Popovich remains the best coach in the league. He may not make the conventional, popular choices much of the time (probably why his teams have been so uncommonly successful despite being constantly discounted in the media as over-the-hill), but there's a well-thought out reason to everything he does. Listen to Parker after game 7 when he was asked about him not being on the floor in a key possession. Did he question it? Did he express bewilderment or shrug his shoulders? No, he said he trusted Popovich in those situations and felt he made the right choice, and I could tell he was being sincere. No team in the league fosters a better player-coach relationship of mutual respect than the Spurs. The Spurs maxed out their talent level, and the Heat won because they had LeBron James and some luck on their side in the final moments of game 6 and 7. It wasn't coaching.
Durvasa. Quit protecting Popovich mistakes in game 6 and 7 He has a fatal personality flaw that coaches like Rudy don't have He is stubborn and he proved he thinks he's more important than his HOF players careers There is absolutely no excuse to making Duncan and Parker watch. You must let them fail or succeed on their own I just don't get it. How do you protect that man on those decisions Honestly it makes me understand how different you and I are. You are more about coaches and GMs and how they use stats I am about watching these superstar athletes face challenges and see how they respond. Popovich robbed us of that in game 6 and 7 I don't understand
The hate in strong in this one. You don't see because you don't want to see because your clouded with hate.
Man...I'm seriously getting tired of dumb ass posters like these who have no idea what Dream was doing at the age of 36. Go look up his stats. Duncan may have more championships, but Dream would smack around Duncan like a week old pinata in a head to head matchup.
The Chalmers 3 at the end of the 3rd quarter, kind of told me that the basketball gods werent on the Spurs side
Yeah, I didn't realize til the last couple games how much Popovich believed more in his 'system' and coach manuevering over the individual abilities of his HOF players. I thought he was 100% behind Parker and Duncan, especially come crunch time. Defending against a shot is only half the equation; the other half is getting the rebound. Seems simple enough - leave the tall HOF guy out there to make the play. The second time he sat Duncan, Duncan should have rebelled and refused to leave the game. Popovich has probably cornered his players at times and said, 'without me, you'd be nothing!'...
It seems you're more angry that the Spurs didn't finish the game in the conventional fashion you're used to, where its all about the superstars and their ability to overcome their personal challenges as opposed to the larger team goal. This is more about a fundamental difference between what you enjoy about the game (and, in fairness, what most of us enjoy about the game), and how the Spurs do things. I admit that I do have an affinity towards how the Spurs do things, emphasizing team over individual. Some players are of course more important than others, but no one player is bigger than the team. Parker struggled in a major way in game 6 and 7, and Duncan's brilliance as an interior defender doesn't negate the fact that he's extremely slow footed defending on the perimeter at this stage in his career. Popovich has earned the right to consider the game situation and make a coaching decision. That's his job, and the players job is to trust the game plan and execute it as best they can. Someone above is saying they wish the players rebelled against their coach. Maybe they're mistaking Tim Duncan for DeMarcus Cousins, but that will never happened, and should never happen. Not because Popovich rules with an iron fist, but because the players implicitly trust and respect his decisions. That trust factor between teammates and the system that's been put in place is what makes the Spurs the Spurs, and its why they are the model franchise for any team that isn't blessed to be in a star-magnet locale like LA or NY.
If I were Spurs ownership, I'd have a hard time not firing Pop for Game 6. His decisions cost the Spurs a championship and the franchise isn't getting back any time soon. Time to rebuild with a new coach.
Lol- trolling or taking it too far? I got beef with Popovich's decisions but (1) YOU would be a fool to fire him because of that. (2) The Spurs owner isn't THAT FOOLISH to do such a thing. Listen we can complain about Pops decision making in 6 and 7 but he and his team have already won 4 titles. It ain't like this was SA's chance to win their FIRST championship(a la Dallas in 2006). The team will get over it. (I'm still pissed at what Popovich did re. TDuncan, Parker, Ginobili, etc in 6 and 7, despite my words above).
You could say the same thing about Bobby Knight and Indiana and Jerry Sloan and Utah I can give more examples. What makes me angry in basketball is coaches who think their way is above the players to the point, in this case, a coach puts his best players on the bench Let me give you a reverse anecdote. Jim Boehiem at Syracuse is reknowned for his system of defense and methodical offense. You know what he did when he had a superstar freshman scorer. He played his normal system all season long, but took note of his freshman's scoring prowess. He strategically recoached the team behind closed doors and didn't release his new offense until the tournament. He changed everything to accommodate Carmelo Anthony. And that freshman won the championship. Only the second freshman in 25 yrs who won a title as best player on the team. So yes, I hate coaches like Popovich, Sloan and Bobby Knight who are stubborn assholes
Another ******* coach anecdote. Larry Bird quit basketball because of his first college coach That's why he ended up at a no name school called Indiana State. He knew he knew how to play the game. He didn't need a coach to pigeon hole him
To the one's defending Pop's decision to pull Duncan. You seem to be arguing that this gave the Spurs a better chance because Duncan is slow footed on the perimeter. To believe this, you also have to believe that the Spurs would be afraid in that situation of leaving Bosh open for a three? What do you think the chances of Bosh hitting a three in that situation are? I think Pop's a great coach, but I thought at the time that that was a stupid decision, and I still do. I wouldn't say that Pop lost them the game. Several players have a share in that - Leonard missed free throw and missed rebound. Manu with multiple turnovers, and he could have fouled Bosh hard on the second rebound instead of going for the flop.
