70sFan wrote:G35 wrote:70sFan wrote:That's true, but Cassell got injured in 2004 WCF. What's your point then?
My point was that DRob did not play with more talent than KG.....
Which is fair, but since Cassell got injured I think it's fair to say that Wolves were worse when they lost in WCF.
Taking that further, the Spurs played the Rockets better than the Orlando did in the finals. The Magic were swept and they had more talent than the Spurs did.
Whereas, the Lakers lost to the Pistons pretty badly in the finals.
That 1995 series is pretty overblown by the narrative of Hakeem vs DRob. But it was a 4-2 series and it really went back and forth. The first game was decided by 1pt and the final game was decided by 5pts. The Spurs blew the Rockets out by 22 pts in G4 and the Rockets returned the favor winning by 21pts in G5.
The difference was, the Rockets traded for Drexler mid-season and that was a huge difference, Clyde became a reliable 2nd scorer that took pressure off Hakeem. OTOH, Dennis Rodman was arguably the Spurs 2nd best player and his skills overlapped DRob's...and he was mentally not focused on winning.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NBASpurs/comments/16j8tx/a_chapter_from_dennis_rodmans_book_on_his_time_in/It started to fall apart in the Western Conference Semifinals against the Lakers. In Game 3 of the series, which we lost, I came out of the game in the second half and took my shoes off on the sideline. This was no different than most other games. I didn't see a place for me to sit, so I lay down to the press table that ran behind the baseline. So there I was, shoes off, towel over my head, kicking back watching the game.
Then, during a time-out, I didn't get up. I didn't join the huddle. I sat where I was, watching. The television cameras caught me the whole time, like they always do, so the whole world saw me sitting there, back against the press table, with my shoes off.
Bob Hill didn't like this. Gregg Popovich didn't like this. I didn't play any more in that game. Nothing was said to me; I guess it was just supposed to be understood that I wasn't going back in. After we lost that game, we still led in the series, two games to one, and the Spurs decided to suspend me for Game 4. They said the suspension was for "insubordination". Then, after we won that game, they decided I wasn't going to start Game 5.
Some of the players - Doc Rivers is one guy I remember - said I was being immature and doing things to hurt the team. That's when I first realized I wasn't going to be back next year. Players started deciding I wasn't worth the trouble, that the team would be better off without me.
The suspension was Popovich's decision, but I believe he had the approval of the coaches and the players. They weren't going to say anything he didn't want to hear.
I didn't like the coaching in the playoffs. Simple as that.
Bob Hill coached the conference semifinals and the finals like we were playing Minnesota in the middle of December. He was going with a nine- and ten-man rotation. You don't do that in the playoffs. You don't sit me out for long stretches when I'm the team's best rebounder, best defensive player, and the only guy standing there with two championship rings. It's ridiculous. You play six or seven guys in the playoffs and make sure your stars are out there for forty minutes a game. That's the only way you can win.
After we lost Game 3, we won two of the next three to advance to the Western Conference Finals against the Rockets. They won in Los Angeles without me. I admit that. I sat and they won. It worked out perfectly for the Spurs: they got another chance to show they were "taming" Dennis Rodman, and the team won the series. Perfect.
After the second game of the Western Conference Finals against Houston - after we fell behind two games to none with two losses at home - Avery Johnson stood up in the locker room, in front of the whole team and most of all the team's management, and said, "We can't wait for David Robinson to take us, because he ain't going to be there for us."
David Robinson was there, sitting right in the middle of everyone. When Avery was finished, David was still sitting there. He sat there and took it.
We lost that series in six games, and the Rockets went on to sweep the Orlando Magic in four games to win the title. I guess you could say, based on that, we were the second-best team in the NBA. That's not good enough, though, because I think we could have - and should have - beaten the Rockets.
So if you want me to guard him in the second, half, fine. David got into foul trouble against Hakeem just by falling down. David asked me for help, and I told him right to his **** face, "I am not going down there." I was not going to help him. He didn't say anything to me, because there was nothing he could say. Before those games, he looked so **** scared in the locker room, he couldn't stop shaking.
They asked me to double-team Olajuwon, and I refused. The way the defense was drawn up, there was no way I was going to be able to get back down inside when my man was at the top of the key or way out on the baseline. The defense didn't make sense, and I told Bob Hill this. He just looked at me and said, "This is the defense we're going to run."
This is excerpts from Rodman's book, "Bad As I Wanna Be" and it highlights a few things that I think about DRob and those Spurs teams.
- DRob did more with less because he had a crazy man in Dennis Rodman who did not like the coaches were coaching in the playoffs and in particular he did not like Bob Hill or Greg Popovich...it is difficult to measure the effects Rodman's presence had on the series but it did not help
- This also tells me that Popovich was extremely lucky to get Tim Duncan and DRob who had the mentality to follow coaches lead. Many players would not deal as well with his authoritarian coaching/disciplinary style
I'm so tired of the typical......
