In response to being run off the court by the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2001 Western Conference Finals, having no answer whatsoever for Kobe Bryant, the Spurs turned to Miami free agent swingman Bruce Bowen in the offseason to shore up the team's perimeter defense.
The results were immediate; Bowen was virtually without equal in the league as a perimeter defender, and his contributions more than offset the decline in David Robinson's play as the Spurs adopted a new paradigm for elite defense -- Duncan anchored the paint while Bowen took care of the opponent's best outside scorer. No double-teams were needed, and the rest of the players could play straight up. With these two anchors and a solid scheme, teams usually could not score enough to beat the Spurs unless the Spurs were just wretched on offense. This formula led to three NBA championships, each of which included a few examples of the Spurs' patented 75-72 grind-it-out game which made diehard Spurs fans come to regard great defense like fine wine, while making casual NBA watchers claw their own eyes out.
Bowen possessed uncanny lateral quickness, which, along with his tenacity, meant he could stay with his man in situations where lesser players would have been neutralized by quick moves and screens. He also knew all the little tricks to get inside the opponent's head and throw him off his game. Bowen showed trememndous durability and longevity; whereas typically players who depend on lateral quickness start to decline in their early thirties, as late as 2007, nearing the age of 36, he spearheaded a defensive scheme that totally neutralized LeBron James in the NBA Finals.
With Bowen's brilliance on defense, the Spurs could utilize other more pedestrian defenders on the perimeter as part of their scheme. If the player was in the right place when he was supposed to be, everything worked OK.
For all Bowen's durability, however, Father Time could not be held at bay forever. Bowen started to show signs of slowing down in 2008, and in the current season he has been reduced to a situational defender who does not routinely play heavy minutes. Nearing the age of 38, it is clear his NBA career is nearing its conclusion.
Without Bowen to anchor the perimeter, the Spurs simply cannot be the elite defensive squad they once were. A healthy Tim Duncan would not be able to do it alone; with Duncan hobbled into mediocrity, the Spurs are sitting ducks on defense. Their good scheme allows them statistically to rank among the better teams, since the scheme is sufficient against the weaker NBA teams who don't have elite scorers requiring extra attention. However, the Spurs have no answer for the better teams. A team as pedestrian as the Dallas Mavericks can make the Spurs look like a bunch of old fat guys at the Y.
Gregg Popovich has attempted to compensate for these new defensive woes by focusing more on scoring. Perhaps with a healthy Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, the team would be dynamic enough to compete against the better teams. But as it is, it is left to Tony Parker to generate nearly all the offense by himself, and as good as Tony has become, not even Oscar Robertson could carry a team to a championship; he needed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Hopefully, the Spurs can put their injury woes behind them as this season ends, though with Duncan having so much wear and tear on his knees after so many 95+ game seasons in a row, and with Manu well into the age range when players like him fall into decline, such hopes are doubtful. One notion where there is essentially no hope, however, is that the Spurs could regain their defensive prowess. That prowess depended too much on Bruce Bowen, Bruce Bowen was too unique a talent on defense to hope for a replacement, and the player he used to be isn't coming back.
Barring a personnel miracle, the Spurs will be trying to add a fifth le sometime in the next three years by hoping that Tim Duncan's creaky knees and Manu Ginobili's fragile ankles can hold up over the gauntlet of long season enough to help Tony Parker outscore the likes of the potent Lakers, ascendant Cavaliers, young Blazers, and whatever other new powers emerge in the league. I think the chances are near-certain that Duncan will retire with his thumb bare, unless somehow he ends up his career on some other team, just along for the ride on their le run.
The team the Spurs have been for the past ten years is already gone. The sun already has set, and the light we still see is just the fading afterglow. Make sure you don't lose those championship DVD's, because they'll be the only way you'll be able to watch the Spurs go deep in the playoffs for some time to come.
we cant blame this all on bowen...
pop does not make adjustments. he does not coach.
utah needed more defense so SLoan put Kirilinko in the starting lineup. result? lakers finally have a slow start, utah has a strong one and wins the game.
dallas needed more offense after their game 2 defeat so they put Barea in the starting lineup. result? high-scoring start, win the game.
spurs need more defense to set the tone. what does pop do? keep the same ty starting lineup. result? we lose. repeat x1000
Not only Bowen. Look at Timmy. He's the biggest reason we failed last year and this year he's even worse. Wake up San Antonio. We live and die for the Black and Silver. The Black and Silver will be here long after Timmy and Bruce retire. This whole thing of riding it out with a bunch of has beens is over. Trade Timmy for some picks and lets start over again. We wont get any better as long as Timmy and Pop run the show. Thanks for the past. But no thank you for the future.
I just don't buy that Bowen has declined that much in one year. Pop just plays him less.
Pop plays him less because he has declined. He was on the decline last year.
The spurs les are a result of the lakers breaking up Kobe and Shaq. The spurs had no answers for those two guys together. Had those guys stayed together the Spurs may only have 2 les.
Bowen as a Kobe stopper is laughable. Kobe lit Bowen up in the playoffs. Sure Kobe had to work a little harder but he still lit Bowen up.
This depresses me. I think Tim gets one more before he hangs them up. At least, I hope so.
