Okay, time to start shaking off the off-season cobwebs.
What specifically do the Spurs need to do to improve from last year? To take the next step up from "semi-dynasty" to "unquestionably All-Time bad-ass"?
Yeah, the Spurs got Finley, NVE, and Oberto to fill in their supposed offensive and big man weaknesses. That's nice, but those weren't really the biggest weaknesses.
The biggest weakness the Spurs had was mental: their inability to close out, both games and series.
I'm thinking about the end-of-game collapses last year: Utah x 2, Memphis x 2, Miami and I won't even mention the Big One that comes to mind. Then the potential close-out games 4 of the WCF and 6 of the Finals.
The perception is that the Best of the Best of the Best wins those games. I think that bringing everyone of consequence back, and an extra year of experience for Manu and Tony, are the key factors to doing a better job of closing things out.
Even with VanFinto, the Spurs are going to be in a lot of close games at the end. And just having the new people is not necessarily going to be enough to win those.
spurs need close games to help them realize this is not going to be a cakewalk to repeat
nve will win some games for the spurs this year
parker will be working on his shot and the other teams know this
they are going to dare him to beat them tp is fast though and oberta knows he needs to set screens for manu hopefully he will for tp to
Free Throw shooting...particularly from the top 8 rotation players.
My "Keys to the Season."
(1) Tony Parker's continued development.
(2) Beatdown Houston.
(3) The month of March (of course)
Pop being more Pop when barking at bad plays
free Throw Shooting.
Starting with Tim Duncan
I start with rasho, no more soft shots and one hand ft shots, show us that in the euro comp you had transfered to the spurs !!!!
VanFinto
Nice.
That was Toronto Bear
I do not see in close outs the biggest problem.
They can finish the opponents like 2003 nets and Detroit in the Final game.
The collaps is when they hold a big lead and then start to relax. Bu believe me this year will be the difference. They have got just exact enough expierence to not let that happen. They have got Tim and Gino who are clutch so I'm not worried about the endings of big games.
That's it.
Now - let's concentrate on free throws right Chip?
Free throws, free throws, free throws and closing out the first half more effectively.
manu being able to play back to back games late in the year (passing himself better)
Surely you meant "pacing himself", unless you are referring to Manu being out of gas because he passes too much of it?
Free Throws, one or two out of Finley, Barry, and NVE to become a consistent scoring spark plug off the bench, and Health.
point differential........! spurs were rolling and BEATIN DOWN on er one till Timmy went down.... SPURS gotta distribute the beatings ;-) everynight and with AT UDE!
Free throws!!!
Free throws are overrated. More on this in a day or so.
Ya'll want to give the bench MAJOR minutes. The bullseye is on your guys' backs again, and the last thing you want is your main players running low on gas with 12 minutes left in the season. Trust me on this; I know whereof I speak.
I think that the Chip Engelland may turn out to be the most important signing of the summer. So hopefully FT and consistent shooting.
Except for 2 of the finals game, Tim Duncan was probably one of the most clutch at due time.
Start with Tony, Tim does enough as it is.
Yes, and not coming out of the half with a poor 3Q showing. And with the bench we have, there is no excuse for not giving 48 min of solid, committed basketball.
Free throws and third quarters.
All too often we'd be up say 52-42 at the half and all of the sudden at the end of the quarter it'd be tied or near tied or wed even be down! Best example: WCF against Phoenix. All the games were close because we let them storm back in the third quarter.
And with the new shooting coach I'm hoping (duncan's) freethrow percentages are up.
Play like it's a streetball pick up game and and you gotta wait 5 games until your next up!
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