SB Nation - David Lee

Greg Monroe, Andre Drummond invited to USA Basketball mini-camp

Packey — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:05:27 -0000

From the Pistons:

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - USA Basketball announced today that Detroit Pistons centers Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe were named to a list of 27 players to participate in the 2013 USA Basketball Men's National Team mini-camp to be held in Las Vegas, Nev. from July 22-25.

Drummond and Monroe both have USA Basketball team experience at the youth level. Drummond was a member of the 2010 U17 and 2009 U16 World Championship gold medal teams. Monroe was a member of the 2008 USA Basketball Junior National Select Team that competed in the annual Nike Hoop Summit and also participated in the 2007 USA Basketball Youth Development Festival - White Team.

"It's an honor to be invited to participate in the Team USA camp along with this group of great young players," Drummond said. "I'm looking forward to the experience and hope to learn from it."

"Being invited to the Team USA mini-camp is definitely an honor," Monroe said. "I'm excited to be playing against some of the best young talent in the NBA for a few days and hope to gain experience I can use going forward."

The ninth overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, Drummond averaged 7.9 points, 7.8 rebounds. 0.5 assists, team-high 1.6 blocks, 1.0 steals and 20.7 minutes in 60 games (10 starts) while shooting a team-best 61% from the field. He recorded nine double-doubles which ranked second on the Pistons and second amongst all rookies. Drummond scored 18 points and grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds vs. Milwaukee (1/29) becoming the first rookie in NBA history to record those numbers in a game coming off the bench. He scored a career-high 29 points at Cleveland (4/10) and was one of five centers in the NBA this season to record 90-plus blocks and 55-plus steals. Drummond finished fourth in the 2012-13 Kia NBA Rookie-of-the-Year balloting. He was also selected as a member of Team Shaq as part of the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge at NBA All-Star 2013 in Houston but was unable to play due to injury.

Monroe averaged a career-high 16.0 points, 9.6 rebounds and career-high 3.5 assists in 81 games last season. He ranked 11th in the NBA in rebounds per game (9.6) and his team-high 37 double-doubles tied for ninth. He also recorded his first career double-double with 21 points, 12 rebounds and a career-high 11 assists at Sacramento (11/7) marking the first triple-double by a Piston since 2004. Monroe led the Pistons in points (1,298), rebounds (777) and steals (105) last season and became only the third Piston since 1994-95 to finish the season with 1,000-plus points and 600-plus rebounds in back-to-back seasons (Grant Hill and Otis Thorpe). He was one of only three players (David Lee, Al Horford) to average 16-plus points, 9.0-plus rebounds and 3.0-plus assists last season and his 67 double-doubles over the last two seasons marked the most in the Eastern Conference.

Below is a 2013 USA Basketball Men's National Team Mini-Camp roster and schedule:

NAME POS HGT WGT DOB NBA TEAM / COLLEGE
Ryan Anderson F 6-10 240 05/06/88 New Orleans Pelicans / California
Harrison Barnes F 6-8 210 05/30/92 Golden State Warriors / North Carolina
Bradley Beal G 6-5 207 06/28/93 Washington Wizards / Florida
Mike Conley G 6-1 185 10/11/87 Memphis Grizzlies / Ohio State
DeMarcus Cousins C 6-11 270 08/13/90 Sacramento Kings / Kentucky
Anthony Davis F/C 6-10 220 03/11/93 New Orleans Pelicans / Kentucky
DeMar DeRozan G 6-7 216 08/07/89 Toronto Raptors / USC
Andre Drummond C 6-10 270 09/10/93 Detroit Pistons / Connecticut
Kenneth Faried F 6-8 228 11/19/89 Denver Nuggets / Morehead State
Derrick Favors F/C 6-10 248 07/15/91 Utah Jazz / Georgia Tech
Paul George F/G 6-8 221 05/02/90 Indiana Pacers / Fresno State
Taj Gibson F 6-9 225 06/24/85 Chicago Bulls / USC
Gordon Hayward F 6-8 210 03/23/90 Utah Jazz / Butler
Jrue Holiday G 6-4 205 06/12/90 Philadelphia 76ers / UCLA
Kyrie Irving G 6-3 191 03/23/92 Cleveland Cavaliers / Duke
DeAndre Jordan C 6-11 265 07/21/88 Los Angeles Clippers / Texas A&M
Ty Lawson G 5-11 195 11/03/87 Denver Nuggets / North Carolina
Kawhi Leonard F/G 6-7 225 06/29/91 San Antonio Spurs / San Diego State
Damian Lillard G 6-3 195 07/15/90 Portland Trail Blazers / Weber State
Greg Monroe C 6-11 250 06/04/90 Detroit Pistons / Georgetown
Chandler Parsons F 6-9 227 10/25/88 Houston Rockets / Florida
Larry Sanders C 6-11 235 11/21/88 Milwaukee Bucks / VCU
Klay Thompson G 6-7 205 02/08/90 Golden State Warriors / Washington State
Dion Waiters G 6-4 215 12/10/91 Cleveland Cavaliers / Syracuse
Kemba Walker G 6-1 184 05/08/90 Charlotte Bobcats / Connecticut
John Wall G 6-4 195 09/06/90 Washington Wizards / Kentucky
Tyler Zeller F/C 7-0 250 01/17/90 Cleveland Cavaliers / North Carolina

Managing Director: Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball
Head Coach: Mike Krzyzewski, Duke University
Assistant Coach: Jim Boeheim, Syracuse University
Assistant Coach: Tom Thibodeau, Chicago Bulls
Assistant Coach: Monty Williams, New Orleans Pelicans

2013 USA Men's National Team Mini-Camp Schedule

Monday, July 22
12:00-2:30 p.m. Practice at UNLV's Mendenhall Center

Tuesday, July 23
12:00-2:30 p.m. Practice at UNLV's Mendenhall Center

Wednesday, July 24
12:00-2:30 p.m. Practice at UNLV's Mendenhall Center

Thursday, June 25
6:00 p.m. USA Basketball Showcase at UNLV's Thomas and Mack Arena

Notes:
• All practice sessions are open to credentialed media only.
• Times listed are local times (PDT) and subject to change.

David Lee injury: Warriors forward undergoes hip surgery

K_Zim — Thu, 30 May 2013 21:56:25 -0000

David Lee underwent successful surgery on a torn right hip flexor Thursday, according to The Contra Costa Times' Marcus Thompson. The Golden State Warriors' power forward will be able to begin rehab in 10-14 days, but no further timetable for his recovery was given.

Lee injured his hip in the playoff opener on April 20 against the Denver Nuggets and was first ruled out of a return for the entirety of the Warriors' playoff run.

For more: Visit Golden State of Mind

But in a surprising and motivating move , Lee returned for a May 2 series-clincher as Golden State advanced.

In the next round against the San Antonio Spurs, Lee sat out the first two games and played sparingly off the bench in the final four outings. He averaged 5.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per game in his six playoff appearances while playing in 10.8 minutes per game. Golden State lost in six to the Spurs, who are now in the NBA Finals.

The news of Lee's surgery came as a bit of a surprise. Dr. William T. Long told the San Francisco Chronicle that it is highly unlikely for hip flexor tears to require surgery.

Lee's All-Star campaign ended with averages of 18.5 points and 11.2 rebounds during the regular season, and he was the first All-Star representative for the Warriors since Latrell Sprewell earned the honor in 1997.

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NBA History: 2013 All-NBA Players, and how they got there

AllThatAmar — Mon, 27 May 2013 22:54:02 -0000

Last week the NBA released their list of All-NBA Team members. Here's how they do it:

"The All-NBA Teams were chosen by a panel of 119 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. The media voted for All-NBA First, Second and Third Teams by position with points awarded on a 5-3-1 basis. Below are the results of the voting for the 2012-13 All-NBA Teams, with First Team votes in parentheses. The balloting was tabulated by the independent accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP." - NBA.com

So, it's interesting how some guys can just kill it because of universal appeal, while you do get your homer picks that skew the data. What's more interesting to me is that out of all the guys who did get votes -- not all of them were recognized super stars, not all of them were lottery picks, and of course, not all of them played 2-3 years in the NCAA before making big jumps in the NBA. What I did here was to look at all of their NBA games (regular season and playoffs combined), and found out what their career averages are for Minutes per game and Minutes per season. I also looked at what they did in their cumulative first three seasons in the league.

As a result, we get values for their careers and just the beginning of their careers. It may not be a damn surprise to anyone that all of these guys who get All-NBA Team votes are good players. How did they become good players? I don't know. Maybe that's just how God made them, right? Or maybe they make themselves with good discipline and lots and lots of hard work in the gym? I've never made an All-NBA Team, so maybe I don't know jack.

What I do know is that I'm beginning to suspect that our younger guys are never going to make it to this level, not based upon the average experience level of the guys who do make it here.

2012-2013 All-NBA Forwards:

Here's how the voting went, and you can see which guys made it.

All-NBA Forwards 2012-2013			Votes		Career (Reg + Playoffs)					First 3 Years (Reg + Playoffs)					NCAA	Player Age
Rank	Player	Team	All	1st	Seas	Gm	Min	MPG	MPSn	Seas	Gm	Min	MPG	MPSn	Seas	Now	Rookie
1st Team	LeBron James	MIA	595	119	10	892	35,856	40.2	3585.6	3	251	10,475	41.7	3491.7	0	28	19
1st Team	Kevin Durant	OKC	555	102	6	515	19,870	38.6	3311.7	3	247	9,377	38.0	3125.7	1	24	19
2nd Team	Carmelo Anthony	NYK	397	24	10	779	28,435	36.5	2843.5	3	251	9,060	36.1	3020.0	1	28	19
2nd Team	Blake Griffin	LAC	132	0	3	245	8,653	35.3	2884.3	3	245	8,653	35.3	2884.3	2	24	22
3rd Team	David Lee	GSW	79	0	8	583	18,786	32.2	2348.3	3	206	5,216	25.3	1738.7	4	30	23
3rd Team	Paul George	IND	73	0	3	237	7,327	30.9	2442.3	3	237	7,327	30.9	2442.3	2	23	21
7	LaMarcus Aldridge	POR	62	0	7	526	18,686	35.5	2669.4	3	226	7,280	32.2	2426.7	2	27	21
8	Zach Randolph	MEM	45	0	12	609	25,830	42.4	2152.5	3	207	4,812	23.2	1604.0	1	31	20
9	Paul Pierce	BOS	24	0	15	1238	45,768	37.0	3051.2	3	203	7,335	36.1	2445.0	3	35	21
10	Luol Deng	CHI	8	0	9	662	23,954	35.2	2661.6	3	237	7,928	33.5	2642.7	1	28	20
11	Josh Smith	ATL	7	0	9	728	24,950	34.3	2772.2	3	226	7,256	32.1	2418.7	0	27	19
12	Pau Gasol	LAL	4	0	12	950	34,399	36.2	2866.6	3	246	8,547	34.7	2849.0	0	32	21
13	Serge Ibaka	OKC	4	0	4	355	9,395	26.5	2348.8	3	265	6,543	24.8	2181.0	0	23	20
14	Kenneth Faried	DEN	3	0	2	138	3,622	26.2	1811.0	2 *	138	2,622	26.2	1811.0	4	23	22
15	Carlos Boozer	CHI	2	0	11	792	25,889	32.7	2353.5	3	207	6,413	31.0	2137.7	3	31	21
16	David West	IND	2	0	10	719	23,247	32.3	2324.7	3	182	4,119	22.6	1373.0	4	32	23
17	Rudy Gay	TOR	1	0	7	519	18,763	36.2	2680.4	3	238	8,048	33.8	2682.7	2	26	20
18	Dirk Nowitzki	DAL	1	0	15	1236	45,256	36.6	3017.1	3	222	7,420	33.4	2473.3	0	34	20

	Totals / Averages				153	11715	418,349	35.7	2734.3	53	4032	128,348	31.8	2421.7	1.7	28.1	20.6
	Just All-NBA Team				40	3247	118,758	36.6	2969.0	18	1435	50,025	34.9	2779.2	1.7	26.2	20.5

Wow, the only guys who really played few minutes per season in their first three years were David Lee, Zach Randolpoh, and David West. For David West let's remember that he was injured for most of his second season, and missed out on a lot of minutes there. Zach was on a team with a ton of forwards. And David was injury prone as well. The other notable non-minute getter (as seen in minutes per season in their first three years) is Faried -- who has played only 2 of the required 3 seasons. (So his MPS is going to go up as he gets more mins next year) The best players in this section were pushing 3k minutes per season in their first three years. That's a lot. The averages for this entire group for the first three years is 2.4k minutes per season, and for just the all-nba team members it goes up to 2.8k.

