Spurs Still Legit Championship Contenders?

[dabom]

We beat that clips team 4-0 with a healthy Tiago and porker.

[dabom]

Come on guys. You make this too EASY!

[baseline bum]

Guess you forgot Tiago was a ing injured Bum.

Splitter being injured is a headline like 'Dog Bites Man'

[dabom]

Splitter being injured is a headline like 'Dog Bites Man'

We were still an injured team both last years. We haven't had a full squad these past 2 years. We haven't done these past 2 years. See a comparison?

[SAGirl]

It's been clear to me since somewhere around the end of '14 and beginning of '15, that they were no longer good enough, even without an obvious team to overtake them (the Thunder were in the midst of being derailed by injuries, the Warriors weren't yet proven, the Cavaliers didn't yet have all the requisite pieces and the Clippers were their usual fringe contender selves).

Then, I briefly bought in again in the off season of '15, hoping that the Aldridge addition and the first extended off season in 4 years would be enough for one final run. It didn't take long to realize that too many key players had declined too much from '14 and that they had too many ill-fitting parts to pull it off.

That brings us to now. The parts will probably fit a bit better, but few issues were solved, 3 of the top 6 are ancient and played in the Olympics (plus qualifiers and exhibitions), they lack depth and the Warriors added the 2nd or 3rd best player in the world.

To sum it up: I'd rank them 4th (yes, behind the Clippers) most likely to win it, but I don't think they'll be serious championship contenders in the Leonard-Aldridge era, unless they can find a guard that's good enough to be a lead creator for a championship team.

Have to agree with the road to a championship being uphill bc Tony and Manu are done as elite players in the postseason. Sure their respective fanbases and Pop are in denial but they are too old to be relied upon this heavily. I agree the team made a huge fanfare about getting younger but they only did that at the edges. Their key guys are old as heck with the exception of Kawhi, LMA and Danny and they already couldn't carry underperforming TOSB.

In general I am optimistic about everyone and everything in the team with the exception of Tony, Manu and Pop knowing he needs make appropriate adjustments.

[dabom]

Healthy I say we could possibly be in 2 more Finals. Not that hard to see.

[dabom]

Have to agree bc Tony and Manu are done as elite players in the postseason. Sure their respective fanbases and Pop are in denial but they are too old to be relied upon this heavily. I agree the team made a huge fanfare about getting younger but they only did that at the edges. Their key guys are old as heck with the exception of Kawhi, LMA and Danny and they already couldn't carry underperforming TOSB.

In general I am optimistic about everyone and everything in the team with the exception of Tony, Manu and Pop knowing he needs make appropriate adjustments.

Fathead was a huge reason that second unit sucked ass on offense in the playoffs.

[sasaint]

Meh injuries are part of the game. I'm not buying it's a fluke, you don't fluke into three wins in a row with the other team having 2 of the 3 games at home. And the Clippers should be a pretty solid favorite over the Spurs in a series also. The Spurs are going to have to pull of a Drexler / Rasheed / Gasol level steal at the deadline to have a realistic chance at a le this year.

Truth... However, when was the last time the Spurs pulled off a steal for a Drexler/Rasheed/Gasol level veteran player?

[baseline bum]

We were still an injured team both last years. We haven't had a full squad these past 2 years. We haven't done these past 2 years. See a comparison?

I see the team still has a washed up point guard who can't guard anyone. I don't see how that's not an enormous handicap against the Clippers when Pop has insisted on having Parker be the primary defender on Paul.

[dabom]

I see the team still has a washed up point guard who can't guard anyone. I don't see how that's not an enormous handicap against the Clippers when Pop has insisted on having Parker be the primary defender on Paul.

Warriors lose Bogut in 2014 and 2016. What happened? Explain it to me!

[dabom]

This is an easy one guys. Everyone reading this got this too.

[baseline bum]

Warriors lose Bogut in 2014 and 2016. What happened? Explain it to me!

How far do you see this team going if healthy?

[baseline bum]

Best case scenario I could see for this team is losing 4-2 to the Warriors in the WCF.

[dabom]

How far do you see this team going if healthy?

Championship. If everyone healthy, and Tony doesn't get a knock on his ankles 1st round. If fathead plays under 8 minutes a game in the playoffs.

[dabom]

If Kawhi plays 38mins a game and doesn't get rested early.

[SAGirl]

They probably had a higher ceiling last season but I think this year's team can be better than last year's version we saw in the playoffs. Remember the Warriors may look like the favorite but they have to go through their own growing pains too.

