Tag: R.C. Buford

ESPN.com predicts challenging future for Spurs

The state of Texas has accounted for seven NBA titles since 1994, with the Spurs claiming four, Houston two and Dallas notching the most recent championship. 

The “Texas Triangle” has traditional been a source of power teams. It might not be quite as rosy in the future.

Chris Palmer of ESPN.com has an interesting breakdown of all three teams in a recent Insider post. Of them, San Antonio might be facing the biggest test to return to elite status.

Here’s what Palmer had to say about the Spurs’ current outlook:

The Spurs’ 61-win regular season had head coach Gregg Popovich’s name in the Coach of the Year conversation all season long. As surprising as their Western Conference-best win total was, the manner in which they were bounced from the playoffs was even more stunning and exposed serious flaws in the Spurs’ game plan. They simply matched up poorly with an upstart Memphis Grizzlies team that became just the second No. 8 seed to topple a No. 1 seed since the NBA expanded the first round to best-of-seven. While age and injuries are probably their biggest concerns, Tim Duncan (34 years old), Manu Ginobili (33) and Tony Parker (28) missed only a combined 12 games last season. But there are a handful of other players on the roster over 30 who simply can’t match the speed or intensity of young teams such as the Grizzlies and Thunder. The Spurs were still highly effective on defense last season, but there’s no getting around the fact that this bunch is nearing the end of its run and is about to enter a major rebuilding phase.”

Here’s what Palmer had to say about the Spurs’ leadership with R.C. Buford and Popovich running the franchise.

“You don’t win four championships without an unseen mastermind behind the scenes. R.C. Buford, arguably the best GM in the NBA, has been the architect of the past three Spurs title runs and one of the most successful executives in American pro sports. The master of the Euro draft-and-stash, he convinced Popovich to go for Parker (three All-Star appearances, 2007 Finals MVP), had a hand in snagging Ginobili 57th overall in 1999 and has seen his gamble on DeJuan Blair pay off. ”He’s proved he can build and maintain a dynasty. Now he’s got to prove he can rebuild one. Buford won’t likely have the good fortune of rebuilding around an all-time great at his position as the Spurs did in 1997, when Duncan became the cornerstone of their brilliant 15-year run. Those rebuilding efforts also might include finding a new coach, as it’s hard to imagine Popovich, owner of four championship rings, slogging through the basement of the Southwest Division while Buford mines distant lands for the next Ginobili.

 ”But even dicier for Buford is what to do with soon-to-be free agent Duncan. Buford must balance the needs of the team with showing the utmost respect for a Spurs legend who made the success of the past 15 years possible.”

And here’s are Palmer’s comments on the team’s key needs heading into the upcoming season.

“Of all the Texas teams, the Spurs have the most work to do at the bargaining table since their key needs likely won’t come through the draft lottery. San Antonio needs an injection of youth, and needs it fast. The Spurs are in desperate need of athletes who can keep up with the speedy teams and sustain an up-tempo brand of basketball over long stretches of minutes. This could be the year the Spurs really start acting their age. During the playoffs, the Spurs simply couldn’t keep up with the spry legs and speed of the Grizzlies. Teams saw that and will surely try to exploit it. What was an ugly exit from the postseason could turn into an ugly demise of San Antonio’s “Big Three.”

It’s a dire prognosis for a team that has made the playoffs every year during Duncan’s tenure with the team and claimed  four NBA titles.

What about it Spurs Nation? Do you think the upcoming future appears to be as bleak as Palmer predicts?

And if not, why do you have faith the Spurs still have another title challenge left  in them?

 

 

 

Trainer playing to the Spurs’ strengths

Twelve years before he would return to the San Antonio area to become the Spurs’ new strength and conditioning coach, Matt Herring was a middle school teacher in Schertz.

In terms of propensity for cutting up, some of the students in Herring’s world history class probably could give notorious prankster Tim Duncan a run for his money.

“It’s a little different now, although some of the athletes we’ve come across acted like eighth-graders,” Herring said with a smile. “It’s easier to handle them in eighth grade, because they’ve got little kid bodies.”

