Memphis, injured and w/ 2 week layoff, is objectively better than us. Might be time to tank.

[davi78239]

And the Pacers are beating their asses right now (grizz). Imagine that...

[tbdog]

They collected picks in the top 15 that ended up giving them some players to build on (ie: Adebayo).

What is the Spurs strategy this season? Ride out with the old farts again for an 6th-8th position, get kicked out in the 1st round and pick in the 20's again? Is that the barometer for a 'good' season with this team?

Heat last 3 picks were Herro and pick 13, Adebayo at 14, and Winslow at 10. They didn't have a pick in 2018. They spent money on players like Whiteside, James Johnson, Olynyk, Waiters, Josh Richardson, Josh McRoberts, and Windslow. They dumped Richardson, Whiteside, Windslow, Johnsons, for Butler and Iggy.


Again, how have they done it better? They had a winning, no-nonsense culture which won Butler. They also had 3 picks under 15, and 2 have worked out well. We are going through the same path as them.

[daslicer]

you're thinking of the incisive SA media that throws him softball questions left and right... rofl

Believe it or not the national media starts hyping up Pop whenever the spurs have a small modi of success. I heard Shaq screaming the other day before the 2 grizzlies losses that the Spurs system was making them relevant again.

Other than SA being a small market I would say Pop is the other reason why players don't want to come here because they know any success they have will be diminished by the media screaming "Pop made blah blah great and it's Pop causing the Spurs to succeed." I don't like Kawhi but I do believe Pop getting all the credit was one of the reasons he pulled the bs move and got out of here. How many times did we here "System player" by the media when it came to Kawhi?

Pop knows this deep down inside that he gets all the credit for whatever success the Spurs has and that's why he's still here. He's an ego maniac.

[cjw]

This is a transitional year, and as some have said a “win win”, with a ton of flexibility heading into the summer with a solid young core under contract. There are many worse teams to be a fan of.

And if people are complaining that we are wasting a season by finishing in the 6-10 range in the west and being first round fodder while sacrificing a pick, look at how well PATFO has drafted given position the past five years. Murray/Keldon/White all at 29, and Vassell 11 / Walker 18. Saminic may still turn into something. Heck, even a guy they picked at 30 after the le season back is a valuable piece for the Grizz. They’ll be just fine no matter where they draft.

[ElNono]

Heat last 3 picks were Herro and pick 13, Adebayo at 14, and Winslow at 10. They didn't have a pick in 2018. They spent money on players like Whiteside, James Johnson, Olynyk, Waiters, Josh Richardson, Josh McRoberts, and Windslow. They dumped Richardson, Whiteside, Windslow, Johnsons, for Butler and Iggy.

Again, how have they done it better? They had a winning, no-nonsense culture which won Butler. They also had 3 picks under 15, and 2 have worked out well. We are going through the same path as them.

lmao no, we're not. We don't have the money or the market to sign a Butler-type talent, because we throw stupid money at losers like LMA and over the hill guys like Patty. We spent years giving minutes to scrubs like FatHead and Forbes on this team.

When the Spurs actually had the option to trade nephew for Butler, we ended up with DeFrozen instead. The fact that they had 3 picks under 15 is a testament of their FO pushing the right buttons.

And no, they didn't 'dump' Whiteside, he was part of the 4 team trade that brought Butler to the Heat. Is the kind of ballsy trade move this FO never makes.

Answer the question, what is the Spurs strategy this season? First round out and pick in the 20's again? Tell me what this team goal is. Clearly not good enough to contend, what are we shooting for here?

[Rummpd]

I've said it since pre-season:

When people were expecting this team to be a bottom 10 team before the regular season even started, I said, "You find out what the team's true iden y is after 15+ games in."

And lo and behold, I was right and cliffjumpers were wrong. The team was better than expected by cliffjumpers and I can now have an informed opinion about what the Spurs are after 21 games:

1. they are not a bottom 10 team.
2. They will win against good teams, and lose bad against bad teams
3. At worst, they're a 0.500 team. At best? It's hard to know.

So the bottom line is mediocrity for years forward with a FO that fails to make the big move and a HOF coach who seems to be over the hill? (What happened with Memphis is regression to the mean)

[tbdog]

lmao no, we're not. We don't have the money or the market to sign a Butler-type talent, because we throw stupid money at losers like LMA and over the hill guys like Patty. We spent years giving minutes to scrubs like FatHead and Forbes on this team.

When the Spurs actually had the option to trade nephew for Butler, we ended up with DeFrozen instead. The fact that they had 3 picks under 15 is a testament of their FO pushing the right buttons.

