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Too late.
By Kori Ellis
SpursZONE.com
http://www.woai.com/content/sports/s...4-66b341fd87da
After another disappointing defeat at home, San Antonio is left wondering what exactly is wrong with the Spurs. With the Dallas Mavericks holding a 5 ½ game lead in the division, the Spurs’ chances are slim that they’ll be able to catch their intrastate rival.
Wednesday night the Houston Rockets, who had lost 17 straight contests against the Spurs in San Antonio coming into the season, won their second game of the season in the AT&T Center. Tracy McGrady had 37 points in the 90-85 victory, a win that came without All-Star center Yao Ming.
The Spurs mounted a furious comeback at the end of the game, but it was too little too late. Tim Duncan had 37 points for the Spurs, but got little help from his teammates.
Where has it all gone wrong for the Spurs?
You can question the hunger and energy the Spurs bring night in and night out, and while that is a valid concern, San Antonio’s bench is the main culprit as of late.
Coming into this season, many saw the Spurs’ bench as a strength of this team. However, it’s turned out to be quite the opposite. Again Wednesday night, it was the team’s bench that buried the Spurs.
When the Spurs’ starting lineup was on the court, the team outscored the Rockets by nine points. But when Gregg Popovich turned to his reserves, he got nothing.
The bench problem starts at point guard. Beno Udrih has struggled virtually all season and has regressed to the point that it’s questionable if he’s actually an NBA quality player. He has great natural skill, but he has steadily gotten worse since the beginning of his rookie year and now it seems that his confidence is gone.
Jacque Vaughn, who played five horrible minutes against the Rockets, is a third string point guard at best. With Udrih or Vaughn on the court, Houston outscored the Spurs by 15 points.
And while Tony Parker is a very good player, he needs a decent backup point guard to keep him fresh. Udrih and Vaughn aren’t the answers. Whether the Spurs need to make a trade or find a player in the D-League, something must be done. The backup point guard position has been a sore spot for the Spurs all season and it just keeps getting worse.
Coming off the bench at the swing positions are Michael Finley and Brent Barry. While both have had great careers, it appears that age has caught up to both of these players. Finley has struggled with his shot all year and the problem has gotten worse instead of better. Barry has shot the ball well, but his lack of defense brings down his overall effectiveness and keeps him on Popovich’s hot seat.
Getting a dynamic athlete who can create his own shot would be a huge boost for the bench. That is why the Spurs have expressed interest in Corey Maggette and will continue to look for help at that position before the trade deadline. Finley and Barry are both good teammates who want to win, but is there any gas left in their tanks? At times, there doesn’t appear that there is.
For example, the Rockets outscored the Spurs by 14 points when Barry was on the court and outscored the Spurs by six points when Finley was on the court. You can’t have that type of negative contribution from your bench and expect to win many games in this league.
The Spurs bigmen outside of Tim Duncan have been lacking, to say the least. Both Francisco Elson and Fabricio Oberto have looked decent at times, but at other times look more suited to be 12th men rather than starters for a championship contending team. Robert Horry has had moments, but for the most part has been a non-factor.
The Spurs have two main options to strengthen their bench play. They could make a trade to try to infuse some life into their second unit, or the Spurs can shorten the rotation to help the players try to get in better rhythm.
On the trade front, there doesn’t appear to be many likely trade partners out on the market. Maggette is available, but the price tag is likely more than the Spurs can afford. Morris Peterson is probably available, but he doesn’t bring much more than the Spurs get out of Barry and Finley. The Spurs’ best bet might be getting a backup point guard, such as the Grizzlies’ Chucky Atkins, the Magic’s Carlos Arroyo or Seattle’s Earl Watson.
The more likely option is shortening the rotation. The Spurs currently use a nine or sometimes ten man rotation. Limiting the rotation to eight players (the starting five, plus a backup swingman, a backup bigman and a backup point guard), could help the team play more consistently.
With an eight-game Rodeo Road Trip starting Sunday in Los Angeles against the Lakers, the Spurs don’t have much time to right the ship. A subpar trip could cause the Spurs to tumble down the standings.
