JRW & SiMA Podcast #2

Wow. If you’ve already been enjoyed your enlightenment, then you must have started it as soon as I posted.

Impressive, charlie!

Thanks, Drums.

Did you recognize the music?

You mean we should record commercials for the podcast?

Do you worry that orange juice…wait. Oops. Do you worry that the Spurs style of play relies too much on opponents making mistakes? We’ve seen how running and/or three point shooting teams like the Magic, Suns can flourish in the regular season only to be defeated by good defensive teams like Boston who aren’t regularly caught out of position. Has this not crossed anyone elses mind?

Yeah, I think this too, but when somebody else puts it into words I have this reaction where I want to disagree or at least append caveats.

First, we learned last year that the regular season matters again. It matters because we can’t waltz to a home-court seed anymore. The threat of injuries and gradual wear affecting our vets killed the plan-for-the-playoffs strategy.

Second, we’ll have to beat the running, gunning, all-offense teams on our way to a good run too. Fighting off smaller faster teams requires the flexibility to take advantage of their special weaknesses. We need to be a defensive juggernaut AND a squad that can out-run the Suns to get out of the West.

Manuwar, here are my responses to your first four thoughts, since I addressed your final (non-bulleted) point below greyberger’s reply.

First: you’d be surprised to know just how many of the recurring fives are completely unintentional — or at least not consciously planned. I guess there is a difference between those two.

Second, I do not believe that my words have no bearing on the universe. I’m just not concerned about saying something in a podcast about FT’s. There’s a big difference, and I think I’ve written about calling games in game threads often enough and vehemently enough to get the benefit of the doubt on this point.

Third, when he asked me that, I thought, “Where in the world is this coming from?” You can tell that he got me a bit off balance, because I didn’t even wax eloquent when he brought up one of my favorite stats of all: point differential. I’m still kicking myself for that lost opportunity. Although, if I’d started on that topic, we’d have never kept this one at 25 minutes. And we were aiming for 20!

Fourth: in SiMA’s defense, not that he needs it, he said that Tony was “playing like one of the top three point guards in the league” not that he was one of the 3 best this year. Please try to gripe only about points we actually make. =]

SiMA, you need to bring a NERF bat to the next podcast recording, so when JRW messes with the mojo, you can hit him upside the head.

Yes, I think the Spurs’ style of play allows us to capitalize on, but is not dependent on, oppenents’ mistakes. That may seem like semantics, but I think it’s a key difference. In years past, we didn’t always jump on the opportunities for easy/fastbreak points. As the schedule gets tougher, we’ll see more of the grind-it-out style we’re so fond of. Besides, even though we’re playing at a faster pace, the Spurs’ defensive rating is still in the Top 10. I think it’s much easier to slow the pace if necessary than to speed up at a pace a team isn’t used to.

Loving the podcasts, guys.

Wow, you threw an entire podcast’s worth of reactions into a single paragraph. That was impressive.

And, no, you’ don’t need to start up on twitter just to follow PtR. It’s just that if you’re on it already, then you should definitely follow so that you know as soon as new content hits the site, etc.

If only you guys were on TV, he’d probably working the telestrator with gusto.

Now that is something that I’d pay to see.

You know, magnus, I really liked SiMA’s analogy of oranges & lemons, but that was before you chimed in with the peanut reference. It’s perfect.

And this past summer, when Pop was working with RJ to turn him into RJ2.0? Well, if that wasn’t whipping him into shape peanut butter, then I don’t know what to call it.

JRW totally pulled the dictatorial crap on that decision. ;)

Because it sounds slightly less retarded than “SiMA & JRW.” Wait…. no, still retarded. I really don’t know.

I pushed him for “Seth & Dale,” but he shot that down. Apparently my online persona has more credibility and likability than my actual persona.

Also pushed him to do the entire podcast in Castilian, but he said, “Oh hell no, that’s the language of savages.”