will_spurs
11-16-2010, 03:25 PM
Looking at the Spurs this year, it looks like Pop has changed his approach from trying to fit a square peg into a round hole to playing on the players' strengths.
Since the last championship and Bowen's retirement, I always had the impression that Pop was trying to win based on a "recipe for success", which among other things went through a defensive stopper (a.k.a Bowen clone) that the Spurs never found. That's the square peg/round hole part: Bonner as center instead of Bonner as Kerr/Horry, Mason Jr as a back-up PG, Hill as a defensive stopper, Jefferson as a defensive stopper, Bogans/Finley as NBA players, etc.
Now on one side the Spurs finally have big men to help Duncan, but more importantly it looks like Pop has adapted his style to whoever's available, and it's working much better than before, with Jefferson (and maybe Parker too) as the main beneficiaries. Maybe the "defense first" era of the Spurs has finally sailed, and by letting players express themselves it's actually easier to get them to commit to defense (have RJ and TP played better defense before? barely). I can only hope the Spurs don't end up as the new Suns...
Since the last championship and Bowen's retirement, I always had the impression that Pop was trying to win based on a "recipe for success", which among other things went through a defensive stopper (a.k.a Bowen clone) that the Spurs never found. That's the square peg/round hole part: Bonner as center instead of Bonner as Kerr/Horry, Mason Jr as a back-up PG, Hill as a defensive stopper, Jefferson as a defensive stopper, Bogans/Finley as NBA players, etc.
Now on one side the Spurs finally have big men to help Duncan, but more importantly it looks like Pop has adapted his style to whoever's available, and it's working much better than before, with Jefferson (and maybe Parker too) as the main beneficiaries. Maybe the "defense first" era of the Spurs has finally sailed, and by letting players express themselves it's actually easier to get them to commit to defense (have RJ and TP played better defense before? barely). I can only hope the Spurs don't end up as the new Suns...