Comments on: Gregg Popovich’s handling of young players explains why the Spurs won’t hit bottom like the Pistons did

By: Click For Parrot Food

Click For Parrot Food — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 15:06:51 +0000

I always used to study piece of writing in news papers but now as I am a user of
internet so from now I am using net for content, thanks to web.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:36:46 +0000

Oh, any Michigan State basketball fan will certainly remember Mr. Lorbek’s one forgettable college season in East Lansing. Glad to hear he’s doing well overseas.

By: solo

solo — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:39:58 +0000

Hey, great article. I just wanted to point out something you guys probably missed about the Spurs future: “Draft & Stash”.
The Spurs currently have something like 7 or 8 guys playing and developing in Europe. But the thing that important to this article is that the Spurs have not one but two guys whom are ready to come & play for the team next year:
Erzem Lorbek, acquired in the Hill-Leonard trade in the last draft, is a 6-11 monster who is currently averaging 20 & 10 for Barcelona. Arguably the best team in Europe. He is also in a run for the Spanish league[ACB] MVP. He is 27 years old.
The second guy is Nando De Colo. He is a 24 years old Frenchman who play for Valencia in Spain. He just had a game this week: 32 points,5 assists,5 rebounds,5 steals in a Eurocup game. He is a a 6-4 PG/SG with very Manu-like game.

That’s where Detroit failed. If you don’t have any minutes to give guys to develop, that’s fine. Draft Euro-guys and stash them abroad. Take them when they are 18, by the time they are 22, they will have enough experience to be productive. That’s what the Spurs did for years, Manu was stashed and came to the Spurs as the Italian League & Euroleague MVP, Splitter was also the Spanish League MVP.

By: Max

Max — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:21:00 +0000

Hey, just to be clear since you’re a Spurs fan. I think the Spurs are a great organization–I think the Pistons are too but it’s not the best time to say so. I think the Thunder seem like a great organization right now too, but all three teams I believe face similar challenges in that no matter what their rosters look like during a given year, it is a longshot that they can ever sign good free agents that more attractive markets covet. This dynamic makes it much more difficult for them to rebuild without a lot of pain as the Lakers seem to be able to do, but the Knicks, the drought in BO between Bird retiring and the Garnett trade, the Clippers and the Nets attest that having a good organization is better over time than an attractive big city market.
The thing with the Spurs though is that Pop is probably going to leave when Duncan does and unless they get really, really lucky again with a franchise player to build around (which will probably require at least one terrible year) they are going to be going through some years of pain too.

By: RussellC

RussellC — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:16:14 +0000

We took Daye over Ty Lawson, Summers over Blair, and either JJ or Walter Sharpe over DeAndre Jordan. We traded away the rights to Budinger. We wasted cap space on Gordon and Charlie V rather than David Lee and Gortat or Brandon Bass.

By: Max

Max — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:49:09 +0000

The Spurs stunk in the years between Gervin and getting lucky enough to draft David Robinson and Tim Duncan.

By: Tim in Surrey

Tim in Surrey — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:11:57 +0000

Yeah, that is a good point. Remember, Pop was the GM first, then he took over as coach and promoted R.C. Buford to run the franchise. But, last I heard, he was still officially the “President of Basketball Operations” (although R.C. is “President of Sports Franchises and General Manager” (the plural refers, I believe, to the WNBA and dev league teams). Even Phil Jackson never had that kind of tenure.

By: Tim in Surrey

Tim in Surrey — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:05:07 +0000

You’re ignoring the fact that San Antonio consistently won for (literally) decades before Pop arrived. It all comes down to ownership and San Antonio has had very strong owners–Angelo Drossos and Peter Holt–over their entire history. They didn’t build great teams, they built great organizations that could repeatedly build great teams. Look at what some of their front office assistants like Dell Demps and Sam Presti have done. So I don’t think the history suggests that they will tank if you remove Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili from the equation. They just know how to run a railroad.

About this discussion in general, the most fascinating thing to me as a Spurs fan is that most Spurs fans think Pop is terrible about developing younger players. I’ve never really bought into that argument, pointing out that when he has had TALENTED youngsters, like Duncan, Ginobili and Parker, they have developed very well. But Spurs fans still wail about missed opportunities with stiffs, like Alonzo Gee, or talented guys who don’t know how to play basketball, like Ian Mahinmi. It’s amazing to see how one unusual move by Pop and one short essay by Henry Abbott have suddenly altered Pop’s reputation as a developer of talent.

By: Marvin Jones

Marvin Jones — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:53:49 +0000

That’s easy to explain, Pop has job security, he’s going to be the coach until he no longer wants to be the coach. You can think long term if you’re going to be there long term, the Pistons coaches have not had that luxuary.

By: Patrick Hayes

Patrick Hayes — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:27:26 +0000

I said it in a comment above, but the fact that Devin Harris and Brook Lopez had arguably their best seasons when Frank was coaching that team gives me some hope. And it’s hard to argue with how he’s played his young guys so far this season. Daye is getting good minutes now that his shot is straightened out. I’d like to see Macklin get a look at some point, but that is a small complaint.