What are the Spurs doing differently from us?

[Finkelskyhook]

Duncan, Manu, Jefferson, and Parker are better than Pierce, Rondo, Garnett, and Allen.

Disagree with this one.
The match ups are pretty much even, with KG having a slight edge over Duncan at this point in their careers.Manu and Pierce are both great.
Rondo and Parker are about even, Parker has hit a hot streak as of late, but he's been average for them the past few years.
Ray>Jefferson and it's not close, Jefferson is complete garbage and I can't believe they haven't moved him by now.
In fact I'd say he's the main reason they haven't gone further with the squad.

Lets not forget we don't have Jeff Green this season which is a huge blow for us.

 Have you watched the Spurs play?

[KCattheStripe]

They had their superstars for the past decade and thus have had more time to recover from draft misfires. They were also savvy in drafting internationally  in the middle part of the decade, ( Remember they drafted Scola as well as Splitter)

[Tradetime]

Duncan, Manu, Jefferson, and Parker are better than Pierce, Rondo, Garnett, and Allen.

Disagree with this one.
The match ups are pretty much even, with KG having a slight edge over Duncan at this point in their careers.
Manu and Pierce are both great.
Rondo and Parker are about even, Parker has hit a hot streak as of late, but he's been average for them the past few years.
Ray>Jefferson and it's not close, Jefferson is complete garbage and I can't believe they haven't moved him by now.
In fact I'd say he's the main reason they haven't gone further with the squad.

Lets not forget we don't have Jeff Green this season which is a huge blow for us.

Have to disagree with the thought of Rondo and Parker being even. Parker had little to no jumper when he first entered the league. But he developed one, and he's won 3 titles with the Spurs, while having basically the same guys around him, with a smattering of talent through mostly late first round draft picks mixed in.

When Parker takes over a game for the Spurs, they usually wind up victorious. When we defer to Rondo as our main threat, we often lose. I think a big part of this is Parker is not afraid to attack the rim, which gets him to the line, where he is a valid free throw shooter. Rondo often disappears completely in fourth quarters, as we've seen in recent games.

[wahz]

Duncan, Manu, Jefferson, and Parker are better than Pierce, Rondo, Garnett, and Allen.

Disagree with this one.
The match ups are pretty much even, with KG having a slight edge over Duncan at this point in their careers.Manu and Pierce are both great.
Rondo and Parker are about even, Parker has hit a hot streak as of late, but he's been average for them the past few years.
Ray>Jefferson and it's not close, Jefferson is complete garbage and I can't believe they haven't moved him by now.
In fact I'd say he's the main reason they haven't gone further with the squad.

Lets not forget we don't have Jeff Green this season which is a huge blow for us.

 Have you watched the Spurs play?

good stuff. yeah pretty sure that analysis was based on Celtics reputation. the Spurs were pretty inspired last year 2. Id take Duncan over KG and throw in JO) Trust me I get it isn't happening. Duncans type of play is what we need...even if it were for just the next 3 months.

Duncan, Bass, PP, Ray, Rondo

Bench: Wilcox, JJ, Steimsma, Pietrus, Bradley.

imho that team would actually have a real punchers chance.

Pardon me for dreaming, I do know we are just waiting this all out until summer

[Moranis]

Duncan, Manu, Jefferson, and Parker are better than Pierce, Rondo, Garnett, and Allen.

Disagree with this one.
The match ups are pretty much even, with KG having a slight edge over Duncan at this point in their careers.Manu and Pierce are both great.
Rondo and Parker are about even, Parker has hit a hot streak as of late, but he's been average for them the past few years.
Ray>Jefferson and it's not close, Jefferson is complete garbage and I can't believe they haven't moved him by now.
In fact I'd say he's the main reason they haven't gone further with the squad.

Lets not forget we don't have Jeff Green this season which is a huge blow for us.

 Have you watched the Spurs play?

or the Celtics for that matter.  The Spurs have better players, that is why they are winning and the Celtics are losing.  It really is that simple.

[OsirusCeltics]

They have a scoring point guard

[manl_lui]

a reliable bench

[Inside-Out]

Parker is a bigger offensive threat than Rondo, and Duncan is still servicable in the paint.  Those two advantages for the Spurs are also the two weaknesses that are killing us.

I think Ray/Paul vs. Jefferson/Ginobili is probably close enough to be, on average, either close enough of a wash to not make a difference, OR, perhaps the Spurs get better penetration (due to Ray essentially getting no penetration at all), which can perhaps also make for a more functional offense, but this isn't likely the cause of the huge difference in performance between the teams.

Our bench has been inconsistent, partly because our bench as spot-started so often.  I think they've had more consistent production from their bench players, whoever they happened to be on any given night.

But my money is on the Parker/Duncan advantage, in terms of what skills they each have, or have left, as the case may be.

[ayer]

Parker is a bigger offensive threat than Rondo, and Duncan is still servicable in the paint.  Those two advantages for the Spurs are also the two weaknesses that are killing us.

I think Ray/Paul vs. Jefferson/Ginobili is probably close enough to be, on average, either close enough of a wash to not make a difference, OR, perhaps the Spurs get better penetration (due to Ray essentially getting no penetration at all), which can perhaps also make for a more functional offense, but this isn't likely the cause of the huge difference in performance between the teams.

Our bench has been inconsistent, partly because our bench as spot-started so often.  I think they've had more consistent production from their bench players, whoever they happened to be on any given night.

But my money is on the Parker/Duncan advantage, in terms of what skills they each have, or have left, as the case may be.

De juan Blair!!!!

[PosImpos]

Parker > Rondo (at least on a night-to-night basis)
Manu > Ray
Jefferson < Pierce
Duncan > KG
Blair < Bass
Splitter > JO
Neal > Dooling / Bradley / Moore
Leonard > Pietrus
Bonner ~ Wilcox
Green > Marquis
Anderson ~ Pavlovic


Yeah.  The Spurs have a better roster by a good margin, up and down.


The Spurs also have a really good offense, which helps them in the regular season.  The Celtics have a terrible offense, which means they have to bring a ton of effort each and every night on defense in order to compete.  The Spurs can make a lot of mistakes and still win by having a hot shooting night.

It helps that the Spurs have a number of good rebounders to complement their outside shooters.  A solid, fundamental, well-built inside-out team.

[cman88]

They have a scoring point guard

but, I thought when rondo scores it disrupts the offense

[greensquirrel]

Pop gets the best of his roster. Spurs have 10 players averaging 20 or more mpg, this why he has a reliable and consistent bench. He's also not afraid to pull out of the game whoever is underperfoming and adjust on the fly, so the Spurs are really good at comebacks.
They are currently 2nd in the west while missing Ginobili for 20 or so games. Last year they looked unstoppable until they were hit by injuries near the end of regular season.
If they are healthy in the playoffs, they're definitely contenders.