SB Nation User Blog: JamesR

08/09 Spurs Roster

JamesR — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:17:49 -0000

Yeah, the wound is still fresh, but I think the best way to heal it is to start looking forward to 09. Odd years FTW!!

Definetly on the team next year (last year of contract in parenthesis):

GUARDS/SWINGMEN: Tony (10/11), Manu (09/10), Bruce (09/10), Junior Varsity (08/09), Bones (08/09), Fatality (08/09)

Hopefully we'll see some of these expiring contracts not named Brent Barry used to swing a trade.

FORWARDS/CENTERS: Timmah (11/12), Bonner (09/10), Ian (08/09 with team options until 10/11), Fab (09/10)

So we need some fucking big men guys. Ian and Matty are going to have to come up big for us. I honestly think that Crazy Eyes is going to be back.

Thanks for the good season Spurs and PtR users!

JamesR — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:53:13 -0000

I'm like in a glass cage of emotion right now, so I'm going to try and keep this short. We went though some shit this season. 18-3 start, then .500 ball through injury concerns. We saw Manu get snubbed from the ASG, then come out with a vengeance, dropping two 40+ pt games. We saw team favorite Bones get traded, then come back home to us. We saw the guys win one of the best playoff games in history, Game 1 vs PHX (I was there by the way, definetly a top experience in my life other than sex.), with magical shots by Finley and Timmah. We saw the boys make a great comeback against the upstart Hornets, with a gritty game 7 win in their house.

And through it all, we here cursed them, cheered them, came up with rediculous ways to give them the all important MOJO. We tried everything from rally shirts, to rally no shirts, to CRUNK JUICE, to even not watching games. We hated Tony, we loved Tony. We hated Pop, we loved Pop. We hated Horry, we....hated Horry.

It was a great ride guys. Lets hope for an active offseason and a great 08/09.

CPFlop to Bowen: "I'm going to tell Stu Jackson on you."

JamesR — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:36:26 -0000

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Avj8cgBGjpIwTVidvyru.Gq8vLYF?slug=jy-hornetsspursgamefour051208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Then, exasperated with Bruce Bowen hounding him, Paul turned to the Spurs’ designated pest and offered this protest: "I’m going to tell Stu Jackson on you."

The look on Bowen’s face seemed to say it all. You’re going to … tell on me?

Tattling, as Paul probably quickly learned, doesn’t count for much in the playoffs. David West also has had his moments. He kicked the scorer’s table in anger in Game 3. Down 20 in Sunday’s third quarter, he flung out his left arm to deck Bowen for a foul.

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You have got to be fucking kidding me. How can ANYONE possibly defend this? Just because its fun to watch, here's the flop that exploded the Flopometer:

....Well apparantly I'm having issues posting the same GIF i posted in Matthew's post a couple days ago. The image poster thingy here wont work and HTML doesn't work. What the fuck man?

Old Coach Wino Burns NOLA Reporters

JamesR — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:23:35 -0000

http://www.usatoday.com/community/profile.htm?UID=f06a7610a6fe2b78&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3af06a7610a6fe2b78Post%3a4811755b-164c-40a8-9c2c-5e117a62c0e0

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But that humor evanesced when a local reporter asked him if he thought the Hornets would continue to dare the Spurs to shoot 3-pointers.

POP: “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask them.”

SEMI-CLUELESS MEDIA PERSON: “That’s kind of what they did in the first game.”

POP: “They did a lot of things well.”

NEW ORLEANS RADIO GUY: “Will you try to change up your defenses on David West at all tonight?”

POP: “Right. We’re going to probably do four or five things you’ve never seen before in basketball.”

NEW ORLEANS RADIO GUY: “I sense sarcasm.”

POP: “That’s correct. We’re going to spend the afternoon inventing the light bulb. Those CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps), a lot of people are having problems with them, so we’re going to think of something different.”

SEMI-CLUELESS MEDIA PERSON: “Do you have any words for Hugo, the mascot, by any chance?”

POP: “Who?” (media laughter)

(Someone chimes in, “the guy who jumped through the fire.”)

POP: “Why would you ask me that?”

The media is laughing now, but I sense Popovich doesn’t think this is all that funny.

TRYING-TO-BE HELPFUL LOCAL MEDIA PERSON: “Talking about the ring of fire.”

