Sunday, February 21st, 2010...1:57 pm
Tony Parker Out Against Detroit (Updated)
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During his pregame interview Gregg Popovich said Tony Parker will be out against Detroit. The team expects Parker to undergo an MRI tomorrow. Parker is dealing with multiple injuries, but the team is currently concerned with his strained left hip flexor.
Because of Parker’s injury, the team will start a small lineup of George Hill, Roger Mason, Keith Bogans, Richard Jefferson and Tim Duncan.
Update: The Spurs gave a halftime update on Parker; Parker will offically be listed as day-to-day. The Spurs will make a more informed decision on him after they talk with their doctors. In theory, Parker could play Wednesday, but it sounds unlikely.
19 Comments
February 21st, 2010 at 2:11 pm
I expected Tony to rest, but why is Richard at the 4? I think it might work against this Detroit team, but before he was a Spur, did he ever have much experience at that position? Oh, Pop.
February 21st, 2010 at 2:19 pm
I’m glad to rest Parker but why are we using up all the other short players to start the game!!!! I really want to see a game where Pop starts Duncan, Bonner, Dice, Blair, and Mahinmi. It should happen sometime soon.
February 21st, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Glad to see TP sit out. We have no excuse for not winning tonight.
Rather see Gino and Blair start with Hill or RMj and Jefferson… so unimpressed by small ball… what are the odds stuckey, gordon, and hamilton drive inside a lot more?
February 21st, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Why not give Ian some minutes early and see what happens-small ball rarely works. At this point the Spurs have nothing to lose. I’d also like to see them bring Malik up and give him some meaningful minutes.
February 21st, 2010 at 2:35 pm
To me the spurs have going to small ball alot more ever since that series we lost to the mavs in the WCF when they beat us with the small lineup. Dont know why because we obviously won’t beat the lakers with this shit. It’s been a tough week this past one because I am finally coming ot the realization that this team’s ability to win championships is over
February 21st, 2010 at 2:38 pm
When everyone else in the division trades for size to compete with LA, the Spurs give away a center for nothing and start 4 guards. Brilliant.
February 21st, 2010 at 2:38 pm
[...] Tony Parker is out, according to Timothy Varner of 48 Minutes of Hell. [...]
February 21st, 2010 at 5:06 pm
watching this game vs the pistons has pretty much made me lose almost all hope that we can even be contenders. we are now wasting away ginobili and duncan’s talents by not doing anything during the trade. yes, we probably wouldn’t have gotten much, but trading away a shot blocker, when that’s wut we were looking for, has done nothing but barely shaving less than $1 from payroll. ratliff actually got to play in charlotte and was productive. will someone explain to me why pop is so in love with small ball? i hate to say this, but we are no longer a top tier team…we may not even be in the 2nd tier…we’re as bad as the pistons. =( just a shadow of our former self. it makes me depressed. i kno this team has all the potential in the world, but i can’t quite say wut is the reason y we’re not playing like it. it is really chemistry?
February 21st, 2010 at 5:07 pm
sorry, i meant $1 million.
February 21st, 2010 at 5:10 pm
So why do we change the lineup completely when Parker is out??? Wouldn’t this be perfect time (again) to keep fast-tracking GHill?? I hate to say
it but it doesn’t seem that POP seems to know just what to do with this grp. Lets use this sort of issue to DEVELOP (GASP) some of the younger talent we have IE YAWN/GHILL/BLAIR/HAIRSTON I think that POP is struggling to understand we need to Develop these guys NOW !!!
GO SPURS GO !!!
February 21st, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Hello fellow spurs fan. This is my first post. This has been a hard season to watch the spurs. I can see how everyone is frustrated with our team. With all the injuries and how we have been playing. We should be working on retooling or developing players. From my casual observation it seems that our defense needs a second shot blocker that has been a staple of spur championship teams. Why not free Ian to play and get better. Let him finish out the season with some playing time so that we have another long body to play with Duncan next year. A rotation with Duncan, Blair, Ian, Splitter and Mcdyess could compete with any team. Missing the playoffs would not be a disaster. The last two times we missed the playoffs, we ended with David and Tim. Imagine getting a talented player like Favors or Cousins. Thanks for hearing me out.
