fall into that category, and the key is staying in the mix.
The Celtics, clearly, are there. So are the Lakers, who stand to be even better with a healthy Andrew Bynum than they were in last season’s playoffs. The Hornets, Jazz and Rockets each looked like the best team in the league at various points last season, and all of them have been expanding their still-blossoming capabilities while the Spurs simply try to hold their old guys together. They look older than ever, and not just because Gregg Popovich’s beard appears to have come from the Old Testament.
But Popovich is right when he says no roster moves he can make will mean any more to this year’s team than the ones the Spurs made years ago. If Tim Duncan, Ginobili and Parker are healthy and playing at all-star levels in May and June, then the Spurs have as good of a chance to win a championship as anyone. If not, no amount of cosmetic, “get younger” trades or acquisitions will make much of a difference.
That’s where the luck comes in. The Spurs don’t need their three stars to stay healthy for 82 games — they just need them to stay healthy for 30 or so, provided that stretch of 30 or so begins in early April.
If it does? Then people won’t be talking about how the game has passed the Spurs by. They’ll be talking about how Chris Paul still can’t keep up with Parker, about how Ginobili has just as much late-game magic as Kobe Bryant, and about how Carlos Boozer needs help against Duncan.
If the Spurs are lucky enough to see that happen, they might point back to days like last Tuesday. Then, after a practice session players noted as particularly “stressful,” the team dimmed the lights, put down exercise mats and engaged in a long, intensive yoga session. The players laid on the floor, and they stretched their bodies into poses named for mystical animals, and they hoped that somehow, some way, this would all pay off.
It will, of course.
If they’re lucky.