Author: Daniel Strickland (Page 16 of 232)

Does it really matter, as long as they’re back in the Finals next June?

Last Friday, I got a series of texts from Andrew about our first poll of the season.

Andrew wrote:

“When a team adds a blockbuster player, immediate expectations tend to be very high. In truth, there is an initial term where the team needs to learn how to adjust to its new players that can result in unexpected loses. Historically, the Spurs’ record is always impressive when they are not considered the top dogs – none of the top NBA analysts are even picking Coach Pop’s squad to come out of the Western Playoff gauntlet. However, with such high profile summer acquisitions as Aldridge and West, as well as an impressive streak of playoff appearances, how ‘under the radar’ is San Antonio this year?”

I agree with Andrew about expectations — they’re running extremely high among all the Spurs fans I know, despite the team’s lackluster preseason performances.

I also agree that the team is facing a pretty steep learning curve, and will likely lose some games early while they’re adjusting to two major new players in the rotations.

But things couldn’t be worse than they were last December, could they?

We all know how good the Spurs have been historically, particularly during the Tim Duncan era: 18 winning seasons, 18 playoff appearances, 17 50+ win seasons, 6-time Western Conference Champions, 5 Titles.

But winning games hasn’t always meant winning championships. In fact, wins and titles are poorly correlated for the Spurs.

In franchise history, the Spurs have won 60 or more games a total of 5 times: 1994-1995, 2002-2003, 2005-2006, 2010-2011, and 2013-2014. Only twice (’03 and ’14) did those seasons end with rings.

The Spurs won titles in 2005 and 2007, despite only winning 58 and 59 games, respectively.

So while we’re asking you to predict how many games the Spurs will win, a better question to ask might be, what seed will the Spurs be in the playoffs? We’ll ask that next Spring.

[poll id=”10″]