So I find it funny sometimes, like not funny haha, but funny like curious, makes me suck my teeth and ponder a bit, when all areas of the Spurs roster is complemented so, yet the Spurs defense remains bad for the season. Not even average, just bad. And Pop is the best coach in the league, right?

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A few years running before DeJuan Blair arrived in San Antonio there was a huge outcry amongst Spurs fans to provide Tim Duncan with inside help, mainly in the rebounding department. Though we never saw direct quotes, there where whispers that Timmy himself was growing a bit irritated with the front offices’ disregard for acquiring bigs who possessed this specialized skill set. Thanks to some faulty knees Dejuan fell into the Spurs lap and he has been a savior of sorts in this department, no doubt.

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California plus Spurs fans equals head explosion! In the first or second week of February our fearless leader, JRW, will be coming to the golden state and we’d like to have a PtR get together.

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No, not me.  I know you guys were all excited but you should probably be a little more excited that it's not me this time.  Not everyone is like LatinD and I where we like to make everyone aware of our coming to San Antonio so I thought I'd do it for her since she's chicken. 

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Some might know about LatinD's trip last year to the states.  On his trip I was one of his California tour guides and we quickly hit it off.  So when he told me he'd be in San Antonio this year I was like, I jump in it. 

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Coach Greg Popovich walks a fine line managing his player’s injuries and recovery. On one hand Pop’s ultra cautious approach to players recovery assures that chances of re-injury will be slight. But the sword is double edged, as they say. Playing through pain builds the type of scrappy character an underdog team needs to have if they’re going to going to realize their maximum potential. And make no mistakes about it; The Spurs, this season, are an underdog to win their 5th championship.

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I know what you’re thinking and, no.  Don’t worry; this southern California native isn’t polluting PtR (anymore than I already have) with hippie rhetoric.  The title of this post (in this case) refers to a poker term in which a player has invested a certain amount of money or chips where the odds of the return are so great that even with an unlikely winning outcome the player is forced to stay in the hand.  Simply put it’s a value play. 

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Two of the Spurs needs (center and small forward) have been discussed and debated ad nauseam.  There is, however, another missing piece on the Spurs roster that is a common denominator of all championship teams over the last 15 years (and beyond) that we’ve yet to delve into.  Let us discuss.  

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The other day Holt or Bufford said that the trade rumors surrounding Tony were not internally generated.  Meaning the Spurs FO had not discussed trading Tony and that the rumors were unfounded and generated by unreliable sources.  I'm just as unreliable and not in the know as anyone else so lets have some fun and start some trade rumors. 

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Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.  Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whore houses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses.  Its inhabitants are, as a man once said, "whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches," by which he meant Everybody.  Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, "saints angels and martyrs and holy men," and he would have meant the same thing. 

-Opening paragraph from Cannery Row, John Stteinbeck 

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This is kind of a detour type post except everything here is basketball related. 

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The title of this little post is a live quote taken from one of the most enjoyable trips I’ve ever had.  We were talking about ninjas and samurais, and this on the only night we didn’t consume enough alcohol to get a horse drunk.

Reading someone’s material for about two years, as I have LatinD’s (David), you start to imagine what said person is like in "real life".  Before our trip my assumptions of David were these:  rich, kinda’ nerdy, smart, patriotic, city boy, speaks English, liberal, and a complainer among other things.  No text could have prepared me for the real David. 

Some of my notions were confirmed (he speaks English, mostly) and some were shattered (a complainer he is far from).  But above any single charecteristic I was left with this: David is all kinds of awesomeness and I hope he lives a thousand years so he might people the earth with many of his offspring. 

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There has been some good discussion concerning The SPURS current roster.  Some think we're in need of a tweak, while others think we need a blockbuster deal to get us where we want.  Others think that the pieces are there but Pop isn't utilizing them correctly and then there are those who think it is just a matter of time before everything comes together. 

When I started this post I wanted to outline what I think we should do and in the comments section get some good arguments for strategy moving forward however I've been distracted.  In the comments section still feel free to discuss Spurs strategy but I have to deviate from my original plan. 