It isn’t time to panic just yet, San Antonio. But unless the Spurs fix their problematic bench, that time may come soon.
Too late.
The worst thing is spurs play right now is that you can't see the place for improvenment.
In recent years the spurs could get into the slump but when they concentrated you just knew they were able to beat everybody in this leauge.
Right now you can't observe that in spurs game
chucky atkins would be a great pickup
1. Departure of front-office people with great scouting instinct
2. "Conservative" approach of this team in terms of trusting in veterans, e.g. van Exel over Beno, has left this team "old", and also left the young players inconfident.
These 2 problems has no quick remedy, so just wait and see what happens.
I think there is some place for improvenment in the defensive end.We can´t have guys like kobe or T-Mac scoring 35, 37 pts.I know Bowen is not a kid no more,but its rediculous to see a guy score like that against him.
As you can see in this thread
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58727
Bowen actually had the best +/- of any Spurs player in the Rockets game.
The Spurs lost the game because at the end of the 3rd quarter/beginning of the 4th quarter when Bowen was on the bench for a long period, the Rockets outscored the Spurs by 15 points.
Kori.....
Nice!
i can understand giving other players minutes during the regular season so as to prevent fatigue later on (although popovich has been pretty ridiculous in the amount of minutes he's giving to players who aren't producing).
but come playoff time, if the spurs don't limit their rotation to duncan, parker, ginobili, oberto, elson, bowen, barry, and bonner, the spurs postseason is going to be a short one.
As others have pointed out, Pop seems married to the idea that Michael 2007 will revert to the Michael of the late 90s/early 2000s, scoring off the bench like he was averaging 20+ PPG as a starter. It's pretty clear Michael's shot is gone, and he's nothing but a shooter. This is the same mistake Pop make with Nick Van Exel.
Even worse, when NBA.com used to show playoff averages, even in his prime, Michael's avg scoring went slightly down in the playoffs. He was never a playoff stud, on average.
I mentioned this during the summer- people don't appreciate what some of the staff did outside of RC, Pop, and Sam, and how many of these guys are gone. They kept claiming the Spurs were fine as long as the Big 3 were with the team- not Tim, Manu, and Tony-- Pop, RC, and Sam.
I disagree. Now is EXACTLY the time to panic.
I am sure all of us have heard from other fans or even in the media that " 27 teams in the league would love to be at 30-14". There is an undertone of sarcasm when you hear that because those folks think SA fans are overreacting. Count me in with the 'overreacting' crowd. We have all be fortunate to see championship teams grow throughout a season with steady improvement and the team peaking at the right time. This team isn't one of those. I am somewhat amazed at our consistent inability to execute down the stretch. In the past it was a game here or there that this would happen but now it's an ugly pattern. In the past when we would struggle there would be flashes of brilliance on both ends of the court that would leave some hope but no this year. I was not surprised at what happened last night because we have played this way all along. Maybe we're to spoiled by our past success but it's not fun to cheer for a team that would be extremely lucky to get out of the second round. if the playoffs started today we'd be lucky to get out of the first round. Are the days of contending over for this team? We all knew it would happen but probably not this soon. For those who respond to this that say I am overreacting please give ne some insight as to what gives you hope for the rest of the season?
That's it in a nuts . The team's at ude will improve, which will make them more compe ive at some point, but there's not any room for growth otherwise.
I guess Kobe and Dirk scored most of their points against the spurs when bowen was on the bench also.The point of this thread is that our bench sucks and we all know that,and I agree too,but I just can´t see these guys(kobe,t-mac,dirk,etc)play out of their minds against the spurs all the time.
MrBrody how can the at ude improve?
And even if so ... Not having the riht tools you can forget about TD era. Time to rebuild but on whom? Spurs do not have a time to surround TD with a talent to win it all.
It will be interesting to see how the Suns hold up as they've basically been playing a playoff rotation (7 man, sometimes 8) the entire season.
they do that every year since 2004,and came up short every year.I don´t think is gonna change this year eather.
they´ll run out of gas again this year.
