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Methinks you're more excited to read the last sentence than anything else.
some valid points here ...
Methinks you're more excited to read the last sentence than anything else.
yeah Spurs days of competing for a championship are no more. they can still pull off the best record in the league, but last year showed that it doesn't mean . we can no longer play grind-it-out defense and no longer have a consistent low post player.
This year we may actually be quite a bit better than last year defensively if Splitter and Kawhi get time. i'll be happy with a 50+ win season and making the playoffs.
Mehh that remains to be seen ...
Though I dont think you guys are favorites in the west (far from it) I dont see how you cant say they are not at least Western Conference "contenders".
They had the best record in the conference ... and though the Grizz popped it's playoff cherry against you ...they are contenders and you can't say they are soooo much better than the Spurs.
Spurs Western contenders?: Yes
le contenders?: No
Last edited by Killakobe81; 12-02-2011 at 05:05 PM.
Just make sure you stay off the ing bandwagon when we go deep. Spurs fans are so disillusioned by pretending that we're not contenders will somehow soften the blow if we do get eliminated.
Please, tell me who in the West is so much better than us that we cannot compete? Honestly, only the Grizzles are better than us in my opinion, and we just happened to draw them in the first round, plus had a mangled Manu. We won 60+ games last year, and we're returning basically the same squad minus George Hill and potentially RJ, who both played terribly against Memphis. Our squad is going to have a massive chip on their shoulder, as NO ONE stepped up in that Memphis series with the exception of Gary Neal, and have a ton to prove.
Our team has a ton of young talent to be very excited about as well.
James Anderson, Gary Neal, Dejaun Blair, De'Sean Butler, Cory Joseph, Kawhi Leonard, Tiago Splitter.
All have great potential, and with the exception of the rookies they should all improve over last season. Don't forget Tony is still only 29 and has 2-4 years of elite PG potential left in him. Manu was an MVP candidate last season. Duncan is still an elite defensive player, on a squad that did not have trouble scoring last season.
Spurs fans need to get their heads out of the sand and wake up and see this team can still reach the Finals. There is no Shaq/Kobe Lakers that are perennial contenders that we have to go through. The Lakers and Grizzlies are the only teams that stand between us and a berth in the Finals, and both have as many question marks as we do. Alot of this stuff about contending is all relative to the teams we have to go through.
It's funny that a Lakers fan has far better perspective about our team than it's own fans. This post is spot on, and I respect the fact you are able to speak objectively about a rival. I gained alot of respect for you Killakobe.
Spot on post as well.
I don't think there's anyone dominant in the east, so if you can get past the Thunder, the Lakers, the Mavs, etc., then chances are you're a little more than lucky and have a shot. Things have to go just right and the young players have to really make an impact, but the Spurs won a le because Jaren Jackson was an amazing shooter, so anything's possible.
How quickly you look past the fact that Pop is still the coach and he will continue to make decisions like #3 above. There will be some players that deserve to play this season-but Pop will decide to bury them on the bench for no good reason. Some players will play 30 minutes a game to the teams' detriment....for no good reason...other than because Pop is still the coach.
How quickly you forget the Finley....Bogans...Bonner fiascos....
I'm sure you glanced at the first sentence. That's all I care about.
Bend over, I'll give you something to glance at that you'll care about.
In case you missed it, I'm the guy driving the "Pop cost the team les" train.
But that's not what we're talking about. The question is whether the Spurs are contenders or in transition. Despite all the dumb the coach did last season, it's entirely likely that the Spurs go pretty deep into the playoffs if Manu doesn't play game 82. Losing their two worst defenders from the playoffs doesn't suddenly drive the team into rebuilding mode.
I wholeheartedly disagree. Manu played great against the Grizz, it can be argued he was the best player for the Spurs in that series. The problems were elsewhere and, at this point, fairly well known.
Manu healthy wasn't going to be stopping ZBo or preventing a scrub like Darrell Arthur from torching Ginger. He also wasn't going to make RJ or TP (first 2 games) grow a pair.
Manu was the best player for the Spurs in that series. If he doesn't miss a game, they likely squeak out the series against the Grizz. After that, anything's possible.
I disagree, again. Your contention would have more weight if the Grizz would've made a deep run, but as expected, they flamed out in the next round. We know pretty well what the problems are. We knew them going in.
You just really can't put much stock in the regular season, because it is definitely a different kind of basketball. During the playoffs teams zone in on your team, look for the weaknesses and exploits them time and again. And the weaknesses on this Spurs team have been obvious for a few seasons now.
Expecting Leonard to be Bowen-like on his rookie season and Splitter to become a defensive force in what basically is going to be his first season of moderate playing time are really long odds. And that's where we've been needing help the most.
Good points. I'd counter that the Grizzlies were the lone nightmare matchup for the way Pop wanted the Spurs to play last year, and it could have gone either way for the most part despite how horrible some of the guys were playing. Every day you survive is another chance to turn it around. I'm unsure how you can make the contention that having your best player not playing with his ing arm in a gigantic brace wouldn't make a difference.
