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As much as I like the team, i find it hard to find any incentives for an allstar player to sign up with SAS.

- Small City team. Lettuce be real tea. If Timmy played in LA, he would be a mega-superstar Shaq/Kobe. Instead Timmy is timmy and he will probably drop 10 places in the GOAT list once he retires and people forget the intangibles he brought to his team. HoF willing to play at SAS basically get a half pay pay cut (factoring in sponsors etc)
- Limited game time. Its a killer for career legacy. Its impossible to league lead stats when Pop is rotating you off and you're lucky to get 30 minutes in a game. Look at Parker - should be an easy shoe in for All NBA, but he will miss out because he gets a few 20 min games and doesnt get enough opportunities to contribute (and we know he can). I think SAS would be a nightmare for players like Lin who have to contribute in the limited opportunities they get.

Whilst im not having a dig at SAS, I just think its sad to think that playing like a team in a team game does more harm than good. Once Pop/Timmy retires i see SAS will have a lot of trouble recruiting/competing/attracting all star players. I doubt we can play with the team coherency of our current gen (with a new coach) and will probably resort to allstar + support like the rest of the league.

which brings me to another point, how much sponsorship do you think show reel players like Griffin etc get vs non flashy true ballers like Nash/Pau get?

aal04 wrote:As much as I like the team, i find it hard to find any incentives for an allstar player to sign up with SAS.

- Small City team. Lettuce be real tea. If Timmy played in LA, he would be a mega-superstar Shaq/Kobe. Instead Timmy is timmy and he will probably drop 10 places in the GOAT list once he retires and people forget the intangibles he brought to his team. HoF willing to play at SAS basically get a half pay pay cut (factoring in sponsors etc)

Basically this is the issue of every small market team, not just San Antonio. Kevin Durant is basically on the same route unless he moves. But as far as dropping 10 places in the GOAT list, yeah right... whatever...

- Limited game time. Its a killer for career legacy. Its impossible to league lead stats when Pop is rotating you off and you're lucky to get 30 minutes in a game. Look at Parker - should be an easy shoe in for All NBA, but he will miss out because he gets a few 20 min games and doesnt get enough opportunities to contribute (and we know he can). I think SAS would be a nightmare for players like Lin who have to contribute in the limited opportunities they get.

Well this is just straight up bull. You do realize that this only happens because The big 3 is aging. SO unless we're getting a 34-35 year old FORMER Superstar, why would Pop limit the player's minutes? It's not like Duncan never averaged over 30 minutes a game over the course of his career. I mean, the guy did win MVP awards and playing over 38 minutes in his prime. So let's just say Lin is actually a Mega-Superstar at his prime, why the hell would Pop not give him over 30 minutes?

Whilst im not having a dig at SAS, I just think its sad to think that playing like a team in a team game does more harm than good. Once Pop/Timmy retires i see SAS will have a lot of trouble recruiting/competing/attracting all star players. I doubt we can play with the team coherency of our current gen (with a new coach) and will probably resort to allstar + support like the rest of the league.

which brings me to another point, how much sponsorship do you think show reel players like Griffin etc get vs non flashy true ballers like Nash/Pau get?

Again, this is the issue with small market teams. Small market teams won't be able to attract a superstar player in Free Agency unless the team already have one. And that's really the biggest key. You have to find that Superstar player, and for small market teams, your best chance is from the draft. Once you have that superstar player (and he wants to stay), then you'll have a chance to recruit one if you manage your cap situation correctly. Without a superstar player in your team to begin with, you're not gonna be able to convince one to come.

However, I think borderlne all-stars wouldn't mind coming, but the superstar players are obviously harder and quite impossible.

I'm a mavs fan and wonder how you guys feel about the rebuilding process, when it's gonna start and how ugly can it potentially get?
Basically, the franchise was built around the draft pick (Duncan is the best PF all-time and top10 greatest), the all-star in Robinson and coaching genius of Popovich. How big are the chances that Sas will draft another incredibly good player and Parker will still be at an all-star level? How long till Pop leaves?
Gino is 35 and will have his contract year next season at 14 mil. Given that he's injury prone and his production will be dropping, he's not a good trade material. Would you re-sign him for, say, full MLE for 3 years? Would you re-sign Duncan and, if yes, for how much\long?

there is only one stat that really counts and thats wins (and the big win , championships)

Well right now it's safe to say that the franchise is built around Parker more than it does around Duncan or Manu. The offense is more about guard penetration right now than post up games. The rebuilding process obviously depends on when Tim/Manu retires. At most, I think Tim and Manu plays another 2 years. I can't see them going past that. At that point, Parker will be 32 and just at the end of his prime, basically will be going down hill from there. After that, it depends on whether we stay relevant enough to make the playoffs. If we do, Parker will probably stay like Nash does until we get a replacement. If we suck real bad, Parker probably would want to go elsewhere to finish his career in a better note and we'll probably let him.

Chances of drafting another star player, 0.1%. Chances are little that we find superstars with a low draft pick. If keep this team intact until Duncan/Manu retires, I think we'd still be good enough as a low seeded playoff team, given the improvements of our young guys. If we are able to get a high draft pick, that would mean the team suck so bad and TP will eventually get traded or request one.

