dk7th wrote:some of you aren't bothering to read the article or watch the video in my second post.

at the heart of the article and the video it is a question of

(1) minute restrictions to remain fresh and allowing lesser players to have meaningful minutes so they are ready come playoffs
(2) the major salary sacrifices that the main three guys have taken so that their team could be enriched instead. they also have by far and away the greatest number of foreign players who are not brainwashed into the star-system that the american conveyor belt produces.

compare the miami roster and salary distribution. your top three salary guys can't make so much more money than the rest of the roster and expect to win 5,6,7 titles. if i am riley i tell wade he should remain in miami at ginobili-type money, somewhere around 9 million. bosh pretty much the same. lebron? 18-20 million is fair for the greatest player in the world.

okc? same thing. westbrook should not be paid more than 11-12 million a year if they hope to be true contenders.

the issue has nothing to do with coaching it has to do with the overarching philosophy of the franchise. how can you coach exhausted players? how can you win without a deep bench ready to play? holzman's knicks played 10-12 players.

U just contradicted yourself in the same sentence...If you are coaching then play your full bench..Lewis and Beasley didn't play all year nor did the James Jones..Miami has a deep roster..It has everything to do with coaching..Miami runs two plays...Give the ball to LeBron and let him create or dish..OR..Give the ball to Wade and let him create or dish....OKC runs two plays..Give the ball to Durant, let him go one on one OR Give the ball to Westbrook and let him go one on one...U can't even call it ISO..These coaches have relied on the talent and athleticism to get by for a few years now and it has work..Poor team offensive play where teams are all now playing pick and roll and jack up bad threes...A team like the Spurs comes along that makes everyone possession count by taking good shots..Now it's revolutionary..No it's good coaching..

anrst wrote:A real indictment of the players union that players are pressured more than ever to take pay cuts.

In What other industry are employees looked at as selfish if they don't willingly take pay cuts?

The whole thing is distasteful and the media plays it up like there is some kind of honor and nobility to it all.

No, the players devleop into winners when taking a pay cut "win"!! They become marketable "winners" and make more money with that off the court!!

In san antonio they don't "Starphuch"!!!!! The players get taken care of as well. Being "underpaid", the team will not burn them out or over use them. They have prolonged the careers by protecting them in many ways, including getting a bench that can carry them at times. This last championship was not about Duncan, but Parker and Leonard!

dk7th wrote:http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/69038/san-antonio-spurs-grinding-halt

"But since the Spurs are showing us what works, perhaps we should learn from them. If the goal of these awards is to acknowledge great basketball, then we could stand to lean towards quality over quantity.

It might also be wise to look at how other incentives fight against great basketball. The Spurs are famous for not subjecting older players to back-to-back games. For this approach, Gregg Popovich paid -- quite literally in the form of a $250,000 fine for the Spurs -- when San Antonio excused its best players from a nationally televised game versus the Heat. The NBA's a business, and Popovich's choice worked against those interests. In that context, the fine made sense, but it also reflected a subversive truth: The Spurs are giving us the best possible team basketball while working against what basketball is used to being.

Basketball is used to being a place where stars are perpetually present for the 82-game grind. It's a game that sells its heroes, and for those heroes to be heroic, they must be impervious to the fatigue of 82. The problem is, this isn't realistic. There are more games than means for physically coping. Logging 40 minutes per outing might help with awards voting returns, but returns diminish on the court. Maybe it's time to give more credit to the guy who plays less."

the spurs are a well run machine... it all starts with getting a core of guys who actually get it.. selfless guys who want only one thing.. winning and will sacrifice to obtain the main goal.. the mvp of that team can be a grizzled vet one year and the next a 22 year old kid.. it don't matter.. just win baby....