Hello! Long time no see peeps. Since I've last posted one of our SpursDynasty crew had a daughter (hint: it wasn't me) and I haven't even called him yet to offer congratulations? Why? Because I'm a terrible, terrible person, that's why. Why else? Because I' ve been kinda busy.
But really that's not an excuse. Everyone's busy these days. Economy sucks, jobs are harder than ever because folks have to do the work of three, four people, and that sweet Madden game on your PS3 ain't gonna play itself, y'know?
And these Spurs blogs ain't gonna write themselves either. I suppose I should've written sooner, but hey, what can I say, 0-2 doesn't exactly get the inspirational writing juices going. Neither does 0-3, I fear, but that's down the road.
Who can even care about the Spurs right now? My Iggles are in the thick of the NFC East race at 5-3, they've won three straight, and they've got a home date with the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants coming up Sunday night. If you don't think I'm already on pins and needles thinking about all the variables and scenarios and match-ups, you clearly don't know me very well. Really, I can't function very well as a Spurs fan this time of year with a healthy Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook in my life. I mean, it's November 4 and the Eagles' quarterback is still upright (JINX!!!), what are the odds that was gonna happen? It also doesn't help - at all - that Manu is out. I mean, the Spurs are barely a blip on the radar right now. I'm probably more involved with the San Jose Sharks (10-2-0) and Montreal Canadians (8-1-1), especially with my man Alexei Kovalev
tearing shit up against the Islanders last Saturday.
Does that sound frontrunnerish of me? You betcha. But I can't help being distracted. I'm too much of a realist and too logic-oriented to fake enthusiasm for emotions I don't feel. Without Manu the Spurs simply aren't a complete team, same as they wouldn't be without Tim or Tony, and it's difficult to assess them as a whole, particularly because while all three of the Spurs' stars always make their presences felt individually, something inexplicable happens when they're all on the floor together. The team plays better than the sum of its parts and the trio seems to bring out the best in one another, not to mention their teammates. The Spurs with two of the three are a decent team, and if the two are Tim and Manu, they border on being a good team. Put all three guys on the floor though, regardless of who the two bums they share the floor with, and all of a sudden they become a championship caliber team.
Besides, there is that
other thing going on right now, and that's also a bit attention grabbing, no? Obviously the election has the potential to be historic, what with Barack Obama poised to become the first African-American President and all, and while I'm optimistic that his ethnicity won't negatively affect his chances of winning, it sure is playing out that way in my neck of the woods. I don't exactly work in the most progressive bar, let's put it that way. Just the fact that Obama is black makes him a controversial candidate where I live, in the Half Moon Bay boonies. I could lose tips just for declaring myself as supporting the liberal candidate. Then again, I'm not at all comfortable for looking like a racist by voting for McCain. What an ethical dilemma!
So I'm going to tell everyone I voted for Alan Keyes. He's Republican, he's black, it's a win-win.
Yes we can! Yes we can!And if anyone tells me I threw my vote away I'll respond that thanks to this RETARDED electoral college system we have in this country, my vote never counted in the first place. We have like ten battleground states where the candidates spend all their time and money, and forty other states they virtually ignore except for fund-raising purposes. I mean, can you imagine what it's like to live in Ohio or Pennsylvania and be bombarded by this shit every four years? God, that must all kinds of suck. By October every four years the people there must be ready to contemplate living in Canada, if only... to ... make .... the .... bad ... men ... stop.
Plus, with the electoral college system in place, it makes it easier for unethical types to make a major difference in the election by playing shenanigans with one state by rigging the voting booths or disenfranchising potential voters, what have you. If you make it a national popular vote on the other hand, it would be fruitless to rig any one state's voting booths or mess with one state's citizens because no one person's vote is more or less important than any other. Under the system we have set right now, if you live in California or Oklahoma or Illinois or Texas or New York or Georgia, your vote is absolutely meaningless. If you live in Florida or Ohio, then you're a god. It's not fair nor is it truly representative democracy.
The electoral college was a good idea once, when travel was different and media was different and communication technology amounted to tying a string to two tin cans. Hell, we once elected a polio-stricken, wheelchair-bound president, primarily because nobody voting knew he was in such a state. Now we've got candidates visiting twelve states over a weekend. I think it's safe to say that the electoral college has outlived its usefulness.