I don't even look at other teams. I really think the main backcourt guys are too old and it will show in the playoffs when they can't guard anyone and are getting ate alive plus they have no legs. I don't even know how to read the Pau situation.I get this D west vibe from him like dude is not going to do the blue collar stuff that wins games.

Now I use ElNono phrase but in my own different context: "I hope I am wrong obviously."

[baseline bum]

Championship. If everyone healthy, and Tony doesn't get a knock on his ankles 1st round. If fathead plays under 8 minutes a game in the playoffs.

I can't see it. Parker has fallen off so far, he is aging like Iverson did. Unless the Spurs can swing a big trade for some backcourt talent I can't see any way they'd even be compe ive vs GS.

[dabom]

I can't see it. Parker has fallen off so far, he is aging like Iverson did. Unless the Spurs can swing a big trade for some backcourt talent I can't see any way they'd even be compe ive vs GS.

But Kawhi is getting better too. Manu can bring the magic. We just need to get far enough to play the GSW. We are bigger and stronger than them.

[SAGirl]

I can't see it. Parker has fallen off so far, he is aging like Iverson did. Unless the Spurs can swing a big trade for some backcourt talent I can't see any way they'd even be compe ive vs GS.

Sometimes I think that only something of that nature would propel Pop and RC to do something. Spurs have lost close series. It wasn't a beat down. You know when someone is in denial they find every excuse to justify the loss like "we just didn't make shots down the stretch", etc. Even when it was evident both Tony and Manu were deficient. Here we are on to the third season of more of the same. It would be tragic if they lost for again the same reason.

[dabom]

Sometimes I think that only something of that nature would propel Pop and RC to do something. Spurs have lost close series. It wasn't a beat down. You know when someone is in denial they find every excuse to justify the loss like "we just didn't make shots down the stretch", etc. Even when it was evident both Tony and Manu were deficient. Here we are on to the third season of more of the same. It would be tragic if they lost for again the same reason.

You make a good point. Fathead was ING ATROCIOUS THEN in comparison.

Dude's a ing SACK OF . Needs to be CUT ASAP!

[apalisoc_9]

Have you not watched Parker and Gasol these last two years? Duncan was the only thing that got the Spurs to a Game 7 vs them in 2015 setting the stage for a 50% CP3 to eviscerate Parker.

The Spurs were on the heels of a WCF finish with Pop treating Duncan like a 50 year old. Let's not get carried away here. Gasol was an all star caliber offensive player two years ago and still mpst likely going to be am efficient 12-13ppg next year.

Parker's deficinecies is only magnified because he always tries to play a role bigger than his actualy play. When he's just securing the ball and moving it to positions where it should go, he's a useful offensive player. Defensively, they Clippers will most likely only have four players with decent Gravity majority of the time. Their closing team would be Mathews,Paul,Jordan, Red -Griffin..that's one player you can hide porker from.

We didnt Have Softridge in 2015. Our Big Rotation in 2017 is a Major upgrade from 2015. Not to mention in 2015, there wasnt a clear cut offensive number one option. (Kawhi 16ppg) it was an offneisvely cobfused team with a Center that played with one leg ( splitter)

[tonight...you]

Ask yourself, how many teams in the league are far better than the spurs? 1..you can make an argument for the cavs as the second best team, but they're not far off...

It's one astronomical series against the warriors..thats it. Its not like the spurs have to go through 6 gruelling teams.

I gots one word: Popovich

[kaji157]

Spurs are clearly the 3rd or 4th best team in the league right now. So they are pretty legit to me.

I´d rank.
CAVS
Champions deserve the respect.

GS
Finalist and added the best player in the market without loosing much.

Spurs and Clippers
In whatever order you want, Spurs lost Tim and added old Pau, so i think we are a worse team than last season, not by much, but worse, while the Clippers should have a better and more healthy year, they´d be cursed if what happened last season to them repeats itself.

[skulls138]

I don't think the Cavs le was a fluke, Cleveland matched up well against them. LeBron by himself made them pretty compe ive in the 2015 Finals.

Agreed. It was Clevelands size. This is the second straight year Curry didnt show up in the Finals, why? Size. Shooting threes three feet behind a three point line is not a strategy for winning. Everything gets tighter in the playoffs and it hurts the little guys first. Look at Parkers game during playoffs, its much harder for him to do all his whirling in the playoffs.

[SAGirl]

I gots one word: Popovich

Probably the key word.