Popologists, please defend this quote from your guy

[Mugen]

Yeah, you do kind of get that 'Phoenix Suns playoff team' vibe from these guys, but truth be told, the defense hasn't been the same for the Spurs since Bowen left. At least this team can "sizzle" offensively. The prior couple years' teams didn't even have that going for them.

It would take a lot of people peaking together for the Spurs to make a deep playoff push, but, it could happen. I'm more optimistic about this group than I was in '09 or '10.

I am too. Mostly because we have a deeper bench and Neal >>>> Mason.

But Bonner still plays too big a role for this team to realistically beat LA.

Pray SpurFan pray, that this team is going to be the first 3pt chucking team to win a

[ohmwrecker]

Hate to nitpick but . . . shouldn't the term be Popapologist? A Popologist would be someone who studies and analyzes the whole zeitgeist of Gregg Popovich, but doesn't necessarily feel the need to defend him.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

Hate to nitpick but . . . shouldn't the term be Popapologist? A Popologist would be someone who studies and analyzes the whole zeitgeist of Gregg Popovich, but doesn't necessarily feel the need to defend him.

It's kind of like the thread about "cliching HCA". Is it "clinching" or "cliche-ing"? Maybe HCA is just a cliche...perhaps there is not true HCA. Perhaps HCA is meaningless. These threads may run far deeper than folks realize. I'm convinced it's not grammatical errors, it's meaning within meaning. Very intense.

Nice catch.

[jsandiego]

“I think we’ve played basically the defense we’ve played most of the year. It’s gotten to the point where we’re about as good as we’re going to get defensively. That wasn’t our problem during the six games we lost. We’ve talked more about decision making, free-throws, three-point shooting, contested shots versus non-contested shots that sort of thing. Defense was a focus, because given the fact that those other things weren’t happening the defense had to be there or they would have been 15 or 20 point losses. But we were in every game so the defense was good enough.”

I'm seriously interested in hearing your rationalizations for this guy's delusions.

[MannyIsGod]

“I think we’ve played basically the defense we’ve played most of the year. It’s gotten to the point where we’re about as good as we’re going to get defensively. That wasn’t our problem during the six games we lost. We’ve talked more about decision making, free-throws, three-point shooting, contested shots versus non-contested shots that sort of thing. Defense was a focus, because given the fact that those other things weren’t happening the defense had to be there or they would have been 15 or 20 point losses. But we were in every game so the defense was good enough.”

I'm seriously interested in hearing your rationalizations for this guy's delusions.

He's right. The Spurs aren't going to play defense that is any better so you can't expect them to win by holding teams to 80 points per game. He's acknowledging that in order to win the Spurs can't: 1) up late in games the way they have during the streak and 2) play better offense than the other team.

Just the facts.

[Mugen]

Hate to nitpick but . . . shouldn't the term be Popapologist? A Popologist would be someone who studies and analyzes the whole zeitgeist of Gregg Popovich, but doesn't necessarily feel the need to defend him.

which is why i've always separated the words and stuck with "Pop Apologist". No need to get all fancy with it.

Though "PollyAnna Poppers Club" has a great ring to it.

[DMC]

Defense is something that takes time to develop and can generally be summoned on command whereas offense comes and goes. The Spurs are out of time to develop better players, and most of the players they have are not lock down defenders. That's what Pop was saying, if they are going to win it will have to be with something better than the garbage offense they've had in the past few games, and much better decision making late in games.

So, if Pop ed about the defense, would that make us a better team?

[cherylsteele]

“I think we’ve played basically the defense we’ve played most of the year. It’s gotten to the point where we’re about as good as we’re going to get defensively. That wasn’t our problem during the six games we lost. We’ve talked more about decision making, free-throws, three-point shooting, contested shots versus non-contested shots that sort of thing. Defense was a focus, because given the fact that those other things weren’t happening the defense had to be there or they would have been 15 or 20 point losses. But we were in every game so the defense was good enough.”

I'm seriously interested in hearing your rationalizations for this guy's delusions.

For me, It upsets me, sounds like he gave in on the"D" philosophy that he leaned on all this time, however, he is right it seems that the "D" this year's team has leveled off, it has its moments though. He is roght, in that decision making, FT's, and shooting played a huge part in that losing streak, I'll bet if they had won at least some of those games, there would ne different perspective on his statement.

[xellos88330]

He is saying the defense has been like that all year. It is more porous than in years past. He understands that. How do you counter sub-par Spurs defense? The other half of the game. Told the guys to score efficiently.

If the defense is as good as it is going to get, we all will just have to deal with it. Complaining doesn't help. What does help is finding solutions to the problem. Pop did that to the tune of best record in the NBA currently this season. Will it work in the post season? History books say no. Then again, the Spurs will have a chance to write their own page in that history book should they pull it off.

