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San Antonio Spurs '23-'24: Hoops, Hype, Hair Dye


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3 minutes ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

Wemby at the 5 tonight. Novel concept playing the really tall guy at center. I guess that's why Pop is in the hall of fame. 

Tonight's starting lineup would be really good if we could replace Malaki Branham with someone like De'aron Fox.

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So I admittedly haven't watched many games, but every time I check a box score I see Tre with 6+ assists and maybe 1 turnover. Is it all in garbage time?

Meanwhile the starting what-the-hell-is-the-Point-of-this Forward will have 5 turnovers and 4 assists.

On the bright side my prediction of a Pistons-Spurs clash to end one of their streaks is still on target.

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1 hour ago, Hermanator said:

How is this team this bad? It shouldn't be. The pieces aren't this bad. 

The roster is poorly constructed, we're poorly coached and we're giving a bunch of shitty players minutes. 

You're right. We shouldn't be this bad. 

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I love Pop. I really do. He’s the reason we won five titles and were basically THE class of the league for nearly 30 years. But this streak plus the audacity to admonish the fans for booing Kawhi have me wondering if it’s time to put the old dog down and slide him into an advisory/front office role.

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1 minute ago, C-Man said:


No doubt but the Spurs are currently on an 11-win pace.

What I meant by that is that questioning the direction of the franchise or whether Pop is the right coach for this rebuild is warranted at this point. We're nearing a decade of not being worth a shit. The idea that the criticism of this team and/or Pop is unwarranted or impatient (an idea that a lot of our fans are holding onto) is rather myopic. Especially with a draft coming up that appears to be a crapshoot.

We shouldn't be losing 16 games in a row. By the ASB Wemby will be one of the best 50 players in the league if he isn't already. He's putting up 19/10/3 and 4 stocks in a dysfunctional offense that doesn't utilize him properly. DV is a plus SG on both ends of the floor. At worst Keldon is a replacement level SF. Sochan is ridiculously talented but he's not being put in positions to succeed. 

The problem is that around those 4 guys we have a bunch of dogshit - and I'm not sure what the purpose of that is. I hope they aren't actually trying to surround our core with winning players because if it's simply bad evals then yikes. Branham is not an NBA point guard. He may be in a couple seasons but there are conservatively probably 15 or 20 guards in the G League better than him. SJR is probably one of them. Tre Jones is not a starting point guard. Collins is a nice player but he's not a very good defender and his usage is too high. Osman and Doug are bums. There might be a good player in Champagnie but he's green. They've quit playing Bassey for some reason. Devonte Graham doesn't play at all. Marmaduke or whatever the fuck his name is isn't an NBA player. 

I mean even for a team trying to lose we are shockingly bad 5 through 15. And we need to change that in a hurry because Wemby is that good. We can't be dicking around like this in 2 seasons when he's putting up 32/12 a game. This can't turn into the Anthony Davis Pelicans or KG TWolves.

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Pop is on the same trajectory as Belichick. I have a lot of respect for him, but he's lost some of that fire and passion. He also has had huge changes in his personal life, and I can't pretend he's the same person or performing the same way since those changes. At this point, it looks like he's engaged in pure guesswork with lineups, schemes, strategies, and perhaps even player development.

My biggest concern is that we lose Wemby forever. On the bright side, he posted a double 20 last night? He wants to win though, not just to grind stats, and a 16+ game losing streak could either drag him into complacency or shatter his confidence. With the wrong coach, I worry very much about that.

Here's what DDR said about him

 

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Not pursuing Reaves as a restricted free agent was infuriating and telling.  Yes he’s a Sooner and OU sucks, and yes we’re probably like 5-16 even with him, but there was no reason to not pursue that guy and at least make the Lakers overpay.  The roster is sorely in need of veteran savvy and leadership and he was there for the taking.  He’s not drastically outside of the current group in terms of age, either.

