pop - 77 votes
tibs - participant ribbon

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7878380/san-antonio-spurs-gregg-popovich-nba-coach-year

This definitely deserved it's own thread.

Sriously. No sarcasm

Allsome.

Now just waiting on the all-nba teams to see how Bynum gets the 1st team center spot and Tony is left off altogether.

Pop!

VDN

Super Badass. Very well deserved

This is a thread involving the spurs. Should be like a bat signal to you know who. Where is he?

He's probably at a watch party with Metta World Grease.

Awaiting illogical response saying "I told you Pop would win but Thibs really deserved it, blah blah, 2 years in a row, blah blah, I eat Kobe swimmers for breakfast, blah blah, Bynum = best center of all time, Duncan = 13th best power forward in Spurs history, blah blah, Lakers = 2012 NBA champions."

[This message has been edited by aggie_2001_2005 (edited 5/1/2012 8:53p).]

Great coach for sure.

Someone should start a grass-roots movement to start calling the at&t center "The Pop Center." The House that Pop Built. Something.

pop and timmay court at the att center

Thibs was definitely more deserving if you look at this year in a vacuum.

But Pop is one of the all time great NBA head coaches and this year was maybe his best regular season coaching performance. I'm fine with him getting the award, even if it has a small hint of "lifetime achievement award".

thibs absolutely deserved it, deluxe. this thread was meant 100% to point out yet ANOTHER one of simpletrolls failed attempts at smack and predictions.

according to him, thibs locked this bisch up after the first week and pop didn't stand a chance in hell of winning, only for the voters to take a giant, blue gatorade effect steamer right on his forehead.

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Thibs was definitely more deserving if you look at this year in a vacuum.

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Only 22% of the voters voted for Thibs to win. 22%. I think it is fair to say that he is "definitely more deserving" is ridiculous. It was impressive what Chicago did without Rose for a bunch of games. But nobody expected the Spurs to be anywhere near the top of the Western Conference, much less win it. Nobody.

Thibs was derserving. He was not more deserving.

[This message has been edited by Whistling For Flies (edited 5/3/2012 12:10p).]

Thibs was definitely more deserving of the award if you look at this year in a vacuum.

Reigning MVP missed almost half the season. Hamilton missed more than half the season. Deng missed 12 games. Still had the best record in the NBA.

But I have tons of respect for Pop and I'm happy he got it, even if it was sort of a lifetime achievement award.

it wasn't a "sort of lifetime achievement award."

He won it because all the talking heads picked the Spurs to finish in the middle of the division and toward the bottom end of the playoff-bound teams. Instead, he:

1) Crafted the most efficient offense in the NBA that can score at will from anywhere. They can rain 3s, post up, drive the lane, whatever
2) Seeing the front court issues we had last year, Pop tweaked the defensive system (lots of double teams), which allowed us to cover the big-man holes that plagued SA last year. Our front court is Bonner, Blair, Splitter, Diaw (not around for most of the year), and 36yo Duncan. Far below average other than Duncan, who's over the hill. Big teams should be able to pulverize us into submission. Yet we went 2-1 against the Lakers, 4-0 against Memphis, 2-1 against the Clippers, and 3-1 against Utah
3) Turned Kawhi Leonard into a serious competitor for rookie of the year (I'd put him behind Irving, but that's it. Rubio missed too much of the season).
4) Turned a guy who was cut by the bottomfeeding Cavaliers into a legit contributor (Danny Green)
5) Has masterfully handled minutes.
6) Tied up the #1 seed in the West (went 2-1 against the #2 seed).
7) Entered the playoffs on a 20-2 rampage. During the last 25% of the season, the Spurs' average margin of victory was 12.7

Yea, lifetime achievement award alright. Pop didn't do sheet this season

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Still had the best record in the NBA.

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It was a tie with the Spurs.

LOL

You guys are crazy. Pop did an outstanding job this year. I said so in my earlier post. Maybe his best regular season coaching performance of his career. Not as impressive as Thibs this year for sure, but I don't mind his career achievement being used to put him over the top. He's one of the greatest ever.

