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theyve said this every year for about 5 years now
Perkins: No Post-Season Magic For The Spurs
By: Chris Perkins Last Updated: 3/23/10 2:09 PM ET
http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=15721#ixzz0j1vQjpp2
It'd be easy to convince yourself those venerable, reliable San Antonio Spurs could crank up that old veteran magic and make an unlikely playoff run that ends in the Western Conference finals or beyond.
Wipe those thoughts from your mind. Because even though the Spurs have won seven of their last 10 games, the big picture is they're currently 42-27 and trying to avoid a first-round playoff matchup with the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers. There won't be any playoff magic. Not this year.
"I think we've got a pretty long way to go, but it's good to see improvement," guard Manu Ginobili said. "It's good to see steady defense and solid work rebounding, but it's kind of hard to say we're back rolling or we're ready to make a run for the championship when we've lost so many tight games."
In fact, considering the nagging health problems to the talent core this season - forward Tim Duncan (knee) and guards Tony Parker (broken hand, ankle issues) and Ginboili (ankle) - we could be witnessing the beginning of the end of the Spurs' Era of Excellence.
In almost every season since 1999, when they won their first of four les under Coach Gregg Popovich, the Spurs have been considered le contenders. But they understand the magnitude of their current situation. It just doesn't feel right.
"We haven't played well all season," Duncan said. "This is probably our best stretch of play so far. It does feel different, but we always talk about at the end of the season trying to be healthy and trying to playing our best basketball, and I think we're rounding up to that. If we can get Tony back toward the end of the season we can get everybody back on the floor and see what we can do."
The Spurs made fairly major additions this season with forward Richard Jefferson, forward/center Antonio McDyess, swingman Keith Bogans, rookie forward/center DeJuan Blair and center Theo Ratliff (now in Charlotte) among them.
Popovich said injuries, poor defense and a lack of team chemistry are the biggest reasons the Spurs have underachieved. But the No. 1 reason, he said, is because of injuries and inconsistent play from Duncan, Parker and Ginobili.
A word of caution dealing with Popovich: don't blame this mess on Jefferson, who has showed improvement recently, but has been a disappointment overall.
"We had some important players not play very well pretty consistently for a long time this season," he said. "Sometimes the new players were catching the grief for that. This guy doesn't know this and this guy was a disappointment. That's all (expletive). Everything has to go together. Your main players have to play well on any team to be successful. That's No. 1. If that's not happening on a consistent basis, it makes it even more difficult if you've got seven new players to try to get into that rotation. It was a bad combination."
And it could signal the beginning of the end of a downslide for the aging Spurs.
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theyve said this every year for about 5 years now
sadly, it's been true for almost 3 years now.
Well of course not.. The magic are in the east.
lol hoopsworld
Why are people still calling us aging?
But of course, if they're talking about the Celtics, even with KG hobbled, they would write about how their championship experience is about to show and how they pose a threat to everyone.
The article was written to get a rise out of Spurs fans. Don't give this Hoopsworld hack writer any attention.
lol butthurt journalist(s). Sadly he sounds like a couple spurfan posters on here.
I didn't read this, but these types of articles annoy me for a different reason..most of these "writers" have been predicting the Spurs demise since like 2006, predicting it following a 1st round loss and with the team playing poorly is a pretty easy prediction..
One of the major reasons Pop is on the list of many Spur fans is that he finds reasons to blame everything and everyone but himself for the Spurs ills this year. For Spur fans who pride themselves of having the team with the highest character, this has been a hard pill to swallow.
we got nothing to lose anyway if we make the playoffs, since this has been a ty season
on paper we look good but on the court we are struggling alot, but in a 7 game series anything is possible....
Am I the only one who immediately went "Pfft!!!! What does Kendrick Perkins know about being a sportswriter?" haha
I guess they need something to write about, and the choice is:
Spurs, surging at the end of the season: highly dangerous...
OR
Spurs, disappointing record, old key players, doomed...
Anything in between (which is reality) is too shade of gray for an "angle" and thus a publishable article.
No, Its more like in a one game playoff anything is possible not a 7 game series. In a 7 game series the better team usually wins.
We have the lottery pick to lose if they make the playoffs.
Wow. Big deal. Not like we're gonna get a top 5 pick. So we'll be in the playoffs as opposed to picking 14th (since if they would miss the playoffs, they would get the lowest draft pick of the lottery teams)? Big Woop!
The Spurs still have a great Point Diff and are still very talented - they will not have their usual stout record but to write them off so fast is just inane - in the West only the Lakers have still on paper more talent period.
We've been aging since 1999...geez..
lol i was about to say Kendrick Perkins is talking too much, before i realized the author
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