Did Prime Duncan and younger/healthy Manu and Bowen make Pop look better than he is ?

[james evans]

Let's face it...Pop is the most overrated coach in the history of the world. If you doubt this, just press "Replay" on Game 6. Any high school coach would have won that game. Meanwhile, Tim is arguably the best big to ever play the game. And Pop takes him out of the game - twice in the last minute, when all we needed was one rebound.

don't forget putting in a 61% freethrow shooter to win the game. i thought every team had a freethrow shooting unit.

[james evans]

Not with that nonsense he pulled in game 6. The problem is Pop's got no killer instinct that's why he didn't win game 6. He was playing not to lose while PJ always played to win. As a result his teams had the edge.

i lost damn near all the respect i had for him after game 6. i know some people up here be on that bull about "he's an all time great coach and you're just a forum poster". that is bull . no coach at ANY level should make all of the mistakes he made in that game. taking duncan out, sending in leonard(a 61% ft shooter in the finals) to hit freethrows, not fouling on the 3, leaving ginobli in to fuk up. it's like he didn't give a or just didn't know what to do. it's one of the 2. and he's still fukin up this season with defense strategies that just aren't fukin working. the knicks loss this season was the hardest one to take in cuz it was such a winnable game that i was not concerned with but i just don't get this zone defense of leaving 3 point shooters open. i ddint' get it saturday when Boeheim was leaving Duke open all night and i don't get it when popovich does it. the fuked up thing is, we are playing zone against teams that are 3 point shooters, no low post offense, and teams that WANT to shoot the 3.

[dunkman]

Spo' had much more talent then Pop, and the series still went to 7 games. Duncan and Parker still played at all-NBA level that season. Sure the last errors are more visible, but the reason Spurs lost was Manu's 8 TO's in game 6.

[HarlemHeat37]

the Heat didn't have much more talent than the Spurs, even including Lebron, tbh..

Bosh was invisible for most of the series, and the Heat were actually horrible when Wade was on the floor..

Pop coached a great series when the Spurs were in control, his strategy of making Lebron shoot from outside and allowing Wade to take his inefficient mid-range shots worked, as did his plan of spreading the floor and killing Miami with the 3..

After Spoelstra finally realized that Danny Green can't dribble and Parker can't play against Lebron, Pop never countered him..he continued to allow Parker to run the offense against the best pick&roll defense combo(Lebron+Bosh), rather than running the plays through Duncan all game + Leonard in the post against mismatches(Chalmers+Cole)..

[HarlemHeat37]

Pop is the best coach in the league, but like Belichick, all his flaws are ignored by the media and non-Spurs fans, tbh..

It's strange, because Pop is the only coach in the league that receives so much credit for winning some games while resting his stars, even though many other coaches do it all the time..Scott Brooks won a game 2 weeks ago without both Dominos and Westbrook and I didn't hear anything about it from the media..

[gnsf0946]

Pop is the best coach in the league, but like Belichick, all his flaws are ignored by the media and non-Spurs fans, tbh..

It's strange, because Pop is the only coach in the league that receives so much credit for winning some games while resting his stars, even though many other coaches do it all the time..Scott Brooks won a game 2 weeks ago without both Dominos and Westbrook and I didn't hear anything about it from the media..

They prop Pop in the media because for them Pop is a lot more interesting than Duncan.

[Biernutz]

This thread needs a time out. It's time for Kiss Me Cam

[therealtruth]

the Heat didn't have much more talent than the Spurs, even including Lebron, tbh..

Bosh was invisible for most of the series, and the Heat were actually horrible when Wade was on the floor..

Pop coached a great series when the Spurs were in control, his strategy of making Lebron shoot from outside and allowing Wade to take his inefficient mid-range shots worked, as did his plan of spreading the floor and killing Miami with the 3..

After Spoelstra finally realized that Danny Green can't dribble and Parker can't play against Lebron, Pop never countered him..he continued to allow Parker to run the offense against the best pick&roll defense combo(Lebron+Bosh), rather than running the plays through Duncan all game + Leonard in the post against mismatches(Chalmers+Cole)..

Pretty much Pop didn't adjust from game 4 onwards. The Heat may have had the better 1-2 players but the Spurs had the better 3-8 players.