Either that or you're just stupid. I guess that's a possibility too. Sure wouldn't be the first one on this board...

at the end of the day, it wasn't an obvious bulls homer like deluxe or an obvious spurs homer like the people on this board who made the decision. it was a panel of people who literally get paid to sit and watch sports year round who made the decision.

pop won by a HUGE margin, so unless you're ready to try and convince everyone that the entire panel of voters were in cahoots to give pop an achievement award, please stop trolling on thibs behalf. all of us spurs fans agreed that if pop didn't get the award, it should have been thibs.

LOL at the "this guy doesn't agree with me so he must be trolling or stupid" argument. And I somewhat agree with what you're saying obi wan. I like you.

But I think it mattered alot to voters that one of the greatest coaches of all time had maybe his best coaching peformances of all time. And I have no problem whatsoever with that rationale.

But just for comparison purposes, what if in 2003-04... Duncan (reigning league MVP) missed 35 games, Parker missed 15-20 games (Lu missed 12 this year), and Hedo or Bowen missed 48 games (Rip missed almost 40 this year) AND Pop still led the Spurs to best record in the NBA. That's a no doubt coach of the year performance.


Pop 2012 Coach of the Year = Kobe 2008 MVP (ok, that part was trolling haha).

It was a tossup in my opinion. However, coach Pop is getting sold short by a few here. He didn't get the award based soley on his winning % as some have incinuated. If that were the case, the vote would have been closer.

Pop got the award because of the way he managed team resources this year. He limited the minutes of his franchise guys, incorporated younger talent into the lineup, turned a guy that got cut by Cleveland into a solid NBA starter, and sacraficed personal "cosmetic" achievements (like double-digit win streaks) for the health of the team. It wasn't an "accident" that the Spurs tied for the best record in the league, all while the "big 3" got the fewest minutes of their careers.

Pop has also transitioned the offense from a slow-it-down, methodical inside-out style to a run-and-gun machine. That started to happen last year, and this year you really saw it come to form. I think it is fair to reward a guy for being progressive and forcing his team to completely revamp their style of play, and then being highly successful at it.

All respect to coach Thibs. He deserved the award as much as Pop did, and frankly I was surprised the voting was as lopsided as it was. However that doesn't change the fact that the job Pop did this year was definitely deserving of COY.

it's a difficult argument both ways. ultimately, i don't think it was an achievement award as much as it was pop took this team, which once again was being ruled out as an after thought, and took them to number one in the west. no offense to the top of the east, but top to bottom, the west absolutely donkey rapes the east in a full season.

i'm not saying the bulls had it easy to win the same number of games as the spurs, but they didn't play in a division with the defending champs and the grizzlies, only to have to play catch-up with the thunder, all the while having the lakers and clippers nipping at their heels the entire time.

not to mention that he basically ran the gauntlet of the west, he did it without a single player averaging 20 points and he somehow figured out how to manage the minutes of an aging center with more than 1000 career games under his belt.

i can't be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that this was an achievement award based on the facts at hand. if the committee or panel of voters puts a statement alluding to it being more of a body of work type award, then i'll drop the argument and eat my foot.

I definetly agree that Pop did an amazing job this year.

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But just for comparison purposes, what if in 2003-04... Duncan (reigning league MVP) missed 35 games, Parker missed 15-20 games (Lu missed 12 this year), and Hedo or Bowen missed 48 games (Rip missed almost 40 this year) AND Pop still led the Spurs to best record in the NBA. That's a no doubt coach of the year performance.

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The main reasons Pop won COY are:

1. Thibs won it last year and no coach in the history of the league has won it twice in a row. There's a reason for that.

2. The spurs finished better than preseason predictions. So part of Pop's trophy also probably needs to go to the Memphis Grizzlies for trouncing the #1 seeded Spurs last season, effectively lowering the bar, allowing the spurs to fly under the radar. And part of the trophy should go to the Spurs FO, who made some improvement trades at the deadline, moving (previously described on this board game changers) Richard Jefferson and Dejuan Blair out of the rotation/locker room.


One thing is for sure. It is very shocking how much attention has been drawn to pop winning COY on this board. more than anyone else i've seen care about COY. the award is as meaningless as they come, as shown by....these NBA coaches never won it:

Chuck Daly, Jerry Sloan, Billy Cunningham, George Karl, Jack Ramsay, and probably a few more deserving coaches

[This message has been edited by Simplebay (edited 5/4/2012 8:32a).]

