Tom_Foolery
04-25-2005, 03:56 AM
We've been down this road before, but the last time we were down this road, we had an excellent PG named Speedy Claxton who ended up saving Parker's butt majority of the games, especially that 1st round with Phoenix the last time we won the championship.
We don't have that luxury anymore.
Claxton & Manu were, IMO, very VERY important pieces to that championship run. We don't have that kind of power off the bench this year. We don't have someone who can save us when Parker has bad games. Our bench is very suspect. Beno can shoot, but it's his defense and mind-lapses that really hurt us. I love the guy, but he is not the player Claxton was when we had that championship run.
Barry has been mediocre at best all season long and tonight was no different. 0 pts and 2 turnovers? We played Glenn Robinson for 6 whole points. We could've definitely used Glenn during that 4th quarter. I'm sorry, but Bowen's 1pt + defense do not compensate for the lack of scoring we had in the 4th. 1pt??? Carmello ended up with 14pts, 6pts less than his average. Bowen ended up with 1pt. I would've rather put Glenn Robinson out there and had him score 10-14pts and let Carmello get his average, which was only 6 more pts. I would've taken that gamble ANYDAY because I know Glenn Robinson would've score much more than 1pt and I'm sure we would've gotten enough stops at the end.
We have been battling injuries all season long and that worries me. I don't know if our chemistry is good enough. Our bigs are hurt and when you're begging for Rasho to come back, it's not a good sign since Rash is not very great to begin with. He's long and he's gotten away with his size more than his skill. He's got potential, but I question his toughness and his mental capacity. I think he gets discouraged easily, he's like the "gentle giant". He needs to get out there and just go to town on guys much smaller than he is, but he doesn't.
I'm just not sure we have what it takes right now. We don't have the bench we did when we last won the championship, we don't have the play at center that DRob provided us defensively. Our chemistry is not very good.
I hope I am wrong and sorry for the pessimistic attitude, but this matchup scares me. Denver's new coach has gotten them rolling like I had never seen from that team before. That is scary. This season, we were never able to put together some really great winning streaks because of injuries.
We had alot more luxuries in the past. We had DRob, we had a dynamic and powerful bench in Malik, Manu and Speedy. We have to roll with our starting 5. Parker is going to win or lose this run to the championship for us. I do not believe we can win with mediocre or poor play from the PG position. We don't have "Shaq" or "Kobe" kind of talent enough to get past that kind of hole.
I think this series is really going to rest on the shoulders of Parker. I don't think Duncan's injury will get much better. All season long, he's healed pretty slowly at times. We don't have a bench to save Parker & Manu.
One of the things I wonder about Popovich is his trust in players. During the season, Popovich is very loose coaching, letting rookies and bench players play through adversity. But during the playoffs, he is usually reluctant to do so. It's not just this year, it's happened in the past.
Last year, one of the reasons why we lost was because of Bowen's lack of offense. I had always supported Bowen and love his defense, but it is my opinion that his lack of offense does not compensate for his extraordinary defense. Carmello scores 6pts less than his average, but Bowen scores 7 points less than his average? I'd rather let Carmello score 20-25pts if Glenn Robinson could score 15-20pts on the floor...we'd win the game.
If we don't win this year, I'm sorry, but I would be all for getting a SF that can score the ball and replacing Bowen in the starting lineup. I don't know how much longer we can last with Bowen scoring 1pt, 3pt, 4pt games.
Alot of talk buzzing around the Portland area is that Shareef wants to come to San Antonio. Although he's a bit big for SF, that's an idea I would be willing to consider.
Man, I'm just losing it!!!
Watch, the Spurs beat Denver by 20pts on Wednesday and I'm thinking to myself..."and I was sweating about???".
I hope so.
Let's see how we come out. Denver is a fine quality opponent, but c'mon...we are the MF'ing SPURS!!!
We should be WAY more intimidating than this.
Also, I think TD needs to establish himself in the post more and be more dominant.
