Helps more when the stars are over the hill. Dwade, for example, needs to take a major pay cut going forward.
Does this mean Morey screwed up and should've kept our core from 3 years ago? Lowry/Dragic Martin/Lee Parsons/Budinger Scola/Morris Hayes/Scola There's youth. There's depth. Didn't do anything though.
Probably should have tanked a year or two. And drafted Boogie Cousins with good someone talking to him, Anthony Davis.
What a fantastic core of hard working young men! They are tough and together! Who needs Harden, Howard and Carmelo when we can have that CORE!
No. Just means that in the playoffs, having depth and youth to surround your all-star core is important.
If depth is as important as we are saying, acquiring Melo would basically deplete all of our depth... our bench would basically be all young guys who really haven't proven they can play on this level and besides Jones, none of them are that great honestly. Our depth chart would look like this if we got Melo for just Asik+Lin+Picks: Bev/Canaan Harden/Daniels Parsons/Melo/Covington Melo/Jones/DMo Howard/DMo
The spurs are an anomaly and trying to copy them is just futile. HOF coach, star players who are unselfish on the court, take way below market in salary. That has never happened. You are better off trying to get three stars and out talent other teams. It might not work, but trying to duplicate the Spurs is a waste of time. Not to say you don't adopt principles, but their team is an anomaly.
You should mention about the core from 5 years ago. I was prouder about that group than the present group of players. But I get your point. You need high talents as well as high characters. And did coaching really matter?
What did you learn from the last finals when the same Spurs team lost and Juwan Howard and the Heat won?
bottom line, its much easier to just sign 3 superstars to a roster and let them go to work, rather than going through the process of building a well oiled team ball machine. not to mention big names bring other big names in this league.
yeah, but we were missing a center and an alpha. aside from that, we lead the league in team passes and points scored per game. adelman is a ****ing great coach. pop has been fortunate to have 3 all star players who are no BS players, and have stayed relatively healthy. those teams were fun to watch and scrapped.
Do not forget that Duncan and Parker took pay cuts (by NBA standards) to make it easier (presumably) for the Spurs to acquire more talent. Look at how their salaries are spread out. http://hoopshype.com/salaries/san_antonio.htm
I don't know how much of a cut they really took from their market value. Were they gonna get $20M+ like Lebron in an open bidding? I kind of doubt it. Duncan was looking kind of rough and going downhill a few years ago in his mid 30s and really got in better shape (lost significant weight, according to reports) and turned up his game the last couple seasons. He took a discount, but it's also a matter of him just surprisingly actually getting better in his late 30s. Look at Kevin Garnett. He was in a similar situation when inking his current deal ($12M/year?). Great player getting old. The difference is that KG continued to decline like most older guys do while Duncan got better. Parker, to me, was always viewed as a step below the best PGs like Chris Paul. He is also a small guy who relies on his quickness and a team has to have some trepidation about paying him after all the miles he logged on his body. $12M+ per year seems close to fair value to him. Maybe they took a discount, but it's probably more to the tune of a couple million buck per year for each of them than some sort of dramatic pay cut like people are talking about guys taking to form a "Miami Big 4."
I learned the Rockets are NOT the Spurs, but we are a really bad matchup for them (4-0). Nobody in the NBA is the Spurs. They are unique in almost all respects. I love the teamwork, the passing, the determination at both ends. Basketball like it is "supposed" to be played. They are the total opposite of isolation, one on one (or one on five Stevie style), hero ball. They are the essence of TEAM. Everything I want the Rockets to become.
