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When you put your trash out for pickup, do you call it stealing if a homeless man picks through it for scraps you can't use?
Exactly. The Spurs really need a good low post scoring threat with how many good shooters they have. It will even help Bonner's game. It's much easier to hit a 3 of a double in the post than a penetration and kick, which is easier to recover from.All good points. Not to mention, that Curry was so effective around the basket that it's conceivable teams would've tried to double him up, at times, thereby freeing up the Spurs cast of outside shooters. Of course, Curry is an end-of-the-bench player, but considering his size, power and offensive prowess in the paint, I really thought he could've helped the Spurs in some capacity - especially since the Spurs have been undersized along the frontline about 2-3 years now. It's a very long season and he could've helped give Tim a rest on occasion.
Speaking of Duncan, Pop is so much in love with the league's trend toward "small ball" and undersized players, that I'm a bit surprised that he bothered to resign Tim at all.
The frustrating thing is it seems the Spurs have no plan to get that bigman that can defend, rebound, and score. Are they going to try developing a raw talent or are they going to trade for a guy. Is it easier to get a minimum talent that can rebound and defend and then work on his offense or the other way around? It looks like the Spurs are looking for polished products and they won't find that in the bargain bin. Because they can't develop bigmen they are not willing to take on any "projects". If we had taken on a project in the past few years and had been developing him we could have a pretty good bigman now.
When you put your trash out for pickup, do you call it stealing if a homeless man picks through it for scraps you can't use?
We couldn't have used championship rotation big man Ian Mahinmi?
Pop has never had a clue on how to develop or use a big man that did not come already made. Lets face it. Pop was a better coach when he didn't think he knew too much.
That sort of thing costs a lot of money, and unfortunately the owner isn't willing to spend for it anymore. I'm not sure why since he makes quite a bit of money off the Spurs and we won't be very good anymore in a few years, but that is the case for whatever reason.
There are bigs like that out there, but they cost 8 million+ a year. We're lucky to have gotten Diaw for as little as we did. Basically we have to pin our hopes on everyone being healthy again, and guys stepping up more than they did last year. Unfortunately that means our odds of winning aren't very high since we need most of our dice to roll onto the "6" in order to get a championship this year. It's possible, but not very likely unless the main compe on ends up getting blown out knees and destroyed ankles or something.
Nobody else made Curry work either. You can't bemoan Pop for giving up on a guy everyone else has given up on because he's given up on himself. That's an unrealistic expectation. Is Pop also a bad coach because he can't make Blair grow 5 inches taller? Or make Ginobili and Duncan 5 years younger? There's just some stuff a coach can't do.
Cuban must read Spurstalk and is doing this just to screw with us........
Last edited by Ocotillo; 10-26-2012 at 10:02 AM. Reason: typo
If the Spurs invited Curry to training camp just to raise his stock enough that a division rival wastes time on him, it might go down as one of the sneakiest moves of the post-defense-first era. It's not like the Mavs are scary this year regardless, but if I ever see Eddy Curry and Jae Crowder on the court at the same time, I'm going to laugh and drink to the San Antonio front office.
Pop isn't a bad coach and that's not the point anyway. He's a bad developer of big men. As a matter of fact, it goes much deeper than that. He's proven to everyone that he's in love with guards. I don't care what trend the league is going. Two years ago, Memphis not only outhustled and outworked the Spurs on the perimeter, but kicked their asses in the paint. Last year, the Thunder did more of the same. The Spurs were left powerless to do anything about it. The Spurs have gotten their asses kicked around in the playoffs because they're no longer able to defend and their best players are now older. What more does anyone need to see? You cannot simply outscore people - especially in the playoffs. At some point, you have to get stops. Having another defensive-minded, "big-in-waiting" to pair along with Duncan should've been a priority about four years ago. Of course, it's always far easier to grow your own than try and lure one in free agencyt. The fact that hasn't taken a draft-day flier on another big man since Tiago Splitter/Ryan Richards is beyond explanation.
Since the Spurs let go of a really serviceable big like Curry, that have to be considering somebody even better, otherwise that would have been an insane move. So I expect something really major very soon because the Spurs don't make insane moves.
Because they mostly suck.The fact that hasn't taken a draft-day flier on another big man since Tiago Splitter/Ryan Richards is beyond explanation.
As do the guards in those draft positions.
Again, a lot of people are acting like this is a Mahinmi/Hairston type situation, where we want to see a player get a shot to prove himself..
Curry is a proven NBA player, especially in regards to scoring..he isn't a fringe player..his issue has always been health/conditioning/motivation..he has lost over a 100 pounds the last 2 years and he appears motivated and ready to contribute..
This is a great risk for the Mavs, just as it would have been for the Spurs..they need interior scoring even more than the Spurs do, as Dirk is a perimeter player(also hurt at the moment), Brand is a mid-range player and Kaman is inefficient and perennially overrated..
What young big men have we had with great potential that needed to grow? Every halfway decent big man gets taken in the first 15 spots in every draft now because they're so rare. Every halfway decent big man now gets 8 million a year at least even if they're little more than a lumberwagon with height and halfway decent defensive timing and practically zero offensive skills (like Omer Asik).
We have crap draft position every year. We're almost always in the 25-30 area when no bigs are left. So I ask you, who is it we're supposed to grow? Have there been any big men (actual big men, not undersized PFs) that have been drafted AFTER us at any point in the last 5 years that turned into something more than Tiago Splitter is?
It's easy to just look and see that we don't have any big men. But it's another entirely to blame Popovich for it when the main reason we haven't done so is because of poor draft positioning. I think getting Blair and Splitter with the picks we made is a pretty nice success. No one else in the NBA has done better with picks that bad or worse. All the good or even halfway decent bigs are getting taken in the top 20. Usually in the top 12.