There will never be change until someone crazy enough to try, accomplishes what was deemed impossible. Kinda like flying.

[gospursgojas]

It is what it is...Spurs are not built to be a defensive team. Our le hopes hindge on whether or not the 3 ball goes down.

[Cessation]

Making it to wcf, is still a good season, tbh.

[Capt Bringdown]

This quote embodies all that's gone horribly wrong with Pop. To paraphrase, our defense can't get any better, only our 3-pt shooting can. He's trying to rationalize Bonnerball.

Spurs didn't win rings with "good enough" defense. Bonnerball closed the window on the Duncan era, TD may as well retire. Seriously, it's over.

[Brazil]

I think he just admits/realises that if we're gonna win it all, it's gonna be thanks to our offense and specialy our 3pts shooting...

He looks like resigned to me, the D level is obviously not where he wants it to be, but he (now) knows that he can't get much from this group on a regular basis.

As frustrating as it might be for him, I like the fact that he isn't "stubborn" on that matter and accept the fact that the reason this team is 1st in the league is its 3pts % and its overall O...

I know, I know, D wins championships...

good take

The positive thing here is he is trying to adapt his coaching to the players he has and not the contrary. This is a big change for him I'm sure, last year for instance he didn't want to see some major flaws and try to fix what he couldn't fixed by giving minutes to the masterpiece Bogans thinking the guy could be a kind of Bowen clone.

Sometimes a coach needs to work with the material he has, we have no more the pieces to be an elite defensive team ala Chicago Bulls.

It surely also the reason he is forcing the things with Bonner vs. Tiago or Blair. I do think Pop doesn't believe that Tiago could be the missing D anchor we need and as his O & FTs are not elite, he is trying to maximise O with Bonner.

[hater]

translation we suck at defense. At least Pop faces it. Can't really do anything about it at this point.

[ohmwrecker]

It's kind of like the thread about "cliching HCA". Is it "clinching" or "cliche-ing"? Maybe HCA is just a cliche...perhaps there is not true HCA. Perhaps HCA is meaningless. These threads may run far deeper than folks realize. I'm convinced it's not grammatical errors, it's meaning within meaning. Very intense.

Nice catch.

I really just wanted to use zeitgeist in a sentence, tbh.

[Pauleta14]

good take

The positive thing here is he is trying to adapt his coaching to the players he has and not the contrary. This is a big change for him I'm sure, last year for instance he didn't want to see some major flaws and try to fix what he couldn't fixed by giving minutes to the masterpiece Bogans thinking the guy could be a kind of Bowen clone.

Sometimes a coach needs to work with the material he has, we have no more the pieces to be an elite defensive team ala Chicago Bulls.

It surely also the reason he is forcing the things with Bonner vs. Tiago or Blair. I do think Pop doesn't believe that Tiago could be the missing D anchor we need and as his O & FTs are not elite, he is trying to maximise O with Bonner.

-1 and +1

That was the most surprising thing about Pop's analysis/pov of the losing streak, I thought/expected him to go old school/concervative (transition D, TO, FT%...) and instead, he went "we didn't lose because of our D"!!

I was shoked at 1st, but then (that's the reason of my 1st answer in the "games quotes" thread) I realised that:

1- he wasn't wrong (we lost ESSENTIALY due to mental mistakes at the end of games)

2- we can't give up NOW on the 3pts shooting that made this year's spurs iden y and allowed the team to win so many games...

Concerning Pop's "evolution" on that matter, I don't think it's new.
RC and him often talked in the interviews about the fact that you have to deal with the "material" you have (even if the 1st goal is the scout/recruit players who "fit" with the organisation).
RC seems more "liberal" than Pop (ie; TP scouting), but I think Pop has started to change a long time ago thanks to ..... Manu!
If you remember Manu's 1st years, it was illarious to see Pop getting crazy on his bench, not understanding what the was doing this crazy argantinian guy...
Then, he slowly started to "let Manu do his stuff and see what happened", thankfully Manu helped the team win games and Pop (I think) started to change/evolve his coaching, which btw worked also toward TP (whom Pop wanted to become the next Stockton! ).

Concerning last year, he didn't expect anything that shouldn't be expected from Bogans (D stopper), RJ (anything please) or Mason and Bonner (3pts shooting)...
All those guys just didn't show up...

[Brazil]

-1 and +1

That was the most surprising thing about Pop's analysis/pov of the losing streak, I thought/expected him to go old school/concervative (transition D, TO, FT%...) and instead, he went "we didn't lose because of our D"!!

I was shoked at 1st, but then (that's the reason of my 1st answer in the "games quotes" thread) I realised that:

1- he wasn't wrong (we lost ESSENTIALY due to mental mistakes at the end of games)

2- we can't give up NOW on the 3pts shooting that made this year's spurs iden y and allowed the team to win so many games...

