Godbama
03-13-2015, 01:44 PM
I've shared the justifiable concerns with our playoff readiness before, with the stats that showed Parker suffering an extreme possibly age/injury-induced regression...I sometimes wondered if we lacked the spirit and motivation, and I don't think Spurs fans who had (reasonable) concerns along those lines are "not real fans" or moping, I mean obviously you should take regular season stuff with a grain of salt but not completely ignore it.
I think we're getting increasingly competitive, despite it (before tonight) being against weaker competition (though like I said in my other thread, last year during our championship we didn't perform well against contenders either and got called out for it, and we all know how that turned out). More importantly I think, while there are a lot of players not totally there quite yet, more and more of our players and getting into some sort of form as we get closer to the playoffs.
That's not what I wanted to talk about in the thread though, I was looking at the Western standings one day, while commenting to my Laker fan friend that "I wouldn't worry about the Cavaliers in the playoffs, we had a bad three point shooting night and it took a career night from Kyrie, Diaw and Belinelli won't keep shooting like that, and Love and Irving have zero playoff experience". I had added that "the real challenge" is the murderer's row in the West.
But now I'm looking at this shit, and you know what? It's wide fucking open. We're in there. We could easily get a chance to repeat in the Finals, IMO.
1.) The Warriors, the legit challenge, but they've got a first time coach (basically) and the Spurs heebie jeebies. It's going to be tough taking them in the Oracle, this is the one team that will be a real Obstacle.
2.) Memphis, looking lousy lately, poisoned themselves with Jeff Green. Besides, despite the hype of the OH NO SCARY GRIZZLIES, as a Spurs fan I've always felt like we "solved" these guys permanently at the 2013 Conference finals. They still don't really have (consistent) shooters. Fine Conley is better now, but still, they're a Whatever.
3.) Portland, owned them last year, Aldridge thumb-fucked and already thinking of Texas, Wes Matthews out, Dame as childish and easy-to-psych-into-shooting-slumps as ever. They could go off against other teams, but for us...Whatever.
4.) Houston, James Harden is an MVP candidate...Whatever though. They're somehow fine without Dwight, with the Beard taking real steps forward, but I still wouldn't be very frightened of them in a playoff series. He can carry them through the regular season but not against real playoff challenges. We'll blast them inside.
5.) Clippers, health questions, yearly WCF-could've-would've-beens, we've handled them before, will choke in the playoffs again at some point, no heart, Whatever.
7.) Dallas, crippled themselves with the Rondo chemistry poison pill, he'll still be a huge defensive asset and Carlisle is still a sneaky devious fuck, but they look really really sick lately (and not in the good way), this is a solid Whatever.
8.) New Orleans, lol.
Honorable Mention:
The Redneck Hailstorm, still a question mark, potentially deadly if healthy and 100% but haven't shown signs of being able to do that consistently, split between the joy of them missing the playoffs and the hilarity of them making it in eighth and rocking the Warriors, Westbrook has looked amazing most of the time but whatever, they've got Dion Waiters lol. I don't know whether to give them a full whatever, because they're definitely not enough to be a full obstacle. Somewhere in the middle, depending on a lot of unknown variables.
First back to back incoming.
I think we're getting increasingly competitive, despite it (before tonight) being against weaker competition (though like I said in my other thread, last year during our championship we didn't perform well against contenders either and got called out for it, and we all know how that turned out). More importantly I think, while there are a lot of players not totally there quite yet, more and more of our players and getting into some sort of form as we get closer to the playoffs.
That's not what I wanted to talk about in the thread though, I was looking at the Western standings one day, while commenting to my Laker fan friend that "I wouldn't worry about the Cavaliers in the playoffs, we had a bad three point shooting night and it took a career night from Kyrie, Diaw and Belinelli won't keep shooting like that, and Love and Irving have zero playoff experience". I had added that "the real challenge" is the murderer's row in the West.
But now I'm looking at this shit, and you know what? It's wide fucking open. We're in there. We could easily get a chance to repeat in the Finals, IMO.
1.) The Warriors, the legit challenge, but they've got a first time coach (basically) and the Spurs heebie jeebies. It's going to be tough taking them in the Oracle, this is the one team that will be a real Obstacle.
2.) Memphis, looking lousy lately, poisoned themselves with Jeff Green. Besides, despite the hype of the OH NO SCARY GRIZZLIES, as a Spurs fan I've always felt like we "solved" these guys permanently at the 2013 Conference finals. They still don't really have (consistent) shooters. Fine Conley is better now, but still, they're a Whatever.
3.) Portland, owned them last year, Aldridge thumb-fucked and already thinking of Texas, Wes Matthews out, Dame as childish and easy-to-psych-into-shooting-slumps as ever. They could go off against other teams, but for us...Whatever.
4.) Houston, James Harden is an MVP candidate...Whatever though. They're somehow fine without Dwight, with the Beard taking real steps forward, but I still wouldn't be very frightened of them in a playoff series. He can carry them through the regular season but not against real playoff challenges. We'll blast them inside.
5.) Clippers, health questions, yearly WCF-could've-would've-beens, we've handled them before, will choke in the playoffs again at some point, no heart, Whatever.
7.) Dallas, crippled themselves with the Rondo chemistry poison pill, he'll still be a huge defensive asset and Carlisle is still a sneaky devious fuck, but they look really really sick lately (and not in the good way), this is a solid Whatever.
8.) New Orleans, lol.
Honorable Mention:
The Redneck Hailstorm, still a question mark, potentially deadly if healthy and 100% but haven't shown signs of being able to do that consistently, split between the joy of them missing the playoffs and the hilarity of them making it in eighth and rocking the Warriors, Westbrook has looked amazing most of the time but whatever, they've got Dion Waiters lol. I don't know whether to give them a full whatever, because they're definitely not enough to be a full obstacle. Somewhere in the middle, depending on a lot of unknown variables.
First back to back incoming.