POP: “Hopefully that’s over with. We all know it wasn’t a great move. We all make mistakes.”

SAME GUY WHO ASKED ABOUT DEFENDING DAVID WEST: “Do you think you might try to use (Bruce) Bowen on David a little bit tonight?”

Ohmigod. This is going to set him off…

POP: “That’s a good idea! Look at this guy right here! He’s got all kinds of ideas! Let’s do that! What’s he gonna do, get 30? Maybe we’ll put Bruce on him. Bruce weighs, what 90 pounds? He’ll just knock the (bleep) out of him. That’ enough. You guys are terrible…”

End of interview.

"Know Your NBA Playoff Seedings"

JamesR — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 05:08:55 -0000

http://www.spursreport.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87655

On the Salt Lake Tribune's basketball blog, Ross Siler points out the very real possibility that the Jazz, Spurs, Rockets, and Suns could all end the season 55-27.

It'll take the coordinated efforts of all teams involved, and a Jazz win in San Antonio, where they tend to lose.

But it really could happen.

My first thought is: Cool! Exciting! Historical! And a perfect way to cap the West's season of parity.

My next thought was ... wow. I wonder how they break that tie? The division winners have to be in the top four. And the usual tie-breaker -- head to head record -- would seem to be a little more complicated with four teams.

Siler writes:

I'm not sure how exactly the NBA would break a four-way tie. The Jazz would have to be assured a top four seed as a division champion.

As far as individual tiebreakers go, the Spurs have a better division record than Houston, Phoenix owns the season series against San Antonio and Houston has a better conference record than Phoenix. Round and round we go.

If it comes down to conference record, the Jazz would finish 34-18, Houston 33-19, San Antonio 32-20 and Phoenix 31-21. The Jazz would play the Suns in the first round under this tiebreaker.

If it comes down to head-to-head against the other three teams, the Jazz are 7-3, Phoenix is 6-5, Houston is 5-6 and San Antonio is 4-8. The numbers are different because some teams were only scheduled to play three times this season.

The Jazz would play San Antonio in the first round under this tiebreaker. If San Antonio loses Monday and Wednesday, Utah and the Spurs would meet in the first round as well.

Of course, the Jazz also could lose Wednesday in San Antonio for the 21st consecutive time and settle for the No. 4 seed and a series with Houston.

OK, I can help here, I think. After the jump, I posted the entire tie-break rules, straight from the NBA. They are not entirely simple. You may want to bookmark this post so you can check them again as these next few days unfold.

My simplified interpretation as applies here: if all four end up tied, it does come down to winning percentage in games among the tied teams. And we're lucky, this year, that in this scenario such a tie-breaker really would settle everything without having to go deeper into the rules.

Based on Siler's research a few paragraphs above, if those four teams end up 55-27, after the tie-breaks have been applied, the Lakers and Hornets would be followed in the third through sixth spots in the West with:

Jazz

Suns

Rockets

Spurs

That would set up a killer Utah vs. San Antonio series. Now, you might wonder, who would get homecourt advantage in that series?

Again, we apply the tie-break procedures, although now we only have two teams to consider. And if this tie happens, then Utah will have finished 3-0 against the Spurs this season, and so the Jazz will get the extra game at home.

Playoff Tie-Break Procedures
Ties for playoff positions (including division winners) will be broken utilizing the criteria set forth in subparagraph a. below (in the case of ties involving two teams) and subparagraph b. below (in the case of ties involving more than two teams), and the guidelines set forth in subparagraph c. below.

Two Teams Tied
In the case of a tie in regular-season records involving only two teams, the following criteria will be utilized in the following order:

Better winning percentage in games against each other.
Better winning percentage against teams in own division (only if tied teams are in same division).
Better winning percentage against teams in own conference.
Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in own conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position).
Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in opposite conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position).
Better net result of total points scored less total points allowed against all opponents ("point differential").

More Than Two Teams Tied
In the case of a tie in regular season records involving more than two teams, the following criteria will be utilized in the following order:

Better winning percentage in all games among the tied teams.
Better winning percentage against teams in own division (only if all tied teams are in the same division).
Better winning percentage against teams in own conference.
Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in own conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position).
Better net result of total points scored less total points allowed against all opponents ("point differential").

