Reply With Quote
How do you get better? Defense.
Pop: "Nah, I think I'll try gimmicks, that'll work."
It's all so obvious. Memphis is younger, quicker, more athletic and hungry. They scored points at will versus the porous defense of the Spurs. Meanwhile, the Spurs crumbled under the Grizzlies swarming defensive pressure, they carelessly turned the ball over and they struggled to score. Not scoring a basket until 7:15 of the 3rd quarter sealed their doom. Not having the necessary youth, energy, athleticism and physicality around the Big Three, to match the Grizz and the other up and coming teams has ended their run.
How do you get better? Defense.
Pop: "Nah, I think I'll try gimmicks, that'll work."
^ All of this. And I mean, all of it.
Doesn't really matter where the fault lies. The spectatcle before our eyes is tragic. I don't want to see Duncan perform like a doddering old man, looking for balls down on his feet, getting outplayed by younger, hungrier players. I don't like seeing Bonner miss all the threes that he made during the regular season. I don't like to see Dice look like a shadow of his old self, or the bench playing like scared little girls. How did this same team win 61 games? Tragic that the Spurs have lost 7 out of their last 8 playoff games going back to last year's playoffs.
A tragic ending to the dynasty of the last decade.
It's hard to fight when you realize you're surrounded by a bunch of pussies that don't even blink when they get their pushed in... Duncan is battling Gasol... he can't come over and also guard ZBo because Matty is too soft... those days for Tim are long gone...
Same with Manu watching RJ/Hill walking around like they're happy to be there...
The older they get the more help they need...
Those were the most painful minutes in recent history, a mortal blow to the Duncan era.
Actually, 2005 was Pop's "peak" as a coach. In 2006, he went small against the Mavs. We didn't really fix that problem in 2007, but thankfully the Mavs went down to GS and all we needed to do then was to beat the undersized Suns one more time and then handle a Cavs team that was in over their head.
After that, the Lakers got Gasol, and the Spurs as they were constructed had little chance against them. In the 5 years since 2006, Pop has failed to plug the frontcourt hole next to Duncan, instead resorting to one gimmick after the other. Today simply was (hopefully) the last chapter.
If Pop wants to redeem himself, he and RC need to start over and construct the team the right way. It doesn't matter if we have a bad few seasons, but the Spurs need to put together a combination of size, defense, physicality and athletic ability.
Duncan is the best big we have and as I feared all year, he is WORN OUT. The second or third best big on our team made his playoff debut tonight.
It was a sad, pathetic performance tonight. The Spurs officially have become yesterday's news. Duncan giving up that layup to Gasol on the rebound was just disgusting. Tim is a complementary player now.
It's been a great run, but this day always comes at some point. The roster is too old in some places (Duncan, Dyess) , not skilled enough in others (Bonner), injured at the end of the year every year (Manu), disinterested/distracted (Parker).
I don't think anything will significantly change on the roster next year at this point - the loss of confidence that they are showing now could translate into a pretty bad record next year (if there is a season).
This series is not over officially - the funny thing is SA could still make this interesting with a win on Wednesday, but I'm not sure Popovich can get these guys interested enough to compete at an adequate level.
The Grizzlies are a nice team, but this series has been about effort and smarts and SA has lacked very badly in both areas.
I'm still a little numb by that pile of crap rolled out there tonight. Sucks.
At least the NFL draft is Thursday.
This.
And also failures to replace Bowen which caused the Spurs to abandon their iden y as a grinding defensive team.
The Udoka grooming experiment didn't work out at all.
Beno didn't work, nor Hill or Neal, etc. Even NVE etc. The Spurs have tried to get a dependable backup PG for about 6 years now. They tried to replace Bowen and gave up, etc.
And as far as the big man hole, well, you just said it pretty well.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
