Spurs could take new directions
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Tim Duncan was sitting on the corridor floor, with Gregg Popovich standing over him, two unquestioned champions presumably trying to make sense of what had just happened to the team that just last week was being hailed as the most fearsome No. 7 seed in history.
You couldn't get close enough to hear what they were saying. Yet you could safely assume that this was not the way they expected the Phoenix Suns to finally get their vengeance.
The sight of Duncan and Popovich commiserating in a hallway outside the Spurs' locker room was the chilling picture Goran Dragic left in his wake late Friday night, after shredding the San Antonio Spurs like they belonged in his Slovenian league back home. The Suns still have to win one more game to say they've at last beaten Team Duncan in a playoff series for the first time in five tries, but good luck finding someone willing to pick these Spurs to become the first team in NBA history to recover from a 3-0 deficit after the 23-point highlight reel Dragic assembled in the final 12 minutes.
Never in the Duncan era have the Spurs sounded as bewildered in defeat as they sounded after this 110-96 Game 3 pounding, which marked the first time in Pop's 14-season reign that San Antonio surrendered 110 points in three straight games in the postseason.
Never did they imagine missing seven straight free throws in the first half to throw away their early momentum, ultimately blowing all of an 18-point lead and then fading away in crunch time against the speed of a tiny, sub-filled, drive-and-kick lineup ... while Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Jason Richardson led the cheers from the Suns' bench.
Someone asked Duncan, before he made it out to his impromptu meeting with his coach in the hall, how surprised he was by all of this.
"I still am," Duncan said.
Exasperated teammate Manu Ginobili added: "It was kind of embarrassing. ... It's really hard not only because of the fact that we are down 3-0 [but because of] the way they are beating us.
"In the first game, we fouled too much and they [scored] too much in transition. In Game 2, they stopped running but they beat us on offensive rebounds. Tonight we didn't foul them, they didn't beat us on the offensive boards, Amare scored seven points and they killed us anyway. That's the tough part to swallow."
That's actually only one slice of the unsavory stuff the Spurs have to digest. There's more. Lots more.
The short-term problem: Tony Parker, making his first start of the playoffs in this Game 3, landed hard on his shoulder after a second-quarter collision with Stoudemire -- with the hosts still up 16 -- and will undergo an MRI on Saturday to determine his status for Sunday's Game 4.
The long-term issue, meanwhile, is how to proceed roster-wise after the Suns finish the Spurs off, which looms as an inevitability no matter how jittery Suns fans are when it comes to San Antonio, even with a 3-0 cushion.
Owner Peter Holt sanctioned the offseason acquisitions of Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess, pushing his payroll into the $80 million range, because he believed the Duncan-Ginobili-Parker triumvirate was still a le contender if healthy. A six-game dismissal of the Spurs' longtime rivals from Dallas in the first round had finally begun to convince Holt that the investments were worth it, but the grittier-than-ever Suns' ability to grind out wins in the past two games when San Antonio shut down their running game has instead spawned the suggestion that the No. 2-seeded Mavericks would have taken out the aging No. 7 seeds if Dallas coach Rick Carlisle had simply unleashed his Dragic -- rookie guard Rodrigue Beaubois -- as so many Mavs fans lobbied for back in Big D.
Sources with knowledge of the team's thinking say the Spurs are increasingly optimistic about their ability to inject their front line with some new blood by convincing Brazilian forward Tiago Splitter -- whom they drafted in 2007 -- to leave the European game to come to the NBA starting next season. Yet it remains to be seen how aggressive San Antonio feels it'll have to be about reshaping the rest of the roster after Jefferson's season of struggle, with Parker -- unpalatable as it sounds -- ranking as its best trade asset. The Frenchman has only one season left on his contract ($13.5 million) after this season and, according to a recent report in the San Antonio Express-News, has told friends that he's unsure about his future in town after the contract extension recently bestowed upon Ginobili and with second-year guard George Hill capable of playing the same position.
First, though, the Spurs are going to have to get over this thorough humbling at home. Which certainly didn't sound imminent as you listened to various Spurs describe the problems they had dealing with the guard penetration and pick-and-roll success Phoenix manufactured at the start of the decisive fourth quarter with a group of Grant Hill, Jared Dudley, Channing Frye, Leandro Barbosa and Dragic on the floor.
"We are going to have to play the perfect game," Ginobili said of possibly stealing Game 4, after the Spurs slipped into a 3-0 hole for just the third time in the history of the franchise.
