Love: ‘They all think they’re tough guys’
MINNEAPOLIS Frank Vogel spoke like someone who already knew what was going to happen.”It’s going to be a smash-mouth basketball game for sure,” said Vogel, the Pacers’ coach, before Wednesday’s game. “It’s going to be a battle on the glass.”He smiled. He shrugged a little. It was as if he was imagining just what his beast of a team could do to the Timberwolves.Whatever Vogel imagined, even whatever he might have wished, came true on Wednesday night, when the Pacers manhandled the Timberwolves into a 109-99 loss. Not only did Indiana finish the night with a season-high score, it also managed to completely stagnate the Timberwolves’ offense with what amounted to a physical beat-down. “In the first half, we were really bad offensively,” Timberwolves’ coach Rick Adelman said. “In the second half, they did whatever they wanted.”It was as simple as that. This was a loss, in every sense of the word, and there was nowhere else to place the blame than squarely on the shoulders of Adelman’s young team.Kevin Love, who had averaged 30 points in his past five games, finished with 21 a good night for most players, but somewhat of a letdown for the Timberwolves’ forward. And as much as the Timberwolves needed those points, Love brought an attitude to the game that, though it could have spurred his team’s offense, ended up dooming it.”You know, they’re so tough,” Love said of Indiana. “They take those pills, and they’ve got all that toughness. I don’t know where that comes from. They all think they’re tough guys. I just don’t know where that comes from. That just blows my mind. They’re all tough. It makes me laugh.”Tough. Tough. Tough. Tough. Each time Love said it, he seemed to spit out the word. To Love, the Pacers’ toughness isn’t something to be admired. It’s a front, a way to scare opponents, and nothing else, but somehow Love and his teammates fell victim to their opponents’ bullying persona.In the third quarter, down 74-67, Love fouled the Pacers’ Danny Granger, which then spawned a tussle on the court. Players gathered in a circle for an almost formulaic skirmish, and Granger came away with a technical foul. It was the kind of fight that has no real impact on the score Love made his one free throw, and Granger made both of his but can have an immense impact on the trajectory of a game.Instead of capitalizing on that negative energy, the Timberwolves let Indiana harness its ill will and pull away in the fourth quarter. Instead of making the most of his dislike of the Pacers, Love was reduced to stewing in his feelings after the game.”I know that none of them were going to do anything,” Love said. “Just play ball. It’s part of the game. Hard foul. Everybody’s getting fouled out there. They’re silly.”If silly means going on a 20-10 run after a technical foul, then sure, the Pacers might be silly. A more objective viewer might call it resourceful, though, or even relentless. Granger said that the incident lit a fire under him, but the Timberwolves saw no similar effect.Martell Webster was most disappointed in his team’s inability to internalize and deal with its emotions. Down seven in the third quarter at the time of the fouls, the Timberwolves were in no worse rut than they’d already found themselves several times this season. But they were lethargic as they’d been all night and they let those emotions blind instead of spark them.”You can’t be running away from the punches,” Webster said. “You have to go in there with your guard up and ready to fight. Something like that is probably what you need to jump-start something, but we let them hit first, and we couldn’t recover from that.”Much of what happened at the Target Center on Wednesday wasn’t a surprise. The Pacers’ defense has only given up 30 points to an opposing player three times this season to Deron Williams, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, no less so Love’s lower scoring shouldn’t have been a surprise. Neither should the physicality, which both Adelman and Love said they discussed before the game. What was most shocking and disappointing was the Timberwolves’ inability to react or adapt. It was as if each shove, each hard drive, left the young Minnesota team confused and off its guard. This was a game in which the Timberwolves could have been a bit reckless, a bit daring, but instead they chose to exploit the less productive aspects of their youth. They got mad, they got selfish, and they lost.Follow Joan Niesen on Twitter.
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Los Angeles Lakers Need Better Offensive Balance or They Will Miss the Playoffs
In case you hadn’t noticed, the Los Angeles Lakers are 12-9 and currently in eighth place in the Western Conference standings.
If the playoffs started today, the eighth-seeded Lakers would be matched up with the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs.
Can you say first-round exit?
The Lakers are quite simply, a bad basketball team that appears to be getting worse as the season wears on.
