Official 2025 NBA Playoffs Thread

[scottspurs]

I’ve been impressed with Ime’s work raising that team’s floor. Before they reach OKC levels tho, I still think they need their “dude.” Not sure if it’s Aman, Sengun or Green — but this series will be telling. Now, this team with Booker could easily rival OKC.

Spurs got some work to do…

Spurs are 3 years behind the Rockets. 5 years behind the Thunder. Both are good examples of building within and timely adding nice pieces elsewhere. That’s why I’m wanting the Spurs to continue being patient. The only guy I would maybe move on from is Vassell but I would understand giving him another year. Right now he one of the better shooters on the team. Although it is inconsistent maybe with a full healthy offseason he can actually improve

[scott]

If the Spurs are truly 3 years behind HOU and 5 years behind OKC... then everyone in the front office should be immediately fired, considering both HOU and OKC's rebuilds* started the year after ours.

*I'm defining the start of the rebuild as the season following their last playoff appearance. Some will argue that the Spurs didn't start their rebuild until they traded DDR two years after that... but this isn't exactly a ringing endorsement for the FO's decision making either, tbh.

For the record, I don't think we are 3 and 5 years behind... but we need to get serious with our roster building and especially coaching, asap.

[mo7888]

If the Spurs are truly 3 years behind HOU and 5 years behind OKC... then everyone in the front office should be immediately fired, considering both HOU and OKC's rebuilds* started the year after ours.

*I'm defining the start of the rebuild as the season following their last playoff appearance. Some will argue that the Spurs didn't start their rebuild until they traded DDR two years after that... but this isn't exactly a ringing endorsement for the FO's decision making either, tbh.

For the record, I don't think we are 3 and 5 years behind... but we need to get serious with our roster building and especially coaching, asap.

I don't think we're that far behind them either. I actually think we could be even with Houston next year with a couple moves this summer to go with a couple draft picks. We'll still be behind OKC, but not 5 years behind.

[R. DeMurre]

5 years is an eternity in the NBA. The only guy still on the roster from 5 years ago is Keldon.

[djohn2oo8]

I don't think we're that far behind them either. I actually think we could be even with Houston next year with a couple moves this summer to go with a couple draft picks. We'll still be behind OKC, but not 5 years behind.

Pop needs to step down immediately. He can’t drag this out further.

[scott]

5 years is an eternity in the NBA. The only guy still on the roster from 5 years ago is Keldon.

Yeah, saying you are 5 years behind is basically saying that your team is ing clueless and without any hope.

OKC didn't even take 5 years to build this. They were a bottom-of-the-league team for 2 years, then were a .500 team, then #1 seed in the west, then absolute powerhouse (this season).

If the Spurs were about to trade Wemby, Castle and Fox and start a completely new rebuild... then they'd be 5 years behind.

[scottspurs]

Spurs are bottom of the league in key stat categories like rebounding, 2nd chance points and defense. Especially perimeter defense. Rockets and Thunder are both very deep rosters. Rockets and Thunder have just as many draft assets as the Spurs. Whether it’s 5 years or 3 or a year behind doesn’t matter. Spurs are playing catch up. As the warriors, nuggets, lakers, clippers, mavericks and timberwolves age those 2 teams remain young. To catch up the Spurs need rebounding, depth, perimeter defense and probably a coaching staff change. I’m not as worried about shooting because I think that can always be found. Can they make that all happen in one or two off seasons. Sure! Will it happen is another thing entirely.

[scott]

Spurs are bottom of the league in key stat categories like rebounding, 2nd chance points and defense. Especially perimeter defense. Rockets and Thunder are both very deep rosters. Rockets and Thunder have just as many draft assets as the Spurs. Whether it’s 5 years or 3 or a year behind doesn’t matter. Spurs are playing catch up. As the warriors, nuggets, lakers, clippers, mavericks and timberwolves age those 2 teams remain young. To catch up the Spurs need rebounding, depth, perimeter defense and probably a coaching staff change. I’m not as worried about shooting because I think that can always be found. Can they make that all happen in one or two off seasons. Sure! Will it happen is another thing entirely.

This is where my comment about everyone being fired comes into play. A Front Office and Coaching Staff who says they need 3-5 years to fix the Spurs woes shouldn't be employed in the NBA.

