I remember a time when Pop made decisions primarily based on defense (98'-05'). As a result, these teams tended to overachieve with this philosophy being the primary staple. Leading them to three les by 2005.
Unfortunately, something died the following season....
The part of Pop's brain that prioritized defense.
Unfortunately for the Spurs and their fans, Pop has never recovered. He's made some pretty questionable decisions pretty much every playoff run besides 2007.
*Just a friendly reminder: 07' was a year when the league was really watered down (compared to 08'-now; and before that Pistons (03'-05')-Lakers (99'-04') were very formidable and comparable to the elite teams today). The only viable threat in 2007 got kicked out of the 1st round. Which was partially why the Spurs were able to get a ring with an untalented roster.
Moving on...
Here's some year to year evidence of Pop's brain steadily decaying.
2006- Small-ball vs. Dallas- Big piece of the 05' ship sat to rot on the bench (Nazr)- Defense and rebound suffered because of it. As we all know, defense and rebounding was a huge staple in the 99',03' and 05' championship le runs. Ultimately, Spurs weren't able to beat or stop the Mavs. Even though I believe they would have in 6 games had Nazr been a part of it.
2007- Spurs won a championship in one of the most watered down NBA seasons of the past 20 years. This championship season lead to the front office becoming wrongfully content on bringing back the same over-achieving team instead of trying to build on the 07' team talent-wise. (IIRC- I believe they signed Vaughn and Bonner to extensions in the first week of free agency and carelessly used Scola's rights to get rid of the carcass of Jackie Butler.)
2008- Spurs grind their way to the WCF vs. Lakers- Pop elects to sit Bowen more than usual. At the same time, Pop matches Odom with Udoka and puts Finley at SF to try to enhance the offensive output. Even though Odom lived on the offensive glass, Pop continued to go small. All while sitting their best perimeter defender (Bowen) and post defender (Kurt Thomas) majority of the series. Spurs defense then goes to and Spurs get abused on the boards just like 2006. Spurs lose again.
2009- True hangover from the mistaken 2007 off-season- Very untalented team that had no real championship aspirations. Pop still couldn't get away from shooting his own team in the foot by playing Vaughn, Finley and Bonner over Hill, Bowen and Thomas/Gooden. Do I need to explain how Bowen, Hill and Thomas could have been better options than Vaughn, Finley and Bonner? I think not.
2010- Pop elects to not give Hairston or Temple a chance to build on their success in the regular season. And no I'm not talking about 2011 Garrett Temple, Temple in 2010 was very productive; Hairston as well (especially on the glass and the defensive end). Pop elected to stick with the atrocious play of Mason and Bogans hoping for the "law of averages" theory to materialize. It never did. That decision ended up burning the Spurs in the end, Spurs had no bench because of it. Had Pop given Hairston and Temple a real opportunity to build on their regular season success later in the year, they would have been ready to contribute come playoff time when Mason and Bogans continued to suck. At the same time, Bonner-ball was still a staple in Pop's offensive minded philosophy and Spurs lost once again.
2011- Splitters situation ( I don't think I need to explain). Overplaying the out of Bonner when it matters most.
So if you can count, that's five out of the last six years where Pop made very questionable decisions. In my opinion and likely many others, he shot his own team in the foot in each of these five years.
Last edited by MaNu4Tres; 04-30-2011 at 04:48 AM.
Don't forget Jefferson.
Seriously, Pop said in the offseason and I made a point of it, that if RJ hadn't agreed to do drills with Pop then the Spurs wouldn't have kept him.
What does that say . . .
Hey, if a guy has to do remedial drills just to get you to consider bringing him back because his performance was god awful . . . don't bring him back.
That's on Pop as much as RC.
And you didn't even touch RJ...
More specific things :
The Scola trade
2008 - game 1 against LA, up by 20 with 6 minutes to go in the third, Pop pulls Bowen after he picks up his 3rd (!) foul. That was the end of it and shattered Pop and Bowen's relationship because of Pop. There's a reason a 10-day scrub was allowed to have Bowen's number, and it's because of Pop and his grudges.
Ian Mahinmi - never given a chance. And with Dallas this year had moments in games, including 4th quarters of good play and on occasion was even put ahead of Haywood in the rotation.
Hill and the infamous saying, "These playoffs aren't for George Hill"
I noticed that too.
I think someone needs to step up and take a stance against Pop.
If anyone watches House M.D. does Pop not remind you of House?
Theres so many similarites between the character and Pop. Its being replicated on tv screen into reality enacted by Pop.
98% of my point is based on coaching decisions, not collective front-office financial decisions obviously.
And I don't think I need to go over my opinion on the R.J's situation. If so, I'll just copy and paste from another thread.
Last edited by MaNu4Tres; 04-30-2011 at 04:39 AM.
Fair enough
The only thing I would add is the Anderson situation also... who was basically relegated to the bench post-injury never to see the court again, and we really didn't have any other SF ready in case RJ sucked (which he obviously did)...
Damn, I never thought of that.
Good one.
Pop does seem like House.
Hairston could have just as easily played over RJ last year
Pop could have easily force-fed minutes to fat Anderson over the last 35 or so games that Anderson was available to have an emergency alternative to RJ come the playoffs. RJ's production was already declining plus he had his terrible playoff history with the Spurs.
