Grantland Article: The Spurs and Mortality

[TJastal]

My point was Memphis was a good team, better than their 8th seed ranking last year. This by no means excuses the Spur's putrid performance against them in the playoffs, but if the Grizz get Randolph back and get in the playoffs, no one in the West would look forward to matching up with them.

The national media pundits and local popologists have been busy filling your head with nonsense I see.

If they were so great, how come they couldn't get past OKC last season? Oh, right. Because they aren't that great. The only way they ran roughshod over the spurs was because Pop was too dumb to use the size on his bench. Hollins knew this, thus why he tanked games. Brooks? Not so much. Brooks was smart enough to utilize his size off the bench to neutralize the grizzlies main strength.

[SenorSpur]

It's not just the beatdown versus Memphis, but let's everyone not forget the 4-game sweep the previous year, versus PHX, in the 2010 playoffs. If those series are not obvious signs of the inevitable, then nothing else is.

Sure this year's Spurs team is better than last year, but it still has holes and there are still major concerns. The lack of an athletic big man on the frontline, the combined injury histories of both Manu and T.J. Ford and of course, there is the continued decline of our once-great superstar, Duncan. Time will not resolve these issues.

While I don't agree with everything the writer proclaimed, his point about the Spurs having to rely on role players, who come up small in the playoffs, is totally justified and painfully valid. Let's face it, another year is also not going to improve Bonner's mental midgetry.

All that said, there's nothing to suggest that this team will fare any better in the playoffs. In fact, this team is a lot like Bonner - regular season wonder, but playoff unproven. No matter how many wins they stack up during the regular season, another playoff flame-out will make it all very meaningless. In the meantime, we will just have to wait and see.

[jjktkk]

The national media pundits and local popologists have been busy filling your head with nonsense I see.

If they were so great, how come they couldn't get past OKC last season? Oh, right. Because they aren't that great. The only way they ran roughshod over the spurs was because Pop was too dumb to use the size on his bench. Hollins knew this, thus why he tanked games. Brooks? Not so much. Brooks was smart enough to utilize his size off the bench to neutralize the grizzlies main strength.

Who said great other than you? So based on your brilliance, you thought Memphis should of beaten OKC too? Did Memphis, the 8th seed underachieve? And those national "pundits", meaning TNT, ESPN, etc..., don't have a clue about basketball, compared to the legendary Tjastal? Just when I thought you were actually turning the corner...

[cd98]

Am I missing something, or did Dallas just win a championship after losing in the the first round the year before?

[cd98]

Am I missing something, or did Dallas just win a le with a 39 year old point guard? But it's out of the question that the Spurs can win with this team.

[TJastal]

Who said great other than you? So based on your brilliance, you thought Memphis should of beaten OKC too? Did Memphis, the 8th seed underachieve? And those national "pundits", meaning TNT, ESPN, etc..., don't have a clue about basketball, compared to the legendary Tjastal? Just when I thought you were actually turning the corner...

You misunderstood my point, as usual. Which was I believe the media pundits and certain local popologists made the grizz out to be better than they really were. They were a 6th-8th seed tops. If they were better than the thunder then they would have beaten the thunder. It's all really simple if you think about it. You might try that out sometime, I heard its a really cool thing to do.

[GSH]

Who would have guessed that such a crappy, meaningless article would spawn such a crappy, meaningless thread?

[Amuseddaysleeper]

It's not just the beatdown versus Memphis, but let's everyone not forget the 4-game sweep the previous year, versus PHX, in the 2010 playoffs. If those series are not obvious signs of the inevitable, then nothing else is.

Sure this year's Spurs team is better than last year, but it still has holes and there are still major concerns. The lack of an athletic big man on the frontline, the combined injury histories of both Manu and T.J. Ford and of course, there is the continued decline of our once-great superstar, Duncan. Time will not resolve these issues.

While I don't agree with everything the writer proclaimed, his point about the Spurs having to rely on role players, who come up small in the playoffs, is totally justified and painfully valid. Let's face it, another year is also not going to improve Bonner's mental midgetry.

All that said, there's nothing to suggest that this team will fare any better in the playoffs. In fact, this team is a lot like Bonner - regular season wonder, but playoff unproven. No matter how many wins they stack up during the regular season, another playoff flame-out will make it all very meaningless. In the meantime, we will just have to wait and see.

