Game Day: Suns (9-22) @ Spurs (25-6), Wed 12/28/16

[Superbone]

Time: 6:30 pm AZ (5:30 pm PT / 8:30 pm ET)
Place: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
TV: FSAZ/NBALP

These guys are pretty good. We might learn something.

Go Suns!!!

Dis • cuss

[carey]

Well, the Snus are in full effect lately. I hope we see a little Ulis action and a full 30 minutes for Dragan Bender.

[TOO]

If we lose by less than 15, its a success.

[Ring_Wanted]

Well, the Snus are in full effect lately. I hope we see a little Ulis action and a full 30 minutes for Dragan Bender.

Go Snus!!

(I love it Carey)

[O_Gardino]

I hate losing to these guys. I really do, but you've got to respect that Pop has taken them out of the Robinson era, all the way through the Duncan era, and now into the Leonard era while never finishing with a win percentage worse than .610, and never finishing lower than 2nd in the division. 4 times, they have lost in the first round of the playoffs, 5 times they won it all. Not bad for 2 decades of work.

This will be Pop's 20th full season as head coach. We used to talk about him as a disciplinarian and X's and O's coach. At this point, we have to recognize that he is the best player development coach in the business, and has built the best front office in the business.

[carey]

I hate losing to these guys. I really do, but you've got to respect that Pop has taken them out of the Robinson era, all the way through the Duncan era, and now into the Leonard era while never finishing with a win percentage worse than .610, and never finishing lower than 2nd in the division. 4 times, they have lost in the first round of the playoffs, 5 times they won it all. Not bad for 2 decades of work.

This will be Pop's 20th full season as head coach. We used to talk about him as a disciplinarian and X's and O's coach. At this point, we have to recognize that he is the best player development coach in the business, and has built the best front office in the business.

All true. When players sign there they know they are going to play in a certain culture. It must be nice.

[Mori Chu]

That Spurs franchise is everything we have always wanted to be. We had a roster as talented as any in the mid-2000s, but we didn't have the front office, GM, coach, owner, etc. to turn that into a sustained winning culture. The Spurs are exemplary in this regard, especially as a small-market team that can't draw players to play in an exciting city.

[The Bobster]

And yet Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash are not David Robinson and Tim Duncan.

It all started with San Antonio winning the lottery in the right years (1987 and 1997), and ending up with two stars who impacted the game on both ends of the court. Now it appears they've found another one in Leonard who impacts the game on both ends of the court.

Robinson and Duncan were both willing to sacrifice as they grew older and accept lesser roles as they aged, allowing for smooth transition to younger players.

As an origination the Spurs have found players like Elliott, Parker, Ginobili and Aldridge who were willing to fit into a system, they maintained continuity and they managed to avoid bad citizens.

The spurs have done all of this in a relatively small market by building through the draft for the most part. Of course having Popovich, Duncan, Parker and Ginobili together for 14 years (2002-16) was unprecedented and central to their success. The also had the luxury of a dominant big man for 27 years (1989-16).

The Suns just haven't gotten players as good or kept the players they had together for nearly as long. The Spurs' biggest concern was keeping good complimentary players around their stars and having an environment that kept their star players happy and willing to stay in San Antonio rather than leave for big markets like New York or Los Angeles.

[Nodack]

Obviously Pop knows what he is doing. It just makes me feel worse about the Snus.

[Mori Chu]

Let us not forget that we could have drafted Kawhi Leonard, but in our infinite wisdom we chose to pick Markieff Morris two picks ahead of Kawhi instead.

[O_Gardino]

That Spurs franchise is everything we have always wanted to be...

Except popular.

[The Bobster]

What if the Suns had gotten the 1st pick in 1987 (Robinson) instead of the 2nd pick (Gilliam) and then teamed him with Kevin Johnson, Jeff Hornacek, Dan Majerle, Eddie Johnson and Tom Chambers?

[Superbone]

What if the Suns had gotten the 1st pick in 1987 (Robinson) instead of the 2nd pick (Gilliam) and then teamed him with Kevin Johnson, Jeff Hornacek, Dan Majerle, Eddie Johnson and Tom Chambers?

Our first championship for sure.

[Danimal]

i'll be watching this one. Interested to see how the rotations turn out after last game.
Curious what we do with knight tonight with all the trade rumours swirling. The thing is playing knight a lot of minutes can just as easily harm his trade value.

[EDC]

Those flashes from Chriss can be pretty awesome. The finesse on the drive into the spin move followed by just bullying Aldridge out of the way for an easy two. Pretty impressive.

[Danimal]

Nice move by chriss

[EDC]

PJ LEBRON!

[Danimal]

Shaqtin

[Danimal]

Watson pulled some starters early. Chris's still out there

[EDC]

The proud tradition of our guards throwing the ball at the ankles of our 7 footers continues. Oh and Knight passing the ball with 3 seconds left on the shot clock.