I've Got Spurs that Jingle Jangle Jingle

I echo the same reservations about Rich Jeff, especially the defensive questions. However, once he gets indoctrinated into the defensive system AND has Tim Duncan’s stare of death burning through his eye sockets a few times I think his effort will be better than we’ve seen from him so far. In the end he nets out as an improvement over Bowen as SA’s offense becomes harder to defend.

Other reasons to like SA compared to last year:

- Ginobili stays healthy (in theory);
- Antonio McDyess and DeJuan Blair as back-up bigs;
- Roger Mason and George Hill are back.

I don’t understand why they are carrying Ratliff though.

In the end though, it depends on Timmay and his knees.

Tough to discount a team with all that playoff experience. If healthy, I have them as co-faves in the WC (w/ the team that shall remain nameless).

Bowen, Finley, etc… these guys had outstanding careers but are/were extremely past their primes. In getting Jefferson, the Spurs get a huge upgrade from what they had last year Jefferson has been part of some bad defensive teams but also some very good ones (last year’s Bucks were pretty good and his Nets teams consistently were among the elite defensive teams). He’ll be just fine defensively once Poppovich plugs him into that Spurs defensive machine.

The Spurs also got some much needed frontcourt depth with the additions of McDyess and Blair.

Despite this, they won’t be the two seed unless their big 3 stays relatively healthy. If the big 3 comes into the playoffs healthy, I put the Spurs at about the same level as Denver and Portland, but could easily understand why many folks have them in the #2 slot.

Its worth nothing that ESPN only has them finishing 2 games ahead the Blazers so its not like experts are seeing them as a very clear #2.

But that is just because I don’t know who else to back. I respect their pedigree, and give them the benefit of the doubt for the most part. I don’t see Denver doing as well this year, I feel like they caught lightning in a bottle last year, I don’t see Dallas’ new players helping them out enough to jump all the way to number two, Utah is going to have chemistry problems I think, New Orleans is too cheap to do it, Phoenix is too old considering their style, and I don’t think Portland is quite ready to jump to number two. Therefore, I give it to San Antonio.

The biggest issue for any NBA team is the health of its superstar, and the Spurs have of mileage on their biggest guys. Getting Jefferson helps take the load off of the others offensively, but defensively he is a definite downgrade from Bowen. How much that makes extra effort for Mr. Duncan et al remains to be seen, I think it will be just about even compared to the offensive gain however. The rest of their acqusistions are going to seriously help them, including DeJuan Blair, who will be huge in keeping Tim Duncan healthy and “fresh” for the stretch run.

All of this is barring injury of course, because that throws any and all predictions out the window for every team.

i just really cant see the spurs staying healthy this year. Duncan is now 33, Ginobli is 32. They are a very experienced team, but i dont see that helping until the post season. the spurs also tend to take it a bit easier in the season so that they have some left in the off season. i guess it may just be my blazer bias but i think that the blazers have a pretty good shot at that number 2 spot. denver over achieved last year, and lost some key players during the off season. dallas have the same problem as the spurs…

This seems like shoddy reasoning to me. Will Jefferson provide the (illegal) defense that Bruce “I Want to Hurt You” Bowen did? Not at all. Will Jefferson be content to shoot corner 3s for the year? Not at all. Will it matter one lick?

I say not at all.

1) Corn Pops is a great coach. If there is anyone capable of extracting the most possible defense out of a player, it is Popovich. Jefferson won’t look nearly as bad on D with Duncan to back him up, too.

2) Shooting corner 3s was mandated by the limits of the player before. With RJ’s multifaceted game, the Spurs are ten times as dangerous.

3) With this addition the Spurs can relegate Duncan to, at WORST, the third option on offense (Parker, Jefferson, Ginobili, Duncan) for a team that is defense-first, even a couple more ppg are deadly.

I say the Spurs challenge the L*kers for the top spot. At worst they are competing with the Blazers for second.

Some of the teams got better, some has got worst.
How much better depends on injuries. So before the season starts, we can’t accurately predict who is going to be where.

hg

Jefferson isn’t as good as his reputation. But since he’s been to an NBA Finals and played on the media-friendly East-coast earlier in his career, people know about him. He’s really better suited to a 3rd or 4th option. Which is exactly why he fits so poorly with the Bucks and so well with the Spurs.

The Bucks weren’t just getting financial relief from trading RJ. They expected more from him and didn’t get it. It was easier to send him along and save money rather than paying him and ending up with the same record. And he gives San Antonio exactly what they were looking for in order to make another run at a championship.

Yeah, Jefferson has holes. Yeah Jefferson isn’t that efficient. Yeah his defense doesn’t match his reputation. But he fills a hole that the Spurs had last year. That’s what worries me as a Blazers fan. Because the Spurs won 54 games with each of their big three missing a lot of games. Healthy, they have every reason to do better this year.

