My first thread is an important one. How did San Antonio get so many quality bench players? They go 8,9 and 10 deep while they kicked our @##! How did they get ONE OF THOSE! It's not fair. I want a bench like that. How do we get THAT?!
Coaching. Patty Mills, Belinelli and that Aron Baynes guy should not be what they are. Plus they have smart vets like Ginobili and Diaw that just are perfect for what they do.
The coach did a lot, but SAS are masters at scouting, especially for overseas players. It helps to have a coach that plays bench players, while teaching them. But you still need promising talent.
And the lack of egos and player's commitment to the team game plan. I think some of these guys are choosing to come off the bench for the Spurs when they could possibly start for other teams.
Funny, last series all we were doing was bitching about them. Belly was a no show, Mills was marginal, and Baynes played 6 minutes. Diaw was good and of course there is Ginobli.
Aside from Diaw and Ginobli, their bench players are below-average. They might - MIGHT - crack the rotation on non-Playoff teams. They are good because Pops makes them good. Scrubs who play for Pops play about 400% better than they actually are. So, yeah, the Spurs bench IS amazing - but it's not because of who they have coming off of it. Go back and look at previous Spurs rosters and identify those non-star players that always came up huge. Then look at those players after the Spurs traded them (or let them walk). They're mediocre. Rule #1 - never trade with the Spurs because the player you're getting from them will be dramatically worse on your team than they were on the Spurs. Danny Green & Kawhi Leonard will be the next Gary Neal/Roger Mason Jr./George Hill, Splitter will be the next Blair/Oberto.
You can't build a quality bench without cap space. Popovich seems to be able to get players to buy in, literally, to the chance to play for the Spurs in his system for less money than they could get elsewhere. Duncan took less money in order to leave cap space for other signings. He's on the books for a little over $10M...less than we pay Batum. Parker is tops in salary at $12.5M and Ginobili only makes $7.5M. Splitter makes $10M, Diaw $4.7M, and everybody else is under $4M...most are significantly under. Popovich must be a heck of a salesman.
Danny Green might not be able to dribble the basketball, or make layups (he has improved) but comparing him to GARY NEAL is asinine. His on ball D is the best on the team and he's a sniper from deep. I don't even know what to say about Kawhi Leonard RMJ comparison smh. Splitter being 7 feet tall already makes him better than Blair and he's the best mobile big man defender on the team. Pop does get the best out of his players, and a lot of our guys benefit from the "system". That has become the go to explanation for the Spurs' success but we do have a lot of talented guys on our roster. When RC and Pop scout for players, they look for players that will buy into the system and are willing to learn, but they have to have SOME talent before hand. Look at Ayers, dude is a scrub no matter who's coaching him.
They weren't directly player-to-player comparisons. Those were just some ex-Spurs that I recall being key bench guys, who left the Spurs and were never as good as they were when they played for the Spurs. Yes, Green and Leonard are great on the Spurs. But should either of them ever be traded, they will become irrelevant in the league - Leonard less so (so a direct comparison for him might be George Hill). Yes, Splitter is doing a great job on your team - but put him on another team and he becomes a non-factor. These guys have a modicum of talent that the Spurs are able to exploit, but none of them are great players on their own.
Easy they wait for portland to cut them because mcmillan wouldnt play them then they suck them up for cheap.
You're exactly right. If you don't have good character you don't play here. David Robinson set that example and he passed it on down to Timmy. George Hill posted a penis pick on Twitter ( I think it was Twitter) and he was benched, then after the season he was traded. Samaki Walker got caught driving his motorcycle at 110 MPH while being under the influence, he was traded not long after that. Derek Anderson was rumored to be in a gang, so we let him go even though he played good for us. Last year we brought back Stephen Jackson after he promised Pop he would behave. But a few weeks before the playoffs began last year he went to a party in Oakland thrown by a famous rapper with ties to the Crips, and even though he was playing really well for us and we needed him, he was release shortly after that happened. Of course the "Official" word is that he didn't want to be a role/bench player. Which is BS because that's what he was when he won a ring here in 2003. Pop has always believed that you can win with guys with good character. He would rather take a competitor with a high basketball IQ than a guy who can jump out of the gym. Timmy, Manu, and Tony are prime example of that. I don't know about the rest of your team, but LA, Dame and Nic seem like cool dudes. Timmy has nothing but good things to say about LA, and he doesn't say that about just anyone so that's all I need to know. The reason we're up 2 -0 is our bench. Plain and simple. We strugggled against a lesser team in Dallas, but that was because our bench struggled for some reason. You guys MUST find a way to get out of this half-court game we got you in. Speed kills us but you guys haven't been able to show off that athletic advantage you guys have over us. If you guys can break out in the first half and get a good lead you guys will win Game 3. But if it's close in the 4th I think the pressure we will put on you guys will be too much. It's a learning process. We've been there A LOT. You guys have a solid core, just need several more pieces here and there. Cheers, guys!
For one thing R.C. Buford has managed to find rotation quality guys at the back of the draft that fit Pop's scheme and finds low cost, quality free agents who compliment the roster. The Blazers have blown a lot of picks and lost a lot of guys to injury. Eventually those strike-outs leave you depleted.
Some of those guys had their best games the last 3 games. Dallas took them to 7 and they weren't looking sharp until game 7. Pop's system works and he gets his players on the same page but their shooting was better than usual. They got over 100 bench pts off us in 2 games.
People laughed at me when I said we should pick up Bellinelli last summer. Guy can drill it from deep