Simple,

It's not so much as Spurs fans are bringing it to everyone's attention that he won COY. It's the fact the your unhealthy Spurs hate comes on here and claims Pop "doesn't have a chance to win".... when clearly he did. Then he wins it.

I agree that COY is not some incredible award. It's crazy that those great coaches have never won. But you sure have spent alot of time on this board talking about Pop and the COY.

It's sheer statistical odds at this point. Who would've thought I spend so much time talking about the spurs, it's not like there's 5 new threads a week about them.

http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=2079962&forum_id=52
http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=2078972&forum_id=52
http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=2076618&forum_id=52
http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=2079838&forum_id=52
http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=2011289&forum_id=52
http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=2078649&forum_id=52
http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=2074582&forum_id=52
http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=2073077&forum_id=52
http://texags.com/main/forum.reply.asp?topic_id=2040019&forum_id=52

and that's just on the first 2 pages. not to mention the irony that half the other threads, the Spurs fans usually end up hijacking to talk about the Spurs.

it's been the same since 2007.

Threads about a Texas NBA team on TEXAGS!!! You don't say.

EDIT: 3 or 4 of those threads are other fanbases hating on the Spurs. One thread is this seasons thread. And another is the Spurs' first round thread. That leaves 3 other threads. Are you serious with this crap?

And second, you claiming other people derail threads is rich. Very rich.

Please carry on about how much you hate Spurs threads.

[This message has been edited by TheDino (edited 5/4/2012 9:08a).]

Deluxe - For the second time, the Bulls were tied with the Spurs for the best record. Or I could selectively omit information like you're doing -- Pop won in part because the Spurs had the best record in the NBA. How do you like that?

[This message has been edited by MackeyPatch (edited 5/4/2012 11:20a).]

I didn't acknowledge your point because it doesn't change anything.

You can say Pop led his team to the best record in the NBA because he did. So did Thibs. The point is that Thibs fought through more adversity this year. That's why he's more deserving of coach of the year.

guess i need to dig this out. Hamilton doesnt matter. Event though Ginobli's (Obi cast) stats and injury length is more comparable to Deng's, and there is nothing even close to the dilemma of Rose's injury on the Spurs.

i'll just leave this here.

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Simplebay posted 6:12p, 04/23/12
Rose. is. the. m. v. p.

Rose, Deng, and Hamilton have missed a combined 78 games..

if you include Noah, Gibson and Watson in there, that's an additional 28 games missed.

Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker have missed a combined 43 games.

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Shut up. Hamilton? Dude isn't even in the top 5 of most important players on that team. Your comebacks are weak.

If you take out the 40 or so games Hamilton missed, then your high number looks a lot more like you...g h e y.

Hell, why don't we count TJ Ford if we are counting Rip.

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[This message has been edited by Simplebay (edited 5/4/2012 1:13p).]

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You can say Thibs led his team to the best record in the NBA because he did. So did Pop. The point is that Pop did it even though people were expecting his team to finish in 5th in West, and did it with a team in which two of his three best players are 35 and could only average about 25 minutes per game. That's why he's more deserving of coach of the year.

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FIFY

[This message has been edited by Whistling For Flies (edited 5/4/2012 2:41p).]

The "expectation" argument is a silly one. The Spurs won 61 games last year. Anyone who wrote them off was silly.

If your best argument is "what people thought" and mine is "reigning MVP out half the year", I win.

The best argument I've heard is the one Obi made about the strength of the West. The West obviously played a few games tougher than the East this year.

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The Spurs won 61 games last year.

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And got bounced in the first round. And Manu and Tim didn't get any younger. Most pundits thought Dallas, Lakers, Clips, and OKC would all be better than the Spurs this year. It wan't silly at all to expect as much. And yet the Spurs kept winning, and did it with guys like Leonard, Diaw, Jackson, Green, Neal, Blair, Bonners, Byers all getting over 20 minutes/game.

[This message has been edited by Whistling For Flies (edited 5/4/2012 2:54p).]