Spurs still searching for answers to struggles

[ace3g]

Spurs still searching for answers to struggles

PHILADELPHIA -- If you haven't figured out this year's San Antonio Spurs, you're not alone. It's not clear that they've figured themselves out.

A mediocre November (9-6) led to a terrific December (10-5), which was followed by a lousy January (8-8). February has been spent entirely on the road and isn't off to a very good start. With one game left before they return home, the Spurs are 4-3 on their rodeo road trip.

A lineup change, moving Richard Jefferson to the bench in favor of George Hill and Keith Bogans at the wings, is the latest example of Gregg Popovich searching for answers.

"I want to have a defensive presence and set a tone defensively, similar to what we did with Bruce Bowen," Popovich said of putting Bogans back in the starting lineup for the two games since the All-Star break. "He fits that role pretty well for us.

"We've got a solid group to start and, in some ways, a more explosive group offensively coming off the bench."

Neither the offense nor the defense has been a consistent problem this season. The problem has been inconsistency.

Overall, the Spurs' numbers are pretty strong. They're one of only four teams in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. They rank eighth in the league offensively, scoring 106.5 points per 100 possessions, and 10th defensively, allowing 102.0.

But poor execution in close games has the Spurs with five fewer wins than they should have according to their point differential. They're just 4-8 in games decided by six points or less. Friday's loss in Philadelphia wasn't atypical, as the Spurs turned the ball over six times in the fourth quarter, allowing the Sixers to pull off a comeback win.

Turnovers aren't the only issue of late. The Spurs are shooting just 43 percent as they've gone 7-9 over their last 16 games.

The good news is that, like last season, only one team in the Western Conference has distinguished itself from the rest of the pack.

"[The Lakers] are the class of the West, and everybody else is kind of wallowing around," Popovich said. "We're all trying to get consistent. We're all ing and moaning at our teams, questioning what we've been doing. We're all stuck together right there."

The Spurs also have a history of post-All-Star-break excellence. In Tim Duncan's 13 seasons, they've got a .679 winning percentage before the break and a .720 winning percentage after it.

"No one thinks we've played our best ball so far," Hill said Friday. "It's going to be scary when everyone's on the same page and playing our best ball. Everyone's looking forward to that."

But it's unclear whether or not the Spurs can flip the switch this year.

The eight-game rodeo road trip comes to an end in Detroit on Sunday, but when the Spurs finally lay their heads down in their own beds late that night, they'll still have more road games (16) left to play than home games (12).

To make matters worse, Tony Parker is banged up and 21 of those 28 games are against teams who are currently .500 or better. The Spurs are just 12-15 against such teams so far. They've still got to play both the Cavs and Magic twice, and they've got eight more games against other playoff teams in the West.

To date, the Spurs are just 4-14 against other playoff teams in the West.

They've also got a pair of games against the ninth-place Rockets, who only trail San Antonio by two games in the loss column, and who upgraded their roster at the trade deadline.

Dallas, the team ahead of the Spurs in the Southwest Division, also got better with the additions of Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood. But the only deal San Antonio made at the deadline was sending Theo Ratliff to Charlotte for a future second-round pick, a move that shaved less than $1 million off the payroll. The Spurs are still about $8.5 million over the luxury tax line, and don't have the improvement in the standings to show for the extra money they've spent this season.

"Hopefully we realize that we're not much better than anybody," Manu Ginobili said, "that we've got to grind it out every single game."

The notion of the Spurs missing the playoffs for the first time in Duncan's career seems ridiculous. And with 29 games to go, it's really too early to give it any serious consideration. But while we've seen what they can do (see last week's win in Denver) when they play their best, there are also plenty of reasons to see the glass as half empty.

And the switch will not turn on by itself.

http://www.nba.com/2010/news/feature...s=iref:nbahpt1

[Dex]

"I want to have a defensive presence and set a tone defensively, similar to what we did with Bruce Bowen," Popovich said of putting Bogans back in the starting lineup for the two games since the All-Star break. "He fits that role pretty well for us.

"We've got a solid group to start and, in some ways, a more explosive group offensively coming off the bench."

Apparently denial is not just a river in Egypt.

Bogans != Bowen

And the Spurs aren't going anywhere as long as Pop continues to pretend that he does.

[lurker23]

Good article that sums up the season thus far pretty well. A touch of optimism, but with far more pessimism than I've seen in most national articles about the Spurs in the last several years. Before this year, they had a sense of inevitability to them, asking "WHEN will they flip the switch?" not "WILL the switch be flipped?" Appropriate, IMO, and I approve.

[Chomag]

Bogans is not Bruce, he is not even close. As a matter of fact I can't figure out why bogans and Bowen are in the same sentence together. IF Bogans is Bruce then about any player in the NBA is bruce, and we all know the truth there. When will Pop wake up and realize this?

[Mr.Robinson]

Pops just seems like an idiot now.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

We've progressed from smallball to squintball. If Pop squints hard enough, Bonner looks like Horry and Bogans looks like Bowen.

Awesome.

[ohmwrecker]

This pretty much explains everything. Pop cannot adjust his dogma now that his personnel has changed. He is still trying to plug players into the system who aren't here anymore. Pop got too comfortable with the status quo because it was working for so long and now that it's not working, he can't adjust. He is basically admitting that he doesn't know what he is doing anymore. He can't let go of what should work to try what could work. It's unfortunate that he is tarnishing the careers of players who put got him to this level and hindering the careers of young, talented players that he can't figure out how to adjust to.

[Chomag]

Pop is coaching a completely different team then what he has. He needs to wake up and coach the Current roster not the roster he had a couple of seasons ago.

