Pop's Strategy + Your Suggestions for This Season (2016-2017)

Debating this with a friend that one option for Pop and the front office is to throw away the season and build around Kawhi with young prospects that can use their length to score and defend (Murray, Bertans, Dedmon, Kyle - in a way). I see that he's playing the young bloods more with David Lee and it's a sound strategy to keep giving them more court time. This will make the team more formidable in the years to come and at the same time, make the Spurs more of a contender without Ginobili (will likely retire in 2017), Parker (retire in 2018?), Gasol (Should retire), LMA (either resigned or traded ).

Also A lot of people want Nerlens Noel for Patty Mills but I suggest Richaun Holmes. He doesn't get much playing time because of the glut of bigs in Brown's roster but he was impressive in the Sixers win vs the Clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svx76DKHRAU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G2JQA9R4ZA

In conclusion, I think the Spurs might be a 1st or 2nd round exit because of playing old man Gasol and Parker as long as they develop the players that can support Kawhi. Thoughts?

Spurs never should've signed LMA. They should've gone for the full rebuild around Kawhi.

When you have a team that is the second best in the league, and has as good a chance as any to knock off the Dubs, you don't throw away the season. Pop is giving good time to Murray now and occasionally Kyle and Davis and Simmons. The youth movement is happening while still contending which is kind of amazing frankly.

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Originally Posted by RD2191

Spurs never should've signed LMA. They should've gone for the full rebuild around Kawhi.

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Yeah LMA is talented enough to get some wins in the playoffs but a slow, jump shooting big paired with Kawhi causes issues in offense and defence

even if the the Spurs try to lose every game from now on we would not be in the range of a good draft pick ... even without trying to win they finish at .500 or so

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Originally Posted by BillMc

When you have a team that is the second best in the league, and has as good a chance as any to knock off the Dubs, you don't throw away the season. Pop is giving good time to Murray now and occasionally Kyle and Davis and Simmons. The youth movement is happening while still contending which is kind of amazing frankly.

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Throwing away the season was just an exaggeration :lol. It's just that I would rather see Dedmon, Murray and Bertans out there doing their thing than lean on the vets to pull out a win by giving them too many minutes. But I guess you pay them, you play them

Pop's strategy imo-no trades just development!

We should move Lee to full time starter. Dedmon/Gasol would be a great combo

lmao tank

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Originally Posted by San Antonio Slayer

Pop's strategy imo-no trades just development!

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This.
Spurs are standing pat.
Continue to develop the young guys they have, and at full strength tweak and continue to improve group play.

For Pop, to sharpen all the tools in his shed. One never knows when one of the rooks/youngsters will need to play a few minutes in the playoffs, whether bc of matchups, foul trouble, or an injury (an unfortunate possibility for any player + even more so with an aged group still getting minutes in the regular rotation).

Its virtually impossible to have a better unit than the Warriors right now... given that they were already elite and before adding KD. But the spurs are better than anybody else and are still capable of beating the Warriors. That's a pretty good job by the front office... For a group of guys supposedly entirely dependant on Duncan and/or the big 3, they've got a great roster with Duncan retired and manu/parker being shells of their former selves. Give them some credit.

Even if they don't win it all this year, the young guys stand to learn a lot more in a playoff run than they would in a tanking effort. My only gripe with pop is that he doesn't realize that at some point in the playoffs he'll have to get something out of guys like Bertans and DeJounte. Whether planned or not, they will have their moment on the court, or the team is going to need a small spark. He should be finding ways to get them on the court more often so they can be better prepared.

That's why parkers time off has been great. Dejounte has gotten a lot of playing time and is showing ways he can help the squad in a pinch

No changes until the offseason. Keep winning and getting the young guys time in meaningful games and then evaluate after the season. If things go south in the playoffs then we can look at dealing LMA this summer but, now the status quo is the way to go...

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Originally Posted by spurraider21

Its virtually impossible to have a better unit than the Warriors right now... given that they were already elite and before adding KD. But the spurs are better than anybody else and are still capable of beating the Warriors. That's a pretty good job by the front office... For a group of guys supposedly entirely dependant on Duncan and/or the big 3, they've got a great roster with Duncan retired and manu/parker being shells of their former selves. Give them some credit.

Even if they don't win it all this year, the young guys stand to learn a lot more in a playoff run than they would in a tanking effort. My only gripe with pop is that he doesn't realize that at some point in the playoffs he'll have to get something out of guys like Bertans and DeJounte. Whether planned or not, they will have their moment on the court, or the team is going to need a small spark. He should be finding ways to get them on the court more often so they can be better prepared.

That's why parkers time off has been great. Dejounte has gotten a lot of playing time and is showing ways he can help the squad in a pinch

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THIS!