Hired earlier this month away from the University of Florida, where he was part of two national championship teams under coach Billy Donovan, Herring would like nothing more than to have some NBA bodies present.

With the league’s lockout still in full effect, players have been barred from the team’s training facilities and from contact with club personnel, so Herring is a strength and conditioning coach with nobody to strengthen and condition.

A 40-year-old Austin native who started his first NBA job just after Labor Day, Herring has spent most of September getting the lay of the land, brainstorming with Spurs coaches and other staffers and reacquainting himself with Texas barbecue.

So far, the bored strength coach in him has resisted the urge to force Gregg Popovich to run suicide sprints up the hill behind the team’s practice facility in triple-digit heat.

“It’s actually been very peaceful,” Herring said. “It’s sure nice to be able to come in and get organized now, before everything starts.”

Make no mistake. Once everything starts, the task of replacing the retired Mike Brungardt — the only strength coach in franchise history — is sure to be a daunting one.

Brungardt, who began working with the Spurs full-time in 1994, is largely credited with building the team’s strength program, which includes conditioning and injury rehabilitation protocols, from the ground up. Brungardt earned four championship rings with the Spurs and, according to general manager R.C. Buford, earned each one.

“Mike Brungardt set a standard that produced outstanding results,” Buford said. “Our guys worked and enjoyed their work and were diligent with it. They were well-instructed and well-monitored, and that’s not easily replaceable.”

In a way, Herring is to Brungardt as the Spurs’ next starting power forward is to Duncan. Intimidating? Sure.

“You’d almost rather the person before you got booted out,” Herring said, with a laugh.

Yet there is also an upside to following a legend. After watching Brungardt operate for 15 years, nobody in the organization is likely to question the value of a good strength coach. That includes the players, who can sometimes bristle at the dirty work they’re asked to do in the weight room.

“‘Brungy’ made this one of the premier jobs in the league because of the culture he developed,” Herring said.

In Herring, the Spurs believe they’ve found a suitable torch-carrier for that culture. He and Brungardt share a bond, and a fondness for Mexican food, dating to 2003.

Having given up his gig as a middle school teacher and coach four years earlier for graduate school at the University of Texas, Herring had just begun his new life as the strength and conditioning coach at Oklahoma State and was looking for guidance.

A mutual friend slipped him Brungardt’s number.

One day that summer, not long after the Spurs had finished celebrating their second championship, Herring spent a weekend with Brungardt in San Antonio.

“He opened up his whole facility, philosophy and home to me,” Herring said.

The two kept in touch throughout the years. When Herring was up for the Spurs job this summer, Brungardt was one of the first people he called.

“There are things that are time-tested, and a lot of those elements are things Brungy and I share,” Herring said. “That’s what’s going to make the transition moderately easy, because it’s not going to be that different.”

Herring has come a long way from his days teaching eighth-graders in Schertz. His students’ bodies are bigger, and so are the stakes.

Heady stuff for a former world history teacher, who believes he is up for the challenge of a lifetime.

“I’ve never tried to look forward, dreaming big,” Herring said. “It’s always been a journey for me, and whatever life brings me is what I’m excited about.”

Matt Herring, a 40-year-old Austin native taking his first NBA coaching job, was the strength coach for two national championship basketball teams at the University of Florida. (Edward A. Ornelas/eaornelas@express-news.net)

Newman to remain on Spurs bench

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

Spurs assistant coach Don Newman removed his name from consideration for a position as defensive coordinator for the Phoenix Suns and will remain on Gregg Popovich’s coaching staff.

Saying he was pleased that Newman would continue his tenure with the club, Spurs general manager R.C. Buford confirmed Newman’s decision.

Only Mike Budenholzer has been on Popovich’s coaching staff longer than Newman. One of the most popular figures in the basketball organization, he has focused on coaching defense since being hired on June 28, 2004.

A former head coach at both Sacramento State and Arizona State before taking a job as an assistant on George Karl’s coaching staff in Milwaukee, Newman also played seven seasons in the Canadian Football League.