If Game 4 can't convince some Spurs fans that this team is hopeless, nothing will. {I'm now convinced}
If I'm Tony Parker or Tim Duncan, deep down, though I might say otherwise, I know I can't count on my teammates. Maybe I'll keep passing the ball and playing the scheme because I'm supposed to, but I know those other guys aren't going to hit the shots, grab the rebounds, make the stops, or do much of anything, except fail miserably.
Gregg Popovich is a great coach for veteran players and knows how to develop a youngster if he has to. But he is stubborn. This mindset that the Spurs have to play the veterans and cross their fingers that it all works out has left the team at a dead end. This team isn't going anywhere. The only upside would be if Roger Mason and George Hill could log some playoff minutes and build experience and confidence. Instead, Pop is doing his best systematically to destroy their confidence.
Michael Finley is done as a professional basketball player. He cannot do anything on a basketball court anymore. If the Spurs were to start a steaming turd at small forward, at least there would be a chance an opposing player might slip on it.
Roger Mason is a shooting guard. Asking him to play point guard is like asking Kurt Thomas to play small forward. It is setting him up for failure. There is no evidence that Mason has any competence handling the ball like that. The only reason I can think of that Pop placed him in that role over Hill is that after seeing Tony Parker and Beno Udrih struggle as young players in the playoffs he simply has no confidence that a young player can do it. The obvious rebuttal is that George Hill certainly could not do any worse than Mason. Benny Hill couldn't do any worse.
Bruce Bowen, despite his obvious decline, differs from several other Spurs in that he apparently is still capable of making a few things happen on a basketball court.
Matt Bonner is meant to be the 11th or 12th player on an NBA roster. {Spurs will never, ever go anywhere if Matt Bonner is a starter or plays 25 minutes on the court at PF or C, period} That he ends up logging significant minutes on the Spurs only underscores the front office's failure to field a compe ive supporting cast. He is not athletic. He cannot rebound. When he is not hitting three-pointers --shots that he can't create for himself but rather depends upon stars to create for him--, he is useless. That somebody in the front office thought he could replace Robert Horry is laughable.
Kurt Thomas is washed up. He is done.
Fabricio Oberto is washed up. He is done.
Jacque Vaughn is washed up. He is done.
Ime Udoka is at best a third-string player on a deep lottery team. That the Spurs' front office imagined him to be a Bruce Bowen replacement is a mockery.
Drew Gooden has some obvious talent and can create shots for himself, unlike every other Spur who isn't one of the Big 1 and Medium 2. However, he obviously isn't very smart and doesn't have a feel for the game on either end of the court, which is why he is bouncing all over the league.
I don't see what the Spurs have to play for in Game 5 other than pride in not being eliminated at home. Making it to the second round is no accomplishment for this franchise. There is nothing from these playoffs that this team can build on, since this iteration of the team is at an end. Beating the Mavs is no great accomplishment. The only upside I see, again, is for Hill and Mason to get experience in roles they can actually fulfill, but if Pop does that, he probably signals to the team that he has put up the white flag (if they don't have that message already).
The Spurs will end this season in total disarray. They face the prospect of two of their top three players being in decline. They have no credible NBA players at any of the three frontcourt positions other than Tim Duncan, and few prospects to procure any. The two decent prospects they have behind their star guards have had their confidence wrecked. The team looks for all the world like it is coming apart.
Since Tim Duncan probably can be Tim Duncan for the first half of a season before his knees break down again, and Tony Parker is at his peak, the Spurs probably can avoid a total breakdown like what the Pistons just went through. They can put up their 50 fools-gold wins next season if they so desire, and make some fans believe there is still a chance. But what we are seeing in this series is what this team really is when the chips are down.
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