DTS is gone but

[Akklaim1]

He hurt the franchise one last time with all the court battles, delaying the official new ownership. Do ypu guys think that prevented the signing of a quality SF during the summer? Maybe guys like Pierce or Marion?

[mttwlsn16]

No

[Neddy]

just be glad the slave driver is finally gone.

I for one never saw this coming. I always thought it would take a death of T for us to be free. and I wasn't sure about his CPA son in law Miller who was next in line of the throne to take over.

just think, we went from being owned by "Monsieuer" Calvin Candie to Ron Paul's hypothetical Abe Lincoln who bought all the slaves to free them.

okay its a bit crude but in case the reference is lost,

http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/20 ... -that-way/

this is the reason why I went from being a Libertarian to a Modern Whig. I am a liberal at heart but hate the mainstream plutocrates of the donkeys and the elephants. too bad the great ideas of libertarianism got highjacked by a bunch of racist ****. and I voted for this **** once.

PS - I must be drunk once again to turn this into a history lesson but hell no that the north could simply buy out all the slaves from the south to free them, as the south kept importing more kidnapped africans into slavery (as well as Chinese, mostly women as sex slaves. and yes asians were also considered "colored" back then. look up chinese exclusion act of 1882 that expanded into all asians in 1924). this is like saying we can stop prostitution if we bought out all hookers from pimps today, or saying we can stop all drug related crimes and subsequent imprisonments if our government bought out all drugs on this planet today. **** him and **** his pompous ass son. they took away the libertarianism that I knew and appreciated. ****!

[Roscoe Sheed]

They really could have used Pierce or even just kept Dudley- he is better than CDR.

I think the answer is to sign Ray Allen if he wants to play. I know he is not a small forward really, but they could run 3 guards out there. He is 6'5", so he can play some 3s.

[QRich3]

Nah, I think Doc had every power to do anything he'd have done if Ballmer was here already. He said he tried to get Pierce but the Nets were having none of our crap in a S&T. Maybe the DTS situation influenced Gentry not wanting to wait and leaving for Oakland, and that's not only gonna hurt our offense but it seems like it seriously boosted up one of our main rivals. Other than that, Doc's done as he pleased. He even restructured the front office, promoted himself, and hired all his guys in that period after DTS and before Ballmer.

Which is one thing that's starting to bother me, I had hoped Ballmer was gonna be a hands on owner a la Cuban, and improve the way all of the franchise works, but so far it seems like he's content with treading water and letting Doc do whatever he pleases (and we're learning how bad an executive Doc can be). Basically, so far we're the same franchise we were with DTS but with a new cheerleader. I was hoping his first order of business would be firing Mike Smith and getting someone deserving of sharing a booth with Ralph

I know he's just arrived and we should be patient to see results after the ownership change, but it's hard to be patient when we're looking this awful on the court.

[MartinToVaught]

It's way too early to judge Ballmer. The reality is, our opportunities to improve were already greatly limited long before the team was sold when we gave CP3 an $107 million contract. A large part of our cap space has been eaten up by a six-foot-nothing point guard whose playoff resume is questionable at best. Unless we trade DJ and/or Jamal (which might not be a bad option), the only thing we can do to address the biggest flaw of our team is to dumpster-dive in the remaining free agency pool and pray for a marginal player to step up and greatly outperform their career numbers. Not a great spot to be in. This probably will not be a popular opinion on this board, but I've always had a lingering feeling that going all-in on a point guard in a league where big men (and small forwards) win championships was a huge mistake.

The true test for Ballmer will be when we actually have cap space to work with. Can he attract a guy like Durant? Can he bring in productive players? Right now, his hands are simply tied from the mistakes of the past.

[QRich3]

I agree that we should be more patient, though my post was more fear of nothing pointing to a change than being critical of anything specific that's been done. But...

This probably will not be a popular opinion on this board, but I've always had a lingering feeling that going all-in on a point guard in a league where big men (and small forwards) win championships was a huge mistake.