As far as trading Manu, I really don't think that's going to happen. The only way Duncan or Manu gets traded is if we suck real bad and they're not ready to retire. At that point, perhaps Duncan/Manu would entertain the idea of playing for another team and request a trade. But as long as we keep winning games and IMO atleast be in the playoffs, it's enough to keep them. I would resign both for an extra 2 years. How much, don't really know. Depending on the cap situation ofcourse. With Duncan and Manu coming off the books, I think the management atleast has to try for the home run in FA even if it doesn't work. They have to give it a shot. The big question ofcourse is what happens when they do get a superstar in FA and Manu/Duncan isn't ready to retire? There are capholds to Manu/Duncan and it's likely that we'll need to renounce it if we are to get a star player. After that, Manu/Duncan can only get veteran minimums from us unless we have enough capspace to give both of them.

I don't believe that all "star" players were destined to be good players. A series of events have occurred in their lives where they received the right amount of motivation, development tips and plain luck to become who they are. I guess this is sort of obvious but it's part of what I'm trying to get across.

If you look at NHL players there's this thing called the Relative Age Effect, where a much higher proportion of NHL players are born in early months than there are born in later months. This is due to the cutoff date's determining what age-division players will be in when they're just kids. The early birthdays are up to 11 months older than the late birthdays. When coaches pick players for their team and distribute minutes, they go with the early birthdays, the ones who are 11 months older, since they're usually stronger, faster, more skilled. This extra playing time leads to more development of the player, and the player gets this extra development simply due to the fact that they're a little older. Now, no one knew that this age effect existed for a while, coaches were simply thinking that the kids they were playing were in fact more talented/stronger and that enough was reason to play them, but little did they know the impact of age on these factors.

Anyway this relates to the Spurs in that this organization has a knack for developing players. I believe there's more of a commitment to players and making sure the players are on-board, know their role, etc. The organization assembles players as if they were parts of a machine, they make the best use of the parts and also make sure to put in the extra time and effort into maintaining & improving those parts.

Even though most of the previous stuff may be quite obvious, this leads me to my stance that the Spurs will remain a good team without having to get as lucky in the drafts. They do their homework through drafts/signings, but then they take that extra step to commit to that player. I believe a lot of teams sign/draft a player and think that the player will figure it out on their own. The Spurs sign/draft a player, know they have talent and do what is necessary to nurture that talent, keep them in a positive spirit to keep working hard.

The Spurs don't need luck to get superstars, they'll just develop them.

aal04 wrote:As much as I like the team, i find it hard to find any incentives for an allstar player to sign up with SAS.

There isn't any, no one does come here, ever. Luckily Buford and Pop spend a lot of resources on scouting so we end up with excellent draft selections to keep us afloat. . .i suspect we'll probably have to tank for 2-3 years until we get sufficient talent when we want to rebuild in a few years though.

- Small City team. Lettuce be real tea. If Timmy played in LA, he would be a mega-superstar Shaq/Kobe. Instead Timmy is timmy and he will probably drop 10 places in the GOAT list once he retires and people forget the intangibles he brought to his team. HoF willing to play at SAS basically get a half pay pay cut (factoring in sponsors etc)

Can't find any fault with this, except the 10 places on the GOAT list thing for Timmy. Timmy beast moded 4 rings in a small market. He's the only "star" player in NBA history to win more than 2 rings in a small market, and he won FOUR. Only two other top 50 ever guys have won 2 rings. . isiah and Hakeem (that is, if you consider Houston a small market. Personally I don't, because they've drawn several excellent free agents that I can recall personally). Nobody can take that away from Timmy. . .and imo, that makes his rings worth MORE than 4 with a team like the Lakers who constantly gets free agents and big talents going there since they're a money tree.

- Limited game time. Its a killer for career legacy. Its impossible to league lead stats when Pop is rotating you off and you're lucky to get 30 minutes in a game. Look at Parker - should be an easy shoe in for All NBA, but he will miss out because he gets a few 20 min games and doesnt get enough opportunities to contribute (and we know he can). I think SAS would be a nightmare for players like Lin who have to contribute in the limited opportunities they get.

Completely agreeon your main point here. Ginobili also suffered from that. Very limited minutes and even coming off the bench, when he was imo the best SG not named Kobe or Wade for years (with an honorable mention to Roy). He never got props for it until last season.

Lin blows though, incredibly overrated and has extremely terrible defensive ability. He was getting absolutely shredded apart every time he played a good PG. Even Jason Kidd curb stomped Lin.

Whilst im not having a dig at SAS, I just think its sad to think that playing like a team in a team game does more harm than good. Once Pop/Timmy retires i see SAS will have a lot of trouble recruiting/competing/attracting all star players. I doubt we can play with the team coherency of our current gen (with a new coach) and will probably resort to allstar + support like the rest of the league.

I don't think it's done "harm". . .I see four banners in the rafters bro. But yes. . .we're not going to get any real free agents unless it's an aging star with questionable gas left in the tank hoping to grab a ring with a vet team during Duncan's last season next year. Kinda like what happened with the Mavs last year, and the Heat in 2006. . .and the Lakers in 2003 (epic fail there though. Duncan says you're welcome Lakers fans)

which brings me to another point, how much sponsorship do you think show reel players like Griffin etc get vs non flashy true ballers like Nash/Pau get?

A crapload? I've never even seen a Pau Gasol commercial unless it was one of those NBA public service announcement type ones. Nash gets some props though. He had a lot of fame back when the Suns were still good. He was the "popular white guy" in the NBA. The best white guy always gets decent fame and sponsorship deals.