biba
09-24-2007, 02:36 PM
A nice article about the 2007/2008 Spurs.
30 teams in 30 days: Spurs
Tim Chisholm
http://www.tsn.ca/nba/news_story/?ID=219087&hubname=nba
9/24/2007 12:32:17 PM
In a time when salary caps and luxury taxes and league expansion has made the idea of a dynasty on the level of the old Celtics, Lakers or Bulls nearly impossible, the Spurs have come as close as any team can to reaching that plateau. This team has won four titles since 1999 under the coaching of Gregg Popovich and the play of Tim Duncan and this year they will make their fourth attempt at winning back-to-back trophies.
To be fair, though, that accomplishment - or lack thereof - is going to make little difference in the way history remembers this team. There was a time when it notion of winning consecutive titles was a huge accomplishment. After the Bill Russell Celtics were disbanded no team went back to back until the LA Lakers did it under Magic and Kareem nearly twenty years later. Since that time, however, the Rockets, Lakers and Bulls (twice) have gone for two or more consecutive Championships. The achievement is still noteworthy, but hardly the Herculean measuring stick it once was.
That said, however, the Spurs would nonetheless like to be able to scale that mountain just so they can say they did. Going into this season (like so many seasons before it) the Spurs are the logical favorites to win the NBA Championship because no team can match their arsenal of weapons. No team has a coach as steady, respected and decorated as Popovich. No team has a leader as steady, respected and decorated as Tim Duncan. No team has a Sixth Man as steady, respected and decorated as Manu Ginobili. And no other team has the ex-factor as steady, respected and decorated as Tony Parker. This team has all of the tools, a claim other teams attempt to make, but the Spurs have the rings to back up their assertions. For all that Dallas and Phoenix would love to believe that they have what it takes to do what San Antonio does, they have to prove it if they want anyone else to believe it.
On the San Antonio front it was a fairly quiet off-season, even by their own post-Championship standards. They didn't lure any big-name free agent on the cheap. They didn't pull off any depth-strengthening trades. All they did was shore-up the end of their bench with contract extensions for Matt Bonner and Jacque Vaughn, bring in Portland forward Ime Udoka in free agency and draft - and stash away - Brazilian big-man Tiago Splitter with their 28th pick. The prevailing notion in San Antonio appears to be 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.
That's the luxury of being such a model franchise in this day and age. While teams like Dallas, Phoenix, Houston and Miami all made furious attempts to remake parts of their team - all of them will be altering at least one part of their starting line-up this season - San Antonio can once again sit back and let other teams try and catch up to them.
There was a time when the Spurs felt a need to make deals to stay one move ahead and keep their top-spot, but more often then not those attempts yielded earlier-than-expected Playoff exits. Not directly, of course, but that always seemed to be the result of doing too much after winning a title. This season, they appear content to just maintain the status quo and allow all of the benefits of chemistry and success to wash over them during the '07-'08 season.
It may work, it may not. Let's face it; these Spurs have nothing left to prove. If they don't win the title this year, they'll strike even more fear into the league the following season because this team never goes too long without adding a ring to their fingers. They've gone the route of trying to bolster a Championship roster and it hasn't netted them that (marginally) coveted back-to-back title. So this year they're going a different route. There isn't much reason for this team to worry, though, because no team this summer has stepped-up and made the moves necessary to make anyone think they're the favorites going into the season. Which is why, once again, the Spurs look to be favored to take it all home 2008.
PROBABLE STARTING LINE-UP
PG - Tony Parker
It's funny how quickly Parker gets forgotten. Only two-and-a-half months after winning the Finals MVP he is once again an also-ran in the talk of the league's best point guards. Even though he dictated the pace of each and every game against the Cavaliers last June, choosing when and how to pick them apart, he is still considered just outside the elite two of Nash and Kidd in some circles, and behind Arenas, Deron, Paul and Chauncey in others. Perhaps it is because he isn't known as a passing point guard (he only averages about 5.4 assists per game on his career, right about what he averaged last year, as well). Even though the Spurs run a system that sees everyone play the role of passer, Parker is the one whose reputation is hurt by that fact. Another blemish is the fact that people seem obsessed with his inability to shoot, even though he shot 52% and 40% from two and three, respectively, last season. Perhaps he is just doomed to the same fate as his teammate, Tim Duncan, in that because he plays in a less publicized market he thusly becomes less publicized. If that is the case, I think that he'll take the lack of pub if it means he'll retire with no less than three rings and a Finals MVP to his name.
SG - Manu Ginobili
While at some point this year, as it is every year, this spot will be manned by either Michael Finley or Brent Barry while Ginobili will be sent to the bench to massacre opposing subs, for now the spot remains his. Ginobili has become the third banana on this team lately with the emergence of Parker, but he is still a very potent force to have at your disposal. He shoots well from everywhere on the court, he rebounds and passes and steals and he does it all without whining or demanding a permanent starting role. In fact, when the 'demotion' came last winter, he feigned surprise that coach had waited until that far into the season. So many teams have talented players that they'd love to be able to use as a weapon in their second unit but fragile egos make it nearly impossible. It's a pity that Ginobili has yet to win a Sixth Man award, if only because he is one of the few players in the league who wouldn't take it as proof that he should be starting.