Guidelines For Applying Tie-Break Criteria
The following guidelines shall be used when applying the above criteria to break ties for playoff positions:

(1)

(a) The first four seeds in each conference will continue to be given to the three division winners and the team with the next best regular season record, but these four teams will now be seeded in order of their regular season records. Among other things, this change will ensure that the two teams with the best records in the conference will not meet earlier than the Conference Finals.

(b) When a tie must be broken to determine a division winner, the results of the tie-break shall be used to determine only the division winner and its playoff position, not any other playoff position(s).

(2)

If a tie involves more than two teams, the tie-break criteria in subparagraph b. shall be applied in the order set forth therein until the first to occur of the following:

(a) Each of the tied teams has a different winning percentage or point differential under the applicable tiebreak criterion (a "complete" breaking of the tie). In this circumstance, the team with the best winning percentage or point differential under the criterion will be awarded the best playoff position, the team with the next-best winning percentage or point differential will be awarded the next-best playoff position, and so on, and no further application of the tie-break criteria will be required.

(b) One or more (but not all) of the tied teams has a different winning percentage or point differential under the applicable tie-break criterion (a "partial" breaking of the tie). In this circumstance: (x) any team(s) that performed better under the applicable criterion than any other team(s) will be awarded a higher playoff position than such other team(s); and (y) teams that had equivalent performance under the applicable criterion will remain tied, and such remaining tie(s) will be broken by applying, from the beginning, the criteria in subparagraph

a.(1)-(6) above (for any remaining tie involving only two teams) or subparagraph
b.(1)-(5) above (for any remaining tie involving more than two teams) and the guidelines set forth in this subparagraph

(3)

If application of the criteria in subparagraph a. or b. does not result in the breaking of a tie, the playoff positions of the tied teams will be determined by a random drawing.

Barry waived by Sonics!

JamesR — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:17:04 -0000

In order to complete the trade, the Sonics waived Brent Barry to make the necessary roster spots available. Barry was acquired yesterday in a trade with the San Antonio Spurs.

http://www.nba.com/sonics/news/trade080221.html

T-Minus 30 days until the Return of Bones? Please God.

THREEEEEHUNNNNNNNDREDDDDDDCHARRRRAAAAAACCTTTTTERRRRRSSSSS RRRRULLLLLLLEEEEEISSSSS GARRRRRRRBAAAAGGGGEEEE

Hollinger on Manu

JamesR — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:26:36 -0000

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=Surprises-071 113&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2finsider%2fcolumns%2fst ory%3fcolumnist%3dhollinger_john%26page%3dSurprises-071113

Manu Ginobili, Spurs
Like I said, it's still early. Really, really early. But just for kicks, let me throw a few questions out there, because we might need to start coming up with answers for them soon: Is it possible for a sixth man to be the MVP? If Ginobili pulls it off, don't we pretty much have to give him Most Improved too? And at what point should Alex English worry about his status as "best second-round draft pick ever" being in jeopardy?

While the media's agreement with the league stipulates that nobody can talk about the Spurs until June, I'm going to break it today, because through seven games, Ginobili has been unbelievable. He leads the league in player efficiency rating by a wide margin while averaging 27.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 6.4 assists per 40 minutes. Also, he's seemingly on his way to completing his evolution from slasher to shooter by hitting 42.9 percent of his 3s and taking nearly half his shots from the great beyond.

Especially notable is his recently developed knack for hitting step-back 3s off the dribble going to his left -- a shot that is more or less impossible but one he knocks down routinely. (Seriously, for all you rec league players, try this some time. If you're right-handed, try taking a hard dribble right, stepping back with your right foot, and then launching from distance. Half the time you'll miss the basket by 4 feet).

Rumor: Ime Udoka offered 3yr/$9 million offer sheet by Spurs.

JamesR — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 23:49:15 -0000

http://mikebarrettsblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/aldridge-on-courtside.html

THREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

HUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

CHARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACTTTTTTTTTTTTTTERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Crawford SUSPENDED for the rest of season and playoffs!

JamesR — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 18:00:09 -0000

http://www.nba.com/news/crawford_070417.html

NEW YORK, April 17, 2007 - NBA referee Joey Crawford has been indefinitely suspended for improper conduct toward Tim Duncan during the San Antonio Spurs at Dallas Mavericks game on April 15, it was announced today by NBA Commissioner David Stern. The conduct included Crawford's assessment of a second technical foul and ejection of Duncan following laughter by the player while he was seated on the bench, and inappropriate comments made to Duncan during the game.