I certainly wouldn’t pencil them in for a championship this year, but they will be a handful, even if Jefferson gives them little more than a fourth scoring option.

If Duncan is healthy come playoff time they’ll contend, if not they won’t. Their biggest problem these days is that they either have to play the old guys a bunch to make the playoffs and get a decent seed, or they rest the old guys and get a low seed or miss the playoffs altogether. I don’t think it will get that extreme this season, but that’s an old crusty team that could fall apart with one major injury.

they had fallen OUT of it by the years end in my eyes (with all the injury concerns). So this allows me to say that they have IMPROVED but this just keeps them in the discussion of teams like porltand and the mavs who have improved as well.

the reason i dont think RJ is putting them over the top, so to speak are because of a few thins about RJ.

1) he is NOT as athletic as most people think. everyone assumes he is like flying around like richard jefferson. to be honest he isn’t putting it hard to the rack but uses back spins and floaters all the time. no joke sure but everyone equates the fact that he is young (29, no?, not 28) with athleticism and to be honest from my observations that just aint the case with him. so the whole “they are know suddenly an athletic team” just doesn’t do it for me.

2) ive never been excited about an non Jason Kidd Richard Jefferson. on the nets jkidd would guard the best wing players, not him. and he was getting things in the open court alot. he produced in some playoff games for sure. But since then what has this guy done? like in what ways do people think he is better than jason richardson. In many ways this is EXACTLY like that suns acquisition. older team with lots of questions acquires youngish wing player with athleticism. before he played, for just that ONE week, that suns team was all the rage. He ended up putting up 15 or 16 every other game. Im not sure, but jrich’s three point abilities seem better to me than rj’s too. what happened in the end? jason richardson acquisition just kind of turned into fluff. he became a role player scorer as the teams 4th or 5th best player. like aaron mckie on 76ers, outlaw on the blazrs, or someone else you can’t remember on some other team.

3) and that brings me to my last point. richard jefferson is just one of those cats that SEEMS like a #2 guy on bad teams (the nets teams are out of my mind because of the jason kidd factor as i discussed in #2). and when they get to a contender as the number 4 or 5 guy people get excited… but the thing is the ball can only be in so many hands at once… and because they are late to the game in the pecking order its hard for them to supersede anyone in that pecking order and they end up being just a solid role player really fast. ive seen it time and again.

thus, even if all spurs players are healthy i see them as the same as they were last year… just in the mix of 2-9 teams not clearly above it. richard jefferson does give them the ability to stay in that mix if one of the big 3 goes down… he will pick up the slack. so that is good for them. but in no way does it put them over the top of that 2-9 mix.

I see the real value of RJ as an addition to the Spurs as him providing what Manu provides coming off the bench. Manu has been happy with his bench role, but RJ will likely be starting, thus Pop can bring Manu in late in the 1st and not see any letdown in that respect. I’m not foolish enough to think that RJ will dominate the offense in the opening quarter, but like Dave put it, he adds another dimension.

If they have to rely on RJ, as good as he is, to jumpstart their team on a nightly basis in the opening period I don’t think the Spurs go that deep into the playoffs. I see the SPurs as the 2 seed, with the Blazers as the 3 seed in the west. Thos spots could easily be reversed, but if both teams play to their potential and barring major injuries that’s what I see playing out.

He’s a western conf opponent and he’s wearing #24!!!! Does he want me to hate him???

When people were talking about using the RLEC to get Jefferson here months ago, I wasn’t even a fan of it then. Jefferson is a nice offensive talent to have. He automatically gives the Spurs a great third scoring option that can stretch opposing defenses that much more. Here’s the problem, though. That only happens if the Spurs give him the ball more. By trying to involve RJ, they move further away from getting touches to Duncan down low. Because he is the point guard, Parker is going to get his every time, regardless of how the flow of the game is working since he controls that flow so much. Both Parker and Jefferson are at their best when they’re attacking the basket. All this does is forces Duncan to get out of the paint even more. Hurts their rebounding quite a bit.

Jefferson’s defense is also a question mark. He’s never been a lockdown type of guy. I tend to think this won’t matter quite as much with the way Pops works the defensive sets. Jefferson’s not super quick, but he’s quick enough to funnel ball handlers into the teeth of the Spurs defense.

The Spurs might have gotten a little better, but I still dont’ think it was that big of a leap. At the same time, even without RJ, I had them going at it with Portland for the 2nd seed in the West. I still think that’s where they’re going to end up.

he would have brought him to Portland. So we’re not talking about a guy with star-like skills.

