George Karl speaks on our defense..

[ulosturedge]

I'm a little lost....are some of you guys here actually defending using undersized centers? Am I the only one seeing us getting raped at the rim night in and night out? Funneling players to the help down low only equates to layups and dunks these days....not exactly the Spurs defense I remember.

[EmptyMan]

inn Pop. The Era is over.

[Chieflion]

Rasho may have been an average overall player, but there's no denying he was a really solid shot blocker and alterer back in the mid 2000's... Looking at our 03-04 roster for instance, when we lead the league in defense (held teams to like 84 PPG), and newly signed Rasho started all 82 games and averaged almost 30 MPG, we really controlled the paint. That regular season, only 6 times did a team score 100 points or more on us, and 6 times we held the opposition to 69 points or less...

Just looking at the league leaders in blocks that year is telling of what kind of team we used to be...

03-04 total blocks

1. Theo Ratliff-TOT 307
2. Ben Wallace-DET 246
3. Andrei Kirilenko-UTA 215
4. Zydrunas Ilgauskas-CLE 201
5. Jermaine O'Neal-IND 199
6. Samuel Dalembert-PHI 189
7. Marcus Camby-DEN 187
8. Tim Duncan-SAS 185
9. Kevin Garnett-MIN 178
10. Shaquille O'Neal-LAL 166
11. Rasho Nesterovic-SAS 165
12. Yao Ming-HOU 156
13. Elton Brand-LAC 154
14. Greg Ostertag-UTA 139
15. Erick Dampier-GSW 137
16. Pau Gasol-MEM 132
17. Donyell Marshall-TOT 124
18. Dikembe Mutombo-NYK 123
Etan Thomas-WAS 123
20. Rasheed Wallace-TOT 122

I would give anything for the Spurs to get back to having two prime time shot blockers in the starting lineup

Damn, I want this Theo Ratliff.

[ElNono]

Damn, I want this Theo Ratliff.

You got him... he still averages almost a block a game(!) in 9 mpg this season.

[Obstructed_View]

I'm a little lost....are some of you guys here actually defending using undersized centers? Am I the only one seeing us getting raped at the rim night in and night out? Funneling players to the help down low only equates to layups and dunks these days....not exactly the Spurs defense I remember.

I wouldn't sweat it too much. Those folks also defended, and continue to defend, the choice to go small in 2006 against Dallas.