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That's what I was wondering
Look, while I would have been fine if the Spurs decided to go this route (depending on how well they executed the plan) this is a long season. We have seen Curry get injured before. We have seen Durant get injured before. We have seen stacked teams lose in the finals before.
Spurs are one of 5 teams that if things break their way they can win a le and I agree with not blowing it just because you are not "currently" the clear-cut favorite.
Going to a CF is a huge deal and SA has that ceiling. I still think they have more flexibility next year than you may believe as well but we will see how that shakes out later.
That's what I was wondering
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It would be considerably harder for the Spurs to win if they don't have five above-average front-court players by the time they face GS. I think they'll get solid play out of one of Lee/Dedmon, but right now it really looks like Anderson is essential to the team's hopes. He has the size and will to score over any Warriors perimeter player besides KD. He should be able to guard Draymond, or at least guard Klay so Kawhi can guard Draymond. If there's no Anderson, then BOTH Lee and Dedmon have to be great, and I doubt that.
It's never easy to win a le. That goes for SA and GS. Finding reasons why it would be hard to beat the Warriors is pointless. The team's been on the ropes in four of their last eight playoff series. Teams far worse than the Spurs have done damage to them.
I don't think I or anyone recommended " blowing it" or blowing it up".
I'm one who feels, with or without 36, going on 37 yr old Gasol, Spurs would still be in drivers seat for 2nd seed. If they chose a different route ( Say keeping Diaw, signing Harkless or signing Harkless and trading for Taj Gibson), they still would have been a top 5 team and they wouldn't have handcuffed themselves from the start of any real progress towards beating W's for the next two seasons (since there's a high probability Gasol opts in).
Its funny how some people think Gasol makes a huge difference at his age. The success of the team will boil down to LaMarcus, Kawhi, Green and the role players ( I would include Gasol as a role player or complimentary player to the best three players on the team).
This was a 67 win team without Duncan for half of the season and they retained not only their top 4 starters, but also their top 2 bench players.
Last edited by MaNu4Tres; 10-06-2016 at 12:06 PM.
I also look for LMA to try and be one of those bigs who can go out and defend their guys on the perimeter on switches. He improved as the season went along in that regard.. Lee, I think we'll see him become a nice piece to this team. haven't watched enough Dedmon to know what kind of role he'll have tbh, but from what Lee has done in the past, and the shape he's in now, I think he'll be someone who can help this team against a team like GS
I agree with that. But I'm just saying that guys are going to have to actually fill those roles and do so consistently for this to work. On paper, it's definitely intriguing, but Kawhi is the singular "known" at this point.
Last edited by Chinook; 10-06-2016 at 12:36 PM.
I am confident that all 6 of the Spurs' players with $10+M/yr salaries + Patti Mills ($3.2M) will be great. Players 8-15 are a big concern for me this season and the only way they can improve and gel with the others is through playing. So, there will probably be some stinky play and some losses because of this - at least until the All-Star break. This season will take some patience - so I'd suggest people of Spurstalk work on their own much-needed development of this virtue.
I am actually quite gung ho about the prospects of good play by Kyle Anderson and Jonathon Simmons this season. The latter in particular will take a bit of time, but he has a well rounded game going for him. Essentially the Spurs have 9 good players and some promising rookies and a few washed up veterans. It should be a good ride into the playoffs again for them.
I am about ready to jump from the J.Simms bandwagon. I want to give the dude the opportunity that Pop wants to give him, but he's unreliable. He will have a good game where he flashes like a star and follow it up with a stinker of greater magnitude. He has to clean up his game period. I don't care about the dunks or what new jumper off the dribble he has added offensively if he's going to be a scrub every other game. Hopefully I am wrong bc the team needs him and Pop stated that he's one of those guys the team hopes to push along in a development curve, but he's not looking so good. He's not in a situation like Murray, a 20 year old rook with just 1 college season of experience, and he's not in a situation like Dedmon, who is also dispiriting me, but who didn't start to play basketball until he was 18 or 19 years old anyway (and it shows...).
Simmons is 27, a grown man, had dleague a good 2 seasons b4 showing up, has received a lot of coaching from the Spurs and is on his second NBA season (but after 2 dleague seasons, that would be the equivalent of a 4th season in the Spurs, who have sent raw rookies like CoJo to the dleague for the majority of their first couple of seasons, and may do that again with raw rookies like LJC if they need it). In context, let's consider Garino, who while he may not make the team this season, may still go to the dleague and that can count as a season of experience, learning and development towards making an NBA team bc if he made the team he would still get mostly dleague experience anyways.
I think with Simmons, what we see is what we get: the occasional flash in the pan and then the fizzle back to the bench for a couple of games. He may become too frustrating to me. I can't imagine that the mistakes are ok for Pop and I think the training wheels are about to come off. How that goes for him is really on him.
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As for patience for the season: it will be needed, not just for this one, but moving on forward.
