Yeah I guess your right about being little to soon on Joseph, and how he doesn't get playing time except now, but instead of him even getting those minutes if he does get any, why not give them to Anderson? I think Anderson would be more beneficial to the team in long run as opposed to Joseph, because Joseph needs a lot of work.

Time to start another streak.

FW, well partly because Kawhi, Gary, RJ and Green are in front of Anderson. And partly because Anderson is in Pop's dog house. The writing is already on the wall. James is gone.

I like the attitude, shark.

FW, I think Joseph is getting the PT b/c he projects as a PG, whereas Anderson is a SG who is not likely to be with the team beyond this season.

Joseph was a highly rated recruit coming out of HS and we got to watch him a lot, as he played for tu. Honestly, when he was there, he seemed very similar to Avery Bradley. Both had a lot of athleticism and a weak jumper and poor grasp on how to run the point at the college level.

With that said, I will not doubt the Spurs management. All he needs to be capable of is backing up Parker, and hopefully if Ginobili's injuries aren't nagging him, Ginobili tends to play the "point" when Parker is out, as he is a fantastic playmaker and probably a better distributor than even Parker is.

In regards to your Jekyll/Hyde assessment of Neal, he definitely isn't "young", only "young" in his NBA experience. He is being asked to run the offense and I think that is when you see him commit his errors. While he has improved a ton in his abilities running the "backup PG" if you will, he is much better suited being off the ball.

With all of that said, what's the word on T.J. Ford? Is he expected back anytime soon?

I know tj is practicing. He's done one and one and two on two drills. I think he's close to full contact. My guess is that he will see some minutes in the Chicago game.

Ginobili, Tiago, and Ford all expected be back and ready after ASG. From what I have heard.

From?

Okay, I just have to chime in...I'll state right off the bat that I'm a diehard Mavs fan.

I have to say that despite all of Pop's mad scientist tendencies, which Spurs fans of course have seen work year after year, I don't understand how you can be okay with the total give up tonight.

Rest your veterans, SURE! It's been a crazy schedule, YEAH, GIVE EM A BREAK! The youngs guys are getting some good experience, THIS WILL HELP IN THE LONG RUN!

Okay, I get that it's one game and the recent streak makes it easier to accept, but I don't think I could ever be alright with what happened tonight as a fan.

If the coach of ANY team I support allowed this abortion of a performance to happen, I wouldn't be talking about the things that make it okay. I would find this an embarrassment, plain and simple. And yet this entire thread has totally ignored what actually happened on the court.

Strategy or not, this was a mockery of a game. As proud as I know the Spurs organization and fans are, I cant believe I'm readong all this "it's okay" tripe.

So, tell me, how do you feel about Odom and Dirk's "mini camps" b/c they were too out of shape to play for their multi million dollar contracts?

I didn't mean this as an attack on you or your team, but I'll answer that. Shutting Dirk down when he's obviously not right is a lot different than basically conceding a game before it even starts. And it's obvious by the way he's playing now that Carlisle made the right call.

Odom is a total bust as we can all see, but I don't see a real comparison to the decision that allowed a weak Portland team to blow out a division leader.

Going back to this overwhelming support for what Pop did tonight, does anyone think Duncan and Parker thought it was a good idea while they sat on the bench and watched their team get embarrassed?

Double post

[This message has been edited by Dave94 (edited 2/22/2012 1:29a).]

The fact of the matter is there's nothing any of us can do about it, so what's the use being angry about it? Pop knew Tim and Tony would be gassed considering they've been playing 35+ minutes for the past few games, not to mention the young guys almost beat Dallas a few weeks ago.

I don't see it as conceding a game as much as plain and simple rest that Tim and Tony had earned.

I could see fans that showed up at the game being upset, and admittedly I would be too, but the fact that they were blown out by 40 is not Pop's fault.

And this season more than ever, the standings in the West mean exactly nothing. All the teams are so close in the standings and in abilities, it won't make a difference being a #2 seed or a #6.

I'm a Mavs fan. I hate the Spurs. But I disagree with Dave. As a coach you have to look out for the long term. It's no different than resting your starters at the end of the season when you have your playoff seed clenched. It sucks for those particular fans but they'd probably all be okay with it if they thought it might mean a better shot at winning a title.

quote:

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Going back to this overwhelming support for what Pop did tonight, does anyone think Duncan and Parker thought it was a good idea while they sat on the bench and watched their team get embarrassed?

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They are both veterans--they knew what was going to happen going in, and realized that Pop knew what he was doing. That's the kind of superstars the Spurs have--could you see ANY coach on ANY other team deliberately sit his starters like that and sacrifice a double digit win streak with absolutely NO negative repercussions from his players? Just remarkable.

Pop was still out there coaching like crazy, getting mad, trying to win and all that. He didn't concede the game. However, one regular season game just doesn't matter much, especially sitting in the #2 spot in the west and coming off an 11-game win streak. Having your stars healthy for the playoffs does matter.

It's also really tough to criticize a coach who has won 4 titles for your team, especially when he has had such a big hand in picking the players and building the dynasty.

[This message has been edited by Ulrich (edited 2/22/2012 8:46a).]