He was 0-5 from three in the finals. Just looking at his body language in game 6 and it was clear he didn't have any faith at all in his outside shot. And if your choices are LeBron, Ray Allen, Wade or Bosh (I don't remember who the fifth guy was on the floor at that time, but assuming Chalmers, or Battier, or Miller), wouldn't you count your blessings if you got Bosh to take the shot. And just because Duncan has slowed down some, it doesn't mean Bosh would be wide open either. Obviously, in hindsight, it was the wrong move, twice. But even at the time, playing the percentages, I think it was the wrong move.
It must be a blind spot for Popovich - if you defend the hell out of the 3pt attempt, that means you're counting on them missing the shot - so what's next? You need the rebound. Who's going to get the rebound with a bunch of perimeter oriented people out there? There is no benefit to be had by removing Tim Duncan from the floor for such a situation. In fact, you lose more and gain nothing. I don't care if they'd been doing that all year. Anyway - you must foul - especially the second time Duncan was pulled; it's the only way you can stop them from attempting a 3. No rebounding big man, no intentional foul - you're just giving the other team what they want to do on offense. As a basketball fan I'm sickened by such coaching negligence (removing Duncan in crunch time). These 'I'm a genius' coaching moves by Vogel (taking out Hibbert for a Lebron layup) - and Popovich (Duncan twice yanked, twice burned on offensive rebounds) are BAD for the game - too much illogical tinkering by coaches. If I were a SA fan, I would be super pissed.
I agree with this thread 100%. Sitting your HOF players on the last play is almost giving the opposing team the game. Layin off Lebron James ALL game in a game 7 is basically giving them the championship. Pop handed them a trophy this year. Im sure he'll get a thank you card from Pat Riley this summer
Some of Popovich's decisions in game 6 and game 7 did cost him: 1) I thought resting his players when the Spurs had 10+ point lead in the second half of game 6 was a mistake. Potentially the last quarter of the season for the championship. Time to man up and bury the other team. That decision cost the Spurs big time as they made a comeback as their stars were resting. 2) Obviously not having Duncan in to rebound at the end of regulation of game 6 hurt them. It was a gamble Pops lost on twice. 3) I had said at the beginning of the series that he is going to use the same formula to guard Lebron that he used previously. He will invite him to make jumpshots. That strategy worked great 80% of te time. Heat gave him plenty of spcae and Lebron was hesitant to shoot. In game 7, it was clear that Lebron was very comfortable with his jumpshot, yet the Spurs were still giving him PLENTY of space. I understand that you still want Lebron to take the jumpshot vs going to the rim. But the Spurs didnt even come close to him. Popovich should have told his players to apply some pressure on him on some of his jumpshots. 4) He kept going with Manu as the playmaker. Very reminiscent of Pat Riley sticking with Starks even though he kept missing everything. Ultimately Riley's stubbornness brought the Knicks down. To this day I cant understand why Derek Harper who had been playing great the entire series, didnt take those shots. I guess Popvich was thinking, who else was going to create the open looks for them. Parker was struggling. They were not going to be able to ride Duncan for the entire 4th. Green is a spot up shooter. Maybe post up Leanoard and Diaw? His options to create offense against a stifling Heat defense was limited so he stayed with Manu and hoped for the best. Another gamble he took and lost. The thing is that, even though you can fault him for the above, the Spurs wouldn't even be in the Finals if not for him. He has been excellent at using the regular season to develop players and make them fit into his system. He does this while winning and also monitoring his veterans minutes and resting them during regular season. IMO, he has managed the team brilliantly during the regular seasons to give his team a chance every season in the playoffs while also prolonging his stars' career. I dont think any other coach in the league could have done this. So, even though he made some crucial mistakes which ended up costing him another championship, he obviously is pretty good to have the aging Spurs in contention year after year.
Still a great coach but he definitely lost them game 6 with some decisions that made absolutely no sense.
He should have had Duncan on the court on the rebound that led to Allen's 3, but the one that led to James' 3 was a player mistake by Kawhi.
