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Nice link!
http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=7420
Scroll down to the defensive side to see Gregg Popovich being at the top of the defensive list.
Nice link!
Lakers fans in 3,2,....
When do they factor in the last two years' statistics?
After looking at the past few seasons, I'm starting to think that Pop was only a great defensive coach coach because he had great defensive players. He talked about preaching defense but that's easy to do when you have two players who are top 5 all time defenders at their respective positions.
Pop basically exposed himself at a Don Nelson disciple at heart when he trashed Bowen for Michael ing Finley.
up until about 2007, then Pop got soft on defense. No more of
"if you don't play defense, they you don't play"
Bruce. Bowen.
Pop rides on the shoulders of giants.
That dude came to play, regular season, playoffs, it didn't matter. He didnt wait to the playoffs to crank it up. One of the top 5 MVPs in history of the Spurs IMHO.
Thompson, benefactor, boutons_deux, Parker2112 excellent work.
Lets not forget the guy assigns Matty Bonner to lock down during playoff time.
The Spurs played great defense in 99 too.
It was already a standard formula to have bigs to try contain Shaq and perimeter defenders to contain Kobe. During the three-peat Lakers era, every contender tried to have that. The Spurs were actually late to sign a perimeter defender (Bowen).
Bowen proved to be so good, that the Spurs fell apart when he was hurt during the 2001-2002 season. He never missed a game after that, but it was always clear that he was a key player for the '03, '05 and '07 championship runs.
The 99 and 2003 teams were very different, so Pop has some credit for the championships. In 2007 some opponents, like the Suns, were impossible to contain, and Pop overrun those teams with superior offense.
Phil had MJ, Pippen, Horace Grant, Cartwright, Rodman, Shaq in his prime, Horry, Kobe, Artest and he's still various points bellow Pop on defense.
I think that Pop is the best in defense. What happened the last two seasons?
- The Spurs tried to avoid paying luxury tax, and old players were given an extra year contract when it was clear they were not going to be productive. In 2008-2009 various done players were in the last year of their contracts and in the playoffs Manu was unable to play.
- The last season showed some improvement, but it was not enough to pass the second round. The Spurs are in the process of rebuilding the roster.
After 2009, the Spurs had many holes in the roster. The team wasn't bellow the cap to throw big money and lure the necessary players. The new team is taking shape:
- The big man rotation was Duncan and nothing else. I think that was finally fixed with the addition of Dice, Blair and Splitter as the starting center.
- Parker had no backup, Hill was drafted.
- The Spurs needed a SF. Jefferson is adding star efficient offense and solid rebounding, but he can't replace Bowen's defense.
- The team needs a starting SG, which should be Anderson.
- The bench was Manu and nothing else. The Spurs added Hill, Blair, Dice.
- The Spurs shot bad last season, hopefully Neal, Anderson and Bonner can do a better job this time.
The team still lacks a perimeter stopper and a backup SF. But if the Spurs don't find a good player for the role, defense on the perimeter can be done good enough by Jefferson in his second season and Hill who plays solid defense, perhaps rookies Anderson and Neal can do something too. Even if past, they should try to funnel to Duncan and Splitter in the paint.
Once the roster gets completed, it will be interesting to see what happens.
To be fair, Pop just doesn't have the defensive guns he once had. Not only did he have great individual defenders, but he had guys who bought in to the "defense first" philosophy. Guys like Bowen, Malik Rose and Danny Ferry were all players who far exceeded their natural abilities by accepting a role on the team and putting most of their effort into defense. Those old rosters had more clearly defined responsibilities in regard to what a player's role should be, because they had a prime big three.
The Spurs current role players have trouble concentrating solely on defense because the big three cannot carry the team offensively for the large majority of minutes. The Spurs have to get back to having clearly defined roles for every player from top to bottom. This will be the biggest challenge for the upcoming season and the Spurs success will greatly depend on Pop's ability to define those roles and maintain a status quo with lineups and rotations.
Great coaches need great talent to win games. Attempting to use Duncan, Robinson and Bowen's talents as a way to minimalize Pop's ability as a coach shows nothing more than ignorance. All the great coaches on those two lists had incredible talent to work with, but there are also many coaches no where near that list that also had great talent to work with. There is a noticeable difference in the way great coaches manage their talent.
Pop is by no means a perfect coach, but he wins games. In the last 23 years only 7 coaches have taken home championship rings...Pop has 4 of those.
Like all great championship HOF coaches should, Pop's always given the credit to his players for their success. That said he's definitely one of the best when it comes to defense. His system of denying the corner 3 (highest % 3-point shot in the game), trying to force the opposition to shooting long midranger jumpers, and funneling opposing players baseline into a defensive minded PF with size (Tim Duncan) + help defenders seems to be a staple for all contenders largely because Pop and the Spurs showed that it can get ya plenty of success.
How many coaches would have made a player from the minor leagues (Bowen) a starter or even given him a chance, especially when he saw the anemic scoring avg.
Players play and do what they do best, but it is up to the coach to spot the late bloomer or the niche specialist like Bowen and go against all the experts by making him a starter.
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