"They just killed us."
I personally don't see Holt going deep pocket this time around. I think there is a lot of trading value in the current roster and maybe getting lucky again at the draft. Other than that, I'm not sure how much can the Spurs improve going forward. We'll see.
Holt said he's not trading parker.I dont think its a good move to trade parker.Keep him and trade the expiring contract of RJ at the deadline.meanwhile add defenders and 3 point shooters.
With Tim and Manu increasingly less able to manufacture their own easy baskets, we really need a true PG. Sorry, Church of Tony, he isn't one. We need someone who can totally manage the half court offense, and Tony just isn't that guy. Too bad that the Hornet's lecherous owner just sold. We probably could have plucked Paul from them, just because Parker's contract is so short, and Collison played so well and only needs a little more mentoring.
after lebron 2010 contest jefferson's expiring will no longer be sought after
It's not about FA's, it's about every team shedding contracts to try to get under the looming hard cap in the summer of 2011, coincidentally, the same time RJ's contract expires.
You do know that TP expires next year as well right?
If you trade Parker you need a deal that takes RJ with him.
Pretty good article, but the Roddy Buckets reference was pure speculation by Stein, a Mavs fan, passing it off as news.
For next year, I can easily Dice retiring. He's only in it for the post season and who knows if we'll make the playoffs next year - everything is wide open.
So, I can see Dice, RMJ, and Bonner all gone. 50/50 with Ian for a minimum contract. RC has lots of work to do this off-season. I don't see Splitter coming over. We have a lockout on the horizon. This instability could dissuade him, and who knows how much he wants to make. Everyone assumes he's coming, but we went through this dance with Scola before.
Buyout RJ if possible. Trade Parker. And stop doing trades with the Phoenix Suns if possible.
If you can do a sign and trade for equal value then do it but us shedding payroll is not going to help us. Also for the fact that this summer you have a whole lot of teams who are going to have a lot of money to throw at Lebron, Bosh , Amare, Wade. So going into the summer of 2011 you have Tony Parker is rated the number one free agent that summer....
I disagree. Forcing RJ into a deal limits actually getting something good in return, which sort of kills the point of the trade.
Either we eat RJ's contract, trade him at the deadline, or buy him out.
You know what... Jefferson is the best worst player we've ever had.
Jefferson limits our options. Becuase Jefferson is a on the second team we must have him as a starter which means we have to take out our best penetrator and sure scorer and send him to the bench. More than not, he's like the tiest of the capable slashers and has worst shooting % than hill, gino and parker, so he's basically useless. Compound that with the fact that he f's up rotations, and we have a waste of 15 mill.
jefferson is what killed us, not Ghill, Gino's nose, Duncan's knees, or Parkers nation of origin. Because of jefferson, we had to change our offense composition and we stopped playing our game, which is slash score and or dish to corner 3.
Replace jefferson with 2 guards who are shooters and we are set.
I can't imagine not having Parker on this team.
me neither. That's why jefferson should leave at all cost.
Because of jefferson, we had to bench tony. Any move that suggest you should bench your best scorer is suicide.
Spurs are screwed from a le contender standpoint until Duncan retires. Then the "semi-rebuilding" begins, because they have already started a little bit of that.
lol no.
lol yes. Look at their financial situation and how far they are from a true contender.
Spurs will still be a very compe ive team, but just not a "true" contender. The only way that changes is if Hill, Blair and another surprising young player (Malik, Temple, Ian, Tiago...) steps up can add to the bench.
Then they would have to hope for a very solid low end signing to pan out like (Bell...).
Then they would need a very solid trade. At that point, they might give themselves a shot.
Then they would have to resign TP.
You keep making the suggestion of trading Parker, but for who? There aren't any available "true" point guards. I didn't see these stupid suggestions when Parker was dropping 22/7 and was arguably the best player on the team.
lol.... no. Richardson is our financial disaster. Nice try.
rofl! i said Richardson.
What? Explain yourself.
my second post indicates i meant Jefferson. Jefferson is 15 mill, and doesn't fit our system. He's the reason we aren't going to be contenders if we don't trade him away.
Duncan is still our best player and deserves that money.
What the f does that have to do with my post saying the Spurs are screwed from a financial standpoint and that they won't be a true contender more than likely because of it?
Even if we trade him away, we are still far from a true contender.
Yes, Duncan does deserve the money, but that does not change the fact the Spurs are caught in-between of being a contender and rebuilding because of the financial situation.
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