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 [...]
The weeks immediately following the trade deadline are usually kind to San Antonio. It’s typical for veteran buyouts to angle for a spot on San Antonio’s roster, hoping to hitch a ride to a championship. But the times have changed.
One of my favorite pieces of blogging this season is Rahat Huq’s ongoing series Discerning Morey’s Philosophy. The Spurs’ front office success over the last decade–arguably the best front office in sports over that span–has given rise to a constant curiosity: what makes a great front office? There is no right answer to the question, [...]
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 [...]
Leaving the All-Star weekend, perhaps no theme encapsulated the Spurs more perfectly nor enemy loomed so big–well, maybe the Laker’s frontline–as time.
And not just time, as in the amount of time left in their stars’ careers, but timing. Timing is everything.
Yesterday’s All-Star game featured nine new participants. That’s good for the league. The Spurs sent one man, who was, of course, not new to the festivities. I wonder, when will the Spurs next send a new participant to the All-Star game? Someone not named Tim Duncan, Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili.
If you wrote a book about this season, which story lines would play most prominently in your retelling of the story. The decline of Spurs’ defense? The slight but unmistakable devolution of Manu Ginobili’s game? Tony Parker’s game-weary legs? The promise of DeJuan Blair and George Hill? Tim Duncan’s squandered brilliance? The emergence of small-ball [...]
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 [...]
I’d argue that the science was sound. Three past-their-prime vets for a dynamic wing. In a vacuum, you make that move every time. It was a good move. Kudos to R.C. Buford.
The good folks at Elias Sports Burea are in the business of providing perspective. According to Elias, the Spurs are 3-9 against teams with a .600 or better record. The only Western Conference teams that are worse than the Spurs against said opponents are the Warriors, Timberwolves, Clippers and Kings. League-wide, teams beat .600 teams [...]
As a little aside before tonight’s San Antonio Spurs-Detroit Pistons contest, I wanted to remind our readers that surprising rookie Jonas Jerebko was a teammate of sort-of, kind-of Spurs project James Gist last season. In terms of production, they were both pretty good, although neither was terrific.
That Free Darko book, the Macrophenomenal Basketball Almanac, included [...]
Yesterday I ran a piece that attempted to point out an obvious development that some have missed: Tim Duncan is playing very well this season. Some want to qualify this by saying Duncan is receiving less double-teams, to which my response is “so what?” and “is he really?” Honestly, I’m not sure that assertion is [...]
Malcolm Gladwell, talking with Bill Simmons:
What we’re talking about is what are called capitalization rates, which refers to how efficiently any group makes use of its talent. So, for example, sub-Saharan Africa is radically undercapitalized when it comes to, say, physics: There are a large number of people who live there who have the ability [...]
Last week ESPN.com asked their national writers to predict the 2009-10 player award winners. Manu Ginobili and Gregg Popovich’s names were suggested in the 6th Man and Coach of the Year categories, but the list caused me to think about the entire Spurs roster.
The ESPN writers did a good job of identifying the major contenders [...]
Some version of that question keeps rearing its head in our comments section. It’s one those counter-intuitive things. You’d think Spurs fans would be satisfied after an offseason that saw a massive roster overhaul. But when post trade euphoria sets in, the market suddenly expands to all of our favorite players (that we imagine are [...]
