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Houston sucks
That's the point, though..role players are role players for a reason, you can't expect them to consistently play well on offense every game..
Houston sucks
Truth bomb.. It's going to come down to the big 3 and Leonard... A couple of which are pretty much role players now.. We will see in game 5.
The Spurs system is still top notch. We have to remember that Clippers were banged up all year, and even with their lack of depth, they're a top 3 team in the league, and would've won 60 plus games had they been healthy all year.
I've maintained that our depth will eventually wear the Clippers down, but if Tiago, Tony, and Manu hit a wall this series with injuries/age, then we're no deeper, but this still doesn't indict the Spurs system. Tiago being gimped really hurts us against this team, since Duncan is obviously too slow to effectively guard the pick-n-roll. And if Manu can't get his groove back, that's a huge blow. Without his playmaking ability and pesky defense, the Spurs relatively deep SG rotation turns into joke, especially when Danny Green is off.
The Spurs model is sustainable (Star+Semi-Star+Great depth playing selfless basketball), but the model in its current state is not sustainable since the Big 3 are way past their primes.
A lot of people don't want LMA, but we're going to need to roll the dice on a scoring PF at some point since Duncan has 2 years, tops, left. Danny Green is a keeper, and is a "star" player when you look at overall floor impact, so we're good there. Hopefully Tiago remains healthy. Diaw can play til he's 38 with his kind of game. And we know Parker isn't absolutely vital, so Mills can cover for him. The biggest hurdle in our retool will be finding a suitable replacement for Ginobili, but our window is by no means shut should we flame out this year. Kawhi and Green (if we can afford the latter) are two very nice building blocks moving forward. We just need to complement them with a "poor man's version" of the Big 3, and we should stay in the hunt for years to come.
^ foreign bigs without a shot don't last long in this league. I don't expect Splitter to be around for another 5 years... And Diaw's shot has regressed. He's still a good player, but I can't see him around any longer than Manu/Timmy... Maybe one year after, tops. He might stay on the team, but as a 11-12th man.. Kyle Washington will take over his role after a while.
Just ing stop with these threads already. The series is tied 2-2. Both teams have shown they can win on the road. Spurs will need to do it again.
Splitter is an excellent defender, his biggest asset, and is mobile enough to stay with Griffins and Dirks of the league (though not in this series, since he's banged up). He's also a capable passer and decent scorer. This is why you need a scoring PF alongside of him. My only concern with Splitter is if his nagging injuries get the best of him and send him to an early retirement.
Diaw's asset is his passing and ability to kickstart the 2nd unit's offense with his playmaking. He can remain a valuable bench player for a few years to come.
We can expect them to play consistently better than the Clippers' bench. One of the biggest reasons they won today was because of Austin ing Rivers. There are some who think he quite possibly the worst player on an NBA roster. He played great for him today but there is no reason to game plan around the guy. Its called recession to the mean.
Obviously health & age are working against us right now, but we also have to remember we're playing a team in the 1st round that could easily make it to the Western conference Finals..
I don't think it's the lack of a superstar(s), it's the mileage, as I've been saying all season. This was also the main reason why I was and am convinced that they're going to lose this series.
You could see it right from the start of the season, that they weren't the same, just like you could with the Heat the year before. All the requisite excuses/reasons were made, but at some point it became clear that it wasn't injuries or lack of motivation. Even when they picked it up in the last 25 games, they didn't do it in the way they had the previous few years. It was mostly Leonard fueled, instead of team wide destruction.
Put the '13 or '14 Spurs in '15 and I'm confident they'd win the championship.
I somewhat agree with this.
Diaw, Mills, Leonard, TD, Green do at least have something left in the tank and Leonard is hungry..Probably the hungriest I've seen him play in the last 4 years.
Manu, parker, tiago, look absolutely awful though.
Would be a miracle if for some reason a 23 year old carries this team that barely can get up on it's own feet to play...
Unfortunately, neither do we. Our $14 million dollar "star" point is giving us Prigioni-like production.
Clippers were ranked 16th in the league in defense. Rockets are ranked 8th.
Spurs needed a ridiculous 28/11 game from Duncan to win on the road. That's not gonna happen again, not from a 39 year old. This is why it's impossible to win a le from a lower seed - the only team that did win this way needed superstar games from Hakeem every night(especially in road games).
Kawhi is going to have to go higher than 2003 Duncan tbh.
I said a few weeks ago..A huge NO to Gasol.
But I'm seriously reconsidering. Three years of Gasol would be great...IMO.
Diaw has mostly been awful too and as well as Leonard is playing, he's not capable of pulling an '03 Duncan and dragging a team to a championship that otherwise has no business winning one.
Yeah...our guys just haven't found the mental edge necessary to win a le. The whole season was a search for it, and it looked like we found it during that win streak, but then we played 3 straight subpar games to finish the season and continue to be inconsistent. The Spurs right now are a Jekyll and Hyde team. You have no idea if you're going to get the "beautiful game" version or the "miss half of our FTs and make stupid plays all game" version. The team is talented, the system is solid, but the parts are starting to wear/fall apart.
But further to OP's point, the problem with the Spurs this season hasn't been a lack of stars, it's been just a general lack of consistency. I don't agree that we should just assume role players to be sporadic in their production. Role players are role players usually due to talent limitations, not inconsistency (ex. Joseph is consistent, but doesn't have much talent). IMO we're not losing because of a lack of star power, we're losing because we only have 2 consistent key players (Kawhi and Timmy)...that's it. Everyone else has been erratic at best. Hard to win like that unless said players go nuclear (Timmy in game 2 and Kawhi in game 3).
We are a game away from sweeping the mavs or from a 3-1 lead against the Clipps. Hard to judge since it's a match-up league, you can get lucky(houston-memphis) with seedings but in the end still inferior to a team like they are to GSW and Spurs but you can be the Spurs who gets unlucky with seedings but is one of the few contenders.
Spurs couldn't throw the ball in the ocean tonight, and I think they played without desperation. They just didn't have the fight in them. They prolly thought they had the series in the bag after the Clips wet the bed big time in game 3.
I think the Spurs win in 6.
"It's just bad luck in seeding"
losing to NYK and NOR in the last weeks of the season to lose HCA, then playing like in games 1,4 ain't bad luck.
Last edited by boutons_deux; 04-27-2015 at 05:36 AM.
lol no.
2003 duncan didn't have a teammate nearly as good as 2015 Duncan
They won both games on the road against the Heat against the Heat in the Finals. I'm hoping that team shows up. We get to see if they have the heart of a champion.
It shouldn't end up costing Green. There are a lot of scenarios to create max cap space while retaining Green.
The only thing that could cause Green to leave is him wanting to leave or someone offering him a max contract or damn near it
I think Aldridge ends up costing Patty Mills tho
2003 Duncan didn't have to win three straight series on the road just to make the Finals.
I absolutely agree. I keep saying this. For some reason everyone on this site has an irrational fear of Houston. If the Spurs beat the Clippers they will beat Houston in 5 or 6. Howard and Josh Smith are inferior players to the duo of Blake and Jordan imo. And btw they are both horrid at FTs and they both meltdown and make absolutely horrid decisions when it counts. As much heat as Paul takes he is a way better leader, defender, and creator than Harden. I know Harden is just a SG. But that doesn't change anything.
McHale is a mediocre coach, Rivers might be overrated but he's better than McHale.
Blake Griffin getting hurt was a blessing in disguise imo. The team had to play better D and execute better. They couldn't just monkeyball. The Clippers are absolutely the better team.
San Antonio just has to fight through this one.
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