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show me the post where they came here or mentioned this site!
Ditto.
Pop doesn't answer questions from the media about who he's playing and why. His traditional answer is "we played who we decided to play" or something like that.
And Pop doesn't really care if the media, the fans, or Bruce's wife wants him to play, if he's not going to do it, he won't.
The only people who might be able to talk to him are: 1) The coaching staff (but I think they were probably part of the decision NOT to play him) or 2) Timmy D.
I don't even think Pop has given up on Bruce as a defender. I think he's just decided that this team will need to win with offense. That's why he constantly says stuff like, "Well we just didn't hit our shots" when they lose.
After LeBron tore up Finley in the 1st quarter, they asked Pop if they were going to change the defense on him and Pop said, "It might seem crazy, but No."
I think this team goes through too many scoring droughts to win a le (or even get out of the first round) on offense alone. They must get better defensively or the playoffs are going to be short.
show me the post where they came here or mentioned this site!
Left him a message, let's see if they address it.
Reporter: "Pop, why aren't you playing Bruce?"
Pop: ...silence...
Reporter: "Pop, why aren't you playing Bruce?"
Pop: ...silence...
etc.
*half an hour later*
Reporter: "Pop, why aren't you..."
Pop: "Okay, shut up now. Bruce is done. Bruce couldn't stop a rat from eating his sandwich any more, let alone LBJ going to the hole. Bruce's career, and our season, is OVER. Get it? Done. Finito. Completo. Geddit? Happy now? I'm off to quaff Pinot..."
Sadly, I think Pop knows his team, and that some part of all this screwing with rotations has been an effort to cover the fact that Bruce is done. Asking the question to his face, whilst an exercise in good journalism, won't change that.
I don't believe that even for a second.
Bowen has held his ground almost all season in the minutes we have seen him. Also screwing Roger Mason into the backup PG spot has nothing to do with Bowen, neither does refusing to play Hill. I think Pop is just mismanaging right now.
Holding his ground is not enough. This team was a champion when Bruce was the best, or very close to the best, perimeter defender in the NBA. Now he's still okay, but when was the last time he changed a game with his D? I'd say against the Nets 6-7 weeks ago. Bruce -10% is not enough for this team to succeed.
Do I think Bruce is the only problem? No way - Tim's knees, and the screwed-up rotations leading to terrible chemistry are the crux of the problem right now - but all the same I don't think Bruce is a game changer any more, and that leaves a big hole in the Spurs.
When the Spurs played the Suns in the beginning of March, Bowen played 28 minutes and JRich went 6-15.
When the Spurs played the Warriors less than 2 weeks ago, Bowen played 28 minutes and Jack shot 7-for-17. When they played Boston, Bowen played 20 minutes on Pierce, and we know Pierce shot 3-for-20 or whatever.
He didn't look "done" in any of those games at all. Pop is choosing offense over defense. And the offense isn't good enough to do that. If Manu was in stride and Duncan was healthy, I would say go ahead and try to win with offense. But they aren't. And the Spurs need more D. More D=More Bowen, More Hill.
why not email your contacts that kori
I never thought I'd see this happen.
Is Pop trying to do something that no other team in recent history has done, which is to win a championship with offense instead of defense?
Yeah, Bruce played well in those games, so you'd wonder why Pop has gone away from him. You may well be right that Pop is choosing O over D and that's why he's doing what he's doing, but he might also have realised that a slower Bruce is just not the impact defender he was in that he could turn any game he walked into. These days he turns the odd game, but has nowhere near the impact he used to. You only have to lose 5% of your physical attributes at this level of compe ion to lose a big chunk of your effectiveness. The other possibility, and this is way out there, but what if this is some kind of CIA Pop plan and Bruce is being "saved" for the playoffs? Unlikely, makes no sense to me, but Pop has done stranger things.
I would love to have seen Hill and Bowen playing 20 minutes a game - I even started a thread a fortnight ago about rotations to say so - but apparently that is not going to happen. Poor Hill is suffering because of Pop's Benophobia, and Bruce, well you could be right, I could be right, who knows? If Pop hasn't yet worked out that this team can't rely on its offense to win games, things are worse than I thought!
I don't understand giving Vaughn minutes then.
You guys are making great points. Pop has the players he wanted and now it seems he doesn't know how to find the right combination of guys on the court. I just don't understand why on earth JV is seeing real PT. GH and Mason have been mismanaged in my opinion. Gooden and Bonner's minutes should be reversed. Now Manu in starting line up leaves with a pretty weak bench outside of Gooden. Bruce should get ALL of Ime's minutes. And we have to STOP CHUCKING UP 3's. This team has become a finesse show and they're playing like pussies.
Agreed.
This all goes back to the Lakers series. After the Spurs lost, Pop said that their problem last year was offense. This year, everything he's done is to maximize the offensive potential of this team.
Pop's philosophy has changed from "we'll win with our defense" to "as long as our defense is solid, we'll win if we hit our shots". That's the reality of the situation and everything points to it.
