The collapse of the Texas Triangle

[ElNono]

yea im going to ebet you. wheres ure offense gonna come from? duncan is all u have with tp and manu out. who on that team can make a open jumpshot other than mason? whos going to make plays for the teammates. who do you have off the bench?

before the season, even with manu out i had the spurs 4th but after seeing finley, udoka, bowen, and the rest of the cast, spurs have no shot of winning it this year.

It's not that we have Manu and Tony out for 3+ months. They should be back in about 4 weeks (mid December). And offense has not been the problem so far (it might be for the next few weeks, but we've scored 95+ on 3 of the 5 games we've played so far). The problem is defense. We're nowhere near as good defensively as we need to be. But that always takes time for the Spurs. We've traditionally started slow, and picked up the pace in the second half of the season. Barring any more injuries, we'll be fine. Mason is adapting well, and I think Hill is an upgrade over Vaughn.

[sook]

ing Ike Is The Reason The Rockets Suck Right Now!

[SpursDynasty]

Seriously, what the happened to Texas? We used to be feared. The dreaded Texas Triangle. Now it's more like the Bermuda Triangle where basketballs fly to and are never seen again.

Texas Basketball is at it's worst right now. We suck collectively. Injuries to the Spurs. Rockets in disarray. Mav's completely lost with Carlisle and Kidd.

All is not right on the courts in Texas!

The Spurs will return come December.

Dallas and Houston have just been two imitators who have relied on the lucky shot during the regular season, then take a first round exit in the postseason. Houston has not been out of the first round with Yao/McGrady, Dallas has not been out of the first round since 2006, meanwhile S.A. has been out of the first round 8 consecutive postseasons.

So there really was never a Texas Triangle, just the Spurs and two junk teams in Houston and Dallas.

[BUMP]

The Spurs will return come December.

Dallas and Houston have just been two imitators who have relied on the lucky shot during the regular season, then take a first round exit in the postseason. Houston has not been out of the first round with Yao/McGrady, Dallas has not been out of the first round since 2006, meanwhile S.A. has been out of the first round 8 consecutive postseasons.

So there really was never a Texas Triangle, just the Spurs and two junk teams in Houston and Dallas.

[urunobili]

Dallas meltdown = first time in 20 years the dems have won the election on Dallas county...

[Findog]

All three Texas teams are still very solid teams.

Dallas has the look of a 38-44 squad, so if by "solid" you mean finish around 10th in the West, I'd agree with you.

[JamStone]

I'll reserve judgement on the Spurs until they're 100% and some of the new faces have settled in. Probably around Feb/March. Houston I think got better. It will take them some time to get their act together with Artest in there, but Scola is playing better, Artest looks good out there, Aaron Brooks has looked like a stud so far, and their biggest problem have been both T-Mac and Yao not playing well. I can't think that's going to stay that way forever.
As far as Dallas goes, yeah, I agree with you.

Hey, I'm no prognosticator or gypsy fortune teller. But, I do have an opinion. You're more than en led to yours.

The thing with the Spurs though, with no Parker and no Ginobili for such a long time, even if they are very good when they get 100%, it might be too late to put them in a good position even if they do make the playoffs. They could end up a 7th or 8th seed having to go through the WC playoffs with no homecourt and start off against a 1 or 2 seed. That's entirely plausible.

But, yes, of course, only time will tell.

[ElNono]

Hey, I'm no prognosticator or gypsy fortune teller. But, I do have an opinion. You're more than en led to yours.

The thing with the Spurs though, with no Parker and no Ginobili for such a long time, even if they are very good when they get 100%, it might be too late to put them in a good position even if they do make the playoffs. They could end up a 7th or 8th seed having to go through the WC playoffs with no homecourt and start off against a 1 or 2 seed. That's entirely plausible.

But, yes, of course, only time will tell.

You're opinion is welcome, just like everyone else.
I just think it's too early to be making assumptions. An injury on any team can change the balance at any given time, just like what happened with the Spurs. Luckily, I think it happened early enough for us to be able to do some damage control. It also helps that our division rivals have been losing games too. A trade can turn a team upside down mid-season, like the Lakers last year. And as we approach mid-season, we'll see more teams trying to dump salaries around, and some other teams trying to solidify their teams.
So I'm not ready to write off anybody yet. I think it's way, way too early to just hand over the trophy to any one team in just 6 or 7 games.

[Indazone]

yeah yeah, a midseason revival to make the playoffs. Fact is right now we all suck. Mav's Rockets and Spurs. Welcome to mediocrity.

[jacobdrj]

Cali would secede but they can't afford the closing fees

At the very least, Cali should be split into 3 states...