TrueHoop TV: The Spurs are not a top 5 team in the NBA

[Uriel]

Because I'm an insecure Spurs fan who constantly needs validation from the media, and I am infuriated by this video.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:13377437

Basically, Amin Elhassan of ESPN asserts that the Spurs are not a top five team in the NBA. He says that the Spurs' three biggest strengths these past few years were depth, continuity, and defense, and he argues that all three of those took a step back this offseason.

His partner, Ethan Strauss, was hardly better, saying that the Rockets (not the Spurs) are the second best team in the league, behind the Warriors.

[ceperez]

Because I'm an insecure Spurs fan who constantly needs validation from the media, and I am infuriated by this video.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:13377437

Basically, Amin Elhassan of ESPN asserts that the Spurs are not a top five team in the NBA. He says that the Spurs' three biggest strengths these past few years were depth, continuity, and defense, and he argues that all three of those took a step back this offseason.

His partner, Ethan Strauss, was hardly better, saying that the Rockets (not the Spurs) are the second best team in the league, behind the Warriors.

Looks like click bait.

[hater]

Oh that Muslim.guy? He hates the spurs. He's a terrible analyst in top of it. He said a few years ago Pop is an asshole.

[SPURt]

Amin Elhaterrorist has always hated the Spurs, I'm amazed he has a career at all

[Robz4000]

Elhassan is extremely asspained Aldridge left Portland so his opinion of the Spurs is biased. Straus on the other hand has gone 100% retarded.

[timtonymanu]

Thanks for the recap so I didn't have to click on the link.

Anyway Elhassan has been anti Spurs for a while now.

Who cares though, tbh

[AFBlue]

:lol

Saying Houston is the second best team in the league destroys all credibility. No need to go any deeper tbqh.

[Lostwingman]

I had me a chuckle.

[tmtcsc]

He used to work in the Suns front office before getting his current gig. That's all you need to know. As for his partner in crime, he lost a bet and had to agree with his tard friend.

[heyheymymy]

Elhassan has been a salty Spurs hater for a long time.. My favorite was when some shoe-in playoff series that the Spurs were guaranteed to win and on espn it has all the analysts picks and every one picked the spurs but Elhassan. it was hilarious.

[apalisoc_9]

Spurs fan always mad at every take that doesn't favor the spurs. :lol

The spurs on paper are the best team in the league, obviously. But, Depth is a question mark considering the fact that they have new acquisitions that might nor work. They don't have continuity and defense isn't as good by 0.001 % :lol

The west is pretty stacked this year. Houston, LA, Lebron's team all slightly improved...

I wouldn't be surprised to see the spurs end up getting eliminated in the first round again.

That being said, I have them winning everything this year...But it isn't as bad of a take as people make it out to be IMO.

[skin27]

media strikes again!!!:lol

[Keepin' it real]

Amin Elhaterrorist has always hated the Spurs, I'm amazed he has a career at all

What a weird comment. Only sports journalists who love the Spurs can have careers?

[AFBlue]

Spurs fan always mad at every take that doesn't favor the spurs. :lol

The spurs on paper are the best team in the league, obviously. But, Depth is a question mark considering the fact that they have new acquisitions that might nor work. They don't have continuity and defense isn't as good by 0.001 % :lol

The west is pretty stacked this year. Houston, LA, Lebron's team all slightly improved...

I wouldn't be surprised to see the spurs end up getting eliminated in the first round again.

That being said, I have them winning everything this year...But it isn't as bad of a take as people make it out to be IMO.

Yes, it's bad. Most analysts had the Spurs as one of two teams that could pose a legitimate threat to the eventual champions. And that team went out and added the premier free agent on the market. Add the continuity with the return of Green and Manu, and you have a STAAAAACKED team.

Maybe you could argue not top-3. But not top-5? Ridiculous tbqh.

[SpursFan86]

That being said, I have them winning everything this year...But it isn't as bad of a take as people make it out to be IMO.

Agreed.

GS, Cleveland, LAC, and OKC could all realistically be argued over us. Houston is a pretty big stretch, but it's not some "omfg are you serious?!?!?!?!" opinion. It's a bad take, but not so bad that it's worth being outraged over :lol

Also, I don't think there's going to be a huge different between the top teams. Someone could say GS is the best team and SA is the 4th best team, but that doesn't necessarily mean GS is way better than SA or anything.

[SPURt]

What a weird comment. Only sports journalists who love the Spurs can have careers?
Yep, I LOVE SKIP BAYLESS!!!

[skin27]

fuck

[peacemaker885]

Meh. It wi be boring if everyone called it for the Spurs. Its just entertainment. We know it. PATFO knows it. The team knows it. Its Tim's last year most likely so we should expect a fantastic performance from everybody. And of course, win one for DW.

[TheGreatYacht]

Who? These truehoop faggots always say the stupidest shit for clicks.

[spurraider21]

:lol he had pelicans top 5 and not spurs

[apalisoc_9]

:lol he had pelicans top 5 and not spurs

Oh he had NOH as top 5?

Well that is a stupid take :lol

Really, IMO the worst acceptable ranking the spurs deserve is probably a 4..a 5 wouldn't really that bad of a take if it was LA, Warriors, Lebron, Houston, Thunder...even though the thunder is a huge question mark..

[TheGreatYacht]

A Suns and Warriors guy talking basketball :lol oh and he also had the Thunder out of the Top 5...

[Baseline21]

I bet those cocksuckers are the ones who said Spurs were done 7yrs ago and Duncan should've retired. U know how analyst and reporters get to bash players,coaches,gm,owners and fans. Why don't they get punished for making idiotic picks and get fired. Remember the people on tv think they're the smartest people on that sport. They should be held accountable and they would do more research. Plus let's face it, a lot of people on TV don't like Spurs but say the right things because they look so stupid so many times picking against them. Yeah I'm calling u out Chris Broussard,Stephen Asshole smith,Isaiah Thomas,Charles Barkley but I like Barkley because he always has some interning things to say and he truly respects Spurs and was always a fan of Spurs but he thought Father Time was due like 5yrs ago but he keeps sticking to that and making him look stupid. Barkley is the best and I respect that because he admits he's wrong but keeps saying its Father Time this year, Brian windhurst u fat piece of shit and sucks LeBron James off everywhere, he always bashed Spurs until they whooped his boyfriend LeBron ass in Miami, ric bucher always hated Spurs and even when they did good because let's face it they been good for along time, would say some negative shit about Spurs and Manu or Parker, theirs others but can't think of their name right at this moment. Respect the best GoSpursGo

[TheGreatYacht]

629007714719436800

Dude got more eyebrow than he got body

[SuperCam]

tbh it's not inconceivable that CLE/GS/HOU/OKC/LAC could all be better. Save for OKC who lost Durant to the foot thing, you could say they were all better last year.


go ahead spursfan tell me again LAC series was just a fluke :downspin:




ps: Splitter was the straw that stirred the drink on defense.

[gambit1990]

:lol guess he's in for a surprise.

[AFBlue]

629007714719436800

Dude got more eyebrow than he got body

That's some terrible logic tbqh. Everyone knows the Spurs are a matchup nightmare for the Warriors. Hell, even Steve Kerr knew it. I'd also like to understand how you dismiss or discount adding a 23/10 guy to your lineup? Clown tbqh.

[timtonymanu]

That's some terrible logic tbqh. Everyone knows the Spurs are a matchup nightmare for the Warriors. Hell, even Steve Kerr knew it. I'd also like to understand how you dismiss or discount adding a 23/10 guy to your lineup? Clown tbqh.

:lol he's acting like we brought back the same exact group from last season. Anyway I'm not crowning the Spurs yet, but these analysts just sound salty more than logical.

