How TF did Kawhi even win 60+ with this team?

[dontouchmebwo]

It's not like Murray was getting playing time when he was on the roster.
Green was inconsistent as hell.
Forbes wasn't even getting mins
Gay wasn't on the roster
Parker was a shell of himself
Manu was on the verge of retirement
Aldridge played pretty poorly aside of the 1 year Leonard missed
Bertans was buried on the bench
etc.

[STM]

He was/is a legit top 3 player.

[duncan2k5]

Because he was a freaking beast

[HarlemHeat37]

Top 3 player, elite team defense, very weak competition around the league that season..

To be fair, Aldridge was absolutely dominant in the 2nd half of the season..

[DAF86]

Because we had Manu, Green, Anderson next to him. If we still had those kind of wings, we would be good.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

He must be so relieved to play for a team with a proper future in Toronto. Must be cracking up looking at the current state of this roster

[DAF86]

Green, Kawhi, OG, Siakam, Miles, Powell. Any of those wings is better than the shit se have outside of DD.

Wings, that's how you win games nowadays. Folks still worried about PG or bigmen. :lmao

[r0drig0lac]

Because we had Manu, Green, Anderson next to him. If we still had those kind of wings, we would be good.

and he's good, kind of a legend level

[r0drig0lac]

Green, Kawhi, OG, Siakam, Miles, Powell. Any of those wings is better than the shit se have outside of DD.

Wings, that's how you win games nowadays. Folks still worried about PG or bigmen. :lmao

even Malaquias Richardson (or Lorenzo Brown) would be one of the best athletes of SA, and he does not even have space in toronto

[Hoops Czar]

Tony Parker was a better point guard than both Mills and Forbes combined. He may not have put up gaudy numbersbut he could still run the offense. Manu made Paddy tolerable off the bench. Replacing wing stop with Forbes and DeRozen was also a major fail.

[Leetonidas]

The spurs team overall was a lot better in 2017. Gasol wasn't trash in his first year here and was stroking it from deep. Simmons was still here, as was Dedmon and David Lee who was solid for us. Much better role players around him than the scraps we have now Imo

[313]

Answered your own question

[slick'81]

He won dpoy and finals mvp for a reason

[Mugen]

this roster is absolute trash, even Kawhi wouldn't get this squad to 50 wins tbh

[NASpurs]

Green, Kawhi, OG, Siakam, Miles, Powell. Any of those wings is better than the shit se have outside of DD.

Wings, that's how you win games nowadays. Folks still worried about PG or bigmen. :lmao

They're loaded with wings. How in the actual fuck do you not snag one?

(which is even more bizarre when you give up DG too)

[slick'81]

They're loaded with wings. How in the actual fuck do you not snag one?

(which is even more bizarre when you give up DG too)

Poodle power thats why.you know pop saw this 7' white stiff and fell in love tbh

[bic50]

Green, Kawhi, OG, Siakam, Miles, Powell. Any of those wings is better than the shit se have outside of DD.

Wings, that's how you win games nowadays. Folks still worried about PG or bigmen. :lmao
The guy with the white head band on the Spurs >>>>all this guys on the raptors

[NASpurs]

Poodle power thats why

Masai is a snake oil salesman. Probably sold PATFO in Poodle being a 9th overall pick.

We fuck the Pacers over in the Kawhi trade back when and then we get fucked in another Kawhi trade.

[slick'81]

Masai is a snake oil salesman. Probably sold PATFO in Poodle being a 9th overall pick.

We fuck the Pacers over in the Kawhi trade back when and then we get fucked in the Kawhi trade.


A deal like that can really set you back.the pacers lucked out and got a good deal for pg

[rasuo214]

Pop needs to see if he can dump Aldridge for Butler. I've been saying this for years, even though Butler might be a team cancer it's worth the risk.

