so i saw this rumor from the LA press. there are lots of smarter people than me on this site, can any of you tell me if we have the pieces and the cap space to make a deal for either of these two go down?

my preference would be for kaman. i'm reasonably pleased with mason's game so far, but we desperately need a second player in the post that can score and collect a few rebounds. kaman's efficiency is awesome. he usually scores in double digits while taking less than ten shots and he can play defense.

hey everybody. i thought i'd point this out and see what ya'll think. the spurs signed desmon farmer over malik hairston. here's the express-news story: http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Farmer_makes_final_Spurs_cut_hopes_it_will_be_last.html

so, if i get this right, we drafted an unproven point guard in the first round when slashing 2-guards and other points were available, then drafted another point with our first second-round pick, goran dragic, and then a post player with strength with our last pick.

we then traded dragic for malik hairston and a future second-rounder.

now we have waived hairston, and dragic is expected to be nash's primary backup. gist previously left us for money and a guaranteed contract overseas.

so, the only thing we got out of the draft, in possibly our most important building year of the duncan era, is a point guard that has trouble putting the ball in the basket and a future second round pick? is this right?

chad ford has his mock draft 3.0 up on espn today, here: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=MockDraft-080602

my boss, a big KU fan, tells me pop has history with the school, and JV played there, and ford happens to have mario chalmers and chris douglas-roberts going back-to-back, with the spurs picking up chalmers first at #26.

my question, would we rather have chalmers, a reasonable back-up point guard who can expect some growing pains, or douglas-roberts, a slashing two-guard that might be able to come off the bench (or start in finley's place) and score in low double-digits right away?

douglas-roberts feels more like an NBA player to me, but then again i thought acie law would be better. my boss says CDR will be a player for a couple years, and kind of poo-poos chalmers. what do ya'll think?

when a team loses a 20-point lead and goes on to lose the game, you can't point to any one thing. but, the media, either trying to either distill the story into manageable pieces or just trying to look smart, seems pretty content to do that.

i've heard it was kobe turning on the kobe switch. i've heard the lakers clamped down on defense. i've heard the spurs went cold. i've heard the spurs were tired from their plane ride. it's all of those things. actually, the least among them i think is kobe being kobe. he started going off when bowen and udoka started picking up fouls.

one thing that i've only seen casually alluded to is the spurs lack of composure down the stretch. every time we took a timeout, or got a stop, the next possession we had a turnover. either an offensive foul, a bad out-of-bounds call or just a stupid turnover because the big  three weren't playing big. i wonder if we just banked on losing the game and that kept up from being our best down the stretch.

we squandered a big opportunity. we squandered a great game by duncan and miserable games by odom and fisher. we won't be able to bank on any of that later in the series.

but the series is not over. we went up by 20 against this team playing our standard game. it's painful we're behind in the series now, and the going will only get tougher when the coaches start making adjustments.

it's only game 1. where are the stories saying the lakers were lucky to win? where are the stories that guessing that the beginning of the game will prove to be the norm? gasol is a chump. odom can't hit the big shots. will the team lean on kobe to rescue them every game? if they do, we win.

losers make sports great.

simply put, statistics cannot define a winner. no matter what the record books say, or hollinger's power rankings predict, any playoff team has a chance at the title. it's why we keep watching, year after year, through the slumps and rebuilding years.

it's the effort that makes me watch. last year's warriors team is a perfect example of both. a losing team with the effort and heart to succeed.

and it's the effort that makes basketball one of the best sports on the planet. teams just don't have the opportunities to rest and regroup they do in other sports, such as football and baseball.

(as an aside, this is also why soccer is one of the best sports. it literally never stops. players even have to run to get out of bounds to throw the ball back into play.)

in football, there is time to draw up plays, and time for the quarterback to refocus his troops. in its way, that makes football great, too.

but basketball is less forgiving when teams get down on themselves, as an opposing team uses momentum to go on significant runs.

but, at the same time, teams have to sustain their effort across all 48 minutes, or allow a team that could be put to bed in another sport a chance at a win.

effort is mental and physical. does anyone else get the feeling this spurs team is the least confident of any in the last 10 years? i think the last couple months have done the same thing to the team that it's done to its fans: the stars don't believe in the role players and the role players are too worried about having to prove themselves to make good plays.

watching duncan on the bench in the fourth quarter against the lakers, it's obvious the team is worried. it seems like it's been so long since we had a full game, and duncan isn't picking up the slack like he used to.

the spurs were a great team. they were great. we had three players that wouldn't allow us to lose in a challenge. now, that big 3 isn't getting it done, and they're not trusting their teammates to, either. but, then, why would they at this point?

i get the feeling the spurs don't believe in their effort anymore. they're enamored with their talent. and that is not the heart it takes to win championships.

i'm speaking in generalities here. there are exceptions. but i think pop encourages this culture.

how many games -- the lakers loss included -- did he pull out the starters with more than half the fourth quarter to play? it's as if he thinks the mental state of the team is so fragile that should the starters get blown out, we won't be able to compete in the playoffs.

on the one hand, it makes out point differential less important, since a lot of those blowouts could have been closer, but our bench played against another team's starters for significant minutes.

on the other, how can our team build any heart if our coach won't let us compete? is pop going to pull the same routine in the playoffs? will he just raise the white flag in the third quarter of a game 5 or 6?

maybe we can't play a whole game because our coach accepts losses.

that's not basketball and it's the worst kind of losing.

all kidding aside, i heard something today. something odd.

i was listening to a podcast segment of the dan patrick radio show (and before you ask how bored i had to be to voluntarily listen to dan patrick, i was at work) and i heard mike d'antoni stumble across the n-word.

and not in the hip, acceptable way.

he was talking about shaq diving into the stands against san antonio. he's laughing about it, and he says, "man that nigge..." and then starts saying something else.

maybe it's my mistake, but my boss and coworkers all heard the same thing without me telling them what to look for.

if you's a-want to listen, go to the nba page si.com and follow the link toward the bottom for mike d'antoni talking about the western conference or something like that.

has this been in the news anywhere, or is dan patrick's audience that small?