D'Antoni reminds of Don Nelson in that he's totally sold on his way of doing things and won't ever change cuz he believes he can win a championship that way. While I admire the confidence in yourself and your system, at some point you need to realize that it's ok to make some changes to get you over the hump.
His job has to be much easier than most coaches as what player wouldn't want to play in that system(Run & gun w/o much care for defense)? Coaches like Pop, Avery, Jackson, Riley, etc. have to sell their players on playing defense which is a much bigger chore.
I can see 2 main places for improvement and it is not personnel.
The biggest problem is at ude.....they get can get up by 20 points on most any team with great ball movement on the offensive end and then down the stretch stopped staying aggressive and this lets the other team back in the game. When they move the ball and make the "D" move they they simply get better looks at the basket, whether it is 3 pointer or layups. This is the biggest of the 2 problems.
The other problem is defensive rotations....especially by the newer players. They are sometimes slow to react when the opposition gets into or near the paint. However, I have been seeing steady improvement.
team-work and ploto, humor me - who left that mattered? The big ballas in the front office are Pop, RC, and Presti. They're all still here. We lost Pritchard to Portland a couple of years ago, and that's about it.
The problem isn't who left, because no one significant has left.
The problem is that they made their killing on finding Euro talent. Since they made their splash, other teams have invested heavily in foreign scouting and have caught up to the Spurs.
Meanwhile, our domestic talent evaluation sucks, and that's the key problem with this front office. They went bargain basement Euro, and missed out on grabbing guys like Howard and David Lee.
We're still only half way through the season.
No need to panic.
Kori great article and I agree with the points of a backup PG, our bench sucks, etc.
But 2 other factors which should be mentioned:
- Our players don't have the motivation anymore and just waiting around for the playoffs
- Pop is becoming a problem, he has publicly stated that nothing is wrong w/us and Dallas beat us because of the Manu foul, etc. Not only that, but Pop's lineups and some plays he has called, along with not calling timeouts when they should(late in the game) is leading me to beleive Pop is becoming senile
somebody needs to call the players and Pop out for this
very good article.
it is an interesting point, that the Spurs best bet might be to get another back-up PG.
(considering we have been talking about almost any SF in this league as a possible addition)
in another thread I tried to make a point for a trade for Jasikevicius (+ Barnes, in a best case scenario).
I don't know, if he is even on the market, but considering the make-up of GSW's back-court he doesn't look indispensable.
so, for the right offer, he might be available and the right offer for the Warriors will be one that helps to save cap-space to either resign Pietrus and not jump over the tax threshold.
I know, many are not very high on Saras, because of his overall disappointing play in the NBA and there is also a good chance that he doesn't help the Spurs as we would need it.
and for sure he isn't an upgrade of the perimeter defense and the overall athleticismn and he is 30.
BUT
he would be -hands down- a huge upgrade over Beno
AND
it might be the (realistic) trade with the most significant upside potential out there.
if Saras qualities can be somehow unleashed, the Spurs would not only get a special player, they would also get a player who has one quality, that currently seems to lack in this team: a winner mentality like the one we knew from Manu.
I saw Saras lead (and sometimes ferocious push) his teams to various les, this is a quality that can't be teached and I can't belive that he has totaly lost this ability somewhere over the Atlantic.
We know the the Spurs have liked and scouted him for years and there might even have been some talks.
again, Saras wouldn't be a sure thing, but IMO and in the current situation the Spurs should take (have to take) some risk. something they avoided (for example this summer) when they didn't sign Scola.
many comments stated that the Spurs have also become to predictable. well, one thing for sure: Saras Jasikevicius isn't predictable.
btw: I am a bit supers ious and like signs (only the good ones of course).
Saras once repleaced Beno at Maccabi. the next two years Maccabi won back to back Euroleague les. what worked once, might also work twice.
and btw 2: just for thoses who think Eva is hot and a great eye catcher on the courtside.
for those who didn't already know her: this is Linor Abargil, Saras wife and former miss world.
^ holy crap! his wife looks like a dude in that pic
Atkins, Arroryo and even sarunas would be an improvement over Beno.
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