This I strongly disagree with, and it's been debunked by in depth research several times. Big men and small forwards don't win championships. Some big men and some small forwards have won championships, but there's nothing reasonable that points to a real association between your PG or your PF being your best player and your chances at a championship being smaller. Other than lazy observations rooted on assuming that correlation = causation, I mean. And they usually make excuses to ignore guys like Magic, Isaiah, or the fact that Tony Parker has been the best player in the Spurs for a while.

[MartinToVaught]

Duncan, Manu, and now Leonard have been the Spurs' best players... Parker got an FMVP because Boobie Gibson was guarding him. When Parker became the first option, the Spurs stopped winning titles until Kawhi showed up. Magic was a 7-foot freak of nature. That leaves Isiah as the one small traditional PG who was the alpha of a title team in recent memory - the outlier.

[Quake Griffin]

monsieur calvin candie.

[Quake Griffin]

Duncan, Manu, and now Leonard have been the Spurs' best players... Parker got an FMVP because Boobie Gibson was guarding him. When Parker became the first option, the Spurs stopped winning titles until Kawhi showed up. Magic was a 7-foot freak of nature. That leaves Isiah as the one small traditional PG who was the alpha of a title team in recent memory - the outlier.

yea, like he said.

excuses.

[QRich3]

Duncan, Manu, and now Leonard have been the Spurs' best players... Parker got an FMVP because Boobie Gibson was guarding him. When Parker became the first option, the Spurs stopped winning titles until Kawhi showed up. Magic was a 7-foot freak of nature. That leaves Isiah as the one small traditional PG who was the alpha of a title team in recent memory - the outlier.

Kawhi is not the best player on the Spurs, not by a long shot. I thought you were gonna argue Duncan, and you could be close to having a point for last year, but Parker has clearly been the most important player in the Spurs since 2009 or so. And what would Magic being 6-8 make him qualify that somehow disqualifies Kidd and Nash who were 4 inches shorter? Also, that 'outlier' you talk about in Isaiah is like 7% of the last 30 years. Point being the sample size is meaningless and no one really has a reason as to why it can't happen other than "well it hasn't happened lately, for the most part, if you don't count the guys who did it".

[MartinToVaught]

Duncan, Manu, and now Leonard have been the Spurs' best players... Parker got an FMVP because Boobie Gibson was guarding him. When Parker became the first option, the Spurs stopped winning titles until Kawhi showed up. Magic was a 7-foot freak of nature. That leaves Isiah as the one small traditional PG who was the alpha of a title team in recent memory - the outlier.

yea, like he said.

excuses.

How are those excuses?

- Duncan was far and away the Spurs' best player in 1999 and 2003. It especially wasn't close in 2003. Meanwhile, Parker was routinely benched for the veteran Speedy Claxton in clutch moments.
- Duncan and Manu were 1a and 1b in 2005. IIRC, Duncan barely beat out Manu for FMVP by a single vote, and a lot of people thought Manu got robbed. Flopping aside, Manu had a brilliant peak that unfortunately was cut short by injuries. Again, Parker was on the outside looking in.
- The Spurs don't get to the Finals in 2007 without Duncan. Parker benefitted from extremely favorable matchups in the Finals against what was a one-man team.
- From 2008-2012, Parker was finally established as the #1 option. The Spurs went on to have numerous playoff chokes, including losing to the 8th seed in the first round, and people began to question whether they were done as contenders.
- In 2013, Duncan had a late-career rennaissance and Kawhi developed into a beast. With a newly resurgent big man and young threat at the wing, they were one half away from a championship in 2013 and won ring #5 last year. Parker missed significant time in series-clinching games against Portland and OKC and they didn't miss a beat.
- Magic is far more comparable to a LeBron than to a Chris Paul. In today's game, he'd probably be considered a small-ball 4. In fact, Magic often played the 4 during his career. He was not a traditional point guard by any stretch of the imagination.

