Pop is an idiot!!

[Death In June]

Why is everyone freaking out about Pop. At the beginning of the year this team had issues and we all knew it. This year might have been one of his best coaching jobs of the season. This team had so many injuries and issues but still was the 3 seed. Should have Hill played more, yes but fire Pop, come on guys

You are glossing over a laundry list of issues with Pop. But I'm tired of making an argument against him. The guy stunk it up this year. No reason to about it now. He's here as long as Tim is.

[purist]

As usual, when the TEAM loses, the coach gets the blame. When they win, the players get the credit.

Face the truth. The Spurs overacheived this year. Given all the injuries and uncertainty that brought, IMO Pop probably did his best job of coaching over the past 10 years. Wihtout Manu, Spurs did not have many weapons and Dallas exposed that.

Coaching staff improvised on the fly time and time again. Pop improvised game plans to the skill sets of his players. And early on in the season he said, if we're not 100 percent healthy, we won't go far. He was right.

We were simply outmanned in this series. That we got 50-plus wins this should not be an indictment of Pop; it should be a testament to his abilities as a coach.

If you want to be pissed at anyone, be pissed at Manu for playing with the national team last summer instead of getting healthy.

[cwhitti]

Lets fire a hall of fame coach with 4 rings and takes his team to the playoffs every year. And his players do not get arrested, help the community and runs a great organization. Sounds reasonable to me. Flatter me, who do you replace him with?

[thOOdee]

Disappointed in Pop for his damn ass coaching.
1. Starting Bonner
2. Keeping Finley
3. Not trusting Hill in the playoffs
4. Keeping the youth movement in the D League and Europe
5. Ridding ourself of athleticism - Pops.
6. Not using Gooden Consistently.
7. Starting Bonner (deserves two entries)
8. Consistently stupid subs utions.
9. Making Mason a point guard.
10. Giving up too early on Bowen.
11. Scola!
12. and finally once again.....Bonner!

POP you blew it!!

Agree completely with everything stated. maybe except for finley, i don't mind him playing just because of the height and sometimes he can start a fire. Especially agree with Bonner added three time! One thing to add also, UDOKA TAKING DIRK!. WTF!... don't get me wrong, he played a ok game offensively for a bench player, but A 6'5 PLAYER TAKING A 7'0 GUY WHO LOVES TO SHOT RANGE!!. dirk is there best player and this is our strategy. this is comparable to jason kidd taking duncan. I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW THIS WAS ENDED WITH UDOKA ON DIRK?

[pjjrfan]

George "freakin" Hill!!!! he better see time in 2nd half but knowing POP!

Hill played the entire second half. The kid can play in this league, And IMO was a better fit at the backup than Mason was. Mason's move put him out of whack with his game and IMO was a bad move. After 5 games you could see Mason was a total liability at the point. Why Pop stuck with it, I just can't figure it out, , I can't figure out why he didn't sit Bonner in mid march.

[SA210]

The lead story in Dallas sports after game 1 was how stupid Spurs fans are for bad-mouthing Pop. The two main issues were Bowen and Hill. How stupid are we now? Again, Pop's decisions against Dallas were just too much to overcome. I'm proud of the players that managed to mentally get past the loss of Manu, but unfortunately there were only four of those guys on the squad.

[SA210]

Pop overthunk himself this year. He made it way too hard on himself and the team. This isn't the first team to ever lose a key player heading into the Playoffs... you still have to have fairly regular rotations and established roles for your key players.

I also hated how Pop seemed to instill a sense of helplessness in the team. That's never been his style before, and this year there was way too much "We aren't as good as the Lakers," "We shouldn't be playing two Playoff games within 48 hours," "Our players can't play road back-to-backs," and the like. Fight through it. Other teams have to.

I just didn't see a coach trying to build the confidence of his team this year. At every turn, the moves and comments Pop made seemed to discourage confidence. Call it realism or whatever, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. We may not have had a Championship calibur roster this year, especially without Manu, but goddammit we're better than 5-game first round fodder to the Dallas ing Mavericks.

I don't know. Pop's a Hall of Fame coach and I ever want to see him anywhere else, so I hope he gets a lot of rest and gets back to the basics next year.

[SA210]

Disappointed in Pop for his damn ass coaching.
1. Starting Bonner
2. Keeping Finley
3. Not trusting Hill in the playoffs
4. Keeping the youth movement in the D League and Europe
5. Ridding ourself of athleticism - Pops.
6. Not using Gooden Consistently.
7. Starting Bonner (deserves two entries)
8. Consistently stupid subs utions.
9. Making Mason a point guard.
10. Giving up too early on Bowen.
11. Scola!
12. and finally once again.....Bonner!

