I think when you keep your main rotation around for a dynasty....you've built a championship contender without losing your identity or core. The Spurs have done very, very well with player acquisitions but kept the meat and potato core around longer than any other team in the league. Every team makes trades or uses the draft but how many have kept a championship trio together...they are the anti Rockets. If you watch the Spurs without Duncan..when you are as successful as they have been...the top free agents will want to go there. Lamarcus did that. I watched him miss about 7 midrange jumpers in a game the other night and Leonard bailed them out with a buzzer beater to win by 2.....Lamarcus isn't exactly having a career year and Pops is making him play in the post more.
well, we define things differently but it's a senseless argument in the end. My metaphors don't match yours
We don't have a third star player. We don't have a player of Duncan's caliber. And we don't have a top 3 coach of all time. So we definitely need more talent
Nobody thought Draymond Green would emerge as a third star player but .....he did. Stranger things have happened. I'd counter that we may just have future stars on this team given the youth we've acquired. If we think we could contend this year....we'd probably sign a marquis player now but I don't think this season is going to see that until free agency starts off season
So it's a good idea to wait to see what you have, which could diminish players values If. They suck, and not turn them into a young all star caliber player if possible in order to bake the cake?
If we have dame on a max deal, plumlee on an expensive deal, crabbe on an expensive deal, and Cj on a max deal, we won't have any room to put any icing on the cake.
They drafted all 3 of those guys remember? Parker and Ginobili were a late 1st and a 2nd rounder. Leonard was a draft day trade. Positioning various players around them = baking cake.
The spurs had a core few players. But they always looked to bring in guys to complement the system and didn't shy away from upgrading. George hill for kawhi Leonard. Signing lma. Duncan is a once in a lifetime player. Pops is a once in a lifetime coach. We don't have a Duncan or pops on our team to build around. So I have little faith the group of guys we have now are going to lead us to the promised land. But by all means. I'd love to be wrong on that.
One thing I know and this season proves it to a point....the coaching staff and front office know what they have on our roster...I sure didn't peg CJ to emerge 3 years into his career...first 2 years injured a lot...Olshey saw CJ as an emerging star..I honestly didn't see that and would have traded him right after the Memphis series ....man was I wrong...that next guy could be Vonleh or Harkless or even Montero...what players always talk about is what they see in practice that fans don't see from bench players.
I don't know how you could not see us as having a Duncan to build around...Damian Lillard is exactly that
No. Lillard is awesome. Duncan is a top 5 player of all time. As good as lillard is, he won't come close to that.
buzzkill....you have no way of knowing what Dame's career will look like when he's just under 40 as Duncan is now...he's already done things in his short career that only Oscar Robertson and Isiah Thomas achieved. I've seen Duncan choke against the Lakers in a playoff series when he was young as well...too small a sample size to assume Dame will not achieve greatness
He didn't have most of those things after 3 years in the league though...you're comparing a guy with decades of experience over a guy who's got decades ahead of him....when Dame is 40....get back to me. Until then...I don't use the word never when it comes to Damian Lillard.
