Pop haters are taking it too far..

[HarlemHeat37]

I was one of the original "play Bowen more" guys, same with George Hill..I've criticized Pop for a lot this season..but man, shut the fuck up..some people just blame the guy because it's the "cool" thing to do apparently..

LOL @ the argument that Pop has to prepare these guys for big games like this..most of these guys are NBA champions, and most of them are old veterans..the coach has no responsibility to motivate a team like this..

Duncan couldn't make anything and let the officiating fuck with him instantly, Parker lost his brain and got outplayed by Barea again, Gooden had one of the worst games of his career..nobody else could make a shot..

what else did you want? he even played Hill, and George was horrible..

this team is no longer good enough or healthy enough to be able to survive all the horrible performances like we saw tonight..

shut the fuck up

[loveforthegame]

I don't blame Pop.

Finley is clearly to blame for all of this. He's the only one to miss shots and not play any defense.

[weebo]

I blame everyone. This choke job was a total team effort, including players, coaching staff, owner, EVERYBODY. After this type of play by this team, I'm embarrassed to call myself a Spurs fan. They just plain quit out there tonight.

[Budkin]

Quitters never quit.

[SpursFan0728]

I don't blame pop. Like I said before, he should be a candidate for COY. With all the injuries, he still led the team to the divisonal title.

That being said, Finley does suck like a peice of shit. Like I said again, he shows up once every 5 games. He totally doesn't worth the money. Retire him damn it.

[Spurs Brazil]

I don't blame Pop tonight.

All players were awful

[Chomag]

Whoops I forgot I was questioning God...

Actually all kidding aside this was a collective effort on blame. I myself have just become completely frustrated with Pop most of all this year. I know I can let that get the better of me, but he is no a untouchable God like many here try to make him out to be.

[NewJerSpur]

I used to call for Pop's firing shortly after we won the 1st title with Tim...I thought his coaching style was too one dimensional and that he just road on Duncan's coattails. Since the roster has changed over the years and he's made adjustments to the game-planning in accordance I've been a proponent of him coaching the team as long as he has the desire. He makes me scratch my head just as much as any Spurs fan, but he's still one of the best at his profession and will truly be missed when he's gone. NOW LET'S GO WIN ONE FOR THE GIPPER!!!

[burntorange]

Mavs couldn't miss. That's what happened.

[dirk4mvp]

I don't mind paying him to go scoreless for the other team.

[Borosai]

Everyone sucked. Pop quit in the 2nd. Usually he waits until the 3rd.

[weebo]

Pop sucked as much as everyone else did. You can't scapegoat anyone person for this debacle. It was a total catastrophe thanks to everyone on the Spurs side who participated.

[pjjrfan]

This season Pop basically gave up on defense and went with guys who could score. Going with Bonner over Thomas and Fab, sitting Bowen for Mason and Finley, and then later giving up on Hill, whose defense was excellent IMO but his offense was very shaky. Then making Mason the backup pt. guard and then putting Manu in the starting lineup late in the season. I sitll think Pop is a great coach but I think he gave up on hardnosed players and went with scorers who weren't so hardnosed when it came to defense. And yet all these moves would have been fine if timmy had stayed healthy, but he didn't, and no amount of magic by Tony is going to help this team defensively.

[SA210]

No, Pop sucks.

Great job not putting Bowen on Barea like you did in game 2 and you won game 2.

[Spurs#1]

Blame eveyone, INCLUDING POP. Jackass can't coach to save his life.

[NewJerSpur]

The moves would have been even better if Tim AND Manu were healthy (especially because if if you rest Bowen you could have Hill out there with Mason and Manu and have Gino initiating the offense), but the core has been mighty shaky this year. Still, we showed in game 2 we can not only run with Dallas but that we can stomp them out. Dirk was due with the way he was shooting in the 1st half of game 1 and much if not all game 2 btw.

[Borosai]

No, Pop sucks.

Great job not putting Bowen on Barea like you did in game 2 and you won game 2.

Yep. Just like he sits the hot hand, he goes away from strategy that actually works and makes sense, which in the end, doesn't make sense, and leaves us scratching our heads and balls.

[sabar]

No, Pop sucks.

Great job not putting Bowen on Barea like you did in game 2 and you won game 2.

Yep, that would of won the game.

Yep.

Everyone do yourself a favor and mass-ignore list people. They say the same thing every day in every thread multiple times. I've never seen pop haters be so annoying in the time I've been on SpursTalk.