[james evans]

Like I told yall, Kawhi is smarter than we give him credit for. He saw this bullshit. Popovich aint trying to win shit. he's just trying to get into the playoffs each year for a 1st round exit to keep his playoff streak going. Selfish fuck. We should have traded Leonard for a 2019 first round pick to a garbage team. Traded Aldridge to a garbage team for a 2019 first round pick and tanked. That would have gave us 3 fucking lottery picks in a draft this year that's STACKED. BUT NOOOOO. Yall mfers talking about we got too much pride to tank. We didn't have that pride in 97. I'm thinking bout the future. I'll give up 1 year if it means 10 more of greatness.

[Kurgan]

Poodle is fucking trash. We lost wingstop for this faggot? Pop and RC's white Euro fetish won't ever go away.

[bic50]

The spurs team overall was a lot better in 2017. Gasol wasn't trash in his first year here and was stroking it from deep. Simmons was still here, as was Dedmon and David Lee who was solid for us. Much better role players around him than the scraps we have now Imo
Think Kawhi liked playing with those guys. Weren't they all gone the following season?

[DAF86]

The guy with the white head band on the Spurs >>>>all this guys on the raptors

Who? What?

[kaji157]

This

[bic50]

Who? What?
Who's the guy with the white headband I keep seeing the games? Or black headband

[Hoops Czar]

This
Exactly.

[DAF86]

They're loaded with wings. How in the actual fuck do you not snag one?

(which is even more bizarre when you give up DG too)

Ujiri straight up toyed with Pop and Buford. If the Spurs would have said, for example: Kawhi and Mills for DeRozan and CJ Miles, do you think the Raptors would have said no? I'm sure Masai is still laughing his ass off at how bad he played these two. No wonder the Spurs were never too kind on making trades. :lol

[objective]

1. Kawhi was legitimately great, the kind of great that could get to the playoffs almost by himself
2. Players with legit size for their position who could make either athletic plays (Dedmon, Lee, Simmons, Green) or just athletic enough to still make smart plays (Duncan, Manu, first year Pau)

Now all that's left is undersized for the position guys who either aren't athletic enough or make bad choices or have crumbled into dust as they aged like Pau.

[diego]

What a load of crap. Spurs were 7-1 without Kawhi his last full season, beating the warriors, raptors, Memphis, Toronto, Portland. He didn't even play huge minutes to be arguing he carried some amazing load. Go ask Lillard or AD what it's like to carry crap.

Yes, this roster has issues, yes Kawhi is a top 5 player. But the fact is we just played our tenth game, have a quarter of our rotation injured, and lost more than just Kawhi over the last two seasons. We wouldnt even be in this situation if it weren't for him being broken goods, either mentally or physically. Let him win 60+, dpoy, finals mvp somewhere else before you cut your veins like a jilted woman...

[bic50]

What a load of crap. Spurs were 7-1 without Kawhi his last full season, beating the warriors, raptors, Memphis, Toronto, Portland. He didn't even play huge minutes to be arguing he carried some amazing load. Go ask Lillard or AD what it's like to carry crap.

Yes, this roster has issues, yes Kawhi is a top 5 player. But the fact is we just played our tenth game, have a quarter of our rotation injured, and lost more than just Kawhi over the last two seasons. We wouldnt even be in this situation if it weren't for him being broken goods, either mentally or physically. Let him win 60+, dpoy, finals mvp somewhere else before you cut your veins like a jilted woman...
I think Kawhi stays if Spurs kept that squad together

[diego]

Oh and I should add, for the past 15 years so many here cried about the team being old and injury prone... Go look it up, the best teams are consistently older teams. All those desperate to rebuild and get younger are getting what you wanted, a team that has to learn to survive and win in the NBA.

[DAF86]

Oh and I should add, for the past 15 years so many here cried about the team being old and injury prone... Go look it up, the best teams are consistently older teams. All those desperate to rebuild and get younger are getting what you wanted, a team that has to learn to survive and win in the NBA.

We are still one of the oldest teams, tbh.

[diego]

Went from first to sixth, pretty sure we've been top 2 for most of the past 15 years..