I didn't intend to turn this thread into a point guard bashing session, but since I seem to have sparked a debate on this, I figured I would lay out the facts. Judging from history and the results we've seen from this team over the past few years, I don't see us ever winning a title relying on CP3 without a threat at the wings. A run to the Western Conference Finals this year would change my opinion provided we're actually competitive, but this team seems to be getting worse instead of better. We will just have to wait and see, I guess.

[Clemenza]

Most of these moves are Doc Rivers doing. I gave him a pass on the terrible Bledsoe deal. But when he traded Dudley AND game the Bucks a first rounder then in the draft he selected yet another shooting guard who he's not going to play.. I said to myself, wtf is he doing?

[Neddy]

Duncan, Manu, and now Leonard have been the Spurs' best players... Parker got an FMVP because Boobie Gibson was guarding him. When Parker became the first option, the Spurs stopped winning titles until Kawhi showed up. Magic was a 7-foot freak of nature. That leaves Isiah as the one small traditional PG who was the alpha of a title team in recent memory - the outlier.

hey I agree that CP3 as our best player will be highly challenging to win it all, but I don't agree that we have to get there with CP3 as our best player. if it isn't Blake yet, it will be Blake very soon.

and this is the same reason why i have been saying that in order for our team to win it all as it is built now, we must need Blake to become the best player on the team by surpassing CP3 in terms of abilities and mentality. CP3 is a great, great Robin. but we need the Batman and i think Blake wants to be that. when he reaches his peak around 27 to 30 years old, the problem will solve itself. maybe Blake will get there this year or next, but in the end, we NEED blake to be the man and take us on his shoulders and get us there while CP3 hasn't declined.

[Quake Griffin]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMgYd6u5xgw[/youtube]
and i said **** the **** we trade to the Clippers got it worse than that.

[mj_shoefanatic]

I agree that he hurt our FA offseason a bit. I really wanted to see old Matrix on this yrs team just for his rebounding prowess.

[Roscoe Sheed]

It is looking like the most damaging part of the off season was losing Gentry. They look disorganized and lost out there this season. Good thing it is still early.

[madmaxmedia]

Nah, I think Doc had every power to do anything he'd have done if Ballmer was here already. He said he tried to get Pierce but the Nets were having none of our crap in a S&T. Maybe the DTS situation influenced Gentry not wanting to wait and leaving for Oakland, and that's not only gonna hurt our offense but it seems like it seriously boosted up one of our main rivals. Other than that, Doc's done as he pleased. He even restructured the front office, promoted himself, and hired all his guys in that period after DTS and before Ballmer.

Which is one thing that's starting to bother me, I had hoped Ballmer was gonna be a hands on owner a la Cuban, and improve the way all of the franchise works, but so far it seems like he's content with treading water and letting Doc do whatever he pleases (and we're learning how bad an executive Doc can be). Basically, so far we're the same franchise we were with DTS but with a new cheerleader. I was hoping his first order of business would be firing Mike Smith and getting someone deserving of sharing a booth with Ralph

I know he's just arrived and we should be patient to see results after the ownership change, but it's hard to be patient when we're looking this awful on the court.

I don't ever see Ballmer getting hands-on like Cuban (not that I would want to.)

I do imagine that behind the scenes, he'll probably talk a lot of shop with Rivers and others in the front office. But publicly he will let Rivers and company pull the strings.

[clip set]

It is looking like the most damaging part of the off season was losing Gentry. They look disorganized and lost out there this season. Good thing it is still early.

This is something that I actually find unbelievable from a practical standpoint. To think that the head coach, Doc Rivers who is supposed to be a top tier coach in the NBA, isn't capable of keeping continuity with the prior offensive system just because the assistant who was primarily in charge of it leaves seems absurd. He has effectively the same roster. I know people always claimed Thibs was the one responsible for the Celtic's elite defense, and if Doc really can't instill the same offensive sets I really have to question his capacity as a coach.

Did he destroy the playbook? Can he not get the guys to respond? How the hell can you not keep guys in line with the sets and system from last year when you don't even have any significant roster tweaks. Or if he wants to change it, why the hell would he when it was the best offense in the league last year?