Category: In the News

Do the Spurs really have only the NBA’s 16th most talented roster?

The Spurs streaked to a 61-21 record during the regular season, ranking only a game behind Chicago for the league’s best record before they were upset by Memphis in the first round of the playoffs.

But if we are to believe CBS Sports.com blogger Ben Golliver, Gregg Popovich might have done it with mirrors last season.

Golliver has ranked every NBA team in terms of its roster composition.  Included with each team are its key assets (stars, emerging rookies, players with reasonable contracts), its key anchors (bad contracts, mismatched roster pieces, aging stars owed more money than they are worth) and roster questions (free agency decisions, roster construction questions). 

Golliver makes the supposition that  if a new NBA owner in an undisclosed location was granted the ability to poach an entire roster from a current team — taking with it all of the players and their contracts, but not coaches and management types — which one would be the most attractive? And what would the list look like?

Here’s what he has to say after ranking the Spurs as 16th among the 30 NBA franchises.

“16. San Antonio Spurs

“Assets: Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Tiago Splitter, DeJuan Blair, Kawhi Leonard

“Anchors: Richard Jefferson

“Questions: Age

“Analysis: Like the Celtics, the Spurs are about to enter a new franchise era. They’ve hedged against losing Duncan to some degree and have a solid crop of younger talent, although there’s not a star in the bunch. Parker was recently locked in to a fairly reasonable extension and will become the face — and motor — of the franchise, with Ginobili doing what he does best for the next few years. The 2011 playoffs felt like a slamming of the championship window, though. The best days are in the rearview mirror.”   

NBA champion Dallas is ranked  as only the league’s eighth best  roster.  And among playoff teams, only Boston (17th), Denver (22nd), New Orleans (24th) and Orlando (29th) ranked lower among playoff teams in Golliver’s roster rankings.

Golliver ranks the Los Angeles Clippers’ roster above the Lakers. And he has Miami ranks as his No. 1 pick.

This obviously underscores the high regard that the basketball acumen of Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford is regarded around the league.

But doesn’t it still devalue what the Spurs were able to accomplish for most of the last season, and also what the team has with young players like Leonard, Gary Neal, Blair and Splitter for the post-Duncan era?        

What about it Spurs Nation?

Is Golliver dissing your team?

Timberwolves down to final two in coaching search

Minnesota general manager David Kahn is nearing the completion of his head coaching search.  

After considering replacements for Kurt Rambis for several weeks, the Timberwolves are down to the final two interviews with Sam Mitchell and Larry Brown.

Mitchell, who played two stints with the Timberwolves and was a Coach of the Year for Toronto in 2007, , the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports.

Brown is set to meet with the Minnesota braintrust early next week.

Kahn and Taylor already have interviewed Terry Porter, Mike Woodson, Bernie Bickerstaff and Don Nelson. And former Houston coach Rick Adelman discussed the position with them, but didn’t formally interview and said earlier this week he plans to sit out from coaching this season.

With no end of the lockout in sight, there’s no real immediacy for the Timberwolves to make an immediate pick.

But it would still behoove them to pick their new coach as soon as possible, considering the magnitude of the rebuilding job at hand.

Just the thought of trying to teach Ricky Rubio NBA-level defensive principles should be enough to make whoever is hired want to jump into the job as quickly as possible.

Bosh’s expanded back tattoos are … really something

Observant NBA fans have noticed that Chris Bosh’s back tattoo was pretty involved during the playoffs last season.

The Miami forward is taking advantage of the respite provided by the NBA lockout to add a few more elements to the storyboard that is his torso.

Now, Bosh’s tattoo incorporates a tree, an eagle, an animal that appears to be either a tiger or cougar, musical notes, a Zeus-like figure, a woman holding a skull and the Roman Colosseum. The blogs and report it took about 40 hours to finish this amalgamation. 

The work apparently was so involved and time consuming that Bosh brought 10 videos from home to watch while the work was taking place.

And apparently, there will be additional elements added to Bosh’s work over the next few weeks.

We can only imagine what will be next.