You act like no one went off on him before in his prime. He also had prime tim ing duncan back there. Kawhi has a slower version than him. PnRs is duncans weakness nowadays. Kawhi is asked to do more and he does defensively.
I don't remember people going off on Bowen very often. Certainly there were players that took a ton of shots and were able to score a lot of points, but on terrible shooting percentages. Bowen was a great defender, don't know why some people get so touchy about Kawhi. Kawhi is a great, young player. He is one of the best at generating turnovers. Bowen never really generated turnovers. He just forced players to take bad shots. Kawhi is a different kind of defender. I don't see him forcing bad shots, just attacking players' dribbles or passing lanes. I'd like to see him do a better job of forcing players into tough shots, but he's still young and learning other players' tendencies. Bruce had a black book on every great offensive player; he knew how to counter them. Kawhi's still developing that. He's still a top notch defender, but I don't see him as on the level of Bruce just yet in terms of forcing bad shots. Just my opinion.
No Bruce, no 2-3-4.
Bowen was a great player in the 2000s, one of my favorites of all-time, although I admit he wouldn't be nearly as great in today's league that puts more of an emphasis on talent/skill, and less on physicality.
I wonder what Kawhi would look like with prime Duncan or prime Alonzo Mourning behind him
Bruce has the mental edge, of course..he was one of the dirtiest players of all-time, and he got in opponent's heads as well as anybody has in decades, tbh..
I remember a game where Vince Carter was completely destroying him, had like 45 points mid-way through the 3rd, but Bruce undercut him or something, and Carter went crazy and got ejected
The post about Bowen not missing a free throw is hilarious, as different teams (most notably the Mavs) employed a hack-a-Bowen strategy from time to time. Long time fans would know this.
Not hating on Bruce. One of my all time favorite players, tbh.
It's a shame how Pop ended Bowen's tenure, too, tbh
One of the best SpursTalk threads IIRC was at peak-Finley hate when we found out this had the audacity to ask for a trade..
Fast Tim, Slow Tim, Young Tim, Old Tim.....didn't matter, doesn't matter. Bowen was through pure tenacity and lightning fast reflexes ALWAYS in the pocket of the guy he was defending. Dude was a complete pest. He truly neutralized the opposition's best player night in and night out. We don't have that now, although Leonard did a good job on James last Finals.
No Bruce no 2, 3, and 4. And without Bruce...nothing until Leonard came along. Spurs need to remember defense. Without it we have no rings.
This year (no specific order):
Kawhi
Gobert
Whiteside
Draymond
Bogut
Honorable mention to: Duncan/Danny/Tony Allen/Marc Gasol
Solid Year: Jordan
Still under the radar, but solid defensive year: Bradley, MKG & Noel
No Splitter, no 5
No Diaw, no 5
No Green, no 5
No Patty, no 5
should I keep going?
At least you haven't said enrique.
Honorable mention to the ball boy too.
Duncan and MVParker are obvious IMO
No Kawhi no 5. Simple as that.
DALLAS – Tiago Splitter did all he could to help the Spurs in game three against the Dallas Mavericks.
Splitter recorded a double-double (14 points and 13 rebounds); he added three assists and most of all he helped contain Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki, who finished with 18 points.
Nowitzki has yet to score 20 or more points after three games against the Spurs and is averaging only 15.0 points on 39.1 percent shooting.
We talking about the finals you scrub.
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