[scottspurs]

This is where my comment about everyone being fired comes into play. A Front Office and Coaching Staff who says they need 3-5 years to fix the Spurs woes shouldn't be employed in the NBA.

I will let you know whether I think they should clean house or not after this off-season haha. If they trade for Durant or some other questionable moves that might be needed.

[rjv]

If the Spurs are truly 3 years behind HOU and 5 years behind OKC... then everyone in the front office should be immediately fired, considering both HOU and OKC's rebuilds* started the year after ours.

*I'm defining the start of the rebuild as the season following their last playoff appearance. Some will argue that the Spurs didn't start their rebuild until they traded DDR two years after that... but this isn't exactly a ringing endorsement for the FO's decision making either, tbh.

For the record, I don't think we are 3 and 5 years behind... but we need to get serious with our roster building and especially coaching, asap.

my personal timeline for the rebuild starts with the Dejounte trade.

[scott]

my personal timeline for the rebuild starts with the Dejounte trade.

That's fine... but taking 3 years of missing the playoffs to realize that you need to rebuild is also good cause to being fired.

[rjv]

That's fine... but taking 3 years of missing the playoffs to realize that you need to rebuild is also good cause to being fired.

we have no idea who was on board with what direction the team should be headed, or what kinds of conversations were being held about how to build the roster during those years. how much of the direction of the team was being steered by pop? or RC? they're not getting fired. ever. and when did the Spurs FO decide to go all in on Wemby? all we know is that Vic was on the Spurs radar in 2019. calling for a GM's job with all the details seems hasty. we also live in times where the teams that seem to to be in the most disarray are the ones that fire their coaches and GMs without hesitation. wright has had his fair share of mishaps but none, imho, that would justify his getting fired. not yet, anyway.

[scott]

we have no idea who was on board with what direction the team should be headed, or what kinds of conversations were being held about how to build the roster during those years. how much of the direction of the team was being steered by pop? or RC? they're not getting fired. ever. and when did the Spurs FO decide to go all in on Wemby? all we know is that Vic was on the Spurs radar in 2019. calling for a GM's job with all the details seems hasty. we also live in times where the teams that seem to to be in the most disarray are the ones that fire their coaches and GMs without hesitation. wright has had his fair share of mishaps but none, imho, that would justify his getting fired. not yet, anyway.

You'll note, I never said anything about the GM. I said "the front office and coaching staff". Seems like it should be someone's job to be able to know who's responsible for being one of the least serious franchises in the league for 6 years.

The fact that the Spurs will never fire the people responsible is part of the reason they're not a serious team.

And LOL at the idea of having Vic on their radar in 2019 and gearing all of their efforts towards winning a lottery 4 years later. How much of a joke would we be if the alternate 86% of outcomes would have come to fruition? Any Front Office who's grand rebuilding strategy is to win the lottery four years in the future... should also never be employed in the NBA.

[RC_Drunkford]

That's fine... but taking 3 years of missing the playoffs to realize that you need to rebuild is also good cause to being fired.

Pop wanted the all time wins record that's why they kept being a play-in team and delayed the rebuild for 3 years.

we have no idea who was on board with what direction the team should be headed, or what kinds of conversations were being held about how to build the roster during those years. how much of the direction of the team was being steered by pop? or RC? they're not getting fired. ever. and when did the Spurs FO decide to go all in on Wemby? all we know is that Vic was on the Spurs radar in 2019. calling for a GM's job with all the details seems hasty. we also live in times where the teams that seem to to be in the most disarray are the ones that fire their coaches and GMs without hesitation. wright has had his fair share of mishaps but none, imho, that would justify his getting fired. not yet, anyway.

the last person the Spurs fired was Bob Hill in 1996. We don't fire people, that's not who we are. That kind of job security is insane, but you can basically up as much as you want on the Spurs. It's defined as "pounding the rock".

[rjv]

You'll note, I never said anything about the GM. I said "the front office and coaching staff". Seems like it should be someone's job to be able to know who's responsible for being one of the least serious franchises in the league for 6 years.

The fact that the Spurs will never fire the people responsible is part of the reason they're not a serious team.

