Improvement

[Emanuel20]

What do you think Spurs should mostly focus on besides Free throws the next couple of months?

[SpursWillOwn]

fg%

[George Gervin's Afro]

Execution in the 4th qtr. Each loss , including last night, the Spurs opponenent seems to out excecute the Spurs down the stretch. I don't know how many layups the Jazz had last night in the 4th qtr but I am not used to seeing that. We either struggled to get shots off or did not get one off at all many times in the 4th last night. It's early and we all know how this team progresses but in the end Utah played very well last night and we did not not.


Oh and Tim needs to stop trying to draw fouls and just play... It may be just me but it seems like he has the ball stripped an awful lot lately. He is as much to blame for last nioght's loss than anyone else.. I think Parker is playing better within the offense however I still think he takes to many bad shots.. but Pop may want him to be 'aggressive' so I suppose we have to live with that.

I am hopeful Finley is able to hit another jump shot this season..

[Texas_Ranger]

Defense, their defense sucks so far. If they would play like in 2005 then there would be no problems.

[themvp]

I think they are doing fine so far.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

DEFENSE

big time

[VaSpursFan]

first time poster but a huge Spurs fan. Watched the last 2 horrible losses on League pass since I live in VA and only get the national games.

1 - IMO, we need to improve on execution. The ball movement has been abysmal in the 4 down, and this play is beginning to annoy the shit out of me. It reminds me of the old iso's that Barkley ran back in the 90's. Give Tim ball, back down, double team comes, pass, if not attack basket...repeat. We need to move the damn ball. The offense is ridiculously stagnant now. It's almost like we fall into our assists. What I like to see is the pass that leads to the pass that leads to the open shot. Sharing and trusting.

2 - Beno has been absolutely horrendous these past couple of games. He comes in and just chucks away...WTF??? Pop needs to give him the red light and have him facilitate the offense.

3 - Tim's post play is still outstanding. BUT, I have never seen him get stripped and blocked as much as I have this season. He needs to take care of the ball better, go with a pump fake every now and again. And last night, I know late in the ball game, he got stripped, jumped up to complain and got back on D with no urgency. It was almost as if he had given up because he wasn't getting any calls.

4 - Play Frankie more. He's raw and not familiar with the deense but I love his energy and passion.

5 - Dare I say that this team has become to corporate. I know I hate to lose at anything but I don't see that same anger from this team. You can't win every game but play with passion and fire. We need that firecracker on this team that will kick a chair, rant and rave or something. You've got to have one player that has the fire in his belly to rally the troops and I just don't see that.

6 - Pop is really sucking in my opinion. I know it's early and he's trying to see what works but there are statement games that you have to win just to put fear in teams. Dallas and Utah were 2 of these games.

That's all I have for now. I know the sky isn't falling and this will be addressed as the season progresses but I would have loved to get the win last night.

[cherylsteele]

Just plain focus all the time and give good effort....that usually seems to pay off for the Spurs.

[shelshor]

Defense
Execution in the 4th quarter

[SuperManu!!!]

I think is time to change the coach....Pop's time is over and we need a fresh one with new ideas without loosing the defence scheme

[bdictjames]

VASpursfan said everything I wanted to say so nevermind

[boutons_]

If Pop wants to win,
he should sooner rather than later stop the weird-ass combos,
stop obsessing about Spurs reacting to and matching up with the opponent, and
prioritize the Spurs playing their natural combos that force the opponents to match up with the Spurs.

If would be great if the Spurs worked on playing like they gave a fuck,
but don't expect that until March at the very earliest.

[2centsworth]

unfortunately it's youth. Besides that, blocking out and rebounding.

[nkdlunch]

besides improving the defense, in order to win a title we need 2 things. Home court advantage throughtout and the formula to beat dallas in a series.
that simple.

[Dirk Nowitzki]

besides improving the defense, in order to win a title we need 2 things. Home court advantage throughtout and the formula to beat dallas in a series.
that simple.


:sleep Please homecourt is overrated and you know it. It didnt help us in the Finals and it didnt help you at all in round 2 against us. It also didnt do much for the Pistons either.

[SenorSpur]

Execution in the 4th qtr. Each loss , including last night, the Spurs opponenent seems to out excecute the Spurs down the stretch. I don't know how many layups the Jazz had last night in the 4th qtr but I am not used to seeing that. We either struggled to get shots off or did not get one off at all many times in the 4th last night. It's early and we all know how this team progresses but in the end Utah played very well last night and we did not not.


Oh and Tim needs to stop trying to draw fouls and just play... It may be just me but it seems like he has the ball stripped an awful lot lately. He is as much to blame for last nioght's loss than anyone else.. I think Parker is playing better within the offense however I still think he takes to many bad shots.. but Pop may want him to be 'aggressive' so I suppose we have to live with that.

I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about Tim. At times he does seem to deliberately look to draw fouls by way of taking ill-advised, off-balanced shots. He's also getting the ball stripped quite a lot and seems very conscious of this as he drives the ball to the hoop. Also, the offense seems to bog down when he holds the ball in the post for prolonged periods of time. He's too good of a scorer and has way too many moves in his arsenal to allow this to happen.

First off, I believe he should stop showing the defender the ball so much. Keep it over his head and either take it up strong or make decisive passes out of the double teams. Either way, I would like to see him make more good, sound decisions in those situations.

[Sense]

Rebounding.

[ducks]

their cheerleaders

[SenorSpur]

What do you think Spurs should mostly focus on besides Free throws the next couple of months?

1. Reduce Mistakes: Turnovers, taking bad shots, transition baskets - you name it. There is still the occasional bitching about calls that needs to cease.