It's like the Man is completely stuck in those years One just can't help to think Pops has gone senile. He is only doing it to himself though.

Next open letter to Pop someone should ask him what year it is.

[all_heart]

I can see if we had Battier in trying to compare him to Bowen.. but we don't. You guys are right, Bogans is not even close to Bruce. Pop is living in the past with the exception of no legit big to pair up with Duncan..

[SenorSpur]

I'm really starting to think that Pop has "lost his marbles." He is really starting to sound like the idiot that his mentor, Don Nelson, is. Talking out of both sides of his mouth. What does he want? Does he even know? Is he fantasizing or simply having "good old days" syndrome. Has he even looked at this roster?

Amazing to me the Pop keeps publically preaching "setting a defensive tone", yet he trots out Bonner and Bogans into the starting lineup. That isn't the answer. Furthermore, he continues to wax poetic about the "Bowen" era. Yet during Bowen's last season, he opted to move Finley ahead of him, for no apparent reason. It was obvious that Finley was a liability on the defensive end, and Bowen certainly didn't warrant getting displaced by him.

If he wants to field a better defensive team, how about investing in some players with more length, skill and all-around ability? If he wants to set a defensive tone, how about shelving "small ball" and keeping more of traditional lineup on the floor and forcing other teams to adjust.

[SenorSpur]

That trust level is diminishing. How the is Pop and RC going to justify the poor performance of this year's roster and going into the next 2-3 years?

[BlackSwordsMan]

1st round exit bound
CIA POP

[gospursgojas]

We've progressed from smallball to squintball. If Pop squints hard enough, Bonner looks like Horry and Bogans looks like Bowen.

Awesome.

[ohmwrecker]

Good find. How ironic is it to get such keen perspective from a T'wolves fan?
This just reminds me how lucky we all were to be a part of something really special.

[Mr. Body]

This pretty much explains everything. Pop cannot adjust his dogma now that his personnel has changed.

He reminds me of my high school coach. Teach a set offense every single year, extremely slow, Princeton-like offense. Decent when he had the pieces, but there were plenty of good players who never even tried out fo the team because he had no use for them. The guy was also a prick.

[Libri]

The Spurs are currently averaging 101 ppg. Yet, in the last two games, with the lineup change, they are averaging 91 pts. I hope this doesn't mean that the new lineup has permanently screwed up the offense.

[ShoogarBear]

Just as when the three brought in Terry Porter and Jerome Kersey and Danny Ferry to surround Duncan and Robinson during the Spurs' first le run.

Holy crap, that is an unbelievably inaccurate statement by Aldrige.

The Spurs are currently averaging 101 ppg. Yet, in the last two games, with the lineup change, they are averaging 91 pts. I hope this doesn't mean that the new lineup has permanently screwed up the offense.

Let's go through the logic here:

-Great game against the Nuggets ===> change the lineup ===> crappy games against Indiana and Philly ===> Spurs on track

[wildbill2u]

"I want to have a defensive presence and set a tone defensively, similar to what we did with Bruce Bowen," Popovich said of putting Bogans back in the starting lineup for the two games since the All-Star break. "He fits that role pretty well for us."

Is Manu a better defender than Bogans? With his offense would't he upgrade the position?

[ChumpDumper]

Manu is only good for 20 minutes these days, so you have to decide when he should play those minutes.

[boutons_deux]

"averaging 91 pts"

and shooting 35% and 42% vs 47% for the season.

Spurs offense is dependent on the 3G almost decisively.

[Blackjack]

"No one thinks we've played our best ball so far," Hill said Friday. "It's going to be scary when everyone's on the same page and playing our best ball. Everyone's looking forward to that."

So ... they've come to terms with selling their soul ("scary" consequences be damned)?

Nice.

[Obstructed_View]

I just think it's funny that anyone on the team acts like they have time to "look forward". That lazy at ude is what's turned the Spurs into the turds they are today. Have they put together a string of complete game efforts since the '07 conference finals against Utah?

[benefactor]

Furthermore, he continues to wax poetic about the "Bowen" era. Yet during Bowen's last season, he opted to move Finley ahead of him, for no apparent reason. It was obvious that Finley was a liability on the defensive end, and Bowen certainly didn't warrant getting displaced by him.

Very good point here. It's strange how Pop is suddenly going back to things that Bowen did, but when Bowen was still on the team he thought more offense was the better idea. What do you really want Pop?

[ElNono]

"I want to have a defensive presence and set a tone defensively, similar to what we did with Bruce Bowen," Popovich said of putting Bogans back in the starting lineup for the two games since the All-Star break. "He fits that role pretty well for us.

"We've got a solid group to start and, in some ways, a more explosive group offensively coming off the bench."

Wow... just wow...

"[The Lakers] are the class of the West, and everybody else is kind of wallowing around," Popovich said. "We're all trying to get consistent. We're all ing and moaning at our teams, questioning what we've been doing. We're all stuck together right there."

Do we need to spell it out for you, Pop? The first two sentences have a lot to do with it...

You just gotta be kidding me if that's what really is going through his head...

[NFGIII]

Pop seemingly hasn't adjusted to the talent/abilities of the current roster. The Spurs don't have the bigs they have had in the past - no Drob, Rasho, Nazr,,,etc. He needs to adjust his scheme to use what he has and small ball isn't working.

We'll either not make the POs or get bounced early on this year. IF Splitter comes over then Pop goes back to his old scheme and hopes for the best. If Splitter does come then Pop also needs a defensive wing. Bogans should be gone next year and if not then we will struggle against teams that have an athletic wing, which means most in the league.