[Spursmania]

I don't blame Pop tonight.

All players were awful
:tu

[peskypesky]

No, Pop sucks.

Great job not putting Bowen on Barea like you did in game 2 and you won game 2.

he's saving that for game 4, when we take back the HCA.

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

Yep, that would of won the game.

Yep.

Everyone do yourself a favor and mass-ignore list people. They say the same thing every day in every thread multiple times. I've never seen pop haters be so annoying in the time I've been on SpursTalk.

Some people on Spurstalk think because his name is Pop, that they are actually biologically related to him.

I don't understand the homerism when it comes to Pop. Spurs fans have a right to overreact every now and then, and call legitimate criticisms against his White Flag waving.
2nd quarter? Talk about Pop making turning a potential game loss before the first half into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

He does it all the time to do it in the playoffs is inexcusable.

The real whiners, and annoying people are the ones who have the inability to accept reasonable criticisms every now and then. Excuses and bullshit rationalizations, "well....if the players" "Guys, guys you're gonna hurt Pop's feelings!! "

[NewJerSpur]

Some people on Spurstalk think because his name is Pop, that they are actually biologically related to him.

I don't understand the homerism when it comes to Pop. Spurs fans have a right to overreact every now and then, and call legitimate criticisms against his White Flag waving.
2nd quarter? Talk about Pop making turning a potential game loss before the first half into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

He does it all the time to do it in the playoffs is inexcusable.

The real whiners, and annoying people are the ones who have the inability to accept reasonable criticisms every now and then. Excuses and bullshit rationalizations, "well....if the players" "Guys, guys you're gonna hurt Pop's feelings!! "

I didn't see the game and REFUSE to watch the highlights (as I do whenever we lose), but is it really "waiving the flag" or is it asking your bench to step up in the absence of your stars who need rest too. I know the circumstances were different, as we had the lead, but the bench was great with Tim and Tony on the bench in game 2 in the 1st half and even increased the lead. Again, I haven't seen the game but I know the general sentiment about Pop giving in early in games as I've shared it myself during certain blowouts, but if you look at it from another angle isn't the onus also to be placed on the bench.

[mouse]

If your going to bash pop when the Spurs lose then don't kiss his ass when they win. 99% of you salad tossing homos were honking your horns and shouting in the streets when they won back in *99 and now after three more NBA Championship rings later you hate his ass because you lost a game to the Mavericks?

If the Spurs just got done losing to Dallas and the series came back to San Antonio and the Spurs were ahead by 30 points I would expect the Dallas Mavericks to rest the starters and move on to game four.

But you wannabe NBA fans don't know what the word series really means
if you did you wouldn't be whining like some little girls on a public forum.


You want to bash Pop and give up on the Spurs do so like a real man and give back the 4 ring, if not? then STFU and move on to game 4.

[Blackjack]

I was one of the original "play Bowen more" guys, same with George Hill..I've criticized Pop for a lot this season..but man, shut the fuck up..some people just blame the guy because it's the "cool" thing to do apparently..

You're actually one of the posters I seem to be on the same page with most of the time, but I guess this is one of those few exceptions.

You're absolutely right that this team isn't good enough, or more appropriately healthy enough to be able to overcome the amount of poor play put on display tonight, but Pop should shoulder a large share of the blame tonight.

I'm not a Pop hater, even if this year I've questioned his moves/tactics more than any other time that I can remember, but tonight I was definitely disappointed with what I saw.

If their going to start Barea and you don't put Bowen in the starting lineup, you have to put him in at the first timeout if you get off to a slow start. Ime and Rog can't get away with defending Barea and Terry for any significant time. They don't have the footspeed to stay infront, and it ends up compromising the entire defense.

Pop made the adjustment in game 2 to start Bowen in the second-half, (to not let Barea have the same kind of success he had in game 1) has success with the change, yet when presented with the same problem (this time to start game 3) he fails to execute the gameplan that gave him success.:WTF

That failure to matchup to Barea to start the game started the snowball, and his failure to make a change until the score was 21-9 (IIRC) was pretty dumbfounding.

The Mav's are a bunch of frontrunner's that play great in their home gym. Give them early momentum, a lead of +10, and allow the crowd into the game early on (when your a team without all your horses and notorious for offensive dry-spells) and your flirting with disaster.

Scratch that. Your asking for disaster.

