Yall Killing Me

[terrell]

lol at Yall calling Duncan a "superstar", closer, etc....., yet the Spurs hardly ever go to Duncan with the game on the line. You never know whos going to get the ball in crunch time with San Antonio..

[Peoriabird]

Yall can't be serious with this superstar talk still. Does the balanced scoring not tell you our options are plentiful? Has our defense not shown we can stop anyone? We've disposed of 10 straight "superstars" (I'm growing tired of the phrase its so poorly and lazily used) along with even more dynamic isolation scorers in Monta, Waiters, and Jamal and you're still wishing for an ISO player in crunch time when we have the fourth highest scoring offense in the fourth quarter with the ability to get to the line and get wide open corner threes at will AS A TEAM? Amazing.

Have you ever heard an announcer say in the final moments of a game, "well we all know who's getting this shot?" In today's NBA of X's and O's against teams that can actually play defense (that's us if you didn't know), that's actually a bad thing. Some people actually want a JJ-type back. Why, so he can jack up shots and make his teammates disinterested in playing defense, becuase that's exactly what it does.

Every team we've beaten in this stretch is superior to the East Champs our Big Brothers disposed of in the Finals last year. But I'm sure you can catch that NY Knicks league pass if you still long for that "someone who can get it done at the end of the game in the playoffs in that 3-4 minute window when everything slows down." Stop latching on to the ESPN lemmings thought pattern just because Miami and OKC have had 2 star wings and for goodness sakes stop calling Tim a "superstar"! He'd cringe at the thought of it.

I'm so happy we have a coach who's capable of original thought and actually knows the basic secret of basketball, something that even Michael Jordan had to learn the hard way: TEAMWORK PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! To find fault with this team outside of rebounding is erroneous nitpicking.

Give it up Ben hill!  I've given up on this topic long ago.  These guys have convinced themselves that the "superstar" approach is the only way because every team that wins has a player on that team that will be assigned a superstar grade because the team won...Catch 22.  So just give it up.  When people give Kawhi Leonard a superstar grade then you know its a no win situation

[IheartVolt]

Sometimes these threads are so painful to read. Why the hell does some posters have tofind something or better yet someone to tear down on this team. The Hawks are playing grown man ball and some of you cannot stop bitching long enough to enjoy it.

[RedDawg#8]

I dont even know if I should respond to some of these comments because they somehow have managed to mix 1 nugget of what Ive been expressing over the past couple days with an argument thats been perpetuated for months and years on these boards. Me saying we need a player to step up and be a leader during crunch time seems to have incited the superstar debate, and now the Lou Williams debate as if you cannot express one idea without having to automatically be grouped with others.

Well let me say this. I love our team and team concept. I am one of the postes who doesnt think we HAVE to have a superstar. I also DO NOT think Lou Williams fits the profile of this team, or who I was referring to as a closer nor do I think we should have kept him.

That being said, basketball IS a team game and over many years of watching this sport I have seen both college and pro teams that have superstar players fall to teams with percieved less talent because of intangibles like competiteness, leadership, heart, hustle etc. If this were not the case then Lebron, or Kobe would have won the title every year as they are/were the best players on the planet.

With that said I think our team is legit because our team plays the game the right way and even though the world thinks we dont have any great players I believe we have a very talented roster that does very specific things extremely well at the sacrifice of our very few weaknesses like rebounding. But again I believe we are talented enough to win most nights especially against teams with a Superstar because we can pinpoint them and make the rest of the team beat us or vice versa shut the rest of the team down and force their to put up a historic night just to keep up. I love it. I love this bunch and I think we will retain a high seed entering the playoffs.

