How much better is this years team than last year???

[holcs50]

I think quite a bit better. I mean really we all can agree no one thought mason would be quite as good as he's been....and NO one saw ghill doing some of the things hes done already. Those two guys alone have changed my negative thoughts towards the team before the year started to hugely positive thinking if healthy going into the playoffs we can really beat any team. I guess like most have said how much better now depends on if Ian can come up as a force-if he does, wow, a great team for sure-maybe one of the best of all the spurs teams

[barbacoataco]

Last year's team won 56 games and went to the Conference Finals, after beating a very good Phoenix team and a New Orleans team that was playing way over its head. So it wasn't such a bad team. If Manu was healthy who knows?

This year's team is has been fun to watch because of all the new players. Horry and Barry are gone from last year's team. And bowen and Thomas look slower so far. But Finley looks rejuvenated after losing some weight. Hill and Mason have been awesome. And Duncan is Duncan, actually shooting at a higher percentage. To soon to tell

[timtonymanu]

this year's better (for now) and for two reasons: Roger Mason and George Hill.

with these two in the Spurs, there are players outside the big 3 that can contribute.

last year, the big 3 were the only ones playing well with Finley and Barry having their share of good games. so far Mason and Hill have been playing wayyy better than Finley and Barry did as a backcourt.

only downside compared to last year is our frontcourt. Oberto and Thomas have both lost a step. so has Bowen and Udoka was better last year.

Overall, i take this year's roster over last year's. We're younger and have better role players. Guaranteed if we had this roster last year, we would have had a chance against the Lakers.

[mathbzh]

I will wait until we play some games with the big 3 against some solid opposition to answer.
Our backcourt looks really improved with Hill and Mason. But if KT and Oberto does not step up, I am afraid we can't beat the Lakers or Celtics in a 7 games series (unless Mahinmi is better than expected). Hopefully I am wrong.

[holcs50]

yea agree pretty early to tell-and thats just great though-we went to WCF -were up by 20 pts (grrr, if only gino healthy) twice only to give it away because the inept offense. Now though if we can get into the playoffs healthy we pretty much have got last year plus a healthy gino, and now mase and Ghill. Lots more scoring now. Losing bones hurts a little but with the two new guys not very much. Horry, c'mon , haha, probably was a benefit (love you for 05 bob). It really does come down to the frontcourt and if ian can ball. If not , KT and oberto are very suspect say against a big lakers team in the playoffs. bynum and pau would destroy oberto or kt. Ian is the key now-i mean were already going to be badass if healthy, but ian would just be a huge boost

[honestfool84]

this year is better, definitely.

minus the front court minus duncan.

[silk]

I mean really we all can agree no one thought mason would be quite as good as he's been....

I thought he would be every bit as good as he is now, granted, i didn't open a thread to talk about that with you guys..

I also liked Hill as soon as i got to see his freakingly long arm ( made me think on a good romain sato..)

This year team is much better than last ( if inly we can find back a little of fabri and kurt..) problem is; LA is much better as well. Celtics not so much..

[holcs50]

I thought he would be every bit as good as he is now, granted, i didn't open a thread to talk about that with you guys..

I also liked Hill as soon as i got to see his freakingly long arm ( made me think on a good romain sato..)

This year team is much better than last ( if inly we can find back a little of fabri and kurt..) problem is; LA is much better as well. Celtics not so much..

yea well of course la is better because they got bynum and ariza back and honestly ariza is a lot better than i thought. Hes a long , good defender. I just think the series last year was closer than the score because we did have two 20 pt leads with an injured gino. If gino was really there i think that series is 7 games and who knows who wins. So both teams got better, i just think if ian can come thru and be a contributer and play like 20 mins. or so then the spurs got better by more.
ps -good work on the mason thoughts-i really thought hed be average-nothing special but hes way better than my expectations----and hill wow hes just a badass to come in and do what hes done already

[raspsa]

This team is definitely deeper in talent. We can expect Pop to allocate the available minutes judiciously so key players are fresh come playoffs. Now if only Ian can contribute in the rebounding and defense...

[angelbelow]

well we can all agree that we likely would have had a better chance against the lakers if we had more offensive firepower. with the addition more scorers were definitely more versatile. our record this year may not reflect that because of injures and stuff but i think we are AT LEAST more talented and versatile. we'll see if we are better in april/may/june.

