If somebody would've told me that Tony Parker would miss a third of the season i wouldn't have picked the Spurs to finish in the top half of the West. The Spurs really needed a healthy TP on the court with an aging Duncan and Ginobli. Let's not forget that he was the finals mvp the last time this team won a title. I'm not sure i would go as far as saying that they overachieved this year but without Tony I don't feel like they underachieved either.
Gasol and Bynum both missed 17 games. Roy missed 17 games and Oden missed almost the whole year. Billups and Anthony missed games. Which one of those teams have underachieved the most (of course Denver didn't even have their coach, so Karl is excused from this)? So Pop needs his entire roster to be completely healthy the entire year in order to meet expectations? With anyone injured for any amount of time at all the team is screwed? Isn't he supposed to be an elite coach? Any coach can meet expectations with zero adversity. That's not difficult.
Could you imagine if Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloan, Pops, and Adelman were all on the same coaching staff? That locker room would be quite something at halftime.
I remember that there were people calling for Morey's head because the Spurs were 'out acquiring us' during the off-season... it didn't make them any better.
Yeah, that was a pretty silly statement by A-3PO. They still have the Manu-Parker-Duncan trio so it should not be surprise that they got out of first round. The series against the Mavs could have gone either way and the outcome of that series really doesn't make the Spurs overachievers or underachievers in my book. What it came down to was not coaching but George Hill who got hot in the series. Sure Mavericks were looking good but remember this is a team that has looked good before and have been knocked out of first round. We are talking about the Mavericks who have been perennial underachievers and not a team like the Lakers. Also, they finished regular season as a 7th seed. The worse they could have done is finish as a 8th seed or not make the playoffs. To say that they overachieved as a 7th seed is really setting the bar low. To me, the Spurs are what they are. An old team with lots of experience that made the playoffs and got out of the first round but ran into a better team in the second round. I did expect them to make this more of a series which they have failed to do. And as far as expectations go, based on the Spurs management and most of the fans, they definately underachieved.
Popovich is a good coach. But it's the NBA, you can't make chicken soup out of chicken poop, not this deep in the playoffs.
haha there would be absolutely no coaching done. They'd be trying to out-speech each other. Plus Phil, Pop, and Hitler would all team up on Sloan cus he coached the Spazz for decades.
I'm sorry but Jerry Sloan would wear the pants in that staff. The dude likely carries and is one of those guys who would thrown down with beer bottles, moonshine bottles, teeth, nails, ashtrays, or whatever else is handy. I know Pops is ex-military and all, but I'd still take Sloan in that fight. Pop would be explaining the rules of engagement, and Sloan would sucker punch him, stomp him, and then piss on his face. I love Rick, but the guy is cerebral. He could plot a coup to take the top spot, but if Sloan caught wind of it, he'd take Rick out onto the ranch and beat a little sense into him. And then there's Phil. The dude has a replacement hip, and he gets manicures. He'd probably give Sloan a book about submitting gracefully. After he finished sodomizing Phil, Sloan would probably let Malone take a turn or two. Phil would subsequently be known as the Gimp.
Btw, isn't this another way of Pop saying "it's on me" 'cept worse?? Pops has been there for so long, this is like saying Alex Ferguson of ManU saying he'd quit if his team doesn't win the champions league.
You do realize that the Spurs finished with the same record as the Blazers and only 3 games behind Denver AND was the only one of those three to make it out of the first round. Of course every team deals with injuries but having a player miss 26 games compared to 17 games is a big difference especially when that player was the leading scorer from the previous year and a finals mvp. Take away any teams leading scorer for a third of the year and see how well they do.
I said it back when they traded for Jefferson and I'll preach it again now: Trading for Jefferson was an overhyped and overrated move. He brings nothing substantial to the Spurs. He can't hit mid range shots consistently, he doesn't even know where the 3 point line is, and his so-called strength (athleticism) gets slowed down drastically in the Spurs offense.