This is a team that went 13 straight games without breaking the 100-point mark (a new franchise record during the shot clock era) before scoring 106 points in last night’s win over Minnesota.
This is a team that replaced Lamar Odom with Josh McRoberts.
This is a team that lost to an Andrew Bogut-less Milwaukee Bucks team by 11 points.
This is by far the worst Lakers team in the Pau Gasol era and it’s really not even close.
So what gives?
It all comes down to shot distribution, and when you’ve got one player who has accounted for 484 of the 1,572 shot attempts (30.8 percent), you become very easy to guard as a team.
Kobe Bryant is taking way too many shots and in his attempt to beat teams one-on-five, he is failing miserably.
Kobe has taken 221 more shots than Pau Gasol (263) and 292 more shots than Andrew Bynum (192). It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that this makes absolutely zero sense when Kobe shoots 45.5 percent from the field while Gasol is shooting 50.6 percent and Bynum is at 53.7 percent.
Gasol and Bynum are both averaging 16 points per game; combine the two and they are outscoring Kobe 32 points to 30. That’s not how a so-called “Big Three” is supposed to work, folks.
There is no reason for Gasol and Bynum to not be averaging 20 points per contest. The shot distribution in Miami is a perfect example—LeBron takes 19 shots, Wade takes 17 and Bosh gets 15.
In LA, Kobe is taking 24 shots, Gasol is getting 13 and Bynum 12. See the difference? You can’t have your best player taking twice as many shots as the next two guys in line; it’s just not a recipe for success in today’s NBA.
Kobe’s defiance is destroying the Lakers once again—he’s going to go down in flames and he’s taking this team with him.
Now I will admit that things were a little better in Minnesota last night. Even though Kobe managed to take 29 shots, at least Pau and Andrew were able to match him with 29 combined shots between the two of them.
Kobe was able to make 14 of his 29 attempts while Bynum and Gasol combined to make 19.
The question remains, how much longer can the Lakers go on like this? How much longer can they continue to have Kobe take as many shots as their two soon-to-be All-Star big men combined?
So how can the Lakers better balance their offense? Well, I know it sounds simple, but they need to play inside-out and they need to force feed the ball into the post from the opening tip.
Bynum and Gasol should never combine for fewer than 30 attempts and Kobe shouldn’t be taking more than 20 on any given night.
Especially when you consider where Kobe’s shots are coming from on the court and their degree of difficulty versus Pau and Andrew doing most of their work in the paint.
That’s my magic formula folks, instead of the big three’s shot chart looking like this—24-13-12, it should look like this—20-15-15.
Less shots for Kobe and more shots for the Bynum and Gasol, it’s the only way things are going to get any better in Laker Land.
After the Lakers beat the Bobcats at home on Tuesday (don’t even say it), they will be improve to 13-9 with a third of the season officially in the books—on pace for a 39-27 final record.
That record will be good enough to get into the playoffs and it might even be good enough for a top four seed with the way things are currently jumbled up in the Western Conference standings today.
That said, is this the kind of attitude we’ve officially resorted to as Lakers fans now? Just hoping to have a good enough record to get into the playoffs and maybe having home court for the first round?
Unfortunately, this is the new reality in Laker Land. The rest of the league has caught up with the Lakers through free agency and the draft, while the Lakers haven’t made any significant upgrades to their roster since 2008. (I’m considering the whole Ron Artest for Trevor Ariza fiasco to be a wash)
So unless GM Mitch Kupchak (who is now having to deny rumors that he is about to call it quits) has one or two more moves up his sleeve in this lockout-shortened season, we can pretty much call it wrap for 2012.
I hate to be the one to break it to you Laker fans, but there are anywhere from five to 10 teams in the NBA right now with better personnel from top to bottom than what you will find on the current Lakers roster.
What’s that saying I hear every single athlete use in every single interview when they have absolutely no idea how to answer the question that’s just been posed?
“It is what it is”.
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Syracuse’s Orange Struggles Not Panic Worthy Unless They Continue Without Fab
There is no doubt that Syracuse is struggling without Fab Melo in the lineup. The Orange have responded with two wins since their initial loss to Notre Dame, but as shown against West Virginia, these two victories have been slim.