And no, they didn't 'dump' Whiteside, he was part of the 4 team trade that brought Butler to the Heat. Is the kind of ballsy trade move this FO never makes.

Answer the question, what is the Spurs strategy this season? First round out and pick in the 20's again? Tell me what this team goal is. Clearly not good enough to contend, what are we shooting for here?

They gave minutes to the guys I mentioned. They didn't choose DDR over Butler. They dumped Whiteside so they could get the cap space to get Butler. I am still not sure what the main difference is?

[Dejounte]

So the bottom line is mediocrity for years forward with a FO that fails to make the big move and a HOF coach who seems to be over the hill? (What happened with Memphis is regression to the mean)

Mediocrity for years forward? No... The team will move forward from its vets sooner than later and the young guys will be better than they are now. That, and we have the biggest offseason coming up. I don't know why this all means "mediocrity for years" for you. I mean, it's clear the team is one competent big man away from being a playoff team (if they aren't one already), and maybe one big development year away from one of our current young players to blossom into a star for us to become serious playoff threats.

[LeBowen]

Mediocrity for years forward? No... The team will move forward from its vets sooner than later and the young guys will be better than they are now. That, and we have the biggest offseason coming up. I don't know why this all means mediocrity for years for you.

As you said, the biggest offseason, but PATFO's track record points to extensions for Patty and Demar.
That would be the last nail in the coffin.

If we had a GM that was willing to make the right moves, I'd be optimistic. With PATFO, I'm preparing myself for a couple more years of Demar's mediocrity.

[Dejounte]

As you said, the biggest offseason, but PATFO's track record points to extensions for Patty and Demar.
That would be the last nail in the coffin.

If we had a GM that was willing to make the right moves, I'd be optimistic. With PATFO, I'm preparing myself for a couple more years of Demar's mediocrity.

Track record pointed to Pop not playing his young guys and people cried about it all offseason. Keldon is getting minutes more than we ever dreamed of.

People were crying constantly that Forbes would be re-signed for many years. That didn't happen.

People whined and whined during pre-season about this team will have one of the worst records in the league by season's end. That's clearly not happening.

Track record pointed to Dejounte being a complete bust. That didn't happen either.

People are moving onto the next thing to cry about every time each wish of theirs has come true.

Everything just takes time.

[diego]

Probably not the greatest contribution to the discussion but I feel both nono and dejounte/tbdog have valid points, just arguing over who decides if grey is good or bad...

1) spurs are transitioning to a younger core built mostly through good drafting and development, the team has a track record in those departments and while obviously not at their best level there are still notable positives for the team and it would be hard to name more than five teams who handle that part of team building better than them...

2) FO has a tendency to be conservative, when kawhi left he destroyed the team and they haven't been able to internalize that all the vets no longer have a place on a team that can barely make the playoffs...

I don't agree that finishing 7-10 automatically makes you a treadmill team. There's cir stance and there's processes and teams have to grow together etc etc, tanking for duncan is a terrible example in that sense because you're not gonna have another 4 year player come in day one and be a top 3 guy for 10 years straight,that was a miracle you can't expect to repeat...

IMO the fo tried to salvage the situation with a valid strategy but Aldridge and derozan weren't up to expectations and now they have to make their move. If they resign these guys and continue finishing in no man's land, I'll agree with nono, but I prefer this method of trying to be good today and tomorrow then to go the hinkie-morey route of trying to win on paper...

[Poolboy5623]

Spurs tanking lol... they're just not that good.

[JADG79]

If we can trade LMA for salary dumb, maybe we can try to trade for Drummond to resolve our rebounds problems this season.
We can dump him next season.
With a guy like Drummond in the paint our guys can shoot a little more wide open

Cleveland is all with Jarrett Allen that was a gift for a 1st round pick.

[rankingtear]

They are playing LA and Lonnie, that sort of tanking.

[kht]

lmao no, we're not. We don't have the money or the market to sign a Butler-type talent, because we throw stupid money at losers like LMA and over the hill guys like Patty. We spent years giving minutes to scrubs like FatHead and Forbes on this team.

When the Spurs actually had the option to trade nephew for Butler, we ended up with DeFrozen instead. The fact that they had 3 picks under 15 is a testament of their FO pushing the right buttons.

And no, they didn't 'dump' Whiteside, he was part of the 4 team trade that brought Butler to the Heat. Is the kind of ballsy trade move this FO never makes.