[Dhbsr555]

First of he had Duncan ginobili and Parker Derozan doesn’t have any of those

[Play Boban]

It's not like Murray was getting playing time when he was on the roster.
Green was inconsistent as hell.
Forbes wasn't even getting mins
Gay wasn't on the roster
Parker was a shell of himself
Manu was on the verge of retirement
Aldridge played pretty poorly aside of the 1 year Leonard missed
Bertans was buried on the bench
etc.
We won 47 with him dragging down the team last year tbh.

[TimDunkem]

Think Kawhi liked playing with those guys. Weren't they all gone the following season?

Yep. To double down on Shitty Mills and Gasol who was predictably trending downwards by the time Kawhi went down against GS. Wouldn't surprise me if that annoyed Kawhi.

[therealtruth]

I said it in another thread but the Raptors have the kind of team you need to win in today's NBA. Loaded with wings. That's what you need to stop the Warriors. Meanwhile the Spurs are still trying to win with traditonal bigmen. Unless the big men are TD good it's not going to happen.

[Arcadian]

Kawhi was the real MVP of 2016-17.

[Dhbsr555]

Raptors could win without kahwi

[skin27]

Kawhi was the real MVP of 2016-17.

nope..Westbrook and harden was much better that season

if westbrook did not averaged triple double that season maybe kawhi had a chance..

even harden almost averaged triple double that season and led the rockets to 55 wins.

[anon]

Westbrook and Harden were so butthurt KL2 was stealing their thunder, exposing them in h2h two-way swings during marquee matchups in that season, they had their owners lobby Silver to pull a "random" drug test on Kawhi for peds use.

[dontouchmebwo]

What a load of crap. Spurs were 7-1 without Kawhi his last full season, beating the warriors, raptors, Memphis, Toronto, Portland. He didn't even play huge minutes to be arguing he carried some amazing load. Go ask Lillard or AD what it's like to carry crap.

Yes, this roster has issues, yes Kawhi is a top 5 player. But the fact is we just played our tenth game, have a quarter of our rotation injured, and lost more than just Kawhi over the last two seasons. We wouldnt even be in this situation if it weren't for him being broken goods, either mentally or physically. Let him win 60+, dpoy, finals mvp somewhere else before you cut your veins like a jilted woman...

Small sample size, even lotto teams go on winning streaks.

Gasol and Parker both missed around 20 games each in 16-17
Green shot 32% from 3 the 2nd half of the season
Ginobili shot a career low 39% from 2, 31% from 3 the 2nd half of the season
Murray only played 38 games and was underwhelming
Simmons averaged 6ppg on 42%, 29% from 3
Dedmon eventually fell out of Pop's rotation
Lee couldn't find work in the NBA after leaving the Spurs
Aldridge averaged his lowest ppg since his 2nd year

That supporting cast isn't much better if at all than AD's current cast with guys like Holiday & Mirotic who are putting up some pretty good numbers.

[diego]

Small sample size, even lotto teams go on winning streaks.

Gasol and Parker both missed around 20 games each in 16-17
Green shot 32% from 3 the 2nd half of the season
Ginobili shot a career low 39% from 2, 31% from 3 the 2nd half of the season
Murray only played 38 games and was underwhelming
Simmons averaged 6ppg on 42%, 29% from 3
Dedmon eventually fell out of Pop's rotation
Lee couldn't find work in the NBA after leaving the Spurs
Aldridge averaged his lowest ppg since his 2nd year

That supporting cast isn't much better if at all than AD's current cast with guys like Holiday & Mirotic who are putting up some pretty good numbers.

8 games is small sample, but 10 isnt... :Lol
Main difference between pelicans current roster and two years ago is health, hell you can have two Hall of famers and a legit goat candidate, if they aren't healthy you aren't winning- Spurs currently don't have that, nor health, but let's justify the max player with the lowest work load in history sitting out and leaving because "it's too hard :cry" (on the heels, no less, of his terrible teammates winning games 5 and 6 of the semis without him).
Just go bandwagon whoever is winning every 2-3 weeks if you can't bear losing 4 games out of 10

[RC_Drunkford]

It's not like Murray was getting playing time when he was on the roster.
Green was inconsistent as hell.
Forbes wasn't even getting mins
Gay wasn't on the roster
Parker was a shell of himself
Manu was on the verge of retirement
Aldridge played pretty poorly aside of the 1 year Leonard missed
Bertans was buried on the bench
etc.