For their careers the All-NBA team members are right there at 3.0k minutes per season. The guys who are the best play the most minutes. And they were good enough and had the trust from their coaches to come out of the womb playing the most minutes. If you look at the guys who made the All-NBA Team as forwards, only 2 of the 6 game into the league at the age of 22 or older, while 3 where teens. So do we just write this off as once in a generation talent skewing the data a bit? Perhaps.

Whatever you want to call it, the AVERAGES show that these guys played early, often, and got better than they started off as, when they were rookies. Is that just minutes, or are minutes a consequence of actually being good? Who knows? But for this group (n = 18), it's 2.4k mins on average over their first three years in the league, and 2.8k for the ones who make the All-NBA Team.

I will point out that Faried, again, will have bigger numbers in this if I re-do this list next year because he's so young he's only been in the league for two seasons. George and Blake have only played three, so we can assume that they're going to get better still. But they only played 2 years of college and played so much at a young age you can't help but wonder why this is. Are they just projecting to be better players (Blake was a #1 pick), or is it just luck at play here?

2012-2013 All-NBA Centers:

Here's how the voting went, and you can see which guys made it.

All-NBA centers 2012-2013			Votes		Career (Reg + Playoffs)					First 3 Years (Reg + Playoffs)					NCAA	Player Age
Rank	Player	Team	All	1st	Seas	Gm	Min	MPG	MPSn	Seas	Gm	Min	MPG	MPSn	Seas	Now	Rookie
1st Team	Tim Duncan	SAS	392	45	16	1384	49,339	35.6	3083.7	3	245	9,675	39.5	3225.0	4	37	22
2nd Team	Marc Gasol	MEM	295	38	5	412	14,133	34.3	2826.6	3	245	8,095	33.0	2698.3	0	28	24
3rd Team	Dwight Howard	LAL	203	17	9	758	27,565	36.4	3062.8	3	250	8,881	35.5	2960.3	0	27	19
4	Brook Lopez	BKN	132	7	5	332	11,069	33.3	2213.8	3	246	8,417	34.2	2805.7	2	25	21
5	Chris Bosh	MIA	59	4	10	775	28,151	36.3	2815.1	3	226	8,278	36.6	2759.3	1	29	19
6	Joakim Noah	CHI	56	3	6	439	12,840	29.2	2140.0	3	230	5,856	25.5	1952.0	3	28	23
7	Al Horford	ATL	31	2	6	439	15,146	34.5	2524.3	3	256	8,544	33.4	2848.0	3	26	21
8	Al Jefferson	UTA	20	1	9	639	19,520	30.5	2168.9	3	206	4,568	22.2	1522.7	0	28	20
9	Tyson Chandler	NYK	19	1	12	860	24,547	28.5	2045.6	3	181	3,998	22.1	1332.7	0	30	19
10	Roy Hibbert	IND	9	0	5	407	10,501	25.8	2100.2	3	237	5,420	22.9	1806.7	4	26	22
11	Kevin Garnett	BOS	8	0	18	1454	52,834	36.3	2935.2	3	247	8,829	35.7	2943.0	0	37	19
12	Omer Asik	HOU	3	0	3	257	4,908	19.1	1636.0	3	257	4,908	19.1	1636.0	0	26	24
13	J.J. Hickson	POR	1	0	5	368	8,298	22.5	1659.6	3	234	4,731	20.2	1577.0	1	24	20
14	Nikola Pekovic	MIN	1	0	3	174	4,110	23.6	1370.0	3	174	4,110	23.6	1370.0	0	27	25
15	Nikola Vucevic	ORL	1	0	2	129	3,374	26.2	1687.0	2 *	129	3,374	26.2	1687.0	0	22	21

	Totals / Averages				114	8819	286,032	32.4	2509.1	44	3363	97,684	29.0	2220.1	1.2	28.0	21.3
	Just All-NBA Team				30	2550	90,871	35.6	3029.0	9	74	26,651	36.0	2961.2	1.3	30.7	21.7

There are only three spots for centers, and it's funny to see Tim Duncan here, while he's usually listed as a forward for other things. Oh well, you can't fight city hall. Duncan was the only All-NBA center to even play in the NCAA, and he played for all four years. He was ready to contribute right out of the gate, and he did with 3.2k minutes per season over his first three years. Marc and Dwight are funny cases, but they all were above 2.5k minutes per season in their early days.

Gasol played pro in Europe, and Dwight was just a freak. So I understand how they played so much so early. Of note here is that the guys who seemed to have played 1.5k or less in their early developmental years never learned a complete game -- the guys who are in this batch who played 1.5k or less are either only good at defense, or offense. The guys who played more are more well rounded. But again, is this because they have a better inherent quality to them, or did they just get more time and experience to become better players in the game DURING the games? The outlier here is Nikola Pekovic, but time will tell us more about him.

2012-2013 All-NBA Guards:

Here's how the voting went, and you can see which guys made it.

All-NBA Guards 2012-2013			Votes		Career (Reg + Playoffs)					First 3 Years (Reg + Playoffs)					NCAA	Player Age
Rank	Player	Team	All	1st	Seas	Gm	Min	MPG	MPSn	Seas	Gm	Min	MPG	MPSn	Seas	Now	Rookie
1st Team	Chris Paul	LAC	537	97	8	595	21,861	36.7	2732.6	3	234	8,653	37.0	2884.3	2	28	20
1st Team	Kobe Bryant	LAL	521	91	17	1459	54,031	37.0	3178.3	3	228	5,723	25.1	1907.7	0	34	18
2nd Team	Russell Westbrook	OKC	306	20	5	439	15,205	34.6	3041.0	3	269	9,178	34.1	3059.3	2	24	20
2nd Team	Tony Parker	SAS	273	16	12	1038	34,730	33.5	2894.2	3	278	9,159	32.9	3053.0	0	31	19
3rd Team	James Harden	HOU	253	5	4	347	10,388	29.9	2597.0	3	263	7,160	27.2	2386.7	2	23	20
3rd Team	Dwyane Wade	MIA	145	3	10	786	29,368	37.4	2936.8	3	263	10,032	38.1	3344.0	2	31	22
7	Stephen Curry	GSW	72	0	4	282	9,597	34.0	2399.3	3	180	6,117	34.0	2039.0	3	25	21
8	Ty Lawson	DEN	8	0	4	303	8,821	29.1	2205.3	3	227	6,072	26.7	2024.0	3	25	22
9	Deron Williams	BKN	6	0	8	637	23,000	36.1	2875.0	3	271	9,486	35.0	3162.0	3	28	21
10	Raymond Felton	NYK	3	0	8	623	21,631	34.7	2703.9	3	237	8,210	34.6	2736.7	3	28	21
11	Kyrie Irving	CLE	3	0	2	110	3,606	32.8	1803.0	2 *	110	3,606	32.8	1803.0	1	21	19
12	Mike Conley	MEM	2	0	6	471	15,536	33.0	2589.3	3	215	6,458	30.0	2152.7	1	25	20
13	Andre Iguodala	DEN	1	0	9	736	27,620	37.5	3068.9	3	245	9,026	36.8	3008.7	2	29	21
14	Rajon Rondo	BOS	1	0	7	567	19,187	33.8	2741.0	3	275	8,187	29.8	2729.0	2	27	20

	Totals / Averages				104	8389	294,420	35.1	2831.0	41	3295	107,067	32.5	2611.4	1.9	27.1	20.3
	Just All-NBA Team				56	4660	165,422	35.5	2954.0	18	1535	49,905	32.5	2772.5	1.3	28.5	19.8

First thing first, Kobe played in a lockout year and his average minutes per season is under the 2k mark as a result. But you can count him as an outlier if you want. It's the game thing with a lot of these young guards like Steph and Kyrie who also had one of their first three years be lockout years. It makes it look like they weren't playing a ton of minutes -- when if you adjust for 82 game seasons Kobe, Steph, and Kyrie all would have ended up playing a ton. Of course, Steph is injury prone, Kyrie isn't an ironman, and Kobe was playing off the bench his first two years. So you can argue this anyway you want.

But our of all 14 of these guys the AVERAGE was 2.6k minutes per season, over their first three seasons. Even if they weren't perfect players, they still got chances to improve on the court. Some guys make the best of that.

NCAA Experience / Rookie Season Age:

For the All-NBA Team Members 10 of the 15 people selected played in the NCAA. Only two were seniors before going to the NBA (David Lee, Tim Duncan), and the other 8 all played two or fewer years at the collegiate level. The average experience was only 1.47 years in the NCAA. The average rookie season age was 20.47 years old, and the oldest was Marc who was a pro in Europe before coming over to the NBA.

We hold to the idea that the best talents leave school early -- because they can. They don't *need* four years of NCAA experience to earn the right to be drafted in the NBA. As a result, we carry that forward that the best talents are on teams that can afford to play them early. And then they do play, and their rise to reach their potential is faster than players on good teams who don't get a lot of playing time.

This only makes sense, right? So if you are potentially great you'll not need a lot of college, join the NBA at a younger age, play on a bad team, and get better faster because of more direct experience. That seems to be the cast with the most of these guys -- the All-NBA Teamers who start off on bad teams don't seem to even sniff the playoffs until their 3rd or 4th year in the NBA.

Playoff experience is good if you can get it, but I don't think not making the playoffs early made King James or the Durantula bad. While making the playoffs early didn't make Melo better. Melo also had NCAA experience and success that those two guys did not have either. Maybe we're moving towards the idea that the best players are just the best players -- regardless of how they get to the NBA?

Bringing this back to the Jazz:

I like Favors, Hayward, Kanter, and Burks. But I'm beginning to think they are going to have a really rough time ever being All-Stars or All-NBA players right now. They're quantitatively not on the trajectory that these other guys were on. Very few guys come out of nowhere to become great in their 4th, 5th, or 6th seasons after being after thoughts in their first three. (And yes, our guys are national after thoughts as only Hayward was selected to the Rookie/Soph game, Favors was an injury replacement -- and the other two fellers didn't even make it)

We're hoping for huge jumps from them, somewhat precipitated by the promise of increased playing time. (I'll believe it when I see it.) But they are behind the minutes curve, and I think I've shown new data in many different ways with a number of sample sizes that seem to all suggest that they are.