Answer the question, what is the Spurs strategy this season? First round out and pick in the 20's again? Tell me what this team goal is. Clearly not good enough to contend, what are we shooting for here?

The LMA signing at the time was great... LMA netted us back to back 60 win seasons and WCF birth (probably two WCF and at least one championship if we don't get Zaza'ed). Things would be so different if GS didn't magically become a historic team overnight.

[Dirks_Finale]

Pop knows this deep down inside that he gets all the credit for whatever success the Spurs has and that's why he's still here. He's an ego maniac.

I am starting to think this is accurate. What is he accomplishing by hanging around at this point? He's just killing his sterling all time winning percentage. Credit to Phil for being bright enough to walk away before that happened.

I guess Pop really wants to be showered with praise for getting a subpar team to the playoffs...or maybe he's hoping Keldon develops into a star so he can leave the franchise in good hands.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

A cliff jumping thread after a pair of bad losses??? Surprising.



We're already rebuilding. How would you even propose a "tanking"? Chances are we not resigning either DDR or LMA this offseason, so conceivably both of our veteran all-stars are gone after this season. After that it's all youth building towards a better future. The only reason we're above .500 now is our young guys...it's not our amazing veteran leadership.

So, honestly, I don't know what you're proposing. We can't help it if the young guys we're getting late in the draft are ending up being better than many top-10 lottery picks. How do we tank exactly? And what do we get with that tank? Do we get rid of the entire roster? Next season we'll likely have the youngest roster in the league. If that's not rebuilding I'm not sure what is.



Dumb thread.

[rjv]

memphis got scorched by indy last night.

[Dejounte]

memphis got scorched by indy last night.

It's a common trend nowadays for good teams to be beaten badly by bad teams.

[r0drig0lac]

It's a common trend nowadays for good teams to be beaten badly by bad teams.

?

[Dejounte]

?

Not sure why you quoted me...

[daslicer]

I am starting to think this is accurate. What is he accomplishing by hanging around at this point? He's just killing his sterling all time winning percentage. Credit to Phil for being bright enough to walk away before that happened.

I guess Pop really wants to be showered with praise for getting a subpar team to the playoffs...or maybe he's hoping Keldon develops into a star so he can leave the franchise in good hands.

Phil experienced mediocrity from '05-'07 with the Lakers being a first round team. I think that experience humbled him in the sense that he never wanted to be part of a rebuilding project ever again. Pop is more stubborn than Phil in the sense this is year 4 of mediocrity and Pop is still here.

[ElNono]

They gave minutes to the guys I mentioned. They didn't choose DDR over Butler. They dumped Whiteside so they could get the cap space to get Butler. I am still not sure what the main difference is?

This is what Portland said about Whiteside: "Acquiring Hassan is an impact move for our roster,” said Olshey. “He is an elite shot blocker, rebounder and paint presence on both ends of the floor. We have pursued Hassan through multiple avenues at various times in his career and are ecstatic to be adding him to our organization”.

Does that sound like a dump to you? We don't have assets like that. We spent stupid time and money in guys like Fathead and Forbes and let them walk (because, frankly, they're not very good).

Without including Whiteside the Butler trade doesn't happen, that's the difference. Simply a matter of matching salaries. To do that you need to have players that are sought after.

Your second dodge of the question is duly noted...

[JuneJive]

Didn't know where to put this...

The Spurs have the league’s easiest next five weeks in regard to opposing offenses, with only two of their 16 games against teams that currently rank in the top 10 offensively and 11 against teams that currently rank in the bottom 10.

Via - John Schuhmann

[tbdog]

This is what Portland said about Whiteside: "Acquiring Hassan is an impact move for our roster,” said Olshey. “He is an elite shot blocker, rebounder and paint presence on both ends of the floor. We have pursued Hassan through multiple avenues at various times in his career and are ecstatic to be adding him to our organization”.

Does that sound like a dump to you? We don't have assets like that. We spent stupid time and money in guys like Fathead and Forbes and let them walk (because, frankly, they're not very good).

Without including Whiteside the Butler trade doesn't happen, that's the difference. Simply a matter of matching salaries. To do that you need to have players that are sought after.

Your second dodge of the question is duly noted...

Whiteside is playing backup in Sac . Portland used him for one year. We didn't pay Anderson and Forbes one bit. Also Forbes is in the rotation for a contending team now. Againz Heat played and paid Waiters, James Johnson, Roberts for example.

So how have the Heat done things differently? I'm not letting this go Elnono. You want to say stupid and constantly move the goal post, then I've challenge you to defend your position.