You can't take crap and turn it into gold. There has to be potential there first, and we haven't been fortunate enough to get decent draft picks. We have to pick off the bottom of the barrel, and all the big men with promise are gone by then unless they're overseas (and years away from actual NBA eligibility), or have some serious problem like have no ACLs or are 4-5 inches undersized. . .or both.
I'm also annoyed at the lack of having a big man, but it's ludicrous to blame Pop for it. Not to rehash what I just said to be annoying, but it's just not within the realm of realistic possibility to expect us to have drafted and grown some great big man given the cir stances. The only thing he could've done differently is suck the owner's several dozen times so he'd pay up so we could keep Scola rather than just say it, I wanna be top 5 in profit margin, not just top 10.
We took Splitter in 2007 (good pick, and a big man), George Hill in 2008 (excellent pick), Blair in 2009 (another good pick considering our best pick was 37th in the draft), 2010 our picks didn't pan out but no bigs worth mentioning were taken after that besides two busts in Dexter Pittman and Derek Character. We got Leonard in 2011. 2012 all we had was the 59th pick.
Where did we go wrong in drafting? Who did we miss? I'm looking at the draft picks after ours and I'm not seeing any talented 6'10"+ guys taken. And of course, that would be irrelevant anyway even if there were (which there aren't), because the Spurs have done such a great job picking up useful guys at spots in the draft every other team doesn't do nearly as well with, and are essentially saying "dude you missed one, you in suck".
We did fine. Our bad draft positions just make it impossible to find and grow big men since all the good ones are gone well before our turn comes up to pick. The only complaint you should be making is that the owner's a cheapskate who won't buy a decent free agent to come in and help. He refuses to lower his profit margin even though he'd still be well into the black. It seems like he just wants to ride out the team and make cash now, not win. That's the only real complaint there is to make right now imo. Check out Forbes.com if you don't believe me. Spurs are raking in lots of money right now. They're not poor and could afford a team salary 10m higher (including luxury tax penalty) and still be making a normal NBA profit rather than be in the top 5 or 6 for profit which we are now.
LOL
Marc GasolWe have crap draft position every year. We're almost always in the 25-30 area when no bigs are left. So I ask you, who is it we're supposed to grow? Have there been any big men (actual big men, not undersized PFs) that have been drafted AFTER us at any point in the last 5 years that turned into something more than Tiago Splitter is?
But point taken.
meanwhile
Matty's a nice guy but if he's not the 5th big off the bench then GTFO!meanwhile
So, it's OK to make fun of Eddy Curry again?
That's right! We don't draft em ,and if we do, we don't develop em! Long diatribe to a agree with the initial point.
Pop wants to do it his way. But who doesn't ... everyone wants it their way. Spurs fans are stuck with this grump coach basically until Pop decides he wants to leave. It won't come soon enough for me. I am betting that will not be when Duncan retires but years after. I'm thinking this dinosaur is gonna be in town for 5 years more at least. And why not? He's getting paid very well, he runs the show and does what he wants, and he has the league's respect despite obvious shortcomings. He reminds me of Jerry Sloan. He wants players with heart and a hard-scrabble story, not ability or clutchness. I can't stand either of them. My buddy at work who I split season tickets with were guardedly excited as Spurs entered the playoffs, but we knew Pop would it up and unfortunately we weren't wrong. He's a sure thing.
That's 6 years ago. I said last 5. No big deal though. Splitter was also viewed as the better big man of the two at the time, and likely would've been taken before Gasol. ESPN was on the whole, "I'll be damned, San Antonio did it again" train as soon as they made the pick.
Attention! Eddie Curry will start for Mavs tonight and for the foreseeable future. After averaging $400,000 per point in salary during his career, he is now floating in a tub of butter in Dallas.
Mavs are 'resting' Eldon Brand. Kaman is injured and out for a while. Dirk had a knee operation today. Dontay Jones suspended indefinitely (probably means he will be traded)
Wrong... Both, the person and writing the name.
At least Sloan's teams fought hard to the end. Spurs fans got to be hurting. It looks like the Mavs will start Curry.
I'm gonna stop you right there - Ian Mahinmi. Drafted by the Spurs in 2005, his injury-riddled Spurs tenure is well-do ented. Still, he's turned into a serviceable backup center, which is all that was really expected from him. I know people roll their eyes at the mention of his name, but from a production standpoint, I'd rather have the current version of Mahinmi, complete with his foul-prone propensity, than the annual playoff choking of Bonner and the spastic, inconsistent production and weight-flucuations of Blair.
As for their annual low drafting position, that doesn't and shouldn't mean that a team "mails it in", just because they're drafting low. The names of a couple of project bigs, that were recently taken at the bottom of the first round or top of the second, who come to mind are Daniel Orton (#29 - Orlando 2010) and Nikola Peković (#31 by Minnesota - 2008) and DeAndre Jordan (#35 by LA Clipppers - 2008). None of these guys are world beaters and I agree that you're not going to uncover a future HOFer drafting that low. However in the case of Pekovic, he may very well turn to be better than all of them. The Spurs are hailed around the NBA for the drafting prowess and rightfully so. Who knows? Perhaps they didn't like either of these guys.
And Peter Holt has nothing to do with whom the Spurs select in the draft, so blaming him because Pop has fallen in love with "small ball" is misguided. The point is rather that swing for the fences on smalls, as they tend to do so often, the Spurs rarely, if ever, swing for the fences on a project big. That's the point I was making.
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