in defense of popovich

[violentkitten]

putting aside the debate over his coaching during the last 30 secs last night for the moment, pop must be a hard ass in your face coach with this crew at this moment. there are three things going on that i perceive and of course i may be totally off and if so, im not paid to do this. the first is that things were getting too easy for the spurs during the win streak. maybe they were getting too relaxed and losing their focus. secondly this team seems to contain some personalities who need someone in their face and on their ass constantly. the spurs dont have the type of hardass veterans that they did in the 1999 championship run. duncan may be becoming more of a leader but everything ive seen and heard about him over the last 7 years leads me to believe that he is still the cerebral leader, the guy who does see everything as it should be and he expects that everyone else is smart enough to figure it out. now maybe im wrong and ill be the first to admit it but thats what i perceive. so the spurs need some hardasses who will get on this team when it starts to go through the motions. if not a player then a coach. finally, the spurs never start this good this early. they dont have the adversity they have had at the start of the seasons before. no adversity could lead to poor motivation for the rest of the season and a lack of success in coming together as a team later on in the year as the spurs always seem to do in seasons past.

i am glad he called out rasho in the press. rasho needs someone in his face to perform well. i hope pop continues to give massenburg minutes. sometimes a guy who plays hard like he does in the paint may induce other spurs bigs to do the same.

the regular season matters for the spurs primarily so that they can get ready for the playoffs by coming together as a unit. a coach has to use various techniques to keep the team on that track. sometimes he's gotta push, other times he's gotta take his hands off and then other TIMES HE'S GOTTA GET IN THEIR MOTHER!@#$ING FACES AND TELL IT LIKE IT IS.

fatigue has probably hit this team after 7 games in 9 nights or whatever but this might be the perfect time for pop to ride them. they need to be challenged. they need to face adversity. things were getting too easy for them. rasho was totally losing focus. this team was starting to believe its shit didnt smell.

so im with pop for getting on this team now. they need it.

[ducks]

I am for pop getting on them
but duncan is the go to guy in the fourth and duncan had been hitting free throws last night. no need to have a cow over that
they may get a practice in finnally they play sat then not tell wed

[violentkitten]

this team needed to get embarassed

[FromWayDowntown]

This team wasn't going to roll on at an .800+ clip -- and it has needed to experience some hardship and grow from it. Fans don't like that, but growth from hardship and mistakes is a necessary experience for almost any championship team.

Pop has said on several occasions this year that the Spurs' youth leads to some misguided complacency, and the last couple of nights, we've seen that with a horrendous 2nd quarter effort against Seattle and poor focus at the end against Houston. The last couple of nights should help to reinforce that this team can't take anything for granted and must play hard from the opening tip to the final horn.

They'll grow and get better -- they always do. Just give it some time.

[timvp]

I could live with all the yelling but I don't agree how he handled it when Devin passed the ball to Duncan. He bitched out Devin for doing a routine basketball keep away play. If he doesn't want Duncan to go to the line at that point, take him out of the game.

Next time Devin gets the ball, he panics because he knows he'll never play again if he makes the logical pass to Duncan.

Game over.

But I agree, Pop needs to be more of a hard ass than normal with this team. Too bad they couldn't get AJ here as the third PG because then he could take some of the leadership responsibilities.

[Gummi]

I can't see anything wrong with Pop's coaching style over the last minute. Devin was playing very well, knocking down the free throws and Rose was better suited for the last minute because of his quickness and toughness. Rasho is not good when teams are pushing it constantly. We all know that Pop used Rose late in games when David was playing.

McGrady's shots were unbelievable and Devin made a bad call by trying to run away from the double team instead of just holding on and protect the ball. It was the same call that SJax got when he tied the game against Minnesota couple of years ago. Get the ball in the corner and knock down a three, but Devin only needed to hold on to that ball instead of dribbling. The Spurs use this play when they desperatly need a three. And I'm not blaming Devin for the game, the Spurs just collapsed and gave it away on the defensive end, and also luck I guess for the Rockets.

I can't see anything wrong with Pop's decisions.

[GoSpurs21]

^^^
one of the very few post that actually makes alot of sense

gotta make mistakes to learn and grow

[CosmicCowboy]

i am glad he called out rasho in the press. rasho needs someone in his face to perform well.

the word when Rasho came to the Spurs was that he underperformed in Minnesota because having KG yelling at him broke his confidence...His improved play in SA was supposedly because Pop gave hims some space and "let him be him"...

fuck that.

nut up Rasho...

[violentkitten]

rasho had his best season as a pro when garnett was on his ass

[Solid D]

Rasho is not good when teams are pushing it constantly.

Good thoughts, Gummi. I'll add one thing that many people don't mention regarding the reason Rasho isn't in there to close out games.

FT shooting. Rasho's an easy mark to foul, thus Rose is the proper choice and not Rasho or Robert. Malik and Mass are the better FT shooters to be out there along with a resurgent-at-the-line Timmy.

[Gummi]

It's too bad that a player has this low of a confidence in the NBA. He's got a nice game. Good shooting touch, little bit soft on the offensive end but his shotblocking skills are good. All I'm asking from him are 8 ppg, 8 rpg, and 1.5 bpg. Also maybe his FG%, he needs to raise that. I can live with his FT% because he never gets to the line anyways so it's not important to the team as much as other players.

I agree Solid D. Rose's FT% is much better the Rasho's.

[violentkitten]

rasho actually seemed to give a damn last night. perhaps pop's new tack with him will pay off

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

Frankly this is a hell of a lot more comforting to happen now than in March. I was actually getting a little worried simply because this good start stuff is something that Dallas used to do. While getting off to a bad start is never easy to take as a fan it at least shows who you can rely on to stay tough early in the season, and then you can go from there. Much better than an adversity free start and falling apart in the playoffs from a sense of complacency.

[rr2418]

I question Pops call to let Brown handle the ball! Yes, Brown has been playing great and is one of the reasons the Spurs had that streak going. But asking him to handle the last few sec's of a ball game might've been to much for Brown to handle! Should Brown have just held on to the ball? SURE! But Pop should've had an experianced player in that aituation. Parker? Ginoballi? Rose? Even Udrih might've been a better choice since he's been playing pro since he was 16 yrs. Maybe next year or 2 years from now, Brown will be more comfortable in that situation. Then again maybe it was just a great play by a great player in Mcgrady!! :wow

As for Rasho, asking him to become a player that he is not, is a waste of time! He is what he is!! Look at D. Robinson! The guy was big and strong with those huge biceps and perhaps the fastest center that ever played, but was he real aggressive when he was within dunking distance? NO!! He would lay it up like a guard. Alot of times he missed easy shots b/c he tried to lay it up instead of dunking it. At that time, the question was why didn't DR play aggressive like Shaq? Shaq dunks the ball everytime he's close to the basket. Why? B/c DR is not Shaq! Rasho is not Rose, not Shaq, not DR, not KG, not Duncan, he is just Rasho!!