1- I disagree during the last 6 games our D has been atrocious. We lost due to mental mistakes because our O enabled us to carry us untill the fourth but overall D has been horrible. Opponents were shooting above .500 ! unacceptable even for a squad -Tim.

2- As already commented and before loosing 6 in a row Spurs didn't shoot that much of 3s compared to the rest of the teams and compared to the previous years especially when you consider Spurs are playing at higher pace this year. Big difference is untill recently the guys shot very well and that was partly fluke, bonner shooting over .500 was a ing fluke everybody knows that and pop knows too.

Concerning Pop's "evolution" on that matter, I don't think it's new.
RC and him often talked in the interviews about the fact that you have to deal with the "material" you have (even if the 1st goal is the scout/recruit players who "fit" with the organisation).
RC seems more "liberal" than Pop (ie; TP scouting), but I think Pop has started to change a long time ago thanks to ..... Manu!
If you remember Manu's 1st years, it was illarious to see Pop getting crazy on his bench, not understanding what the was doing this crazy argantinian guy...
Then, he slowly started to "let Manu do his stuff and see what happened", thankfully Manu helped the team win games and Pop (I think) started to change/evolve his coaching, which btw worked also toward TP (whom Pop wanted to become the next Stockton! ).

yeah but it didn't change his overall philosophy of the game for TP and Manu, he just let them doing their stuff within his framework. BTW untill two years ago, Pop was yelling at TP for not respecting his playbooks and for gambling for steals.
So for me the change is not that old.

Concerning last year, he didn't expect anything that shouldn't be expected from Bogans (D stopper), RJ (anything please) or Mason and Bonner (3pts shooting)...
All those guys just didn't show up...

I strongly disagree here regarding Bogans, He was expected too much for Bogans same with Mason, thinking the guy had the qualities to run the point is pretty dumb IMO.
Now I do agree with RJ and Bonner.

[polandprzem]

I was quite shocked by this comment.
Mainly because Pop alwas talks about improvements.

Now he said the defense was a maximum what the spurs can play and will in the playoffs and the only problem was the offense. It might be.
Although I still think with such D and with mistakes on O the spurs are doing they have not much chances in the playoffs esp when Bonner is now ina slump and Pop is hoping Matt will produce just because he created the style of this offense.
I need to see the suns 1st half to watch if the spurs are back to the offense from the 1st part of a season.

Anyway even though the leauge is not that phisical it will be more phisical in the playoffs and I don't know if the spurs can handle it?

It will be intresting to see what Pop will do now with froncourt and overall rotation. Still few games left and I wonder if there will be a bit of a CIA in LA game

[Spurs and Mavs fan]

Something other than that four rings nonsense.

In what sport are 4 championship les "nonsense?" Or what team do you root for?

[Cessation]

Pop's just preparing us for the wcf failure ahead, everyone knows d wins the championships.

[Strategic]

just wish we could see splitter and duncan on the floor at the same time together just ONCE!

At first that sounds good. The problem is McDyess is the first sub and then who plays beside him? The Spurs have two centers, Splitter and Blair, and three forwards, Duncan, McDyess and Bonner. The Combinations that have worked this year are TD and AM, TD and MB, TS and AM, TS and MB. Then to a lesser extent DB and TD, DB and AM. What hasn't worked is DB and MB, AM and MB. I think if Pop can stay away from these last two the Spurs stay fairly solid on the interior.

[jjktkk]

This quote embodies all that's gone horribly wrong with Pop. To paraphrase, our defense can't get any better, only our 3-pt shooting can. He's trying to rationalize Bonnerball.

Spurs didn't win rings with "good enough" defense. Bonnerball closed the window on the Duncan era, TD may as well retire. Seriously, it's over.

He knows this team doesn't have the talent to be a top defensive unit. So he plays to this team's strength. Offense.

[jjktkk]

In what sport are 4 championship les "nonsense?" Or what team do you root for?

itzsoweezee is part of the "what have you done for me lately" Spurs fan base.

[Obstructed_View]

At first that sounds good. The problem is McDyess is the first sub and then who plays beside him? The Spurs have two centers, Splitter and Blair, and three forwards, Duncan, McDyess and Bonner. The Combinations that have worked this year are TD and AM, TD and MB, TS and AM, TS and MB. Then to a lesser extent DB and TD, DB and AM. What hasn't worked is DB and MB, AM and MB. I think if Pop can stay away from these last two the Spurs stay fairly solid on the interior.

Uh, still sounds good. Putting your best players in the starting lineup makes sense. The problem you're citing is centered around Matt Bonner, and that's a different discussion. Dice and Blair are more than adequate backups with Bonner in a shooting role.

[Mugen]

Jesus Christ, the Pop homerism in this thread is ridiculous....