The unstated position of my Dime piece is straightforward: the Spurs’ defense is failing.
“Defensive transition was really poor in the first half. I thought we did a horrible job with that and we gave away 8, 10, 12 points just because they ran it right down our throat and our transition was God-awful. That was [...]

San Antonio began the fourth quarter of this afternoon’s game against Phoenix with a three point lead. Over the next 12 minutes, the Spurs did not make too many defensive stops; Amare Stoudemire, Steve Nash, and Jason Richardson all scored with ease. Luckily the Suns aren’t exactly known for their lockdown defense either, and the [...]

Throughout the Tim Duncan era the Spurs have operated on a certain stonecutters credo. Ironically, they now operate between a rock and a hard place. With a broken chisel.
The rock? Richard Jefferson’s burdensome contract. The hard place? The NBA Salary Cap. In the short term, there will be those who are disappointed that the Spurs [...]

Wayne Winston, who served as a statistical consultant to the Dallas Mavericks for the last nine years, and is the author of Mathletics, was kind enough to explore a handful of Spurs-related questions with me. Over the next few days I’ll put up a series of short posts detailing the more salient moments of our [...]

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, the Spurs are looking to trade Antonio McDyess in anticipation of trading for Tyrus Thomas:
The Spurs have been searching for expiring deals to move McDyess, who will make $4.9 million next season and is guaranteed about $2.6 million in 2011-12. Trading McDyess would free minutes and give them [...]

Over at NBA Playbook, Sebastian Pruiti has a tidy little breakdown of a pick & roll play the Spurs ran early in the first quarter of Monday night’s game. Gregg Popovich places Antonio McDyess in the high post and Tim Duncan on the block.

Last week we ran a series of features exploring three options for the Spurs: Make no move; make a minor roster move; and make a major roster move. There was supposed to be one more- a post arguing that we should make moves focused on future seasons- that for various reasons was never published. After [...]

The Denver Nuggets, if the rumor mill is to be believed, have been searching for an additional big man since being dispatched by the Lakers in last season’s Western Conference Finals.
While the Nuggets have been sifting through names like Jeff Foster or Brendan Haywood, the Spurs may have settled on a permanent starting frontline partner for [...]

For the first time this season, the Spurs look like a team that can consistently beat quality opponents.  Last night’s advanced box score tells the story in numbers, but the game also gave rise to a few developing trends. I’d like to use this recap to highlight this game’s place in that context.

There are lots of positives to take away from tonight’s victory over the Los Angeles Clippers: the continued excellency of Tim Duncan; Tony Parker’s reignited aggressiveness; and what you might generally refer to as 48 minutes of sustained focus on both ends of the floor. But for me the story of the game is the [...]

In my recap of Monday’s Bucks-Spurs game, I touched on one of the team’s more controversial topics: The talent and usage of Matt Bonner. There are a proud few who claim that his ability to spread the floor and gaudy advanced statistics speak to his importance to the team, even if his vanilla-flavored style isn’t [...]

Even though San Antonio and Dallas played one another just last week, that game is already ancient history. The Spurs were without Tim Duncan and Tony Parker in their first go-round with the Mavs, and Richard Jefferson led the team with 29 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. With Parker and Duncan back in the [...]

You know what they say about a team’s final five being more important than its starting five. Well, that’s all true. In a perfect world, one free of foul trouble and injury concerns, a coach finishes the game with his best five players on the floor.
Through 8 games, George Hill is unquestionably the Spurs’ 5th [...]

During the offseason, I suggested that the Lakers had begun a movement of super-contenders by changing the model for winning an NBA championship from 3 stars and a bunch of role players to a 5 star, get-out-our-way template.  To make this thesis work, I considered Andrew Bynum a star player. Many readers took exception. “Andrew [...]

Although the tactical details of basketball can be rather complicated, the underlying strategy is surprisingly simple. At a certain point, it is merely a question of number and proximity.