Monroe: Jolt by Mason may be what Spurs need

[xmas1997]

I totally agree.
It is only a matter of time before the talent level on paper, and the intelligence level on the court translate to cohesive on court chemistry, and thus winning percentage.

[Spur|n|Austin]

Mason's defense sucks, his handle sucks, and his shot sucks. If he is a spot up shooter, he is pretty good, but don't let him handle the ball!

[DPG21920]

The Mavs are integrating the same amount of players and they have Howard, Marion and Dampier out.

[Rebounds]

Iverson may be finding out that no one else wants him and then will find himself settling for San Antonio and terms dictated to him, like drinking a big glass of humble.
Oh well, forget that pipe dream.

[HarlemHeat37]

I have to agree with all of DPG's points, definitely huge reasons for the slow start, especially Tony's slow start..we all expected Duncan, Manu, and McDyess to be rusty, but I don't think most people expected Tony to start off slow..a lot of hype in the off-season about him becoming our #1 option, and we probably would have won some of the games we lost had he been playing at last year's level..

It would also help if we kept playing our defenders on the wing, but that one would be irrelevant right now if the other reasons weren't in play..

[Mel_13]

There are more problems than just having new guys. The real problems are 1) the decline in play from TP. 2) health 3) integrating the new guys into the system and 4) rust.

Those things in order are the real reasons. As I mentioned before, plenty of teams have a lot of new guys to acclimate into their systems. The thing that is catching Spurs fans off guard is their jaded view of where the Spurs were at coming into the year.

Many fans sorely over-estimated how close the Spurs were last year. The Spurs, out of all the "contenders" have the most question marks. You are seeing this now. These things can be corrected, but unlike many other teams, the Spurs have to have a lot of things go their way just to have a shot.

Excellent summary of the current state of the Spurs. Some may see your comments about Tony as hating or bashing, but it just seems realistic to me. If Tony was available for all 10 games at something approaching last year's level, the team is no worse than 7-3 and much of the recent drama never takes place.

[Flux451]

A lot of teams are integrating new guys and their records don't suck.

Mavs have: Ross, Humphries, Marion, Roddy B, Tim Thomas & Drew Gooden who are all getting minutes that were not there last year.

Celtics have: Wallace, Daniels, Williams all getting minutes and they are new.

Orlando has: Vince Carter, Brandon Bass, Jason Williams, Barnes and Anderson all getting minutes and they are new.

It is not just the fact that the Spurs have "new guys". There are other problems.

IMO, its due to the fact that those teams dove head first with their new players in preseason. Whereas Spurs were looking at Haislip, a little of Ian and more Hairston. Even the pg they waived, name escaped memory. The way I see it, the real season is finally starting for players like Dice and Duncan who skipped the summer in part to old legs.

I believe there are definitely more underlying problem too. Rotation is a huge thing right now. We need to find the right chemistry still and its taking a lot longer than any has expected...imagine being Holt right now.

[Flux451]

The Mavs are integrating the same amount of players and they have Howard, Marion and Dampier out.

Only recently. They started strong. Most of their core right now is from last year. Kidd, JJ, Dirk and Terry. They other new players are role players that understand their role really well. We have a great player in Jefferson who a tweener on the Spurs and that state of perplexion is killing his game...and the Spurs game. If Hill, Mason, and Jefferson can get comfortable then it is on.