February 21st, 2010 at 6:15 pm
I find it funny, the Suns would rock the regular season with their small ball/7 second or less style of play, just to be thoroughly beaten by the playoffs by teams that use size and play a half court game. Didn’t we eliminate them like 3 times last decade or something?
Now Pop is going with small ball when we already know small ball does not win championships. Especially not with the players on this roster lol.
I’d love to see Hairston get some minutes. He does good in the D-League and its not like any of us expect him to be a starter in the NBA. However, I’m sure if given some time to play with the “big boys” he could become a useful asset. He can’t be any worse than Finley :p
February 21st, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Well, hate to say it, but this team is done. Number one, we didn’t make ANY trades that would help us (like, for the obvious, INTERIOR DEFENDER!!??!!??). So, O.K., perhaps I’m simply not privy to some of the details that prevented us from making a deal. So let’s forget that aspect of things for a minute.
We’ve had plenty of time to evaluate our talent & rotations over the first 50+ games, and the team & coaching staff have had essentially a week off over the all-star break to get themselves properly organized & motivated to make a stretch run with the team they have, which by the way, at least on paper still has a talent/experience level that would put them, by the estimation of most, among the top ten in the league. So, point number two: it’s become obvious, most of the players on this team have NO PRIDE, and even more disturbingly, may even be second-guessing their coach, as many commenter’s on this blog do, instead of from the very beginning going out on the court when called upon and hustle their ass off on both ends of the court. This is the ATTITUDE that leads to crappy defense & poor execution because nobody really trusts anybody, and hell, they say, “I’m not going to bust my but on defense when I don’t feel like I’m being played consistently enough, or for enough minutes.” Too many SELFISH players that don’t have a clue about what it takes to COMPETE AT A HIGH LEVEL, NOR THE RESPECT TO CONSISTENTLY WORK YOUR TAIL OFF WHENEVER CALLED UPON BY A COACH WHO HAS WON FOUR F****** TITLES!!
For this team to come out of the all-star break barely beating Indiana, and then losing to Philly & Detroit is embarrassing, and VERY unfair to the loyal fans that are the main reason that these players get paid their exhorbitant salaries.
No question about it, this is a very disturbing turn of events. I never thought this possible, but I believe there is now a 50-50 chance the Spurs will not even make the playoffs this year. That’s what a cancer will do, and it appears that the Spurs may have an outbreak on their team. RJ may have been the bad seed (after all, there’s something a bit wacky about a guy that jilts their fiance at the alter the day of the wedding - and I’m not even into marriage), but I’m afraid it’s likely metastasized at this point. News about RJM wanting a trade because he wants to play more is a hint, but I’d be suspect of anyone not on the 2007 championship roster as being “infected”, although the youngsters Hill & Blair are probably still loyal to the coach as well. The point is, it doesn’t take many bad seeds to upset the apple cart. It’s the only explanation for this team’s ridiculous performance, particularly of late, and the condition may be incurable until we’re given the option of surgery (and we all know that this option is now not for the remainder of this season).
We are officially screwed for this year now. I had hopes coming out of the break that our players might decide to come together & buckle down. Unfortunately, we just pissed that away in the past few days, and there’s no getting it back. The genie’s now out of the bottle.
And whether they’ll admit it or not, I’m afraid our players have implicitly settled for providing Spur management & the fans with a mediocre team of overpaid, uninspiring, underachievers.
The only hope of avoiding a complete embarrassment this year is for the BIG THREE to begin to consistently play at the level they’re capable of (seeing good signs from Manu lately), AND or the big three to do what has in the past been out of character for them: back up there coach, Pop, and VERBALLY HAMMER THE SLACKERS ON THIS TEAM, PARTICULARLY FOR THEIR PITIFUL PERFORMANCE ON THE DEFENSIVE END (which, as you know, is 90% EFFORT!).
And by the way, just as a reminder, it is counter-productive to scapegoat the coach in this case, since he’s unequivocally one of the top coaches in NBA history. Of course, unless you really think the Spurs would ultimately be better without him. Then all you fans & players keep up the second-guessing, because eventually this type of activity spreads a cancer on a team, and at some point a coach can lose control of the team. I’d just say, be careful what you wish for.
And Good Luck hanging in the rest of the way! It’s probably going to be a rocky voyage.
