And if frogs had wings they'd never bump their asses when they jump. I love these pointless arguments: if this was 2003, the spurs would wipe the floor with the grizz. If the spurs had this or that guy, they would have won. If they had just played better, they would have won. If they would have outscored the grizz during four games, they would have won the series.
He'd be better off not doing so, tbh.Hey bro, if you're gonna stick your 2 cents in, you should probably read more than the last couple replies in the thread.
Pop has handled this season like he's the bas child of Don Nelson and D'Antoni. But put that all aside for 30 seconds, if you're mentally capable, and take into consideration that Memphis has better personnel for playing defense. D wins championships. This isn't complicated.
So if Pop trotted out all his scrubs (not just his favorite ginger) and benched Manu for the entire series to give his elbow even more rest and so forth... well you see where I'm going wtih this.
How many coaching blunders would it take for you to concede that it might have something to do with how the team ultimately measures up in the end?
I was willing to argue all day with DPG because he's known for bringing solid takes. But i'll be damned if i sit here and argue with TJastal. At his best, he's bad. At his worst, he rivals Fabbs.
I'd have agreed with you a decade ago but defense > all isn't the formula for success nowadays. The old days of 68-65 slugfests are over. You need to have scoring too.
That's not to say defense is not important, but your acting like it's everything which is just not true anymore.
The spurs had the personnel to match up to the grizzlies defensively but didn't use that personnel, which put them in a big hole all series long defensivley. Which caused guys to tighten up offensively, and start clanking shots, like a domino effect. That's the way I see it anyway, you're free to hold onto your "simplified" outlook.
The Grizzlies had both a better offense, and a better defense. The fact that they actually have players capable of playing lockdown D is very telling when you stack them up against the Spurs.
But pop didn't do that. We played them straight up for the most part and we were beaten. I guess you could also wonder how the series would have turned out if this was the 1990's and the spurs were the chicago bulls. All the "ifs and buts" don't matter when we all saw this series unfold, and we all saw the grizz rise to the occassion.
Regular season
SA scored 103.68 ppg, gave up 97.98
Grizz scored 99.94 ppg, gave up 97.6
Certainly appears the spurs are pretty close to the grizz in terms of defense (less than a half a point separation). And that's WITH the ginger logging big minutes.
You should post ppg, ppg allowed and FG % allowed for the playoffs.
I can't believe you're actually arguing which team is better defensively.
I'm not gonna do it.
We're having an abstract argument here. If you wanna put your 2 cents in you have to play along. We all know what Pop did you don't need to keep regurgitating that fact.
You should account for the second half of the regular season. That'll be more indicative.
If you don't think regular season statistics are meaningful to this discussion okay fine were done arguing then.
I'd agree with most of this. I would offer Manu the same deal as Tim, out of respect; but frankly I think Manu would want to go to a contender and wouldn't feel bad about being traded off of a rebuilding project.
Trade for picks, rebuild. I'd keep Neal, Hill and Splitter, everyone else is a trade chip.
And it's time for Pop to go, which is probably fine with him. Hasn't he already said he leaves with Tim?
Thanks for a fabulous run, Tim, Tony, and Manu. I love you all.
Ginger has another 3 years left on his contract. I can't see Pop leaving until he fulfills his personal mission to transform Matt Bonner into Robert Horry.I'd agree with most of this. I would offer Manu the same deal as Tim, out of respect; but frankly I think Manu would want to go to a contender and wouldn't feel bad about being traded off of a rebuilding project.
Trade for picks, rebuild. I'd keep Neal, Hill and Splitter, everyone else is a trade chip.
And it's time for Pop to go, which is probably fine with him. Hasn't he already said he leaves with Tim?
Thanks for a fabulous run, Tim, Tony, and Manu. I love you all.
It probably wouldn't be fair to compare the head-to-head stats from this playoff series and their regular season meetings I suppose?
Congratulations, Memphis. Your team played better basketball than ours did for more time.
You were obviously well prepared by your coach, you had a well conceived game plan defensively, and you executed that game plan with great discipline.
You deserve the win. Enjoy.
That is all
The Grizz were better built and trained to win against the Spurs than the Spurs were to win against the Grizz.
The Spurs were built to do well in the regular season, and in the playoffs you could see Pop trying to patch in the old style inside out game and it didn't work. Ginobili's injury had a role, but all in all the Spurs are no exception to the rule that you dance with the one that brought you, and the inside out game did not bring the Spurs to the playoffs. Tim was not relied upon during the season to win games. Tiago was not relied upon to do anything. Suddenly we start relying on them as if Tim is a secret weapon.
I really do not think there was anything this team could have done with the players they had, other than play Tiago more, to get them to the ring. They were, at best, a WCF team but no way they get out of it.
I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Tim play since he was drafted and even in college. The problem with greats like Tim is that we see them in their waning years and those who don't really know start questioning just how great they were to begin with. For that reason, I hope Tim does his retirement tour next year and enjoys his health, his kids and his wife wherever he chooses to live. He's a class act just like Dave and deserves no less.
I hope Kobe dies in a grease fire.j/k
JAG is right. If you took Zach Randolph and switch him with Duncan, SA wins this series. Sad but true.
TD is 35 YEARS OLD. That is the key thing. SA did a great job in the RS, but their front court as a group was not very good. End of story.
SA was an average defensive team this year. Gone are the days of hard fouls, contested jump shots, and strong perimeter defense preventing threes. They couldn't stop anybody and this has been an issue for awhile.
The improved offensive stats were cancelled by the porous defense.
Popovich knows how to coach a championship level team and he always emphasized D. The players of this roster could not play it well enough and Pop got away from demanding great defense. They paid the price in the end with a very weak finish.
The grizz were the better team and I think they were built to compete against the Lakers and Boston. Not the Spurs and that is one reason the Grizz had no fear of them.
If Duncan had Gasol watching his back and taking care of the paint instead of one of the turd towers I really don't think Randolph goes off for 20/10 every game.
But that's just the way I think, using common sense.
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