Five of the eight retired jerseys. Only missing James Silas, Johnny Moore and Avery Johnson.

Yup, double standard for sure. Spurs win and you get a lot of "Warriors aren't that bad and Spurs aren't that good talk."

Warriors win and the media is already talking about 73 wins.

I think that game said a little more than the media thinks. The way that loss occurred was alarming. Sure Simmons won't score 20 next time, but how is Golden State going to handle a deep bench when they barely have one? How are they going to defend legit big men when they've only got Green, Zaza, West, and Varajao's corpse? How are they going to playchampionship defense when they've lost so much on that side?

Yea they haven't gelled, but I don't see the pieces on the roster to REALLY address those issues even after they do.

i think they can counter the bench problem by staggering their big 4. I expect one to start coming off the bench at some point this year (Thompson seems most likely).

The rebounding problem is real though and I don't know how they fix it.

Kawhi is on.

Looks like he's going to get a lot more respect from the officials this year, they are generally calling the fouls in the first two games.

Dedmon is balling. 3 blocks, a couple offensive boards, and some nice scores around the basket.

DMC is locking up LMA on D

Parker has looked terrible through 1.5 games so far.

Kawhi just reached in and took the ball away from the same player on the same spot on the court on consecutive possessions.

2008and1 said:

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"You look like a burnt earthworm with glasses" - Tim Duncan text to Sean Elliot during the game

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He's not wrong.

Tim Duncan - Coach of Delivering Sick Burns

Just another 30 point game from Kawhi to along with 5 assists and 5 steals

2-0

That one looked ugly in the beginning. The Kings were hot and the Spurs were not. It looked at one point like Kawhi was trying to do too much. But he and the bench came through again in a big way. The Spurs bench is going to be the difference in many games this year. As much as I liked Boris and West off the bench last year, Lee and Dedmon look like a force right now. Last night they combined for 24 pts, 12 rebounds and 5 blocks.

Yeah, West was dead weight for us most of last year. So far so good with the new guys.

The problem is Tony and Gasol look like dead weight.

Hopefully Gasol gets better as the season goes on, but he is non-existent on D.

Tony has no lift on his shot. It's concerning for him to look so tired games 1 & 2.

What's the latest on Murray? Is he expected to be the 3rd PG this year and be a normal rotation player or not. I thought the early buzz on him was really good, so I kind of expected to see him on the court. I know it's early season and he is a rookie, so just curious. Definitely could use some PG help, although I think Mills will have a great year after his Olympics performance.

2008and1 said:

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The problem is Tony and Gasol look like dead weight.

Hopefully Gasol gets better as the season goes on, but he is non-existent on D.

Tony has no lift on his shot. It's concerning for him to look so tired games 1 & 2.

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I don't think we need Tony to score much. He does a good job running the offense and playing defense. Him splitting time with Patty seems about right.

Quote:

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What's the latest on Murray?

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Right now Murray doesn't appear to be in the top 12 of the rotation. It looks like the Spurs are favoring Laprovittola as he might be more NBA ready, body and playing experience-wise. And as long as Mills and Parker stay healthy, they'll split the 48 mins for the season. I'm really high on Murray, but he does need to bulk up a bit. And if he has to spend most of his time with the Austin team to improve his development, I'm all for it. What's crazy is that the Spurs are playing without Green right now. So when he comes back it's going to take away even more minutes from the rest of the guys that are playing so well. Looks like Anderson might be the odd man out there based on these two games. I also want to see Bertans play some meaningful minutes, too, just to see what he can do against the top guys.

Thanks. I figured he may be Austin bound. Its early, but the Spurs may be a bit higher in the pecking order and have a clearer path than even they thought. The warriors are great, but not as deep and much smaller than last year and OKC has obviously taken a huge step back. Clips actually seem like the worst matchup but we can match their size now. Spurs legitimately have championship potential, I would say more so than the last two years based on the rest of the west. Have to stay healthy get decent PG play and Kawhi will need to be the league MVP or very close, which he looks like he has a great chance at. Should be a fun year. I'm really liking Dedmon and Lee as bench bigs thus far.

What I think makes this team different than last year's is their ability to play against any style. They proved they can keep up with the Warriors. And with the bigs we have this year, I think we could hand it to the Clippers.

Right now, TD >>>>>>Gasol.

Pau only got 18 minutes of action against GS. Part of that is because of the blowout and some because of the difficulty of keeping slow bigs in the game against a small ball team like Oakland. Remember in March the home game against GS when Duncan played only about 12 minutes in a very good home win. These two games are hard to gauge how effective he will be because last night Sacramento had some great size to match up against the SA bigs. Saturday's game against New Orleans might be a better way for us to see where he is currently as we catch the Pels on the second night of a back to back. LMA will have his hands full with AD but Pau matching against Asik/ Ajinca. Id like to see us go to Pau early to get him going.

Pau has been fine. He hasn't been super aggressive offensively but that will come. He's a very good shooter and passer and his length will come in handy on defense in most games. Pop isn't afraid to use situational lineups and Pau is mature enough to accept that.

Couple thoughts that stick out to me 2 games in:

Kawhi has been our best player for a few seasons but he has developed a killer instinct similar to what Kobe had. He's attacking. I think he's also perfect from the stripe. 29/29 or something like that.

Simmons has been best surprise for me thus far. I wanted his role to expand but it looks like Pop can really trust him with real minutes.

We miss Danny Green. Teams don't respect Parker or Andersons three and it's for sure hurting the spacing and defense stretching we love.

Dedmon signing has been a success. He's the reason we won against Sacramento. We finally have a long athletic big to use. He's not spectacular, but he's sufficient.

IMO the biggest take away from the first two games of the season is the reemergence of our bench being a dominating force. While our bench was really good the last couple years, there was significant drop off from the two teams that went to the finals. I feel like our bench can come in and pull away from people again because of all the options we can throw at other teams backups.

Agree. It's definitely early but the Spurs appear to have the deepest bench in the league by a good margin. Mills, Manu, Simmons, Lee and K. Anderson are all legitimate scoring threats on a good night. Dedmon provides good defense and rebounding and the athleticism overall has improved. If Simmons is somewhat consistent then Spurs are especially going to be deep. Not a bad defensive roster for the 2nd team either, and plenty of guys that can slide in with the starters for rest or minor injuries occasionally without much drop-off.

We need to hope that Dedmon and Lee can be effective. Gasol/LMA/Dedmon/Lee isn't really the post we are used to.

I'm especially worried about how well they will guard perimeter forwards like Blake Griffin and OKC's group.

Well it's not like we have been good at that the last couple years with those two teams. I do think the Clips may be our worst matchup on paper.

Dedmon might prove to be solid in that role. The rest will almost definitely struggle. Hopefully, we can simply outscore those teams with depth and good offense and perimeter defense even if they torch us inside a bit.

Great point about the bench. Lee has done OK from what I have seen. Pop will get the most out of his out of prime skill set and he will play within his role.