Player The Mundane Mediocrity of Maestro Mitch Johnson and his Many Minions

Can we stop using the descriptive 'generational' too liberally? In the last 30+ years the only ready-made, instant earth-moving draft prospects were Shaq ('92), Duncan ('97), Lebron ('03), and Wemby ('23).

You could argue Curry, KD, Giannis and Jokic developed into generational types. but, outside of Curry they all fell short of anchoring a playoffs dynasty.

It’s harder than ever before to judge that because of course nobody wants to stay in college. Everybody’s hitting the league at 19 years old. After 4 great seasons at Wake Forest everybody knew Tim Duncan was ready to dominate the NBA. But that’s old-school stuff.
 
Yeah, generational for me, coming out of college since I started watching ball:
  • Bird
  • Magic
  • Ralph Sampson
  • Ewing
  • Robinson
  • Shaq
  • Duncan
  • Lebron
  • Oden
  • Wemby
Guys like Hakeem, Jordan, Barkley, Zion, Unibrow, Luka were all clearly great and hyped coming out of college, but I didn't recall them being labelled the next GOAT when coming out of college. And yes, I realized that Sampson, Ewing and Robinson basically were drafted within a 4-year span, and if you put Hakeem in there, that's 4 in 4 years. Then Magic and Bird were drafted in back to back years, with both coming in the league the same year, so generational label isn't really once a generation, but I'd say averages to like one every 5 years or so.
 
Yeah, Oden was definitely generational.

KD had one of the craziest freshman years of all time and was he himself a unicorn. And I don't remember much debate of him ever going above Oden.

I'd probably make the case for AD being in that tier coming out of college but fine with omitting the "generational" tag from him tbh.
 
Yeah, generational talent is the second most overused buzzword in sports after culture right now.

I don't know how anyone leaves Davis and Williamson off the list of top or most hyped prospects ever though.
 
People have bitched all season long about minutes and how this coaching staff wasn't playing our players high enough minutes, and seeing the way stars are breaking down left and right in these playoffs and find it hard to want that for the Spurs. I am more happy than ever how conservative they have been with minutes and with games played.
 
People have bitched all season long about minutes and how this coaching staff wasn't playing our players high enough minutes, and seeing the way stars are breaking down left and right in these playoffs and find it hard to want that for the Spurs. I am more happy than ever how conservative they have been with minutes and with games played.
It's the Spurs way.
Since 2004 no Spur has averaged 35mpg in the regular season.
The highest were DDR with 34.9mpg in 2019 and Dejounte with 34.8mpg in 2022.
In 2014 noone averaged even 30mpg.
 
Yeah the min are what they are.. So far Wemby has played 34 min twice in the playoffs.. Unless it is OT he is NOT hitting 40 plus..
 
Yeah the min are what they are.. So far Wemby has played 34 min twice in the playoffs.. Unless it is OT he is NOT hitting 40 plus..
The thing is that we didn't need him to play more.
I won't complain until we lose a close game and Wemby plays less than 35 minutes.
 
This was a legit 0/10 coaching job from the tip-off up until the last play of the game.
2018-2025 Pop would be proud.

And the only reason why were in the game in the first place was Castle fouling out, if he didn't one of Harper/Champ wouldn't have been on the floor.
 
So, so many bad decisions from Mitch. The challenge. Playing Fox when he didn’t have it. Not working the refs like Finch (especially on Rudy’s many moving screens).

The good news is, this is the learning opportunity of a lifetime.
 
Wolves benched Gobert when it was the obvious move for them. Does Mitch have the guts to do something like that? It seems pretty clear that he doesn’t.
 
Sure, but we don't have to bury ourselves deeper by acting as if Fox deserves the benefit of the doubt while Harper plays only 28 minutes.
I expect Fox and obviously Victor to play much better on Wednesday. I guess we will have to see if Fox continues to no-show? I don’t think he will.
 
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