300 words without trying, baby!

i saw that sgt. already posted a recap, but i thought i'd share some things because i live in the middle of nowhere and i'm bored.

i also went to friday's game in denver -- the bright lights! the big city! -- but didn't fill up with rage during the third quarter so much as herradura margaritas (1).

this also marked the second time my girlfriend bought me tickets to a spurs game. now, before you smile approvingly at my nack for pickin' em, hear this: she has never shown any interest in professional basketball until moving to denver and now she's a nuggets fan. go figs.

the worst part of last night for me? my girlfriend slept through the whole game until midway through the third quarter, when she sprang to life -- giddy, giggling -- and reminded me that if the nuggets won, i'd have to give her a 20-minute foot massage.

i don't mind being a mixed couple, but don't get your ugly gloating in my self-pity.

so long story short, i got really drunk and "passed out" before owning up to the foot massage, but did wake up in the middle of the night for... some things i was more interested in (2).

about the game, sgt. covered most of it. i would only add a couple things:

A) i thought our defense was pretty piss-poor for most of the game. that was a good point about finley letting a cold melo heat up, but iverson and najera were easily spinning and cutting around guys. speaking of najera, i've always liked the guy, but can someone blow a goddamn whistle when he pulls duncan's arm and then elbows the poor nerd in the head. i guess timmy wouldn't let him ressurect his level 21 gnome sorceror the last they played d&d.

2)i totally disagree with any latitude afforded pop in regards to benching the starters with six minutes left. yeah, they had been playing below their potential, but it was a winnable game. and yes, the schedule is pretty packed right now, but we're 6.5 games out of 9th place. every game counts. wouldn't pop want the team to try and play through adversity, which would give the team more confidence and comraderie than any blowout. or did pop give up because he didn't want the team to go through a hard-fought loss, the frustration of which might send the team sliding further than a half game back from the lakers? no risk, no reward, pop. this is one of the things i hate most about the guy. yeah, the regular season is long, and a little gas in the june tank is better than april's best record. but winners play hard, and they don't watch the final six minutes of a winnable game from the bench (3).

D)sgt. negelcted to mention the highlight of the night. i think it was the break between the first and second quarters, or maybe halftime, but they had about six people try and do the trampoline dunk we've all seen the mascots do. the last one was an unfortunate 40-year-old woman in a ginobili jersey. i'd like to say being so close to the man, myth and legend sitting on the bench would have motivated her, but it did not. on her first attempt, she jumped about six inches in the air, flung the ball over the backboard and landed on her face. on her second attempt, she didn't even get that far. this woman made a big deal about getting another shot, SLOWLY walked up and promptly slammed her nose on the hard edge of the trampoline. i just cannot figure out the right combination of words to paint a picture of how funny this was. i hope this lands on youtube.

some stars:

3. rocky the squirrel or whatever he's supposed to be. sgt. may hate him, but once during the game he absolutely beaned this kid sitting courtside right in the face with a prop. i have a bad sense of humor.
2. the stadium employee with the spurs tattoo who poured me three-shot margaritas. we'll always have ginobili and tequila.
1. the father with the two kids sitting next to me. even though you're a nuggets fan, you made sure your sons recognized how great a player manu ginobili really is. you're a fine man, sir, and thanks for the chili fries.

(1) i've only ever been to the at&t center before now, and i've gotta say the beverage choices in the mile high city are way better. when can we get a full bar with top shelf liquor?

(2) we're really close. closer every day.

(3) also note george karl kept his starters in until less than a minute left. what a fucking coward. his starters could barely keep the lead playing a team with black willow at point and a redheaded step-child as the go-to guy. maybe pop left the bench in to get experience, and develop their team game a little. maybe. or maybe there's a lesson in there about how we don't chase streaks, and the starters had their chance. maybe.

not the spurs. ptr is for sale.

found this on amazon. notice that while we may be the 10th best selling basketball blog, we're the number one best selling spurs blog.

and really, that's all i care about.

http://www.amazon.com/Pounding-the-Rock-Spurs/dp/B000N8V2L0/ref=sr_1_38?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid= 1196998918&sr=8-38

anyone know what's up with tiago? i haven't looked for him, but i don't remember seeing him on any of the preseason box scores.

while i'm talking about box scores, gino had 22 points on 7 shots against the heat, chipping in four boards, three assists and a steal in 19 minutes.

now i have a chubby. i'm gonna go make out with my girlfriend. and by girlfriend, i mean my ginobili fathead.

would anyone be interested in a fantasy football league for the ptr faithful? there's ways to set up free groups on yahoo or espn.

i just love the movie 300. 300 is a great movie. 300 had great cinematography. there are just 300 things i could say about 300. sometimes i like to spell it three hundred.