[AFBlue]

tbh it's not inconceivable that CLE/GS/HOU/OKC/LAC could all be better. Save for OKC who lost Durant to the foot thing, you could say they were all better last year.


go ahead spursfan tell me again LAC series was just a fluke :downspin:

Disagree to agree with your assessment of last year. But irrespective of that point, they didn't have LaMarcus Aldridge last year either. There's no way you stay even or lose ground when you add a player of his caliber to your lineup. No way, tbqh.

[TheGreatYacht]

Disagree to agree with your assessment of last year. But irrespective of that point, they didn't have LaMarcus Aldridge last year either. There's no way you stay even or lose ground when you add a player of his caliber to your lineup. No way, tbqh.
He's a troll lol

[TVI]

What a weird comment. Only sports journalists who love the Spurs can have careers?
Nah, but a little objectivity can go a long way towards credibility.

[AFBlue]

:lol he's acting like we brought back the same exact group from last season. Anyway I'm not crowning the Spurs yet, but these analysts just sound salty more than logical.

Just trying to generate clicks tbqh. Being controversial and contrarian helps you stand out. Of course, it could also ruin your credibility if you're wrong enough of the time. Salty, stupid or otherwise...this position is really just indefensible tbqh.

[Sean Cagney]

Oh that Muslim.guy? He hates the spurs. He's a terrible analyst in top of it. He said a few years ago Pop is an asshole.

When I see some of those guys on ESPN open their mouth and know they are idiot Spurs haters I turn down the volume almost immediately tbh. I remember that rat bastard Israel whatever his name is begins to talk, volume down.

[littlecoyotecoin]

tbh it's not inconceivable that CLE/GS/HOU/OKC/LAC could all be better. Save for OKC who lost Durant to the foot thing, you could say they were all better last year.


go ahead spursfan tell me again LAC series was just a fluke :downspin:




ps: Splitter was the straw that stirred the drink on defense.

You conveniently add Okc to themix due to injury, but gloss over the fact that two of our starters, Tony and Tiago were injured on and off all year, and both half-assing it during the playoffs. If Parker and Tiago are healthy, that series could have easily shifted to us. Easily.

Parker may be healthier this year, with Mills back (who was also out half the season almost...and started the domino injury effect on Tony). And, it's hard to argue getting LA for Splitter made us worse.

But, it's ok. I sure prefer heading into the season as underdogs lol. As ridiculous as that sounds to say "out loud".

The Clippers won, but they were definitely the recipients of the good fortune that was an injury-plagued year.

[SuperCam]

You conveniently add Okc to themix due to injury, but gloss over the fact that two of our starters, Tony and Tiago were injured on and off all year, and both half-assing it during the playoffs. If Parker and Tiago are healthy, that series could have easily shifted to us. Easily.

Parker may be healthier this year, with Mills back (who was also out half the season almost...and started the domino injury effect on Tony). And, it's hard to argue getting LA for Splitter made us worse.

But, it's ok. I sure prefer heading into the season as underdogs lol. As ridiculous as that sounds to say "out loud".

The Clippers won, but they were definitely the recipients of the good fortune that was an injury-plagued year.

Seems like a lot of spursfan think that top 10 PG bill parker is right around the corner if only his :cry hamstrings weren't injured :cry

can 34 year old bill handle russ/steph/lawson/paul/irving in the playoffs on defense? even spurshomer knows that's a stretch.


swapping out tiago for black kevin love will be interesting. no brainer that BKL is world's better offensively, but anytime you lose the straw that stirred the drink on defense, bad things can happen

[TheGreatYacht]

Just by looking at Ethan Strauss on Twitter for 2 minutes, I found where this frustration is coming from.. He's mad that no one believed the Warriors could've beaten the Spurs had they met.



He's bothered by the big ass *

[SpursFan86]

Okay yeah, that's a horrible take (re: "Spurs couldn't even beat Pelicans when it mattered!") :lol Using one regular season game to determine a team's strength is absurdly stupid.

Regardless, I maintain that putting Houston over SA isn't THAT insane. Again, it's a pretty big stretch, but it's not some absurd opinion that should immediately be dismissed.

GS won 67 games last year and put up an all-time great point differential. They brought back the same team, and they could likely experience internal improvement from their young core growing up + Kerr having another year under his belt.

Cleveland seems pretty self-explanatory.

LAC won 56 games last year and had the 2nd best point differential in the league. They replaced Barnes with Pierce, and finally put together a seemingly solid bench. They had the best starting lineup in the league last year, so there was really no need to make adjustments there.

OKC obviously had tons of injuries last year, but the talent is certainly there. They're the biggest question mark IMO. It wouldn't surprise me if they won 65 games, and it wouldn't surprise me if they barely won 50. If KD can stay healthy, they'll almost certainly be near the top of the West.

Houston won 56 games last year, and that was with Dwight missing 40 games as well as Terrence Jones missing 50 games. Their biggest problem was a lack of a secondary playmaker outside of Harden, and they definitely found an answer to that with Ty Lawson. I have some questions about how he'll fit alongside Harden, but the potential is definitely there for Houston to be a legitimate threat.

As for us, we won 55 games last year and dealt with a myriad of injuries ourselves. Patty missed the first half of the season and then wasn't himself when he came back. Splitter was constantly injured. Kawhi missed a decent chunk of games. We went out and added an elite player in Aldridge. All that being said, there is reason to doubt whether we'll be some instant juggernaut. Aldridge looks like a good fit on paper, but you never know when it comes to adding such a high usage piece to an already fairly loaded team. Duncan will be 40 come playoffs, and Manu will be 38. Yes, they've aged like wine and as a Spurs fan, Duncan has earned the right to not be questioned. But you can't fault someone for thinking he might fall off a bit. Parker just had an absolutely horrible season, and now he'll be 34 come next playoffs. Obviously us Spurs fans (well, most of us anyways :lol ) are optimistic he'll have a bounce back year, but keep in mind a lot of us said the same thing last offseason. How many people predicted Parker to have a great season after taking the summer off to get rested? I know I did.

tl;dr: There are a lot of teams with the potential to be insanely good next year, so not having the Spurs at the very top isn't the craziest thing in the world. I certainly have us in the top 3, and I'm picking us to win it all, but there are reasonable doubts to be had with the team. Doubts about other teams as well - just depends on which doubts you think are the most reasonable.

[littlecoyotecoin]

Seems like a lot of spursfan think that top 10 PG bill parker is right around the corner if only his :cry hamstrings weren't injured :cry

can 34 year old bill handle russ/steph/lawson/paul/irving in the playoffs on defense? even spurshomer knows that's a stretch.


swapping out tiago for black kevin love will be interesting. no brainer that BKL is world's better offensively, but anytime you lose the straw that stirred the drink on defense, bad things can happen

I don't think you fully appreciate the Mills injury domino effect it had on Parker, Manu, and having to overplay a 3rd string point guard. Parker, if managed, could have been significantly better, and still can be. He doesn't need to be 2013 Parker, but even that wasn't that long ago. Plus, he was fat.

[Spurtacular]

Oh that Muslim.guy? He hates the spurs. He's a terrible analyst in top of it. He said a few years ago Pop is an asshole.

How do you know he's Muslim? Just wondering.

[skin27]

how can i post lagrer picture than 500 x 100 px on my sig?

[fusionjazzman72]

How do you know he's Muslim? Just wondering.

Because he eats bacon!

[Spurtacular]

Found this:

http://bustedcoverage.com/2015/06/30/espns-amin-elhassan-was-j-o-k-i-n-g-about-taking-mia-khalifa-out-to-dinner/

The Disney Sports Network didn't like that.

[Spurtacular]

How do you know he's Muslim? Just wondering.

N/M. Now that I see the full name, it's relatively obvious.

[RD2191]

I thought strauss was a spurs dickrider tbh.