I'll put greater magnitude in your stinker
Correction:
Bend over, I'll put greater magnitude in your stinker.
Well we just have to agree to disagree about Gasol's talent/impact compared to Harkless or Taj. How I see it is the Spurs were very close to beating OKC with basically a hobbled Tim and Gasol does everything Tim basically did but better (than Tim last year).
I am very confident that if SA had Gasol over Tim last year, SA beats OKC and is again in a WCF.
Fair enough. Agree to disagree. I'm very confident if SA had a Harkless/Taj next to Aldridge they beat OKC and are in the WCF. That's how bad Tim, Diaw, and West were and the Spurs barely lost the series in games 2 and 5 that could have went either way.
I don't think Gasol makes this team drastically better like you and others are implying. Spurs would be right there battling for 2nd seed with or without Gasol because of how damn good Kawhi is on both ends. How good LaMarcus is, and how elite the perimeter defense is when Leonard and Green are in the game together. Lets not forget the best back-court off the bench either.
I agree with you. I have made some crazy typical SAGirl tm shenanigan arguments in favor of having gotten my boy Kyle more involved in the bench, but it's really bc the bench didn't get anything going from the other 4 guys.
I agreed with guys like Chinook over the summer who wanted to get a more veteran and reliable bench scorer bc I agreed bench scoring was a weakness. That problem wasn't addressed and in fact the bench lost veterans. As it was last season it will be again: Manu can't be that guy anymore and Mills is a streaky shooter. So to hope for development for the younger players is all that is left with the bench and that is where I am.
But I also thought a healthy TD would have made the difference. There were several factors that could have changed that outcome and TD not playing like himself was a big factor swinging down for SA. The GSW were going to be tough regardless, but the team ultimately really underachieved bc TD's health went south and there was nothing that could be done about that. Pau should be much better.
The questions are really in the depth they lost in the bench, and it's a real question, I am not going to pretend like it isn't.
Last edited by SAGirl; 10-06-2016 at 03:47 PM.
Agreed - and with Gasol playing at a much higher level than Tim was in addition to Gasol role wise being very similar to what Tim does, it should be seamless.
If that is the case and the SL improves over last year with Pau instead of Tim (plus Danny having a better offensive year too) I am also confident that guys like Mills/Anderson play better than they did last year. If that happens that is a big deal.
But with TP declining more, the SL did need help IMO. They needed a big man that could score since TP will continue to start and he is not a reliable scorer any more. With him and Danny being both non-scorers along with Tim last year, it hurt. Pau solves that in a big way.
I would have loved to truly bolster the guard play on the bench too, but Patty playing normal will help that especially if Manu doesn't fall off a cliff. The bench is a big time concern and the road for the bench to click is going to be rocky but the potential is there.
Pau filling in for Tim last year in the same spots with the same skill set will be a significant boost on the offense. Even with the same shot attempts as Tim the impact is greater because of the real threat to score, especially when left in as the feature big at times with the bench. Could not do that with Tim.
Completely agree with everything here.
no team is invincible, there will always be weaknesses....
its how you hide them, and how you exploit them......
Maybe you should stop being a pansy, OP.
The obvious weakness of the Warriors was exposed by DeMarcus Cousins... More at the link below
http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/0...ver-the-kings/SAN JOSE – The list of potential holes on this loaded Warrior roster is small. But they’re easily identifiable. Perhaps the largest: a thin, aged center position.
It wasn’t a problem in the first two preseason games. It was glaring in the third, a 105-96 win over the Kings. Forget the final score. A group of Warriors reserves finished the victory with a 14-0 run. In the moments that matter most in the preseason, DeMarcus Cousins had his way with Golden State’s frontline.
It started right off the tip. Cousins worked free for two easy mid-range jumpers on Sacramento’s first two possessions. The Kings scored on their first four. They were up to 10 points in a flash, capped by another Cousins score, this one a drive and reverse right by Zaza Pachulia.
“He’s a load,” Kevin Durant said.
This offseason, Pachulia joined the Warriors on a team-friendly $2.9 million deal, far below his market value. He was immediately slotted in as the starting center, Andrew Bogut’s replacement. He won’t block shots like Bogut, but he’s expected to provide a similar type of high-IQ defensive impact from below the rim.
But Thursday night in San Jose, Cousins exposed him on that end. He scored his seventh and eighth points fewer than four minutes into the game, bulldozing his way through Pachulia for another layup.
Then Cousins took his game to the outside, finding space for two 3s after Pachulia gave him too much cushion. And even after the rare Cousins miss, the Kings scored. He airballed a 3 midway through the first quarter, but Kosta Koufas – deployed as part of a two center lineup that gave the Warriors issues – used his size to shield away Draymond Green for a rebound putback.
Wet nightmares?
I don't have nightmares about the Warriors, just nightmares and dread the circle jerk on ESPN and all over the place we will hear. Also lol we play them to opening night and I bet we will lose by 50 points or so, ok exaggerating it, but we won't hear the end of it.
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