San Antonio Spurs

Opponent Field Goal Percentage:

.452 (09-10)
.458 (10-11)


Didn't look any closer than that.

They are healthy for one.

Jefferson is giving them much more this year. Blair has been huge off the bench.

They play the best fundamental basketball in the league.

Parker and Manu are playing amazing ball.

I think they have taken the attitude that this is their last run, make it count.

Pop is ridiculous.

quote:

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best coach in the league

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By far.

They are scoring a lot more points this year too. Faster paced offense and their defense causes a lot of turnovers.

What amazed me about last nights game was that Duncan and Ginobli had a combined 11 pts.

not difficult.

First of all, they're running more off of Duncan outlet passes. Sometimes it's a traditional fast break, sometimes it's Parker by himself. When they do, they have the floor spaced with 3 pt shooters who are converting at a ridiculously high rate. Ginobili RJ, Neal, and Bonner who is hitting a little over half of the 3s he takes. If that doesn't work they pull it back and run the offense through Tim like normal.

Second, they've stopped trying to play 4 on 5 on offense. Think about it. Every Spurs team has had a defensive stopper who was atrocious on the offensive end in the starting lineup. Bowen was really worth it. Bogans the last few years has not been. They were able to stop teams, and then due to Duncan's brilliance (which necessitated a double) use that to get other guys open. But now they have the all the shells in the gun.

Now, everyone on their team can score, from Hill to Jefferson to Blair to the Sharpshooters Bonner/Neal. they're 5 on 5. All scorers.

Lastly, manu is healthy. He's an all NBA talent, and aside from Kobe, the most efficient scorer in the NBA on a per minute basis. And he's finally getting the right minutes. Parker is healthy too.

All the difference.

Still the window for this team is this year.

Jefferson finally knows what spots his shots are coming from. And his base is much more technically sound on his release this year. He's not just running around and trying to force things anymore. All of those things lead to better shooting.

I love HIll. I actually wondered aloud if Hill was going to make Parker expendable last season before TP's contract was extended. He's more explosive than Bowen ever was, and waaaay better on offense.

I forgot to mention Splitter. He's not as strong (physically) as I was thinking he might be. But he's very active on defense and plays aggressively without gambling.

Spurs are deep. I also think Pops is doing a great job limiting TD's minutes. Tim can still get it going in spurts, and is still better than 2/3 of the bigs in the game even when he's not on his A game. Best defensive commander/communicator in the league aside from KG.

What do you do for the Spurs? I'm not a spurs fan per se, just a fan of good basketball wherever it is played. And it's been played in SA for over a decade straight now.

The best sports organization to work for is the Texans because the owner doesn't hold anybody accountable.

To build off what karma said...

he is spot on with all of his comments regarding Jefferson, Parker, etc, etc.

But the team pretty much changed their offensive gameplan. No longer do they walk it up and slowly make their way to the basket. They get rebounds and run. It is unselfish basketball. No matter who gets a rebound, they are looking for the outlet pass.

This style is not what Pop has typically run, but without the low-post being as big a presence as it has been, this was the optimum time for a change in the system.

After skimming this thread it looks like everyone forgot james anderson. Before he got hurt he was having a pretty good rookie year (we all know how pop treats rookies).