So once the Spurs get into an early hole, the Spurs look to force-feed Tim to get him going.

Wrong move.

There's a reason the Spurs have had some of their most decisive victories over the Mav's when the offense goes through Tony, and or, Manu. (Even when Tim hasn't played in the past)

If you don't make the Mav's move/rotate on the defensive-end of the floor and allow them to stay with shooters on the perimeter, they're able to key-in on the role-players and maintain defensive-rebounding position to prevent second-chance points and ignite their break.

The middle of the floor needs to be open when Tony's on the floor. Having Tim consistently in the post against the Mav's ends up with stagnant offense and a mediocre defensive team looking stellar.

Game 2 was a very nice display of how the offense needs to be run; Tim working from the high-post and mimicking an offensive line for Tony's penetrations, solid screens allowing penetration into the teeth of the defense, dive-cuts off the ball to the basket, and post-up's in the flow of the offense, not forced in an effort to get an individual going.

Game 3 (imo) started with a bad matchup, got exasperbated by the failure to acknowledge it quickly enough, which lead to the failed, and rhythm killing, force-feeding of Tim, which turned into Tony trying to do too much, and hole (deficit) which turned into an early grave. (Can't really blame Tony, the ship was going down, but it looked like someone trying to save a panicked person from drowning, only to get pulled down with the victim.

I wasn't too optimistic going into this series, given the Spurs' health problems, but I did believe they had a shot if they played and coached to the best of their ability.

Game 2 was the model, now they've just got to find a way to replicate it three more times.

[Mel_13]

You're actually one of the posters I seem to be on the same page with most of the time, but I guess this is one of those few exceptions.

You're absolutely right that this team isn't good enough, or more appropriately healthy enough to be able to overcome the amount of poor play put on display tonight, but Pop should shoulder a large share of the blame tonight.

I'm not a Pop hater, even if this year I've questioned his moves/tactics more than any other time that I can remember, but tonight I was definitely disappointed with what I saw.

If their going to start Barea and you don't put Bowen in the starting lineup, you have to put him in at the first timeout if you get off to a slow start. Ime and Rog can't get away with defending Barea and Terry for any significant time. They don't have the footspeed to stay infront, and it ends up compromising the entire defense.

Pop made the adjustment in game 2 to start Bowen in the second-half, (to not let Barea have the same kind of success he had in game 1) has success with the change, yet when presented with the same problem (this time to start game 3) he fails to execute the gameplan that gave him success.:WTF

That failure to matchup to Barea to start the game started the snowball, and his failure to make a change until the score was 21-9 (IIRC) was pretty dumbfounding.

The Mav's are a bunch of frontrunner's that play great in their home gym. Give them early momentum, a lead of +10, and allow the crowd into the game early on (when your a team without all your horses and notorious for offensive dry-spells) and your flirting with disaster.

Scratch that. Your asking for disaster.

So once the Spurs get into an early hole, the Spurs look to force-feed Tim to get him going.

Wrong move.

There's a reason the Spurs have had some of their most decisive victories over the Mav's when the offense goes through Tony, and or, Manu. (Even when Tim hasn't played in the past)

If you don't make the Mav's move/rotate on the defensive-end of the floor and allow them to stay with shooters on the perimeter, they're able to key-in on the role-players and maintain defensive-rebounding position to prevent second-chance points and ignite their break.

The middle of the floor needs to be open when Tony's on the floor. Having Tim consistently in the post against the Mav's ends up with stagnant offense and a mediocre defensive team looking stellar.

Game 2 was a very nice display of how the offense needs to be run; Tim working from the high-post and mimicking an offensive line for Tony's penetrations, solid screens allowing penetration into the teeth of the defense, dive-cuts off the ball to the basket, and post-up's in the flow of the offense, not forced in an effort to get an individual going.

Game 3 (imo) started with a bad matchup, got exasperbated by the failure to acknowledge it quickly enough, which lead to the failed, and rhythm killing, force-feeding of Tim, which turned into Tony trying to do too much, and hole (deficit) which turned into an early grave. (Can't really blame Tony, the ship was going down, but it looked like someone trying to save a panicked person from drowning, only to get pulled down with the victim.

I wasn't too optimistic going into this series, given the Spurs' health problems, but I did believe they had a shot if they played and coached to the best of their ability.

Game 2 was the model, now they've just got to find a way to replicate it three more times.

