duncan228
06-01-2008, 11:51 AM
http://www.nj.com/columns/ledger/dalessandro/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/121229502120430.xml&coll=1
Aging Spurs must react as rivals get stronger
Dave D'Alessandro
Stuff happens. Unforeseen stuff. We thought we'd share that basketball bulletin with you.
An illuminating example of this: It was only a year ago this weekend that Kobe Bryant, in a moment of prima donna dementia, told some chat show host that he wanted out of El Lay, which only proved that he has the patience of a child and the wisdom of a potato. ... to say nothing of those faculties of the fans and media who somehow thought this was a swell idea whose time had come.
So you look at the Lakers today and you see a really good team -- one on the threshold of being great. They have all the requisites for greatness, anyway -- an MVP in his prime, a top-five center, a hellish matchup at the four-spot, cerebral system guys at every other station, shooters and athletes all over the place, probably the best coach, and superb chemistry.
All of which makes you nauseous when you think about how they're smoking every opponent with astonishing ease while Andrew Bynum, a future 24-and-12 guy, rehabs his knee.
So it is with some reservations that we'd say the San Antonio Spurs' glory days are history, because ... stuff happens.
The team of the decade has to consider making some significant changes over the next three months, or they could drop their decade-long status as title contender very quickly.
The Lakers are going to get better. Once Bynum returns, you can expect talk of a dynasty regardless of what happens in the upcoming Finals.
New Orleans is everybody's flavor of the month, as the up-and-coming team with the longest shelf life.
Utah is probably better than New Orleans.
Portland, sooner or later, is probably going to jump over all of them -- probably within the next two or three years, if the Blazers can keep their pieces together.
And one of these years, Houston may actually stay healthy for a change.
Compare that with the Spurs. There are three guys with All-Star bonafides, indeed. But there are six other guys -- Robert Horry, Kurt Thomas, Michael Finley, Damon Stoudamire, Bruce Bowen and Brent Barry -- who average 35.5 years of age.
Five of those guys are rotation players.
And this marks the second time in three years that Manu Ginobili's body fell apart in the third round, which made this team look very sluggish off the dribble, and eminently guardable.
"That's got to be in the back of our minds going forward," owner Peter Holt said after his team was eliminated by L.A. Thursday night. "We had a good regular season injury-wise, but we were tired. Is it an age factor? Was it just the timing of everything? I don't know yet."
His coach knows, but he isn't telling. Gregg Popovich conducts most of his business with all the secrecy of the Pentagon, so he merely suggested that the Spurs lost to a better team, didn't say anything about advocating a bust-up, and went quietly into the offseason without another sound.
But this had to bug him -- more than losing to Dallas in '06, when Tim Duncan fought plantar fasciitis and was outplayed in the overtime of Game 7 against the immortal DeSagana Diop. The Spurs are much older now. Their coach doesn't trust his younger guys. He blundered in his last two chances to infuse the bench with youth (Beno Udrih, Luis Scola). Ginobili is going back to the Olympics, which can't be good for a going-on-31. Their style is still compelling, but becoming passé.
If he's contemplating a significant change by going the Joe Dumars route -- filling the bench with kids who can learn on the fly -- Pop'll keep it to himself for a while. No surprise there, because he's a master at biting his lip: The best example was the disastrous climax of Game 4, when Barry was used like a tackling dummy by Derek Fisher and the refs swallowed their whistles.
What could he say? It was karma, the only cosmic force with a morbid sense of humor. Pop couldn't complain -- not after Robert Horry's hip check sent Steve Nash flying the year before, giving the Spurs the edge they needed to advance. He couldn't complain -- not with the most physical team in the hemisphere, one that bumps more cutters and grabs more jerseys and throws more illicit elbows than anyone since the NBA's piefight days of the early '90s. And Pop couldn't complain because his team was outplayed, period.
Even though it was the most obvious foul and egregious officiating oversight we've seen in a long, long time.
Sure, the Spurs were bit by a horrendous no-call, but their coach told them to put a sock in it.
So out they went in five -- dismissed by the MVP and the coach who once called Popovich and his staff "the simulator crew," because none of them had played in the NBA.
Now he's lost to Phil Jackson four times in their five playoff meetings.
Nobody this good, this smart, and this competitive is going to stand for it.
SIGN OF THE TIMES
More circumstantial proof that small is in: For the first time since the Bulls dynasty concluded in '98, neither Tim Duncan nor Shaquille O'Neal will appear in the NBA Finals.
