NBA: If not for Tim Duncan, how long might the Laker scourge continued to virally infect?

[daslicer]

Rasho was a worse defensive big man than Tiago Splitter and Rasho played in an era where less fouls at the rim were called. He probably deserved the yelling in the face from Garnett for giving up and-1's all the time instead of, you know, blocking the shot or making a play on the ball and getting the rebound.

Rasho was just soft. So soft that he was borderline unplayable in the 2004 Lakers series and Horry and Duncan each had to log big minutes and eventually their lack of depth compared to 2003 or 2005 just wore them down. Kevin Willis was too old by that point, Rasho was soft and useless and Malik Rose was too undersized to handle the Lakers bigs. You couldn't really go small with Duncan at center with both Shaq and Malone out there. Timmy would simply foul out.

I get that Rose was a fan favorite here for a long time, but the Rose for Mohammed 2005 trade won us that championship. We don't beat the Pistons or even Seattle that year with no true center and dawg down there in the paint to complement Duncan. Don't forget Seattle had our number that year big time because of their list of mean tough big guys (Jerome James/Danny Fortson/Reggie Evans) that kept giving Seattle second chance opportunities and they had a lethal offense led by prime Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis that year. Mohammed fixed that.

You know one thing that really pissed me off back than is during the '03-'04 season the Blazers offered to trade Rasheed Wallace to the Spurs for Rasho. This must have been during December of the '03. The Blazers were just desperate to get rid of Rasheed and wanted to just find a taker. Timvp confirmed this way back then. Spurs rejected the trade offer because they didn't want to look bad trading Rasho after he took less money to play for them. If the Spurs make that trade they beat the Lakers in '04. Rasheed always got underneath Malone's skin and knew how to deal with this dirty tactics. He had the experience of beating Malone in the playoffs in '99 and '00.

I agree the Nazr trade was huge. No way the Spurs win it all without him. He was a very important cog against the Nuggets, Sonics, Pistons. He gave the Spurs the size they desperately needed to face off against those physical teams. I was excited when that trade went down.

[Millennial_Messiah]

You know one thing that really pissed me off back than is during the '03-'04 season the Blazers offered to trade Rasheed Wallace to the Spurs for Rasho. This must have been during December of the '03. The Blazers were just desperate to get rid of Rasheed and wanted to just find a taker. Timvp confirmed this way back then. Spurs rejected the trade offer because they didn't want to look bad trading Rasho after he took less money to play for them. If the Spurs make that trade they beat the Lakers in '04. Rasheed always got underneath Malone's skin and knew how to deal with this dirty tactics. He had the experience of beating Malone in the playoffs in '99 and '00.

I agree the Nazr trade was huge. No way the Spurs win it all without him. He was a very important cog against the Nuggets, Sonics, Pistons. He gave the Spurs the size they desperately needed to face off against those physical teams. I was excited when that trade went down.

It was Rasho + Ron Mercer (Who we later cut anyway for nothing midway through that season) for Wallace. Would have put us over the top and the Pistons wouldn't have been the Pistons, either, so it's likely we face a different East opponent in the Finals, possibly the Nets again or more than likely the Pacers.

The Nazr Mohammed trade was WILDLY unpopular in San Antonio at the time. Malik Rose was considered family in SA and untouchable. Lots of people pissed off swearing off loyalty for the Spurs and completely going ballistic. Also Mohammed was considered to be a nobody at the time as he had spent most of his career with losing franchises like the Hawks and Knicks. But RC Buford had something up his sleeve, big time.

[daslicer]

It was Rasho + Ron Mercer (Who we later cut anyway for nothing midway through that season) for Wallace. Would have put us over the top and the Pistons wouldn't have been the Pistons, either, so it's likely we face a different East opponent in the Finals, possibly the Nets again or more than likely the Pacers.

The Nazr Mohammed trade was WILDLY unpopular in San Antonio at the time. Malik Rose was considered family in SA and untouchable. Lots of people pissed off swearing off loyalty for the Spurs and completely going ballistic. Also Mohammed was considered to be a nobody at the time as he had spent most of his career with losing franchises like the Hawks and Knicks. But RC Buford had something up his sleeve, big time.

I knew Nazr was a solid player despite playing on bad teams. My younger brother is a hardcore Knicks fan so he would hype up Nazr to me all the time about how he was going to be good starting center for the Knicks for many years to come. I laughed at him but watched some Knick games with him and saw that Nazr was solid. The funny thing about I remember watching one game with him during the '03-'04 season and thinking this guy would look good playing next to Tim. So when the trade went down I was thrilled about it.