February 21st, 2010 at 7:35 pm
they should fire pop. hire coach K! or jeff van gundy, those two are way better than pop right now. pop sucks playing small ball, i think coach k knows how to develop young players.
February 21st, 2010 at 8:34 pm
What is up with this starting lineup? Pop did not play bonner or hairston. If hairston is so good then why did bogans get the start? Just looking at this lineup is disgusting. Only two players with a positive +/- and they came off the bench. The Spurs should have dominated this game with the players they have. This deserves a big BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 21st, 2010 at 8:55 pm
With the talented Western Conference, missing the playoffs is very likely. The hardest thing is to look at this team and wonder why Pop does not see these problems. Jefferson sucks! Bogans sucks! Small ball sucks! If Parker is going to play French ball, run him to the ground during our season and tell Duncan to take the rest of the year off, maybe convincing him to give us an extra year in 2013. Even when this team wins, it wins by being awful and pulling off lousy wins. This team is not improving in any way except in finding new ways to anger me!
February 21st, 2010 at 11:36 pm
chris21rocks
BayAreaSpursFan
idahospur
I assume you guys didn’t read my previous post. Please take a moment to read it. Stop complaining about the use & rotation of players! You guys just don’t get it. POP IS ONE OF THE BEST COACHES IN THE HISTORY OF THE NBA. You might question the minutes of certain players, etc. (hell, even I do more often these days), but that’s NOT THE POINT. Pop has his reasons for who he plays and when, and while YOU and I may not always understand it, he knows WAY more about coaching than any of us ever could.
No, the real problem & main point (besides the fact that guys with more talent are often NOT TRULY EARNING EXTRA MINUTES) is that most of the PLAYERS in the game at any given time are NOT GIVING 100% EFFORT!
GET IT! It’s the PLAYERS that are ruining our season.
In fact, why don’t you conduct a little experiment. Track which players seem to be living up to their potential on a consistent basis. Look at things that are the most important at their position to execute the game-plan of the team.
Pay particularly close attention to the things that matter most to WINNING. Examples consist of the following:
- level of contested shots for their man/in their zone.
- their man/in their zone scores on a lay-up, either in the half-court or in transition.
- three point percentage
- field goal percentage
- minutes played (what quarter).
And track the following on a per minute basis:
points
total rebounds
offensive rebounds
steals
blocks
turnovers
I know Pop & his staff track all this data and much more (e.g., player attitude, motivation, work ethic in games & practice, level of positive/negative influence on other teammates, physical/mental health, etc.) for every game to decide who to play and when.
Look, I understand your frustration, but unless you can provide accurate information on all these data points (and some reasonable assessment of the intangibles, which frankly, none of us know too much about) to justify minutes played for this player or that player, I’m afraid you have no idea what your talking about.
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:04 am
Right on Jim Henderson. Right on.
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:14 am
Seriously. Anyone calling for Pop’s head right now makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit.
Clearly something is wrong with this team, but the coach who would be in anyone’s top 10 coaches of all time, if not top 5, ain’t it. Some of it’s injury (Parker), some of it is lack of confidence/failure to fit in (Jefferson), some of it is inability to defend (Blair), and some of it is stone cold aging (Manu). Given the personnel that Pop’s been handed this season and the way they’ve performed, I’m not sure what he could really do. The same system that won four championships hasn’t suddenly gotten terrible overnight; the players just don’t fit it perfectly. So of COURSE Pop is shuffling the lineups around, trying desperately to find something that works, because so far nothing they’ve done this season has.
And honestly, I’m OK with us not making a move at the deadline. We obviously needed to make a deal, but I don’t think we were getting a true impact player for just expiring contracts, and there’s no reason to light Peter Holt’s money on fire if there isn’t honestly a deal out there that would have made us on par with the Lakers anyways.
Nobody stay on top forever. For the past 11 seasons, the Spurs have always been one of the preeminent teams in the NBA, the only team over that time period that has always made the playoffs and the only team that has been a contender every single year. It’s been a heck of a run, and who knows, maybe next season when armed with Jefferson’s expiring contract we can make a deal (or even better, maybe armed with an EFFECTIVE Jefferson getting comfortable in year two with the Spurs), we can try and end the Duncan era with a bang.
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