The Spurs bench is their undoing
Months before the Allen Iverson trade, Pistons’ president Joe Dumars promised big changes in Detroit. So while we spent the summer sifting through trade rumors involving Tayshaun, ‘Sheed, Chauncey and everyone else who’d been a part of the Pistons’ run of Eastern Conference (almost) dominance, no one was paying much attention to what was happening — or what wasn’t happening — with the most consistently excellent franchise in the other conference: the Spurs.
As the Pistons’ early efforts at improving for today and for the future were (aside from a coaching change) mostly focused on its bench and its role players — i.e. carving out more playing time for Rodney Stuckey and Amir Johnson and re-signing Jason Maxiell — the Spurs, at least on paper, followed suit. The Western Conference Finals loss to the Lakers exposed a team that was simply too old, and not in regards to Duncan (32), Tony Parker (26) and Manu Ginobili (31). If the Spurs hoped to contend in 2009 and beyond, they had to bring youth and energy to its corps of role players.
San Antonio kept 36-year-old Kurt Thomas, 37-year-old Bruce Bowen and 35-year-old Michael Finley — all defensible moves — and let Robert Horry, Damon Stoudamire and Brent Barry walk. To replace them, the team signed Roger Mason (28), drafted George Hill (22), and seemed ready to let highly talked-about prospect Ian Mahinmi (22) loose on the court.
But in their 0-3 season-opening start, the Spurs have shown that while they did get younger this offseason, they also got worse. Mason has been OK, and Hill has had his moments, but the rest of the bunch has potential to sink a team that is looking like less of a legit championship contender every day.
Matt Bonner stinks. He’s like that terrible fifth guy you have to pick up on the playground when no one else is available or because he’s the boss of one of your boys. You can tell the rest of the team is frustrated with him, but it’s almost not even his fault because he doesn’t know how to play basketball, so you basically have to talk him through everything and constantly encourage him so at least he’s not totally useless to your squad. One time during last night’s loss to Dallas, Bonner ran a play correctly and assisted TD for an easy dunk — a play that Spurs color analyst Sean Elliot said Bonner had botched about 10 times in last week’s Phoenix game — and Duncan stopped just short of giving him a gold star and a cookie. And this is a guy who’s logging 20 minutes a night and playing in critical moments.
Ime Udoka, the apparent successor to Bowen, is a solid defender, but offensively he’s almost a liability. He gives you more than Bowen off the dribble, but he’s nowhere close to automatic on that all-important corner three that’s a staple in Gregg Popovich’s system, and he’s good for a few air-balls per month on his two-pointers. Yesterday Udoka took a 15-foot J that traveled 12 feet; lucky for him, the refs bailed him out by calling a foul on Josh Howard.
Thomas, Bowen and Fabricio Oberto also haven’t made an impact. Finley was good in last Friday’s Portland game, but otherwise has been quiet.
Mahinmi is still an untested project. The Spurs announcers openly admitted last night that he’s an “off-the-bus” player right now — as in someone who, even if they’re no good, you want the other team to see getting off the bus because they look like a beast.
Granted, the three losses have been against playoff-caliber teams, and two of them have been very close. And granted, this wouldn’t be as glaring an issue if Ginobili was on the court and not rehabbing from ankle surgery. But with so little margin for error in what will undoubtedly be another down-to-the-wire playoff race, the Spurs can’t afford to drop too many games. As Duncan and Parker try to do it all, their role players are busy putting them squarely behind the 8-ball before Manu even gets a chance to play savior.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Spliff 2 My Lou says:
I thought DIME had the Spurs a little high on the power rankings. Your record should be indicative of your power ranking not your talent on paper.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:17 am
dagwaller says:
This article should be titled, “THE REST OF THE SPURS AFTER THEIR THREE BEST PLAYERS IS THEIR UNDOING”.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:30 am
YOUNGFED says:
Spurs are done.
November 5th, 2008 at 11:32 am
that's whats up says:
Spurs are done…..screwing around.
They’ll be back and strong, probably leading the West before the year is out
November 5th, 2008 at 11:34 am
jz_smoove says:
dont count out the Spurs, haterrrsssssssss
November 5th, 2008 at 11:44 am
it aint easy being green says:
i never want to count the spurs out, but this year, i just dont see it.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Prof. TX says:
The Spurs have to be a little worried. We’ve seen other teams (Detroit, Shaq’s Miami, etc) feel like they could just turn it back on and win whenever it really counts, but that doesn’t always work. One day you wake up and find out that your team is a little older and doesn’t know where that magic switch is anymore.
I’m not saying that the Spurs can’t do well in the playoffs, but they might be looking at a lower seed which means facing a team with a great record and not having home court. The Lakers will probably win their divsion, Utah will probably get theirs, which means the Spurs have to finish ahead of New Orleans and/or Houston in order to claim one of those remaining upper seeds and draw a weaker opponent since the 4-seed is probably coming from the Southwest. Not impossible, but not easy.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Celts Fan says:
trading Luis Scola for nothing will come back to haunt them…
November 5th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
rangerjohn says:
man dime you guys are making to much of 3 games.
“Thomas, Bowen and Fabricio Oberto also haven’t made an impact”
thomas and bowen are also not logging the minutes, ?resting up? and oberto has played in part of 1 game so his effectiveness is yet to be determined. 14 minutes so far.
mahinmi hasnt seen a day of playing time so we really dont know.
udoka can go, i dont think he even plays good defense really. vaughn needs to go (and will after this season)
and “Hill has had his moments?” he has played in one game. he has 15 minutes all season.
roger mason is shooting very well, finley hasnt started a season on a good note in what 3-4 yrs?
spurs will be fine, they start slow almost every year, they are managing the old guys minutes, and just waiting on manu. i expect manu will sit till january unless they continue to slack.
give it time.
hell maybe they need to pursue mcdyce when he gets bought out?
celts fan, i agree trading scola was not a great move, but i dont think he could fit any better then oberto really. he cant play center at all, so he would end up being a 15 minute guy at best. as was the case last year, scola is completely ineffective with those limited minutes. he would have ended up being a high priced back up and the spurs decided to go with the money factor in hopes of signing a big name after next season.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Ross says:
Once Manu returns, they will begin to play better. The Spurs historically suck at the beginning of each season, and don’t heat up until after the All-Star break (which happens to be when Manu will be back).
Its too early to count them out, like that stupid rapper that’s already calling Oden a bust.
November 5th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Ian says:
manu 100% or let him sit the whole season and be inthe lottery
November 5th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
dagwaller says:
Ha, Ian, they should rest Manu and their star big man all season, win the lottery, and get Tim Duncan. Oh wait…
November 6th, 2008 at 11:56 am
baron von faulk says:
Spurs started last season HOT actually