Fab Melo’s absence has highlighted two main areas of weakness for the Orange: half-court offense and rebounding.
Without Fab, the Orange have been out rebounded 193-103 and the West Virginia game was the worst effort by far. The team could not battle under the net and constantly tipped the ball into the hands of West Virginia perimeter players rather than battling inside.
The half-court offense has been lackluster at best because passing the ball inside to the post has been ineffective. Not only have Rakeem Christmas and Baye Moussa Kieta been inconsistent at best, but they struggle to provide points the way Fab does.
This has led to the guards taking more perimeter shots and forcing drives into the lane that ultimately fail, thank you very much Dion Waiters.
But there is no need to panic. Syracuse in the span has won games and the struggle to determine the No. 2 team in the conference is evidence enough to show that the gradual improvement of Christmas and Kieta may be enough to survive this stretch.
What is truly worrisome is if Fab doesn’t return in time for the Georgetown-UConn-Louisville stretch. These three teams all matched up well against the Orange inside with Fab Melo; without a doubt, there is a clear disadvantage that could hurt the Orange.
Georgetown is famous for its bruising half-court style of play and there should be no doubt that they would go aggressively at foul happy Christmas and Keita. A weakened Syracuse would be perfect prey for an opportunistic UConn who will be coming with Andre Drummond, a handful for any opponent.
Syracuse can counter with their depth at the guards, but C.J. Fair and James Southerland have not done as well without Fab either as their matchups and roles have significantly changed. These two smaller forwards have not been scoring or rebounding like before and it again has hurt the Orange where they need the most help.
However, Jim Boeheim has adapted to each game well enough that Syracuse may be able to squeak a win past all three of these teams if Fab continues to miss games. This team’s talent is enough to carry them to a regular season Big East title, which should be enough for a No. 1 seed once the NCAA Tournament rolls around.
At that point, Fab should be back pending some far more serious issue that has yet to be seen. Without him, Syracuse is still a slim Final Four favorite, however teams do have a much more obvious place to attack the Orange.
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North Carolina Split-Personality Disorder; Why They Are Walking a Dangerous Line
Looking at college basketball rosters from top to bottom, it is hard to ignore the fact that the individual talent on the current North Carolina men’s basketball roster is arguably top three in the nation. UNC has a stellar lineup that includes projected NBA players coming off the bench.
But the question is always floating around the campus of North Carolina…how do you blend all the individual talent together to create an elite team? So far, the Tar Heels have yet to answer that question.
UNC has had some elite moments during the 2011-12 campaign, but they are far from what most would consider an actual elite basketball team. In fact, after a humiliating 90-57 loss in Tallahassee by Florida State on Jan. 14, UNC (18-3, 4-1) does not appear to be a clear-cut favorite to run away with the ACC championship anymore. Teams like FSU, Duke and Virginia may be right there with the Heels as the ACC regular season comes to a close in early March.
So the questions still remains: Does North Carolina still have time to turn themselves into an elite, national powerhouse basketball team? What can UNC do to get to that level?
To answer these questions, here are four areas of concern that if fixed, could go a long way in helping the Tar Heels achieve success and ultimately bring them back to where they belong—standing as best team in the nation.
Defensive Consistency and Discipline
North Carolina has struggled to maintain consistent man-to-man defense. At times, it appears that North Carolina defenders get caught up chasing the ball instead of staying with their initial assignment. It is obvious that there is a lack of discipline on the defensive end of the court, and that has to change.
UNC has many practices left and, in my opinion, the majority of team practice time remaining needs to be used on discipline of team and individual defense. Maybe not a simple fix, but this, nevertheless, can be fixed.
Find the Hustle, Passion and Desire
At times this year, UNC has appeared to, at best, just “go through the motions” on the basketball court. Looking back on the FSU loss, the Tar Heels were out-hustled on multiple loose-ball situations and appeared to lack the fire and energy needed to compete at a high level.
This is an easy fix, in my opinion, but this will take commitment from everyone involved. Instead of desiring to be special in all the stat sheets, the players involved should desire to be committed to never give up on plays until the whistle is blown. And that goes for every minute of every remaining game on the schedule.
Shot Selection; Be Smart with the Rock
Many Tar Heel critics argue that UNC has no great or consistent perimeter shooters that can loosen up the opposing defense in the lane for the Tar Heel front line. I do not agree with this assumption.