[024]

spurs' backcourt is definitely better, enough to match any other team in the league. what's so great about the additions of hill and mason is that they play defense as well as offense. both can be good defenders and they add much needed scoring. the spurs' interior is another story because it's just tim duncan and friends. this frontcourt can't stand up to the lakers at current status. duncan will be double teamed by the person guarding oberto/thomas and it will be hard to win when they can't make their shots.

if oberto and thomas decide to show up one day, then they won't be that behind. right now the priority is bringing in a player that can rebound, defend, and clean up around the rim. then it's adding in a capable SF. laker's defense has improved dramatically with ariza and bynum. only way to defeat a team with two capable 7'0 defenders is to look at how the lakers beat the spurs when they still had duncan and robinson. strong interior presence in duncan, a center that a defender can't wander away too far, and three point shooters should do it. already have duncan, the three point shooters, now just need a big not named bonner that can score.

[xellos88330]

I think this team is better than last year. Pretty much the same set up, however, this team does not seem to be as prone to 6 minute offensive droughts.

Frontcourt still needs to be addressed either by some inspirational speech by Pop, or Mahinmi playing to his potential.

[holcs50]

angelbelow-seriously that is the funniest video u have in your sig. Sasha gets so rocked, lmaooooo. I laugh everytime u post. But yea we all agree ian hopefully will be at least decent because kt and oberto just wont get it done vs top teams like the lakers. Ian needs to be a bynum---well not so quick but at least he needs to be able to block shots and rebound....and i think he will. im tired of being pessimistic, we are good and im really excited about this team and chances for another ring

[mrspurs]

Its easy to say we're better then last season,(2 of our best players didnt play much). Even if we're playing sorry teams. We're getting to see players we would never get to see had Manu and TP not gone down. But you can only put 5 guys on the court. As far as I see it. We're just as good as last season. We still cant make stops, and we've been playing sorry teams. The only game we won that we shouldnt have was against the Rockets. On that same token we lost to the Heat. And once we start playing the better teams, then we'll see how much better or worse we are. Beating sorry teams doesnt make anyone better. It does however help our rooks and new players learn faster. Noway would Hill be playing as much, nor would Roger. The guys who look worse then last year will be the guys Pop plays more when the games really start to count. Bruce and Ime. And so far they both stink. Whats worse is we have noone to fill there shoes when they play poorly. Ime is really playing horrible. Hopefully as the season continues Ime will start playing better. And Im pretty sure Bruce will begin to play better as well.(thou he lost a step or two). One of them has to show up, because this team isnt gonna go far with 1s and 2s plus Timmy. Not when the rest of the teams have better players at the 3s and 5s on their benches. And how can anyone think we're better this season with the play of Fab and Kurt. Heck even Matt is outplaying them. Then again, I really feel Pop is playing the heck out of him for a trade later. From what I see other teams could use Matt and Jacque. Alot of teams could use a 1 with experience. And maybe we can sucker someone into thinking we really would miss Matt and would hate to trade him. But smile as soon as the trade is done.

[holcs50]

Its easy to say we're better then last season,(2 of our best players didnt play much). Even if we're playing sorry teams. We're getting to see players we would never get to see had Manu and TP not gone down. But you can only put 5 guys on the court. As far as I see it. We're just as good as last season. We still cant make stops, and we've been playing sorry teams. The only game we won that we shouldnt have was against the Rockets. On that same token we lost to the Heat. And once we start playing the better teams, then we'll see how much better or worse we are. Beating sorry teams doesnt make anyone better. It does however help our rooks and new players learn faster. Noway would Hill be playing as much, nor would Roger. The guys who look worse then last year will be the guys Pop plays more when the games really start to count. Bruce and Ime. And so far they both stink. Whats worse is we have noone to fill there shoes when they play poorly. Ime is really playing horrible. Hopefully as the season continues Ime will start playing better. And Im pretty sure Bruce will begin to play better as well.(thou he lost a step or two). One of them has to show up, because this team isnt gonna go far with 1s and 2s plus Timmy. Not when the rest of the teams have better players at the 3s and 5s on their benches. And how can anyone think we're better this season with the play of Fab and Kurt. Heck even Matt is outplaying them. Then again, I really feel Pop is playing the heck out of him for a trade later. From what I see other teams could use Matt and Jacque. Alot of teams could use a 1 with experience. And maybe we can sucker someone into thinking we really would miss Matt and would hate to trade him. But smile as soon as the trade is done.

hmm-agree in some ways but totally disagree in others. I agree good thing trying to get some taker for bonner......as for mason and hill, yea they wouldnt be playing as much as they are but arent u thankful they got the chance-Now we all know these two guys are money!!! I mean i really didnt think mason would be and for sure didnt think hill would do , but look now! They have stepped up and are both great players-yes some of the teams we've played have been lackluster, but as just a bball fan u can tell these guys know what they are doing! They play smart and efficient-this is an amazing spurs team when all healthy-----or at least we'll see but we have the scoring we lacked and now all we need is ian to be good, or at least decent, and were a top team. IDK about u guys but im super excited about the team! lets have positive thoughts, not negatives, we did that thi ssummer, time to move on

[TDMVPDPOY]

this year is better, we got rid off a few chumps on this team for guys who can actually come in and contribute, still at leasts 2 chumps on this team needs to be traded imo....