But hey, let's go nuts one more time.

Younger Jazz Players			Votes		Career (Reg + Playoffs)					First 3 Years (Reg + Playoffs)					NCAA	Player Age
Rank	Player	Team	All	1st	Seas	Gm	Min	MPG	MPSn	Seas	Gm	Min	MPG	MPSn	Seas	Now	Rookie
	All-NBA Centers				30	2550	90,871	35.6	3029.0	9	74	26,651	36.0	2961.2	1.3	30.7	21.7
	All-NBA Forwards				40	3247	118,758	36.6	2969.0	18	1435	50,025	34.9	2779.2	1.7	26.2	20.5
	All-NBA Guards				56	4660	165,422	35.5	2954.0	18	1535	49,905	32.5	2772.5	1.3	28.5	19.8
	Gordon Hayward	UTA	0	0	3	214	5,460	25.5	1820.0	3	214	5,460	25.5	1820.0	2	23	20
	Derrick Favors	UTA	0	0	3	224	4,814	21.5	1604.7	3	224	4,814	21.5	1604.7	1	21	19
	Alec Burks	UTA	0	0	2	127	2,139	16.8	1069.5	2 *	127	2,139	16.8	1069.5	2	20	21
	Enes Kanter	UTA	0	0	2	140	1,995	14.3	997.5	2 *	140	1,995	14.3	997.5	0	19	21

Hayward is the only guy who is *there* ish in terms of the necessary on court experience needed to show up and shine. He's still inconsistent with his shot. But he's a two way player. The jury is still out on the other three. Burks and Kanter fall in that Faried zone where they've only played 2 years in that 3 year period. So their numbers will rise. But they'd have to rise a lot if they want to get back in the picture.

Favors is the big question mark. He has elite athleticism, very solid size, and better defensive instincts than so many people older than him. I do think trying to shoe horn him into that "next Tyson Chandler" mode is silly though. Chandler didn't have a turn around jumper from the post like Favors showed this year. Favors could be one of those outlier players who end up being All-NBA Team vote-getter down the line because of the combination of his youth, and ability. We believe that the best players go to the worst teams, and he went to the Nets at #3. He was picked there for a few reasons -- one of them being that he was supposed to turn out to be a really good player.

He can. And I'd love to see it. So here's to holding out that the guy who averaged 21.5 mpg in his first three years in the league only averaged that because of mismanagement by the team front office and coaches, and not because he's never going to reach his potential.

Putting it all together:

So how do our guys match up with the rest of the All-NBA Team vote getters, when you look at their first three years in the league?

	Player	Team	Seas	Gm	Min	MPG	MPSn
1	LeBron James	MIA	3	251	10,475	41.7	3491.7
2	Dwyane Wade	MIA	3	263	10,032	38.1	3344.0
3	Tim Duncan	SAS	3	245	9,675	39.5	3225.0
4	Deron Williams	BKN	3	271	9,486	35.0	3162.0
5	Kevin Durant	OKC	3	247	9,377	38.0	3125.7
6	Russell Westbrook	OKC	3	269	9,178	34.1	3059.3
7	Tony Parker	SAS	3	278	9,159	32.9	3053.0
8	Carmelo Anthony	NYK	3	251	9,060	36.1	3020.0
9	Andre Iguodala	DEN	3	245	9,026	36.8	3008.7
10	Dwight Howard	LAL	3	250	8,881	35.5	2960.3
11	Kevin Garnett	BOS	3	247	8,829	35.7	2943.0
12	Chris Paul	LAC	3	234	8,653	37.0	2884.3
13	Blake Griffin	LAC	3	245	8,653	35.3	2884.3
14	Pau Gasol	LAL	3	246	8,547	34.7	2849.0
15	Al Horford	ATL	3	256	8,544	33.4	2848.0
16	Brook Lopez	BKN	3	246	8,417	34.2	2805.7
17	Chris Bosh	MIA	3	226	8,278	36.6	2759.3
18	Raymond Felton	NYK	3	237	8,210	34.6	2736.7
19	Rajon Rondo	BOS	3	275	8,187	29.8	2729.0
20	Marc Gasol	MEM	3	245	8,095	33.0	2698.3
21	Rudy Gay	TOR	3	238	8,048	33.8	2682.7
22	Luol Deng	CHI	3	237	7,928	33.5	2642.7
23	Dirk Nowitzki	DAL	3	222	7,420	33.4	2473.3
24	Paul Pierce	BOS	3	203	7,335	36.1	2445.0
25	Paul George	IND	3	237	7,327	30.9	2442.3
26	LaMarcus Aldridge	POR	3	226	7,280	32.2	2426.7
27	Josh Smith	ATL	3	226	7,256	32.1	2418.7
28	James Harden	HOU	3	263	7,160	27.2	2386.7
29	Serge Ibaka	OKC	3	265	6,543	24.8	2181.0
30	Mike Conley	MEM	3	215	6,458	30.0	2152.7
31	Carlos Boozer	CHI	3	207	6,413	31.0	2137.7
32	Stephen Curry	GSW	3	180	6,117	34.0	2039.0
33	Ty Lawson	DEN	3	227	6,072	26.7	2024.0
34	Joakim Noah	CHI	3	230	5,856	25.5	1952.0
35	Kobe Bryant	LAL	3	228	5,723	25.1	1907.7
36	Gordon Hayward	UTA	3	214	5,460	25.5	1820.0
37	Kenneth Faried	DEN	2 *	138	2,622	26.2	1811.0
38	Roy Hibbert	IND	3	237	5,420	22.9	1806.7
39	Kyrie Irving	CLE	2 *	110	3,606	32.8	1803.0
40	David Lee	GSW	3	206	5,216	25.3	1738.7
41	Nikola Vucevic	ORL	2 *	129	3,374	26.2	1687.0
42	Omer Asik	HOU	3	257	4,908	19.1	1636.0
43	Derrick Favors	UTA	3	224	4,814	21.5	1604.7
44	Zach Randolph	MEM	3	207	4,812	23.2	1604.0
45	J.J. Hickson	POR	3	234	4,731	20.2	1577.0
46	Al Jefferson	UTA	3	206	4,568	22.2	1522.7
47	Davis West	IND	3	182	4,119	22.6	1373.0
48	Nikola Pekovic	MIN	3	174	4,110	23.6	1370.0
49	Tyson Chandler	NYK	3	181	3,998	22.1	1332.7
50	Alec Burks	UTA	2 *	127	2,139	16.8	1069.5
51	Enes Kanter	UTA	2 *	140	1,995	14.3	997.5

Who is that D-Will guy, and which team played him all those minutes? Seriously? He played 3.1k minutes a year in his first three years on average? That was Utah? What the heck? Yeah. Gordo clocks in at #36 on that list, Favors at #43, and the last two are Burks and Kanter. It's interesting to look at the guys by rank and see what kind of players fall into those rank spots.

The Top 10 are all franchise players, Top 15 more of the same, but more second bananas. But the farther down you go the stranger it gets. Did these guys just not get the minutes because of situation? Gypsy curse? Or where they not good? Kobe is right above Gordon, for example.

Minutes don't mean everything, especially if you look at the whole list. Let's try to apples to apples this mess a bit.

Let's look at just the bigmen (power forwards and centers), and then just the wings. (We don't have any PGs right now that need to be compared)

	Player	Team	Seas	Gm	Min	MPG	MPSn
1	Tim Duncan	SAS	3	245	9,675	39.5	3225.0
2	Dwight Howard	LAL	3	250	8,881	35.5	2960.3
3	Kevin Garnett	BOS	3	247	8,829	35.7	2943.0
4	Blake Griffin	LAC	3	245	8,653	35.3	2884.3
5	Pau Gasol	LAL	3	246	8,547	34.7	2849.0
6	Al Horford	ATL	3	256	8,544	33.4	2848.0
7	Brook Lopez	BKN	3	246	8,417	34.2	2805.7
8	Chris Bosh	MIA	3	226	8,278	36.6	2759.3
9	Marc Gasol	MEM	3	245	8,095	33.0	2698.3
10	Dirk Nowitzki	DAL	3	222	7,420	33.4	2473.3
11	LaMarcus Aldridge	POR	3	226	7,280	32.2	2426.7
12	Josh Smith	ATL	3	226	7,256	32.1	2418.7
13	Serge Ibaka	OKC	3	265	6,543	24.8	2181.0
14	Carlos Boozer	CHI	3	207	6,413	31.0	2137.7
15	Joakim Noah	CHI	3	230	5,856	25.5	1952.0
16	Kenneth Faried	DEN	2 *	138	2,622	26.2	1811.0
17	Roy Hibbert	IND	3	237	5,420	22.9	1806.7
18	David Lee	GSW	3	206	5,216	25.3	1738.7
19	Nikola Vucevic	ORL	2 *	129	3,374	26.2	1687.0
20	Omer Asik	HOU	3	257	4,908	19.1	1636.0
21	Derrick Favors	UTA	3	224	4,814	21.5	1604.7
22	Zach Randolph	MEM	3	207	4,812	23.2	1604.0
23	J.J. Hickson	POR	3	234	4,731	20.2	1577.0
24	Al Jefferson	UTA	3	206	4,568	22.2	1522.7
25	Davis West	IND	3	182	4,119	22.6	1373.0
26	Nikola Pekovic	MIN	3	174	4,110	23.6	1370.0
27	Tyson Chandler	NYK	3	181	3,998	22.1	1332.7
28	Enes Kanter	UTA	2 *	140	1,995	14.3	997.5

Okay, so our dudes are still at the bottom. But there's hope. If guys like Zach and West can make it, maybe so can our dudes? What about our wings?

	Player	Team	Seas	Gm	Min	MPG	MPSn
1	LeBron James	MIA	3	251	10,475	41.7	3491.7
2	Dwyane Wade	MIA	3	263	10,032	38.1	3344.0
3	Kevin Durant	OKC	3	247	9,377	38.0	3125.7
4	Carmelo Anthony	NYK	3	251	9,060	36.1	3020.0
5	Andre Iguodala	DEN	3	245	9,026	36.8	3008.7
6	Rudy Gay	TOR	3	238	8,048	33.8	2682.7
7	Luol Deng	CHI	3	237	7,928	33.5	2642.7
8	Paul Pierce	BOS	3	203	7,335	36.1	2445.0
9	Paul George	IND	3	237	7,327	30.9	2442.3
10	James Harden	HOU	3	263	7,160	27.2	2386.7
11	Mike Conley	MEM	3	215	6,458	30.0	2152.7
12	Kobe Bryant	LAL	3	228	5,723	25.1	1907.7
13	Gordon Hayward	UTA	3	214	5,460	25.5	1820.0
14	Alec Burks	UTA	2 *	127	2,139	16.8	1069.5

Oh. Well, the good news is that our bigmen could make it still!

Jokes aside, our greatest hopes are Hayward (the only guy who HAS gotten minutes), Favors (the phenom with great defensive instincts and athleticism), and Kanter (the young, raw, guy with a real NBA body). Burks is out. Right now I'm thinking that if he can work on his jumper he can be Kendall Gill (Sonics, not Nets or Hornets). But it will take him a while to get there.

It's interesting to see how these guys who are at the top of the mountain got there. They seem to have gotten there because they were good players who worked hard while dealing with losing seasons early on in their careers. They also all played over 2k minutes per season, over their first three seasons in the NBA universally -- except for the outliers of Kobe, or Zach. The other end of the spectrum also exists in the high experience guys like Tim playing big minutes, and the zero experience guys (straight out of HS) playing big minutes.