Bowen started to decline last season. This year it has just accelerated.
Believing that a 37-year-old perimeter player whose game is dependent upon lateral quickness on defense is not really in decline, but rather is just a victim of a previously brilliant coach who for some reason has lost his mind strikes me as obscurantist.
Isn't it far likelier that the reason Gregg Popvich appears to be grasping at straws is because his team isn't very good, and there are no answers to be had?
Playing without Ginobili and a 50% Duncan irreversibly changes Spurs !
Bowen is still by far the best defender on the Spurs. It's not even close.
The Spurs were not winning this year even with Manu at 100%. The belief that only injuries are the reason for the spurs falling off will lead to future failure by not making the necessary changes for next year.Playing without Ginobili and a 50% Duncan irreversibly changes Spurs !
I 100% agree with the OP. nice read. When Bowen retires (this summer?) he will forever be missed.
Hope spurs fans will remember the big 4, with bowen, not only the big 3.
but Bruce still has one more run in him. i hope so.
I see it the same way and it's just not Bowen, Pop went with scoring when he chose Bonner over thomas or Fab. His decision to make Mason the back up point guard was based on scoring, and his decision to let Manu start when Manu returned was also based on getting more offense. All those moves went away from defense. The real problem with the Spurs is Tim Duncan. Tony's spectacular play can be defensed, and unfortunately Tony has never been able to adjust when he can't score. He stops creating and last night was a result, , without Tim dominating the paint on offense and defense this team needs scorers. Bass, Gooden and even Damp have been more productive than Tim. Tim is struggling with his offense for some time and now his D has been hampered by his knees. My take is that has no answers other than trying to outscore his opponents. Without Timmy's inside game, things are just going to be tough for this team.
Playing without Ginobili and a 50% Duncan irreversibly changes Spurs !
Bowen hasn't declined so much in one year that it would make the Spurs THIS terrible defensively. Problem is the other players. There's a reason Pop is playing guys like Finley, Bonner, Gooden, Udoka, etc more and more. He basically tried to trade defense for offense.
Bowen has not declined proportionally to his drop in minutes, but it is multiplied by the decline of the interior defense... an effect of Duncan's injuries and Matt Bonner starting.
had lakers not got gasol for nothing spurs would have 5 rings
Any chance of one of the old guys under contract retires, that would be nice.
ridiculous
2003 called. He said you're wrong.
I think the rule changes by the NBA have dictated the shift in the Spurs scheme as much as anything. Going back to the 90s the NBA has made a series of rule changes meant to speed up the game, and boost scoring. In particular, the new rules disfavor perimeter defense.
Cool to have an Extra Stout thread
I agree 100% when you were describing how the Spurs were able to transition from Robinson to Bowen. I think Bowen's impact won't really be realized by Spurs fans until after he's gone. Considering the Spurs won with defense in 2003, 2005 and 2007, perhaps it wasn't thanks to the Big 3 ... perhaps it was more thanks to the Big 2.
Regarding the decline of Bowen, it's difficult to tell. Age-wise, yes he should be in a steep decline. , he was past retirement age for his skillset in 2007.
But the cloudiness arises when you factor in what's around Bowen. Even if he declined, the defense around him has probably declined even more. So in contrast, Bowen is at least as good of a defender.
If you put this Bowen with some of those better defensive teams of years past, perhaps it'd be easy to point out a decline. Bowen on this team is still so far and away the best defender it's hard to get a reading. But yes, theoretically speaking, his age tells us that he should have slowed down. And since we don't have anything to judge Bowen with in a non-theoretic way, it's difficult to argue otherwise.
Regarding the future of this team, I don't think it's as absolute as you say. It will mostly depend on health. If Duncan and Ginobili can be healthy and Parker can keep evolving into superstar status, this team will continue to make runs. The difference will be that they need more capable role players by their side. Gone will be the days where the Spurs can just stash decaying veterans on the second half of their bench because they don't need more talent and would rather just have experience leaders who won't F anything up. Basically, they'll need to add more good basketball players to the equation.
The trickiest aspect going forward will be figuring out what type of team they will be and how to build accordingly. Do they want to be a lockdown defensive team? Do they want to be an offensive team who will rely on Pop's harping to be a sufficient defensively? They'll have to pick an avenue and then find the role players who fit. Getting lucky (for example: signing Bowen for the minimum, drafting Parker in the late first round, drafting Ginobili in the second round, picking Horry up off the trash heap) at least one more time would also be very helpful.
And even this season, as bleak as it looks, I'm not ready to close the book. Outside of LA or Cleveland, I don't see a team that is too impressive. The Spurs almost beat Denver with Jacque Vaughn leading the way. Boston isn't doing anything without KG. Orlando scares me less than anyone in the West.
If the Spurs can survive this series and then luck breaks their way like it did for the Heat in 2006, there's a chance. I gave the Spurs about a 1-2% chance to win the championship heading into the playoffs and I'm still at around that mark. The Mavs being a horrid matchup for the Spurs is accentuating their weaknesses. The Spurs aren't great but they also aren't nearly as bad as they looked in Game 3.
1999 too. The Spurs batted .400 against Shaq & Kobe in the playoffs. rascal will about anything. rascal actually complained about winning the 2003 le.
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