Are the Spurs winning this way one of the best things that could happen for basketball?

And one of your big three being possibly the best to ever play his position.

 

LOL wtf I like how the OP and everyone else here seems to glorify the Spurs, this is pretty much the same treatment that made MJ the looney tunes character he is now. All the good things you want in a b-ball player=MJ. All the good qualities about a team= Spurs.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Spurs. I loved them 2 years ago too, before they took everyone by surprise and had written them off as a has been behind the newly formed lob city and "took 5 years and 5 lottery picks to get here" OKC. And I firmly believe TD should've won the MVP all those years before LBJ won his first MVP. But the way the OP paints the team is wrong, the Spurs aren't a bunch of Dleaguers who get by on hustle and strength of character, the core of this team (ie Pops, TD, Manu and Parker) have just as much star power and experience as Miami, maybe even more when you take into account championship experience.

The offense, while beautiful to watch isn't anything new, in fact believe it or not the Rox this year pretty much ran the same tweaked RnR offense that Adelman uses. The difference is that unlike our team, Pops instills discipline on his team and unlike our players, the Spurs actually follow the game plan and play defense properly.

The only thing the Spurs' success might do is hold players more accountable and emphasize defense, because if you think about it that's really the only difference between a team like the Spurs and a team like ours. There's way too much player coddling going around, you have guys like Harden, Irving etc. not playing D and coaches lets guys like Melo (and Harden again lol) do whatever they want on offense. All too often bad performance is put squarely on the coaches' shoulders when more often than not it is the fault of players not doing as told or GMs picking the wrong players.

 

Outside of Duncan they don't have a single player that was selected top 14.
They built their team and recognized the talent. amazing team top to bottom

 

If your primary object is to pontificate on the NBA as a morality play it's a great thing.

As a fan of basketball it was kind of meh. A tired end of the line Heat squad got beaten by a decent but not unstoppable Spurs squad in a series with maybe 1 memorable game due to the AC failure.

 

I just want to say again that the Spurs have won 1 title playing this way. Just 1. The best players still win games. Popovich is still a genius, don't get me wrong.

 

and having to use a 28th and 57th pick to get two of them. Now talk about unfair. Who else but the Spurs would have had the 28th pick the year Tony Parker was available at #28 and who else but the Spurs would have had the 57th pick the year Manu Ginobili was available at #57? Who else would have had a shot at Kawhi Leonard with the 15th pick? Who else could have signed Boris Diaw, Danny Green, or Patty Mills? Yeah, it's not fair.

 

They played unselfish ball and tough D in their other title runs too.

 

That depends what kind of ball you like. If you like seeing things like crisp ball movement, tough D and high basketball IQ this was a thing of beauty.

 

Not the spurs fault the heat sucked and didn't provide a exciting series. They won 60+ games in a tough western conference where teams 1-6 are all very good teams. I think it just highlights how weak the East is. With a harder schedule the Heat are probably a 6th seed in the West behind Portland.

 

Not sure why the Heat would be characterized as "a tired end of the line squad" when they were supposed to be a stacked team loaded with talent, cake-walking through the trashy Eastern Conference playoffs, while the Spurs were supposed to have fought through a much tougher West with a Big Three averaging 35+ years old.

 

People keep asking how a team oriented approach with no real stars could win, well, here is your proof, the Spurs are a collection of good players, and role players who just won the championship with TEAM ball.

DD

 

Not sure why? Take one look at the old Dwyane Wade, and compare him to the Dwyane Wade of old, hell even 3 years ago, and you have your answer, not to mention their rotation of Rashard Lewis, Ray Allen, Shane Battier, Chris Anderson; that would have been a nice team, in 2003.

 

The Spurs did a tremendous job defensively, Wade wasn't exactly getting open looks. Both Wade and Bosh looked fine against the rest of the EC, its not like the series vs the spurs was the eye opener that both weren't AS.

 

But, but, but... it's all about star power, right?

Wade is 4 years younger than Ginobili, 8 years younger than Duncan. Bosh is two years younger than Parker. I am not even going to LeBron's age.

Allen, Lewis, Anderson, and Battier aren't supposed to play more than half of the game time anyway.

The irony about this Finals series is the contrast between "not one, not two, not three..." and the annual "Is this the last year of the old bone Spurs' title contention?" thread in the past 10 years.

 

Maybe the real message of this year's Spurs win is very simple.

How many players does it take to win a Championship?

Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six.... it takes a Team.

 

Ray Allen is 38, the same age as Duncan and one year older than Ginobli. Shane Battier is 35 older than Parker (32) and Diaw (32). Chris Anderson is 32, same as Wade. Chris Bosh is 30. For the record Lebron is 29.

 

Spurs have their stars. Duncan, Ginobili, Parker, Kawhi.
They weren't superstars, but I'm getting tired of everyone thinking that they were a team full of scrubs.

 

Not sure what you're arguing anymore; objectively the Heat are a pretty old team, outside of LBJ and in terms of Wade's drop-off, probably even older than their calendar age indicates; their non big 3 rotation was geriatric- hell they even had Greg Oden, even their young guys look old.

The Spurs are NBA world champions this year though, so who cares

 

Birdman turns 36 in a few weeks.

Not sure why it's controversial to mention that the Heat are an old team outside of LeBron, and particularly with the "Everyone over 30" rotatoin they rolled with after game 1.

I know hte Spurs are old too, particularly their seemingly ageless stars, but they were able to throw a lot more competent under-30 bodies on the floor than the Heat the last series, who could put, in addition to James, approximatley 0.

 

Heat got no production from Cole and Chalmers.
Haslem got nicked by Spoelstra so you had to settle with one-dimensional Rashard Lewis. Ray Allen had a hell of a several games, but that's really the only bench production they got.

This Heat team regressed big time. Battier and Miller were non existent. Birdman's defense was just not there.
Spurs played great, and would have won even with the 2012/2013 Heat squad playing to full potential; but it would have been a tough seven game series.
You can't look at this Heat squad and tell me they didn't miss the hot shooting of Cole, Chalmers, Miller, Battier. All of them completely nullified this series.