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Now that Howard is and Nash are on the Lakers, and the Thunder have expereince under their belt, do you think that the Spurs window has closed with their core of Parker, Duncan, and Ginobli?

I do. First they get upsetted by the Grizzlies 2 years ago, and then the Thunder comeback to win 4 games straight vs them after trailing 0-2. Now they have to deal with the Lakers and their front court, Nash playmaking, and Kobe.

Another year for Duncan which means he will decline even further. Manu is starting to fizzle out, and Parker nearly lost his sight in 1 eye due to a fight at a club.

The Spurs will still be a good team, but not contenders in my mind, not even if they go on a massive win streak. We have seen that before and it ended in losing in the WCF.

I see them on the same level as the Clippers and Knicks. Good teams, with potential, but are not contenders.

It's been close for three years.

They will have a great regular season with picture perfect offense but they won't be a threat in the playoffs until they get some size down low

Legend has it that every time someone makes a thread about the Spurs' window closing because they're too old, Popovich grows... stronger.

You can never count them out until the end. Spurs have been proving people wrong for years now.

still third seed at worst this year unless they decide to tank the regular season as a strategy

manu and parker looked spry, leonard's only getting better, splitter will play more etc. etc.

the spurs are the new mavs. Great RS team, playoff nonfactor. Love their legacy, but 2007 was 5 season's ago.

Unless Parker turns into the best pg in the NBA, they are not winning a ring.

They've got a great core of players, especially vets, but they just don't have that young stud who can carry really take them to the next nevel.. Lakers just got that in Dwight.

reincarnatingDABULLS wrote:the spurs are the new mavs. Great RS team, playoff nonfactor. Love their legacy, but 2007 was 5 season's ago.

how was a wc finalist last year a playoff nonfactor

this is exactly how they get slept on

We need alot of things to go wrong for other teams, rather than alot of things to go right for us, and by that definition we aren't contenders. In years before, if we had our stuff together, we were championship material, now even if we have our stuff together... there are several teams that are better if they get their **** together.

be a top 4 team in the West.. maybe make a western conference final but won't ever challenge for a title..


they need to take a gamble....

Sign Andray Blatche of something

and trade Manu or Parker for an up coming guard who has potential to get better

Spurs have needed more size and length around Duncan since 2008 when the support players were tired out, on their last legs, and the Lakers and Celtics and other teams got more dynamic... Diaw and Splitter help a lot for sure, and Splitter should only get better with his third year in the league, but they still need more length than that up front to help Duncan. McDyess, Blair, Bonner never could fill the role as primary helper for Duncan. The Spurs FO incompetence to get some good help for Duncan until this past year has been annoying, and while it's been notably improved, it still needs to get better.

The team they have is very good and at times can be great, but don't quite think they can get past the Lakers. OKC they were in all the games so I wouldn't rule them beating them in a series, out. Especially since OKC won't be able to beat a healthy Lakers team, they don't have the offensive talent up front to do it and come close to matching them. San Antonio can at least compete offensively with the Lakers, but it gets disadvantageous defensively.

Duncan played his best since 2008, he was in great condition all year and Pop managed his minutes great, I doubt he'll fall off at all from last season. I watched him the whole season.

Everyone constantly repeats the words "Don't sleep on the Spurs" as if they are taking some minority position. It's not. The majority position about the Spurs is to take them seriously, and everyone already does.

The funny thing is, the Spurs have been seriously overrated since 2009. They've been absolutely harmless to real contenders FOR THE LAST FOUR YEARS, and anyone willing to sleep on San Antonio has been right to do it. Next year is going to be no different. Their window has been closed for a very long time now, and a new set of roleplayers aren't going to change that.

They've been hanging around for a while a la the Pistons of a few years back but unlike the Pistons they haven't took a dump on their salary cap in the process.

Can never write them off but it's hard to believe in them...

drejeronfire wrote:They've been hanging around for a while a la the Pistons of a few years back but unlike the Pistons they haven't took a dump on their salary cap in the process.

Can never write them off but it's hard to believe in them...

Everyone who's written them off has been right to do it for the last four years...... They aren't a legitimate title threat, and they haven't been for a very long time now.

way past done. just like the Celtics.

Luigi wrote:

drejeronfire wrote:They've been hanging around for a while a la the Pistons of a few years back but unlike the Pistons they haven't took a dump on their salary cap in the process.

Can never write them off but it's hard to believe in them...

Everyone who's written them off has been right to do it for the last four years...... They aren't a legitimate title threat, and they haven't been for a very long time now.

Did you see this past season? The Spurs were within two games of the finals and all the games were close vs the Thunder. Yes... they were absolutely harmless.

Luigi wrote:Everyone constantly repeats the words "Don't sleep on the Spurs" as if they are taking some minority position. It's not. The majority position about the Spurs is to take them seriously, and everyone already does.

The funny thing is, the Spurs have been seriously overrated since 2009. They've been absolutely harmless to real contenders FOR THE LAST FOUR YEARS, and anyone willing to sleep on San Antonio has been right to do it. Next year is going to be no different. Their window has been closed for a very long time now, and a new set of roleplayers aren't going to change that.

They were harmless to contenders in 2012? Do you think that team that dominated its first 10 playoff games couldn't have won the title? They had a serious shot to take Games 4, 5 or 6. Oklahoma City was an absolutely perfect defensive matchup against them because the only way to guard the 2012 Spurs offense was to have as much speed on the perimeter as possible to close out on their shooters and rotations, any team that was a half second slow got burned by constant open shots. That's why IMO Spurs > Lakers. Lakers help defense is too slow to guard the Spurs ball movement in my opinion

Blame Rasho wrote:

Luigi wrote:

drejeronfire wrote:They've been hanging around for a while a la the Pistons of a few years back but unlike the Pistons they haven't took a dump on their salary cap in the process.

Can never write them off but it's hard to believe in them...

Everyone who's written them off has been right to do it for the last four years...... They aren't a legitimate title threat, and they haven't been for a very long time now.

Did you see this past season? The Spurs were within two games of the finals and all the games were close vs the Thunder. Yes... they were absolutely harmless.

OKC handled them 4 straight games. We've seen this kind of failure out of the Spurs in the playoffs again and again for years now. The simple explanation is that Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili are too old to make it happen anymore, and it's only going to get worse until they blow it up. Yes, they can still be a winning team in the meantime, but there's is absolutely no need to parrot "Don't sleep on the Spurs" anymore. By all means, do sleep on the spurs, and you'll be rewarded for doing so.

You must be confused, getting handled is what the Spurs did vs the Jazz, but yes... according to you the Spurs aren't anywhere near contenders.