What the Spurs can learn from an exciting and unpredictable NBA season

If you look at the top teams in the playoffs, how far away are the Spurs from this level?

Marilyn Dubinski: They are far from the real title candidates such as The Thunder, Cavs and Celtics (at least before the second round for the latter two began in a catastrophic form). You still don't have the offensive firepower or defensive efficiency to fight with these teams. Apart from that, they are not so far from the next stage of playoff teams of the upper seeds. You would probably have done the play-in at least this season, possibly even the playoffs if everyone had been healthy. The Spurs are probably a few years and pieces away from being a real title candidate, but they work strictly.

Mark Barrington: If you look at the team that ended the season, the gap is immense. But when the entire team was healthy, they are a game team. The game level was extremely high in the first few rounds, and there were some elite shots of teams such as Pacers and incredible coupling game from the Knicks, and the Spurs are not even in this neighborhood.

Jesus Gomez: It depends on wembanyama and health. If Victor can be a top 3 player next season and most of the boys stay healthy, they could get a high seed and really test themselves against the elite. If key players miss games and Wemby makes no jump on the offensive, the Spurs will probably be nothing more than the feed in the first round. It is not a shame, especially for a team in which young players get difficult minutes. There is no hurry. But there is a universe in which San Antonio has a Houston-like ascent next year and the chance of a puncher to get to the conference final if your superstar takes the next step.

Devon BirdSong: It is an interesting question because of the parity that we see in the post -season. The evaluation indicated that there was more separation between top seeds and bottom Seeds than in the past (especially in the west, where only 5 teams won more than 50 games and one of the play teams did not even win 40 in contrast to last season, in which both play teams won 46 games), but to be annoyed at the front because the game was founded in the game. I think the Spurs are perhaps for a season like those who had the Rockets this year, but as we saw, this is still a truth or two of the truth.

What can the Spurs learn from the most successful teams in the post -season?

Dubinski: Massive comebacks are also much more common in the playoffs thanks to the pace and teams that become nuclear at the right time. I would say the ultimate lesson is that the game is 48 minutes long, so never treat it as less, whether you win or lose. In the last few seasons, the Spurs have been on the wrong side of many blown double -digit leads, so they learned that on the hard tour, and it is something that they simply can no longer do, both to do the off -season, and then to stay in it.

Barrington: That you have to continue playing. The Knicks spotted from it a few times, but they continued to fight and secured some unlikely comeback victories. The Pacers were real Hoosiers, who somehow exploited a number of insane ups at the last minute by exploiting the mistakes of the opponents.

This type of playing makes it clear that you need a star who is not afraid to take over the game in a critical moment. Players like Brunson and Haliburton show the value of a finisher, and it is unclear whether the Spurs have this kind of player on their roster. Both Castle and Wembanyama could be one of these players at some point, but they are not there now. De'aaron Fox showed signs that he is an Elite Clutch player, but he was not at the same level as in this year's playoffs.

Gomez: The biggest lesson is that you cannot have any liabilities. The teams will take advantage of weak connections to both ends to facilitate their game plans. If the Spurs have non -shooters, they are better to move and overthrow the offensive glass. If you have bad individual defenders, at least you have to play hard and don't make mistakes at the team level. She may not always have injured a blatant weakness in the regular season, but she brings her into a terrible position in the post -season when coaching teams have time to find out how it is best targeted.

Birdsong: That they have to be able to deal with physicality. It was one of the consistent criticisms in relation to the Spurs in the last two seasons, and while the Wemby's are too frail for it, the Spurs with a almost certainty are a noticeable tendency to move around when players like Jeremy Sotschan and Chris Paul are on trial. As a team, they will have to become both physically and mentally harder, and I do not think that it would be a bad idea for the Spurs to show someone like Stephen Adams to show them how it is done. Especially since you also have a squad requirement in this area.

After a somewhat poor regular season, the playoffs were fantastic. Why do you think that is?

Dubinski: There were certainly many unusual events, both good and bad that bring intrigues. I am not sure whether 40-point blowouts are helpful, but in the west there were two upsets in the first round, one of the old Guard Warriors and one of a younger Timberwolves squad with one of the young faces of the league and of course people like Draymond Green. I think the fans are also happy that some new faces and teams are coming up again, like the pistons.

Barrington: I don't know if this is so unexpected in the NBA. Good teams know that the actual season is only over in the regular season, and they are time until it is time to shine. Star players increase their game for the Nach season playoff Jimmy Butler is real, but Playoff Tyrese Haliburton, Playoff Steph Curry, Playoff Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Playoff Julius Randle … Do I have to go on?

Another thing that restricted the drama in the regular season was the spread of injuries at the end of the season, and it was quite clear who was in the playoffs long before the end of the season.

Gomez: I have the feeling that it has a combination of an enormous amount of exciting talent, young and old, in the top teams and the really fascinating stories that are present but do not feel forced. How far could the Luka Lebron lakers go? Do the warriors have one last run in them? The bang Celtics looked like a favorite that she repeated, but now he looked fragile. Young teams in the upswing with exciting stars like The Pistons and Rockets gave neutral fans of someone to root. There are many other stories that I will probably be missing – I didn't even have the thunder and the cavaliers! The biggest is that the games seem so important because the league seems to be in the middle of a transition between epochs, which brought parity without watering down the quality of the product that is at an extremely high level.

Birdsong: One of the things I've really enjoyed recently in the post -season was the decline in the bad calls. Partly because the bad bait in the regular season is a consistent source of frustration, but also because it interrupts the game. In general, movement observes how many people shoot free throws. However, this focus also forces teams to move away from the formula that works best in the regular season. There are much less sprint from one three-point line to the other or drives after the simple foul. The playoffs are usually to increase the quality based on the team quality, but this change makes it even more cat and mouse than ever, and teams that cannot adapt, no matter how well their strategy was at the beginning of the year. John Hollinger wrote an excellent piece this week about all changes in speed, fouls and shooting, which occurred in the post -season that I highly recommended. It's pretty revealing.