SF - Bruce Bowen
The most rock-solid proof that a team doesn't need to stock their team with All-Stars to win a title sits right here. Bowen has never been anything short of crucial in this team's run for it's last three titles, providing suffocating defense and zone-busting three point shooting that proves that sometimes less-is-more from a starter on such a potent team. This is a guy who has never averaged over seven points per game in his career, never pulled down more than 4.1 boards per game, never dished out more than two assists per game, yet his contributions are as vital as any Parker or Ginobili. It's his defense that allows those two to conserve some of their energy by not guarding the LeBron's and Kobe's of the world. It's his outside shooting that opens up the paint for their penetrations. He may not have the most glamorous job in the NBA, but he has one of the most important. At least for his team.
PF - Tim Duncan
While people love to throw around the expressions of 'what's left to say' about endorsement-laden players like LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, I think the term is best suited for two-time MVP Tim Duncan. His game is so steady you could set your watch to it. There are the lowest of peaks and the shallowest of valleys in Duncan's career. He is consistency, personified, in the NBA today. Sure he could do better at the free throw line, but so could Shaq. In fact, at this point the comparisons with the career of Shaq - his only equally accomplished contemporary - are swinging in the other direction. While Shaq and Duncan both share the same number of titles, Duncan's career has been far more consistent than that of Shaq. While he has never dominated the league the way Shaq did in 2001 and 2002, he has never seen his career dip as low as Shaq's did last season, nor has he battled weight issues or suffered such publicized feuding with any of his teammates. While there is by no means a definitive answer to who has been superior at this stage, Duncan looks better poised to make a run at another title or two while Shaq looks to need Dwyane Wade to carry him to whatever success may await him before he retires.
C - Fabricio Oberto
While it would be unfair to call last season's free agent signing Francisco Elson a bust, it would be fair to say he performed below expectation. The Spurs had hoped his addition would make this team's frontline more explosive and athletic in an age where more and more teams are veering towards that style of play. By the end of the season, however, the Spurs felt far more comfortable with a more traditional and fundamentally sound centre manning the middle. Much like fellow Argentinean Luis Scola who will be suiting up for Houston this year, Oberto is a no-nonsense meat-and-potatoes player. He is always in the right spot on the floor, he is a solid passer and a very nice finisher and can play with this team whether they are running or walking the ball up the court. While he may not have the shot-blocking abilities of Elson, or his potency at dunking the ball, his well-rounded game is far better suited to this highly cerebral outfit, anyway.
30 teams in 30 days: Spurs
Tim Chisholm
http://www.tsn.ca/nba/news_story/?ID=219087&hubname=nba
9/24/2007 12:32:17 PM
In a time when salary caps and luxury taxes and league expansion has made the idea of a dynasty on the level of the old Celtics, Lakers or Bulls nearly impossible, the Spurs have come as close as any team can to reaching that plateau. This team has won four titles since 1999 under the coaching of Gregg Popovich and the play of Tim Duncan and this year they will make their fourth attempt at winning back-to-back trophies.
To be fair, though, that accomplishment - or lack thereof - is going to make little difference in the way history remembers this team. There was a time when it notion of winning consecutive titles was a huge accomplishment. After the Bill Russell Celtics were disbanded no team went back to back until the LA Lakers did it under Magic and Kareem nearly twenty years later. Since that time, however, the Rockets, Lakers and Bulls (twice) have gone for two or more consecutive Championships. The achievement is still noteworthy, but hardly the Herculean measuring stick it once was.
That said, however, the Spurs would nonetheless like to be able to scale that mountain just so they can say they did. Going into this season (like so many seasons before it) the Spurs are the logical favorites to win the NBA Championship because no team can match their arsenal of weapons. No team has a coach as steady, respected and decorated as Popovich. No team has a leader as steady, respected and decorated as Tim Duncan. No team has a Sixth Man as steady, respected and decorated as Manu Ginobili. And no other team has the ex-factor as steady, respected and decorated as Tony Parker. This team has all of the tools, a claim other teams attempt to make, but the Spurs have the rings to back up their assertions. For all that Dallas and Phoenix would love to believe that they have what it takes to do what San Antonio does, they have to prove it if they want anyone else to believe it.
On the San Antonio front it was a fairly quiet off-season, even by their own post-Championship standards. They didn't lure any big-name free agent on the cheap. They didn't pull off any depth-strengthening trades. All they did was shore-up the end of their bench with contract extensions for Matt Bonner and Jacque Vaughn, bring in Portland forward Ime Udoka in free agency and draft - and stash away - Brazilian big-man Tiago Splitter with their 28th pick. The prevailing notion in San Antonio appears to be 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.
That's the luxury of being such a model franchise in this day and age. While teams like Dallas, Phoenix, Houston and Miami all made furious attempts to remake parts of their team - all of them will be altering at least one part of their starting line-up this season - San Antonio can once again sit back and let other teams try and catch up to them.