That move made me realize that the franchise is happy to rest on its laurels, rake in the cash of the thousands of new season ticket holders, and keep selling the bs line of “well we weren’t gonna win a title this year anyway, we need to see what we have.”

I guess they’re content with throwing away a healthy Wemby year and getting him accustomed to losing.  Seems like a great idea.

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20 hours ago, Welch said:

Not pursuing Reaves as a restricted free agent was infuriating and telling.  Yes he’s a Sooner and OU sucks, and yes we’re probably like 5-16 even with him, but there was no reason to not pursue that guy and at least make the Lakers overpay.  The roster is sorely in need of veteran savvy and leadership and he was there for the taking.  He’s not drastically outside of the current group in terms of age, either.

That move made me realize that the franchise is happy to rest on its laurels, rake in the cash of the thousands of new season ticket holders, and keep selling the bs line of “well we weren’t gonna win a title this year anyway, we need to see what we have.”

I guess they’re content with throwing away a healthy Wemby year and getting him accustomed to losing.  Seems like a great idea.

I really like his game and all, but Reaves isn't even a veteran. This is only his third year. Whether they should have made the Lakers overpay is a different debate, but he wasn't leaving LA and Lebron for any amount of money. At the end of the day, I don't think Reaves really wanted to play chicken with the Lakers front office on the off chance that they would let him go. And maybe it's good karma for the Spurs to not drive up the price on a player that they didn't really covet. Either way, Austin Reaves isn't the answer for this team. 

The notion that Wemby is going to bail on the org after 21 games and that he's going to be the next Kevin Garnett or Anthony Davis is rather absurd. Dude is 19 freaking years old, the conference is loaded this year, and they've had the 4th toughest strength of schedule in the league while executing bizarre coaching experiments. I know it's difficult to see (and lord knows it's difficult to watch), but the team is actually playing better. Wemby is getting better, rapidly. It's just not translating into wins yet. They play tough for three quarters and can't finish. This is all part of the learning curve.

Again, I would preach patience along with coyote fantasy porn.

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Saw a stat this morning that the Spurs are 1-18-1 in the 3rd quarter this season. That only win in the 3rd quarter was against Phoenix. That tie was against the Hawks. If they can figure out how to come out of half time with the same energy and focus they do that they typically start the game with, they could really start winning games.

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On 12/9/2023 at 11:47 AM, C-Man said:

I love Pop. I really do. He’s the reason we won five titles and were basically THE class of the league for nearly 30 years. But this streak plus the audacity to admonish the fans for booing Kawhi have me wondering if it’s time to put the old dog down and slide him into an advisory/front office role.

Lol, no. That would be the generational talent top 5 all time player Tim Duncan. Sure Pop had his moments, but lets be real here. Duncan made Pop far more than Pop made Duncan. 

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20 minutes ago, The_Great_Hornsby said:

Lol, no. That would be the generational talent top 5 all time player Tim Duncan. Sure Pop had his moments, but lets be real here. Duncan made Pop far more than Pop made Duncan. 

That's highly debatable. In an alternate universe where Tim bolts for Orlando in 2000, could a Doc Rivers corched superteam get past Shaq Kobe and Phil? The 03-05 Pistons corched by Larry Brown? Maybe MAYBE they beat the 06 Mavs, and this is all assuming Grant Hill stayed healthy (which of course he didn't). By the time LeBron had gotten over the hump in 07 I don't think Tim + TMac would have been enough talent to even be a lock to win the East. Definitely not enough to get past the Celtics and Heatles.

Of course Pop was incredibly lucky with Tim but also ahead of the pack in scouting foreign talent, which played a huge role in the draft successes of Manu and Tony. Not just limited to foreign talent either, I'll never forget when Pop had the balls to get rid of fan favorite George Hill for a chance to snag Kawhi Leonard.

I think he just stopped caring as much as he used to. You can't compare today's Pop to the Pop of before. He needs to find his Eric Spoelstra and step into a more advisory role, ala Pat Riley.