2. Rebounding. Same story as last year. While they are rebounding better overall as a team, they're still too lax in allowing opponents to feast off 2nd chance points on the offensive glass - especially in ciritical situations. They need to get back to fundamentals of blocking out, securing defensive rebounds and limiting the potential for 2nd chance points by the opposition.

3. Execution: For such a veteran team, this team has displayed a surprisingly low level of execution - especially 4th quarter situations. The Spurs need to employ good ball movement, take good shots and make teams pay for double-teaming the post or clogging the lane. Good shooting (FG and FT) and some occasional fast break opporutnities would help greatly in this area.

4. Mental and Defensive Swagger: The Spurs absolutely have to go out and beat teams they are supposed to beat. Too often they allow inferior teams to "hang around", thus making 4th quarters way too interesting. Because they don't shoot FTs well and historically struggle in B2Bs, it's hard for them to comeback when they're down in tight games. Therefore, the ability to make stops becomes paramount. They're already a good road team, I'd like to see them do a better job of defending their home court too.

[dimsah]

REBOUNDING

[Dirk41MVP]

you give up 85 to Utah and you're worried about your defense ?, why don't you all who think your defense is a problem, look at the 75 points you scored against utah. Your rebounding is fine, Utah is the best rebounding team you need to find more points without ginobili. Finley has sucked (that's the true Finley btw), that simple.

[duncanchick21]

rebounding, a better line-up in the 4th quarter and of course defense!!!

[Spurologist]

Lets see what we can get for pop now that he's high on the market.

POP + Stan Kelly for Zach Randolph and a future first round pick.

[Dirk41MVP]

Lets see what we can get for pop now that he's high on the market.

POP + Stan Kelly for Zach Randolph and a future first round pick.


DO IT, Randolph would probably rape 1/2 your whitey team. Plus with his contract you'd be in cap hell, great idea moron.

[SpursWoman]

Yeah, he's a moron no doubt. They can get much better for Stan Kelly & Pop. If they threw in the Coyote, maybe they could get LeBron James.

[Spurologist]

DO IT, Randolph would probably rape 1/2 your whitey team. Plus with his contract you'd be in cap hell, great idea moron.

LMAO

you actually took the idea seriously. It's best to try to understand the purpose behind a post before jumping to rash conclusions. Not doing so is a clear sign mental retardation.

Back get back to work. Cubie is on line 1 and wants you to give Dirk a BJ ASAP. Get to it.

[Dirk41MVP]

LMAO

you actually took the idea seriously. It's best to try to understand the purpose behind a post before jumping to rash conclusions. Not doing so is a clear sign mental retardation.

Back get back to work. Cubie is on line 1 and wants you to give Dirk a BJ ASAP. Get to it.

haha, yes i did take it seriously, just as I do every post I make in this stupid ass, numb-nut-infested forum of yours.

shit, talk about trying to understand the purpose behind posts... moron

[SpursWoman]

shit, talk about trying to understand the purpose behind posts... moron



The fact that he mentioned Stan Kelly (the AT&T Center announcer) and Pop (the coach of the Spurs) in a trade for any NBA player would have been my first clue that he was being facetious. You'd think after soooo many years of being a true Maverick fan you'd understand that you can't trade a coach and a PA guy for an actual player.

[Dalhoop]

I think that they should trade Duncan for a better defensive PF and trade Bowen for a better defensive SF.

Come on people, the Spurs are doing fine. Manu is being Manu, Parker is being Parker and Duncan .... OK, his game is a little weaker this year .. But he is still TD.

The problem is with Horry, Finley and Barry (Age) and the Center corp with no experiance in the system (Which would be the entire bench ... I guess) . Center play will improve as they learn the system in game situations .... TD will get used to not getting the calls and start to play better ... As for the age ... Well, there's always the trade deadline

[SAGambler]

Spurs are fine.

I would like to see better rebounding on the defensive boards especially.

Would also like to see Tony drive the lane more than he does some nights. I think that is the one thing the Spurs have to have him do. It opens up the entire court.

Duncan needs to quit showing the ball so much and getting it swiped from his hands. For gods sake Tim, you are the best around....quit pussyfooting around with these jerks and take it to the rim on them. Don't give them the time and the opportunity to quick slap it out of your hands.

And of course we need Gino back and healthy.

At this point in the season, I think the bench is doing a good job...Some nights better than others....And I certainly understand Pop wanting to try different combos on the floor. It's about the end of the playoffs, not the beginning of the season.

While the end of November wasn't anything to cheer about, the month as a whole was pretty damn good. I kind of look for about the same effort in December. As long as we win 75% of the games, and no one gets hurt bad, we'll be fine come playoff time...

[LEONARD]

Shooting %
FT %
Defense
Jump balls
Winning on back-to-backs
Traveling calls on Mr Longoria
etc etc

[Mavs<Spurs]

First, it is barely December.
Kind of early for ledge walking, even for the pessimists around here.

Tim getting 20 and 10 and Tony getting 20 and 5 is not enough offense to win.
In this case, Tony must score close to 30 points or more, Tim must score 25 points/game and 13 rebounds, Brent must add 10 and a lot of help from the bench.

The offense is not nearly as good without Manu. Creating more points is difficult not only because of the points he gives us, but the attention he demands and the playmaking ability he has.
We are not putting enough points up on the board to win.

[Mavs<Spurs]

Shooting %
FT %
Defense
Jump balls
Winning on back-to-backs
Traveling calls on Mr Longoria
etc etc
You're probably saying that just to be a troll, based upon your past posts.

Nevertheless, the truth is that we are not doing anything very well right now.

However, it is early in December. Our record is okay and when Manu comes back, we'll be better.

In the playoffs, if Tim and 1 of Tony or Manu play really well and our bench is okay, we should win it all.

Dallas will be a tough out, even for us, but we shall prevail.