We've gone away from that for a while because of the emergence of Parker & Manu's talent. Let's bring it back to TD's team and set up some low-post and let TD go to work...I think we've all forgotten that TD is the real star of the team, not Manu and Parker.
GO SPURS!
We don't have that luxury anymore.
Claxton & Manu were, IMO, very VERY important pieces to that championship run. We don't have that kind of power off the bench this year. We don't have someone who can save us when Parker has bad games. Our bench is very suspect. Beno can shoot, but it's his defense and mind-lapses that really hurt us. I love the guy, but he is not the player Claxton was when we had that championship run.
Barry has been mediocre at best all season long and tonight was no different. 0 pts and 2 turnovers? We played Glenn Robinson for 6 whole points. We could've definitely used Glenn during that 4th quarter. I'm sorry, but Bowen's 1pt + defense do not compensate for the lack of scoring we had in the 4th. 1pt??? Carmello ended up with 14pts, 6pts less than his average. Bowen ended up with 1pt. I would've rather put Glenn Robinson out there and had him score 10-14pts and let Carmello get his average, which was only 6 more pts. I would've taken that gamble ANYDAY because I know Glenn Robinson would've score much more than 1pt and I'm sure we would've gotten enough stops at the end.
We have been battling injuries all season long and that worries me. I don't know if our chemistry is good enough. Our bigs are hurt and when you're begging for Rasho to come back, it's not a good sign since Rash is not very great to begin with. He's long and he's gotten away with his size more than his skill. He's got potential, but I question his toughness and his mental capacity. I think he gets discouraged easily, he's like the "gentle giant". He needs to get out there and just go to town on guys much smaller than he is, but he doesn't.
I'm just not sure we have what it takes right now. We don't have the bench we did when we last won the championship, we don't have the play at center that DRob provided us defensively. Our chemistry is not very good.
I hope I am wrong and sorry for the pessimistic attitude, but this matchup scares me. Denver's new coach has gotten them rolling like I had never seen from that team before. That is scary. This season, we were never able to put together some really great winning streaks because of injuries.
We had alot more luxuries in the past. We had DRob, we had a dynamic and powerful bench in Malik, Manu and Speedy. We have to roll with our starting 5. Parker is going to win or lose this run to the championship for us. I do not believe we can win with mediocre or poor play from the PG position. We don't have "Shaq" or "Kobe" kind of talent enough to get past that kind of hole.
I think this series is really going to rest on the shoulders of Parker. I don't think Duncan's injury will get much better. All season long, he's healed pretty slowly at times. We don't have a bench to save Parker & Manu.
One of the things I wonder about Popovich is his trust in players. During the season, Popovich is very loose coaching, letting rookies and bench players play through adversity. But during the playoffs, he is usually reluctant to do so. It's not just this year, it's happened in the past.
Last year, one of the reasons why we lost was because of Bowen's lack of offense. I had always supported Bowen and love his defense, but it is my opinion that his lack of offense does not compensate for his extraordinary defense. Carmello scores 6pts less than his average, but Bowen scores 7 points less than his average? I'd rather let Carmello score 20-25pts if Glenn Robinson could score 15-20pts on the floor...we'd win the game.
If we don't win this year, I'm sorry, but I would be all for getting a SF that can score the ball and replacing Bowen in the starting lineup. I don't know how much longer we can last with Bowen scoring 1pt, 3pt, 4pt games.
Alot of talk buzzing around the Portland area is that Shareef wants to come to San Antonio. Although he's a bit big for SF, that's an idea I would be willing to consider.
Man, I'm just losing it!!!
Watch, the Spurs beat Denver by 20pts on Wednesday and I'm thinking to myself..."and I was sweating about???".
I hope so.
Let's see how we come out. Denver is a fine quality opponent, but c'mon...we are the MF'ing SPURS!!!
We should be WAY more intimidating than this.
Also, I think TD needs to establish himself in the post more and be more dominant.
We've gone away from that for a while because of the emergence of Parker & Manu's talent. Let's bring it back to TD's team and set up some low-post and let TD go to work...I think we've all forgotten that TD is the real star of the team, not Manu and Parker.
GO SPURS!