Freshman guard P.J. Hairston has found himself in a shooting slump the last three games, only converting three of his last 17 three-point attempts, including an embarrassing 0-of-7 performance against FSU. The slump has brought Hairston’s three-point field-goal percentage down to 32 percent for the year.
Trust me when you read that Hairston is better than that 32 percent. If you look at Hairston’s recent attempts, you will see that his shot selection is ridiculously bad. It is my opinion that if Hairston used better judgement about when to shoot the deep ball, he would probably be around the 40-42 percent range. P.J. Hairston can shoot the basketball very well, but someone needs to coach him up about shot selection and how important it is to pick your shots.
P.J. Hairston is just an example of what the rest of the North Carolina shooters are struggling with.
Free Throws; They Are Free Points, Take Advantage
The North Carolina men’s basketball team will lose some close games if they can’t find a way to improve their free-throw percentage. As a team, North Carolina is making 64 percent of their free throws. That is an embarrassing stat. At 85.1 percent, freshman guard P.J. Hairston is the only player on this team to convert more than 80 percent of his attempts.
At 64.4 percent, UNC is currently No. 284 out of 338 programs in free-throw percentage.
In Summary
Let’s be for real here…for UNC to call the 2011-12 season a success, they have to, at worst, hang their 19th Final Four banner after the conclusion to the season.
It is my opinion that the best medicine for the split personality the Tar Heels appear to have is to improve on these three areas of concern. And it would also help to follow the FSU disaster by winning six games in a row, including a very important home game against arch-rival Duke. This combination would put the Tar Heels back into the elite conversation.
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Los Angeles Clippers: Why They Will Win the Pacific Division
The Los Angeles Clippers are a completely different team in 2012, and it is very possible that they will win the NBA‘s Pacific Division.
Despite a recent 96-91 loss to the division-rival Los Angeles Lakers, the Clippers are still atop the Pacific Division. So far this season, the Clips have proven that they can compete with the best teams in the NBA.
Los Angeles has mounted big wins over the Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers already this season. They are about to go through a stretch in which they will play the Memphis Grizzlies, Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder and Utah Jazz. The Clippers can prove through the next week that they are among the best teams in the league.
As for the Pacific Division, it seems that the Clippers’ only competition are the city-rival Lakers. The three other teams in the Pacific are currently well under a .500 winning percentage and have not looked good so far this season.
The weak competition in the division will definitely help the Clippers make their way to a division title and playoff berth. The Lakers are a stiff opponent, but the Clips have already proven that they can hang with the Lakers and beat them.
A key factor to winning the Pacific will be for the Clippers to get better on the road. In 2012, Los Angeles has an overall record of 9-6, but they are only 1-4 away. The Clippers have a great home record of 8-2 this season, but they will need to learn to win on the road if they expect to take the division.
However, the Clippers have the talent and coaching to win the Pacific Division in 2012.
Los Angeles has yet to play with all of their players healthy and in the game. They just got back All-Star point guard Chris Paul, but they still do not have Eric Bledsoe at full strength.
The Clippers currently have stars on the court with Paul and Blake Griffin, but they also have great role players in Chauncey Billups, Mo Williams, Caron Butler, DeAndre Jordan, Reggie Evans and Randy Foye.
This lineup is also under the instruction of a pretty good coach in Vinny Del Negro. Del Negro typically has his team in a good position to win the game, and that is exactly what he has done this season.
The Clippers have a good way to go before they can be considered one of the best teams in the league, but they are well on their way. I expect to see this team gel together in the coming weeks and months, which could lead to a very dangerous Clippers team come postseason time.
The year 2012 will be a memorable one for the Clippers because it will entail their first division title in franchise history.
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Dwight Howard Would Listen if Celtics Called, Says They ‘Have the Championship Mentality’
Dwight Howard has been dominating headlines for months regarding his potential departure from the Orlando Magic. With Howard set to become an unrestricted free agent after this season, the Orlando big man has been the subject of numerous trade rumors. Howard has been linked to various teams including the Los Angeles Lakers, the Dallas Mavericks and the New Jersey Nets. One team that has not been considered a front runner is the Boston Celtics, but Howard’s recent comments suggest that he would listen if the Celtics asked about his services, according to the Boston Herald. “Always. Always,” Howard said, when…
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Los Angeles Lakers: 3 Reasons They Should Be Concerned for Their Future
This time last year, the Los Angeles Lakers were considered to be a team lacking depth with a roster that only boasted seven or eight key contributors to the team’s success.