[Spurtacular]

629007714719436800

Dude got more eyebrow than he got body

Spurs at Pelicans:

1. Spurs were running on fumes after making that last season dash for the two spot.
2. Pelicans were in Game 7 mode for that game.
3. Pelicans never had any belief they could win that GS series.

....

Clips were pretty beat up after that Spurs series. They still took out Houston minus the choking. But I don't think they believed they could beat a well rested Warriors; and that contributed to their lack of focus vs. Houston.

And like another poster said, Spurs were a nightmare match-up for the Warriors. Their saving grace was HCA to take that series 6 or 7 games and hope for the best.

[Spurtacular]

Found this:

http://bustedcoverage.com/2015/06/30/espns-amin-elhassan-was-j-o-k-i-n-g-about-taking-mia-khalifa-out-to-dinner/

The Disney Sports Network didn't like that.

This guy's dancing on the edge. ESPN may not want to renew his contract...He needs web hits. The take is a gimmick, tbh. No self respecting basketball analyst thinks that the Spurs aren't a top five team.

[goliath]

Amin worked for the suns front office during the Nash era. He was there when we would rip their hearts out year after year after year. In one of his chats he said his best moment was when the suns swept the spurs in the playoffs and talked smack to a spurs fan about it in his chat. He always rags and puts down the spurs because of that.

[tatteredprince]

fuck the analysts

i dont care if this Spurs team is ranked last in the league, we are going to destroy the NBA this season

actually, 70 wins are possible, but Pop is wiser than that

so, whatever the ranking, we are the best. period. end of story

[jiggy_55]

Oh that Muslim.guy? He hates the spurs. He's a terrible analyst in top of it. He said a few years ago Pop is an asshole.

It's not because he is a Muslim that he is a retard or he doesn't like the Spurs, asshole.

[DenialTwist]

629007714719436800

Dude got more eyebrow than he got body

I hate both Elhassan and Strauss. They've been bashing the spurs along with Tom Haberstroh on True Hoop TV and ESPN radio the last few years now. Amin says the Pelicans are a top 5 team?! lol yes they have a top5 player but no way are they a top 5 team just because they have Gentry as their coach.

[tatteredprince]

its better this way guys

the under-the-radar-philosophy of the Spurs, hmmmm

Go Spurs go!!!!

:lobt2:

[jiggy_55]

N/M. Now that I see the full name, it's relatively obvious.

Does religion matter in the sports world? Or in journalism/reporting for sports? This is completely irrelevant

[DenialTwist]

I thought strauss was a spurs dickrider tbh.

No. NEVER. He hated all the spurs championship runs while the Warriors were drowning in mediocrity tanking all those years under bad ownership. He said last year that the spurs 2014 championship win was all because of luck. It's on one of their end of the year True Hoop podcasts.

[Spursfanfromafar]

Depth, Continuity, Defense.. hmm..

Depth: 14-15: Ginobili, Diaw, Mills, Joseph, Baynes, Belinelli, Bonner, Ayres, Anderson, Williams.

Depth: 15-16: Ginobili, Diaw, West, Mills, Bonner, Anderson, Simmons, McCallum, Fredette, Marjanovic.

On Sum: No big change.

Continuity:

14-15 Playoff lineup: Parker, Green, Leonard, Duncan, Splitter, Ginobili, Diaw, Mills, Baynes, Belinelli

15-16 Playoff lineup (projected): Parker, Green, Leonard, Duncan, Aldridge, Ginobili, Diaw, Mills, West, Anderson.

No. of players retained: 7/10. Improvements: Aldridge over Splitter; West over Baynes; Belinelli <> Anderson. In other words, there is continuity and clear improvement.

Defense:

Yep, technically Splitter > Aldridge; but a hurt Splitter is clearly not as good as he would be and Aldridge makes up for that. West is a good defender too. The Spurs will have as good a defensive team as last year, but will be far better on offense.

In all aspects, the Spurs just got much better. Only a blind man will not notice that.

[timtonymanu]

Strauss is scared of dem Spurs. :lol

[Spurtacular]

It's not because he is a Muslim that he is a retard or he doesn't like the Spurs, asshole.

Anyone that's Muslim is giving you the middle finger (and wants to give you more than that).

[Spurtacular]

Does religion matter in the sports world? Or in journalism/reporting for sports? This is completely irrelevant

Said what I need to say in the post above. Gonna try to keep it basketball...

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

All Suns fans hate the Spurs, it's natural. Nothing to see here.

[Kidd K]

What a weird comment. Only sports journalists who love the Spurs can have careers?

You looked at what he said in the most retarded way possible.

Clearly he was referring to the fact you'd have to be dumb as fuck not to think the Spurs are a top team, because they are. This has nothing to do with being a fan as opposed to having a brain and even barebones knowledge of the NBA.

[Sean Cagney]

Amin worked for the suns front office during the Nash era. He was there when we would rip their hearts out year after year after year. In one of his chats he said his best moment was when the suns swept the spurs in the playoffs and talked smack to a spurs fan about it in his chat. He always rags and puts down the spurs because of that.

Suns fans still bitter over 07 to this day, regardless of the other ass whippings we gave that team :lol. When they beat that average 010 Spurs team they still didnt win it all tbh :lol

[Sean Cagney]

No. NEVER. He hated all the spurs championship runs while the Warriors were drowning in mediocrity tanking all those years under bad ownership. He said last year that the spurs 2014 championship win was all because of luck. It's on one of their end of the year True Hoop podcasts.

Oh yeah because the most wins by 15 plus points and finals record by margin of victory is clearly just luck.. That guy sounds like a bitter kid talking sports tbh. Glad I dont follow them nor even know who they are. The Spurs win these clowns still hate.

[tatteredprince]

:bobo

[tatteredprince]

lol, im liking my signature

but i dont know how to put a picture yet......uhmmm

[Spurtacular]

Suns fans still bitter over 07 to this day...The YT comments are tear stained.

It appears so...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvkKdXLwt0U

[YGWHI]

Anyone that's Muslim is giving you the middle finger (and wants to give you more than that).

Anyone? I try to avoid generalizations.

Stereotyping, prejudice intensify the escalation of hate and violence, nobody needs racism or religious hatred here.

Like you said before, keep it basketball.


Does religion matter in the sports world? Or in journalism/reporting for sports? This is completely irrelevant
Agreed.

[Spurtacular]

Anyone? I try to avoid generalizations.

Stereotyping, prejudice intensify the escalation of hate and violence, nobody needs racism or religious hatred here.

Like you said before, keep it basketball.


Agreed.

To defend the ignorant and insulting and accusation that I'm merely "stereotyping," or "intesify(ing) the escalation of hate..." I'l note that my take is based upon the tenets / current state/ history of that murderous lifestyle that masquerades as a religion. Also, Islam is not a race, dude.

Now, we can keep it basketball though if you prefer.

[YGWHI]

To defend the ignorant and insulting and accusation that I'm merely "stereotyping," or "intesify(ing) the escalation of hate..." I'l note that my take is based upon the tenets / current state/ history of that murderous lifestyle that masquerades as a religion. Also, Islam is not a race, dude.

Now, we can keep it basketball though if you prefer.

You're so ignorant to discuss about religion appropriately so I agree with you, keep it basketball.

[tatteredprince]

:bobo

[Spurtacular]

You're so ignorant to discuss about religion appropriately so I agree with you, keep it basketball.

Pick up an f'ing Quran and read it. Read about all the calls for death to the infidels and then come back and call me ignorant, mofo.

[YGWHI]

You seem mad, just keep it basketball.

[jiggy_55]

Anyone that's Muslim is giving you the middle finger (and wants to give you more than that).