And LOL at the idea of having Vic on their radar in 2019 and gearing all of their efforts towards winning a lottery 4 years later. How much of a joke would we be if the alternate 86% of outcomes would have come to fruition? Any Front Office who's grand rebuilding strategy is to win the lottery four years in the future... should also never be employed in the NBA.

i think you're filling in the gaps with nothing that has ever been substantiated. sure, we know that the Spurs had their sight set on Wemby. nothing wrong with taking a shot at a generational talent. the contingency plan would have probably involved going with Amen. the bigger point is that it was time to tank for a shot at a higher pick. lots of front offices make that decision. i also have no idea whose timelines you're comparing the spurs to? the lakers? the celtics? the knicks? OKC? rockets? none of these teams had a twenty year run. and only one of those is a small market team. NBA players have the spurs ranked as the 7th best organization in the NBA and our fans are calling them "one of the least serious franchises in the league".

[rjv]

Pop wanted the all time wins record that's why they kept being a play-in team and delayed the rebuild for 3 years.



the last person the Spurs fired was Bob Hill in 1996. We don't fire people, that's not who we are. That kind of job security is insane, but you can basically up as much as you want on the Spurs. It's defined as "pounding the rock".

well, they did make the playoffs every year after that. and won five les along the way, yes, a lot of that has to do with the players, and some luck, but sometimes that's how history works out.

[scott]

i think you're filling in the gaps with nothing that has ever been substantiated. sure, we know that the Spurs had their sight set on Wemby. nothing wrong with taking a shot at a generational talent. the contingency plan would have probably involved going with Amen. the bigger point is that it was time to tank for a shot at a higher pick. lots of front offices make that decision. i also have no idea whose timelines you're comparing the spurs to? the lakers? the celtics? the knicks? OKC? rockets? none of these teams had a twenty year run. and only one of those is a small market team. NBA players have the spurs ranked as the 7th best organization in the NBA and our fans are calling them "one of the least serious franchises in the league".

I'm not filling the gaps in with anything, I'm responding directly to what you suggested. You're the one filling in gaps with hypothetical rationalizations for why the Spurs have been a doormat for over half a decade.

Who's timeline am I comparing them against? How about the entire rest of the league's? Only the Hornets have a longer playoff drought than we do. We're #2 in that at least, I guess.

Do we get to hang a banner for "7th Best Organization"?

[scott]

So what's the rationalization for the second longest playoff drought in the league?

We're a small market team so we just needed a break?

We were tired of all that winning so we wanted to give some other teams a chance?

We identified a potentially generational 14 year old, so we decided to around for a few years before really rebuilding?

Life is bigger than basketball? We needed to make sure young men were properly educated on penguins?

The city and its fans needed a lesson in humility?

We can twist ourselves into pretzels with these wild hypotheses... or maybe the real answer is the most obvious one: our Front Office did a poor job (still were the highest paid though).

[chubbs]

thinking the spurs are 3 years behind the rockets. that team is the definition of fools gold they should be as good or better by next year even without significant roster upgrades.

[rjv]

I'm not filling the gaps in with anything, I'm responding directly to what you suggested. You're the one filling in gaps with hypothetical rationalizations for why the Spurs have been a doormat for over half a decade.

Who's timeline am I comparing them against? How about the entire rest of the league's? Only the Hornets have a longer playoff drought than we do. We're #2 in that at least, I guess.

Do we get to hang a banner for "7th Best Organization"?

it's all hypothetical. none of us know anything concrete about who made what choices and how such choices may have been impacted by external factors. unless you have some information other than how much the spurs sucks is based on recent drafts and FA signings is all we're going on. i'm not spending hours every day telling everyone that the spurs FO is the greatest FO in the world. i'm happy that we have five les and i hope we can get more in the Wemby era. i know it will take luck and patience and, as a lifetime fan, i've seen worse. the lakers have had dormant periods. so have the celtics. so have the rockets. so has OKC. it happens. if you want to blame all that on the FO and the ball boys great. i don't care to. not yet, anyway. if you want to be the resident DOGE, by all means, post another hundred times per week that the spurs suck and everyone needs to go. i just don't agree at this moment.

[scott]

it's all hypothetical. none of us know anything concrete about who made what choices and how such choices may have been impacted by external factors. unless you have some information other than how much the spurs sucks is based on recent drafts and FA signings is all we're going on.