There's no one path to the NBA. And there's no one path to the All-NBA Team. But whatever path that you take, it's almost assuredly harder if you don't get to play.

Poll

How did the 2013 All-NBA Players get good enough to be on the All-NBA Team?

Inherent talent and ability

5 votes

NBA Experience (as seen in minutes per season)

1 votes

Both - but I'm leaning towards inherent talent

30 votes

Both equally

8 votes

Both - but I'm leaning towards experience, some good guys never become good

7 votes

Sending gifts to NBA Reporters who vote on this stuff

3 votes

54 votes | Poll has closed

Could the Spurs 2-0 series lead be insurmountable?

Aaronstampler — Sat, 25 May 2013 05:08:44 -0000

Oh, the 2-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals, we meet again, old friend. There will be temptations galore to expect the worst for the Spurs from here on out, considering not only what happened to them last year from Game 3 on, but also the way the Grizzlies came back from down 0-2 to the Clippers in the first round, and finally the fact that the Spurs almost collapsed in the fourth quarter against the Grizzles in Game 2, leading the assorted television punditry to claim that Memphis figured things out.

So I snuck into the Lionel Hollins' office and stole the list of things he's "figured out."

1. The Spurs are worse when Tim Duncan doesn't play.

2. Tony Parker can only kick seven quarters' worth of our ass if there is only one off day between games.

3. Tiago Splitter is a big galoot.

4. What in the what is Kawhi Leonard? I don't even know.

5. This is not the Danny Green from last year's WCF.

6. We probably shouldn't leave Matt Bonner open.

7. Tayshaun Prince and Tony Allen shoot the ball like it's made of lead.

8. The Spurs don't seem to be frightened of Z-Bo eating them. ESPN LIED TO ME.

9. Teams with many good players are harder to defend than teams with one good player.

10. It's very hard to win games if you're never leading. We should look into doing that next time.

Memphis' main problem is that only play eight guys, and six of them are all offense or all defense, with only Marc Gasol and Mike Conley being versatile enough to be effective on both ends. The Spurs, by contrast, have a top seven that's good on both ends, then a couple of specialists in Bonner (offense) and Joseph (defense) before things fall off a cliff (Neal, Blair, etc.). Because of this, no matter what lineup the Grizzlies put out there, the Spurs have an advantage, unless Pop is being particularly annoying by fielding the entire five-man second unit. You're not gonna believe this, but the Spurs went on a 13-0 run at the end of the second half right after Neal and Bonner checked out. I know, crazy.

Conventional wisdom has it that a desperate Grizzlies team with a strong home court advantage will certainly capture Game 3, and they very well might. However, there is no better scenario than the one the Spurs have right in front of them: to cast out the demons of the past two postseasons.

Unlike last year, they'll be going into Game 3 fresh, with three days of rest behind them, the perfect time allotment for recharging their batteries without collecting rust. They'll be playing with appropriate fear, since they almost lost Game 2, and were saved in overtime by the perfect guy, Duncan, since he was the one most struggling from the field up to that point. Now, maybe he'll have some confidence going into the next game. They'll also be playing a team that's much worse than them, which helps.

To me, Game 3 sets up a 85/80 situation for Game 4. If the Spurs win it, they have an 85 percent chance of sweeping the Grizz. If Memphis wins it, there's an 80 percent chance that the series returns to San Antonio deadlocked at two apiece. In fact, just do yourself a favor and avoid television, the internet, radio and newspapers completely until if the Spurs lose Game 3.

Like I predicted here, Grizzlies insiders are now predicting that Hollins will play the Gasol-Randolph-Pondexter-Bayless-Conley quintet a ton since it's the only way they can score. I've got no problem with it. The Spurs can match that lineup point for point and it'll be a treat for all the fans watching to see both these teams scorch the nets and get in the upper 90's or, dare I say, the low 100's.

HAHAHA JUST KIDDING, NOBODY'S WATCHING.

Anyway, I don't have too much more to add on this front, as I think this column sums it up nicely. Good job, Rob Mahoney.

******************************

I've had some time to think about it, and I guess, all things considered, it was dumb of Manu to commit that foul on Allen. Because according to the written language of the rule, I can see how it could be ruled a flagrant. Of course this rule's only been changed recently and it wouldn't have been a flagrant for most of NBA history, and I'm positive that Ginobili didn't think he was committing anything other than a regular hard foul as he was in the process of doing it. I think, overall, on the list of boneheaded Ginobili plays, it wasn't quite up there (unlike, for example, that 30-footer with 11 seconds on the shot clock and like 44 seconds to go up 3 in Game 1 against the Warriors), and even Pop didn't seem as upset by it as he was by the call.

Allen's delayed reaction was worse acting than RZA as the Blind Master in G.I. Joe: Retaliation (for the sake of all that is holy do not watch this movie), but in a way I'm happy that it happened because it confirmed, again, that flopping is not something solely reserved for foreign players. Foreign players just do it better. Allen was fined $5,000 on Thursday and got some nice karma his way in overtime. Nice airball, champ.

********************************************

Speaking of general jackassery, I'm growing awfully tired of seeing Lionel Hollins talking to our players, particularly Tony Parker. Yes, I know he played in the league. I'm guessing this makes him feel entitled as a permanent member of the player fraternity. The problem is he's not a player any longer, he's now a coach, and not only a coach but a head coach. Show some decorum and class and quit talking to our team.

*********************************************

And speaking of Manu, 12 field goal attempts in two games? Really? REALLY? He looks healthy enough to me. Spry on the boards and running the court okay. Even had a dunk the other night. He is way too content to blend into the scenery unless Parker is out of the game and it's bothering me. Also, he's looking to pass 95 percent of the time unless he's absolutely wide open or has a wide open lane. Is he saving himself for the Heat, suffering from a lack of confidence, or just unable to provide anything more? I'm getting grumpy just thinking about it. Hopefully he can have one of those classic playoff "road villain" games to snuff out the Grizz for good. Maybe the Allen play can inspire him?

**********************************************

There was this funny moment, and you see it if you link to the clips from that SI.com article, where with like 3:35 to go in the third quarter, Gasol found himself switched onto Parker and he just dejectedly shrugs his shoulders and slaps his arms at his hips in this entire body is just screaming "Oh, crap." Gasol, who won the Defensive Player of the Year award a couple of weeks ago, is renowned for being able to anticipate what opposing offenses will do before they do it, and it was just so, here. He knew there was absolutely nothing, outside of running up to bearhug Parker, that was going to prevent Parker from getting an open step-back jumper on him and that he was at the mercy of Parker's shooting form.

It reminded me of the end of this WWII movie about snipers, Enemy at the Gates, where Ed Harris' Major König knew that Jude Law's Vassili Zaitsev had gotten the better of him and just composed himself for the end. [Warning: Very violent.]

*************************************

Yeah, that last Youtube clip was kind of gross, so I'll make it up to you with this, the most awesome jump ball in NBA history. Frankly, I don't know where the Spurs' un-athletic reputation comes from.

**************************************

The only good thing that came out of the end of Game 1 of the ECF is that hopefully it was a teaching moment for Pop. Should the Spurs ever find themselves in a similar position, one would think he'll remember this game and not be so foolish to take Duncan out in favor of Boris or somebody like that. Always keep your best shot-blocker in the lane. What was Frank Vogel thinking?

***********************************

Alright, we'll end on this. Lets revisit the 15 reasons I gave before the series started for why the Spurs would win and grade, on a scale of 1-10, how well or poorly those predictions have gone.

1. How well Duncan plays on offense really has nothing to do with who he's facing, which I realize is rare. Still, with all the pick-and-rolls the Spurs run, regardless of whether they face the best defensive team in the league or the worst, everybody gives Duncan that same 15-17 foot open shot. It's simply a matter of whether he knocks them down or not. If he hits enough of them, then people jump out at him and then he just pump fakes and gets to the rim. He's scored consistently on Gasol in the past and had a couple of big games against the Grizzlies this season, averaging 20 and 13 on nearly 53% shooting.

3/10... Okay, so it turns out that Gasol is getting up in Duncan's grill more than I figured he would. For whatever reason Duncan isn't getting that many open 15-footers so far, but I think that's partly because the Grizzlies have decided that they'd rather give Parker the jumper or the pass to the corners instead. Duncan's scoring binge in the overtime was a good sign though.

2: Neither Gasol nor Randolph are elite shot blockers. They have size, but Parker can still shoot his floater over them. Conley is good defensively, but Parker can still get to the hole and dish, even if he can't consistently finish. Like Duncan, for him it's all about whether he can hit that jumper. He'll get plenty of them.

9/10... Parker is getting whatever he wants, basically, and the Grizzlies really have no answer for him. So far the best answer for stopping him seems to be "play the Spurs twice in three days and wait for the second half."

3: Ginobili destroyed Allen two years ago playing with a broken arm. No, he's not the same player now, but, again, the initial defender doesn't matter all that much against Manu since he always relies on that screen anyway. With Manu it's about how well a defense plays as a team to cut off his penetration and how they play him on the pick-and-roll. I'm not saying he's going to have a big series vs. the Grizzlies or anything, but how well he plays will depend more on him (and his shot/decision making) and the Grizzlies bigs than Allen.

6/10... Meh, I haven't really seen anything in Allen's defense (or Memphis') that has made life all that miserable for Manu, but for whatever reason he's just not being aggressive. He's in full point guard mode when he plays without Parker and full wallflower mode when he's in there with Tony, which has been the case for like a decade when Parker has it going. Maybe if the starters struggle early on in Game 3 he'll take it upon himself to make things happen, but otherwise he won't look to fix what isn't broken.

4: People haven't been very patient with Tiago even though he had a pretty bad sprained ankle. They wanted him to be 100% from the first game back. If you've been paying attention, he got better and better as the Warriors series went along and both his stats and the Warriors offensive stats reflected that. By the end, Pop relied on Tiago, not Tim down the stretch and we still won. No, Tiago is not physical, and he's not a great rebounder, but he's a very good defender as long as you don't pair him with Bonner. I think this series will be a great test for him, but it could be his coming out party.

8/10... I think halftime of Game 2 was the first time in Splitter's career where the national TV studio guys ever mentioned him as an asset, as it finally became apparent to even the casual observer that his length and quickness were causing Gasol and Randolph a lot of problems. Splitter was outstanding in Game 2, by the way. Imagine if the refs gave him any respect.

5: Not having to do as much on their guys will just allow them that much more opportunity to freelance and disrupt Memphis' offense. Leonard, in particular, could wreak a lot of havoc with his ridiculous wingspan. Leonard could be the key guy in the series because if Pop wants to switch things up to go small, there's nobody on the Grizz to handle him, really. If Green doesn't play well, then Pop could turn to Manu more and he'll have the freedom to play Ginobili since there's no perimeter guy to wear him out on defense. More Ginobili on offense is never a bad thing. The Spurs have the THREE best wings in this series. That's a ridiculous luxury and it'd be silly for anyone to dismiss that.

10/10... Not to toot my own horn too much, but yeah, pretty much nailed this, and it has absolutely been the difference in the series. It's kind of appalling how the Grizzlies could be so poor at the 2 and 3 spots and still be in the Western Conference Finals.

6: Well, no, because two of them (between Diaw, Bonner and Blair) won't play, duh. This isn't 2011. We're not this soft, punk-ass team that has to rely on RJ, Bonner and a broken down, undersized Antonio McDyess. We've got a second legit big in Splitter and some girth at the very least (and pretty quick feet) in Diaw. Again, if the bigs falter, we can go small. You can call the 2013 Spurs a lot of things, but they're not soft.

