This One's on Pop...

[Chris]

Questionable lineup to start the 4th. Why limit the big 3's minutes during the regular season and not take advantage in the playoffs? No timeout to draw up a play and advance the ball? I guess he was counting on Memphis being prepared for that and catching them off guard or something...If we lose this series it falls squarely on Pop's shoulders imo.

[NewJerSpur]

The points of criticism I dish out in terms of lineup, is have the 3-small-guard look along with Bonner and Blair on the floor together after having either Timmy or Dice on the floor with one of them worked out so well for us last year. Didn't hurt us at the end of the 3rd this game, but he's got to get that straightened out.

[Chris]

The points of criticism I dish out in terms of lineup, is have the 3-small-guard look along with Bonner and Blair on the floor together after having either Timmy or Dice on the floor with one of them worked out so well for us last year. Didn't hurt us at the end of the 3rd this game, but he's got to get that straightened out.

I don't understand why he doesn't put the big guns in when we're making a run to start a quarter. He micromanages minutes for the big 3 regardless of the tempo of the basketball game and only makes his substitutions after we get slapped in the face. It drives me nuts!

[Spurs Brazil]

Actually the lineup in the 2nd half was much better. We didn't see the Turd Towers for more than 2 minutes

We lost this game because of Parker and Turd Towers in the 1st half

[Quiet Strength]

Parker is playing awful and he looks like he doesn't give a shit.

[Cane]

Too many bad turnovers and failures to secure the 50/50 balls like Parker and RJ bumping into eachother for the rebound.

Spurs nearly stole this game with a lacking defensive effort in the first but thats not going to cut it obviously especially with a one armed Ginobili.

[NewJerSpur]

Too many bad turnovers and failures to secure the 50/50 balls like Parker and RJ bumping into eachother for the rebound.

Spurs nearly stole this game with a lacking defensive effort in the first but thats not going to cut it obviously especially with a one armed Ginobili.

That one really hurt, and RJ didn't look like he was interested on helping improve the situation despite all the hustling he'd done for looseballs and the extra effort he made on help defense to prevent a few and-1's.

[BRHornet45]

BS ... Pop gave you guys 4 rings! without him not 1 title would have been won. this one is on Manu (take away his ridiculous amount of free throws and he only scored 11 legit points), Duncan for not being able to control Zandolph, and Parker for...well being Parker

[NewJerSpur]

I don't understand why he doesn't put the big guns in when we're making a run to start a quarter. He micromanages minutes for the big 3 regardless of the tempo of the basketball game and only makes his substitutions after we get slapped in the face. It drives me nuts!

His substitution patterns towards the end of the season and to start these playoffs is not as balanced as it was last year, minutes included. I'm glad the big 3 were able to get us back into the game in the 2nd half but you've got to mix it up earlier imo to have them longer later.

[Capt Bringdown]

Same team as last year, with the same problems.

Pop's 1 for 7 in his last 7 playoff games.

Stonecutter's Blues

[TampaDude]

BS ... Pop gave you guys 4 rings! without him not 1 title would have been won. this one is on Manu (take away his ridiculous amount of free throws and he only scored 11 legit points), Duncan for not being able to control Zandolph, and Parker for...well being Parker

Pop fucked the Spurs by playing Manu against the Suns in a meaningless game. Had Pop rested Manu like he should have, the Spurs would be up 3-0 right now. :bang

[Chris]

His substitution patterns towards the end of the season and to start these playoffs is not as balanced as it was last year, minutes included. I'm glad the big 3 were able to get us back into the game in the 2nd half but you've got to mix it up earlier imo to have them longer later.

Then he need to broaden the rotation. I wouldn't mind seeing Quinn, or Novac getting minutes at this point. Lord knows we're not going to see Splitter.

[lrcvsc]

I love my Spurs and will always love my Spurs... But why is it, when the Spurs win Pop is a freaking genuis, when they lose the players suck. Everyone is afraid to get into Pop's face and say, you screwed up. This all falls on coaching and that is his department.

The last person to call out Pop in the media was fired from the SA Express-News, Mr. Kevin O'Keeffe.

"San Antonio Express-News columnist Kevin O'Keeffe
resigned on Friday after claiming that his editors, who
"didn't like his criticism" of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich,
"told him he could not longer write about the NBA team,"
according to an AP report. O'Keeffe had worked at the
newspaper since '75 and had been a columnist since '80.
O'Keeffe told KSAT-TV: "They thought I had been, quote,
taking cheap shots at Gregg Popovich, unquote. And they
basically said because of that you can't cover the Spurs"
(AP, 2/27). In Saturday's EXPRESS-NEWS, Sports Editor
Robert Rivard said O'Keeffe was "not fired or pressured to
resign. He can continue to write his column if he adheres
to Express-News policies and practices regarding free-lance
work, assignments from editors and giving column subjects
reasonable opportunity to express their point of view. ...
We urged him not to resign." Rivard also added, "The Spurs
have not pressured us, and if they tried, we would not
accommodate them" (EXPRESS-NEWS, 2/27). The EXPRESS-NEWS
listed all of O'Keeffe's recent columns on its Web site
underneath Rivard's explanation (S.A. EXPRESS-NEWS, 3/1).

