Long Live The Kane
Tyrant Titan
to win more than 1 title in the NBA you have to have all-time greats, just goes with the territory
Pop gets credit from me for a few reasons: flawless matchups/rotations, scouting and prep. Keep in mind he used to be the Spurs GM, then hand picked RC Buford who is probably the best in the NBA at finding role players and lower-paid starters.
they are not this close without Green/Neal/Leonard, and even to a lesser extent Splitter whose a solid C. thats great scouting and coaching in effect
To me that's the most remarkable thing about the Spurs/Pop...it's easy (and prolly lazy and not very insightful) to just say "Well yeah, Duncan's just so great...that's why they've been so consistently good" ...but I think the Spurs are in an absolute league of their own far as player evaluation and acquisition and fitting players into what they want from a coaching framework...what they've been able to do without being a big time free agent destination or being the lottery is remarkable