3/10... I was dead wrong about Bonner not playing in the series. He's tallied 44 minutes through the first two games, though some of that had to do to foul trouble for Splitter in Game 1 and Duncan in Game 2. I won't completely kill myself for this though because the Spurs, in fact, have not played soft. Not even Bonner. Mostly.

7: Pop has shown already Neal's leash will be very short. If he's not getting it done it'll either be a three-man rotation on the wings or possibly even McGrady, who's got size. We're not gonna depend on Neal to win or lose us games. Really, you're freaking out about the 9th and 10th men in the rotation.

8/10... Mostly accurate. Neal played pretty well in Game 1 and got 19 minutes and very poorly in Game 2 (terrible shot selection, again) and got 13 minutes. However, by this point it seems like we need to wave the collective white flag about T-Mac. Unless there's a disastrous injury, he won't play outside of garbage time, no matter how bad Neal is.

8: Scrappiness is the biggest strength of his game. Frankly I'd be a lot more worried about playing him against an offensive juggernaut team we have to match hoop for hoop than a rugged defensive team. To paraphrase a former head coach of the 49ers, this is Joseph's kind of party.

9/10... Cory's still being aggressive (maybe a bit too shot-happy), and still being careful with the ball whenever he's not handing it off to Manu. His last turnover came in Game 3 against the Lakers, which was over 96 minutes -- two full games worth of playing time -- ago. He also has as many rebounds (8) in 22 minutes against the Grizzlies as Splitter and Bonner have combined for in 95 minutes, which is both a testament of his scrappiness and an indictment of the bigs. Add in Diaw, and that's 11 rebounds in 128 minutes for those three guys, by the way, which is probably the number one thing I'd cling to for hope if I was a Memphis fan.

9: The Spurs starting five is the best defensive quintet in the league. It's kind of a secret because they only played 31 games together due to various injuries and only a 364 minute sample size, but their work together has been staggering. They allow 41% field goals, 32% from 3 and hardly ever foul. They're insane. In fact, when you focus on just the 8-man rotation and throw out Bonner and Neal, the Spurs are as good as any defense in the league and probably better.

As far as offense goes, it's kind of amusing to harp on lack of ball movement when the team had 57 assists the past two games. The Spurs have MUCH better three point shooting than the Grizzlies. Also, Memphis struggled to run away from a one-man Thunder team whose best passer was Kevin Durant. Both Parker and Ginobili are way better passers than him and Duncan is far more of a post threat than anyone the Thunder had. Memphis' offensive limitations will insure that no matter how well they play, they won't really run away from the Spurs and we'll always be in games against them. One good run (which the Spurs always have in them) and we'll be tied or ahead.

10/10... What can I say? I'm a wizard. Or I can read stats. One of the two. The Spurs starting five are a combined +113 through the two games. They've made life a living hell for the Grizzlies offense. The combined length of Duncan and Splitter has been too much for Randolph to overcome, and Green and Leonard have done a good job of digging inside as well.

As for the Spurs' offense, even taking that ghastly fourth quarter into account (where fatigue stopped them more than the Grizzlies did), the ball movement has been extraordinary, with 57 assists on 76 field goals and plenty of wide open three point looks. The Grizzlies, like everyone else, have been forced into a game of "pick your poison."

10: You are making the mistake of judging them based on your most recent memories of the Spurs and the most recent play of the Grizzlies and are not taking into account a number of factors.

10/10... It's true, you totally didn't account for them factors. I bet you feel so stupid now. (I, uh, miscounted and apparently only made 14 points about this series, not 15.)

11. The Spurs, the big three in particular, were EXHAUSTED down the stretch of this series, because its schedule was obscene. Think about it, they played 6.3 games in 11 days, with four cross-country flights in between and a stupid Sunday afternoon tilt after a Friday night game. If Game 4 was played at night I have no doubt in my mind, none whatsoever, that the Spurs would've won it easily and taken the series in five, and everyone would've looked at them in a completely different light. The Grizzlies, on the other hand, had more rest within their series and less travel, with short flights between Memphis and OKC. In this series the Spurs will get more breaks between the games and again the travel won't be as much of an issue, so the Spurs will look fresher.

7/10... Mostly true and then terribly wrong. Good lord is this team old. We've gotten to the point where they can't play two complete games in three days without hitting the wall in the fourth quarter. This is terrifying. Looking back on it,I'm amazed they won Games 3, 5 and 6 against the Warriors. It puts even more of an onus on not just wrapping up this series quickly but winning Games 1, 3 and 6 against the Heat. (Yup, I totally went there).

12. You're also discounting the opponents. We beat (dominated really) a good Warriors team in the last four games of that series, the same Dubs who beat a very good Denver squad. While I agree that the Warriors weren't much of a team for most of the regular season and that their coach Mark Jackson is mostly an overrated hype man, they dumb-lucked into their best team by having David Lee -- just an atrocious defender -- get injured vs. the Nuggets. If Lee had played big minutes vs. the Spurs our offense would've looked a lot better and really, in all likelihood we wouldn't have even faced the Warriors but rather the Nugs. The Grizz on the other hand, grinded out four wins against a one-man team. Durant is very good, but he was playing with a pretty shoddy supporting cast and those games still went down to the wire.

9/10... Huh. It turns out the Spurs are better than the Thunder without Russell Westbrook and James Harden.

13. You're severely underestimating Pop. I rail on Pop sometimes too, but I at least give him enough credit that I strongly doubt he's going to just stand there and let Randolph and Gasol run roughshod over the Spurs inside, especially when that club doesn't have a legit perimeter threat. The doubles will be comin', boys and girls, oh they'll be a comin.' If the Grizzlies are going to beat us, it will have to be with the shooting of guys like Bayless, Pondexter, Allen and Prince. We're not going to just let them set up camp inside the paint. That's silly. Both these teams are so well-founded defensively that they're going to make each other go to plan C, D, or E for points. The further down the list it goes, the better off we are, because we have better depth in scoring than the Grizzlies do, better shooters and better passers. Good ball movement is the enemy of any top-tier defense and the Spurs don't lack for guys who are ready and willing to pass.

10/10... Sometimes the inability of the pundits to put 2 + 2 together blows my mind. They all parrot the same bullet point about Pop being one of the best, if not the best, coaches in the league, yet it seems like none of them could string together the idea that a good coach probably knows what a double team is and would likely employ it against the opponents' bigs since their perimeter players can't shoot.

What it means is that they like to spout empty cliches about Pop without taking the time to really consider the meaning behind the words. Or that they think coaching makes no difference whatsoever. Or, maybe, that the Grizzlies have such an enormous talent advantage on the Spurs that even Pop's coaching won't make a difference. Yeah, I guess that must be it.

14. We'll have home court advantage. Not something I'd dismiss so easily. Yeah, the Thunder got us in Game 5 and the Warriors in Game 2, but it's still better to have it than not. At the least the Spurs are always good for one massive run behind their home crowd every game, and as I said before, with the Grizzlies unlikely to run away from us, one big run will be all it takes to catch up if we're behind.

6/10... Well, the Spurs have won their two home games, and the crowd was uncharacteristically loud, but it's tough to say this point has come into play so far because the Spurs haven't really trailed at all and haven't needed to make any catch-up runs. They have had runs though, to extend leads.

15. Finally, we've got the ultimate motivator in revenge. The Grizzlies think they're the biggest and baddest team out there. We get to show them that the 2011 series was mostly a fluke. Ginobili had one arm and Leonard, Green and Splitter weren't significant contributors to the team back then.

Here's a number for you: 605.

You know what that is? That's how many minutes that Richard Jefferson (176), Antonio McDyess (145), Bonner (123!), Neal (111) and DeJuan Blair (50) played in the Grizzlies series two years ago. Think about it: Those five guys combined for a tick over 100 minutes per game, meaning that at any one time they comprised two-fifths of the lineups we had on the floor. Given that, the question shouldn't have been how we got upset in six by the Grizzlies but rather how we didn't get swept. (Conversely, Splitter and Green combined for 57 minutes that series.)

The team is radically different. Jefferson and McDyess are long gone and the three others won't combine for more than 25 minutes a game, at most, and that's probably a very liberal estimate. Again, I said it before, you can call these Spurs a lot of things, but they aren't soft. They're not going to be punked by some team that's "more physical." As we saw last season, if these Spurs lose, it will be to some club who flat out has more offensive talent and athleticism. That's not the Grizzlies.

7/10... A mixed gaggle of proclamations and predictions that were right on or way off. Yes, Parker looks good and pissed. Yes, Leonard, Green and Splitter all look way more composed and effective this postseason. No, Bonner, Neal and Blair will not combine for just 25 minutes a game. It turns out that was not, indeed, a liberal estimate at all, as they've already accounted for 88 minutes between them. Still, at that pace our personal "Axis of Evil" would play 264 minutes in a six game series, which is a far cry from 605.

Spurs in six.

Or four. Could be four*

*If Pop dials it back a couple of notches with Bonner and Neal.

Dwight Howard to the Warriors? Answer might be different this time

aliu27 — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:00:06 -0000

Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes were invited to Team USA practices in late July, David Lee made t hird-team All-NBA, Andris Biedrins' Decision and Jarrett Jack got some free-agent interest from the Dallas Mavericks, but something else stole the show on an NBA offday. Dwight Howard happened.

Marcus Thompson posted some of his thoughts here, and there are several interesting things to chew over, including the possibility of a sign-and-trade. I really wanted to write this yesterday but school got in the way. A little late to the party here but it helped with reflecting over all the options and avenues to go about this. Obviously, this would be the biggest offseason move in current Warriors' history, but something that might not have the same "franchise-defining" moniker it would have had if this happened in the past few seasons.

At least that's what I've been reading from Warriors fans on Twitter. I may not win popularity and "rah-rah" points with this one but if presented with the possibility of pairing up Dwight Howard with Stephen Curry in a somewhat watered-down Western Conference—Warriors with everyone healthy is a solid contender at the three spot behind the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder—I do that deal.

Since the Warriors can't just sign Dwight Howard, and that would not be ideal with Bogut already manning the middle, they would have to send some salary back to the Los Angeles Lakers. Unless you think LeBron James, Chris Bosh or Carmelo Anthony is coming to the Bay Area in 2014, signing Dwight to an extension would essentially cement his place as the Warriors center for years. Keep in mind Bogut is a free agent after next season. Don't give me any Richard Jefferson-David Lee for Dwight BS either, Mitch Kupchak isn't David Kahn. The talks will likely center around the contracts of either Lee (three years and $13.7+ million in 2013-2014) or Bogut ($14.2 million in 2013-2014) and then one of either Thompson or Barnes. Giving Lee or Bogut shouldn't slow down this trade but the additions of the other member of the Splash Brothers or rising 20-year old star Barnes would cause some immediate reservations.

Choosing one depends on your preference on judging talent versus fit. Barnes is the better talent and should become the more impactful overall player on offense and defense. He's also three years younger than Thompson and his extension numbers won't come up for a while. However, Thompson would probably fit in with Dwight a little better, without demanding the ball much on offense and spreading the floor for a potentially unstoppable Curry-Howard pick-and-roll. In Orlando's 2009 Finals appearance, they spread the floor with shooters like Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, J.J. Redick, Courtney Lee and even Mickael Pietrus, and ran the offense through Turkoglu and Howard, to surprisingly effective results. Why doesn't Stan Van Gundy have a job again?