Kawhi played the best season of his life, that's why. He was Top 3 in MVP and DPOY voting. If you watched that season, which I watched every game of, everybody saw that the team was relying way too much on him. That team was still a lot better than the one we have now. I mean we went from Kawhi, Ginobili, Green, David Lee, Jonathon Simmons, Dedmon and Parker to DeRozan, White, Cunningham, Belinelli, Forbes, Bertans and Poeltl

[duncan2k5]

First of he had Duncan ginobili and Parker Derozan doesn’t have any of those

He didn't have Duncan in 2017...and Parker was absolute ass that same year... Wasn't a starter level point guard...

[duncan2k5]

Yep. To double down on Shitty Mills and Gasol who was predictably trending downwards by the time Kawhi went down against GS. Wouldn't surprise me if that annoyed Kawhi.

It annoyed US... Of course it annoyed the guy that has to carry them... Lol

[duncan2k5]

Raptors could win without kahwi

Win what?

[r0drig0lac]

What a load of crap. Spurs were 7-1 without Kawhi his last full season, beating the warriors, raptors, Memphis, Toronto, Portland. He didn't even play huge minutes to be arguing he carried some amazing load. Go ask Lillard or AD what it's like to carry crap.

Yes, this roster has issues, yes Kawhi is a top 5 player. But the fact is we just played our tenth game, have a quarter of our rotation injured, and lost more than just Kawhi over the last two seasons. We wouldnt even be in this situation if it weren't for him being broken goods, either mentally or physically. Let him win 60+, dpoy, finals mvp somewhere else before you cut your veins like a jilted woman...



8 games is small sample, but 10 isnt... :Lol
Main difference between pelicans current roster and two years ago is health, hell you can have two Hall of famers and a legit goat candidate, if they aren't healthy you aren't winning- Spurs currently don't have that, nor health, but let's justify the max player with the lowest work load in history sitting out and leaving because "it's too hard :cry" (on the heels, no less, of his terrible teammates winning games 5 and 6 of the semis without him).
Just go bandwagon whoever is winning every 2-3 weeks if you can't bear losing 4 games out of 10

with all respect but the only guy who seems close to "cut your veins" is you

[bic50]

nope..Westbrook and harden was much better that season

if westbrook did not averaged triple double that season maybe kawhi had a chance..

even harden almost averaged triple double that season and led the rockets to 55 wins.
Their offensive numbers were better. Kawhi can impact on both sides of the ball

[rasuo214]

What a load of crap. Spurs were 7-1 without Kawhi his last full season, beating the warriors, raptors, Memphis, Toronto, Portland. He didn't even play huge minutes to be arguing he carried some amazing load. Go ask Lillard or AD what it's like to carry crap.

Yes, this roster has issues, yes Kawhi is a top 5 player. But the fact is we just played our tenth game, have a quarter of our rotation injured, and lost more than just Kawhi over the last two seasons. We wouldnt even be in this situation if it weren't for him being broken goods, either mentally or physically. Let him win 60+, dpoy, finals mvp somewhere else before you cut your veins like a jilted woman...

Warriors played their backups, Raptors were without DD, Portland was without Lillard, and Memphis was a loss. The other wins were against shit teams (Mavs, Kings, Nets and Suns).

[lefty]

Kawhi carried those scrubs and Pop tbh


:lol Sperms

[hater]

We won 50 games with the Autistic retard getting handjobs from unc and sis in NYC :lmao

Mute Cancer had nothing to do with it

[Arcadian]

nope..Westbrook and harden was much better that season

if westbrook did not averaged triple double that season maybe kawhi had a chance..

even harden almost averaged triple double that season and led the rockets to 55 wins.

That doesn't mean they were better. It's well known that Westbrick stat-padded heavily that season, his team was mediocre, and Harden was a liability on defense. Kawhi was better.