You can shove that statement up your ass. I am a proud Muslim, and it being mentioned to diss Amin Elhassan is pretty fucking stupid and irrelevant. Even though I dislike the idiot and have even un-followed him on Twitter for his idiotic opinions, what his religion is of no matter to you or anyone else and obviously has no reflection on his sports opinion.

[Spurtacular]

You can shove that statement up your ass. I am a proud Muslim, and it being mentioned to diss Amin Elhassan is pretty fucking stupid and irrelevant. Even though I dislike the idiot and have even un-followed him on Twitter for his idiotic opinions, what his religion is of no matter to you or anyone else and obviously has no reflection on his sports opinion.

Proud of all the so-called kafir your people have killed, no doubt.

[jiggy_55]

Pick up an f'ing Quran and read it. Read about all the calls for death to the infidels and then come back and call me ignorant, mofo.

Easily the most ignorant statement I've read here. I'm done talking to you. Pathetic.

[Spurtacular]

Easily the most ignorant statement I've read here. I'm done talking to you. Pathetic.

Says the guy who's part of a murder cult.

[Axegrinder]

:(The feels:(

[spurraider21]

629007714719436800

Dude got more eyebrow than he got body
:lol this is the SJW cuck who cries racism anytime lebron is criticized

[Cloud786]

As painful as watching that video was, I viewed it up until Hassan said he had the Pelicans in his top 5. I cringed so hard and closed the tab in a blink. I truly, truly do NOT understand why everybody is all over Anthony Davis. He has to be one of the most overrated players ever. He's injury prone, lacks aggressiveness, and doesn't have the requisite intangibles that you see in a champion. With Gentry at the helm, they'll make progress if he instills a motion offense with an emphasis on defensive tenacity (see Atlanta, Golden State), but top 5? You have to be kidding me. I'd take Cousins or an aggressive MGasol over this clown. Genetic lottery hype train, he's basically another gimmick like Harden but with a unibrow instead of a beard

[Maj_G]

He is the reason I stopped listening to the ESPN BB podcast, please don't click on the link. Dude just tries to get some attention.

and to address his points;

LMA is as good of a defender as Splitter was and he can stay on the floor A LOT longer, oh and you don't think Timmy and Pop will make him an even better on D just like they did with Tiago?

plus our depth is still there; KL, LMA, TD, TP, DG, Manu, Boris, West, Patty that's 9 players deep and that's w/o the very intriguing prospects we added over summer. Continuity too. Our main core of guys are back and the new guys are good fit.

[Spurtacular]

As painful as watching that video was, I viewed it up until Hassan said he had the Pelicans in his top 5. I cringed so hard and closed the tab in a blink. I truly, truly do NOT understand why everybody is all over Anthony Davis. He has to be one of the most overrated players ever. He's injury prone, lacks aggressiveness, and doesn't have the requisite intangibles that you see in a champion. With Gentry at the helm, they'll make progress if he instills a motion offense with an emphasis on defensive tenacity (see Atlanta, Golden State), but top 5? You have to be kidding me. I'd take Cousins or an aggressive MGasol over this clown. Genetic lottery hype train, he's basically another gimmick like Harden but with a unibrow instead of a beard

:lol I had it running for the full vid; but I stopped listening upon hearing the dude's lame reasons for the Spurs not being top 5... But Pels as top five? Wow!

AD is a great talent. Maybe he's over-rated? I'll say this much; his game is based upon extreme athleticism. He's one knee injury away from being a poor man's (old) Duncan.

If we're talking about over-rated, I think Gentry fits the bill. This is not a very smart guy, I say with all due respect. And that's why he'll never win a ring no matter where he goes, imo.

[Mal]

Pelicans in top 5 :lmao with black coach, turkish wood and chuckers who cant shoot :lmao

[kobyz]

We had a better shot winning it all last year, that for sure...

[Spurtacular]

We had a better shot winning it all last year, that for sure...

Not saying you're wrong...but how do you figure?

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

Pelicans in top 5 :lmao with black coach, turkish wood and chuckers who cant shoot :lmao

Gentry is pretty white when it comes to coaching though :lol

[Spurtacular]

The one thing I'll say in favor of the Pelicans is that they looked so much more athletic than the Spurs in that final regular season game.

[ceperez]

It's all going to boil down to great execution and avoidance of injuries.

So lots of these predictions are really meaningless.

Spurs are consistent because they focus on execution and that's despite the declining athleticism of their best players.

A lot of NBA teams with younger talent can win the championship. Look at the Warriors, the difference between a championship and being eliminated boiled down to the system Kerr put in place to basically reduce all the bonehead plays that destroy efficiency. Spurs could have lost to any of the Warriors teams in previous years, but fortunately they had Mark Jackson coaching.

The problem for the league though is that the Spurs have a really good player now in LaMarcus Aldridge. Just enough new talent to keep them competing at a very high level for at least 2 more season.

[Raven]

lol rockets

[kobyz]

Not saying you're wrong...but how do you figure?

We were the same team that just won a title in a fashion, we should have had great momentum and confidant, others top teams were too young, too inexperienced, too lack depth or too not ready, if Pop took it seriously enough, run and manage the team the right way we should have had no threats winning it all, Pop ruin golden oportonity!

[Uriel]

Depth, Continuity, Defense.. hmm..

Depth: 14-15: Ginobili, Diaw, Mills, Joseph, Baynes, Belinelli, Bonner, Ayres, Anderson, Williams.

Depth: 15-16: Ginobili, Diaw, West, Mills, Bonner, Anderson, Simmons, McCallum, Fredette, Marjanovic.

On Sum: No big change.

Continuity:

14-15 Playoff lineup: Parker, Green, Leonard, Duncan, Splitter, Ginobili, Diaw, Mills, Baynes, Belinelli

15-16 Playoff lineup (projected): Parker, Green, Leonard, Duncan, Aldridge, Ginobili, Diaw, Mills, West, Anderson.

No. of players retained: 7/10. Improvements: Aldridge over Splitter; West over Baynes; Belinelli <> Anderson. In other words, there is continuity and clear improvement.

Defense:

Yep, technically Splitter > Aldridge; but a hurt Splitter is clearly not as good as he would be and Aldridge makes up for that. West is a good defender too. The Spurs will have as good a defensive team as last year, but will be far better on offense.

In all aspects, the Spurs just got much better. Only a blind man will not notice that.
:tu

[SupremeGuy]

Well that does it, season over. See you next year guys. :cry

:lol

Fuck those guys, you know they're scared shitless of the Spurs. I hope the media keeps pumping out articles like this, tbh. I want our team to play like pissed of devils next year; just fucking blitzkrieging the whole league and shitting our their impure bones. WAR SPURS!

:flag:

[DenialTwist]

We had a better shot winning it all last year, that for sure...

Because Kyrie and Kevin Love were out. That was their chance. Even Tony Parker said that recently. Oh well. Race for Seis in 2016 it is :toast

[Spurtacular]

We were the same team that just won a title in a fashion, we should have had great momentum and confidant, others top teams were too young, too inexperienced, too lack depth or too not ready, if Pop took it seriously enough, run and manage the team the right way we should have had no threats winning it all, Pop ruin golden oportonity!

I still think the series of bad luck injury wise and losing games in 3OT, etc. killed that team. They had still finally got it together and then Splitter had to go and get injured. And people forget that Splitter was rocking it before that. I think he was shooting like 73 percent over a 10 plus game stretch at one point while anchoring a very strong defense.

I agree that the league was ours if we go into that playoff series right. Maybe, Pop should've shut down Parker? Maybe, he should've rested players and stopped going for HCA? I think without the benefit of hindsight, the strategy was right though. This team would've went to a conference finals as a two seed and been prime to finish off the Warriors and then Cavs.