Imagine a lineup with Curry, Brandon Rush, Thompson/Barnes and Draymond Green spreading the floor around Howard. The only thing stopping this trade from happening is an obstacle that wouldn't be noted without this season's playoff success: chemistry and necessity.

Dwight Howard is now infamously immature in the way we all thought LeBron James would be. His fart jokes and goofy grins during a terrible Lakers season didn't help endear him to any fans in Hollywood. Does this matter for a locker room as apparently tight-knit as the Warriors have been under Mark Jackson? Sure, but I'd argue that he was in two specifically terrible situations—the first being his last season in Orlando and the shitshow that is the Los Angeles media. With his every move scrutinized, it's easy to see how things escalated a little too quickly for anyone's liking.

Last time I checked, none of us are in actual locker rooms and know what's going on behind the scenes, but this hasn't stopped people from assuming that Howard is a bad teammate and even a bad person because he got bad PR advice in Orlando and is a generally unfunny person who thinks he is hilarious—and you wonder why Shaq, a similar personality, dislikes him. Just because someone is easy to dislike from an outsiders' point of view doesn't necessarily mean that his addition immediately breaks the loving bond between players and coaches. A trade to the Warriors would likely mean Dwight signs an extension so all the offseason talks quickly dissipate and the forthcoming wins would help squelch any apparent chemistry-killing.

As for necessity, one could argue that a core of Bogut/Curry/Thompson/Barnes/Rush/Lee/Green is good enough to make the Western Conference Semifinals again, but this assumes that Bogut is healthy for a whole regular season and then another postseason run. Dwight struggled through back and shoulder injuries but he was still effective, though not his usual dominant defensive self, and now has another offseason to heal. Bogut, on the other hand, has been battling injuries for the better part of five seasons and it wouldn't surprise anyone if he struggled to stay healthy again.

If the Warriors feel the moment (I had to) is now, a trade for a healthy Dwight Howard would immediately put them in conversations for a Western Conference Finals berth. Necessity, chemistry and continuity be damned, this trade makes the Warriors better in the present and the future. I can understand if Bob Myers doesn't want to pull the trigger on the potential trade and breaking up a roster that has just started to gel but the NBA, like all sports, can slam shut a team's window of opportunity as quickly as they open it. To say the team in its current construct will make the postseason isn't wrong; to imply that Dwight Howard wouldn't make this team better would not only be wrong but nearsighted.

More likely than not, this is much ado about nothing, as has been the case the past three years.

Follow @AndyKHLiu

LeBron James, Tim Duncan lead All-NBA first team

tjarks — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:20:41 -0000

The NBA released the 15 members of the three All-NBA teams on Thursday. All the usual suspects were on the first and second teams, but there were a few surprises on the third:

First: Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Tim Duncan.

Second: Tony Parker, Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony, Blake Griffin, Marc Gasol.

Third: James Harden, Dwyane Wade, Paul George, David Lee, Dwight Howard.

Duncan, at age 37, made his first All-NBA team since 2007, which was also the last time the Spurs won a championship. He averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds on 50 percent shooting while anchoring a revitalized San Antonio defense.

Tony Parker joined Duncan on the All-NBA second team, making the Spurs one of five teams, along with the Heat, Thunder, Lakers and Clippers, to have two selections.

Marc Gasol was the only first-time selection to make the second team. James Harden, Paul George and David Lee all received their first nods on the third team.

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You've Got Sixers Email, Vol. 5: Kelvin Sampson and Player Comps

Michael Baumann — Mon, 20 May 2013 23:52:37 -0000

Michael Baumann
For all the crap we went through this season, I sure am glad I didn't have to see the Sixers yak away a critical playoff game by playing Derek Fisher.

Michael Levin
When Derek Fisher plays 26 minutes, we all lose.

Michael Levin
I'm on my way to play basketball in Hollywood. Which Sixer should I model my game after tonight? As Dave and Tanner know, i always go in telling myself not to shoot at all. That ends quickly.

Michael Baumann
I never shot when I played pickup regularly. I always had a good handle, went hard after rebounds and always found the open man. I was kind of like Evan Turner with better court vision. Of course, that was several years and several dozen pounds ago, so right now I'm probably more like a latter-day Corliss Williamson. As long as you can top that, I don't think you'll have a problem.

Justin F.
Seeing as you have the height to pull it off, I would recommend you model your game after Spencer Hawes.

Roy Burton
You seem like a Lou Williams-type of guy, Levin. You want to do the right thing and play the team game, but after that first open look, it all goes downhill.
I've always patterned my game after Reggie Evans: Set screens, grab boards, play tough D. Basically everything that Kwame Brown was supposed to do here.

Rich Hoffmann
I played tonight. Shot the three-ball like George Lynch.

Tanner Steidel
David Lee without a doubt. The True Hoop gang has seen the wrath of D-Leecious.
The couple playing badminton across from us certainly enjoyed it.

Derek Bodner
I always thought I played like a 6'2" version of Matt Harpring. I could occasionally make a shot, but not consistently. Not the greatest athlete and my handles were lolworthy in traffic, but I'd play hard and physical.
Those who can't, write.

Dave Rueter
My heart says Steve Nash. My head says John Crotty.

Sean O'Connor
I came to the realization a while ago that mine resembled a more out-of-shape Spencer Hawes, and I've hated myself ever since. I like to say it's like Brad Miller's, though, because he was actually cool and good.

Michael Baumann
Brad Miller was the absolute tits.

Brandon Lee
I've always thought of myself as the white Ben Wallace.

Michael Levin
Tonight's Verdict: Jerryd Bayless on a bad night. Won 3 of 5 games.

Justin F.
You said former Sixer. Jerryd Bayless is not a former Sixer.
Actually, you just said "Sixer." But still, Jerryd Bayless has no ties with the Sixers.

Michael Levin
HE'S A SIXER IN MY HEART.
Sixers-era Speedy Claxton then.

Dave Rueter
Roy and I only refer to Claxton as Craig. Roy, tell the man.

Roy Burton
I think we can find some middle ground, Dave. On first reference, it must be Craig "Speedy" Claxton (per the rules of the AP stylebook). HOWEVER, any subsequent references can use EITHER Craig or Speedy.

Michael Levin
Well I was playing like Speedy, not Craig. Backboard had no give. All my English just fell by the wayside.

Michael Baumann
The Sixers want to talk to Kelvin Sampson. Can Sampson get them lifted?
And yes, that joke is still funny to me no matter how many times I use it.

Sean O'Connor
It's not surprising given the Houston link, certainly. And I'm a fan of giving Sampson the reins and the same instructions he had in Houston. Not sure if that's a good tanking strategy, but given Houston's track record while Hinkie was there I think tanking is unlikely.

Michael Baumann
This calls for a running feature about Sampson texting various Sixers.

Sean O'Connor
Is it the sequel to Doug giving everyone note cards last year? Because that would be an awesome series.

Dave Reuter
I saw the "Sampson" subject of another email from Mike, and was like, "Ralph is a coach?"

Michael Levin
Ralph's is the name of a grocery store chain on the west coast (maybe just LA?) and I just assume Sampson or Macchio deserve the bulk of the credit.

Justin F.
Is this getting published?

Michael Baumann
Oh, crap, it's already Monday....

Edit: To recap the Liberty Ballers NBA Player comps:

Michael Levin: Jerryd Bayless
Michael Baumann: Corliss Williamson
Roy Burton: Reggie Evans
Rich Hoffmann: George Lynch
Derek Bodner: Matt Harpring
Dave Rueter: Jon Crotty
Sean O'Connor: Brad Miller
Brandon Lee: Ben Wallace
Tanner Steidel: David Lee
Justin F.: A coward who does not compare himself to NBA players.

Why Gregg Popovich benched Tim Duncan

Mike Prada — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:28:53 -0000

How many coaches have the guts to sit a top-10 player of all time in a tight stretch of the fourth quarter of a closeout playoff game on the road? Gregg Popovich and ... well, who else?

We know Popovich treats everyone the same on his roster, but his decision to plant Tim Duncan on the bench with four and a half minutes to go in Thursday's 94-82 win over the Golden State Warriors was gutsy even by his standards. It was so surprising that ESPN's Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy initially speculated that Duncan was merely getting a quick rest. But Duncan never returned to the game, and the Spurs flicked off Golden State's final push with a 17-7 closing spurt to win the series.

Afterwards, Popovich would not elaborate on his reasoning, simply saying "I made that choice" when asked. But there was definitely something to it, and rewatching the tape of critical fourth-quarter possessions puts it on full display. What follows is our best attempt to crawl into the mind of Popovich and explain why the Spurs were so much more successful in the fourth quarter with Duncan on the sidelines.

More: Pounding the Rock's Game 6 recap

First, it's worth noting that Popovich's decision was made easier by Tiago Splitter's splendid play earlier in the game. The Spurs' other big man finished with 14 points on eight shots, along with excellent pick-and-roll defense. The Spurs' prior best stretch of the game came when Duncan was sitting in the late-first and early-second quarters, when lineups featuring Splitter, three guards and either Boris Diaw or Matt Bonner outscored the Warriors by seven points in about eight and a half minutes. A similar lineup with Splitter in and Duncan sitting early in the fourth quarter also held its own as the Warriors began to rally. This was as much about Splitter's success as Duncan's failures.

Nevertheless, there were issues with Duncan once he returned to the game with just over nine minutes to go. His lack of mobility stepping out to contest and rotate the pick-and-roll -- a shortcoming the Warriors exposed often during the series -- was on full display, allowing the Warriors to get good looks from the perimeter.

Duncan failed to properly position himself repeatedly in that fourth quarter. The Spurs started the quarter by trapping the ball, but Duncan was slow making the second rotation to contest the roll man's jumper. David Lee missed both of these shots, but he had far too much room.

Contrast that to Splitter's contest from earlier in the fourth quarter when Duncan was getting a breather.

Lee made the shot against Splitter and missed both against Duncan, but Popovich probably looked at process over results. Lee's jumper over Splitter was properly contested. Lee's jumpers over Duncan weren't.

More importantly, Duncan had issues as the primary big man defender in pick-and-roll situations. Sometimes, he hung too far back in the lane, yielding open jumpers for the Warriors' sharp-shooting guards. Look at how far back he was on this Jarrett Jack jumper.

Jack missed, but you're playing with fire if you let him get that good a look from his mid-range sweet spot. Again: Popovich probably noted process over results.

When Duncan wasn't hanging too far back, he was coming out too far and getting beat off the dribble. Here, he lunges off-balanced at Stephen Curry, allowing Curry to sneak around him and set up Lee for a critical three-point play. Notice how upright his stance is as he comes out high to account for Curry's shooting ability.

This allows Curry to freeze Duncan with a hesitation dribble to get into the lane.

Curry eventually draws Boris Diaw and dumps it off to Lee, Diaw's man, for a three-point play. All this happened because of Duncan's lack of mobility.

Here's video of the sequence.

Duncan also got caught on this play involving Jack and Carl Landry. While Duncan helped contain the initial threat, he was too slow to recover to cut off Landry's roll to the basket once Parker recovered.

Landry therefore gets a free lane to the rim and draws a foul on Splitter.

Here's that play in real time.

The straw that broke Popovich's back, though, was Duncan's late hedge on Curry as he came off a screen for an open 18-foot jumper. Here, we're talking a matter of inches. Duncan was juuuuust a bit slow, and that allowed Curry to get his shot off with enough room to spare.