In a nuts think about this:

The Spurs haven't won a game in the 2nd round since 2008

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Who would have guessed that such a crappy, meaningless article would spawn such a crappy, meaningless thread?

Slow times here at SpursTalk

[Robz4000]

This team is much better than last year, but it is young and unproven in the playoffs. I wouldn't be surprised if they flame out again in the first round or manage to make it out of the West. However, they are weak up front and that will only hurt them both short-term and long-term.

This article is a piece of crap and basically just bashes the Spurs and San Antonio in general. It's like Chris Broussard wrote it.

[GSH]

This team is much better than last year, but it is young and unproven in the playoffs. I wouldn't be surprised if they flame out again in the first round or manage to make it out of the West. However, they are weak up front and that will only hurt them both short-term and long-term.

This article is a piece of crap and basically just bashes the Spurs and San Antonio in general. It's like Chris Broussard wrote it.

Game, set, and match. That says it all, about as concisely as it can be done. Seriously, that's pretty much perfection.

Put a DNR order on the thread, as far as I'm concerned.

[SpursRock20]

You misunderstood my point, as usual. Which was I believe the media pundits and certain local popologists made the grizz out to be better than they really were. They were a 6th-8th seed tops. If they were better than the thunder then they would have beaten the thunder. It's all really simple if you think about it. You might try that out sometime, I heard its a really cool thing to do.

I don't think you can really rank it as an all-time upset. Going into the series, people who knew anything about the Spurs knew it was going to be an up-hill struggle and the series could go either way. We did not have our best player for game 1 because he had BROKEN his elbow in the last game of the season. So home court advantage meant didly squat after we lost game 1 of the series. There went the impressive perk of a 60+ win season immediately.

As for the article, anyone reading it who is not a supporter of the Spurs will just become deeper entrenched in their opinion on the Spurs and strenthen their idea of the "tired, old Spurs" being unwatchable. This article has no purpose, just pointless ramblings of a bored writer who feels like he owes something to a team that has won 11 games straight.

Frankly, as a life-long Spurs fan I can't wait to see what happens in the playoffs this year. The west is filled with a lot of great teams, but it's generally understood that the two elite teams in the NBA are in the East. Anything can happen if we are healthy. Granted, that's a huge if. But I can't wait to find out how my "dying" Spurs will do.

[The Truth #6]

Great article. It praised the Spurs while providing an honest context for the current season. I thought the insights on the city and the season were dead on.

Everyone crying about it is most likely either: thin skinned, not being honest, and/or doesn't live in San Antonio.

Who here honestly thinks the Spurs are favorites to win a le? Who here doesn't think Blair and Bonner will vanish in the playoffs? Who here doesn't think the team's legacy should be embraced this season? Who here doesn't think the Riverwalk is a destination for tourists instead of locals? I live in downtown SA. Trust me, locals don't frequent there.

The author's viewpoint, to me, came across as someone who actually knows San Antonio. I wonder if a lot of fans on this board actually live in San Antonio to truly know what it's like to appreciate the team as a local. I'm not saying you have to live in SA to like the Spurs, but a lot of these reactions seem knee-jerk and overly sensitive.

[roycrikside]

Well, that guy certainly wrote alot of words.

Grantland is Bill Simmons' creation, and Simmons has always shown great respect for the Spurs. Rather disappointing that he's associated with this rambling, incoherent pile of excrement.

Clearly you don't read Simmons consistently. He USED TO respect the Spurs. Eventually his bosses at ESPN gave him religion or whatever, because for the last three, four years he's basically crapped on the Spurs whenever he's bothered to mention them at all. He's put an asterisk on every one of their les. He doesn't respect the team at all.

[Mel_13]

Clearly you don't read Simmons consistently. He USED TO respect the Spurs. Eventually his bosses at ESPN gave him religion or whatever, because for the last three, four years he's basically crapped on the Spurs whenever he's bothered to mention them at all. He's put an asterisk on every one of their les. He doesn't respect the team at all.

link?

[ogait]

While I didn't like some of the phrasing in the article like " Do mass-market fans really want to watch a team dying right before their eyes?", I still think the overall message of the article was adequate to the current Spurs situation.

This quote seems spot on for Spurs fans pissed about this article who do not want to acknowledge the team flaws or are being overly sensitive about anything negative said about the team.