I agree that those weaknesses were obvious to almost all of us, including the Grizzlies. There wasn't any other team in the west that was going to give them as much of a problem, with the possible exception of the sleepwalking and otherwise disinterested Lakers.
I don't think anyone's really expecting Leonard to be Bowen, but it's not an outrageous notion that he could be a pretty decent upgrade at his position at the very things teams need in the playoffs. Splitter was probably the second best player for the time he was given against the Grizzlies, so expecting him to be able to contribute (if actually given an opportunity) is even less of a stretch.
I'll just disagree with this. I think Lakers, Mavs, Thunder (with the late addition of Perkins), Portland and even possibly Hornets were all teams that could give this team problems in a series. All teams that have one skilled big + one good defending big, plus a good defender in the perimeter.
tbh, Splitter wasn't that good, but I do chalk some of that to his unfamiliarity with both our team and the NBA. Obviously, I would rather have him out there than Ginger or Blair. But he has a long ways to go.
If I have to take a bright spot from last season, that's Gary Neal. Unfortunately, he was an upgrade on a position we weren't really needing a substantial upgrade on, but it's good to know that if Manu has some nagging injury, there's somebody out there with balls to step up and do a decent job.
I actually can't wait to see what he looks like in his second season.
Possible that he looked good just because Dice and Bonner and Parker and Hill and RJ were so bloody awful, and Splitter's not a dominating guy, but he's a really smart defender, and he is amazingly good at drawing fouls on the other team. His ability to get the opposing bigs into foul trouble would have been worth giving him 23 minutes a game.
You could see some mistakes Splitter made on the defensive end, but that was just missing "corporate knowledge". Instead I really enjoyed his quick feet and how he was able to stay in front of his opponents. As you say, he is not dominating. He tries to take charges instead of blocking shots. And his ability to get to the free throw line impressed me as well - if he only makes 50% of the FTs at first, so be it. Getting the opposing team into penalty early can only be a good thing.
Flamed out? Did you even watch the series? It went 7 games against the only team that could matchup with them in the entire league (OKC), and arguably the closest series of the year. Grizzlies would've won the championship last year the way they were playing defensively and with that inside game, if they were on the opposite bracket of the Thunder or had Rudy Gay. Can you imagine Dirk trying to defend Marc Gasol and/or Zach Randolph? Dominating the Heat is easy when all you have to do is sit under the basket on defense and guard the likes of Joel Anthony for half of your minutes.
Basketball is all about matchups. At the end of the day, if you run into a hot team or a team that matches up well against you, you're going to either get beat or barely win. The Grizzlies were a better team compared to the Spurs. The Thunder were better than the Grizzlies, because they had three great defensive big men, and had obvious advantages at the wing and point guard spots. We were better than the Thunder because we were able to expose their lack of scoring options inside and we had great spacing/shooting.
If we had gotten 4 straight great matchups, like the Mavs did, we would've won a championship last year. We would've absolutely soul crushed the Mavericks in a playoff series, just like we did in 2010. Anyone would've crushed the Lakers last year, with the exception of the one team they beat, the Hornets (who miraculously won 2 games, and Chris Paul looked like a superstar again after playing terribly, for his standards, the entire regular season), and the Blazers.
We couldn't beat the Grizzlies. That was it. And we happened to run into them. happens.
Agree with Chazley. The Grizzlies had a weakness on the perimeter and we had a weakness on the inside. The Grizzlies were able to dominate us so much inside that our advantage on the perimeter was played even.
The main thing that won the series for their Thunder is that they had good enough bigs to play single coverage and they were able to win the battle on the perimeter. Note single coverage doesn't mean you stop the player it just means making him work for his shot. Why do you think Hollins put OJ Mayo in the starting lineup? They needed more firepower on the perimeter.
If we had played our bigs that could play single coverage (Duncan, Dice, and Splitter) we wouldn't have had to double like crazy and give a bad perimeter shooting team so many wide open looks. Give any NBA team enough wide open looks and they will hurt you. If we stay glued to their perimeter guys Tony/Manu easily win the perimeter battle. Plus they save energy without doubling so much. Battier hit a couple of big 3's that would have never happened if we stay at home on the perimeter.
Thats why I also think that Rudy Gays injury was a blessing in disguise for the Grizzlies. Were he not injured, they would not have pounded the ball so much on the inside with Randolph and Gasol. I know Gay is very good, but Superstars demand the basketball. The Spurs always handled Durant very good, they would have been able to do the same with Gay.
But its premature to think Spurs could have crushed the Mavericks. Early in the season the Spurs were already playing at a high level, but lost to the Mavs (with Chandler being a difference by going to the line frequently). All other games against them were without Nowitzki.
Funny, I was actually thinking during the run to the playoffs, when MEM had that great finish, that the Rudy injury may have actually enabled them to make the playoffs. The Grizz accidentally discovered how to play solid basketball: D up and pound the ball inside. It wouldn't shock me to see them miss the show this year. They're young and y, Randolph just got paid, and Rudy has returned and will want his touches back. They should have traded Rudy last summer.
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