Going into next year's playoffs though, I'm sure we won't be going up against the other hottest team in the league in Round One. So, in that way, our chance to succeed may be greater.

[spursistan]

Just by looking at Ethan Strauss on Twitter for 2 minutes, I found where this frustration is coming from.. He's mad that no one believed the Warriors could've beaten the Spurs had they met.



He's bothered by the big ass *
he is an unsufferable homer (Warriors) who is both annoying in writing and on air..I don't know where he gets that smugness of his..a couple of years ago he was some run-of mill fan/blogger..Somebody slap him silly..

[Texas_Ranger]

damn I am scared of those Pelican now.

[TheGreatYacht]

he is an unsufferable homer (Warriors) who is both annoying in writing and on air..I don't know where he gets that smugness of his..a couple of years ago he was some run-of mill fan/blogger..Somebody slap him silly..
He used to be cool like Zach Lowe, but ever since he got that Warriors beat writer job he's turned to shit.

Their click bait worked, it got us talking lol.

[Obstructed_View]

If I'm to believe what everyone says that the Spurs have a really small fan base, I can only imagine the motivation for people trolling us so hard is the great reactions they can get from us. Maybe some of us should stop reacting.

[spurraider21]

i like the part where aldridge doesnt help the spurs

[dweaver99027]

Who had the Rockets as the #2 seed this time last year, after missing out on Bosh and losing Parsons? Who can guarantee that Davis' improvent along with Gentry won't catapult NO to elite territory? Who can guarantee health for the Spurs throughout 2016? Not me, on all 3 counts.

[Fireball]

Nothing is guaranteed and I think the Rockets look pretty darn good. Many things can happen, but in most parallel universes the Spurs will be a Top 5 team this season and the Pelicans will be not ...

[dweaver99027]

Indeed. But using the 'in most parallel universes' argument, normalises the probability distribution of all possible outcomes. We only care what will happen, not what should happen. In simpler terms - Would we bet on it right now? How much would we bet?

[FromWayDowntown]

The great thing about the NBA is that the seasons eliminate most/all subjectivity about the quality of teams.

[dweaver99027]

That's the 'great' or 'awful' thing about real life in general. One outcome happens.

[maverick1948]

WTF is TrueHoop TV??? Those 2 things on the video should be dropped. Not because they did not pick the Spurs but because neither has the brain power to think and reason.

[GSH]

He considers himself a Top 5 Analyst in the NBA. Reason enough to dismiss the rest of his little story.

[Hoops Czar]

Elhassan is extremely asspained Aldridge left Portland so his opinion of the Spurs is biased. Straus on the other hand has gone 100% retarded.

Not that Spurstalk's opinions are biased or anything like that.

[DenialTwist]

He used to be cool like Zach Lowe, but ever since he got that Warriors beat writer job he's turned to shit.

Their click bait worked, it got us talking lol.

Nah. Ethan was never as cool as anyone from Grantland especially someone respected like Zach Lowe. Strauss is/has/will always be a Warriors beat writer. He hasn't elevated his writing to the national level. I mean what else will he contribute concerning other NBA teams? he said he doesn't watch any other team unless it's against the warriors. The nerve of this guy to call himself a 'basketball writer' and not a beat writer in his twitter bio. He changed it at the end of last season so he wouldn't look like a homer.

That's why Arash Markazi, who is a clippers beat writer is being promoted to the main nba on espn and espn radio show next season. Strauss is a homer because he's a diehard warriors fan from Oakland and was tired of watching the Spurs win their championships. So, now he tries to shit on the spurs every chance he gets with his 'hate hard' sidekick Amin. And the spurs being eliminated in the first round gave him alot of ammo.

[TD 21]

Spurs fan always mad at every take that doesn't favor the spurs. :lol

That being said, I have them winning everything this year...But it isn't as bad of a take as people make it out to be IMO.


Agreed.

You guys are missing the point. It's not that the notion of the Warriors, Cavaliers, Thunder, Clippers or Rockets, being better is far fetched, it's the source.

In general, Elhassan knows his stuff, but his blatant bias for anything that has to do with the mid-late aughts Suns and against anything to do with the Spurs, makes him look petty and pathetic and ESPN should be embarrassed at the rampant homers (like the Warriors fan boy Strauss) they have working for them. I don't know why this has become acceptable.

His reasoning for a lot of what he said didn't even make sense. He talked about continuity, but ignored the fact that the Spurs are returning 7 of their top 8 players and significantly upgraded the one new addition to that mix, then turned around and boasted about the Thunder, who's projected rotation hasn't played a single game with their best player. He also acted like the Spurs aren't a proven commodity, but the Warriors, who've been good for five minutes and had the easiest path to a championship in at least recent memory, supposedly deserve some ultimate level of respect.

From acting like Aldridge isn't even among the elite PF's, to acting like he's Boozer/Lee defensively, to acting like Gentry will be a bigger addition than him, there were so many ridiculous statements made.

[Hoops Czar]

You guys are missing the point. It's not that the notion of the Warriors, Cavaliers, Thunder, Clippers or Rockets, being better is far fetched, it's the source.

Elhassan knows his stuff, but his blatant bias for anything that has to do with the mid-late aughts Suns and against anything to do with the Spurs, makes him look petty and pathetic and ESPN should be embarrassed at the rampant homers (like the Warriors fan boy Strauss) they have working for them. I don't know why this has become acceptable.

His reasoning for a lot of what he said didn't even make sense. He talked about continuity, but ignored the fact that the Spurs are returning 7 of their top 8 players and significantly upgraded the one new addition to that mix, then turned around and boasted about the Thunder, who's projected rotation hasn't played a single game with their best player. He also acted like the Spurs aren't a proven commodity, but the Warriors, who've been good for five minutes and had the easiest path to a championship in at least recent memory, supposedly deserve some ultimate level of respect.

Agreed. At least since the 2014 Spurs.

[apalisoc_9]

You guys are missing the point. It's not that the notion of the Warriors, Cavaliers, Thunder, Clippers or Rockets, being better is far fetched, it's the source.

Elhassan knows his stuff, but his blatant bias for anything that has to do with the mid-late aughts Suns and against anything to do with the Spurs, makes him look petty and pathetic and ESPN should be embarrassed at the rampant homers (like the Warriors fan boy Strauss) they have working for them. I don't know why this has become acceptable.

His reasoning for a lot of what he said didn't even make sense. He talked about continuity, but ignored the fact that the Spurs are returning 7 of their top 8 players and significantly upgraded the one new addition to that mix, then turned around and boasted about the Thunder, who's projected rotation hasn't played a single game with their best player. He also acted like the Spurs aren't a proven commodity, but the Warriors, who've been good for five minutes and had the easiest path to a championship in at least recent memory, supposedly deserve some ultimate level of respect.

I changed my mind tbh. I made a post following after that. :lol

I really didn't read that article.

I was simply saying the idea of the spurs not being a top 5 team with all things considered isn't as terrible as some spurs fans make it out to be..

And yes I missed the whole point. :lol

Outside of the Spurs, Elhassan knows his stuff though..

[TD 21]

Agreed. At least since the 2014 Spurs.

:lol What are you talking about? The only relatively easy opponent they had relative to the round they played them in, was the Trail Blazers. They also had to go through the two best players in the league, at or perilously close to the peak of their powers.

[Hoops Czar]

:lol What are you talking about? The only relatively easy opponent they had relative to the round they played them in, was the Trail Blazers. They also had to go through the two best players in the league, at or perilously close to the peak of their powers.