That being said, the playoffs are a different animal, ezpecially the deeper you get. And if we are going to go the distance each round will get tougher and be a grind. Some games will be close a down to the wire and scrappy and our opponent will be desperate to stay alive. Crowds will be hectic and the refs will swallow the wistle and let us play. Our shots may even stop falling and we already know we struggle to rebound. We WILL need somebody to be step up and be a leader. Someone who can be strong with the ball because the full court press is now on and now because the clock is running down due the furious ball pressure they have recieved they HAVE to make a good decision or else we will face a desperate shot attempt or force a shot clock violation. Its not about them hitting a big shot or being a superstar its about who can we trust in those moments to MAKE THE RIGHT PLAY. Thats what we have to figure out. Who is the leader on this squad that wont allow us to have wasted possessions in crunch time. Based on the tradition of the game that player is normally your PG. I think Jeff Teague CAN be that guy mainly because we NEED him to be. Schröder has the natural instinct to be that guy but he is still growing and learning. But even still if Teague cannot do it then I dont mind Schröder being given the opportunity to prove he has the toughness to lead us. Again this isnt about conforming to superstar mentality. Its about intangibles. This team has heart, this team has hustle, and this team competes. We have leadership in the locker room, we have leadership in the huddle, we have amazing leadership in coach Bud on the sidelines. We are missing leadership in those big moments though and its become noticeable to me lately. A LEADER DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THE BEST PLAYER ON THE TEAM. Nique said it all the time, he was a team captain, he was the star but Doc Rivers was the leader out there and would put him in his place if he took a bad shot. We can dominate for 3 and a half quarters but down the stretch someone has to be in control out there. Thats what I have been talking about and it does not mean I dont like our team or appreciate how we play. When the pressure has been on us lately we have shown some kinks in the armor. We dont play as confidently. Yet we have found ways to win. I hope we can keep it up. But I hope someone rises to the occassion and becomes the leader of this bunch out there

[Diesel]

That being said, the playoffs are a different animal, ezpecially the deeper you get. And if we are going to go the distance each round will get tougher and be a grind. Some games will be close a down to the wire and scrappy and our opponent will be desperate to stay alive. Crowds will be hectic and the refs will swallow the wistle and let us play. Our shots may even stop falling and we already know we struggle to rebound. We WILL need somebody to be step up and be a leader. Someone who can be strong with the ball because the full court press is now on and now because the clock is running down due the furious ball pressure they have recieved they HAVE to make a good decision or else we will face a desperate shot attempt or force a shot clock violation. Its not about them hitting a big shot or being a superstar its about who can we trust in those moments to MAKE THE RIGHT PLAY.

 

It's hard to get through to people who don't want to hear the truth, but this is the truth.  I speak the same of a guy who can carry our team for 4 to 5 minutes in the clutch. Everybody thinks that the team ball we see now will be the same way it's played under the bright lights of the playoffs.  No... There are levels to this.  IF this style of play were invincible, then San Antonio would never loose.  However, I have seen San Antonio put out in the first round of the playoffs... and Frankly, I think they are definitely more talented than us.  I just think that we ought to keep in mind that we do have weaknesses and we need to find that clutch scorer.

[Duff_Man]

There's one of those meaningless buzzwords floating around..."clutch". It's the ESPN mentality creeping in.

When does the "clutch" begin during a game?

[Diesel]

There's one of those meaningless buzzwords floating around..."clutch". It's the ESPN mentality creeping in.

When does the "clutch" begin during a game?

 

I love how people say that Clutch is meaningless.  I remember it first arising by the city of Houston calling itself clutch City. You remember, the year we traded Nique.  Houston had a good regular season, went into the playoffs and got slapped in the mouth by Phoenix losing the first two games.  I think this was when it were five game first rounds... and they eventually beat Phoenix.   Then did the same to NY in the finals (thank OJ)...

Point is Clutch means that when you need to win or when you need to score in order to win, you step up and do it.

This was not an invention of ESPN.  Blame the Houston Chronicle if you want to blame somebody. However, since that time, people have noticed that in the game of basketball, there are times when the game is on the line and somebody needs to do something to  help their team win.  It's like Jordan vs. the Cavs or Jordan vs. the Jazz.   It's like Miami coming back from the Mavericks.Flurry.  It's like what happened to us last year in the playoffs when we were up by 5 with 3 minutes left in game 6 and leading the series 3 games to 2.  It's the opposite of Lou Williams blowing that last play.

[JTB]

lol at Yall calling Duncan a "superstar", closer, etc....., yet the Spurs hardly ever go to Duncan with the game on the line. You never know whos going to get the ball in crunch time with San Antonio..

SO DISRESPECTFUL to the greatest PF of all time!!! Smh

[MaceCase]

There's one of those meaningless buzzwords floating around..."clutch". It's the ESPN mentality creeping in.

When does the "clutch" begin during a game?

I believe 82games tried to define it as something along the lines of within 2 minutes of the 4th quarter with the score within +/- 4. I don't think that ESPN or casual fans were too happy about it though because it showed that Kobe THE CLUTCHIEST CLUTCH PLAYER THAT EVER CLUTCHED actually wasn't.....clutch.

So of course it's gotta be bunk, right? I mean they replay those few made shots a thousand times so he must have hit a thousand of them.

Anyway, looking at their list right now, Jeffrey and Horford are ranked like 21st and 26th respectively so I think the team is in better shape than people claim.