Just like the clippers series...Pop has been terrible.

[Spurs_619]

He's clearly taking advantage of Tim's absence to play Mad Scientist against potential playoff foes. All those gimmicky defense schemes stood out & he was also willing to play Fathead/Simmons/Boban early in the game which has been unusual against playoff teams.

On that note i don't see what some posters see here in Kyle. I don't think he will ever be that good for how slow he is i thought he would make it up with his shooting and playmaking which i still haven't see in the almost 2 years hes been with the team now. His defense can be good at times with his length but thats the only positive i see. I think Simmons actually could develop really nicely.

[DMC]

lol Spurs lose and 30 applesauce threads appear.

And you post in every one of them.

[HarlemHeat37]

And you post in every one of them.

[SAGirl]

Its amazing how poor hes been coaching the last year and half against good teams.

He wasn't terrible here. We just missed Tim and LMA is no rim protector. On top of that Cavsrefs got him in trouble early.
Things he tried backfired, but he tried different things and gave a chance to everyone.

Individual guys were sucking pretty bad too just like against GSW. The difference was that unlike against GSW... in this game, Anderson/Simmons were able to mount a comeback instead of folding.

[SAGirl]

Boban is an unusually agile giant but he's garbage time material on a decent team because he doesn't seem to grasp the basics though he's been playing ball for years. Don't bring the ball down: he does it every time. Don't jump on defense, you're 10' in' tall: he does it anyhow. Don't over help on defense, protect the rim: he over helps. Don't come out into the deeper water: he drifts out to the top of the key. Recognize your dominant size and shooting ability: He plays like a guard.

You folks with the annual "Free New Guy" schtick are amusing, but it's tired already. Oh he'll have a great game sometime and folks will bump the thread and pretend he's being held back. He is, but by himself.

I have to agree with you on Boban. He's electric to watch offensively but defensively, I have observed everything you cite to be true, and like you what is disheartening is that he's 27. If he was 22 like Anderson and just getting his feet on professional basketball I would be more optimistic. That is probably why he's best as a bench big and even then, Pop has been very selective and spotty.

He can get better. I will always remember how poor Baynes was with less tools than him... but .. not this season. Still has a lot to learn if he's going to learn it. Sometimes, when a player is 27 and already has too many bad habits those are harder to change than if you draft a guy and he's 20 when you first get him like Anderson was, and you have a chance to mold him.

[SAGirl]

On that note i don't see what some posters see here in Kyle. I don't think he will ever be that good for how slow he is i thought he would make it up with his shooting and playmaking which i still haven't see in the almost 2 years hes been with the team now. His defense can be good at times with his length but thats the only positive i see. I think Simmons actually could develop really nicely.

Kyle's younger and has been deferring too much. If you don't see potential in him, I am not going to convince you otherwise because to a degree what you see is subjective.
But he has been playing a very limited role so far bc our rotation is deep. He hasn't been everything he can be and he has been getting better as the season has gone along. If you can't see that, then you can't.

[Kawhitstorm]

On that note i don't see what some posters see here in Kyle. I don't think he will ever be that good for how slow he is i thought he would make it up with his shooting and playmaking which i still haven't see in the almost 2 years hes been with the team now. His defense can be good at times with his length but thats the only positive i see. I think Simmons actually could develop really nicely.

Kyle can score against undersized defenders & doesn't try to do too much. He's like Luke Walton on the Lakers.

[Spurs_619]

Kyle's younger and has been deferring too much. If you don't see potential in him, I am not going to convince you otherwise because to a degree what you see is subjective.
But he has been playing a very limited role so far bc our rotation is deep. He hasn't been everything he can be and he has been getting better as the season has gone along. If you can't see that, then you can't.

Fair enough. What do you think his ceiling is?

[SAGirl]

Fair enough. What do you think his ceiling is?

I am not sure bc what he was before, a PG in HS and in College, he can't be at this level and the positionless forward the Spurs have had him play in the lower leagues was a high usage player. So it's hard to say where the Spurs are headed with him. But he is a guy that whatever position you want to call him, eventually you will be able to run a lot of stuff through bc he will make the right play, and very often for teammates.

[Brian Windhorst]

The zone "working" for half a quarter is probably the only really bad take away from this game. Whenever some quirky bull tactic "works", Pop tends to live or die with it WAY past when it stops being effective. Watching Patty have to go 1on1 against Lebron like five times in a row was cringeworthy, any other coach who did that would get absolutely roasted by the NBA twittersphere tbh.

But it "worked" (caused CLE to take a few random shots until the figured it out) for a few minutes, so we'll probably be seeing a lot more of it in the next few weeks smh.

[r0drig0lac]

I thought APO was going to kill himself. Why is he still here.

lmao

[ceperez]

The zone "working" for half a quarter is probably the only really bad take away from this game. Whenever some quirky bull tactic "works", Pop tends to live or die with it WAY past when it stops being effective. Watching Patty have to go 1on1 against Lebron like five times in a row was cringeworthy, any other coach who did that would get absolutely roasted by the NBA twittersphere tbh.

But it "worked" (caused CLE to take a few random shots until the figured it out) for a few minutes, so we'll probably be seeing a lot more of it in the next few weeks smh.

Last year was a lot worse where he had platoon subs utions to keep guys fresh. Last year Spurs could barely bean average teams. This year they got plenty more weapons.

The big concern though is that the players can't seem to take their game to the next gear against elite compe ion.