Head of Barstool Sports does not know who Tim Duncan is. Dave Portnoy could not recognize a picture of Tim Duncan.
On December 16th, Dave Portnoy appeared on his podcast “BFFs” along with 18 year old co-host Josh Richards. In which the two played a generational gap game called “Zoomer vs Boomer.” A picture of Tim Duncan was shown and both hosts did not know who Duncan was. Portnoy said that he couldn’t remember but he did mention Duncan’s college and team. He did eventually end up getting it when Richards said Duncan’s first name. Coming from a head of a sports company and die hard Boston sports fan this is one that he should have known. Especially after Boston was projected to draft Duncan in the 1998 NBA Draft.
Although Barstool Sports has done a poor job of covering the NBA in recent years, Duncan is one of the best players of all time. Even though he was a lowkey player and did not have much finesse he is still the best power forward ever according to many NBA experts.
Since Portnoy did end up getting it eventually it was sad to see him struggle to remember for a minute. Portnoy did end up joking at the end of his podcast in which he said “I’m going to get roasted for forgetting Tim Duncan’s name.”
Denver Nuggets head coach Mike Malone reportedly called San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich and asked “how do I stop Kawhi Leonard” this according to sources close to the two. This news broke shortly after Mike Malone’s Denver Nuggets came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers.
Malone and Popovich reportedly speak frequently but Malone and Popovich speak about non basketball related subjects. It wasn’t until Malone found himself down 3-1 in the series when he decided to ask. The two reportedly had a two hour call regarding the subject, afterall it was the monster Popovich created. Clearly Popovich’s advice worked as Leonard has looked relatively average in the past three games as he has not looked like the Leonard fans are used to seeing.
Popovich drafted Leonard in 2011 and won an NBA championship together in 2014. Leonard was traded away from San Antonio in 2018 after a big fiasco that occured between both parties. Leonard went on to win a championship with the Toronto Raptors the same year of being traded and signed with the Los angeles Clippers this past off-season. It’s safe to say that Malone used his connections in this case as it seemed to work, proving that asking for help isn’t always a bad thing.
The road to saving the playoff streak begins this Friday, July 31st. I speak for all basketball fans, and I can’t wait, but to be completely honest, I do not look forward to possibly seeing the playoff streak end. We will go over a brief overview of each Spurs game on their schedule, and get my projection on if the Spurs win that game or not.
The Kings are the first team the Spurs will play in the NBA restart and it should be a close one. The Kings are favored to win. Both teams played each other twice this season and split. Both teams will be without key players, the Kings will be without star forward Marvin Bagley and the Spurs will be without LaMarcus Aldridge and Trey Lyles. I don’t see the Spurs losing this game and I believe it will be tougher for the Kings to play without Bagley than it will be for the Spurs to play without Aldridge. Plus I feel extremely comfortable having White and Murray back and splitting time guarding De’Aaron Fox. With that being said, the Spurs will start off 1-0.
The Spurs will have to be on their “A game” when they play against the Memphis Grizzlies. Both Dejounte Murray and Derrick White will have to play excellent defense on star Grizzlies guard, Ja Morant. The key in this game will be taking Morant away. If the Spurs are able to do that, they should win as Memphis’s system runs through Morant and Justise Winslow. The Spurs faced the Grizzlies three times this season and lost twice. Everything changes in the bubble though. I expect this game to head into overtime, but I feel extremely comfortable with my defensive backcourt. Look for Popovich to go with an effective lineup that will include Mills, Murray, White, DeRozan and Gay/Poeltl to be effective. If it does, Spurs win this game.
As off as this may sound, I believe the Spurs will beat the 76ers since this could be a game that former Spurs Assistant coach, and now 76ers head coach, Brett Brown, gives to Popovich in order to help him out a bit. Look for the 76ers to be trying multiple different things in this game as they prepare for the playoffs. The Spurs should come out with a win against the 76ers. 3-0
The rematch from last year’s first round playoff series. I’m going to just leave it at this. I don’t care how good Bol Bol, Jokic, or Murray are doing. The Spurs will win if one thing and one thing only happens, and it’s what cost the Spurs last season, that is if Demar Derozan makes smart decisions with the basketball they win. That being said, I believe Demar will try to do too much, and I see the Spurs losing this game. Leaving the Spurs with a record of 3-1 by the half point of their short season.
The Spurs play the Jazz twice in their eight game schedule. The second time will be the last game which will be important. As a Spurs fan, you want to hope that the Jazz are still having issues from within by the time the Spurs play them. The Spurs won both games this season which is a good sign and an even better sign is that they won them by more than twenty points. I don’t expect the Spurs to win by that much again but it’s one of those games that worry on paper but once the games starts, everything is ok. The Spurs should come out with a win, not by twenty points, but more like less than 10.
