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I always viewed the two in a similar light. Even though he is more like Tom Brady in terms of championships, I think Manning is a better player.
There's quite a few similarities between the Spurs and Indianapolis Colts: The Colts, as long as they had Peyton Manning, managed to qualify for the playoffs nearly every single year - a very long streak of excellence. Indianapolis is also a small-TV-market city, kind of like San Antonio.
But as soon as Peyton went down, the team tumbled all the way down to the very bottom of the league - very, very bottom.
So I'm thinking that when Duncan leaves, the Spurs may be like that - they may have another terrible year, just like the year before they got Duncan - but the good news is, they may just get lucky in the high drafting order that way.
Last edited by Spurs and Mavs fan; 04-05-2012 at 08:18 PM.
I always viewed the two in a similar light. Even though he is more like Tom Brady in terms of championships, I think Manning is a better player.
after peyton went down, colt tumbled, but did so on purpose. there is a difference between losing an elite leader and falling into obscurity and intentionally tanking for a draft pick.
Obviously, the Spurs would struggle, but there are some solid young players in Splitter, and Leonard to somwhat cushion the blow of Duncan retiring.
While the QB in Football is like 1/3 of the success (+1/3 coaching + 1/3 rest of team), you could make a case that an NBA-superstar has about the same share.
That said, guys like TP and Manu will take care of their third and Pop will too (in the NBA coaching may be less important than in Football, but you get the idea).
Timmy is playing great that year, but he wasnt even an All Star anymore!
Indy lost not only coz of Manning's absense but also coz of Luck.
Will Spurs struggle without Timmy? Sure, he still is a major in our machine. Will they be one of the worst teams in the league? Not, if they dont want to be!
As the biggest Colts fan on the board I have to weigh in on this.
The Colts situation right now is much more analogous to Duncan getting drafted rather than Duncan retiring. Peyton was our David Robinson, he got hurt and missed a season, and now we get to draft Andrew Luck (Duncan) as a result. The problem with the Colts was they built their team completely around Manning so without him, they couldn't win. I have a lot of faith that the new front office team in Indy will give Luck a complete football team with good talent on defense. If their rebuild goes well, Luck could win more Super Bowls than Peyton. I think Luck right now is already as good as Manning was in his second pro season, but that's not saying much because the Colts didn't switch to their no-huddle exclusive offense until Manning's third season but Manning is slow as and did not handle pressure in the pocket that well in his early career. Luck will have problems with NFL defenses disguising what they do, but he's very smart and will likely adjust quickly. Dude is about to complete a degree in architectural design and he worked with Tom Moore (Peyton's main offensive coordinator during his time in Indy) who gave him a resounding endorsement and said he reminds him a lot of a young Peyton as far as knowledge of the game and command of an offense and as leader of a football team.
The Spurs will definitely struggle when Duncan hangs it up, but that's what a franchise player's retirement does to your team. You don't just replace an all-time great, unless you have the #1 draft pick and the best prospect in the last decade or so is at the top of your draft board.
Even with the lottery, it's better to be at the very bottom of the league than go 42-40 and get 9th place in the West.
Freudian slip?
It's hard to imagine how we'd get another superstar player without tanking for a high draft pick, since the Spurs seem to have no luck attracting high profile free agents. But the FO has managed to construct a pretty solid nucleus of young players. Since Timmy still has 2-4 years in him, that gives us some more time to keep building. I guess the best case scenario is something like the Pistons of the mid-00s. No superstars, but still a great team capable of perennial deep runs in the playoffs.
But didn't Popovich say he was going to retire as soon as Duncan retired?
And if Duncan retires in, say, 2013, wouldn't Parker and Ginobili be 31 and 36 years old, respectively?
Last edited by Spurs and Mavs fan; 04-05-2012 at 08:17 PM.
With Popovich, the only thing he holds tighter than his tongue to his cheek is his cards to his vest. So I never understand why people take this one of his off hand comments as gospel...
When Timmy does lay it down in fact I am hoping they can do it before he does, the Spurs need to try and entice a younger quality big to join the Spurs in Free Agency. Someone who wants a ring and respects the system. The Spurs quality depth is too good for the Spurs to have the worst record in the league and putting all of your hopes in striking gold in the lottery again would be long indeed. A Nene, or LA, or even a Tyson Chandler type. In fact if at all possible I'd love to see the Spurs if Ainge decides to blow up the Celtics go land KG for Mid level exception for a couple of years. He and Timmy together might get us a couple of more rings before Timmy hangs it up.
As a longtime Spurs fan I remember the days before Tim and David and the Spurs have always been a very good team. There have been a few bad seasons due to injuries but I bet they havent had a streak of crappy seasons ever.
They have the 2nd or 3rd best all time regular season record in the NBA so their streaks of crappy seasons are non existant.
Yep, they've had just 8 losing seasons in the 44 years they've existed, and 6 in the 35 years since they've been a part of the NBA. Though 4 of those came in 4 straight years in the mid-80's, so I guess that counts as a streak. Still, it's pretty awesome that lil old San Antonio can be considered a storied franchise right up there with the Lakers and Celtics.
"Tim Duncan is a major " - mudyez
Peyton going down is not even close to being the same situation as if Tim was retiring.
Colts = still had Manning's salary in the books while he was down.
Spurs = Would free up 21 million to sign another player or two, or three!
colt fan this is the spurs section who gives a what you think
Ducks with a mothafunking truth bomb!
Excellent analysis. Well said.
Timmy and Manu willl retire together, I cant believe how fast time flies..Manu already 34..
BTW the Pacers suck, too.
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