San Antonio Spurs: The "Old Guys" Show They Have Gas Left In The Tank
The San Antonio Spurs have been in the playoffs every single season since 1997.
They are one of the best and most consistent teams in the league, making the playoffs 13 straight years, which happens to be the longest streak in the league today. In those 13 seasons, San Antonio has won four NBA titles and established themselves as one of the best teams in the league.
Good enough to make the playoffs, but not good enough to win another NBA title, the critics say.
They are too old and don't have the stars or firepower to compete with the rising teams of the league, this according to basketball experts. The Spurs aren't better than the Nuggets, or the Lakers, or the Hornets, or Mavericks or the Thunder, and if the Trailblazers could stay healthy, most experts would argue that the Spurs aren't better than the Blazers either.
This hasn't been the argument just for this season, but ever since they last won an NBA title in 2007. They've been knocked out of the playoffs badly the last three seasons by the Lakers in 2008 (4-1) , Mavericks in 2009 (4-1) and were swept by the Suns last season in the second round of the playoffs.
Last year was the first time anybody has ever seen the San Antonio Spurs truly demoralized in the playoffs. They looked slow, old and over matched against the quicker, younger, more psychically and better-shooting Suns.
So this year, the Spurs and coach Gregg Popovich once again, loaded up. They brought up their highly touted rookie center Tiago Splitter to help Duncan, and added offensive firepower, re-signing Richard Jefferson and finding a hidden gem in Gary Neal, who spent the last three seasons playing basketball overseas.
On Thursday night before a national TV audience, the "old" Spurs beat the defending champs on their home court on a last-second tip-in by Antonio McDyess, who just happens to be the oldest player on the Spurs team.
At 41-8, the Spurs own the best record in the league by a full four games and are off to the best start in franchise history.
The Spurs, which have become known around the league as the veteran team you have to beat in order to get a good measure of how good your team is, have turned away from their tough inside game to becoming more of an outside shooting team.
The Spurs are currently sixth in the league in field goal percentage and third in three-point shooting. Last season the Spurs ranked No. 15 in points per game, this season, they are ranked sixth.
Their bench has been one of the best and deepest in the leagues. George Hill has been solid pouring in nearly 11 points a game in under 27 minutes. Gary Neal is averaging 8.5 points a game in just under 19 minutes and Matt Bonner is hitting 50 percent of his three-pointers and in 22 minutes is averaging just under eight points a game.
The Spurs are getting the kind of production off the bench they were used to getting during their title runs, and seeing what this Spurs team is doing right now, they have to once again be considered legit title contenders, but instead, NBA experts weren't talking about the Spurs' last-second come-from-behind win last night, but rather, that the Los Angeles Lakers have lost more home games this season than they did the last two seasons.
The Spurs aren't title contenders, they are a good team right now, but the Lakers will be in the Finals again—that's the idea right now. It's not my idea, it's the league's idea. The Spurs are going to lose in the playoffs at some point because they are old. That's not my mind set, that's the league's mindset. The Miami Heat, not the San Antonio Spurs, are going to become the next great NBA dynasty, that's not my thinking, that's the league's thinking.
Right now however, the San Antonio Spurs are the league's best team. They are a wily, veteran team who has been there and done that. They don't have any hype, any major superstars, and hardly if ever are featured in the top highlights of the sports shows, yet this Spurs team at the end of it all, may be the best team San Antonio has ever had, and those aren't the league's thoughts, those are mine.