POP you blew it!!

[mavsluva]

I'd chime in but I have no coaching experience.

Regardless, it would have been a different series had Ginobilli been available.

[Obstructed_View]

Lets fire a hall of fame coach with 4 rings and takes his team to the playoffs every year. And his players do not get arrested, help the community and runs a great organization. Sounds reasonable to me. Flatter me, who do you replace him with?

So far he's been outcoached by Rick Adelman, Avery Johnson and Rick Carlisle in the last few years in the playoffs, and those guys aren't exactly hall of famers. Basically any NBA coach that's willing to use his bench and develop young players or develop a rotation would be an improvement. Someone who benches Hill and Bowen, and then gives Gooden a DNP-CD in a close-out game doesn't make any sense.

[thOOdee]

so far he's been outcoached by rick adelman, avery johnson and rick carlisle in the last few years in the playoffs, and those guys aren't exactly hall of famers. Basically any nba coach that's willing to use his bench and develop young players or develop a rotation would be an improvement. Someone who benches hill and bowen, and then gives gooden a dnp-cd in a close-out game doesn't make any sense.

and too add on benching gooden. Now i see why game changers don't come to the spurs.

[Indazone]

Front office doesn't want Hill playing after his indecent pics showed up on the internet. Yes it's stupid but that's life. I noticed Hill's minutes dropped way off after the incident.

[Obstructed_View]

Pop said there was no use for Gooden, and that he wouldn't play Hill in games one and two if he had it to do over. There's the stubbornness and ego that's put the Spurs where they are on full ing display, folks.

[thOOdee]

Pop said there was no use for Gooden, and that he wouldn't play Hill in games one and two if he had it to do over. There's the stubbornness and ego that's put the Spurs where they are on full ing display, folks.

Pretty close to BUSH like qualities!

[SouthTexasRancher]

George "freakin" Hill!!!! he better see time in 2nd half but knowing POP!

This was Pop's worst year of coaching by a long shot. For the life of me I just don't see what Pop sees in Bonner, Finley and even Mason. Pop ruined Mason but, that means Mason is weak mentally to allow that to happen. But, those 3 should be playing for Iran next season. If they are still with the Spurs then Pop should be coaching the Iranian women's team. he,he

[loveforthegame]

Pop's biggest mistakes were not playing Hill and playing too much Bonner.

[all_heart]

Pop said there was no use for Gooden, and that he wouldn't play Hill in games one and two if he had it to do over. There's the stubbornness and ego that's put the Spurs where they are on full ing display, folks.

I didn't see/hear this.. where was this at!? If this is true then that's really ed up.. Hill proved his worth, and why bother signing Gooden, if he can't use him!?

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

Agree completely with everything stated. maybe except for finley, i don't mind him playing just because of the height and sometimes he can start a fire. Especially agree with Bonner added three time! One thing to add also, UDOKA TAKING DIRK!. WTF!... don't get me wrong, he played a ok game offensively for a bench player, but A 6'5 PLAYER TAKING A 7'0 GUY WHO LOVES TO SHOT RANGE!!. dirk is there best player and this is our strategy. this is comparable to jason kidd taking duncan. I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW THIS WAS ENDED WITH UDOKA ON DIRK?

Pop thought he could borrow from Nelly's playbook, when he had midgets like stephen jackson and baron davis fronting Dirk...... Unfortunately for Spurs fans Pop can't recognize that Udoka is ing garbage.

[gmanrulz]

now that we finally get a young quality post playing big man in gooden, hes gonna leave cuz he doesnt get to play

[Chomag]

Pop said there was no use for Gooden, and that he wouldn't play Hill in games one and two if he had it to do over. There's the stubbornness and ego that's put the Spurs where they are on full ing display, folks.

Oh Wow! When and where did he say this?

[thOOdee]

all in all i really hope they clean up this team except for tim tony hill kt gooden, and even though dissapointing as of late, manu. LETS HOPE THIS TEAM GOES FOR HEIGHT. atleast in the SG position. LAKERS HAVE ABOUT 3 7 FOOTERS, ODOM, AND THEN THEIRS KOBE!

[Obstructed_View]

Oh Wow! When and where did he say this?

Post game news conference. I heard it on OAI.