This year is looking much worse.
Lack of Depth
After a failed Chris Paul trade, Lamar Odom requested a trade himself and was sent to the team that swept the Lakers in the playoffs last season in the Dallas Mavericks.
To make matters worse, Shannon Brown had already taken it upon himself to sign with the Phoenix Suns in the offseason. Odom and Brown were key factors off of the bench for the Lakers last year, and were the team’s third and fifth-leading scorers respectively.
The point guard position has always been a point of concern for the Lakers, but now in addition to that—management needs to focus attention on bringing in a quality backup for Kobe, as well as depth in the frontcourt. When I looked at the starting lineup for the Lakers on opening day, I had to stop and ask myself who these people were.
The 2011-12 lineup featured two new faces in forward Josh McRoberts and Devin Ebanks to go alongside veterans Kobe, Pau Gasol and Matt Barnes—with Metta World Peace (formerly Ron Artest) coming off of the bench as the sixth man.
This lack of effective players will come back to haunt the Lakers in the long run, unless a change is made sooner rather than later.
I still stand strongly behind my idea of trading Gasol and Andrew Bynum to the Magic for three-time Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard, but that will hardly solve all of the problems the Lakers have with their current roster. And this lack of depth is just the tip of the iceberg for this Lakers squad.
Kobe’s Injuries
As many people heard, Kobe Bryant went overseas to Germany during the offseason to have a controversial blood platelet surgery on his right knee to reduce the swelling and pain he has been experiencing over the past few seasons.
In addition to the knee, Kobe also suffers from a severely injured right index finger that many say is incapable of being repaired.
This season, Kobe could be playing with the worst of all his recent injuries. According to TMZ, Kobe has been suffering from “excruciating pain.”
To deal with this, he’s been receiving a numbing shot before each game. Now I’m no expert, but there is no way this can be healthy for Kobe in the long-term or the short-term.
With Kobe playing in his 16th NBA season at only 33 years old, the time for him to officially “hang ‘em up” may be approaching faster than many of us previously thought. Miraculously, Kobe has been able to play through these injuries, but the length of time this will be able to continue remains unknown.
Hopefully Kobe will be able to last until the end of the season, but only time will tell.
66-Game Season vs. Age of Lakers’ Roster
This shortened NBA season might be good for the league executives who wanted to get the NBA season up and running as soon as possible and fill it with as many games as they possibly could. But for older teams, this season might be a step backwards.
The players on this Lakers’ roster definitely wouldn’t fool anyone for a Division I college team as the average age of the starting lineup (Fisher, Bryant, Barnes, Gasol, Bynum) is 31.2 years old. Plus, the team has nine of its 15 players over the age of 30.
The team opened the season with four games in five days and in their last four matchups, they’ve only had two days of rest. Between January 8th and the 31st, the Lakers are scheduled to play in 13 games with four back-to-backs.
The frequency of games will wear on the bodies of the players and older teams like the Lakers will suffer.
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NBA Rumors: Washington Wizards Must Clean House If They Plan to Rebuild
The Washington Wizards are terrible.
That’s no secret. Everybody knows this.
The franchise has been struggling to get back to the playoffs since their last appearance in the 2007-08 season when they lost at the hands of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games.
Since that time, the Wizards have fired coach Eddie Jordan, traded away All-Stars Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison, drafted young up-and-comers John Wall and Javale McGee and fired another coach in Flip Saunders.
What are they left with?
Ten players with less than five years of NBA experience and no All-Star appearances, with their only All-Star being former Orlando Magic forward Rashard Lewis.
This roster, as is, has been a recipe for disaster, as the Wizards currently sit as the worst team in the NBA at 3-15, with all three wins coming at home.
Flip Saunders was recently fired for leading the Wizards to such a terrible start, but the blame should not be placed on Saunders for this team’s inability to win games. Saunders is the former coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves (1995-2005) and Detroit Pistons (2005-2008), leading each team to the playoffs in all but one of his 13 seasons coaching the two organizations.