I am certain RJ, even though almost a decade younger than Bowen, will represent a dropoff in defense for the Spurs. Coach Pop and the players and the Spurs culture will “spur” RJ to do better, but the wing players on other teams are no doubt licking their chops at the thought of blowing past Jefferson on their way to the hoop.

If RJ can shoot as well from the corner as Bowen did, then he won’t represent a dropoff in offense for the Spurs. What else can he do? How’s his handle? How quick is he? Does he have a post-up game? Passing skills? What options does he provide on offense that Bowen did not? If all he can do is shoot, then his acquisition at best holds the line for the Spurs at SF.

Well, my girlfriend has put away her spur love, I’m going to guess no.

However, that’s flat out guessing without really analyzing.

The Spurs are adding Ginobli. The spurs have added RJ. The Spurs are older but they’re still a world class organization and they still have great drafting taste (their desire to snag Batum is an example and if it’d happened would have left them prominent.)

It’s really all about the injuries and staying healthy. They’re dangerous.

Eventually all my random thoughts come to one point. How many things have to go right for them to dominate and win it all? How many things going wrong will disrupt it?

The Spurs with everything going right could be equal to the Lakers and greater than the blazers. The Spurs with only a few things going wrong don’t even make the play-offs. Every year every team seems to ahve something go wrong and the Spurs have recently had things go very wrong. My point is that they haven’t shown they can avoid the wrongs which hamstring them.

My prediction is that the Spurs will do well and make the play-offs, but they just won’t have what it takes to bypass portland or the Lakers. Yes they CAN do it, but will they? I don’t think. too little has to go wrong for them to not be in the play-offs let alone making that title run.

The blazers, on the other hand, need very little to go exactly right to be there in the western conference finals. Last year showed how little we slowed with things going wrong, and this season the Blazers are back stronger and healthier with a large amount of experience under their belt. I don’t see them falling to anyone other than the lakers. if everything magically went perfect for the blazers, I see them with 70+ wins and blowing out the play-outs. I feel that level of things going right is what the Spurs need to just just have a chance against the Lakers and the Blazers. In other words, I don’t see it happening, but it could.

The Spurs are no longer a serious contender but more a lucky contender and it’s to start thinking about rebuilding.

Strangely enough, in a real sign of a changing of the old guard, my big question mark about the Spurs is on the defensive end, particularly at the individual defense level.

As players age and begin to get injured, they tend to slip, not only from losing a step, but also from not being able to maintain the peak level of conditioning that they were able to attain at earlier ages. Offensively, they can adjust more easily by picking their spots. On defense they must be able to maintain the pace and react to what is coming at them without suffering injury. This becomes more difficult to do as each year goes by.

Timmy, Manu, Antonio, and Theo clearly are reaching the stages where maintaining consistent defensive intensity becomes a problem. Matt Bonner, another big, has never been such a great defender. DeJuan Blair’s lack of movement and lack of leaping ability will become apparent at the NBA level. And certainly, Michael Finley is over the hill on both ends of the court.

George Hill, who does have long arms and is mobile, lacks strength. In addition, Tony Parker and Richard Jefferson are not overly long, tall, or strong for their positions.

I know Pop is a very good defensive coach and their experience is likely to translate into pretty reasonable half court team defense. But to my eyes, this year is not going to be characterized by the same level of Spurs defense that we have become accustomed to. And a few injuries here or there could set them back even further. Is Popovitch really this great of a coach? We’ll see.

It’s OK. We have some secret weapons.

And we Spurs fans also want you guys to do well if our guys somehow fall. We even have a motto: anyone but the Lakers. :)

Hello Blazeredge. PTR spurs fan here. Would like to interject here…

   I dont see what the big deal is about ( the 29 year old) Jeffersons willingness to stick to the corner or play efficiently with Tim Duncan. I think if there were any reservations about his willingness to adhere to a roll, he wouldnt have been signed by San Antonio. Greg Popovich coached Richard in the Olympics and liked what he saw. Its not like we are stepping into an unknown commidity here. In addition , playing with Tim Duncan will most likely raise Jeffersons 3 pt %.

   While he hasnt been rebounding the way he can, I think that is more a product of the team/style and coach he plays for.( Bruce wasnt winning any rebounding titles either with his 2.8 rebound per game career average ) Richards career rebounding average of 5.3 is considerably better than Bowens.

   Richards ability to finish strong at the hoop when the defense closes on the three pointer alone will VASTLY help the Spurs offense. Prior to RIchard, they hadnt had a small forward able to do that since Sean Elliott. Then theres Richards ability to actually run the floor,finish and post up, skills that our beloved Bruce didnt possess.

While Richard isnt the Defender Bruce was….who is ?

   So yes, Richards addition alone makes the Spurs much better than last season.

I would place the Spurs as the # 2 seed in the West.