It was really a perfect storm. Pops wife, the holts passing ownership to the next generation. There was no one could remove pop from the team at that time.
They did the best they could with Kawhi.
As a trade asset, he was only a one-year rental who let the world know (1) the Spurs had to trade him and (2) he would be in LA the next year.
Kawhi had no regard for the Spurs whatsoever and he didn't care who knew about it.
Wow, I haven’t heard that before.
I didn’t say anything about whether the trade was good or bad. Another regime might have chosen a different route. Trades of that level of impact happen very seldom in the entire existence of a franchise. At a point when regime change is in sight, I would have preferred for the Spurs to move on and allow a new regime to mold its own destiny consistent with its vision.
So not only should Kawhi have been able to dictate his trade, he should have also been able to dictate a long-lasting change in the makeup of the Spurs' front office going forward?
Forcing all those hugely consequential decisions to be made on the fly in a matter of weeks?
Maybe that's just too much power to give the disgruntled dribbler of a ball.
You are creating straw men that don’t reflect my position. I don’t know how a new regime would have handled the Number 2 situation. Perhaps it would have forced Number 2 to come to camp. Perhaps it would have let him sit out the year - again. Perhaps it would have offered him a max. Perhaps it would have made a different trade. Perhaps it would have made the same trade. I was of the opinion that however a new regime chose to handle Number 2 it should have had that opportunity.
But Pop needs to go, and he needed to go before then. He certainly doesn’t need to coach beyond this season. It would have been a propitious time to change regimes. In addition, it was quite possible that the Spurs could have lured Coach Bud back. Moreover, whoever was here to negotiate a possible trade would have been a completely different negotiator than PATFO.
The most crippling move Pop did in regards to the Kawhi trade was trying to get a package back that would help him get the Spurs into the playoffs. Instead of looking at deals(picks or youth prospects) that would help the team in the future, he made a half-assed win now move in acquiring Derozan. And for what? Because the old man was terrified of coaching a lottery team in his final two years as an NBA head coach.
We can't discount trading Leonard to Toronto was somewhat of an 'exile' move by the Spurs. They thought it would be one of the last places Leonard and his reps would want to be at after their ballsy LA or bust trade demand. As luck would have it it worked out for them anyway.
Back to this season. We still have one more mileage mark to pass, and that's the lifting of Murray's minutes restriction. He's a vital cog and warrants a full slate of games (10-15) to examine how the team fares when he's playing his full allotment. If the Spurs continue to play sub-500 even with Murray at full strength, then that would be the signal to plan for next season.
Let's say by January 1st this should all come to a head.
That sure seems like what his motivation was. But really, we only have cir stantial evidence. I have no idea what goes on in Pop’s mind when he does those deals with Pau and Fitty Mills or when he signs a guy to a $7M-3yr deal and buries him on the bench before the season begins or when he persists I playing Marco - especially in tandem with Fitty - or when he had 2 very good centers and 2 very good PFs but stubbornly played both centers together and both PFs together and went down to OKC in the playoffs... or now favors an athletic but unskilled Dijon over a very good PG prospect in DWhite. I just know that the majority of Pop’s decisions in recent years do not inspire my confidence. In Pop I definitely do not trust.
It was a Pop move in the sense Pop wanted to eat his cake and have it. Pop thought he could keep the Spurs a playoff contender by doing that move and like you said basically over #2. Sending #2 to Toronto was the worst thing ever because it enabled him to win another le and create an insufferable platform for him on the national stage in which now we have these media idiots pushing "Load Management." Should have sent #2 to Charlotte for Kemba where he would have been miserable having to be on a lottery team along with dealing with MJ. Even if Kemba walks during FA it's still better than having to dealing with Derozan.
This is a brilliant proposal even after the fact. Jordan would've thrown in a 1st still possibly to get his pet player on board. Come to think of it Charlotte is another cast away destination and would've been far worse than Toronto.
Kemba would've taken us to the playoffs in 2019 too. But as you say it would've been a one year rental but worth it knowing what we have seen with DeRozan in 100 games. At least Kemba would shoot a gd three.
I'm not sure what your point is. That they wouldn't be a 25-win team, but a 35-win team? They are playing exactly like that right now. Most people would argue that being not quite a playoff team is worse than being a bottom dweller due to ping pong balls.
As for Dejounte and White, they're developing but not without bumps on the road - right now Murray can't hit a J, he's like a mini Westbrook and that type of player even at his best doesn't affect winning as much. He needs to become a reliable shooter, to run the PnR much much better and to be able to penetrate and kick in the half court. He's a long way off. White's regressed this season, mainly when it comes to being aggressive. Neither of them is close to being a star capable of leading a team to the playoffs right now.
Exactly - it's the same right now. The only ways to have a higher ceiling is by either getting a star in free agency, which the Spurs can't do, or developing a player into a star. A DDR trade does nothing to address the higher ceiling.
Well they arguably tried with Morris, although my personal opinion is it wouldn't have worked either, because they're built on sand. This roster had no business being close to 50 wins the last couple of seasons. But everyone hates the coaches right now so no point arguing whether they were overachieving and it's all just coming back to earth.
I disagree. They won't be better picking up a decent role player in a hypothetical DDR trade. He's still the best playmaker on the team, the only one who attacks the rim consistently and the only one going to the free throw line. What will some random role player do? Role players depend on stars to open up the game for them in order to be effective. They'll have to go back to throwing it down to Aldridge all the time, which won't be able to generate enough points to overcome the poor defensive personnel. They'd be just the same at best, likely worse off.
I don't know WTF you talking about, boy - cult? wtf - I don't give a either way they do
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