Game thread: Spurs (3-17) vs. Bulls (8-14) 7:30 PM 3:30 AM Riga

[baseline bum]

well , now I'm not sure I want to watch it

Threads included some things not too well known by the general public about nuclear war at the time the other movies were made. It's a great movie but is way darker than Testament. Testament is filled with heartwarming scenes of a town pulling together, a mother trying to do her best to take care of her kids as well as the neighborhood kids whose parents died, there are no murders or any real violence aside from the bomb strike, etc. Not going to see a scene of a mother explaining to her 13 year-old what sex is like for example in Threads. You can tell the Fallout games were pretty heavily influenced by Threads.

[baseline bum]

well , now I'm not sure I want to watch it

Also I saw this panel where Carl Sagan was discussing the movie The Day After (the one that freaked Reagan out so much he and Gorbachev negotiated a reduction in the medium range missiles that could hit London/Moscow in 4 minutes) and Sagan was talking about how The Day After would be like an almost best case scenario for what the world would look like after a US/USSR shooting war. What he described in the panel is much more like what Threads shows. Threads also shows a lot of things Hiroshima survivors recounted which were not allowed to be shown in the American movie The Day After, eg ABC not wanting to show people with skin melting off their arms and such.

[CorrectCrusader]

So, we all agree this situation isn't on Victor, right?

We wouldn't have a win without him.

His issues are mostly system and rookie based, I hope pop doesn't ruin him like he has ruined Sochan.

[baseline bum]

We wouldn't have a win without him.

His issues are mostly system and rookie based, I hope pop doesn't ruin him like he has ruined Sochan.

Yeah I can't really blame Victor for the defense going to absolute 85% of the time he goes to the bench for a rest.

[Kurgan]

This one makes the others of the era like The Day After, Testament, When the Wind Blows, etc look positively Disneyesque in comparison.

In keeping with the 80s Nuclear Apocalypse theme, I also like Miracle Mile from 1988. Doesn't deal with the fallout or the after effects of a nuke but more the scrambling in the hours before a strike. Guy learns from a wrong call to a payphone that a nuke is going to land in an hour and tries to escape LA before it hits.

[heyheymymy]

Wemby is now the youngest rookie to get a double 20 game

https://www.nba.com/news/victor-wembanyama-youngest-20-20-game

[Russo21]

We wouldn't have a win without him.

His issues are mostly system and rookie based, I hope pop doesn't ruin him like he has ruined Sochan.

Definitely system and rookie based i agree. Pop has messed with Sochan so I hope he doesn't coach long enough to mess Wemby up. Think back to Richard Jefferson. He was a 20ppg All-star with high hopes for us yet he came here and in 3 seasons put up 12.3ppg 11.0ppg and 9.2ppg. He was mainly shooting 3s when his strength was crazy athleticism and dunking etc. and you could tell the situation ruined him a bit, he never seemed comfortable or too happy. His career had been on a nice trajectory and it was really all down hill for him from there. Theres other examples also. Let's hope Pop isn't here long enough to mess up Wemby

[Chinook]

Definitely system and rookie based i agree. Pop has messed with Sochan so I hope he doesn't coach long enough to mess Wemby up. Think back to Richard Jefferson. He was a 20ppg All-star with high hopes for us yet he came here and in 3 seasons put up 12.3ppg 11.0ppg and 9.2ppg. He was mainly shooting 3s when his strength was crazy athleticism and dunking etc. and you could tell the situation ruined him a bit, he never seemed comfortable or too happy. His career had been on a nice trajectory and it was really all down hill for him from there. Theres other examples also. Let's hope Pop isn't here long enough to mess up Wemby

Jefferson directly credits Pop with extending his career by forcing him to modernize his game. A non-shooting wing that can't create his own shot was going out of style even back then. That's certainly a reason to wonder why the Spurs targeted Jefferson. But they basically got him for expirings. If that was all they were willing to pay, there might not have been better options. It's way too edgelord to pretend like Pop sucked in the early 2010s. I didn't agree with everything he did on the bench, and he said some cringe things, but he was consistently able to help his players perform. If Pop were still his 2010 self, I would be quite pleased to see how he developed the team going forward.

[Fireball]

Man if the Spurs cant beat these Bulls at home, will we ever win one again this season?

At least a nice statline by Wemby ...

[offset formation]

Oh look, passing to Wemby in the paint leads to an easy bucket. lol

If this team isn't intentionally tanking, they're just ing stupid.

They play like it's everyman for himself. Almost no signs of playing like a team.

In order of repeated egregiousness for not passing Wemby the ball in the low post when he's open:

1. Keldon
2. Vassell
3. Sochan
4. Jones
5. Branham
6. Probably Keldon again.

[offset formation]

quite solid D in general.

Lol, wut.

121 points. At home. To as mid a team as exists in the league. While you're on a 16 game skid badly needing a W. And they're arguably missing their best player.