One example is to look at Bonner starting. Any former Pop coached team would never start someone like Bonner. Bonner is starting for his offense. Look at Kurt Thomas for another example. He's played great defense but that hasn't resulted in extended minutes. In any year in the past, Thomas' play would have him playing 25+ minutes per game. This year, he has barely gotten off the pine at times.
The signing of Gooden is yet another example. Gooden can score but he's always been a horrible defender. Pop knew that when they signed him. But he fits into the change of philosophy.
Even freakin' Vaughn is on the court for offensive reasons. Pop said he's playing Vaughn so that he can call more plays on the offensive ends.
I think Pop looked at last season and determined that the Spurs just couldn't win with the offensive droughts that plagued the team. I think he also recognized (correctly or incorrectly?) that the compe ion has changed to the point that great defense won't be good enough.
Pop sees the Lakers and sees an offensive juggernaut that isn't going to be stopped by the Spurs playing top level defense. So instead of trying to beat them 90-85, he's putting a lineup that he hopes can beat them 100-95. In the East, I just think Pop doesn't think the Spurs have the personnel to out-defense teams like the Celtics or Cavs.
A tiny part of me sees where Pop is coming from and sees the method behind the madness. But the rest of me thinks that Pop gave up on his own winning method too early. I would have loved to see another year built on defense because I think the addition of Thomas for the whole season and Mason and Hill adding different dimensions that the Spurs would have had a pretty darn good chance.
The bottomline is I don't think Pop has given up on Bowen. After much contemplation and re-reading Pop's quotes going back to last year, I truly think he just has changed his philosophy. Perhaps part of the philosophical change is due to the inevitable fact that Bowen was going to eventually fall off anyways so he might as well get a jump on how the Spurs will have to play without him, but Bowen was powerless this season to keep his claim to his minutes.
This is just a new era of Spurs Basketball, ladies and gentlemen. Hopefully Pop knows what he's doing.
Spurs aren't a great offensive team though. 13th as far as efficiency, still 5th in defense.
hes already said its coz vaughn knows the whole playbook so he can unleash the full spurs offensive repetoire with vaughn out there ..... of course.... only we realize its going to be 4 on 5, so pointless to have the "whole" playbook, when one of your players is basically non-existant.
But again, what options does he have? we have all seen GHill plays SG well, but is by no means a point guard, mason sure the is not a point guard. Soooooooo we are stuck with vaughn. But hopefully, parker plays 42-44 mins in the PO, and carries us like TD did in 2003. So vaughn wont be as much as a liability as it appears in the regular season.
Because he doesn't trust rookie point guards and the Mason experiment failed.
In regards to Vaughn, Pop has said in a recent interview that Vaughn affords the team some steadiness which he feels is what they need right now.
Problem is Tim's knees derailed the offense plan. Its sucks to see him struggle against everybody, but its what it is. Also Manu is gonna have to hit his stride and hit it consistently(which is asking a lot at this point) for any offense as we saw tonight. Plus Pop screwed with Mace's and Bonner's and whoever else's minds and now they are all out of it.
So the plan has gone to . Ugh. Pretty sure he WILL use Bruce in playoffs for some stretches. But having to watch the JV(i like the guy as a knowledgeable person) in the playoffs is gonna need twice the amount of drinks.
Can't envy Pop this season....he couldn't have predicted a re-injury to Manu or Timmeh's knees going Kaput.
Unfortunately Mike Taylor is right....when the pillar of the team is weak, the whole team will crumble down. I feel so bad for Timmy. Once I saw the knee pads go on I knew it was going to be a rough road the rest of the year. It pains me to watch him hobble out on the court like he does. I would rather Tim not play another game this year then to see him play with that much pain in vain.
Personally I think this cements the argument of who's team this is. Parker is great but he can only go as far as Tim can. Tim is the life force of this team and he is down and I think the whole team is reacting to it.
Sadly this time i don't believe it and i don't believe the players do. They look defeated and Manu saying they don't encourage each other on the bench like they use to if further discouraging.
This was pointed out to me by someone at the news.
"Bowen only played half the minutes Pierce did so who guarded him the other half? And maybe Pierce had an off night? Either way the Spurs still lost and when Bowen was on the court they were -8 points."
I still believe Bruce should be starting.
Ever since the Spurs have been winning Pop has controlled the relationship with the media. The Spurs knew the media needed the story since the fans wanted to know about the winning Spurs. Pop has played that relationship to the point that the SA media will not be critical of the Spurs or else (i'm not sure the threat, no interviews, locked out of scoops???)
Once the Spurs stop being big winners and the fan bandwagon drops off a bit then the SPurs will be begging for media coverage again and the media will be allowed to be critical again. SA media is spineless towards the spurs and especially towards questioning POP or the front office. It took until this year before they really criticzed the Scola trade
David Chancellor just said on NEWS4WOAI that he has been getting lots of Email/Phone calls from Spurs fans that Pop needs to start Bowen.....
If its the work of SpursTalk....Good job guys
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