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The season is on the Spurs getting old.
1.By changing the starting line up after that great start for no apparent reason.
2. Failing to integrate Splitter earlier in season.
3.Trotting out the same bs Blair/Bonner combo.
4.Letting Ginobili throw ty pass after ty pass with no consequences
5. I am too pissed to go on but I am sure you guys can add to this.
The season is on the Spurs getting old.
Bonner deal
RJ restructure
Drafting Hill over Arthur
No backup point guard
Leaving Dice in the game
Run and gun over defense
Smallball
Pop playing the starters in a meaningless game and handicapping the Spurs with Manu's injury...reason #1 why we lost this series.
Limiting minutes of his best players in favor of ineffective backups.
Having George Hill running point for three quarters of game 1
Pretending to be Phil Jackson and refusing to call timeouts during the third quarter meltdown.
Pop's "D'Antoni Experiment" was a colossal failure! I have no idea why he decided to go away from what made the Spurs a powerhouse for over 10 years - defense. He let them be a run-and-gun team and look where it got them. Just like the Phoenix Suns - a great regular season record but a huge failure in the playoffs.
If the Spurs had been able to play lock-down defense against the Grizzlies like they had in seasons past, this series would've turned out far differently. Spurs would work hard to get a lead, but they could never get stops when they needed them.
Spurs are also much too soft of a team. We need some tough guys like Mario Elie, Kevin Willis, Danny Ferry and SJax. Duncan looked like a wuss for most of this series. He was waaaaay too passive and allowed himself to get pushed around. Not once did I see any anger or fire in his eyes.
That was probably the dumbest move by the genius!
This team was going nowhere with the guys they had on the roster. No matter who played. The playoffs are just a totally different game then the regular season it's insane.
Spurs can keep the big 3, george, neal, tiago. Move RJ and get some size and wing defenders and this team can still be good enough to make a run.
The whole run n gun is hopefully over after this ass-beating. Can't say I blame him for trying it out but clearly he doesn't stick with it-- I hope.
This season's collapse falls on the shoulders of Popovich and the front-office. For giving Jefferson and Bonner a combined $50 million, signing Splitter and not playing/developing him, not bringing in a defensive-minded wing and most of all not preaching defense. Playing an offensive-style allowed guys like Bonner, Hill, Jefferson, Blair and (to a lesser extent) Neal to succeed, but obviously didn't work come playoff time. Sad to see Timmy, Manu and Tony go out like chumps for the third year in a row......
Tim Duncan being old and no longer being a franchise player is the #1 reason the Spurs lost. Not anyone's fault.
I wonder if any sportswriters will be writing "Pop screwed the pooch" articles... the guy doesn't get much media love, but he doesn't seem to get called out much by the writers, either.
I love Pop for what he accomplished, but those who stated that he changed and deviated from what brought him success were right. It started IMO with 2006 and trying to outdallas dallas by going small. Interestingly enough, I think this season we did just that.
No doubt that Timmy is an elder basketball statesman but if he had some adequate help (Splitter) we might have had a nice presence inside defensively but instead another year wasted and Splitter proved to be ok considering he didnt see the floor hardly. It was a nice run the last 12 years and we should consider ourselves lucky to have witnessed one of the greatest players of all time kick some ass...Thanks Timmy for the mammary's!!!
Manu plays game 1...we are getting ready for game 7...old Duncan or not.
Welcome to the boat... you're late... we're kinda packed right now, but you should find some room on the back.
You are right. This is totally on Pop.
You guys thinking Splitter was enough to counteract Duncan getting old simply don't understand what Duncan did during his prime.
Splitter played better than we thought he could considering he didnt smell the floor hardly at all..Imagine if he would have had a chance to grow during the season maybe Timmy would not e had to do so much!
Are you serious? You just saw why he went away from that model. We don't have the players to play that type of game.
I'm not jumping on any boat. I still like Pop and think he's an excellent coach, I just hope this experiment is finally over now.Welcome to the boat... you're late... we're kinda packed right now, but you should find some room on the back.
We all knew Pop lost it when he resorted to the Don Nelson "Hack A Shaq" and this was maybe 3 or 4 years ago!
Bull , Garnett is just as old but can still deliver. The main reason being that he isn't the only interior presence on defense, plus they don't overly rely on his offense to win games. Pop has never developed a young player that Timmy can lean on just a little on offense or defense.
Instead, he plays ing Matt Bonner 20 minutes of piss-poor rebounding and defense a night. What difference did Bonner's three-point ability make in this series?? Yet, he still got minutes even though he gave the team nothing on offense and was constantly abused on defense by whomever he was matched up with.
Popovich and R.C. were to blame the moment the resigned Bonner and Jefferson. ing idiot needs to finally be held accountable for his failures. He doesn't have a prime Duncan, young Parker/Ginobili or lock-down defender in Bowen to hide his flaws. His stubbornness and over-relying on offense cost his team a possibly 5th le. FU POP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No one undervalues who and what Timmy has done for the Spurs franchise. He's a top 10 all-time great, but the front-office/coaching staff believed it would be okay to over rely on him even into his mid-30's. They have gotten young big men and either traded them (Scola), let them walk with no real chance (Ian) or let them rot on the bench until they "get over them self" (Splitter).You guys thinking Splitter was enough to counteract Duncan getting old simply don't understand what Duncan did during his prime.
Last edited by J_Paco; 04-29-2011 at 11:38 PM.
All "great" coaches are overrated, to an extent..
Pop was a great coach..he brought a new look to the NBA..he brought a new approach..he has always been a great x's and o's coach..he brought some European flavor to this era, he helped bring a different method of drafting, he brought specialists that played a different role than what you usually saw in this era..
However, the game has passed him by..his success has inflated his ego, which leads to overthinking and overanalyzing his moves..he abandoned his principles to focus on offense, as if it was a challenge to his himself, with his ego, to win with an offensive focus..
His approach towards rookies and his loyalty to certain, inept players, was arguably his downfall as a coach..small ball over the bigs in 2006, Finley over Bowen, Bogans over Hairston, Vaughn over Hill, the love for Bonner, not giving Splitter a chance..he looks tired of this , he needs to retire..
i agree with you on all points. did anyone ever hear an explanation for why Blair was taken out of the starting line-up?
He also doesn't have the greatness of Tim Duncan to fall back on. If Timmy's decline as a player has shown anything, it's that Popovich was in the right situation with the right scheme at the right time. The same can be said of Phil Jackson, but Jackson has proven overtime that he can work with different talent and still make it work.
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