[NewJerSpur]

Then he need to broaden the rotation. I wouldn't mind seeing Quinn, or Novac getting minutes at this point. Lord knows we're not going to see Splitter.

I wouldn't mind Novac.....he gets a little shot happy but he's also not mechanical on offense and not scared to take a shot, though that ship has likely sailed. I hated seeing Anderson go down, I think he was on his way to being a solid wing in our rotation.

[Chris]

I wouldn't mind Novac.....he gets a little shot happy bugt he's also not mechanical on offense and not scared to take a shot, though that ship has likely sailed. I hated seeing Anderson go down, I think he was on his way to being a solid wing in our rotation.

Anderson would be great to have at this point especially if he could play like he did at the beginning of the season. We need someone that's not scared to shoot. Overpassing lead to too many turnovers this game.

[NewJerSpur]

Anderson would be great to have at this point especially if he could play like he did at the beginning of the season. We need someone that's not scared to shoot. Overpassing lead to too many turnovers this game.

I almost wet my pants the 1st game we had against Phoenix, he made some big shots......then I did wet my pants when I heard he was sidelined for 2 months. He and Neal made defenses have to make some difficult decisions on rotations.

[peskypesky]

Parker is playing awful and he looks like he doesn't give a shit.

this

[timtonymanu]

I almost wet my pants the 1st game we had against Phoenix, he made some big shots......then I did wet my pants when I heard he was sidelined for 2 months. He and Neal made defenses have to make some difficult decisions on rotations.

It sucks our best perimeter defensive player on the team went down the way he did. He would have been huge for us right now. Hopefully he can recover next season.

[Spursmania]

We have no stone cold 3 point shooters. Miss you Horry, miss you Kerr, miss you Jackson.

[timtonymanu]

We have no stone cold 3 point shooters. Miss you Horry, miss you Kerr, miss you Jackson.

miss you Bruce
miss you Brent

Hell I even miss pre-2007 title Michael Finley and I just threw up typing that.

[Thompson]

miss you Brent


'And Barry has committed a flagrant 2 against his own teammate with a folding chair! Oh! They need to invent a flagrant 3 for that piledriver move!'

[NewJerSpur]

It sucks our best perimeter defensive player on the team went down the way he did. He would have been huge for us right now. Hopefully he can recover next season.

Yup, kid looked good. Hopefully he comes into next year on a tear. :toast

[lefty]

http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/4793/pophobo.jpg

[4>0rings]

I can't wait till a writer from the E-N comes out wiht an article on how great Pop is, you know, cause they don't read these forums.

[NewJerSpur]

I can't wait till a writer from the E-N comes out wiht an article on how great Pop is, you know, cause they don't read these forums.

More writers read this forum than you probably think, but keep that on the low.

[Obstructed_View]

Pop shot the ball very poorly...

[LakerHater]

NAH, there were 5 guys out there & not one of them called a GODDAMN timeout!!!!

[Chomag]

Truth is it's not just on Pop. This whole team has mentaly checked out from the owner down.

[silverblk mystix]

BS ... Pop gave you guys 4 rings! without him not 1 title would have been won. this one is on Manu (take away his ridiculous amount of free throws and he only scored 11 legit points), Duncan for not being able to control Zandolph, and Parker for...well being Parker


Or looking at this another way...

Maybe if Pop had retired after 2007...the spurs would have won 2 or 3 more titles....

Since 2007...Pop has completely lost his mind.

[Basketball Jones]

This is NOT on Pop. The players simply are not performing as they should. Missing open shots and poor defense won't win you games no matter who the coach is. I hate all the Pop haters.

[Josepatches_]

Parker was playing like garbage in the 1st half and 3rd quarter.

Then Pop sat him and we made a little run.We were back in the game so people in the forum asked to put TP back in the game and Pop did it. No problem here with his minutes.Even he could play less if I was Pop.

Manu was clearly injured with pain.Tim had a problem in the 1st quarter and he struggled in the offensive end.


The minutes of the big3 weren't the problem.The problem is what the big3 did when they were playing.

[taps]

Tiago got pushed around a lot and was soft on boards