I agree with the sentiments expressed by the OP, but I have absolutely no problems with a post like yours. It is a well thought out and supported criticism of decisions and tactics used over the course of the first three games. Reasonable people can debate such things.

I have a problem with the F@#$ Pop, Pop sucks, Pop has man love for Finley, fire Pop crowd who start numerous worthless threads after every single loss. If some of these people were to be believed, the Spurs would go 82-0 every year if it wasn't for their mentally defective coach. Its ridiculous and infantile.

If they can't come up with something resembling the quality of your post, they really should take the OP's advice and STFU.

Btw, what does "exasperbated" mean? :wow

[Blackjack]

I agree with the sentiments expressed by the OP, but I have absolutely no problems with a post like yours. It is a well thought out and supported criticism of decisions and tactics used over the course of the first three games. Reasonable people can debate such things.

I have a problem with the F@#$ Pop, Pop sucks, Pop has man love for Finley, fire Pop crowd who start numerous worthless threads after every single loss. If some of these people were to be believed, the Spurs would go 82-0 every year if it wasn't for their mentally defective coach. Its ridiculous and infantile.

If they can't come up with something resembling the quality of your post, they really should take the OP's advice and STFU.

Like I said, I'm not a Pop hater.

He's a hell of a coach and I'm very grateful for all that he's done for the Spurs, but that doesn't mean I agree with him 100% of the time.

I completely agree that some of these threads can get pretty ridiculous, though.:toast



Btw, what does "exasperbated" mean? :wow

It's similar to exacerbated, but used mostly when typing faster than you're thinking.;)

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

Per team purposes Pop should shoulder the blame on this performance, however we saw that no one came out to play. You can critisize all you want when a coach does stupid moves to erase a lead or let the other team going, but last night we didn't have one single player who even resembled being up to the challenge. There is nothing a coach can do in such situations. In fact, I believe Pop did much more wrong in Game 1 than in last night's game.

He tried to force feed Duncan, like most of us would have wanted, but Duncan wasn't there mentally, he tried to create space for Tony but he couldn't get going because they packed the paint and our shooters were ice cold, he tried everything we could have wanted from him - insert Bowen, Hill, etc. etc. Nothing worked, all players were apalling. His best lineup there were Vaughn, Hill, Ime, Kurt and Gooden. Actually 'best' is incorrect, more like least bad. This is probably just about on Clippers level.

I could understand critisizing him for mistakes in games we were in and could have won, like Game 1, but it is painfully obvious that unless someone has an agenda, which many here do, last night's game wasn't an example to start the Pop bashing.

On to Game 4. We've been in worse positions and have come up strong. There's a reason why this core has won multiple championships and they deserve to be trusted and supported, and not being kicked when they're down by their own fans.

[jjktkk]

:rolleyes:rolleyes:rolleyes A man that won 4 championships is a an idiot? Wow! If Pop gets another championship will some of these morons who think Pop can't coach, promote him from a idiot coach to an average coach?

[fusionjazzman72]

Bump! Well said! Well Put! What an idiotic move to not have Bowen guard Barea this game. I can't believe it never happened. Pop has been a great coach, but damn what a total dumb ass move tonight. Not even an adjustment at all. This is Tony's team now. I hope they can make some good moves for the future.

[mouse]

PS: I forgot to mention if the Spurs were to lose the next two games?
I will have no problem voicing my opinions, and trust me they may not be nice.

after all, I do like coach Pop but.....come on!... I'm not going to suck the man's dick!



http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p55/RackTheMouse/RTM-3/pop-seat.jpg

[onarollbaby]

just one of those nights where the Mavs can't do anything wrong and the Spurs can't do anything right.

[mouse]

just one of those nights where the Mavs can't do anything wrong and the Spurs can't do anything right.

Sounds like an old school Country song. :toast



http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p55/RackTheMouse/pop1.jpg

[NewJerSpur]

Even in the event Barea starts again I would still expect Parker to step up and do a serviceable job of staying in front of him while the less athletically inclined Mason stuck with Kidd who is no offensive Juggernaut himself.

I think the issues many people have with Pop, in general, is that he doesn't often make major adjustments "on-the-fly" so to speak. You can get the impression that he gameplans for certain scenarios and those scenarios alone and counts on great execution to counter and changes another coach may make to shake things up. Some believe it to be ego, others might argue that he wants his players to exercise calm by maintaining belief in a system, and some might see it as a little bit of both.