The difference that arises between these two teams and the Wizards is that the Wolves and Pistons actually had talented players on their rosters who were dedicated to the game of basketball.
When Saunders took over as the Wolves’ head coach, he inherited rookie Kevin Garnett, who was mentored by the likes of Sam Mitchell (who would go on to become the 2006-2007 NBA Coach of the Year) and Terry Porter (former Trail Blazers teammate of Clyde Drexler).
The next season, the team drafted young stud Stephon Marbury out of Georgia Tech to take over the offense at point guard.
With the Pistons, Saunders was placed into an environment historically equipped with championship experience and aspirations. The Eastern Conference powerhouse that won the title in 2004 maintained their core group of All-Stars (Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace) and was set to proceed with business as usual.
My point is Saunders is a good NBA coach. Some may even go as far as to call him a great coach. While he has no championship rings, he has shown his ability to coach teams to successful NBA seasons.
The Wolves had young potential, but they coupled that with older veterans who were experienced enough to show their younger counterparts the ropes in the NBA and help them progress; the Pistons’ roster was run by a core group of veterans who knew what it took to win.
The Wizards roster has none of that. The older players on the roster with six or more years of experience include team captain Andray Blatche, Rashard Lewis and Ronny Turiaf. Where is the leadership in the locker room? Who do players like Nick Young, John Wall and Javale McGee have to look up to?
No one.
The last “mentor” on the roster (Gilbert Arenas) was charged with illegal gun possession during the 2009-10 season. Now, we see who took the most from Arenas’ time spent in Washington in shoot-first 2-guard Nick Young.
As much as scoring is necessary in the game of basketball, being able to stop the other team from scoring is just as important, and Young hasn’t seemed to grasp this concept just yet. The same could be said for several other Wizards on the roster, as the team currently sits 26th in the league in opponents’ points per game.
Rashard Lewis is currently the second-highest paid player in the league (that’s right, second) behind Kobe Bryant and right above Tim Duncan at $22.15 million. That’s ridiculous. Next year is the last one on his contract, and once it’s up, the Wizards should drop him immediately.
His production has dropped since joining the Wizards last season, averaging 10.2 points per game and 5.4 rebounds. At 33, his career is winding down, and he should be released to open up space on the roster for more talented players.
Aside from Wall and McGee, no one else on the roster is necessary and can easily be replaced—including Young. According to Washington Post and ESPN columnist Michael Wilbon, the locker room environment has been terrible as of late, and Wall has expressed that he is “not having fun” this season. McGee has proven himself as a solid post presence this season, sitting second in blocks per game (2.94).
The only way the Wizards can legitimately rebuild and progress moving forward is to clean house and cleanse the locker room of all the negative influences.
Getting a new coach in former assistant Randy Wittman may be a good start towards changing the team environment, but the Wizards still have a long way to go before they can become a consistent playoff team once again.
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Atlanta Hawks: How Are They Winning Without Al Horford?
Since the Atlanta Hawks lost starting center Al Horford—arguably their most valuable player—on January 11 due to a torn pectoral muscle, they have gone 5-1.
Many people (including myself) considered this season completely shot after it was revealed that Horford would most likely be out for the remainder of the season. Here are a few reasons why the Atlanta Hawks have somehow managed to continue to win games.
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San Antonio Spurs: Can They Stay in the Playoff Hunt Without Manu Ginobili?
The San Antonio Spurs entered training camp this season with heavy hearts and overcome with regret. Following a dominant 2010/2011 regular season that claimed the top spot in the West—and nearly the league—anything less than a finals appearance was to be considered a failure. So when the top-seeded Spurs were ousted by the bottom-seeded Memphis Grizzlies, their season, suffice it to say, was a failure of epic proportions.
The Spurs have long been the model of basketball efficiency, regiment and preparation. Much of their success can be attributed to the culture and attitude that was painstakingly cultivated by the man at the helm, Coach Pop. Gregg Popovich, a surly military man and disciple of Larry Brown, has long held the reputation of being, well, an asshole—but in the most lovable and endearing way possible, of course.