This pulled the Warriors within two and was the last possession of Duncan's game. Here's video of the sequence.

To the naked eye, this looks like a great shot by Curry, but it was aided by Duncan being just a touch out of position. Popovich noticed that and sat Duncan so the Warriors would stop targeting him in pick-and-rolls. Golden State had no choice but to run plays at Splitter and hope he, too, was a step late.

As it turned out, though, Splitter wasn't. Notice the slight difference in positioning between Splitter and Duncan when the Warriors ran the exact same play for Curry on the next possession.

That small adjustment in positioning makes all the difference. Here's the play in real time.

On the next play, Splitter steps up high on an off-ball screen to prevent Curry from pulling up, forcing an isolation that doesn't end well for the Warriors' star.

Duncan was too slow to do his work early like Splitter does here. The effect: Curry is trapped, and while Splitter's man, Festus Ezeli, is open on the roll for a split second, the length of Splitter prevents Curry from making an easy pass.

Most importantly, Splitter does what Duncan didn't do earlier: retreat to his own man once Parker recovered. This forces Curry into an isolation that ends with a missed contested jumper.

Here's the play in real time.

Splitter also was big for the Spurs' offense down the stretch. The Spurs scored just once in six possessions when Splitter and Duncan shared the floor from the 7:36 mark of the fourth until Duncan was benched at the 4:28 mark, and that was on a set curl play for Danny Green. Otherwise, the Spurs' pick-and-roll game was neutralized because of spacing issues. Once Duncan was taken out in favor of a small lineup with Kawhi Leonard at power forward, the spacing dramatically improved. Hence, 17 Spurs points in the final 4:28.

Here, Splitter's hard roll to the rim draws the entire Warriors' defense, creating a wide-open three for Parker in the opposite corner.

A minute and a half later, Splitter springs Ginobili free on a stretch pick-and-roll 35 feet from the hoop. Ginobili eventually attacks the Warriors' big man (Ezeli) with a full head of steam before kicking out to Leonard for a huge corner three.

Duncan is a great player still, but he lacks the mobility to properly execute that stretch pick-and-roll play. Splitter, though, has that mobility.

More: Read all of Mike Prada's NBA play breakdowns

Duncan is obviously an extremely valuable player to the Spurs, and under normal circumstances, he'd be the one to carry them home. However, Game 6 against the Warriors specifically called for better quickness contesting the Warriors' jump-shooters and more spacing to attack offensively. In that specific situation, Duncan was a liability.

Rather than stubbornly ride his star in a risk-averse move, Popovich showed backbone and played the five-man unit that was better suited to getting this specific job done. It worked, and it's why he's the best coach the NBA has today.

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NBA Playoffs 2013, Spurs vs. Warriors Game 6: Spurs advance to Western Conference Finals with 94-82 win

Drew Garrison — Fri, 17 May 2013 05:21:57 -0000

The San Antonio Spurs defeated the Golden State Warriors, 94-82, and have eliminated the Warriors from the NBA Playoffs in six games. San Antonio has advanced to the Western Conference Finals, where they will meet the Memphis Grizzlies.

San Antonio held the lead for the majority of the game. The Warriors cut into the Spurs' lead in the fourth quarter, moving within two points of San Antonio after Stephen Curry nailed a mid-range jumper off a hand-off with 4:52 left in the game.

Tony Parker responded with a big three from the corner with only 3:36 left in regulation and pushed the Spurs' lead back up to five. The Warriors chipped back with a pair of free throws from Jarrett Jack, but Kawhi Leonard drained a three-point shot to push the lead back up to six. Both field goals were assisted by Manu Ginobili.

Parker then slammed the door on the Warriors with another three, pushing the lead to nine with under 1:30 left in the game. While he wasn't very efficient for San Antonio through the night, he made big shots down the stretch and put the Spurs over the top.

More: Golden State of Mind Pounding the Rock

Tim Duncan scored a team-high 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting. While Ginobili scored only five points and Parker shot 3-of-16 from the field, Duncan was the source of constant offense for San Antonio through the first three quarters. But Gregg Popovich sat Duncan down the stretch, playing Tiago Splitter as the only big man in a small lineup. Parker and Ginobili put the finishing touches on Golden State with their scoring and passing.

Curry had a solid game for the Warriors, ending the night with a game-high 22 points, but the Warriors' offense as a whole struggled to score, shooting 38 percent from the field. Andrew Bogut was a non-factor in the game, scoring only three points while grabbing seven rebounds. Klay Thompson was quiet through the night, scoring 10 points while shooting 4-of-12. It was the Warriors' bench scoring, combining for 36 points, that served as the secondary punch for Curry, but it wasn't enough.

Harrison Barnes took a hard fall towards the end of the second quarter but did return to play the entire third quarter. But he left the game again after dealing with headaches and did not return for Golden State.

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Proof that the Spurs have the NBA's best defense

Aaronstampler — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:04:24 -0000

I realized last night why the national media largely ignores the Spurs. It's because it's better to not say anything and have people wonder if you're a fool than to open your mouth and have it confirmed. The pundits pay so little attention to the guys in the silver and black over the course of the regular season that inevitably their narratives are months -- even years -- behind reality.

From 2010-2012, the Spurs were an average at best defensive club, and downright porous on that end when Tim Duncan wasn't on the floor, yet they continued to rack up the regular season wins because they played at an up-tempo pace, with their perennially underrated Hall-of-Fame back court playing efficient, brilliant basketball and leading the way for what were really the best offensive clubs in franchise history. Yet, because nobody was really paying attention, the narrative about the Spurs was, "They must be grinding out wins with defense and Duncan."

In 2013, for several season, the Spurs offense has never soared to the heights of the 2012 version. Injuries contributed to that heavily, as a whole rotation 1 through 10 could never develop a rhythm and flow together. The years have caught up to Manu Ginobili and he's just not the same player he was a year ago. He's still capable of moments of greatness here and there, but they're fleeting and far between. Tiago Splitter was promoted, which strengthened an already formidable starting five, but considerably weakened the second unit. In fact, pretty much everyone on the second five had a down year. Boris Diaw wasn't as consistent as he was down the stretch last season. Stephen Jackson broke a finger early in the season, never recovered from that, and was eventually such a cancer that he had to be released. Gary Neal struggled all season with an injured calf and plantar fasciitis. The constant shuffling at backup point guard didn't help matters any either.

Here's the funny thing though: Despite the horrid bench, a rash of injuries that limited the team's four best players to 66 games or fewer, and an offense that went from other-worldly to merely "good," the Spurs kept piling up the wins (until April at least). Again, what little attention the team got for their feats was mostly misplaced, with the focus going to the offensive heroics of the ageless Duncan and the superlative Parker. What they failed to notice -- really what they've missed completely -- is that away from the public glare, Pop and the Spurs have quietly once again turned into a defensive juggernaut, and though they're not quite at the form of their championship seasons, they're as close to it as any team can be under these new rules that don't allow hand checking or much contact anywhere on the floor. And they've done it, mostly, with a positively dominant, stifling starting five.

I'm not really blaming or calling out anybody here. It's easy to ignore the Spurs starting five. I'm sure only the hardest of hard core fans can even name our five guys, with most folks assuming Ginobili is still a part of it, or Diaw, Bonner, Blair, whoever. Danny Green and Tiago Splitter haven't quite become household names just yet, and don't forget that during last season's Western Conference Finals, perhaps the first games where the casual fan paid attention to the Spurs in 2012, those guys were benched. Even Kawhi Leonard didn't become a starter until mid-season last year.

You want a real surprising stat though? Because of injuries our starting five was only healthy for 31 games during the season. 31. Think about that. Even crazier, they only played 364 minutes as a quintet all season, an average of 11.75 minutes in those 31 games (pretty much the first six of each half, you'd guess). After that came the constant Pop lineup shuffling, the insistence on keeping Duncan and Parker fresh, finding 24 minutes for Ginobili, etc.

For comparison's sake, the Thunder's starting five played 1,307 minutes together. Indiana's played 1,218. The Warriors had three separate five-man permutations log more minutes together than the Spurs starters. So, no, quantity wasn't a virtue for the San Antonio's starters. But man, quality sure was.

They were +132 in those 364 minutes, the fifth-best quintet in the league, despite the severe minute handicap. Their rate of +.363 per minute was obviously far higher than the top units OKC, Miami and Indiana threw out there (oddly enough, the Knicks somehow found a quintet that was a true anomaly, with Chandler-Melo-Smith-Kidd-Felton just destroying people in 269 minutes, mostly with three pointers).

It gets better though.

Poss			Opponent (Per 100 Possessions)
Rk	Lineup	Tm	Season	G	MP	Tm	Opp	Pace	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	eFG%	FT	FTA	FT%	PTS
1	T. Duncan \| D. Green \| K. Leonard \| T. Parker \| T. Splitter	SAS	2012-13	31	362.4	693	693	91.8	37.4	91.6	.408	5.6	17.2	.328	.439	8.8	13.6	.649	89.2
2	T. Allen \| M. Conley \| M. Gasol \| T. Prince \| Z. Randolph	MEM	2012-13	31	556.8	973	977	84.1	37.5	89.7	.418	5.5	19.9	.278	.449	12.0	15.9	.755	92.4
3	T. Allen \| M. Conley \| M. Gasol \| R. Gay \| Z. Randolph	MEM	2012-13	35	630.5	1156	1164	88.3	37.5	85.4	.440	6.4	18.0	.359	.477	13.7	18.6	.737	95.3
4	D. Harris \| A. Horford \| K. Korver \| J. Smith \| J. Teague	ATL	2012-13	29	351.2	696	692	94.9	39.3	90.9	.432	7.1	18.6	.380	.471	12.1	15.3	.792	97.8
5	P. George \| R. Hibbert \| G. Hill \| L. Stephenson \| D. West	IND	2012-13	64	1218.2	2278	2267	89.5	38.6	90.3	.427	6.0	16.6	.362	.461	16.1	20.5	.787	99.3
6	C. Boozer \| L. Deng \| R. Hamilton \| K. Hinrich \| J. Noah	CHI	2012-13	25	428.8	806	808	90.3	41.0	91.8	.446	5.2	15.6	.333	.474	12.6	16.3	.773	99.8
7	C. Bosh \| M. Chalmers \| U. Haslem \| L. James \| D. Wade	MIA	2012-13	47	687.3	1293	1291	90.2	39.7	88.0	.452	6.4	20.4	.314	.488	14.0	18.8	.745	99.9
8	K. Durant \| S. Ibaka \| K. Perkins \| T. Sefolosha \| R. Westbrook	OKC	2012-13	76	1306.5	2542	2528	93.1	39.2	93.4	.419	7.3	22.2	.330	.459	14.7	18.8	.779	100.3
9	M. Ellis \| E. Ilyasova \| B. Jennings \| L. Mbah a Moute \| L. Sanders	MIL	2012-13	31	388.8	764	770	94.7	39.9	93.2	.428	6.4	16.5	.386	.462	14.4	17.8	.810	100.5
10	K. Faried \| D. Gallinari \| A. Iguodala \| K. Koufos \| T. Lawson	DEN	2012-13	62	795.6	1541	1549	93.2	40.0	89.7	.446	8.3	19.9	.419	.492	14.9	19.6	.760	103.3
11	B. Knight \| J. Maxiell \| G. Monroe \| T. Prince \| K. Singler	DET	2012-13	40	605.8	1124	1118	88.8	41.3	93.5	.442	8.6	22.4	.384	.488	12.1	16.2	.746	103.3
12	L. Allen \| J. Holiday \| J. Richardson \| E. Turner \| T. Young	PHI	2012-13	27	382.2	718	725	90.6	41.5	87.7	.473	6.6	20.4	.324	.511	13.8	18.8	.735	103.4
13	K. Durant \| S. Ibaka \| K. Martin \| K. Perkins \| R. Westbrook	OKC	2012-13	70	357.5	712	709	95.4	37.8	88.4	.427	7.2	23.4	.307	.468	21.7	25.8	.842	104.5
14	G. Dragic \| J. Dudley \| M. Gortat \| L. Scola \| P. Tucker	PHO	2012-13	38	440.8	851	847	92.4	43.2	91.3	.473	6.3	16.9	.371	.508	11.9	16.4	.727	104.6

As you can see, not only is the Spurs starting five more stifling than their more celebrated counterparts at Memphis and Indiana, but really it's not even close. Over three points less per 100 possessions over the second-best lineup is obscene, folks. And it's a number that I can't believe isn't getting more attention. The Spurs starters allowed less than 41% shooting during the season, and while their 3-point defense wasn't quite as ridiculous as the 28% Memphis' crew allowed, 33% is nothing to sneeze at. And our starters fouled less than theirs.