Crawford's suspension will cover at least the remainder of the 2006-07 season, including the NBA Playoffs and Finals.

"Joey Crawford's handling of this situation failed to meet the standards of professionalism and game management we expect of NBA referees," said Stern. "Especially in light of similar prior acts by this official, a significant suspension is warranted. Although Joey is consistently rated as one of our top referees, he must be held accountable for his actions on the floor, and we will have further discussions with him following the season to be sure he understands his responsibilities."

The incidents occurred with 1:04 remaining in the third period of the Mavericks 91-86 win over the Spurs on Sunday, April 8 at American Airlines Center.
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best. news. ever. I never thought that they would go this far. Fine him, not let him ref any Spurs games, keep him out of the Finals (spurs or not), yeah.

Tim would now like to share his feelings on the suspension.

Yes! We Beat a Shitty Team! What an Accomplishment!

JamesR — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 21:28:54 -0000

[Editor's note: Another great recap by a PtR member, complete with Photoshop wizardry! The DET game thread is posted below.]

Hmm...This is an odd emotion after a Spurs game. Is this....happiness? What!? You mean I'm not feeling bitter disappointment and anger? This is nice. I remember when this was a common feeling.

The Jersey game was a beatdown pretty much from start to finish. Some might say that this was to be expected, look at everyone the Nets are missing! Spurs fans know better. This game had all the makings of a game won (or lost) at the FT line in the final minute. I was actually kinda shocked that the Spurs won by 20+....which shows how far this team has fallen in my eyes. But if Elson goes for 8 and 7 every night, Horry hits a shot or two, and Finley shoots 50% we are going to have a decent chance at making some noise in the playoffs. The Big 3 are continuing a high level of play, and Barry keeps chugging along. Now if we can get Bonner back playing well (he's cleared to play) we might have a good run in us. It'll take some luck falling our way, but stranger things have happened.

Everyone's favorite lazy fatass big man got 8 minutes of playing time tonight. Time that he did absolutely nothing with. Time that I got to watch James White sit on the bench in a suit.

You would think that after our guards constantly get shit upon in games that Pop would give this guy a CHANCE. I've heard a handful of reports that say this guy looks GREAT in practice. What more does he have to do to get a chance? Pop even got Linton Freaking Johnson some playing time (and then let him go so he could become a useful player for the NOOCH....not like we needed an athletic 3 though, right?). What a cocktease.

Pop then tells the Express-News that the Ely trade was "just one injured-list guy for another injured-list guy" and basically gave no indication that he would ever play him. Wow Pop, way to fucking go. You got rid of an excellent trade asset in Williams for just another player you won't play. Fuck you. Surely to God Williams/Beno or Williams/[who the fuck ever] could have gotten someone that YOU WOULD ACTUALLY PLAY. But oh no, we can't have someone taking minutes from Robert Horry or Michael Finley! That would be terrible! Not to mention, Pop goes with a 3 man bigman rotation, leaving Oberto rot until garbage time. Now, I'm not saying that Oberto is the best option we have, but all benching Oberto is going to do is have more minutes for small ball and all that's going to do is lose more games and get Pop's dick hard because Pop loves him some tinyball.

No, that is not innuendo you sick bastards.

Here's what I would like to see happen with the Spurs roster up til the playoffs

1.    Trade Beno. I don't care if its for a second rounder next decade, get rid of him.
2.    Move Brent to backup PG. We need some competency at that position.
3.    Start Manu and bench Bowen. Start Finley.
4.    Give White playing time as the 4th swingman in the rotation. If he sucks, then we can go back with Vaughn as the backup and put Barry in as the 2/3 again.
5.    Have the 4/5 rotation be Tim/Elson then Bonner/Ely. Ely can at least contribute some scoring since Pop has put Obby in the feared doghouse. Anything is better than small ball or Horry.
6.    The 8 man playoff rotation that Pop loves to adhere to should be:  Parker/Manu/Finley/Tim/Elson with Barry/Bonner/Bowen coming off the bench.

All this, I feel, would give the Spurs a decent chance to succeed. Rebounding would be a problem, but its going to suck anyway.