I absolutely despise the Mavs, and a Spurs fan, eventhough I live in Metroplex. First of all the Mavericks aren't a good franchise by any stretch of the imagination. They have no history, not being in ABA and no HOF players. What the Mavs fans don't seem to understand is the game of basketball itself. You just can't go out on free agent market chasing names expecting to win MULTIPlE championships. Sure they won one, but that was a fluke. When you go out and get guys like Carter, Kidd, and Odom, that means two things to me.
1) they would rather sell out seats based on players names who are way past their prime, rather than getting young guys building team up.
2) Or that they have absolutely no idea on how the game of basketball is played. Because you just can't win with names.
As for the Spurs, they seem to do the opposite, by drafting players they are going to use, and building a franchise around them. Which is why they win more than 1 championship, same can be said about Bulls, Celtics, and Lakers.
As for the Mavs fans they are possibly the worst professional fan base I have ever seen. It's actually not their fault, it's the cowboys fault, the sports fan in the metroplex area has grown up with hearing everything about Cowboys, and if you lose, you are a complete failure. So the mavericks fan, which most of them are cowboys fans carry this philosophy to the basketball world, where it isn't the same thing. The previous poster drove my point home by saying how can you stand to lose like that? Well, if the mavs fans had any basketball IQ, they would know you have to rest your starters after they have logged serious minutes, especially in a condensed season. But then again the average Mavs fan doesn't have any basketball IQ. It is next to impsossible to carry on a basketball conversation or arguement with a mavs fan. Any time you say say something their only response is who won last year? Or just Dirk.
This is why I hate the Mavs

[This message has been edited by FWAggie16 (edited 2/22/2012 10:32p).]

I don't understand how people keep making this some sort of big deal. Even before the season started I could have told you that a b2b in portland in the middle of the RRT was a surrender game.

Popovich has never been unclear about how he approaches the regular season and he laid it out again in his post game comments:

quote:

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What the uninformed didn’t understand about Popovich’s banishment of his two stars was the utter lack of significance he places on anything as pedestrian as a win streak, even one that has reached double digits.

“We’ve had the same goal for 15 years: To be the best team we can possibly be come playoff time,” Popovich said before the game. “We’ve never ever talked about what our record should be, whether we are going to win a championship, or not. Never. It’s never come up in any practice or game for 15 years.

“We just try to get better every day, and whatever happens, happens.”

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And yet they have the highest winning % of any NBA team in the past 10 years, by far.

I love Pop.

FWAggie you're an ass. And fans like you are the primary reason we all hate the Spurs.

[This message has been edited by R0GUE (edited 2/22/2012 2:15p).]

Fans like FWAggie are the reason all fanbases hate each other.

Yeah, SOME Mavs fans have a nouveau riche attitude, just like SOME Rockets fans have glory days syndrome, SOME Spurs fans act like superior fans because their team wins and does it a certain way, and EVERY Lakers fan is a soulless rape-endorsing bandwagon dbag (). Every team also has good fans.

Personally, I think the Mavs fanbase has less to prove and has been pretty tolerable since the Mavs won a title.

[This message has been edited by Ulrich (edited 2/22/2012 2:23p).]

What Ulrich said. You don't think Mavs fans can be pompous asses? Every fanbase has em.

I wouldn't normally bother with an obvious troll, except that he jumped all over Mavs fans because of Dave, but ignored the part where I, a Mavs fan, supported Pop's decision.

I definitely see all y'all's points, but I just don't think it would sit right with me.

But ultimately, the one game won't matter in the long run.

Dave I see your point too. I don't think as MAvs fans we can cast too many stones though, because we too have an older team and are trying to massage their minutes. I think Pop would probably be better served doing something similar to what Carlisle has done which is institute a minutes cap on J-Kidd, thus giving him more rest over a long haul, rather than play Duncan and Parker tons of minutes then give them one game of rest. But I don't think San Antonio is as deep as Dallas, and thus might not be able to survive doing that as an overall strategy.

Not as deep? Seriously, when they get Ginobili, Tiago, and TJ back, they will be arguably the best bench in league. Neal is a great scorer, Kawhi Leonard, great defender and can score, Bonner one best 3 point shooters in league. Tiago is looking really good this season. As for the minutes, you have got to be kidding me. Pop is one of best coachs of all time at managing his players. For example only one player on Spurs team is in to 40 of minutes logged this season, Parker with 34.3. So I ask you how is he not putting a "minute cap" on his players? The only reason they sat last night is because the played so many minutes in previous 2 games, because they had 2 tough games in which they needed both Parker and Duncan in order to win, not because the average a lot. So before you go criticizing Pop coaching on how he manages his players, why don't you do a little research?

[This message has been edited by FWAggie16 (edited 2/22/2012 10:28p).]

San Antonio is pretty deep when healthy, but Splitter/Manu/Ford are already out. I think if those guys were playing, you would see more of that balanced strategy you mentioned; it's what the Spurs have been doing with Duncan for a couple years now. Even very deep teams will usually be hurting if they lose 2 starters and the backup PG.

With everyone healthy and in game shape, Spurs are plenty deep this year. If the defense improves, they can contend.

Matt Bonner's Rodeo Road Trip Blog; pretty funny stuff.

http://www.nba.com/spurs/features/120223_bonner_rodeo_road_trip

Awesome. This would be a good post in the players you hate thread, for all the Matt Bonner haters.

That was a good read.

That was great. Thanks for posting it earlier shark.

Spurs up 65-39 at halftime. No complaints with that half of play.

Wow theyre beating the Nuggets like a dirty rug