Glimpse

[Mavs<Spurs]

I know it was only the Clippers. But like timvp said, they aren't the Raptors. It was in their building. And I think that we got a glimpse of what this team can be.

Manu has had several great games in a row.
Tim has been playing terrific all season.
Tony's play is on the upswing.
Richard Jefferson is finally starting to meld into the offensive flow.

This team, if everyone remains healthy, can become one of the top 4 or 5 teams in the league.

Again, I know it was just the Clippers and they have to do this consistently and they have a lot of problem areas (turnovers, getting enough plays run for RJ), but we have potentially one of the top five closing teams in basketball: Tony, Manu, Richard, Antonio, and Timmy. A really good rebounding team, esp defensive rebounding. Third best in three point pct. The best bench in the league (42 ppg). Some great transition / fast break players - Tony, Manu, Richard, George. We can be a really good defensive team. At times, we have been. It's been inconsistent, but this team looks a lot better defensively to me than we did last year.

I watched pretty much every game this season (league pass) - some of them more than once.

We are starting to gel. And we got another indication of how good this team has the potential to be.

Let's hope that they eventually get to a point where they play at this level consistently (if that's possible).

:flag:

[Mr.Robinson]

McDyess needs to play better.

[Manu-of-steel]

McDyess is still hesitant to fire those medium range jump shots we know he's capable of making. But i'm seeing improvements in the team chemistry.

[celldweller]

I'm not totally sold on Bogans, but I'll give him props for the last couple of games in which he has shown exceptional contribution.

[TJastal]

I'm not totally sold on Bogans, but I'll give him props for the last couple of games in which he has shown exceptional contribution.

Bogans seems to feast on mediocre teams with mediocre guards. As soon as the spurs started this stretch of bad teams his game immediately picked up.

Last night he rattled home a few treys and shown some playmaking abilities, which he deserves props, but I'm not sold on him until he shows something against the better playoff caliber teams. I want to see him successfully defend some of the bigger and more talented guards out there. Or at least show he can slow them down a bit.

I'm still of the opinion that Roger Mason would be the better choice as a starter. Roger proved his worth against the big time teams last year and his talent is going to waste this year.

[Blackjack]

This team, if everyone remains healthy, can become one of the top 4 or 5 teams in the league.

Have the expectations really fallen that low?

A fully healthy team, with this amount of talent, can only become a top 4 or 5 team?

[Muser]

This team is a championship contender, I don't give a fuck what the douchebags have to say.

[the crimson blur]

Fun fact: despite our woes, we are now 4th in the league in SRS, the best metric for determining how good a team really is. We have a +5.19 margin of victory, and are +8.30 in our last 10. Regardless of how easy our schedule was during that time, we are 8-3 over our last 11. Our team has been dramatically rising in all advanced metrics (DRtg, ORtg, RebR, Opp eFG%, etc) the entire year.

And what better team than the PHX Suns to get our confidence going.

[ElNono]

I actually like the fact that we're back at getting large leads with apparent ease, and like the crimson blur mentions above, our margin of victory is back to being pretty big (what it used to be in our previous championship teams). Some people will say we're only doing it against scrub teams, but we couldn't pull that same feat last season at all. We were barely beating some of these same 'scrub' teams.

Now, we just need to learn how to hold on to these large leads... :lol

[TJastal]

lol @ all the douches who were ready to throw Jefferson under the bus. He just needed time to adjust and he's still adjusting so he's just going to get better yet.

Getting Jefferson may have been one of the best things to happen because its forcing Parker to finally make passing the ball and getting his teammates going offensively a priority

[NuGGeTs-FaN]

Maybe the Nuggets and Spurs can compare notes :lol

The Nuggets are 5-0 vs +.500 western conference teams, but have already lost a handful of games to crappy teams :bang

The Spurs do good vs crappy teams but are bad vs top teams. Both teams need to get together and get some tips from each other and both will start rolling through the league then :toast :lol

[Solid D]

Maybe the Nuggets and Spurs can compare notes :lol

The Nuggets are 5-0 vs +.500 western conference teams, but have already lost a handful of games to crappy teams :bang

The Spurs do good vs crappy teams but are bad vs top teams. Both teams need to get together and get some tips from each other and both will start rolling through the league then :toast :lol

This doesn't bode well for the Spurs in the playoffs but it does for the Nuggz. That is, unless the Nuggz get the Spurs in the first round. :smokin

[Wildcat67]

Theres a lot of time before the playoffs start. The early struggles vs good teams may be a thing of the past by then.

[Manufan909]

This doesn't bode well for the Spurs in the playoffs but it does for the Nuggz. That is, unless the Nuggz get the Spurs in the first round. :smokin

I'm a Spurs fan, but low blow!!!

[Mavs<Spurs]

Maybe the Nuggets and Spurs can compare notes :lol

The Nuggets are 5-0 vs +.500 western conference teams, but have already lost a handful of games to crappy teams :bang

The Spurs do good vs crappy teams but are bad vs top teams. Both teams need to get together and get some tips from each other and both will start rolling through the league then :toast :lol

No wonder you have that sig line: Best Nuggets Troll ever. It's pretty clear that in a 7 game series the Nuggets would beat the Spurs. Imho, it's pretty apparent that one would prefer to have beaten the really good teams and lose a couple of games to inferior teams simply because of complacency. You've already shown the talent. Quite honestly, when I was watching last year's series between the Nuggets and the Lakers, I thought that the Nuggets were the better team and should have won that series. The main problem, imho, for the Nuggets is avoiding mental mistakes, playing smart.