[diego]

Warriors played their backups, Raptors were without DD, Portland was without Lillard, and Memphis was a loss. The other wins were against shit teams (Mavs, Kings, Nets and Suns).
Oh, and Pau, many, Tony, Simmons, Aldridge didn't miss games either? Or it only counts when other teams are missing players?

You are right about Memphis though, took a Reddit post for info

[UncleDennis]

That doesn't mean they were better. It's well known that Westbrick stat-padded heavily that season, his team was mediocre, and Harden was a liability on defense. Kawhi was better.

Agreed, KL was better then them that year and he is still better then them. The disappointment we felt from Kawhi during his playoff stints in 2015 and 2016 is pretty much what Westbrook and Harden deliver every year in the playoffs.

Harden giving up against a Kawhi-less spurs squad on his home-court and him being benched for their comeback against the Clippers the prior year are his most memorable moments for me. Then you have Westbrook who obviously doesn't need just a pretty good secondary guy like Paul George to have any modicum of success but he needs a legit top 3 guy like Durant, in other words he would need a Kawhi level player to have any chance. Until any of these two guys can match what Kawhi was doing at his best level (IMO the 2017 playoffs against Memphis and dominating the Warriors was his top level but that whole season was an MVP showcase for him) to me, it's down right laughable that a pure one way talent or a year long stat padding session could be deemed the better player, the more exciting? yes....The more flashy? Yup....but not a better player.

Absent all the background and "injury" bullshit with Kawhi, on talent alone, given the choice of KL, Westbrook or Harden would any GM league-wide decide on either of the other two???? Shit, OKC and Houston would be first in line for Kawhi.

Obviously I'm just talking raw basketball, as far as leadership, team camaraderie or w/e other skills relative to that, Kawhi is pretty much a 0.0 to me but you can't have it all right (T.D?! lol), this guy just wins as much as it sucks to say that as a Spurs fan after the last BS year.


On the original post though; I loved that 2017 line up. Simmons just fit so nicely with that team, David Lee was having a renaissance season, Dedmon was a tough athletic big and Pau Gasol all of a sudden had this great stroke from beyond the Arch, even Parker found an extra gear in the playoffs. Everything was coming together for that squad at the exact right time until the D.Lee + Parker injuries but even with those I still think because Kawhi was just that damn elite they were on the path to dethrone the Warriors. Kawhi just commanded so much gravity on the court that Aldridge could really do damage against them and Simmons and them just didn't play scared like Kyle and all these other secondary guys seem do on that stage.

I've pretty much hated every roster decision the front office has made since that '17 WCF appearance except the Aldridge extension, and the real question should be how did Aldridge carry last years squad to 47 wins, I mean I watched him do it but still can't comprehend it really.

[TheGreatYacht]

Oh and I should add, for the past 15 years so many here cried about the team being old and injury prone... Go look it up, the best teams are consistently older teams. All those desperate to rebuild and get younger are getting what you wanted, a team that has to learn to survive and win in the NBA.
Where the hell is this narrative coming from that we're a young team? :lmao

Lamarcus Aldridge (33 years old)
Dante Cunningham (31 years old)
Rudy Gay (32 years old)
DeMar DeRozan (29 years old)
Derrick White (24 years old)

Pau Gasol (38 years old)
Davis Bertans (25 years old)
Marco Belinelli (32 years old)
Bryn Forbes (25 years old)
Patty Mills (30 years old)

Even Lonnie Walker and Dejounte Murray have 30yr old paycheck collecting NBA Veteran knees smh

[r0drig0lac]

Agreed, KL was better then them that year and he is still better then them. The disappointment we felt from Kawhi during his playoff stints in 2015 and 2016 is pretty much what Westbrook and Harden deliver every year in the playoffs.

Harden giving up against a Kawhi-less spurs squad on his home-court and him being benched for their comeback against the Clippers the prior year are his most memorable moments for me. Then you have Westbrook who obviously doesn't need just a pretty good secondary guy like Paul George to have any modicum of success but he needs a legit top 3 guy like Durant, in other words he would need a Kawhi level player to have any chance. Until any of these two guys can match what Kawhi was doing at his best level (IMO the 2017 playoffs against Memphis and dominating the Warriors was his top level but that whole season was an MVP showcase for him) to me, it's down right laughable that a pure one way talent or a year long stat padding session could be deemed the better player, the more exciting? yes....The more flashy? Yup....but not a better player.