I don't need any other information other than our record and our playoff drought. What other information do you need? We have the 4th worst winning percentage in the entire league since the last time we were in the playoffs. That the Spurs have sucked is just an objective fact.

i'm not spending hours every day telling everyone that the spurs FO is the greatest FO in the world. i'm happy that we have five les and i hope we can get more in the Wemby era. i know it will take luck and patience and, as a lifetime fan, i've seen worse. the lakers have had dormant periods. so have the celtics. so have the rockets. so has OKC. it happens. if you want to blame all that on the FO and the ball boys great. i don't care to. not yet, anyway. if you want to be the resident DOGE, by all means, post another hundred times per week that the spurs suck and everyone needs to go. i just don't agree at this moment.

This entire discussion started with the idea that the Spurs are 3 years behind Houston and 5 years behind OKC (a notion which I disagreed with). That is the context of discussing people being fired. You interjected to dispute when we should consider the start of the rebuild, though it doesn't change the fact that people would still deserve to be fired if the premise (we are 3 to 5 years behind HOU/OKC) were true. You may not spend hours every day telling everyone that the Spurs FO is the greatest in the world... but you sure did spend more time than necessary providing off-topic hypothetical explanations for the Spurs subpar performance the last 6 years. It's your prerogative though. Enjoy!

[rjv]

I don't need any other information other than our record and our playoff drought. What other information do you need? We have the 4th worst winning percentage in the entire league since the last time we were in the playoffs. That the Spurs have sucked is just an objective fact.



This entire discussion started with the idea that the Spurs are 3 years behind Houston and 5 years behind OKC (a notion which I disagreed with). That is the context of discussing people being fired. You interjected to dispute when we should consider the start of the rebuild, though it doesn't change the fact that people would still deserve to be fired if the premise (we are 3 to 5 years behind HOU/OKC) were true. You may not spend hours every day telling everyone that the Spurs FO is the greatest in the world... but you sure did spend more time than necessary providing off-topic hypothetical explanations for the Spurs subpar performance the last 6 years. It's your prerogative though. Enjoy!

spending more time than necessary would be me posting the same thing every day, several times a day, not a couple of hours trying to clarify a point that continues to be misunderstood and mislabeled, and then trying to defend any topics such as these as if they were indisputable facts and logical arguments. they're just opinions. and they're boring and redundant. you're best when you share data that is empirical and revelatory. maybe if you drafted some sort of team-by-team analysis of NBA organizations and juxtaposed them to the Spurs FO performance over the last few years (not sure what variable would be used to rate teams), i'd be more interested.

[buttsR4rebounding]

lmao omg “The guy has kids”

Good thing Pop wasn’t on the sidelines…

[Seventyniner]

So what's the rationalization for the second longest playoff drought in the league?

The first three of those seasons the Spurs tried to make the playoffs and just failed, finishing 10th twice. Then they tore things down and were bad for two seasons, and this season losing Wemby with 30 games to go ruined any realistic chance at a play-in run.

Saying that the front office sucks just because they have the longest playoff drought in the league is far too simplistic. I can fault them for taking too long to get off the treadmill, but the teardown and rebuild is something many teams, even ones with competent FOs, often do.

[scott]

spending more time than necessary would be me posting the same thing every day, several times a day, not a couple of hours trying to clarify a point that continues to be misunderstood and mislabeled, and then trying to defend any topics such as these as if they were indisputable facts and logical arguments. they're just opinions. and they're boring and redundant. you're best when you share data that is empirical and revelatory. maybe if you drafted some sort of team-by-team analysis of NBA organizations and juxtaposed them to the Spurs FO performance over the last few years (not sure what variable would be used to rate teams), i'd be more interested.

You're right. There is nothing revelatory about the idea that the Spurs should fire people if it takes them 3 to 5 more years to be relevant again. And you're also right... arguing about it is boring and redundant, because hopefully everyone is in agreement that we should make big time changes to management (which includes the FO and coaching staff) if it takes us 3-5 more years to return to relevance. It's only interesting when someone disagrees... the same way that it's interesting to watch public figures have complete meltdowns.

Thankfully for me, I don't really care how interested you are in my posts. You do not need my permission to not read them.