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He didn't mention Bonner at all...
Good article by Art Garcia, actually he mentioned on twitter is his first on foxsportssouthwest.com...
Gives some insight on the spurs offseason and the FO thinking...
http://www.foxsportssouthwest.com/07...blockID=762441
He didn't mention Bonner at all...
"He was just a big a pain in the neck as he was when he almost went to Orlando," Popovich smirked. "He toyed with me, he lied to me, he intimidated me, he threatened me and, in the end, it worked out. But I had to take much abuse to get it done."
one of the greatest player coach relationships of all timegod bless tim duncan
Nice article.
The biggest news is that Spurs want to stay below the tax. In a lot of years, they have been fine with being just over but it isn't the case this year.
must be the new CBA. I'm very curious how this will affect the Lakers, since some of the tax numbers you and Mel_13 have thrown around are staggering.Nice article.
The biggest news is that Spurs want to stay below the tax. In a lot of years, they have been fine with being just over but it isn't the case this year.
good article, I wanted them to make a splashy free agency move but the FO knows way more than me, plus we're just scratching the surface of what Kawhi can become. I also think Patty will be much better. Least we have great chemistry for a team.
With some franchises going over the tax in a big way maybe they are counting on a big payday when the clubs under the salary cap split up the tax revenue.
Hard times are coming and revenue may be down. A cash cache may be important to the future of the team.
The Spurs may have no other choice than to stand pat, but in doing so they've not solved any of the issues that plagued them a few months ago. I certainly understand the financial constraints the Spurs are under. That's just the way it is. Still, if the Spurs start next season with exactly the same team, as presently constructed, then will continue to be defensively inferior and a notch below the big dogs on the block - OKC Thunder - for yet another season and THAT is a concern.
This was all made very clear in the recent playoff series. Looking at both sides of the coin, scoring points is one thing and the Spurs can do that pretty well. Yet the Thunder clamped down on the Spurs and were able to generate key stops at critical moments. They did so by taking away the Spurs strengths, negating their pick-n-roll offense and thus killed their ability to score. On the other side, the Thunder were able to raise their level of offensive play when they most needed it. They literally scored with ease - off turnovers, runouts, offensive rebounds and putbacks, etc. The veteran Spurs were left powerless to do anything about it.
Stand pat all you want so long as everyone knows that improvement for this team IS NOT coming from within - contrary to what Pop and RC have told us so far. Improvement must come from one or two positional upgrades, which the Spurs. at this moment, are in no position to make. This isn't a good receipe - especially for team who has 2 major stars on the wrong side of 30 years old. Osmosis is not going to close the talent and skill-level gap between the Spurs and the Thunder.
On one of the Summer games Pop was interviewed and commented on their plan to develop Diaw. Basically, he said they want to try and coach Diaw to be more aggressive and to shoot more/pass less. From what Timvp commented recently, Coach Don Newman had been given the job of informal "testosterone coach". And with his departure, is there going to be someone else on the coaching staff to step into this role, and hopefully, to actually succeed for once?
Getting Diaw to all of a sudden change seems like a longshot. I would imagine Parker pestering him would have the best chance of an effect, but even then, it seems unlikely.
Anyone else have thoughts on this?
The Spurs could have done a better job of taking control of the ball. Alot of the turnovers were unforced.
I heard that in-game interview too. And at the time, I thought how various coaches have tried to get Diaw to do the same thing over his career. I would've felt better about that task had Newman still been on the coaching staff. Still I agree with your premise that forcing a veteran leopard, like Diaw, to suddenly "change his spots" and develop a "shoot-first" mentality is just not who Diaw is. I just don't think it's something he'll be comfortable with.
Art Garcia working for foxsportssouthwest.com is good news for Spurs fans. He's not Ludden but he has scooped stuff in the past. Hopefully he writes often
They know signing anyone of note at this point is unlikely, so yeah -- try to improve with what they have until the trade deadline.
Not too many words needed.
You want to "break the chain" every so often so that you never get hit by the repeater tax penalty.Nice article.
The biggest news is that Spurs want to stay below the tax. In a lot of years, they have been fine with being just over but it isn't the case this year.
Given their regular season success last year, it makes a lot of sense to stand pat and then see what happens closer to the trade deadline as teams are more likely to deal.
The Spurs also need to see which of their 7-8 guards are worth keeping (or, conversely, which ones have trade value).
They used to have drills where someone would stand under the basket and feed the ball to Rasho who would dunk it. That worked swimmingly.
I think the FO thinks that the Spurs as presently cons uted are good enough to have a decent shot at making the Finals. Going up 2-0 on OKC and curbstomping the Lakers twice makes them think that the matchups are fine, and losing the WCF was just variance (22-25 for OKC bigs in game 4 was flukish).
Yeah, but LA looks like it will get better and OKC should improve too, so if that happens and the Spurs improve then we might be in the same situation as before. Unless they think the Spurs can improve so much that it will offset LA's new additions and also offset OKC's improvement.
And when even Duncan admits something was fishy with the officiating...
The Mills and de Colo signings signify that Pop saw the Neal PG experiment as a failure. His emphasis on making Kawhi a point forward in SL also means he wants to take pressure off Parker in plays.
I remember reading about those drills. Mario Elie would try to get Rasho to let out a scream every time he "dunked". When I was posting under a different username, I remember inadvertently upsetting some members of the Slovenian fanbase by citing this very instance.
Anyway, I would love to see video of this approach with Diaw. Maybe during one of the player interviews during training camp we'll get to see Diaw somewhere out of focus in the background letting out primal screams.
The players are part of the league, so they know the deal with the officiating. They all make big dollars to play their roles, if that's what it is.
It's like an actor saying "something was fishy about that script" when they've done the show for 14 years, same script.
it's not sexy, but it's smart....typical Spurs offseason.....nothing to see here folks.
Diaw will play better in his second season, Mills will bring defense to the PG position, something that's been missing, De Colo seems very good in passing the ball, Leonard could end being an all-star talent.
The Spurs have a good roster, if they sign K-Mart it will be complete. The Lakers have improved considerably, OKC was better the previous season, the other teams have made some moves, time will tell.
Pop over-achieved with the Spurs the last season tbh, so maybe this time will be even better.
Last edited by dunkman; 07-18-2012 at 09:12 PM.
or perhaps for most of the season, especially the regular season, the league has more of a Robert Altman approach, letting the actors' performances and improv guide the overall process and product.
but it does seem like whenever there is a clear narrative or storyline the league wants to market, they start to edit or push the performers into their assigned roles, whether they want to or not. let's face it, Altman's movies don't make bank.
maybe i'm just paranoid about that game 6, but clearly Duncan was sensing some of the same old bull .
I'm not sure Duncan is any paragon of virtue when it comes to accepting bad calls.
That said, it's never a good sign when you see Joey Crawford's gnarled visage in an elimination game.
No reason to believe he won't shoot more. The problem is will he shoot at a good %, that translates into better play. The guy has confidence issues.
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