Spurs = frontrunners

[mudyez]

Maybe they haven't really invented all of these things (e.g. I believe the hack-a-player has been done some decades ago and international players have been there bevore), but the Spurs are famous for beeing frontrunners in a lot of coaching/managing stuff, that other teams are copying later.

Please help me putting a list of these things together!

- drafting international talent (especially in the second round) even though it's not coming over right away
- "hacking" players to disrupt the flow of the oponents offense
- using one of their best 3 players from the bench
- spreading it out 100%...not using a no-offensive-skills-big at all...thus creating an inviroment where below average players can look like worldeaters (ok, the run and gun Suns did it before but more or less just because of Nash and not within the team concept itself)
- trading with the Knicks
- ???

Obvious the key for doing stuff like that is Burford's and Pop's job security, but it is insane how they shaped the league with some of this stuff.

[eric365]

- using one of their best 3 players from the bench

Kevin McHale

[Wild Cobra Kai]

Maybe they haven't really invented all of these things (e.g. I believe the hack-a-player has been done some decades ago and international players have been there bevore), but the Spurs are famous for beeing frontrunners in a lot of coaching/managing stuff, that other teams are copying later.

Please help me putting a list of these things together!

- drafting international talent (especially in the second round) even though it's not coming over right away
- "hacking" players to disrupt the flow of the oponents offense
- using one of their best 3 players from the bench
- spreading it out 100%...not using a no-offensive-skills-big at all...thus creating an inviroment where below average players can look like worldeaters (ok, the run and gun Suns did it before but more or less just because of Nash and not within the team concept itself)
- trading with the Knicks
- ???

Obvious the key for doing stuff like that is Burford's and Pop's job security, but it is insane how they shaped the league with some of this stuff.

Don Nelson did almost all of these things.

[ploto]

Some people's lack of historical knowledge is astounding when they decide to make certain claims.

[Riverwalkman]

Yea Spurs is patient on training stuffs. I think players like Bruce Bowen and Avery Johnson would not get their jersey retired in any other teams. And Tony Parker would not become as good if he was drafted by other teams.

[Solid D]

Nothing is new under the sun. Before there was Pop, there was Nellie. Before Nellie, there was Red. Before there was Manu and McHale, there was Havlicek.

[mudyez]

there was that late training sessions stuff

[Bartleby]

You left out resting (not suiting up) the starters during regular season games, but I don't think the Spurs invented that.

[JR3]

The spurs have not been frontrunners on these things. Pop learned all of this from others around the league. He is just the first to implement it all at the same time! He is brilliant! Having a strategy is one thing, having players and a front office that catches your vision and runs with it is another, very rare, thing.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

Pop is like Edison or Ford (minus the Nazi fandom). Not so much an innovator but capable of refining and synthesizing new ideas into greater successes.

Nellie is like a basketball Tesla.

[mudyez]

Managers do the right things...Leaders do the things right!

[Man In Black]

First Eastern Bloc Euro to play in the NBA?

Wasn't it the Phoenix Suns in the 80's when they used Georgi Glouchkov? That Bulgarian dude was productive for half a season.