Nate Duncan's OBJECT review of the season / OKC series (ethered Pop)

[Snaq O'Meal]

It's evident that there are still many people on this forum that don't realize it since they keep on screaming Pop should have played small ball in this series. Heading into this season Pop wanted to try for one last time to win with the old vets he had. I think RC and him will gut this team and start rebuilding this off-season much like they did in the summer of '01 after getting swept by the Lakers.

I hope so. Standing pat and not taking the necessary risks won't get the team all the way to the championship.

[daslicer]

Pop had a whole season to figure that out after OKC bludgeoned his Turd Towers in the first meeting. And since Pop clearly wanted to settle for the 2nd seed in the playoffs, he knows what's coming. That lack of preparation is inexcusable.

I feel your pain I hated the original turd towers of Blair and Bonner. You can definitely blame Pop and RC for not making the right moves to have another solid big on the roster but there's not much you can blame for his coaching in this series. He could have played Boban, Martin, more but it's not guaranteed the spurs win this series even if those guys play.

[sasaint]

I don't think the spurs even have the personnel to field an effective small ball lineup. What lineup could they have gone with Parker,Manu,Green,Kawhi,Lma? Mills,Parker,Green,Manu,Kawhi? Parker,Manu,Green,Kawhi,Diaw? Look at the Warriors small ball line up of Livingston,Curry,Klay,Barnes,Green or Curry,Andre,Klay,Barnes,Greens. Compare the Warriors small ball lineups to the Spurs and you will see a vast difference in speed,athleticism,3 point shooting. For small ball to be effective you have to have great shooting,speed, athleticism to combat physically a bigger opponent. The Spurs don't have any of that with their small ball lineups.

With Tim and to a lesser extent Manu, we have been getting away with mortgaging our future for a decade. We have been getting by with filling in our "built not bought" teams with cheap ring-chasing veterans and a few long-shots like Danny and Patty rather than signing more significant FAs (until LMA) or drafting guys who we might actually sign and develop. Tbh, the Spurs' vaunted player-development pipeline always seemed more like a pipe-dream to me. Since drafting Tony and Manu the Spurs have drafted Tiago and George Hill (who "became" Kawhi) and a bunch of guys who have become journeymen in the league. The cupboard now seems quite bare with nobody in sight to replace Tim or Manu.

[tholdren]

I feel your pain I hated the original turd towers of Blair and Bonner. You can definitely blame Pop and RC for not making the right moves to have another solid big on the roster but there's not much you can blame for his coaching in this series. He could have played Boban, Martin, more but it's not guaranteed the spurs win this series even if those guys play.

no but we all could have guaranteed that playing west and kyle anderson would = spurs loss

[Snaq O'Meal]

With Tim and to a lesser extent Manu, we have been getting away with mortgaging our future for a decade. We have been getting by with filling in our "built not bought" teams with cheap ring-chasing veterans and a few long-shots like Danny and Patty rather than signing more significant FAs (until LMA) or drafting guys who we might actually sign and develop. Tbh, the Spurs' vaunted player-development pipeline always seemed more like a pipe-dream to me. Since drafting Tony and Manu the Spurs have drafted Tiago and George Hill (who "became" Kawhi) and a bunch of guys who have become journeymen in the league. The cupboard now seems quite bare with nobody in sight to replace Tim or Manu.

Luck played a huge part in the drafting of Ginobili. The Spurs actually passed on him in the first round by picking Gordan Giricek instead.

But the drafting of Parker was largely due to Sam Presti's hard work.

[therealtruth]

no but we all could have guaranteed that playing west and kyle anderson would = spurs loss

Yeah it's like in '11 when everyone but Pop saw the Spurs were too small and would need Tiago.

[DMC]

With Tim and to a lesser extent Manu, we have been getting away with mortgaging our future for a decade. We have been getting by with filling in our "built not bought" teams with cheap ring-chasing veterans and a few long-shots like Danny and Patty rather than signing more significant FAs (until LMA) or drafting guys who we might actually sign and develop. Tbh, the Spurs' vaunted player-development pipeline always seemed more like a pipe-dream to me. Since drafting Tony and Manu the Spurs have drafted Tiago and George Hill (who "became" Kawhi) and a bunch of guys who have become journeymen in the league. The cupboard now seems quite bare with nobody in sight to replace Tim or Manu.

Two HOFers, one a top 10 all time player and the other one of the greatest foreign stars to ever play in the NBA. No, you're not going to replace them, ever. If you had the 1st overall pick for the past 5 years you'd have a team of 1st overall picks, and a team not as good as the current Spurs team. How can you then replace Tim and Manu?

[Prose]

agreed with most of the points about pop

[K...]

Tbh, the Spurs' vaunted player-development pipeline always seemed more like a pipe-dream to me. Since drafting Tony and Manu the Spurs have drafted Tiago and George Hill (who "became" Kawhi) and a bunch of guys who have become journeymen in the league. The cupboard now seems quite bare with nobody in sight to replace Tim or Manu.

THe player development pipeline works well it just doesn't do miracles. Kahwi is a once in a generation guy but benefited greatly from it, patyy and cojo are useful and came from outside the lottery.

Anytime you get a player outside the lottery playing meaningful minutes you have a Front office win.

Are we going to win the championship with Cojo's ? No, we'll need trades, FA's, or a tank rebuild. No miracles but the development is best in the league, probly best in all basketball.








PS Manu was the biggest part of player development for those stupid undersized guards. THat part of the vaunted system is dead. But it's not like Tim or PArker did any great mentoring.

[Sean Cagney]

Yeah, mainly because of the game one blowout though. The rest of the series was so tight it could have went either way besides game 6 of course. Game one threw that total off a bit though, made it seem the Spurs outplayed them in a series by scoring more points but that is not the whole story.

[Slippy]

I started a thead about it but nobody replied.

In pops mind, he did go small. But his version of small is not a big sized 3 like Kawhi at 4. It's two/too small 4s playing 4 and 5.

This is true but he also went with tim who was just a s of his former self all series . Point is he went with these guys out of loyalty .Probably figured this would be their last run together .