Dallas was an eighth seed and posed the greatest threat to the Spurs. Spurs played down to the level of the competition, sort of like the Clippers in 2015. Had it not been for fluky shots and shoddy defense, Spurs in 5. The Blazers literally had no shot going into the series and got blasted. The Thunder were without their best interior defender for the first two games of the series and the Spurs took every opportunity to destroy the Thunder in the paint en route to two lopsided victories. He returned for the remainder of the series but was hardly noticeable outside of game three. The Thunder got zero production from the bench most of the series. :lol I still can't believe this series went 6. However, it would have been a much tougher series had OKC been healthy for that series. Miami was the best of the worst in the East. They were literally a .500 team since March 1st (all of this while trying desperately to catch a collapsing Pacers team for the #1 seed), coasted into the playoffs and were even less impressive once they got there if that were even possible. Chalmers played like D-league garbage, D-Wade and Bosh were both inconsistent, they had zero bench depth and relied too heavily on Lebron and his falling off a cliff defense. That was arguably one of the worst defensive teams I've seen in a finals series in recent memory. I can't remember all of the predictions but, most picked the Spurs to win convincingly in 5 or 6.

[Spurtacular]

Who had the Rockets as the #2 seed this time last year, after missing out on Bosh and losing Parsons? Who can guarantee that Davis' improvent along with Gentry won't catapult NO to elite territory? Who can guarantee health for the Spurs throughout 2016? Not me, on all 3 counts.

Rockets were pretenders that exceeded all expectations. They're still the equivalent of a first round and out team.

[SpursFan86]

You guys are missing the point. It's not that the notion of the Warriors, Cavaliers, Thunder, Clippers or Rockets, being better is far fetched, it's the source.

In general, Elhassan knows his stuff, but his blatant bias for anything that has to do with the mid-late aughts Suns and against anything to do with the Spurs, makes him look petty and pathetic and ESPN should be embarrassed at the rampant homers (like the Warriors fan boy Strauss) they have working for them. I don't know why this has become acceptable.

His reasoning for a lot of what he said didn't even make sense. He talked about continuity, but ignored the fact that the Spurs are returning 7 of their top 8 players and significantly upgraded the one new addition to that mix, then turned around and boasted about the Thunder, who's projected rotation hasn't played a single game with their best player. He also acted like the Spurs aren't a proven commodity, but the Warriors, who've been good for five minutes and had the easiest path to a championship in at least recent memory, supposedly deserve some ultimate level of respect.

From acting like Aldridge isn't even among the elite PF's, to acting like he's Boozer/Lee defensively, to acting like Gentry will be a bigger addition than him, there were so many ridiculous statements made.

Yeah I later said in another post that the reasoning behind it was terrible, but the opinion itself isn't that bad. To be fair though, you know tons of people here would freak out over it regardless of who said it :lol

FWIW, Voulgaris (extremely knowledgeable fan, has made a fortune off betting on the NBA) also said there is a possibility the Spurs won't be top 5:

629405578461196288

[Obi Juan Kenobi]

Agreed. At least since the 2014 Spurs.

Even though they didn't win the title, the 2013 Spurs had an easier path to the Finals itself, with Golden State being the trouble series and the Lakers series being essentially a first round bye...

[dweaver99027]

Rockets were pretenders that exceeded all expectations. They're still the equivalent of a first round and out team. That's what they SHOULD have been. The final outcome was different. That is what matters, and that is my point.

[Spurtacular]

When the Spurs were looking like they'd nail down the two seed last year, the media was calling them the team to beat in the playoffs (despite GS's great regular season). They upgrade their team and they're no longer top five? That makes no sense to me. If there's any team that deserves a benefit of the (alleged) doubt, too, it's the Spurs.

Posters have put forth that this is a hater doing his hating. I concur...

But this is also about getting web hits. That's why the title of their hit job was Spurs not top five rather than Pels are top five.

Posters wondering why ESPN allows this guy to give his crappy take? That's why in large part.

[dweaver99027]

When the Spurs were looking like they'd nail down the two seed last year, the media was calling them the team to beat in the playoffs (despite GS's great regular season). They upgrade their team and they're no longer top five? That makes no sense to me. If there's any team that deserves a benefit of the (alleged) doubt, too, it's the Spurs. Posters have put forth that this is a hater doing his hating. I concur... But this is also about getting web hits. That's why the title of their hit job was Spurs not top five rather than Pels are top five. Posters wondering why ESPN allows this guy to give his crappy take? That's why in large part. This I agree with. There's no point in all media guys predicting the same things. They have to differentiate ,and maybe hit the jackpot in the end.

[TD 21]

Dallas was an eighth seed and posed the greatest threat to the Spurs. Spurs played down to the level of the competition, sort of like the Clippers in 2015. Had it not been for fluky shots and shoddy defense, Spurs in 5. The Blazers literally had no shot going into the series and got blasted. The Thunder were without their best interior defender for the first two games of the series and the Spurs took every opportunity to destroy the Thunder in the paint en route to two lopsided victories. He returned for the remainder of the series but was hardly noticeable outside of game three. The Thunder got zero production from the bench most of the series. :lol I still can't believe this series went 6. However, it would have been a much tougher series had OKC been healthy for that series. Miami was the best of the worst in the East. They were literally a .500 team since March 1st (all of this while trying desperately to catch a collapsing Pacers team for the #1 seed), coasted into the playoffs and were even less impressive once they got there if that were even possible. Chalmers played like D-league garbage, D-Wade and Bosh were both inconsistent, they had zero bench depth and relied too heavily on Lebron and his falling off a cliff defense. That was arguably one of the worst defensive teams I've seen in a finals series in recent memory. I can't remember all of the predictions but, most picked the Spurs to win convincingly in 5 or 6.

The Thunder posed the greatest threat to the Spurs.

I'm not saying the Mavericks were some great team, I'm saying relative to a typical bottom few seed 1st round team, they were solid. Most of those types are young and just happy to be in the playoffs.

I already conceded that the Trail Blazers were a slightly sub par 2nd round team, at least by West standards.

The Thunder were a strong Conference Finals team and even though the Ibaka injury didn't help, he still played 2/3rds of the series and the Spurs had to close them out without what many still thought was their best player at the time.

The Heat were on fumes and weren't what they were in '12 and '13, but they were still led by probably the 2nd best player ever, at the tail end of his prime.

If you want to criticize a Spurs championship path, '07 is the easy target; saying '14 is just stupid.


To be fair though, you know tons of people here would freak out over it regardless of who said it :lol

FWIW, Voulgaris (extremely knowledgeable fan, has made a fortune off betting on the NBA) also said there is a possibility the Spurs won't be top 5:

629405578461196288

Maybe so, but I don't blame them, since a lot of the credit is backhanded. Making fun of Spurs fans for pulling the "we don't get enough credit" card has become more predictable and prevalent than Spurs fans pulling that card themselves.

This is the most doubted so called "super team" since that term began to get thrown around, even though it's the most accomplished of the bunch, yet the Warriors and their five minutes of being a great team are supposedly iron clad.

Because there are six top five caliber teams, of course there's a possibility they won't be in it, but the odds of them being top three are greater than them not being top five.

[Spurtacular]

This I agree with. There's no point in all media guys predicting the same things. They have to differentiate ,and maybe hit the jackpot in the end.

Not just differentiation. Media likes shock value....

Also, there has to be a significant amount of Spurs haters out there that like to see this....

[dweaver99027]

Readers like shock value, and the media provides. I doubt 'Spurs hating' is anything the media can milk for hits, considering that the Spurs are the darlings of the average NBA fan ever since 2013.

[TheGreatYacht]

Nah. Ethan was never as cool as anyone from Grantland especially someone respected like Zach Lowe. Strauss is/has/will always be a Warriors beat writer. He hasn't elevated his writing to the national level. I mean what else will he contribute concerning other NBA teams? he said he doesn't watch any other team unless it's against the warriors. The nerve of this guy to call himself a 'basketball writer' and not a beat writer in his twitter bio. He changed it at the end of last season so he wouldn't look like a homer.