RJ and Pop's coaching regarding him is on the table.
We all know that RJ plays run and gun and that he basically need a pass-first PG playing with him which is not what the Spurs is or have. You can't blame him for what he's not. It was the FO who thought they could change him in to a player they want. It didn't happen, so stop blaming RJ. He's passive yes most of the time in his 2 year stay, I know, I saw it with my own eyes, but given the chance that he plays his game, he produces. It's more like asking Tony not to shoot and be like Nash/Kidd/Stockton. That will not happen because Pop and the other coaches know that TP is a score first type of player. He let's him play what he does best. RJ? Do I still have to answer this?
To make it short, _____ ed most of the seasons of Spurs because he knows what's best for the team.
If I'm wrong, maybe I should not watch basketball anymore.
The roster wasn't good enough for a legit le run.
The blame goes directly to the front office.
That is the problem and was all year long for those who wanted to see the spurs add a legit big.
Playing Bonner mcDyess and Blair as the core of the frontline with Duncan can't matchup with other playoff frontlines.
It was too easy to score in the paint against San Antonio.
He did change and did well for about 80-85% of the regular season and the first 2 playoff games.
Unfortunately, he was complete dog the past 4 critical playoff games and contributed to the Spurs abrupt demise.
He was so so so bad. I can't forgive his past 4 games for anything. Even if he played well majority of the year.
I think you're missing the point. Nobody is saying he didn't play like . He sure did. The point is, RJ will never play well on the Spurs, unless they turn into the Nash-lead Suns like in the first half of this season. That's it. That's all there is to it. The experiment has failed and hopefully there's a team with high tempo offense who might be interested. But with that contract, it's a long shot. The Spurs are stuck with a guy who doesn't fit for at least a couple more years, when his expiring contract will finally become a valuable trade chip.
Didn't our Spurs became a run and gun team most of the time this season? And they have this alley-oops play for RJ (which I think is the only play they drew up for him, correct me if I'm wrong) that works perfectly. But now, we set up half court plays, didn't run more than usual and that means less production from RJ.
The 4 critical playoff games? We don't know what the coaches want every game, what play they want to run and everything, but I'm pretty sure he didn't receive enough touches or plays for him to get going.Unfortunately, he was complete dog the past 4 critical playoff games and contributed to the Spurs abrupt demise.
Think of it this way, if a play is drawn for someone then he messes it up and creates a play for himself but he wasn't able to do good/score, what would you think about him? What would the coaches do to him? Me? I'd be happy for him doing that even if it fails because I know he want to get things going for himself, but I'm just me, just a fan, my opinion is not as important compared to the Spurs coaches.
This. Thank you will_spurs.
"Good player, bad fit."
House = PopDamn, I never thought of that.
Good one.
Pop does seem like House.
Cuddy = Bonner
Taub = Blair
Foreman = Dice
Wilson = Splitter
13 = Manu
There's a part of the above that I never considered before. It's possible that the trade wasn't made because Jackie Butler sucked, but because the Spurs really wanted to embrace the "smallball over bigs" philosophy and save some money at the same time.
Considering how quickly the Spurs slowed it down once the playoffs came around, does it seem like they only played the fun and gun offense to boost RJ's numbers and justify re-signing him?
i beg to differ with the general sentiment of this thread. when you look at the whole of the season and what the Spurs had on the roster, I believe they overachieved. I believe Pop knew this team was gonna need all the help it could get if it was to make a playoff run and that's why he uncharacteristically went for the gaudy regular season record to ensure a high seed. What he didn't and couldn't foresee was a Memphis team that simply outmatched the Spurs in the low post.
How could he have known his Ginger would let him down????? I know.. its truly mystifiying.
And his punishment next year? He's not allowed to go out for sandwiches after games.
There should be a Pop apologist of the year award. Never did I think someone would come in a day after a historic playoff upset, perhaps the second biggest of all time and try to tell people that the Spurs were an overachieving team all due to the coach.
Can the front office magically make quality bigs show up on the Spurs doorstep when they draft at the end of the first round year after year? The highest draft pick SA has had since Duncan arrived was the 20th pick. The 20th pick!
The squandering of Scola is the one really big mistake the FO made and it cost them too. Scola has his warts too (smallish, no defensive ability or desire).
San Antonio has had four lottery picks in the last 23 years (Willie Anderson, David Robinson, Sean Elliott, and Duncan).
Bottom line, Duncan got old and Manu got hurt. End of story.
The ability of SA to win 50-60 games the last 14 years prevented restocking this roster with enough top tier players. Tony Parker and Manu became All Stars against all odds to allow the last three le runs along with some shrewd player acquisitions outside of the draft.
The team Memphis defeated last night is a team that plays very well together as a group, but is not a championship level team largely because of Duncan's severe decline this year and as you said a lack of defense inside especially.
lol lack of talent. The front office can sure magically make quality bigs disappear from the roster. Nazr is still in an NBA rotation for a playoff team. The Spurs didn't need more stars, they needed basic things like backup point guards and centers and consistently failed to attempt to get or develop those things. Some of the guys that tore the Spurs up the last six games were available to the Spurs in the draft or via free-agency.
Bottom line, the Spurs got small, Duncan and Splitter are well rested for the summer.
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