There was a time when the Spurs felt a need to make deals to stay one move ahead and keep their top-spot, but more often then not those attempts yielded earlier-than-expected Playoff exits. Not directly, of course, but that always seemed to be the result of doing too much after winning a title. This season, they appear content to just maintain the status quo and allow all of the benefits of chemistry and success to wash over them during the '07-'08 season.
It may work, it may not. Let's face it; these Spurs have nothing left to prove. If they don't win the title this year, they'll strike even more fear into the league the following season because this team never goes too long without adding a ring to their fingers. They've gone the route of trying to bolster a Championship roster and it hasn't netted them that (marginally) coveted back-to-back title. So this year they're going a different route. There isn't much reason for this team to worry, though, because no team this summer has stepped-up and made the moves necessary to make anyone think they're the favorites going into the season. Which is why, once again, the Spurs look to be favored to take it all home 2008.
PROBABLE STARTING LINE-UP
PG - Tony Parker
It's funny how quickly Parker gets forgotten. Only two-and-a-half months after winning the Finals MVP he is once again an also-ran in the talk of the league's best point guards. Even though he dictated the pace of each and every game against the Cavaliers last June, choosing when and how to pick them apart, he is still considered just outside the elite two of Nash and Kidd in some circles, and behind Arenas, Deron, Paul and Chauncey in others. Perhaps it is because he isn't known as a passing point guard (he only averages about 5.4 assists per game on his career, right about what he averaged last year, as well). Even though the Spurs run a system that sees everyone play the role of passer, Parker is the one whose reputation is hurt by that fact. Another blemish is the fact that people seem obsessed with his inability to shoot, even though he shot 52% and 40% from two and three, respectively, last season. Perhaps he is just doomed to the same fate as his teammate, Tim Duncan, in that because he plays in a less publicized market he thusly becomes less publicized. If that is the case, I think that he'll take the lack of pub if it means he'll retire with no less than three rings and a Finals MVP to his name.
SG - Manu Ginobili
While at some point this year, as it is every year, this spot will be manned by either Michael Finley or Brent Barry while Ginobili will be sent to the bench to massacre opposing subs, for now the spot remains his. Ginobili has become the third banana on this team lately with the emergence of Parker, but he is still a very potent force to have at your disposal. He shoots well from everywhere on the court, he rebounds and passes and steals and he does it all without whining or demanding a permanent starting role. In fact, when the 'demotion' came last winter, he feigned surprise that coach had waited until that far into the season. So many teams have talented players that they'd love to be able to use as a weapon in their second unit but fragile egos make it nearly impossible. It's a pity that Ginobili has yet to win a Sixth Man award, if only because he is one of the few players in the league who wouldn't take it as proof that he should be starting.
SF - Bruce Bowen
The most rock-solid proof that a team doesn't need to stock their team with All-Stars to win a title sits right here. Bowen has never been anything short of crucial in this team's run for it's last three titles, providing suffocating defense and zone-busting three point shooting that proves that sometimes less-is-more from a starter on such a potent team. This is a guy who has never averaged over seven points per game in his career, never pulled down more than 4.1 boards per game, never dished out more than two assists per game, yet his contributions are as vital as any Parker or Ginobili. It's his defense that allows those two to conserve some of their energy by not guarding the LeBron's and Kobe's of the world. It's his outside shooting that opens up the paint for their penetrations. He may not have the most glamorous job in the NBA, but he has one of the most important. At least for his team.
PF - Tim Duncan
While people love to throw around the expressions of 'what's left to say' about endorsement-laden players like LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, I think the term is best suited for two-time MVP Tim Duncan. His game is so steady you could set your watch to it. There are the lowest of peaks and the shallowest of valleys in Duncan's career. He is consistency, personified, in the NBA today. Sure he could do better at the free throw line, but so could Shaq. In fact, at this point the comparisons with the career of Shaq - his only equally accomplished contemporary - are swinging in the other direction. While Shaq and Duncan both share the same number of titles, Duncan's career has been far more consistent than that of Shaq. While he has never dominated the league the way Shaq did in 2001 and 2002, he has never seen his career dip as low as Shaq's did last season, nor has he battled weight issues or suffered such publicized feuding with any of his teammates. While there is by no means a definitive answer to who has been superior at this stage, Duncan looks better poised to make a run at another title or two while Shaq looks to need Dwyane Wade to carry him to whatever success may await him before he retires.
C - Fabricio Oberto
While it would be unfair to call last season's free agent signing Francisco Elson a bust, it would be fair to say he performed below expectation. The Spurs had hoped his addition would make this team's frontline more explosive and athletic in an age where more and more teams are veering towards that style of play. By the end of the season, however, the Spurs felt far more comfortable with a more traditional and fundamentally sound centre manning the middle. Much like fellow Argentinean Luis Scola who will be suiting up for Houston this year, Oberto is a no-nonsense meat-and-potatoes player. He is always in the right spot on the floor, he is a solid passer and a very nice finisher and can play with this team whether they are running or walking the ball up the court. While he may not have the shot-blocking abilities of Elson, or his potency at dunking the ball, his well-rounded game is far better suited to this highly cerebral outfit, anyway.