The interesting part is that he is the 15th player in the list of active players. The 14th is Grant Hill with a predictor of 80% – and the 16th is Carmelo Anthony with 26%, meaning Parker is leading the young crowd and isolated around the 50% mark.

I think the Spurs might find a few MLE bargains this offseason. For example, I was talking with Anup Shah of Rockets Buzz last night and we were both wondering about the cost/availability of Ron Artest in this economy. He’s worth more than the MLE, but can he get it? Might he prefer a 1 year MLE to see if the economy improves or if he can cash in on some 2010 money. Only one example, but the Spurs are best served to wait to see if they can catch a steal in July.

Don’t delude yourself that the Spurs can continue to “excel for some time” without Duncan. Tim Duncan is the greatest Power Forward to play the game of basketball. Once he retires the Spurs will drop back to the rest of the league. If I were running the Spurs I’d be all in to win now; I really thought they would make a move at the deadline because I don’t think they can beat the Lakers as is.

Tony is definitely a top-20 player in the NBA, but I believe the “team general” position is overrated. Maybe in a less experienced team, or in a team that doesn’t have Pop for a Coach. As long as Pop sits on that bench, the defense will answer to him in my book. He’s the one that gets in Matt’s (or Tony’s, too) face when he’s camping in the area, or takes a player out immediately when a rotation is missed.

I’d love to see Pop coach a team without the Big Three. I think we would see levels of coaching we’re not used to from him, simply because Tim is more or less the perfect player.

Hm. Hopefully I didn’t sound too critical of Tony. He’s taken his game to another level in the last two seasons, and as Tim said he could still develop a reliable 3-point shot.

If the Spurs would have gone ahead and mortgaged their future acquiring Carter or someone like him, we would have boosted our chances of winning now, but at the expense of losing that highly likely possibility of continue to be respectable or contenders for a while. Remember, once a small market team stops winning, it can take a decade to be relevant again. This is why Duncan was so historically important to the franchise, he saved it from ridding Robinson until he faded and having the team gone through some rough years before starting over.

TP’s play really makes you wonder how good he would be if he was the star on a team – I can definitely see him averaging 25+ points per game with 7-8 assists. But I’m sure he also appreciates and loves the opportunity to play on a team that competes for a championship every year rather than putting up big numbers on a losing team.

I agree with what was said in the article, Duncan should be rested for as long as it takes, even if it means he’s out for all of March. Without him being 100% (or very close), we’re going to struggle to win even one round in the playoffs.

nonetheless, the spurs continue to surprise shorthanded, but regardless of who is suited up to play and who isn’t, coach popp always has the 5 on the court playing defense, and that always gives us a chance against most teams in this league.

finley and bonners hot 3pt shooting is overshadowing masons slump in that area (1 for last 10). hopefully he gets it going again.

1) Tony looked just as dominant to begin the season—for a short spell he led the league in scoring and had that 50 point blow up against the Wolves. In other words, he’s a better player–not the same player–but a better one than his previous seasons.

2) I’m not convinced Tony has hit his ceiling. For example, he still does n0t have a 3 point shot. If defenses had to respect that…

(Also, a good side note: it is possible that somewhere down the road we might have to play Dallas or Portland in the playoffs; what might they think then about their chances if they couldn’t beat us now?)