Margin of victory has been and remains the stat I place the most emphasis upon.

[SequSpur]

The Clipps played one qtr last night...they are worse than the raptors.

[raspsa]

Have the expectations really fallen that low?

A fully healthy team, with this amount of talent, can only become a top 4 or 5 team?

That's what Pop said he hopes to achieve by the end of the RS.. one of the 5 or so teams remaining that has a chance to win it all.

[Blackjack]

Pop said something to the effect of: there's about 6 or 7 teams that all have a shot and we hope to be among them by the end of the year; it's coach-speak..

The goal is clear and it's to win a championship; something Pop believes to be possible given a fully healthy roster. Being among a group that has an opportunity to win a title and being the fourth or fifth best team is something I tend to differentiate.

If you could tell me the Spurs would be completely healthy and playing some of their better ball come the playoffs, the only team I'd honestly favor against them is the Lakers; health and maybe a smaller move and/or buyout are the only things needed for this team to win a title.

[mountainballer]

this team is not a contender IMO.
this team does have the potential to become a contender, when they are able to fill some holes and balance the roster and the roles. right now, the team isn't very well balanced. the improvement we saw in the last games should be the minimum expectation you have for a team with that much talent after 1/4 of the season.
as some pointed out, before we don't have some wins against the best teams on our record, it's ridiculous to talk about a championship contender. and yes, some blow out wins at home against disaster teams that sophisticate the statistics are not enough to prove the real abilities of this team.
this team still does not have a "philosophy" IMO and as long as they don't find a track they can follow consequently, all the talent won't put them over the bar. (without the consequent execution of the defensive philosophy of the past, they wouldn't have won a single title. well, maybe 1999, but not 03,05,07)

[Blackjack]

this team is not a contender IMO.
this team does have the potential to become a contender, when they are able to fill some holes and balance the roster and the roles. right now, the team isn't very well balanced. the improvement we saw in the last games should be the minimum expectation you have for a team with that much talent after 1/4 of the season.
as some pointed out, before we don't have some wins against the best teams on our record, it's ridiculous to talk about a championship contender. and yes, some blow out wins at home against disaster teams that sophisticate the statistics are not enough to prove the real abilities of this team.
this team still does not have a "philosophy" IMO and as long as they don't find a track they can follow consequently, all the talent won't put them over the bar. (without the consequent execution of the defensive philosophy of the past, they wouldn't have won a single title. well, maybe 1999, but not 03,05,07)

What's a contender, though?

If you're asking me to project whether this team's going to win a championship right now, the answer's no. But that would be based on the likelihood of them being able to stay healthy enough for long enough, and the absence of a solid role player I believe they need to acquire.

If you give me the Big 3 healthy and playing their best, cohesive ball at the right time, I'll take my chances with the talent that compliments them.

Again, the likelihood of this bunch being close to 100% health-wise and playing their best ball at the right time is slim. But, other than the Lakers, I'd like the Spurs' chances against everyone else given those circumstances.

They're a contender, imo, as long as they're healthy and playing good ball at the right time; if the Lakers suffer an injury and/or an early-ouster, a champion isn't out of the picture..

[xellos88330]

This team is a championship contender, I don't give a fuck what the douchebags have to say.

:toast

[TJastal]

this team is not a contender IMO.
this team does have the potential to become a contender, when they are able to fill some holes and balance the roster and the roles. right now, the team isn't very well balanced. the improvement we saw in the last games should be the minimum expectation you have for a team with that much talent after 1/4 of the season.
as some pointed out, before we don't have some wins against the best teams on our record, it's ridiculous to talk about a championship contender. and yes, some blow out wins at home against disaster teams that sophisticate the statistics are not enough to prove the real abilities of this team.
this team still does not have a "philosophy" IMO and as long as they don't find a track they can follow consequently, all the talent won't put them over the bar. (without the consequent execution of the defensive philosophy of the past, they wouldn't have won a single title. well, maybe 1999, but not 03,05,07)

I think you could call it a philosophy "work in progress". Of course, it goes without saying that with no DRob and Bowen this team isn't going to be the defensive juggernaut of the past title teams.

But, even with all the new changes to the squad Popovich is slowly working things out, even though I don't agree with everything he's doing. The first unit is starting to gel. The 2nd unit is tops in the league. Blair and Bonner are starting to establish they can be a feared frontcourt off then bench. Hill is emerging as a potential top defender in the league.

This team has alot more offense than the teams of the past few years that reached the conference finals, and the defense is equal. Parker and Manu are realizing with all this new talent surrounding them they must help distribute and assist others in both the 1st unit and 2nd. Which must be a load off their shoulders not having to do all the scoring themselves.

All this is encouraging. I think tonight we'll get a feel for where this team is at. With the high powered offense of the Suns and no J Rich, I would expect to see Roger Mason Jr with some extended time, but Popovich seems to have fallen head over heels for Keith Bogans.

[mountainballer]

This team has alot more offense than the teams of the past few years that reached the conference finals, and the defense is equal.

sorry, but this is as wrong as wrong can be.