The Lakers just lost but Kobe achieved quite possibly the greatest individual accomplishment of his career: he became the Lakers all time leading scorer.  As I watched the Lakers post game show they played highlights from Kobes career and during these clips an unmistakable orange caught my eye over and over.  Matt Bonner! 

Fred Silva has outlined all kinds of reasons why Bonner does not deserve major, if any, minutes.  Well add this to the list:  Matt Bonner was part of the most impressive offensive performance in modern day; he was opposite of Kobe Bryant when Kobe went for 81 points.  Bonner was the starting center for that '05-'06 Raptors team, the enforcer, the shot blocker, the last line of defense.  To my chagrin the box scores from then do not show a +/- or else we'd really be able to tell how much of Kobe's explosion was due to Bonner's lack of defense. 

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I'm not going to try and guess whether or not the Spurs are about to turn any kind of corner.  We just lost 3 of our last 4 games and this after winning 9 of 11.  There is no logic, rhyme or reason to predicting the Spurs this season.  Just as is the case with the unpredictability of the Spurs wins/losses so is the Spurs rotation.  Injuries and players' age have played a part in Pops erratic rotations but really I think he has too many players worth getting minutes than he knows what to do.  To me Pop is the best coach in the league; I'm not about to tell what I think he should do from here on out with the rotation but what I'd do with the log jam we're about to have at the 2 spot when Michael Finley returns. 

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Typically when I think of Spurs closing moments I think of Manu and Tim through out the last 6 years or so.  I've always felt like things started and ended with these two and the Spurs have been one of the best, if not the best, in close games.  They're still here so what's the big deal with this year?  Why can't we close out games?  Well I shortchanged a certain someone and I think we miss him dearly. 

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     Over a leisurely game of chess, where my ass was handed to me, JRW asked me if I was excited for the start of the season.  You see how he is?  In a Ronnie Lott like fashion he punches me in the mouth, breaks my back, runs me over and then, as if over a cup of tea, asks me if I'm excited for the season.  He's cold-blooded.  Well, I think I'm more apprehensive than anything else.  This regular season we have little to gain and everything to lose. 

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Speak to any given NBA fan and he will most likely tell you that his team has gotten better since last year; either through trades, the draft, free agency or simply getting healthy.  But every team can not be getting better can they?  Is the leagues talent exponentially evolving thus making it possible that every team improves season after season?  This can't be, but every time I turn around another team is inking a player who should help their team.  And younger teams who are standing pat have to be getting better just by a natural progression, right?   Join me in taking brief a team by team evaluation and feel free to add your disagreements comments about who got better, who stayed the same, and who got worse.

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Well, Fuck as David aptly put it.  I have never liked Rasheed Wallace and even I was starting to come around to the idea of him joining the Spurs.  Oh well let's move on and see what we shall do now.

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Our unofficial motto for Spurs teams the past couple of years has been "Three studs and a bunch of suck", harsh but mostly accurate.  Our acquisition of Richard Jefferson (stud) accompanied by FSM dropping Chairman of the Boards Dujuan Blair in our laps set us in fine position to make a title run this up coming season.  To be completely honest I didn't think it very important what big we were going to sign, just let him be serviceable.  As far as I was concerned if we could win it with 3 studs and a bunch of suck in years past then 4 legit studs plus Mason, Hill and Blair should be enough.  Then the dreadful news came.  Artest to the Lakers is momentous.  I don't think I'm in the minority to say Artest is an upgrade over Ariza but let's break it down anyhow.

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 I wrote this last night but didn't want to publish it because I had already posted something else.  I could have been a "profit" haha.  Here it is anyway.

I read something over at 48MOH warning about having too many sacred cows.  Many of us around PTR might need to soon realize trading fan favorites is part of the business or some feelings could be hurt this off season. 

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Recently over at 48MOH Timmothy Varner touched on what kind of asset Tiago Splitter is to be for our Spurs.  We won't be seeing him on the court until 2010-2011 season so many fans are clamoring to cash in on his value now via trade. 

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