This is madness.

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Originally Posted by spurraider21

Its virtually impossible to have a better unit than the Warriors right now... given that they were already elite and before adding KD. But the spurs are better than anybody else and are still capable of beating the Warriors. That's a pretty good job by the front office... For a group of guys supposedly entirely dependant on Duncan and/or the big 3, they've got a great roster with Duncan retired and manu/parker being shells of their former selves. Give them some credit.

Even if they don't win it all this year, the young guys stand to learn a lot more in a playoff run than they would in a tanking effort. My only gripe with pop is that he doesn't realize that at some point in the playoffs he'll have to get something out of guys like Bertans and DeJounte. Whether planned or not, they will have their moment on the court, or the team is going to need a small spark. He should be finding ways to get them on the court more often so they can be better prepared.

That's why parkers time off has been great. Dejounte has gotten a lot of playing time and is showing ways he can help the squad in a pinch

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:tu

my suggestion for this season is to trade parker and bolster our defense.

parker + lma for john wall and gortat.

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Originally Posted by gambit1990

my suggestion for this season is to trade parker and bolster our defense.

parker + lma for john wall and gortat.

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My suggestion is you take your meds because your trade takes are delusional. You keep thinking teams are willing to trade for parker :lol

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Originally Posted by BillMc

When you have a team that is the second best in the league, and has as good a chance as any to knock off the Dubs, you don't throw away the season. Pop is giving good time to Murray now and occasionally Kyle and Davis and Simmons. The youth movement is happening while still contending which is kind of amazing frankly.

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Yeah being the second in the NBA makes me think there is not a lot of talk about blowing it up at the moment. Simultaneously competing while developing some of the young guys is really a great place to be. :toast

Put Manu and Parker as coaches, let Mills and Murray in charge of game creation, let Aldridge shot more 3s with Bertans and let Dedmon as center with Simmons free.

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Originally Posted by kuato

Put Manu and Parker as coaches, let Mills and Murray in charge of game creation, let Aldridge shot more 3s with Bertans and let Dedmon as center with Simmons free.

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:lobt2:

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Originally Posted by spurs10

Yeah being the second in the NBA makes me think there is not a lot of talk about blowing it up at the moment. Simultaneously competing while developing some of the young guys is really a great place to be. :toast

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Really the Spurs are in the process of doing what no other modern NBA team has been able to pull off. From the Bulls, Rockets, Lakers no one has had sustain success and been able to keep a championship level after losing the single biggest part of their success or having that player deterioate due to age. Finding the next generation superstar in Kawhi is a huge part of but also have to give credit to finding a mix of proven vet role players along with younger guys to develop. Also have to credit coaching and culture. The jury is still out as to whether this team can make the right moves to surround Kawhi with needed talent as Tony/Manu retire and others are lost due to cap restrictions, but the Spurs have so far managed to keep the championship window cracked for longer than any other multi NBA champion in salary cap era

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Originally Posted by spurraider21

My suggestion is you take your meds because your trade takes are delusional. You keep thinking teams are willing to trade for parker :lol

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:rollin

considering the strongly held ST believe that Pop doesn't in fact want the #1 seed and the fact that the Spurs are 4 games up on the Rox (closest trailer in the West) and 5.5 games up on the LeBron's (in the East) do you think Pop might keep resting the KingSlayer and MVParker? Keeping the established Spurs fresh while simultaneously giving the young un's a lot of run might be part of his master plan.

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Originally Posted by spurraider21

You keep thinking teams are willing to trade for parker :lol

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worse contracts have been moved. i'm at least willing to package lma with him.

:cry trade patty for noel
:cry trade parker and anderson for an allstar

:lmao...

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Originally Posted by gambit1990

worse contracts have been moved. i'm at least willing to package lma with him.

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There are teams who would swallow Parker's contract in order to acquire LMA. That isn't the issue with your proposal. PATFO is. They simply won't trade Tony, and it is extremely doubtful that they trade LMA - as much as many of us would love to see that happen.

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Originally Posted by sasaint

There are teams who would swallow Parker's contract in order to acquire LMA. That isn't the issue with your proposal. PATFO is. They simply won't trade Tony, and it is extremely doubtful that they trade LMA - as much as many of us would love to see that happen.

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yeah, i agree with that.

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Originally Posted by $pursDynasty

considering the strongly held ST believe that Pop doesn't in fact want the #1 seed and the fact that the Spurs are 4 games up on the Rox (closest trailer in the West) and 5.5 games up on the LeBron's (in the East) do you think Pop might keep resting the KingSlayer and MVParker? Keeping the established Spurs fresh while simultaneously giving the young un's a lot of run might be part of his master plan.

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This.

