Reply With Quote
I agree with you. Pop has not been Pop this season. I think he's let Phil get into his head about and trying to do some Phil Jackson stuff like you mentioned.
Pop needs to be Pop. Starting now, he can turn it around.
Don't give up. We have a shot.
I agree with you. Pop has not been Pop this season. I think he's let Phil get into his head about and trying to do some Phil Jackson stuff like you mentioned.
Pop needs to be Pop. Starting now, he can turn it around.
I'm surprised that people are just coming to the conclusion now that the Spurs aren't serious contenders/just-don't-have-it anymore.
The Spurs stopped being serious contenders when Tiago Splitter did them while RC and Lindsey hung out stateside as Tau's people were working on him 24-7. There was a slim hope for Ian Mahinmi surprising and blowing up but that turned out to be zero.
Anyone who didn't realize last spring that the Spurs were done for this season without catastrophic injuries to the Lakers was drunk on homerism or oblivious.
That being said, Pop is making things worse with his coaching. Sure, the Spurs weren't going to be contenders anyway, but the way Pop is coaching them is just shortening their playoffs, they'll be out sooner than they should have been with all the nonsense he's pulled with Hill, Bowen and Finley.
---------
Look on the brightside folks.
You won't have to wonder why Pop isn't playing Bowen next year because he's a lock to be traded or straight up cut to save the Spurs money with his partially guaranteed contract.
AND Michael Finley has a full guarantee for next year, so enjoy watching him every night.
We still have another gear.In the past years I rarely watch any regular season spurs games because to me, you ain't seeing the real spurs unless it's the playoffs. So now this season I decided to be really active in the regular season and the team I get to watch is an injury ridden spurs team. Now they got back all the pieces, they still can't get it together.....So is this the worst spurs team of the Duncan Era. I got a feeling that the Spurs are in unchartered territories right now....But I still and will always believe that you ain't seein Spurs unless it's the playoff and the Spurs will turn things around come playoff time. Now I'm off before my boss sees me.
This is a joke to lose to a team that doesn't even know what its doing (AT HOME!). The lack of lineup continuity and trying to get players integrated so late in the season results in these late game breakdowns.
This bunch will be very lucky to win in the first round, something they have done ten out of the last eleven years.
When Tim Duncan is not Tim Duncan, everything else suffers. Ginobili has missed too much time and is back to square one conditioning wise. He needs more time to get back to where is was prior to the ASB.
It seems like the Spurs realize they don't have what it takes to go all the way, and they don't have their usual confidence as a result. Can they get it back? Doesn't look good.
To cough up what was a very good playoff position in the last two weeks is pretty pathetic. Five or six different times the team has not executed in the last minute of a game.
Coach Pop has managed to zap the confidence of the three key new rotation players this year by various means - Mason, Hill, and Bonner. Those guys need to play in a clear role to help everyone else out. Instead they are benched or playing with no confidence.
I hate to say it, but the Spurs officially became a playoff pretender tonight. These are not the Spurs of 2000 or 2001. These are the Spurs of 1992 and 1993 - not enough horses to win in April, May, or (especially) June.
Duncan needs to not play basketball for a period of months before he (maybe) can be himself again. That sad fact really makes the Spurs playoff fate very predictable. That stinks for us Spurs fans who are so accustomed to our guys making the clutch play at the end of games.
Little did I know when I went to the Spurs Mavie game in SA (a rare treat as I live in Dallas) on February 24 that I witnessed the beginning of the end of this season. Duncan's very significant knee problem reared its ugly head.
All the years of long playoff runs has caught up to too many key guys - they are not able to perform as well they have in the past because of injuries/age(Parker is the exception to this).
Sorry to be so glum, but I think most of us see the writing on the wall very clearly right now.
Last edited by Harry Callahan; 04-01-2009 at 04:31 AM.
I agree with this, especially the way Pop is coaching right now. Taking Mason out of the starting lineup is just making things worse. Choosing Vaughn over Hill?? WTF!?
Top 3 loss of the year...
Sigh!
Seems like a lot of Finley hate considering Finley is the reason we almost won the game - and I'm not just talking about that almost-shot at the very end.
Pop has been head coach for a lot longer than I have, and has won 4 more championships than I have. I don't really understand what he was doing last night, either, but I trust he had a plan.
My theory is that he is continuing is long standing tradition of using the regular season as scrimmage games, tinkering with rotations and figuring out who will make the playoff roster. The frustration for me is that this may cost us the #2 seed, which I think is our best chance to win another championship, because we get LA after two tough rounds, or someone else knocks LA out for us. But Pop would say if we're not good enough to win from whatever playoff position we get, we're not good enough to win a championship. And he's right, really.
I also think that Duncan does this every year - he seems to not have the pep or the hustle in the regular season, and people question whether he's lost something. Then he turns it up in the playoffs and everyone is wowed again.
Udoka is a better, taller defender than he gets credit for being, and his offense has been picking up. That's why he gets minutes.
Manu, Tony, and Tim appear to be healthy. That's all that matters. We'll see more of Gooden, Thomas, Mason, Finley, and Bowen in the playoffs. We may not see any of the others.
Eh...sorry. I used to buy this but not anymore. Over the last 15 games Finley is averaging over 31 MPG. Obviously this is the plan...and anyone who thinks that is anything less than suicide in the playoffs is in denial.Pop has been head coach for a lot longer than I have, and has won 4 more championships than I have. I don't really understand what he was doing last night, either, but I trust he had a plan.
Ummm...yes? When is the soonest we can start? There can even be slight tweaks and moments of Gooden and Oberto mixed in with the bigs depending on matchups, but this works. Of course, it has no chance in of becoming reality, what with the ommitted name of one Michael Finley. Sad.