Absent all the background and "injury" bullshit with Kawhi, on talent alone, given the choice of KL, Westbrook or Harden would any GM league-wide decide on either of the other two???? Shit, OKC and Houston would be first in line for Kawhi.

Obviously I'm just talking raw basketball, as far as leadership, team camaraderie or w/e other skills relative to that, Kawhi is pretty much a 0.0 to me but you can't have it all right (T.D?! lol), this guy just wins as much as it sucks to say that as a Spurs fan after the last BS year.


On the original post though; I loved that 2017 line up. Simmons just fit so nicely with that team, David Lee was having a renaissance season, Dedmon was a tough athletic big and Pau Gasol all of a sudden had this great stroke from beyond the Arch, even Parker found an extra gear in the playoffs. Everything was coming together for that squad at the exact right time until the D.Lee + Parker injuries but even with those I still think because Kawhi was just that damn elite they were on the path to dethrone the Warriors. Kawhi just commanded so much gravity on the court that Aldridge could really do damage against them and Simmons and them just didn't play scared like Kyle and all these other secondary guys seem do on that stage.

I've pretty much hated every roster decision the front office has made since that '17 WCF appearance except the Aldridge extension, and the real question should be how did Aldridge carry last years squad to 47 wins, I mean I watched him do it but still can't comprehend it really.
great post

[Kurgan]

Where the hell is this narrative coming from that we're a young team? :lmao

Lamarcus Aldridge (33 years old)
Dante Cunningham (31 years old)
Rudy Gay (32 years old)
DeMar DeRozan (29 years old)
Derrick White (24 years old)

Pau Gasol (38 years old)
Davis Bertans (25 years old)
Marco Belinelli (32 years old)
Bryn Forbes (25 years old)
Patty Mills (30 years old)

Even Lonnie Walker and Dejounte Murray have 30yr old paycheck collecting NBA Veteran knees smh

Derrick White about to turn 25 years old and he hasn't even played 20 games yet :rollin

This front office sure knows how to pick 'em.

[TheGreatYacht]

Derrick White about to turn 25 years old and he hasn't even played 20 games yet :rollin

This front office sure knows how to pick 'em.
"Hey its hit and miss late in the first round!I!!iii!!!iii"

:lol....

[RC_Drunkford]

Agreed, KL was better then them that year and he is still better then them. The disappointment we felt from Kawhi during his playoff stints in 2015 and 2016 is pretty much what Westbrook and Harden deliver every year in the playoffs.

Harden giving up against a Kawhi-less spurs squad on his home-court and him being benched for their comeback against the Clippers the prior year are his most memorable moments for me. Then you have Westbrook who obviously doesn't need just a pretty good secondary guy like Paul George to have any modicum of success but he needs a legit top 3 guy like Durant, in other words he would need a Kawhi level player to have any chance. Until any of these two guys can match what Kawhi was doing at his best level (IMO the 2017 playoffs against Memphis and dominating the Warriors was his top level but that whole season was an MVP showcase for him) to me, it's down right laughable that a pure one way talent or a year long stat padding session could be deemed the better player, the more exciting? yes....The more flashy? Yup....but not a better player.

Absent all the background and "injury" bullshit with Kawhi, on talent alone, given the choice of KL, Westbrook or Harden would any GM league-wide decide on either of the other two???? Shit, OKC and Houston would be first in line for Kawhi.

Obviously I'm just talking raw basketball, as far as leadership, team camaraderie or w/e other skills relative to that, Kawhi is pretty much a 0.0 to me but you can't have it all right (T.D?! lol), this guy just wins as much as it sucks to say that as a Spurs fan after the last BS year.