[amy020]

much better than last year. since Mason and Hill really did a nice job and so is Finey. the Spurs is much more aggressive than they used to be,more guys can contribute to score except for the big three. now we just need a good inside player to step up and give some help to Tim. GO SPURS GO!!!

[Obstructed_View]

The Spurs were good enough to beat anybody last year when healthy. That's all I want this year.

[holcs50]

The Spurs were good enough to beat anybody last year when healthy. That's all I want this year.

totlly gree-sorry my or sorry "z" cn be for me. my "z" button wont work. dont get it but yee...were looking good

[Anti.Hero]

If Mason and Hill can keep us out of as many scoring droughts as last year, a lot better.

Still need an athletic big though.

[tlongII]

Last year's Spurs are much better than this year's Spurs. You've been lucky to play a lot weak teams early in the season this year. When your schedule gets tougher you'll be in for some heartache.

[FromWayDowntown]

I think the Spurs are in a bit of transition, but after a year of hearing about how old the Spurs were and how inept they were offensively, I think the transition appears to be a smooth one.

If you think about it, when Mahinmi returns -- and if he gets decent minutes -- this Spurs team will, in essence, have 2 rookies in key rotation spots and another (Tolliver) who might be a 2008-09 version of the 1998-99 Malik Rose. Add to that Roger Mason, who is under 30 and has still not played 200 NBA regular season games and almost half of the rotation could end up being guys who are very "young" in NBA terms. They might have 5 guys on the other side of 32, but that means that they'll have 7 guys on the right side of 32 and more than half of those being 28 or under. A team that was relying on a bunch of very old bodies last year is actually much younger this year.

Youth is great, but it means nothing if it can't play. There are definitely questions about how some of these guys will hold up over time and whether they can contribute at such high levels for a full regular season and a playoff run. But I think we can at least say that the revisions to the roster have brought a greater explosiveness on the offensive end while allowing a better chance to defend tenaciously for 48 minutes, too. George Hill doesn't have to do that much to be a better player than the Vaughn/Stoudamire anchor that the Spurs dragged through the 2008 playoffs. Roger Mason doesn't have to do that much to improve the Spurs' ability to create and sustain offense over the course of a game. I'll believe that Hill and Mason can sustain these levels when I see it, but when this team is whole, there's no reason to think that they must sustain those levels to make the Spurs extremely good.

With all of that, the truth certainly seems to be that if Manu Ginobili's ankle had been sound in the spring of 2008, the Spurs chances to reach the Finals were good. If Manu contributes anything in Game 1 of the WCF, the Spurs rip home court advantage away from LA and probably change the dynamic of that series pretty significantly. That was true of a team that couldn't sustain offense over 48 minutes at all -- a team that basically got by on guts and guile for most of its playoff run. Sprinkle in some fresh legs, some opportunities to rest Ginobili and Parker, and some new offensive explosiveness, and you've got a roster that can be better than last year's.

[Blake]

threads like this crack me up.

It was barely a week and a half ago when there were nothing but doom threads everywhere.

Wait til the Spurs hit a 4 game losing streak and we see threads that say "how much better was last year's team than this current roster of garbage players"

[xtremesteven33]

We need a Big....nuff said

[Allanon]

What a difference a year makes. The Spurs are a *gasp* young team right now. The Mason and Hill pickups were on the money.

Nobody wanted to see Manu or Tony injured but in a way, they were a blessing in disguise. They gave Pop no choice but to play the young guys and this helps the team in the long run.

And let's not forget the extra bonus, the team has been ALOT more fun to watch.

this year is better, definitely.

minus the front court minus duncan.

We need a Big....nuff said

That's an interesting comment, I went and looked it up.

Red Rocket has been playing well of late, there's no denying that. So I skipped to KT and Oberto.

Looking over their last 5 games, their output is indeed prety bad:

Oberto+KT combined ($8 million combined salary)
vs Kings - 2 points 2 rebounds
vs Clippers - 2 points 1 rebound
vs Nuggz - 2 points 4 rebounds
vs Jazz - 2 points 11 rebounds
vs Grizz -6 ponts 5 rebounds

Anybody have any new word on when Ian's coming in?