Aging Spurs must react as rivals get stronger
Dave D'Alessandro
Stuff happens. Unforeseen stuff. We thought we'd share that basketball bulletin with you.
An illuminating example of this: It was only a year ago this weekend that Kobe Bryant, in a moment of prima donna dementia, told some chat show host that he wanted out of El Lay, which only proved that he has the patience of a child and the wisdom of a potato. ... to say nothing of those faculties of the fans and media who somehow thought this was a swell idea whose time had come.
So you look at the Lakers today and you see a really good team -- one on the threshold of being great. They have all the requisites for greatness, anyway -- an MVP in his prime, a top-five center, a hellish matchup at the four-spot, cerebral system guys at every other station, shooters and athletes all over the place, probably the best coach, and superb chemistry.
All of which makes you nauseous when you think about how they're smoking every opponent with astonishing ease while Andrew Bynum, a future 24-and-12 guy, rehabs his knee.
So it is with some reservations that we'd say the San Antonio Spurs' glory days are history, because ... stuff happens.
The team of the decade has to consider making some significant changes over the next three months, or they could drop their decade-long status as title contender very quickly.
The Lakers are going to get better. Once Bynum returns, you can expect talk of a dynasty regardless of what happens in the upcoming Finals.
New Orleans is everybody's flavor of the month, as the up-and-coming team with the longest shelf life.
Utah is probably better than New Orleans.
Portland, sooner or later, is probably going to jump over all of them -- probably within the next two or three years, if the Blazers can keep their pieces together.
And one of these years, Houston may actually stay healthy for a change.
Compare that with the Spurs. There are three guys with All-Star bonafides, indeed. But there are six other guys -- Robert Horry, Kurt Thomas, Michael Finley, Damon Stoudamire, Bruce Bowen and Brent Barry -- who average 35.5 years of age.
Five of those guys are rotation players.
And this marks the second time in three years that Manu Ginobili's body fell apart in the third round, which made this team look very sluggish off the dribble, and eminently guardable.
"That's got to be in the back of our minds going forward," owner Peter Holt said after his team was eliminated by L.A. Thursday night. "We had a good regular season injury-wise, but we were tired. Is it an age factor? Was it just the timing of everything? I don't know yet."
His coach knows, but he isn't telling. Gregg Popovich conducts most of his business with all the secrecy of the Pentagon, so he merely suggested that the Spurs lost to a better team, didn't say anything about advocating a bust-up, and went quietly into the offseason without another sound.
But this had to bug him -- more than losing to Dallas in '06, when Tim Duncan fought plantar fasciitis and was outplayed in the overtime of Game 7 against the immortal DeSagana Diop. The Spurs are much older now. Their coach doesn't trust his younger guys. He blundered in his last two chances to infuse the bench with youth (Beno Udrih, Luis Scola). Ginobili is going back to the Olympics, which can't be good for a going-on-31. Their style is still compelling, but becoming passé.
If he's contemplating a significant change by going the Joe Dumars route -- filling the bench with kids who can learn on the fly -- Pop'll keep it to himself for a while. No surprise there, because he's a master at biting his lip: The best example was the disastrous climax of Game 4, when Barry was used like a tackling dummy by Derek Fisher and the refs swallowed their whistles.
What could he say? It was karma, the only cosmic force with a morbid sense of humor. Pop couldn't complain -- not after Robert Horry's hip check sent Steve Nash flying the year before, giving the Spurs the edge they needed to advance. He couldn't complain -- not with the most physical team in the hemisphere, one that bumps more cutters and grabs more jerseys and throws more illicit elbows than anyone since the NBA's piefight days of the early '90s. And Pop couldn't complain because his team was outplayed, period.
Even though it was the most obvious foul and egregious officiating oversight we've seen in a long, long time.
Sure, the Spurs were bit by a horrendous no-call, but their coach told them to put a sock in it.
So out they went in five -- dismissed by the MVP and the coach who once called Popovich and his staff "the simulator crew," because none of them had played in the NBA.
Now he's lost to Phil Jackson four times in their five playoff meetings.
Nobody this good, this smart, and this competitive is going to stand for it.
SIGN OF THE TIMES
More circumstantial proof that small is in: For the first time since the Bulls dynasty concluded in '98, neither Tim Duncan nor Shaquille O'Neal will appear in the NBA Finals.