Popovich’s sharp, ‘don’t waste my time’ attitude is reflected not only in his interactions with people, but ultimately in his attitude towards the game of basketball. He is the quintessential ‘cut the fat’ kind of coach; all business, all the time—the Bill Belichick of basketball, you might say. If you are a member of the media, get to the point and ask a direct question. If you are a player, run his offense and make the intelligent play. No dribbling without purpose. High percentage shots. Ball rotation. Fundamentals. He has neither the time nor the patience for anything else. It is important to remember the type of coach Gregg Popovich is when considering the success of the San Antonio Spurs.
Also important to remember when considering the success of the Spurs is the historical dominance of some of its players. Having one of the 50 greatest to ever play the game in David Robinson is certainly helpful. But to follow that with another in Tim Duncan is simply unfair. Beyond the top picks, San Antonio has developed a reputation over the years for their savvy drafting and ability to assess players. Late-draft gems include players such as Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, George Hill, Louis Scola, and DeJuan Blair. The list of draft sleepers is lengthy and impressive.
The current incarnation of the Spurs consists of a group of seasoned veterans peppered with a couple of high potential rookies. Popovichs’ system is renowned for a steep learning curve, and he for his demands of perfection—that is to say, it’s not for everyone. The championship core of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan have been a staple of this system for over a decade now. It’s no secret that they are also the key to the success of this system.
So a few weeks ago when Manu Ginobili went down and broke a bone in his hand, Popovich and the Spurs had legitimate cause for concern. Over the years, Ginobili has proven to be an invaluable contributor to the Spurs on both ends of the court. From his late game heroics to his unorthodox style of play and just overall offensive prowess, losing Ginobili is a big blow to the team. Not only do they lose a statistical contributor, but also a player with whom they could rally around in times of adversity.
To most teams this would be a crippling blow and would undoubtedly result in a trip to the lottery. That is, most teams. The San Antonio Spurs, however, are a team with a system set in stone. A system with championship pedigree. A system that has been ingrained into its players over the past decade. In Ginobili’s absence, the Spurs are going to rely on the contributions of multiple players to perhaps duplicate the statistical contributions that Manu brings to the table.
Gary Neal is a player that has faced great adversity in his young career, and as a result has provided him with a thick skin, along with a penchant to perform in high pressure situations. Popovich took a risk on Neal last year, and it paid off. He is a good shooting threat, and a smart basketball player. Neal was one of the players that caused the Spurs to be at peace with parting ways with stand out guard George Hill.
Also coming from the deal for Hill was rookie Kawahi Leonard, who is by all accounts a work in progress. But the upside to Leonard is undeniable, and as the season progresses, so too will his confidence in the Spurs’ system. The potential of Kawahi rests in is his versatile skill set, being a guard/forward split. His athleticism and natural inclinations on the court are a thing of beauty. Only good can come from spending a little bit of time under the strict Gregg Popovich and in the company of players like Tim Duncan and Tony Parker. Also important in the absence of Manu will be efficient contributions from veterans Richard Jefferson and Matt Bonner.
Then there is the issue of Tony Parker and Tim Duncan. Both players are slowly facing their own mortality on the basketball court. With Manu gone, both Duncan and Parker will be forced to play increased minutes in an already compressed season. The success of this team will largely depend on the ability of these two to remain healthy. The Spurs will need to run teams out of the gym early in order to sit their veterans in the fourth quarter. This may be a tall order for an aging Spurs team.
The fact remains that San Antonio has only one road win so far this season—an overtime nail-biter in Orlando. While this fact is a bleak reality, the Spurs have overcome injuries in the past and there is no reason to believe that they can’t do it again. The system that Popovich has painstakingly instituted has not changed. When one piece goes down, others must step up and fill the void.
There have always been more exciting teams than the Spurs, there have always been more athletic teams than the Spurs, and quite honestly, there have always been more interesting teams than the Spurs. But the Spurs of San Antonio are who they are. They do not concern themselves with how they are perceived by the media or the public. In fact, they would prefer it if you ruled them out. Do not make the mistake of ruling them out so early. They will figure it out.
Tony Parker and his five o’clock shadow and Tim Duncan with his robotic efficiency can will this team into the playoffs. Come April, we will all be asking: How ’bout them Spurs?
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