That's why Arash Markazi, who is a clippers beat writer is being promoted to the main nba on espn and espn radio show next season. Strauss is a homer because he's a diehard warriors fan from Oakland and was tired of watching the Spurs win their championships. So, now he tries to shit on the spurs every chance he gets with his 'hate hard' sidekick Amin. And the spurs being eliminated in the first round gave him alot of ammo.
Preach. Didn't know that clown grew up in Oakland :lol dude had a lot of built up frustration seeing the most consistent franchise in history from a far, while his team went through a 40yr drought..

[rjv]

He used to work in the Suns front office before getting his current gig. That's all you need to know. As for his partner in crime, he lost a bet and had to agree with his tard friend.

no doubt. lot of hatorade in phoenix; see also jerry colangelo and eddie johnson

[ThaBigFundamental21]

I know I'm a minority here, but I really believe Aldridge is going to be a lot better than advertised on Defense. I just feel under Pop in an elite system he will wreak havoc on the opposing PnR game. I know it's a cliche that Defense is more effort than talent, but I believe that and I feel Pop will mold Aldridge into a good defender. Time will tell.

[RD2191]

Spurs turned Tiago and Baynes into LMA and D West. How the fuck can the Spurs be worse than last season?

[Mikeanaro]

THATS BECAUSE WE TRADED PAUL GEORGE! OH WHY! OH WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[RayTdropout]

Screw these guys. You are always gonna have haters when you are the best.

[SpursIndonesia]

You can shove that statement up your ass. I am a proud Muslim, and it being mentioned to diss Amin Elhassan is pretty fucking stupid and irrelevant. Even though I dislike the idiot and have even un-followed him on Twitter for his idiotic opinions, what his religion is of no matter to you or anyone else and obviously has no reflection on his sports opinion.

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu, brother/sister. Don't worry about that fucking bigot, just pray that Allah might give him a blessing & enlightenment about Islam (hidayah), who knows ? :)

Let's keep it about Basketball, for this sport knows no boundary of race, nationality, or religion. Wassalamualaikum. :)

[Hoops Czar]

The Thunder posed the greatest threat to the Spurs.

I'm not saying the Mavericks were some great team, I'm saying relative to a typical bottom few seed 1st round team, they were solid. Most of those types are young and just happy to be in the playoffs.

I already conceded that the Trail Blazers were a slightly sub par 2nd round team, at least by West standards.

The Thunder were a strong Conference Finals team and even though the Ibaka injury didn't help, he still played 2/3rds of the series and the Spurs had to close them out without what many still thought was their best player at the time.

The Heat were on fumes and weren't what they were in '12 and '13, but they were still led by probably the 2nd best player ever, at the tail end of his prime.

If you want to criticize a Spurs championship path, '07 is the easy target; saying '14 is just stupid.

Nah, not criticizing, just calling a spade a spade. OKC posed the greatest threat before the playoffs began and up until the Ibaka injury. Other than that, there was no threat to the crown. Spurs fans would like to think Dallas was a threat because they needed to justify why it took the Spurs seven games to dispatch of the Mavs. No, it wasn't great coaching or a bad matchup. The Spurs played down to the level of their competition as they so often do. When I said they posed the greatest threat, I simply meant it came down to a do or die game seven where the winner takes all.

Ibaka did return for the remainder of the series but, he was mostly ineffective on D and his offense was sparse and unremarkable. He certainly was no where near the vintage Serge they faced in the 2012 WCF'S. When you say "Spurs had to close them out without what many still thought was their best player at the time.", are you referring to Tony Parker? He was getting thrown under the bus nonstop in 2014 and the trend continued into 2015. Some even went as far as to say he was the 7th or 8th ranked player in terms of value on the team.

[thousandth]

He was getting thrown under the bus nonstop in 2014 and the trend continued into 2015. Some even went as far as to say he was the 7th or 8th ranked player in terms of value on the team.

A fan? A reporter? Many articles described his decline tbh

Here some of them.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12379016/nba-tony-parker-decline-hurting-san-antonio-spurs

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursnation/2015/02/02/parkers-play-declines-in-14th-season/#19852101=0

Good analysis of Parker's passing issues.
http://hardwoodparoxysm.com/2014/12/31/need-talk-tony-parker/

Fans' takes
http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2015/2/24/8101513/tony-parker-struggling-stats-synergy-sports-spurs

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

A healthy Houston team will be a huge challenge to beat...as will OKC. The Warriors are the champs and dominated the league for the most part last year.

San Antonio will not have an easy path to the championship. Any of those three will be a tough out for us, and you could probably throw NO in that mix based on how badly we appeared to play against them this year.

I'm kind of wanting some folks to doubt us. Pop's going to have a hard time deflecting the attention off the Spurs this year.

[Spurtacular]

A healthy Houston team will be a huge challenge to beat...as will OKC. The Warriors are the champs and dominated the league for the most part last year.

San Antonio will not have an easy path to the championship. Any of those three will be a tough out for us, and you could probably throw NO in that mix based on how badly we appeared to play against them this year.

I'm kind of wanting some folks to doubt us. Pop's going to have a hard time deflecting the attention off the Spurs this year.

I'm currently afflicted with a condition known as over confidence; so, I'm afraid I can't agree with this take. :lol

[jiggy_55]

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu, brother/sister. Don't worry about that fucking bigot, just pray that Allah might give him a blessing & enlightenment about Islam (hidayah), who knows ? :)

Let's keep it about Basketball, for this sport knows no boundary of race, nationality, or religion. Wassalamualaikum. :)

:flag:

[cd021]

Okay yeah, that's a horrible take (re: "Spurs couldn't even beat Pelicans when it mattered!") :lol Using one regular season game to determine a team's strength is absurdly stupid.

Regardless, I maintain that putting Houston over SA isn't THAT insane. Again, it's a pretty big stretch, but it's not some absurd opinion that should immediately be dismissed.

GS won 67 games last year and put up an all-time great point differential. They brought back the same team, and they could likely experience internal improvement from their young core growing up + Kerr having another year under his belt.

Cleveland seems pretty self-explanatory.

LAC won 56 games last year and had the 2nd best point differential in the league. They replaced Barnes with Pierce, and finally put together a seemingly solid bench. They had the best starting lineup in the league last year, so there was really no need to make adjustments there.

OKC obviously had tons of injuries last year, but the talent is certainly there. They're the biggest question mark IMO. It wouldn't surprise me if they won 65 games, and it wouldn't surprise me if they barely won 50. If KD can stay healthy, they'll almost certainly be near the top of the West.

Houston won 56 games last year, and that was with Dwight missing 40 games as well as Terrence Jones missing 50 games. Their biggest problem was a lack of a secondary playmaker outside of Harden, and they definitely found an answer to that with Ty Lawson. I have some questions about how he'll fit alongside Harden, but the potential is definitely there for Houston to be a legitimate threat.

As for us, we won 55 games last year and dealt with a myriad of injuries ourselves. Patty missed the first half of the season and then wasn't himself when he came back. Splitter was constantly injured. Kawhi missed a decent chunk of games. We went out and added an elite player in Aldridge. All that being said, there is reason to doubt whether we'll be some instant juggernaut. Aldridge looks like a good fit on paper, but you never know when it comes to adding such a high usage piece to an already fairly loaded team. Duncan will be 40 come playoffs, and Manu will be 38. Yes, they've aged like wine and as a Spurs fan, Duncan has earned the right to not be questioned. But you can't fault someone for thinking he might fall off a bit. Parker just had an absolutely horrible season, and now he'll be 34 come next playoffs. Obviously us Spurs fans (well, most of us anyways :lol ) are optimistic he'll have a bounce back year, but keep in mind a lot of us said the same thing last offseason. How many people predicted Parker to have a great season after taking the summer off to get rested? I know I did.

tl;dr: There are a lot of teams with the potential to be insanely good next year, so not having the Spurs at the very top isn't the craziest thing in the world. I certainly have us in the top 3, and I'm picking us to win it all, but there are reasonable doubts to be had with the team. Doubts about other teams as well - just depends on which doubts you think are the most reasonable.

