In the Duncan/Parker/Ginobili Era: Is this year's Spurs team the best ever?

David Robinson and Duncan? Young Tony, Gino and Duncan years younger?

 

Wut? No. The 2003 San Antonio Spurs had the Admiral AND a younger Tim Duncan in his prime. Plus you had a younger Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. You can't forget about Bruce Bowen either.

The current team is deep, but is it the best Spurs team? Naw.

 

That 2003 team was a beast. Duncan was tearing it up that year.

 

2003 was the best Spurs team...without Parker or Tim...the Spurs are a joke...Pop knows this...hence why he made sure to max out the health of his stars...

 

This might be the deepest team they've had though.

 

They have better role players. And Parker is at his peak. But Duncan and Ginobili are slowing down though still damn good.

 

What happened to Diaw and Green.
Diaw was out of shape with the Bobcats and tonite he is hitting all shots, goes perfect

 

LOL at everyone saying the 03 team was the best based on the names on the roster, even though Robinson was an old dude splitting time, Parker was getting benched in the clutch for Kerr because he couldn't shoot and Manu was a rookie. 03 may have been Duncan's best year but that was probably the weakest of their title teams.

 

The Spurs are playing really good basketball right now. The play basketball the right way. They get so many easy shots by making the extra pass. I have to say they are may favorite team left in the playoffs due to the way they play the game.

 

Wasn't Stephen Jackson on that 03 team as well?

 

exactly

 

This season Parker played at a MVP level and Manu had the most efficient numbers in the league before he got injured.

If we are to believe this BBS's collective opinion these guys were done several years ago.

 

2005 team was probably the best. Duncan was still in his prime, manu was hitting his prime and parker was good, yet not even close to what he is now. But their deffense was incredible... bowen in the perimeter and prime time TD inside was just too much. This team is way deeper than that 2005 team, but not as good.

 

Spurs overrated. Last ten champions were at least 8th in defending FG, Spurs is 17th. Not to mention they have no center and can be manhandled on the boards. OKC is only team in top 3 defending FG and scoring FG%. They are also elite rebounding team. Defence wins championship, no rebounds, no rings.

 

You guys forgot Big Shot Bob- Robert Horry on 1 of the earlier teams. 2003 consists of :

3 Stephen Jackson ·8 Steve Smith ·9 Tony Parker ·10 Speedy Claxton ·12 Bruce Bowen ·20 Manu Ginóbili ·21 Tim Duncan (Finals MVP) ·25 Steve Kerr ·31 Malik Rose ·34 Mengke Bateer ·35 Danny Ferry ·42 Kevin Willis ·50 David Robinson

I have to say this is one of their best Spurs team. Robinson scored 13pts and 17 rebs in his last game, I don't consider that old dude hanging on. Admiral retired because of back problems and other injuries, not because he can't play.

 

A lot of their depth is inexperienced in playoff situations. Last year they had a pretty damn good team as well but they still lost. Its tough to gauge the Spurs. They fooled me last year, yet I am still confident they had a good team then. Just old and beat.

 

i think its this team. 2003 n 2005 had good players like bowen n big shot. this team is just too good. i think theyre gonna win it.

 

Last year they were hurt and their role players weren't as good as this year.

 

Icehouse hit the nail on the head... you can't just look at names. Way too much of an oversimplification. You can make any player look great if you pick and choose one game, as you did with Robinson. The reality was in the '03 playoffs, Robinson averaged 7.8 points and 6.6 boards per game in 23 minutes. Part-time role player hanging on. Parker was young and still learning to be a point guard - averaged a whopping 3.5 assists/game on 40% shooting. Routinely pulled in crunch time. Ginobili was a rookie posting the only sub-15 PER of his career. They lost a pair of games to an extremely weak Nets team (by conference champion standards) in the Finals. Never won a series in fewer than six games.

I'd honestly say the 2003 Spurs were the worst of the four SA championship teams. Think most Spurs fans would admit that, too. They had the most "names" on that year's group, but names mean nothing without the context of how they actually played that year.

The most dominant Spurs team was the 1999 one. That's who this year's team would be competing with. Had both MVP-level Duncan (23.2 regular season PER, 25.1 playoffs) and the last season of near-peak Robinson (24.9, 23.3 PER). They were suffocating around the basket. Johnson was the ideal veteran floor general and Elliott a solid No. 3 option. Romped through the playoffs at 15-2, including sweeps of the Lakers and Blazers. The 2012 group has a chance to be that dominant, but hard to say much until they line up with OKC.