The Pelicans game will be the most important game in their schedule. This will be the game that will get the most attention as Pelicans superstar, Zion Williamson, will most likely be playing. Most picked the Pelicans to be that team that makes the playoffs. The Spurs were able to beat Zion and the Pelicans in his debut. It comes down to if the Spurs have the bodies to stop Zion and the Pelicans. In my opinion, the Spurs should look for a player not named Zion or Lonzo Ball to try to beat them. Throughout Lonzo’s career, he has been known as a “Spurs killer.” The ball will be up to Rudy Gay and Patty Mills in this game as they might have to come to the Spurs’ rescue if they want to keep the streak alive. This game decides who makes that final playoff spot, or at the very least, gives one a big view as to who will make the final spot. It’s one of those games where one has to choose if they prefer youth or wisdom. As a fan, I want to pick the Spurs to win this game, but it could be a game where Popovich coordinates the perfect game plan and his team just is not able to execute it. For that reason, I’m picking the Pelicans to win this game.
The Houston Rockets game feels like a blowout. The Rockets will either blow out the Spurs, or the Spurs will win a very close one. They split the series with each other, but something tells me if the Spurs are in trouble, and on the brink of elimination this could be Mike D’antoni’s opportunity to finally get his revenge on Popovich. Popovich has always eliminated any D’antoni coached team throughout the years. History has a way of repeating itself, and Popovich and the Spurs will not let D’Antoni exact his revenge as Westbrook and Harden will have a brick night out on the court that will rocket the Spurs to victory.
By my projections, San Antonio will head into the final game against the Jazz with a 5-2 record. If the Spurs clinched a spot in the playoffs by this time, then they will lose this game. If not, then look for a game that will be decided by five points or less.
In review, my prediction came out to the Spurs coming out with a record of 5-2. I left the final game in mystery as that game will be decided by what goes on in the rest of the league. I believe this year’s Spurs caught a break on the schedule since they don’t have to face the big dogs of the Western conference outside of the Denver Nuggets, a game that is up in the air. Not playing the Portland Trail Blazers or the Phoenix Suns was big as well as both those teams have had the Spurs number. I do not want to see the streak end and a side of me does not think it ends in Orlando, but one can’t help, but have that feeling in the back of their mind.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – AUGUST 26: Head Coach Gregg Popovich, and Jayson Tatum #10 of USA talk during the game against Canada on August 26, 2019 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.
The San Antonio Spurs have had an unknown history of stealing top players from the Boston Celtics. They stole both Tim Duncan and Tony Parker away from the Celtics, both future Hall of Famers. Duncan went on to play nineteen seasons in the NBA, won five championships with the Spurs and became the best power forward in NBA history amongst multiple MVPs and more accomplishments. As for Parker he played seventeen seasons in the NBA sixteen of which were with the Spurs. He won 4 championships and way apart of the Spurs dynamics big three and has one NBA finals MVP, he is also apart of the most winningest duo in NBA history along with long time teammate Manu Ginobili. The steal for the Spurs is young Celtics star Forward Jayson Tatum.
As of right now it sounds crazy to even think that Tatum would leave Boston. In Boston there has been nothing but drama and based off of Tatum’s personality he does not seem to like it. His first season was phenomenal, he carried the Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals and it took a spectacular performance by Lebron James to defeat the Celtics. Last season was drama filled with point guard Kyrie Irving coming back from injury and caused Tatum not have such a great year and at times disappear from games. Although, Irving left this off season to the Brooklyn Nets, the Celtics signed free agent Kemba Walker who both statistically and statistically is the same type of player as Irving. Celtics fans were being very harsh to Tatum over his tweet and fandom about the St Louis Blues. The Blues and Bruins played in the Stanley Cup this past NHL season. Tatum who is from St Louis did not get any nice words from Boston fans as they tweeted him some not so nice things. The Celtics do not exactly have a team to build around Tatum, they have Jaylen Brown who is a young player and a player who has shown some promise, recently signed a four year extension but personally as like most people around the league believe he is just an average player. The Celtics are essentially filled with two proven veterans, Tatum, Brown, a few unproven rookies with no promise who will most likely be two way players and as for the remaining roster spots, well they will be filled with the uncertainty of one year contracts. Can’t forget about head coach Brad Stevens but let’s be real Stevens ain’t no damn Greg Popovich no matter how many more years Popovich wants to continue coaching.
On the other hand, San Antonio has been known to be completely drama free team and is only a two hour flight away from Tatum’s hometown St Louis. They have a winning culture, an established core, structure as an organization and a young nucleus. Tatum played on Team USA this past summer a team that featured the entire Spurs staff and Derrick White on the team. Knowing Popovich he gave Tatum a sneak peak into what it would be like to play for him. Tatum spoke very highly about Popovich and talked about how great of a player White is and how he would love to continue playing with him. Plus a little bit of overreaction but they say a picture says a thousand words and every picture posted when Tatum was around someone in the Spurs organization their was nothing but smiles and he has not been doing much of that in Boston.
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