I see that Manu's minutes are down this year. It's very interesting that last year he was much healthier and explosive yet our record is better this year. I like what I see from the team in terms of confidence. We seem a lot looser this year for some reason. Manu's grit and hunger has not gone away at all. I think what Pop is doing is trying to hold Manu back as much as possible preventing unecessary injury and making him really thirst to go out and murder teams come playoffs.
Pop doesn't want him to become complacent and rest on his larells. I don't think I've ever seen an angrier Manu than what he's shown this year (slapping tables, not making the all star team, getting injured) which leads me to believe his desire is higher than ever. Once the lift and explosiveness are back in the legs this guy will be a killer. He now posseses a greater repetua of moves and shots and is far more experianced as a player than a few years ago and he's only averaging 1 less point than last year. Obviously it's Manu, Duncan and Parker who carry this team's offensive load but none of those guys are super scoring machines unless they have to be. Our guys know what it's about, so don't get mad at Manu or say the guy has lost his hunger because it's not true at all! And I don't want to hear any whining even if we don't win the le this year. If not for Manu the spurs would be sitting on one ring right now. He's changed the entire dynamics of our game and is the number one reason that Parker has become the force he is. I feel very comfortable getting back to the finals with this squad considering the compe ion and believe it or not I think we can take Detroit in 6 this year, regardless of homecourt.
Well if he's hungry, I hope they get him a pregame meal.
The Spurs are a solid team right now. Their rebounding has improved with Nazr. Barry is playing serious now, a fake trade to a ty team will do that to ya. Finley has settled down. NVE can get the ball to midcourt in 8 seconds.
We should be fine.
You may not want to hear whining IF the Spurs were to go down this season...but you will hear it and there's not a thing you'd be able to do about it.
Never-the-less, some good thoughts about Manu. I don't think Manu is resting on his laurels but he has been less aggressive due to his injuries. The Spurs have a better record this year because they are deeper with Finley and NVE and Oberto plus Marks playing at his all-time best. All that plus Timmy not missing a bunch of games (he missed 16 last year) adds up to a couple of more wins.
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if one of our main guys when down to injury. We as Spurs fans are plenty used to that crap happenings.
-knocks on wood-
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