Speaking of outliving its usefulness, how 'bout that Bruce Bowen, huh? Let's face it amigos, there's a reason we're 0-2 and it's the guy wearing the #12 jersey, not the inactive Argentines. I covered this somewhat in my "print it out and take it to the bathroom next time you're pinching a loaf"
Spurs preview on PtR, but I'm just about convinced that Bowen's continued presence on the roster will be the single biggest reason the Spurs won't defeat the Lakers or anyone else of consequence in May. Well, him and Kurt Thomas, anyway. Just about anyone else that Pop plays has some offensive value. But not only is Bowen ridiculously easy to guard since he's lost a step (or two) and he shoots from only one spot on the floor, but other teams can waste their hopeless defenders on him, leaving their best guys for the others. I mean, can you imagine a lineup of Tim-Kurt-Bruce-Fin/Mason- Tony? You can practically double both our stars simultaneously and leave your fifth guy to guard a spot up shooting guard that's not going to take it to the hole.
With Manu out, for Bowen to validate his existence as a starting small forward, and taking into account that he's a complete offensive albatross, he can't just be a "plus" defender, he has to be the equivalent to a 1989 Dennis Rodman. Perhaps once he was. He's certainly not anymore. Not only does he not score, but he doesn't bring anything else to the table either, whether it's rebounding, shot blocking, steals, what have you. He can somewhat limit a scorer's ability to get off, but he's not a defensive playmaker like Manu has been over the course of his career and never has been. The Spurs have always gotten around his limitations before by having a deep bench, multiple bigs who can rebound and defend, and just enough scoring. The contributions of Robert Horry and Brent Barry were invaluable in that regard. In 2007, they declined so much, but Finley and Oberto picked up the slack just enough. What really pushed the Spurs toward that title though was almost unfathomable good fortune. They didn't have to play the two teams - Dallas and Detroit - built to defeat them. The '07 Cavs were perhaps the worst final entrant the NBA has offered in the past 30 years and the Jazz were a decent squad, but certainly not Conference Final caliber. The Spurs won the ring that year when they got by the Suns in six in the Western semis.
Luck like that simply won't fall the Spurs way - nor should it - anytime soon.
Please understand that through two games, and especially against Portland, the Spurs could not have played much better offensively than they did. Hell, they shot 56% from the field, 56% from three and 93% from the stripe. They're not going to top those numbers anytime soon. They lost both games because they didn't get enough defense from their defensive players. It was a classic Catch-22. When Bruce and Kurt are in, the team doesn't score enough. When they're out, they didn't get enough stops. I'm not sure how the team will be able to stop the bleeding. But clearly, those thinking the Spurs could play for two months without Manu and play above .500 were dreaming. Manu, in addition to being a terrificly efficient scorer, and a defensive playmaker, lets the Spurs play only Finley or Mason (or if Bruce out there, perhaps neither) at one time. If both those guys are playing together, then the defense will suffer badly.
Don't get me wrong, I think a line-up of Tim-Manu-Tony-Finley-Mason has the potential to be devastating, as formidable as any quintet that any contender can throw out there. But its employment would mean that the Spurs will try to win a title in an entirely new fashion; offensively, and I don't know if Pop can ever adapt philosophically so quickly. There just aren't that many good defensive players on the roster and the ones that are there are so bad offensively that they do more harm than good. Pop will discover this soon enough.
There's plenty of time to discuss potential rotation players once Manu gets back. For now, I think Pop needs to play the shit out of Mason (who's been wildly impressive so far, I could write poems about his jumper) as well as George Hill and Ian Mahinmi. See what you can get out of Anthony Tolliver while you're at it, because you know what Matt Bonner is by now. I want all the questionable parts of our roster demystified by the time Ginobili is set to join the rotation. At least that way his absence won't have been a total waste.
The Spurs will have played 23 games by December 15th. If we're shooting for that as a realistic date for Ginobili's return, I posit that at this point, any projection beyond 10-13 would be reaching. If they are 10-13, that would mean they'd have to go about 35-24 the rest of the way with Manu to make the playoffs. Eminently doable. It's up to Pop how to play this.
[Postscript: Both Obama and the Mavs won in landslides. I thought both match-ups would be a lot closer. You know what? I'll gladly take the trade-off.]