(The most interesting aspect of this above chart is that the Grizzlies had the second and third best starting lineups defensively, with the much-maligned Rudy Gay a part of the latter. Gay is known as primarily an offensive player, but really he wasn't hurting the Grizzlies on defense at all. It was on offense where he was killing them, with his horribly inefficient shooting. Once he got shipped out to Toronto, his ration of shots went to Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph and Mike Conley, and voila, the Grizzles got better. If you want further proof of Gay's defensive talents, check out what happens when we expand the lineup field from a 350 minute minimum to 250. It's a relatively small sample size, but still intriguing.)

I don't think it's much of an accident that the Spurs, Grizzlies, Heat and Pacers have dominated the league's team defense stats and that they're going to be the final four teams left standing. If you've been paying attention, this postseason, particularly the at-times-hard-to-watch second round, has been a referendum on defensive basketball, with the shooting numbers of teams as a whole in general and star players in particular (Melo, Durant, etc.) plummeting to NCAA levels of mediocrity.

It's quite possible that, barring overtime, we won't see any team reach triple digits during the final two rounds of the playoffs. The defenses are just too good; they communicate too well, and once they get a couple of "feel out" games under their belts to figure out what their opponents like to do, they just snuff out all that easy stuff and make you go to Plan C, D, E on offense. And that usually gets ugly. Really, I think that's what gives the Spurs the faint hope of contending for the LOB. Their fourth and fifth options are more attractive than Memphis' or Indiana's, and quite possibly Miami's as well -- assuming that Norris Cole will cool down eventually.

Why are the Spurs starting five so good? Simply put, I think together they're better than the sum of their parts, and I suppose Pop has to get a lot of credit for that. Individually, they all have weaknesses.

Parker's effort on that end comes and goes, though he usually gets geeked up facing any star, and motivation shouldn't be a problem for him from here on out.

Similarly, Leonard too tends to float at times if his man isn't a star, and I could see how that could present a problem against the perimeter-challenged Grizzlies, but I can envision Pop telling him, "I don't care how crappy your man is, you've got to be engaged and make things happen on defense, because we might not crack 80 points against these guys in the half court."

Green gets lost on screens at times, but he's been much better at that of late, with Stephen Curry giving him plenty of practice at it.

Splitter is the cliche "much quicker than he looks" (because he's white, you see), but he's not the most rugged guy out there and finishing off the defensive possession with a rebound is a challenge for him. Still, he's a guy whose defensive value isn't always understood by casual fans because he doesn't produce the defensive "stats." He's not blocking shots and Duncan's the one scooping up the boards, so Splitter's work, the way he hedges on pick-and-rolls and alters shots down low, doesn't really show up in the box score.

Duncan has days where his knee feels good and days where it doesn't, and it affects his mobility and ability to get out and challenge shots.

Individually these guys range from above average defenders to very good, but because there isn't a weak link among them, they're an elite unit. On other teams, Green might be in trouble having to be the top perimeter defender, but as a secondary defender (checking guards rather than forwards), he looks much better. Similarly, Splitter would be so-so as the top defensive big on other teams (notice his uninspiring work with Bonner against the Warriors). However as the Robin to Duncan's Batman, he's superb. Parker would be a train wreck in his own end playing for half the coaches in the league. Pop demands 94 feet of greatness out of him though.

These playoffs are progressing into kind of a Pop daydream, with defense as the dominating theme, not just for his team, but league wide. I think the further we go, the more he'll shift on the side of conservatism with his lineups, always going with defense over dynamism, hoping to string stops together, not let games slip away, and generate easy buckets through turnovers. Look at how little Neal played and how much Joseph played in Game 5. That was a sign.

The good news is that the Spurs defensive prowess isn't limited to the starting five. There might be a few backup swing men in the league who are as good defensively as Ginobili, but none of them are in his league from a play-making or shot-making standpoint on the other end. Diaw plays smart positional defense and like Splitter he's good as long as he doesn't have to be the main guy. Joseph is tenacious and unafraid.

Where it gets intriguing is beyond those eight guys. I think points will be at such a premium in the conference finals that no defensive weak links will be allowed to participate, except in cases of injury, blowouts or foul trouble. Playing a guy like Matt Bonner or Gary Neal for a couple minutes here and there might seem harmless, but these teams we're going to face are so talented, so smart and so well-coached, that having even one pigeon on the floor is enough to set off a chain reaction where the entire defense gets compromised and looks rather ordinary.

I don't believe I'm saying this, but don't be surprised if Tracy McGrady gets a trial run by Pop (an audition if you will) in Game 6 against the Warriors in Neal's place just to see how he fares. Ironically given McGrady's prolific career as a scorer, it's his size and defense that Pop will value, not his rusty jumper. (Remember, we brought in Glenn Robinson for Game 1 of the 2005 Finals and he changed the momentum of that game with three blocked shots). Having McGrady on the floor to fill not only Neal's eight minutes but also maybe Bonner's four and will enable Pop to play small-ball longer, which is perfectly effective against the Warriors. Having one guy who could remove both of those guys from the rotation and give us 12 solid defensive minutes would be quite a godsend. And if we do need a fourth big, Baynes seems to make more sense than Bonner at this point. The Red Mamba is just too soft.

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I hope Game 5 ended the silly notion that Stephen Curry is the best point guard in this series. Maybe someday, definitely not now. Parker is just the more complete player. He's got more clubs in his bag, more weapons in his arsenal and more tricks up his sleeve. He's got the experience to know how to compensate for various bumps and bruises and to accommodate and adjust his game around them. Curry hasn't gained that experience yet and doesn't have as many ways to score the ball as Parker does. Much has been made of Curry's shooting prowess, and he's obviously a gifted marksman from deep, but from 20 feet and in Parker shoots it just as well, and the closer you get to the rim, the more pronounced Parker's edge becomes. He's a much better finisher, he attacks the rim way more often and gets to the line a hell of a lot more.

I lost a little bit of respect for Curry because I think he mentally and physically quit in the second half. I don't know how much his ankle was bothering him, but he played embarrassingly bad on defense. He was basically Pete Maravich out there, just taking possessions off, not focusing at all, just trying to rest on defense to save his energy for offense. It looked like he was spending his time on defense thinking about what he'd do next time he had the ball, instead of concentrating on his man.

Curry's never been a great defender in the best of times (and never will be with his size limitations), but he was atrocious on Tuesday. His man scored 30 points on him with 11-of-16 shooting, 4-of-6 from downtown and 4-of-4 free throws.

The breakdown as follows: Green 4-of-7, 2-of-4 from 3, 2-of-2 FTs, 12 points; Parker 3-of-4, 2-of-2 FTs, 8 points; Leonard 2-of-2, 1-of-1 from 3, 5 points; Ginobili 1-of-1, 1-of-1 from 3, 3 points; Joseph 1-of-2, 2 points.

Conversely, Parker's man was 7-of-14, 1-of-3 from 3, for 15 points.

(Curry 2-of-6, 0-of-2 from 3, 4 points; Jack 3-of-5, 1-of-1 from 3, 7 points; Barnes 2-of-2, 4 points; Thompson 0-of-1, 0 points.)

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I was at a bar next to this obnoxious Warriors fan who kept making dumb comments and wasn't at all knowledgeable about the Spurs. He saw the starting lineup and asked if Ginobili was injured and kept clapping after every Warriors basket. Eventually I got annoyed enough that I pointed out with glee that Curry was the worst player on the floor and that he's killing them on defense.

"He's a hell of a scorer," the guy said.

"Defense is half the game," I said.

"The crappy half," he replied. And that's probably why he's a Warriors fan. It's a fan-base that hasn't realized they won't ever truly contend as long as David Lee is on their team. Holy cow, is he atrocious. He'd have to average 35 a game to make up for his shortcomings on the other end. (The Spurs were 4-of-4 against him on the night, in limited minutes, with the likes of Diaw and Bonner lighting him up.)

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Chris Webber suggested that Manu will be getting called in by the league for flopping on a play where Andrew Bogut horse-collared him on a rebound and he couldn't believe that the referees were suckered into calling that a flagrant foul.

Just one problem... they didn't call it a flagrant foul. The Spurs were already in the penalty and they were two regular free throws. Idiot.

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Speaking of Bogut, it's shocking how much his offensive game has regressed. I know the big guy has dealt with a couple of serious injuries the past few seasons, but we're talking about a former No. 1 overall pick here. Sure, he was never going to be a Duncan or a Shaq, but he wasn't Joe Smith or Michael Olowokandi either. Bogut at his peak had some solid post moves, a decent enough short jumper and averaged 15.9 points per game at his peak. Now he hardly ever attempts any shots that aren't dunks or follow lay-ins and he's deathly afraid of putting the ball on the floor. His offensive game is more limited than Splitter's. It's just sad to see.

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Yes, I checked because I was morbidly curious-- Richard Jefferson did score more than seven points for the Spurs in a playoff game. Several times, in fact. He averaged a whopping 9.7 points in the 2010 postseason and 6.5 in 2011. I just can't seem to remember any of them.

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After I railed on Bonner's softness for the fourth time in the span of a minute at the bar, Manoli said, "Yeah, that's not a good thing to have on the team you root for, but imagine how comfortable he'd be on your bed."

I think he meant as a pillow, but I didn't ask.

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The annoying Warriors fan kept referring to Bonner as "The Red Mamba," so Manoli and I decided we need more mambas. Parker was French Mamba. Diaw was Fat Mamba. Manu was Floppy Mamba. And Jefferson was Alternate Lifestyle Mamba.

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I mean, seriously, what is this? Blocking Joseph from wiping off his feet? What a troll. Go away.

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Now that the Thunder have officially been eliminated, I guess Pop was right and I'm an idiot. There was no sense pushing the guys for home court advantage. There were too many injuries and even if there weren't, I don't think the Spurs could've won 66 games to catch the Heat. Just about everything would've had to go perfect, winning every 50/50 game all year, to do that.

Who knew Russell Westbrook wasn't an indestructable alien? Maybe if we were the one-seed instead of the Thunder, Patrick Beverley would've taken out Tony's knee instead and that would've been unpleasant. I apologize Pop.

Now win nine more games and really make me look stupid.