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37 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

That's highly debatable. In an alternate universe where Tim bolts for Orlando in 2000, could a Doc Rivers corched superteam get past Shaq Kobe and Phil? The 03-05 Pistons corched by Larry Brown? Maybe MAYBE they beat the 06 Mavs, and this is all assuming Grant Hill stayed healthy (which of course he didn't). By the time LeBron had gotten over the hump in 07 I don't think Tim + TMac would have been enough talent to even be a lock to win the East. Definitely not enough to get past the Celtics and Heatles.

Of course Pop was incredibly lucky with Tim but also ahead of the pack in scouting foreign talent, which played a huge role in the draft successes of Manu and Tony. Not just limited to foreign talent either, I'll never forget when Pop had the balls to get rid of fan favorite George Hill for a chance to snag Kawhi Leonard.

I think he just stopped caring as much as he used to. You can't compare today's Pop to the Pop of before. He needs to find his Eric Spoelstra and step into a more advisory role, ala Pat Riley.

All of this. Pop was fortunate that he got Duncan for sure. But he is also the reason Duncan stayed after the Spurs won the first title in '99. He drafted Parker and Ginobili. He also wanted Kawhi later. I also give Pop TONS of credit for instilling the attitude that helped build the winning culture in SA. We were mentally soft before he came back from Golden State and basically kicked them all in the ass.

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38 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

That's highly debatable. In an alternate universe where Tim bolts for Orlando in 2000, could a Doc Rivers corched superteam get past Shaq Kobe and Phil? The 03-05 Pistons corched by Larry Brown? Maybe MAYBE they beat the 06 Mavs, and this is all assuming Grant Hill stayed healthy (which of course he didn't). By the time LeBron had gotten over the hump in 07 I don't think Tim + TMac would have been enough talent to even be a lock to win the East. Definitely not enough to get past the Celtics and Heatles.

Of course Pop was incredibly lucky with Tim but also ahead of the pack in scouting foreign talent, which played a huge role in the draft successes of Manu and Tony. Not just limited to foreign talent either, I'll never forget when Pop had the balls to get rid of fan favorite George Hill for a chance to snag Kawhi Leonard.

I think he just stopped caring as much as he used to. You can't compare today's Pop to the Pop of before. He needs to find his Eric Spoelstra and step into a more advisory role, ala Pat Riley.

That was Pop's greatest attribute. I give him all of the credit in the world for that. But foreign scouting is ubiquitous now, so he doesnt really have an edge in that department like he used to.

In my opinion, Pop blew the 2013 championship by benching Timmy on the final play of Game 6 regulation. Something that he can never be forgiven for doing. He also never repeated with a loaded roster from 2003-2008. And I think he could've repeated in 2014/2015 but the team dicked around for half the season and lost home court by 1 game. 

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On 12/8/2023 at 10:25 PM, TommysTinyTowels said:

I’m really starting to hate watching Pop smiling, laughing and smoozing with the opposing team after the game. He obviously doesn’t give a damn about winning the game. Would you care to go and get a glass of wine later?

I've stopped watching games in part because of this. I've been to two games this year, watched the first 15 or so intently.... Wemby is worth the time, but this team together is so frustrating, and this is the least frustrated I've ever seen Pop. If he's ok with losing, then my give a shit levels are way down. I'll keep glancing at box scores and getting the game stories on twitter. 

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28 minutes ago, BurdineBandit said:

I've stopped watching games in part because of this. I've been to two games this year, watched the first 15 or so intently.... Wemby is worth the time, but this team together is so frustrating, and this is the least frustrated I've ever seen Pop. If he's ok with losing, then my give a shit levels are way down. I'll keep glancing at box scores and getting the game stories on twitter. 

At least be fun to watch, right? The first halfs can be fun to watch. But those third quarters are so demoralizing.

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