OH THE SHAME THE SHAME OF IT ALL!
THE THUNDER?????
There is truth to that statement, which is why you, I and others still have reservations about Parker. I mean, he's a good player, and he had an awesome 2007 Finals, making layup after layup.
But if he can be neutralized so easily by just clogging the lane, and if he can't find other ways to contribute, then in spite of the Finals MVP, and in spite of carrying the Spurs through this regular season, he's the same Tony from the 2004 Western semis:
Open lane:
Game 1: shot 8 for 19, 9 assists, 1 turnover
Game 2: shot 13 for 23, 5 assists, 1 turnover
Defense adjusted, clogged the lane:
Game 3: shot 4 for 12, 5 assists, 3 turnovers
Game 4: shot 7 for 18, 8 assists, 4 turnovers
Game 5: shot 7 for 23, 6 assists, 3 turnovers
Game 6: shot 4 for 18, 3 assists, 6 turnovers
In other words, we'll lose.
But unfortunately, Parker is far from being the main concern for the Spurs this season.
If opposing defenses clog the lane, there are still ways to score and usually that doesn't just mean throwing up trey's. That means passing the ball and freeing up the weakside. Run the ball to Duncan and then pass the ball out high or hit the guy cutting to the basket.
if that happens, i think that should be a good thing for the spurs. our gameplan is either to make tony and manu attack the rim, or if the lane is clogged, it should open things for our perimeter shooters.There is truth to that statement, which is why you, I and others still have reservations about Parker. I mean, he's a good player, and he had an awesome 2007 Finals, making layup after layup.
But if he can be neutralized so easily by just clogging the lane, and if he can't find other ways to contribute, then in spite of the Finals MVP, and in spite of carrying the Spurs through this regular season, he's the same Tony from the 2004 Western semis:
Open lane:
Game 1: shot 8 for 19, 9 assists, 1 turnover
Game 2: shot 13 for 23, 5 assists, 1 turnover
Defense adjusted, clogged the lane:
Game 3: shot 4 for 12, 5 assists, 3 turnovers
Game 4: shot 7 for 18, 8 assists, 4 turnovers
Game 5: shot 7 for 23, 6 assists, 3 turnovers
Game 6: shot 4 for 18, 3 assists, 6 turnovers
In other words, we'll lose.
But unfortunately, Parker is far from being the main concern for the Spurs this season.
if our shooters then struggle, we're in real bad position then. but i don't think it's a fail for tony, or manu, if the whole defense focuse of his penetration. it's up to our shooters to make them pay.
good points, too.
that's true that if the lane is well closed and our shooters are cold, which could happen, we seem desperately unefficient on offense. tim at the post could be a solution.
but our ball movement don't seem good enough to save us.
but outside tony and manu, there's a lot of players that could not even put the ball to the ground. too bad ball handling skills.
Last edited by kace; 04-01-2009 at 09:53 AM.
that game was horrible.
My only thought process on the Finley situation is that Pop is waiting for Manu's legs to come back to reduce finley's minutes. You'd hope that he'd insert bowen and RMJ into the starting lineup and bring manu of the bench starting with Game 1.
The only thing Pop should be tinkering with at this point is his big man situation. Thomas should start and Gooden/Bonner should be spelling the PF/C positions.
My bad.
Did Pop even want to win this game?
B.Bowen -- DNP - Coach's Decision
G.Hill -- DNP - Coach's Decision
EDIT> By the way, great points in the OP.
The Thunder made a lot of careless mistakes last night. Throwing passes too far ahead and out of bounds, missing some chip shots, etc...and we still lost.
These are mistakes that teams like the Lakers or Hornets aren't going to make in abundance. We need to play near perfect to beat these playoff teams, and these Spurs are nowhere near clicking on all cylinders at this point.
I'm happy with Manu as a starter instead of Mason. But Mason should only play backup SG (not PG) . Hill should be our backup PG. PERIOD. KT and Bowen should start instead of Bonner and Finley - with Manu in the starting lienup we already have enough offensive power.
I agree with the top 8.
Depth Chart:
Parker - Hill
Ginobili - Mason
Bowen
Duncan
Thomas - Bonner
I would feel confident enough with that core group + Spurs defense. If they need more bodies, play by need/matchups/performance that night. Not blackmail.
Realistically, there simply is not enough time to turn us into a well oiled playoff machine. It's just the cold hard truth. If we somehow managed to steamroll rounds 1 and 2, that in itself would be a moral victory of Aggie proportions, because no contender plays CIA and s around with players heads and team lineups so close to the playoffs like Pop is.
The Gooden thing was a stretch to begin with, the chemistry he shows with Manu looks promising, and would be something to actively care about if it were game 20-30, not game 74.
Pop not using Kurt Thomas was one of the weirdest things in Pop history. Only plausible explanation was that he was feeling a little hurt, and Pop wanted to save him. But he looked fine to me when he played in the 4th.
Pop--What are you doing man? We have been guessing and second guessing what the he's up to for weeks, and noone is close to giving a plausible explanation for Pop's overall strategy. The 2003, 05, and 07 spurs would have beat the dog out of OKC last night, and Bowen would have been denying Durant the ball after his 4th bucket, tops.
A lineup of TP, Mason or Manu, Bowen, TD, and Thomas is a good mix of both O and D. Off the bench bring in Fin, Bonner, Hill, Mason or Manu (depending on who starts), and Gooden. No more Udoka or Vaughn please. And Oberto I think still has something left, maybe spot mins or something...I mean he was the starting center for the 07' le team.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
