Ed Helicopter Jones
11-01-2006, 06:22 PM
Basketball season is here!!! Basketball season is here!!! Basketball season is here!!!
With the NBA season officially starting tomorrow night (until the Spurs take the floor, in my mind at least, the season has yet to begin) I figured it’s time for the Chopper to check in, lace ‘em up, and get ready for some power posting to ring in the new year! Here are my thoughts on the Spurs:
What a difference a year makes....
I find it interesting that last preseason everyone in the media and most fans of the game said that the Spurs and Pistons were shoe-ins for the Finals. Why even play the regular season and playoffs? Just let those two slug it out and crown the winner (predicted by most to be the Spurs). The Spurs had just signed Michael Finley and the mighty Nick the Quick, had two of the best playoff performers in the league in Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, and were the defending champions. Unfortunately what no one saw coming last year was for Avery Johnson throw a small-ball wrench at the Spurs from which the champs couldn’t fully recover.
This year not much has really changed with the Spurs team, except for everyone’s expectations. Finley is still here, looking better than ever. True, Nick Van Exel’s sorry excuse for an NBA player is gone, but that should be considered a blessing by anyone who actually watched the Spurs last year. The Spurs have added a decent long-range scorer in Matt Bonner, a reliable backup point guard in Jacque Vaughn, and have replaced Rasho Nesterovic and Nazr Mohammed with Francisco Elson and Jackie Butler.
While the Spurs may be a year older, the core group of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker are just hitting their prime. Bruce Bowen and Finley are always able to play younger than they are due to their peak conditioning. Robert Horry may have not been at his best last year, but he wasn’t in 2004 either. Too soon to close the coffin on the man’s career I think. Big Shot has a few bullets left in the gun and I expect to see him back in ’05 form this post season. So all in all, the Spurs six man core is just as good as ever.
Also, the Spurs should be the strongest they have been at center since the Admiral retired. While that translates into being merely “average” at the 5 spot, average is about all this team needs from that position to be successful. For all the complaining that the Spurs have lost their tandem at center, all I can see is that they’ve lost is two guys whose backsides won’t be missed watching from the bench in critical moments of playoff games. I was never sold on Rasho and his “always being in the right position on defense and offense”. I believe a well-placed tree or shrub could have been in good defensive position too. Maybe we should have kept Rasho for those four Rockets games each year...or not. Nazr was Nazr…erratic, unpredictable, good at pump-faking, good at starving himself through a quarter of the season, good at eating lots of leather (now make that composite) through the other three quarters of the season under the hoop. Good riddance. I’d bet a can of Spam that Fabricio Oberto, Butler and Elson will put up better combined numbers than Nazr, Rasho and Oberto did last season.
Man by man, lineup by lineup, opponent by opponent, I don’t see a team that can beat a Spurs team at its best in a seven game series. Greg Popovich is a master at molding his teams to beat an opponent (see Jazz, Utah, from a few seasons ago). The Mavericks won’t sneak up on the Spurs this year. Small ball won’t surprise them again. It worked once, but an '07 playoff series with the Mavs would go 4-2 San Antonio.
As for the long three situation, expect something to happen before the trade deadline this year. I see Udrih, Bonner, Williams, Barry and possibly Oberto, Butler or Elson as potential trade fodder to landing a decent three. When this happens…well…let’s just say “Title Town Texas” baby!
In summation, other than Stephen A. Smith’s prediction of the Spurs winning the title causing the earth’s rotation around the sun to spin temporarily off-course, and the related high-tides and dead bodies rising from their graves, I predict everything else in the universe to return to its rightful place this year….
I’m going to call my shot for June right now…Spurs in six over the Miami Heat (funny. . .I always knew that Stephen A. Smith was a smart fellow).
With the NBA season officially starting tomorrow night (until the Spurs take the floor, in my mind at least, the season has yet to begin) I figured it’s time for the Chopper to check in, lace ‘em up, and get ready for some power posting to ring in the new year! Here are my thoughts on the Spurs:
What a difference a year makes....
I find it interesting that last preseason everyone in the media and most fans of the game said that the Spurs and Pistons were shoe-ins for the Finals. Why even play the regular season and playoffs? Just let those two slug it out and crown the winner (predicted by most to be the Spurs). The Spurs had just signed Michael Finley and the mighty Nick the Quick, had two of the best playoff performers in the league in Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, and were the defending champions. Unfortunately what no one saw coming last year was for Avery Johnson throw a small-ball wrench at the Spurs from which the champs couldn’t fully recover.
This year not much has really changed with the Spurs team, except for everyone’s expectations. Finley is still here, looking better than ever. True, Nick Van Exel’s sorry excuse for an NBA player is gone, but that should be considered a blessing by anyone who actually watched the Spurs last year. The Spurs have added a decent long-range scorer in Matt Bonner, a reliable backup point guard in Jacque Vaughn, and have replaced Rasho Nesterovic and Nazr Mohammed with Francisco Elson and Jackie Butler.
While the Spurs may be a year older, the core group of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker are just hitting their prime. Bruce Bowen and Finley are always able to play younger than they are due to their peak conditioning. Robert Horry may have not been at his best last year, but he wasn’t in 2004 either. Too soon to close the coffin on the man’s career I think. Big Shot has a few bullets left in the gun and I expect to see him back in ’05 form this post season. So all in all, the Spurs six man core is just as good as ever.
Also, the Spurs should be the strongest they have been at center since the Admiral retired. While that translates into being merely “average” at the 5 spot, average is about all this team needs from that position to be successful. For all the complaining that the Spurs have lost their tandem at center, all I can see is that they’ve lost is two guys whose backsides won’t be missed watching from the bench in critical moments of playoff games. I was never sold on Rasho and his “always being in the right position on defense and offense”. I believe a well-placed tree or shrub could have been in good defensive position too. Maybe we should have kept Rasho for those four Rockets games each year...or not. Nazr was Nazr…erratic, unpredictable, good at pump-faking, good at starving himself through a quarter of the season, good at eating lots of leather (now make that composite) through the other three quarters of the season under the hoop. Good riddance. I’d bet a can of Spam that Fabricio Oberto, Butler and Elson will put up better combined numbers than Nazr, Rasho and Oberto did last season.
Man by man, lineup by lineup, opponent by opponent, I don’t see a team that can beat a Spurs team at its best in a seven game series. Greg Popovich is a master at molding his teams to beat an opponent (see Jazz, Utah, from a few seasons ago). The Mavericks won’t sneak up on the Spurs this year. Small ball won’t surprise them again. It worked once, but an '07 playoff series with the Mavs would go 4-2 San Antonio.
As for the long three situation, expect something to happen before the trade deadline this year. I see Udrih, Bonner, Williams, Barry and possibly Oberto, Butler or Elson as potential trade fodder to landing a decent three. When this happens…well…let’s just say “Title Town Texas” baby!
In summation, other than Stephen A. Smith’s prediction of the Spurs winning the title causing the earth’s rotation around the sun to spin temporarily off-course, and the related high-tides and dead bodies rising from their graves, I predict everything else in the universe to return to its rightful place this year….
I’m going to call my shot for June right now…Spurs in six over the Miami Heat (funny. . .I always knew that Stephen A. Smith was a smart fellow).