We’ve got a very interesting interview about the San Antonio Spurs on the platter for you tonight, courtesy of SJ and Wayne and his excellent blog Pounding the Rock. As usual, our side of the interview is up on the other site, here, so be sure and check that out.
And now, the answers:
1. From an outsider’s perspective, what are your thoughts on the Blazers this year?
The only NBA I watch is the Spurs, so my experience with the Blazers is limited to those few occasions when they play us. I’ve never been impressed with Brandon Roy. By not impressed, I mean in a “he’s a superstar that will carry a team” kind of way. But, a lot of that probably has to do with Bruce Bowen. Roy is probably the type of player Bruce covers the best, so I assume Roy probably looks a lot better against other teams. Everything I read about Roy, however, is very positive, including Charley Rosen (My opinions of other teams and players are heavily influenced by Charley Rosen who I think is the best around by a longshot), so I don’t believe I necessarily have an accurate reading on him. I think a lot of the Blazers year will hinge on how well Oden plays defense, rebounds, and stays out of foul trouble. Aldridge is not a power player and Oden needs to provide that paint presence that Adridge can’t. LaMarcus is talented, but he’s not going to bang and get you tough rebounds and play tough defense. Health, overall, seems to be the biggest issue for the Blazers for both Oden and Roy. If they can stay healthy and compete all year I see them being right in the mix in the 6-8 seed range with Dallas and Phoenix. McMillan always seems to get a lot out of his players and his teams execute. You can’t ask for more than that from a coach. Btw, I really think the Blazers will be in the playoffs. I don’t think the West is as loaded this year. I think it is a little more polarized with haves and have nots. Denver and Golden State won’t be nearly as good. I think that 8th spot is the Blazers to lose if you figure the playoff teams are: Lakers, Suns, Hornets, Rockets, Mavs, Spurs, Jazz, Blazers.
2. How do you see your matchup with them playing out? What part interests you the most? Any worries?
I don’t really care how the Spurs match up with another team during the regular season. If I paid attention to that then I would pull my hair out like some of the other guys at PtR. Pop seems to view the regular season as his own personal science experiment. He likes to play peculiar lineups against teams just to see if he can. He’ll play small against big, big against small. He’ll overplay the bench. If we were matched up with the Blazers in the playoffs, the two matchups I think would dictate the series would be Bowen playing defense on Roy and Oden playing defense on Duncan. Rookies have a really hard time with Duncan. He can frustrate them and get th
em into foul trouble. If Oden could do a decent job on him 1-on-1, then the Blazers could really give the Spurs a rough time. I think if Roy doesn’t find a way to either score or beat Bruce of the dribble then the Blazers would have a hard time scoring in crunch time.
3. With all the hype surround this team would you even entertain the idea that Blazers are “better” than the Spurs?
If both teams were healthy, I don’t see it happening. But, I didn’t expect the Hornets to be that good last year and they were every bit as good as us. Well, that’s not true, but they were very, very close. I could definitely see the Blazers ending the regular season with a better record than the Spurs. The Blazers are a younger, hungrier team. I think the Blazers will have to be hungry and not buy into the hype. The NBA doesn’t give you anything. The Blazers have a lot of unproven players. They are unproven in the pros and they don’t really have a college success story either. I think the jury is still out on Oden. The league is really marketing him like he’s some great player, but remember he only played one year of college ball and he wasn’t their best player. He didn’t carry that Ohio State team. So, my point is, they have a lot of growing to do as a team and as players. You can’t discount knowing how to win. When Manu came over to the Spurs, in contrast to Rodriguez, Manu had just won two Euro titles and was the 2-time MVP. He came to the Spurs with a winning pedigree. You have to have a couple players with that in them. We’ll see in the next couple years if the Blazers have anybody like that.
4. If you could grade the Spurs’ off-season, what would you give it?
I’d give the Spurs front office a C+ this offseason. Last year, the front office made zero changes coming off the title. This offseason they at least acknowledged the need for change, the jury is out on whether or not the guys we picked up will really help us, but it could have been much better. We really could have used Tiago Splitter but the rookie pay scale and the declining dollar killed that deal. I think the hopes of getting Magette set some fans up for a fall as well. But, that’s ok. Two years ago our BIG free agents were Francisco Elson and Jackie Butler, they didn’t give us a hell of a lot and we won a title. We aren’t getting Horry back and I think that is a good thing. The man was a shell of himself last year and I wish him only the best in a long and lasting retirement. And, we lost Brent Barry to the Rockets. I’m ok with that. I wasn’t the biggest Bones fan around. I think Roger Mason will be a solid player for us and we might be surprised by the productivity we get from Tolliver and Stoudamire.