Perhaps one of the downsides of the Duncan era is that the Spurs haven't branded their team as a hot-spot destination that was only 'a piece away' from winning a le. They cultivate strength in accepting that they are what they are. Acknowledging that they were 'a piece away' would diminish the fans' faith in San Antonio's most important celebrities and heroes. It's hard to tell a city that a franchise formula that served as the foundation of its own iden y has flaws that might prevent the team from ever winning again.

[SpurNation]

We are quietly watching Duncan's Last Stand, and instead of rooting for rising teams to put the final nail in the Spurs' coffin, we should be rooting to see one of the NBA's last relics of historical greatness succeed one last time against artificially created buzz franchises and misguided marquee-player movement.

It's what they said last year. AND...I still enjoy and will be rooting for Duncan's prominence when playing like the Duncan of (well for lack of a better phrase) old.

So...bring on the young...bring on the up and coming...bring on the suppose to be's. As good as they may become...they'll never duplicate Duncan.

It's why being a "lottery" team now IS NOT what it meant when Duncan was available in the draft. And not to my knowledge any player up and coming in the near future that could realistically be considered his equal.

[SA210]

...to be honest, even as a Laker fan the lack of respect shown during your win streak (due to Linsanity, Howard rumors) is shameful.

.....a WCF run to me is not much of a stretch either ...

If heat, OKC win this many their would be polls comparing them to the 72 win bulls. Knicks only won 7 straight and Lin was the top story on ESPN even though Parker has been even better than him during that time ...

So true.

[therealtruth]

That article makes some good points and a lot of really bad ones. The only thing I do agree with is that we have had a lot of role players not show up in the playoffs which kills us.

For example, no matter how well he plays in the regular season Bonner can't seem to hit a shot once the playoffs role around...even if he is wide open. I absolutely expect that trend to continue though I would love to be proved wrong. More than that, I would love to trade Bonner for a role player that actually has some balls when it counts.

It's the stars who are supposed to step up in the playoffs. Role players are supposed to hit shots because of the attention that the stars draw. If the stars can't make the defense pay for single coverage the role players will struggle as well. That's why the say the playoffs is all about the stars.

[therealtruth]

The national media pundits and local popologists have been busy filling your head with nonsense I see.

If they were so great, how come they couldn't get past OKC last season? Oh, right. Because they aren't that great. The only way they ran roughshod over the spurs was because Pop was too dumb to use the size on his bench. Hollins knew this, thus why he tanked games. Brooks? Not so much. Brooks was smart enough to utilize his size off the bench to neutralize the grizzlies main strength.

Exactly. If the Spurs had the ability to play single coverage in the post they beat the Grizzlies. Alot of the backbreaking 3's Battier hit in the series were because of the Spurs over helping in the paint.

Brooks had capable bigs (Collision, Perkins, Mohahmed) that could defend single coverage and played them. He didn't have to worry about doubling. He knew even if Gasol/Randolph went crazy that wouldn't be enough to win. That forced Hollins to start Mayo to get more from his perimeter players.

[Spursfanfromafar]

Well, that guy certainly wrote alot of words.

Grantland is Bill Simmons' creation, and Simmons has always shown great respect for the Spurs. Rather disappointing that he's associated with this rambling, incoherent pile of excrement.

Well said!

[TJastal]

Exactly. If the Spurs had the ability to play single coverage in the post they beat the Grizzlies. Alot of the backbreaking 3's Battier hit in the series were because of the Spurs over helping in the paint.

Brooks had capable bigs (Collision, Perkins, Mohahmed) to could defend single coverage and played them. He didn't have to worry about doubling. He knew even if Gasol/Randolph went crazy that wouldn't be enough to win. That forced Hollins to start Mayo to get more from his perimeter players.

Thanks for the backup, therealtruth. Gets old listening and trying to argue with the Pop revisionists trying to make excuses constantly for losing in the 1st round. They especially love to cry about Manu being out of the first game, but conveniently don't mention that the grizzlies were out their best player in every game (Gay).

[Cane]

For the past few years its basically been the same old song and dance when it comes to the Spurs chances in the playoffs. They need health and another legit big to really become a contender

[bigfan]

Who is the that wrote that crap?

[Danny.Zhu]