Will there be a dumbed-down system?

[Interrohater]

There are a lot of people on here with sources and whatnot, so I'm wondering if you can answer this question:

With so many new and young players (Jefferson, Haislip, Mclinton, as-of-yet-unnamed MLE big, possibly Gist, Blair), are the Spurs going to dumb-down their complex offensive system and defensive schemes?

As we all know, it normally takes a player a full year in the Spurs' system before they can truly just go out and play, without thinking of where they need to be. Also, I didn't add Mahinmi because he's been in the system long enough to not be able to use that as an excuse

[completely deck]

Nope, I doubt it. Still have the entire training camp and pre-season for all that. Gooden got the "dumbed-down" version since he joined so late last year, and he did OK. This year, there isn't much of an excuse to not get the basic concepts. Will there be slip ups early on? Sure, but that's like any other team.

[HarlemHeat37]

I would hope not..our system is easily top 2 in the NBA with the Lakers..Pop and the coaches aren't going to change anything to make it fit for unproven rookies..this is the NBA, they have to adapt to their team..

[BackHome]

Our offense is as dumb as you can get....take ball down pass to timmy and then set screen and score. It is were the defense get everyone one because that is were Pop puts his stamp on.

[El Jefe]

To a certain degree I would think the offense would have to be simplified. At some point you'll have Hill, Jefferson, MLE Big and Blair all on the court at the same time. At that moment I doubt the entire playbook would be in effect. But with the Big 3, you should have enough of a knowledge base to keep most of it intact.

[El Jefe]

Our offense is as dumb as you can get....take ball down pass to timmy and then set screen and score. It is were the defense get everyone one because that is were Pop puts his stamp on.

By all accounts, the Spurs have one of the larger playbooks in the league. That was part of the reason Pop went with Vaughn over Hill during some stretches of the season, simply because Vaughn knew all of the plays, while Hill was still learning.

[exstatic]

Realistically, the only new heavy contributors will be the MLE big, Blair, and RJ. RJ played in a motion offense in NJ, and if we get one of the Detroit bigs, they will have, too. Blair? Did anyone see The Replacements? Just treat him like the Jon Favreau linebacker character. "Get me the ball!!".

Everyone else will only see spot minutes here or heavy minutes in Austin, where it doesn't really matter.

[lotr1trekkie]

Jefferson will adapt quickly. Mahimni, Blair, McClinton will take time. Hill and Mason are still on the learning curve. Bonner and Finley are one- dimentional! How many more news can the Spurs add? Gist, Williams, Haipslip? Pop definitely needs two veteran bigs to maintain order. Will Tim officially become the center now surrounded by combine 3/4's?
I think we sign Dice and then bring back Oberto for one more. Sheed will require 3 or 4 years guaranteed or he will be a Celtic. Dice and Obert at backup C and then Splitter in 2010.

[Slinkyman]

I thought we had a dumbed-down system last year.

[VivaPopovich]

There are a lot of people on here with sources and whatnot, so I'm wondering if you can answer this question:

With so many new and young players (Jefferson, Haislip, Mclinton, as-of-yet-unnamed MLE big, possibly Gist, Blair), are the Spurs going to dumb-down their complex offensive system and defensive schemes?

As we all know, it normally takes a player a full year in the Spurs' system before they can truly just go out and play, without thinking of where they need to be. Also, I didn't add Mahinmi because he's been in the system long enough to not be able to use that as an excuse

dumb down the offensive schemes, yeah probably. that is a good thing as it shows we have more athletic players now that dont necessarily need genius coaching in order to make plays

hopefully we won't be dependent on the junk defensive schemes we were reliant on last season. i think we'll improve to a simpler, better defense