On the original post though; I loved that 2017 line up. Simmons just fit so nicely with that team, David Lee was having a renaissance season, Dedmon was a tough athletic big and Pau Gasol all of a sudden had this great stroke from beyond the Arch, even Parker found an extra gear in the playoffs. Everything was coming together for that squad at the exact right time until the D.Lee + Parker injuries but even with those I still think because Kawhi was just that damn elite they were on the path to dethrone the Warriors. Kawhi just commanded so much gravity on the court that Aldridge could really do damage against them and Simmons and them just didn't play scared like Kyle and all these other secondary guys seem do on that stage.

I've pretty much hated every roster decision the front office has made since that '17 WCF appearance except the Aldridge extension, and the real question should be how did Aldridge carry last years squad to 47 wins, I mean I watched him do it but still can't comprehend it really.

Uncle Dennis with the realness

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

I’m not sure this roster would win 60 even with a healthy Kawhi, minus DeRozan. No Manu, no Green, no Parker has an impact with depth. We have none.

[TDomination]

I’m not sure this roster would win 60 even with a healthy Kawhi, minus DeRozan. No Manu, no Green, no Parker has an impact with depth. We have none.

Heck yeah it does. This team has been completely gutted.
Plus take into account all the games that Kawhi would miss this year. Probably would miss at least 15 games. Probably would equate to at least 13 losses.

Our team is just not very good, the fact we are 6-4 is a miracle. Could've easily lost the Minny game, both Laker games and that Mavs game. We probably should be 1-9. But we're not. Derozan was a beast in the 4th in a bunch of those games. Hopefully we get more of that.

[BlackAndWhite]

The 2017 playoff run was memorable. If Parker, Lee and Kwad wasn't injured I definitely believe the spurs can beat the warriors. They played them very well that season. The first game the spurs blew out the warriors.

[daslicer]

The Spurs had a better roster in 2017. This team is radically different than the 2017 team.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

I’m not sure this roster would win 60 even with a healthy Kawhi, minus DeRozan. No Manu, no Green, no Parker has an impact with depth. We have none.

Agreed

[RC_Drunkford]

The crazy thing about the 2017 run was that they said they thought they had a good chance, so they wanted to bring the same guys back. Yet they exchanged Lee, Dedmon and Simmons with Joffrey, Derrick White and BP3. The only good move was getting Rudy Gay, which compensated for them relying on Kawhi so much. Lee also had a serious injury, so he wouldn't had been the same player anyway

[daslicer]

The crazy thing about the 2017 run was that they said they thought they had a good chance, so they wanted to bring the same guys back. Yet they exchanged Lee, Dedmon and Simmons with Joffrey, Derrick White and BP3. The only good move was getting Rudy Gay, which compensated for them relying on Kawhi so much. Lee also had a serious injury, so he wouldn't had been the same player anyway

Lee didn't want to play basketball anymore after he suffered the quad injury. He was done.

[YGWHI]

I’m not sure this roster would win 60 even with a healthy Kawhi, minus DeRozan. No Manu, no Green, no Parker has an impact with depth. We have none.

I have no doubt that a healthy Kawhi would win 60 games with this roster in this West.

To be fair, WC teams seemed stronger in 2017...and Manu and Parker had some type of horrible regular season. Parker just started to look good in those playoffs.

[duncan2k5]

We won 50 games with the Autistic retard getting handjobs from unc and sis in NYC :lmao

Mute Cancer had nothing to do with it

we didnt win 50 games

[Kawhitstorm]

What a load of crap. Spurs were 7-1 without Kawhi his last full season, beating the warriors, raptors, Memphis, Toronto, Portland. He didn't even play huge minutes to be arguing he carried some amazing load. Go ask Lillard or AD what it's like to carry crap...

Yeah we saw how STACKED the team was after Zaza took out Kawhi who carried Pop & those bums to a 20 point lead before they shat their pants within seconds:lol

[Kawhitstorm]

we didnt win 50 games

Pardon him, he takes the short bus

[Spurtacular]

Hmmm. Dabom or Apo?

[Spurtacular]

Lee didn't want to play basketball anymore after he suffered the quad injury. He was done.

I don't know if you're taking poetic license; Lee wanted to come back though.

[dontouchmebwo]

How man, HOW?

