I was surprised we only lost by 11. The Spurs are an incomplete work-in-progress right now. Pop will be in tinker mode for at least another month and a half. My hope is that Kawhi and Gay come back in a few weeks and Pop can tweak at will for the last month of the season.
Tyreke isn't worth a first, sorry. Plenty of g Leaguers probably have potential to roster over some of our guys though (joff, bp0)
This.
It's clear the Rockettes and Dubs are the top two teams in the league, with Boston right on their tails. We are in the second group with Cleveland (because they are injured/struggling), Minny, Detroit, Toronto, OK3
How are Earth is it clear Houston is above SA when they struggled to beat the Spurs without Kawhi? The Spurs minus their best player is in the second group of healthy teams.That's sort of insane.
I'm just amazed that the same folks who thought Kawhi carried the team last year don't think him coming back with make a noticeable improvement this year.
Maybe they just aren't sure he's coming back the same player as before? Then again maybe it's just ST logic....but I digress..
I think we are fine if he comes back healthy. I have no problem with Pau or his contract, I just like him better on the court as a lone big instead of playing beside Aldridge. I hate Mills contract and I hope we can move it. Other than that, I think patience will be rewarded with this team as long as Kawhi get's healthy and wants to be here..
Those don't necessarily go hand-in-hand. I don't think anyone would say Houston is definitively better if Kawhi and Gay were around all season. But we'll never know, because that's not the case.
As it stands, the Spurs have no Kawhi, the Rockets have a clear talent advantage, are playing better on the offensive end, and are a full 5 games ahead with ~30 left. They are the better regular season team right now, if only by cir stance.
If it comes down to a playoff series with a healthy Kawhi, I think the Spurs can still beat them...but it's still not going to be an easy task. That series from last year was no gimme, and they've since added Chris Paul and other key pieces.
In both the regular season series and playoffs, Spurs had a lot of coin flip type things break their way in crunch time and this was before Rockets traded for a top 10 player in the league, while Spurs got worse (whatever a healthy Gay might add, they more than lost with Parker and Ginobili getting worse and Murray not being ready).
Of course a healthy Leonard would help close the gap, but not enough to make up for those 2 things.
Rockets were also missing Gordon and ariza.
Rockets improved a of a lot more than the Spurs did
There was no coin flip to beat Houston. They lost two of their top three options. I can't think of any better set-up for the Rockets than having a home game against the Spurs missing their best player and starting a rookie PG.
I understand that "Kawhi for Ariza" is a meme around here, but they aren't actually equal.
I’m not saying I would do it. Was throwing out a way that if the idea is to try and win this year and get a guard on how it could be accomplished.
and don't sleep on capela. he's my favorite big man in the league.
At least 2 of the regular season games were and so was game 5, which likely decided the series. Point is, game 6 was an outlier and the two teams were much closer than people of you ilk pretended after the fact.
More importantly, again, they added a top 10 player and Spurs did nothing to address their pathetic PG situation.
The Spurs won the "coin flip" Game Five without Kawhi and Parker just like Game Six. So if they were really 50-50, they were that without a top-five player and a rookie PG.
So you're saying the gap was significant enough that a top 10 player won't be enough to swing it?
I'm saying that SA didn't "have" Leonard when they beat Houston. The Spurs team that beat Houston last year did so without three of their top five options from this current roster. It's funny that you keep laughing at the idea that Leonard is at least as impactful as Paul.So you're saying the gap was significant enough that a top 10 player won't be enough to swing it?
You can say that again....
BP3 over Jonathon Simmons
Laughverne/Gay over Lee/Dedmon
Bryn Forbes getting 21 minutes of running around the court like a chicken with his head chopped off
Davis Bonner getting regular rotation minutes
Paddy continuing his downward spiral.
I said it last year that Spurs being up 25 against GS in game 1 is going to fool those FO clowns into thinking this was a contending team. And here we are...
Nice try. Spurs had Leonard in the regular season series and for nearly 5 full games out of 6 in the playoffs. The two teams were, if not virtual equals, then at least perilously close. The notion that Rockets adding a certified top 10 player wouldn't swing the balance of power in their favor, is absurd.
Most teams would kill for a chance at 50 wins, first round HCA, and top three seeding IN THE WEST, top 5 overall, WITHOUT THEIR BEST PLAYER.
Cheesus, people.
They didn't have him for the last two wins of the series, the only absurd thing is you trying to ignore that. The two teams weren't close last year. Only chicken little fans thought that.
Yet Clippers, so decimated by injury that numerous fringe players have started, are 11th offensively and were recently 9th. Before you attribute it to Williams playing out of his mind, so is Aldridge.
I see plenty of games and box scores with banged up teams that have far less difficulty running a competent offense than this one.
They had him for the majority of game 5. By every objective measure, they were close . . .
Spurs won the regular season series 3-1, with 3 of the 4 games decided by 2 and the other by 6. One of those wins was from I believe 13 down with under 4 minutes left and another was the Leonard drifting 3 over Nene / chase down block sequence. The playoffs saw 2 blowouts apiece, one somewhat close Spurs win and another which was about as coin flip as it gets.
Hopefully Spurs are healthy this go round, so that if they make it to the 2nd round, when they inevitably get destroyed by Warriors or Rockets, delusional homers like yourself and more importantly the front office, can stop pretending this team is at that level anymore.
Last edited by TD 21; 02-03-2018 at 06:37 PM.
Yup. Bertans also seems to have had many more misses than hits this year. Bryn's been good, but mostly against lesser compe ion.
Hopefully, once Kawhi comes back and some of these shots get a little more open, they'll go in more often.
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