[offset formation]

I hate what Sochan has become, it looks like a neutered individual. Has no fire, constantly makes stupid decisions. Dev and Collins contract looking like ass

PATFO draft day decisions ought to be under full microscope now. Not a one of the last several draftees plays defense, aside from this year going back to Keldon.

[spurraider21]

where's that sniffer Mrs. Body been lately? Snifflord was so sure this team would be competing for the play in

“Anyone who bets the under is an idiot”

[SouthernFryd]

Immaturity.

There is talent on the team. They are just young and dumb. Kinda like Young high school basketball stars getting their butts kicked by 40 yr old limpers at the Y...and not having a clue how it happened. These guys are the same.

A coach would help...

[Russo21]

Maybe Pop should take a chance on Vassell at PG. He's our most expensive player and probably 2nd best player with 2nd highest upside but he's playing about 30mpg and averaging only 3 rebounds and I think slightly less than 3 assists per game. That's really not good enough for a SG on a fresh nearly 150 million contract playing 30mpg. He really needs to expand his game somehow, maybe a Vassell PG experiment would be more what we need

[baseline bum]

Jefferson directly credits Pop with extending his career by forcing him to modernize his game. A non-shooting wing that can't create his own shot was going out of style even back then. That's certainly a reason to wonder why the Spurs targeted Jefferson. But they basically got him for expirings. If that was all they were willing to pay, there might not have been better options. It's way too edgelord to pretend like Pop sucked in the early 2010s. I didn't agree with everything he did on the bench, and he said some cringe things, but he was consistently able to help his players perform. If Pop were still his 2010 self, I would be quite pleased to see how he developed the team going forward.

I'd be happy with 2018 Pop who for instance helped mold Derrick White into a top tier defender.

[Kawhi Duncan]

I'd be happy with 2018 Pop who for instance helped mold Derrick White into a top tier defender.

Why do we automatically assume it's Pop and not an assistant or the player simply working on themselves to improve?

[boutons_deux]

Basically anyone not named Wembanyama is a sieve on defense

VW Doesn't Play team defense. Let's way too many drivers. Make layups right past him without making the slightest move or even raising his arms

He spectates shots from no man's land or the three-point line rather than crashing the boards, he's already running down the court

The kids got no hustle, maybe even lazy, certainly no killer instinct

He hasn't understood and maybe nobody has told him that he is a game changer, not just one of the guys

[spurraider21]

Why do we automatically assume it's Pop and not an assistant or the player simply working on themselves to improve?

He has a long track record of having good development of guys who become really good role players. Slomo, CoJo, tre. Poeltl was kind of a throw-in who became a good starter. Danny green. Can’t all be luck

or raw players that developed better than anybody foresaw, like Kawhi, dejounte. White now blossoming as well but the seeds of his game were all planted in SA

[rascal]

VW Doesn't Play team defense. Let's way too many drivers. Make layups right past him without making the slightest move or even raising his arms

He spectates shots from no man's land or the three-point line rather than crashing the boards, he's already running down the court

The kids got no hustle, maybe even lazy, certainly no killer instinct

He hasn't understood and maybe nobody has told him that he is a game changer, not just one of the guys

Why bust his butt when his teammates aren't putting in a strong showing defensively. It's a sinking team ship.

VW is getting exposed with his lack of experience and youth and the skill level of NBA players. He'll be fine in time.

[Rocalcio]

I hope the crowd starts booing DeRozan shooting fts.

Why would they ? The guy has always been honest towards San Antonio, unlike Leonard

[JeffDuncan]

Why do we automatically assume it's Pop and not an assistant or the player simply working on themselves to improve?

The development work is always done by assistants, and the staff in Austin. Also players do offseason work with trainers, as you say. The head coach is only a supervisor of work done by others. Player development is another thing Pop has gotten credit for that he doesn’t deserve. Pop has not personally done player development work, in a hands-on way, since 1994.

Want more irony in your life? When Pop was hired as GM of the Spurs in 1994, what was the first player he signed? Answer: a point guard. Avery Johnson.

[JeffDuncan]

VW …

He spectates shots from no man's land or the three-point line rather than crashing the boards, he's already running down the court

The kids got no hustle, maybe even lazy, …

Did you have a little brain glitch between sentences? How does a player run down the court, with no hustle? Running down the court with no hustle is hard to do.

Bless Victor for running down the court - hustling - on defense, because those backpedaling morons, Keldon and Sochan, are liable to get cooked in transition. It’s been known to happen.

But, ok, you want Victor to be more aggressive going after rebounds. If he had teammates he could trust maybe he would be.

[NASpurs]

Why would they ? The guy has always been honest towards San Antonio, unlike Leonard

Jesus Christ, do I really need to explain why I said that considering what Pop did a couple of weeks ago when Kawhi was being booed at the ft line? Read between the lines my brother.

[Rocalcio]

Jesus Christ, do I really need to explain why I said that considering what Pop did a couple of weeks ago when Kawhi was being booed at the ft line? Read between the lines my brother.

That still doesn’t make sense.