Exploding 3 myths about the Spurs

[Josepatches_]

TP is so quick that he usually had an easy layup without any contact.

And one more thing that you forget
In close games PG like Paul has more FTA because he has the ball.With Peja out Paul is the man to shoot FTs.Here it's Finley or Mason who takes the ball because TP isn't enoguh good from the line

[Capt Bringdown]

1. The Spurs stats are low because they play at a slower pace than other teams.

Spurs rarely push the ball, save for Tony. It's as if we have an aversion to fast breaks and easy baskets.

In offensive rebounding, however, they are not only dead last in the league, they are a very distant last.

That's a crying shame. A banger who could go hard after offensive rebounds would really change the look of this team.
Uh, er, too bad we blew the Scola deal. Every game I've watched him play he likes to attack the offensive glass.

[exstatic]

In offensive rebounding, however, they are not only dead last in the league, they are a very distant last.

That's a crying shame. A banger who could go hard after offensive rebounds would really change the look of this team.
Uh, er, too bad we blew the Scola deal. Every game I've watched him play he likes to attack the offensive glass.

You do understand that the Spurs purposely don't go after offensive rebounds, right? It's part of their system. If you crash the O glass and don't get the rebound, you're outnumbered on the break, and your opponent gets an easy runout basket probably 95% of the time. Pop would rather surrender the rebound, and make you face the Spurs half court defense, a much tougher proposition than a fast break opportunity. Did it occur to anyone that this is the reason that Gooden, a rebounder known for his O glass work, has dropped off markedly on his rebounding since he got here? Even adjusted for minutes, he went from 8.2 in CHI to 6.9 here.

The Spurs are all about percentages. They work that half court motion offense to get high percentage shots that they're willing to live with not going in a certain percentage of the time. They work their defense to make you take the lowest percentage shot most of the time, and they are NOT willing to let you have that rebound, being a ferocious defensive rebounding team. Over the course of a game, and more pointedly, a season, those percentages work out in the Spurs favor.

[RandomGuy]

Excellent analysis...however, the only stat that counts in the end is wins and losses, in the finals

Fixed.

[rascal]

I noticed one thing about the rebounding stats that is really cool:
The Spurs only grab 22% of the available offensive boards, which is by far the worst in the league. But they take down 78% of the available defensive rebounds. It's just coincidence that those two add up to exactly 100%. But what it means is that when teams play against the Spurs, they grab (on average) exactly the same, crappy 22% of available offensive boards that the Spurs get all the time.

This would explain lower scoring games with more possessions having to go the lenght of the court. Maybe this is Pops strategy to sacrifice offensive
rebounds for defensive rebounds and make the game a defensive type of game.