[DAF86]

Stop it.

If we still had Manu, Green, Anderson and Murray over Mills, Bellinelli, Forbes and fucking Cunningham we would be a 50 wins team. That's how bad the league is right now.

Manu, Green, Anderson all players that my nigga TheGreatYacht loves. This shows how much he knows about basketball, tbh. :lol

[dontouchmebwo]

Stop it.

If we still had Manu, Green, Anderson and Murray over Mills, Bellinelli, Forbes and fucking Cunningham we would be a 50 wins team. That's how bad the league is right now.

Manu, Green, Anderson all players that my nigga TheGreatYacht (https://www.spurstalk.com/forums/member.php?u=43719) loves. This shows how much he knows about basketball, tbh. :lol

This team won as many as 67 though and that was without Murray even playing, let's be real, Anderson, Green and a 37 year old Manu aren't responsible for the Spurs winning 67 games lol.

[DAF86]

This team won as many as 67 though and that was without Murray even playing, let's be real, Anderson, Green and a 37 year old Manu aren't responsible for the Spurs winning 67 games lol.

Of course not. Kawhi was arguably the best player in the World two years ago. He never had to carry this current crap though.

[TDMVPDPOY]

dunno about u guys, but a perimeter rotation of kawhi, green, simmons, anderson and ginoboli allowed us to chuck 2 or 3 perimeter players out there on the court that could actually play some lick of defense to keep the other team honest

after 2 seasons? all 5 of them arent even on the roster no more...

fck patfo

[therealtruth]

Maybe Kawhi saw the writing on the wall and that's why he wanted out.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Maybe Kawhi saw the writing on the wall and that's why he wanted out.

Yup, he deserved a significantly better roster

[duncan2k5]

Maybe Kawhi saw the writing on the wall and that's why he wanted out.

I think it was a combination of sending away dedmon and Simmons for nothing, LMA pouting the whole season just to choke in the playoffs, demanding a trade, not being traded then crying about his touches, just to immediately get signed to an extension... Then throwing money at mills and Gasol while every other team got better

[Spur916]

Agreed, KL was better then them that year and he is still better then them. The disappointment we felt from Kawhi during his playoff stints in 2015 and 2016 is pretty much what Westbrook and Harden deliver every year in the playoffs.

Harden giving up against a Kawhi-less spurs squad on his home-court and him being benched for their comeback against the Clippers the prior year are his most memorable moments for me. Then you have Westbrook who obviously doesn't need just a pretty good secondary guy like Paul George to have any modicum of success but he needs a legit top 3 guy like Durant, in other words he would need a Kawhi level player to have any chance. Until any of these two guys can match what Kawhi was doing at his best level (IMO the 2017 playoffs against Memphis and dominating the Warriors was his top level but that whole season was an MVP showcase for him) to me, it's down right laughable that a pure one way talent or a year long stat padding session could be deemed the better player, the more exciting? yes....The more flashy? Yup....but not a better player.

Good post although I think Westbrook's case was more clear cut. Not only did Westbrook have the numbers he also had the narrative of getting the Thunder into the playoffs in the first season since KD's departure. At that time Kawhi was seen as being very much a product of Pop's system/coaching and a beneficiary of playing on a club that won 50+ games a season since time immemorial.

[itzsoweezee]

It's amazing how much people underrate Danny Green. And did you just forget about Manu fucking Ginobili?

Kawhi is definitely a superstar but let's not pretend he was doing it all on his own

[Spur916]

It's amazing how much people underrate Danny Green. And did you just forget about Manu fucking Ginobili?

Kawhi is definitely a superstar but let's not pretend he was doing it all on his own

Agreed.

Comparing this years team to last years Parker, Manu and Green are all big losses not only in terms of what they do in a tangible/basketball sense but also when it comes to experience and leadership. They've got a combined 3,000 games of experience in a Spurs jersey and you can't lose that all in one offseason and Kawhi Leonard and not skip a beat.

It would have been much better for stability of the franchise if their departures had been staggered over separate off seasons.

[dontouchmebwo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn-enjcgV1o

:cry