Curious about something (for old-timers)

[nomansland]

When Robinson went down for the season leading to drafting Duncan, did the Spurs actively tank that season or was it just a bizarre coincidence? What happened that year?

[Kaelin]

Sean Elliot was out for half the season, and I recall the Spurs having trouble suiting up ~eight players (league rule) on some nights. They also changed coaches early in the season. The Spurs in the 90s had depth issues (relying heavily on Robinson and the rest of the starters; this seemed to enable them to reliably crush weak teams, but they'd often get "upset" in the playoffs, so may have not been as good as their record most years), so they had a lot of potential to be terrible if injuries kicked in. They also had an aging roster.

That's how I remember it, anyway.

[Phreak50]

They really didn't have to. Especially with lots of online talk about Robinson sitting for longer than he needed to. He had back issues (and if I remember correctly, hurt his toe or foot when he first came back) so they definitely weren't going to risk the rest of his career in a lost season.

But in saying that, I do remember a game (pretty sure Will Perdue, Nique lineup etc) where Vernon Maxwell started the game with three straight 3's and Pop ripped him out of the game for some unknown reason. My thoughts at the time were 'geez I never thought he'd actually hit shots' lol.

Wilkins was a perfect distraction as well. Big ball hog at the end of his career and even at his best (at that time) he was not impacting games so it worked well at least visually.

[spurcase]

The Spurs had a lot more issues that season than Robinson, though he was the worst. His initial injury was a back injury. He missed the first part of the season. He did try to come back in December, but only lasted six games when he broke a bone in his foot after only six games. When you consider that he never fully recovered from the back injury, the idea that the Spurs kept him out longer than necessary is absurd. The last few years of his career was plagued by back issues. Chuck Person missed the entire season following back surgery. Charles Smith missed 65 games with an arthritic right knee and Sean Elliott missed 43 games with tendinitis in the right knee. The loss of those four players,among the top scorers from the 1995-96 team, caused the biggest one-year decline in NBAhistory, from 59 wins to only 20. Added tp the injuries was the coaching change. Bob Hill was fired and Pop took over. There have been a lot of stories floating around about why Hill was fired, but the reason was never made public. The Spurs did not have to tank, they were just that bad. You can't play very well when 4 of your top scorers are out most of the season. In place of his injured players Popovich had Vinnie Del Negro and Avery Johnson and free agent signees Dominique Wilkins and Vernon Maxwell. Not exactly an all star lineup.

A lot of the tanking accusations against the Spurs were made by the teams that did not get the magic ball. Some of them made no secret of the fact they were tanking and expected to get Duncan.

When you really look at the situation, if the Spurs did tank, they did not do a very good job of it. Even with their record, they were still only the third worst team of the season. Their odds of winning the top pick, were something like 37% Drawing the winning lottery ball was just pure luck.

[spurcase]

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