5. What excites you most about the Spurs in this upcoming season?
As a Spurs fan it is hard to be excited about the regular season because they don’t really seem to turn it on until February. Pop likes to mix and match his lineups a lot – as a I mentioned earlier — and he always, always, always limits the Big Three’s minutes. However, I think we have some interesting guys on the team this year. I’m looking forward to a full year of Kurt Thomas and his crazy assassin eyes. Between Kurt and Ime I think we have two guys that only Ron Artest would want to tangle with. I’m really interested to see if Ian Mahinmi is going to be a player. If he can develop and be our athletic garbage man, we will be so much more fun to watch. Plus, he’s French and we can only hope that he does a rap video with Tony.
6. Realistically, where would you put the Spurs’ ceiling, high and low?
I think the Spurs can win it all. I don’t have a warm fuzzy about this year though. The roster just seems a little too thin on athleticism, even for the Spurs. But, if Tim feels a little spryer and Tony gains any consistency in his jump shot (and Manu is healthy, of course) I think we can make a run at it. I think our floor – given moderate health — is a 6 seed and a first round exit. I could easily see us doing what Phoenix did last year. They were pretty much in the mix of the tough teams in the West, fell to the 6 seed, played a really tough team and lost 4-1.
7. Looking at the team from all angles, what is the one thing that worries you about the Spurs?
We don’t have any game-changing athletes. The Lakers really hurt us last year on our defensive glass and I think we will see a lot more of that this year. That’s why Mahinmi will be big for us.
8. If you were able to be GM but could only make one move, what would it be?
This is a tough question because I think of it realistically. If you throw out “Trade Matt Bonner for Dwayne Wade”, I don’t really have any complaints with the Spurs moves. As the PtR readers know, I’m a bit of a Spurs front office apologist. But, I’d really like to see them try to find one player who can create off the dribble. Our offense stagnates horribly when Tony and Manu aren’t rolling and we lack that extra threat to run the offense. We need one other guy who can score on him man.
9. What is the key to the Spurs success this year?
Manu’s health. Manu is our closer. Tim is a rock and he’s going to carry you game-in game-out all game long. Tony is going to give you a solid game and put a lot of pressure on the other team. But Manu is the guy who scores the hard baskets for us. When he got hurt this year, we didn’t play well in fourth quarters and that was no coincidence. If the Big Three are healthy we’ll be good.
10. Any sleepers we should be aware of?
George Hill. I know the PtR guys will rib me but I think George is going to be good. But, nobody around the league, especially the press, is going to know he’s good because he is going to excel at the defensive end of the court. He’s going to run our offense efficiently and not put up any gaudy stats. Which is exactly what Pop wants him to do. You watch, early in the season Hill is going to log serious minutes playing defense against all the great point guards: Nash, Paul, Williams, Kidd, Baron, etc. Pop will feed him to the lions and just let him go. My bet is that the kid comes out on top. This is how you’ll know if he’s good or not. Is Pop still playing him in March? If Hill is logging 15-20 minutes per game in March then you know he’s a very good player. Even though he’ll be average 5 points, 2 assists, and shooting 35% from the field.
11. How do you feel about the genius of Gregg Popovich as head coach?
I think Pop is brilliant. Word is that he is very good strategically and really knows how to prepare for a game. However, I think where he really shines is that he does a tremendous job handling his players. The closer I watch the Spurs the more impressed I am with him. His players really, really like him.
12. Do you ever find yourself taking advantage of being able to watch the greatness of Duncan and Pop?
I think everybody takes Tim Duncan for granted. He’s remarkably efficient and effective and he plays big all the time. But yeah, I take the whole Tim era for granted and I want more from him and the team. I want him to dominate more in the regular season and I don’t appreciate the fact that he’s still putting up 20/10 seasons while playing 33-34 minutes a game.
13. As a Spurs fan, is it hard to ‘get up’ for the regular season, knowing that a) expectations are high and b) the Spurs more than likely will be in a great position to do damage?
I’m always up for the start of the season. It’s hard for me to maintain that because the season is so damn long, the regular season doesn’t REALLY matter all that much, and the Spurs don’t really start taking it serious until the Rodeo Road Trip. So, I usually find myself fading a bit from mid-December to late-January. I really worked hard on the blog last year and by the time the season ended I was beat.
14. Do you believe last year was wake up call for the Spurs as a whole?
No, I don’t think so. I think Pop is too stubborn to be woken up. I think the one thing we Spurs fans have realized in the Popovich era is that the front office won’t panic. Sure, the team may have looked old and tired last year, and the front office made it a priority to get younger. But, they weren’t going to break things up and they weren’
t going to sign somebody to a bad contract. They don’t panic.
15. Is it time for Udoka to take over for Bowen?
No, I don’t think Ime CAN take over for Bruce. They are two different kinds of defenders. Ime is a power wing defender. He’s great against guys like Artest, Bonzi Wells (who he completely took out of the Hornets series last year), and other powerful wings. Bruce is an energy defender. He’ll chase (and grab) you relentlessly. I don’t see Ime ever really being able to effectively harass somebody like Kobe or Nash or Ray Allen. But, I do expect Ime to log a lot more minutes this year and maybe he’ll prove me wrong.