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Originally Posted by JonNOKC

Really the Spurs are in the process of doing what no other modern NBA team has been able to pull off. From the Bulls, Rockets, Lakers no one has had sustain success and been able to keep a championship level after losing the single biggest part of their success or having that player deterioate due to age. Finding the next generation superstar in Kawhi is a huge part of but also have to give credit to finding a mix of proven vet role players along with younger guys to develop. Also have to credit coaching and culture. The jury is still out as to whether this team can make the right moves to surround Kawhi with needed talent as Tony/Manu retire and others are lost due to cap restrictions, but the Spurs have so far managed to keep the championship window cracked for longer than any other multi NBA champion in salary cap era

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And this too

Pops strategy: As soon as a player gets hot.. Send him to the bench
My strategy: As soon as a player gets hot, keep him off the bench.

Second best record in the league with over 70% win record and very impressive road win percentage tells me that the general direction of the team is almost perfect. Sure there are small hiccups when players don't play well in a game or get injured, but the redeeming feature of this team (as always) is that Pop limits minutes of starters and that gets the bench a chance to learn and improve against teams in games that aren't garbage time. Look at how the bench paid dividends against a very good Raptor team on the road.

My only suggestion is that Pop continue to experiment with lineups. We are almost guaranteed another 50 win season and a playoff spot. So he won't be tanking the season if he gives increasing minutes to Dedmon, Murray, Lee, Bertans, Simmons and maybe Forbes. The only advantage we may have against GS is in our depth and long front line. Finding the sweet spot in the squad's starting lineup and in our best second team is going on already and should be a concentration over the next months.

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Originally Posted by wildbill2u

Second best record in the league with over 70% win record and very impressive road win percentage tells me that the general direction of the team is almost perfect. Sure there are small hiccups when players don't play well in a game or get injured, but the redeeming feature of this team (as always) is that Pop limits minutes of starters and that gets the bench a chance to learn and improve against teams in games that aren't garbage time. Look at how the bench paid dividends against a very good Raptor team on the road.

My only suggestion is that Pop continue to experiment with lineups. We are almost guaranteed another 50 win season and a playoff spot. So he won't be tanking the season if he gives increasing minutes to Dedmon, Murray, Lee, Bertans, Simmons and maybe Forbes. The only advantage we may have against GS is in our depth and long front line. Finding the sweet spot in the squad's starting lineup and in our best second team is going on already and should be a concentration over the next months.

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/smh!
Conveniently omitting Anderson who was a big contributor to those wins.

I have woken up and smelled the coffee. These guys are for the regular season and some injury or energy relief or playoff garbage time. They need to continue improving bc you never know when you need them but Pop's rotation is pretty set when everyone is healthy. I'd like to see more Murray but he's in the end of the bench even when all the other Spurs guards are shitting things up.

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Originally Posted by SAGirl

/smh!
Conveniently omitting Anderson who was a big contributor to those wins.

I have woken up and smelled the coffee. These guys are for the regular season and some injury or energy relief or playoff garbage time. They need to continue improving bc you never know when you need them but Pop's rotation is pretty set when everyone is healthy. I'd like to see more Murray but he's in the end of the bench even when all the other Spurs guards are shitting things up.

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You're right. Anderson played pretty good in those wins and throughout the season has been steady and improving on shooting from 3 pt and shot selection. Still don't know if he's made himself "non-tradeable" or "non-waivable" for the future, but he's pretty secure through this season I think.

I also think you're not as positive about some of these youngsters as is merited. I think some will show enough improvement over the regular season to see some action during the playoffs. At least I hope so.

magic interested in moving ibaka, spurs are said to be interested.

i don't think the magic would take gasol... who's their starting PG, dj augustin? tony would be an upgrade, play with fournier. anderson has been playing better so i'll throw him in, a 1st, and a 2nd:

https://s28.postimg.org/6lfflfn7h/Sc...7_52_06_PM.png

creates something like a logjam at the 4/5 for us, but we could figure that out after acquiring serge.

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Originally Posted by gambit1990

magic interested in moving ibaka, spurs are said to be interested.

i don't think the magic would take gasol... who's their starting PG, dj augustin? tony would be an upgrade, play with fournier. anderson has been playing better so i'll throw him in, a 1st, and a 2nd:

https://s28.postimg.org/6lfflfn7h/Sc...7_52_06_PM.png

creates something like a logjam at the 4/5 for us, but we could figure that out after acquiring serge.

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Do you watch other NBA games at all? Spurs aren't trading TP and even if they would, ORL has Elfrid Peyton as well.

Plan is to exit early in the playoffs, take a long vacation, rinse repeat until Manu and TP retires then build around Kawhi. Hope Kawhi is not a Laker by then