Thats far from insane, The Rockets significantly improved over an WCF bid (without two starters). They probably have the deepest roster in the NBA.

Beverly/Lawson
Harden/McDaniels/Thorton
Ariza/Brewer/Dekker
Monti/Jones/Harrell
Howard/Capella

I think the Spurs could beat them in a series but the margin would be fairly thin.

[Brazil]

ST one day: Fuck the media ! I like the fact Spurs are flying under radar ! We don't care about what Media think

ST the day after: :cry Spurs are not a top 5 team :cry this is not fair :cry Oh noes !!!

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

I'm currently afflicted with a condition known as over confidence; so, I'm afraid I can't agree with this take. :lol

That's ok...I'm trying to downplay my own enthusiasm!

As long as the players don't get overconfident...

[FromWayDowntown]

A healthy Houston team will be a huge challenge to beat...as will OKC. The Warriors are the champs and dominated the league for the most part last year.

San Antonio will not have an easy path to the championship. Any of those three will be a tough out for us, and you could probably throw NO in that mix based on how badly we appeared to play against them this year.

I'm kind of wanting some folks to doubt us. Pop's going to have a hard time deflecting the attention off the Spurs this year.

You and your reasonableness, EHJ. There's no place here for that sort of thing.

[hater]

LOL pussies.

we got Lamar and West.

NBA = fucked :lol

[TD 21]

Nah, not criticizing, just calling a spade a spade. OKC posed the greatest threat before the playoffs began and up until the Ibaka injury. Other than that, there was no threat to the crown. Spurs fans would like to think Dallas was a threat because they needed to justify why it took the Spurs seven games to dispatch of the Mavs. No, it wasn't great coaching or a bad matchup. The Spurs played down to the level of their competition as they so often do. When I said they posed the greatest threat, I simply meant it came down to a do or die game seven where the winner takes all.

Ibaka did return for the remainder of the series but, he was mostly ineffective on D and his offense was sparse and unremarkable. He certainly was no where near the vintage Serge they faced in the 2012 WCF'S. When you say "Spurs had to close them out without what many still thought was their best player at the time.", are you referring to Tony Parker? He was getting thrown under the bus nonstop in 2014 and the trend continued into 2015. Some even went as far as to say he was the 7th or 8th ranked player in terms of value on the team.

Again, I'm not saying the Mavs were good in general, I'm saying they were relative to a typical bottom seeded 1st round playoff opponent.

Funny how people are always quick to point out the Ibaka injury, but gloss over the Parker one. Sure, you could say it actually helped, but only Spurs fans were onto his slippage in '14; to outsiders, he was their best player, yet him leaving game 6 is forgotten because they won. People also gloss over the Holiday, Evans, Conley, Allen, Beverley, Motiejunas, Irving, Love and Varejao ones, that all benefited the Warriors, as did the fact that they essentially (because of the Cavs' injuries) never had to play a fellow top 5 team in the playoffs.

Even with Ibaka hobbled and the Heat on fumes (even given this, only the Spurs and maybe Thunder were beating them), they were still two of the 3-4 best teams in the league and to take it back further, as weak as the '07 run was, at least the Spurs had to go through the Suns, a top 3-4 team, who were at full strength for 5 of the 6 games.

There's no credible argument for the Spurs' '14 run not being difficult or the Warriors' '15 run being comparable.

[hater]

Noone was beating the spurs in 14 niggas.

[hater]

It's like Germany of 2014 world cup or Italy of 2006 wc. Those teams just were nor losing to anyone. Healthy or not

[timtonymanu]

Aldridge is a Rockets killer which actually makes that matchup less terrifying to me. OKC will always be the toughest matchup for the Spurs and probably the only team that can beat us.

I don't care if the Dubs are champs, the Spurs are always a horrible matchup for them. Clippers are better but regardless of what people think of that fluke series, the Spurs can still beat them too.

[cd98]

Because I'm an insecure Spurs fan who constantly needs validation from the media, and I am infuriated by this video.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:13377437

Basically, Amin Elhassan of ESPN asserts that the Spurs are not a top five team in the NBA. He says that the Spurs' three biggest strengths these past few years were depth, continuity, and defense, and he argues that all three of those took a step back this offseason.

His partner, Ethan Strauss, was hardly better, saying that the Rockets (not the Spurs) are the second best team in the league, behind the Warriors.

Heard this terrorist explain his top 5 on their Truehoop podcast, which is much longer Than this Video clip. Both clowns list ten power forwards they think are better than LMA, and Terrorist continues to bag on Spurs with flawed logic while claiming NO is going to have an amazing season.

i don't care about his takes, but then Terrorist rips on SA ( and their sewer) and Austin (just some tiny town...not impressed). He's a wanna-be Barkley troll, but at least Barkley had a sense of humor, this guy just says it to be ugly.

[G-Dawgg]

Whoever wrote this article about the Spurs not being a top 5 team obviously is a Houston Rockets fan, or doesn't really follow basketball. This guy has no business writing anything about basketball. He just lost all his credibility....

[dweaver99027]

If I predicted last summer that the Rockets would be a 2 seed and reach the WCF, while the Spurs would be a 6 seed and a first round exit what would I be called right then?

[cd98]

I don't really care about Amim's basketball takes. People like him generally take underdog like teams so they can either guess right on the underdog or they can use it to claim they don't just pick the favorites. But I dislike the guy for his lame trolling on S.A. and Austin. It is pretty amazing how low of an opinion both he and Strauss have of LMA.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/archive?id=12426375

[k_nguyen93]

Been going through some of their older podcasts lately and I miss Henry Abbott. Its disgusting how much Amin dislikes the Spurs because of his Suns days when I'm sure his boss (Steve Kerr) maintained a good relationship with the organization.

[Rob123]

did this guy just steal my thread verbatim?

what a douche

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=250605&p=8101166#post8101166

[SpursBig3s]

Bump.. Rockets :lmao

[Kawhitstorm]

It's like Germany of 2014 world cup or Italy of 2006 wc. Those teams just were nor losing to anyone. Healthy or not

:lmao

Italy won on penalties AFTER Zidane got a red card & Germany won in EXTRA period against a one man Argentina team.

[Joseph Kony]

This thread is proof that basketball nerds on ST and other forums in general know more about basketball than fucktard mainstream sports guys

[spursistan]

I seriously don't understand why ESPN is treating Strauss like some detached unbiased analyst who has to weigh in on the entire league and other teams that are in competition with the one he covers in his beat writing gig..Dude is known around the entire interwebs as Warriors fanboy..

[Horry Hipcheck]

:lmao

Italy won on penalties AFTER Zidane got a red card & Germany won in EXTRA period against a one man Argentina team.

Italy also got gifted a draw against a severely underpowered US squad in 06.

[FromWayDowntown]

I seriously don't understand why ESPN is treating Strauss like some detached unbiased analyst who has to weigh in on the entire league and other teams that are in competition with the one he covers in his beat writing gig..Dude is known around the entire interwebs as Warriors fanboy..

My guess would be that when his homer colors shine through, it gets draws lots of feedback and increases traffic to his clips, articles, podcasts. Traffic is the only thing ESPN really cares about. If Strauss or Amin drive it, they continue to get opportunities.

He goes away when people stop listening and reacting.

[Kawhitstorm]

Italy also got gifted a draw against a severely under-powered US squad in 06.

Just like the Worriers 2015 postseason run.:wakeup