[PtR] 从马刺输给雷霆的比赛中学到了什么 ▶️

By Charlie Thaddeus | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2024-11-01 01:17:55

由生成式人工智能翻译,译文内容可能不准确或不完整,以原文为准。

圣安东尼奥马刺对阵俄克拉荷马城雷霆

马刺的慢热开局仍在继续

“我们正在努力达到他们的水平。”

这是格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)赛后新闻发布会上让我印象深刻的一句话。马刺正试图与雷霆竞争,而从各方面来看,雷霆似乎是NBA运转最流畅的球队。他们的球星蓬勃发展,角色球员完美契合,管理层也 secured 了足够的选秀权,可以在未来十年左右做任何你能想到的事情。他们是NBA的模范球队,更确切地说,他们现在是一支非常优秀的篮球队。

而马刺不是。

马刺有打造一支好球队的想法。他们对一支好球队应该是什么样子有一个模糊的轮廓,但目前仅此而已。在实践中,他们仍然很糟糕。非常糟糕。即使引进了一位经验丰富的新控球后卫,他们仍然没有一套可以依靠的、稳定的进攻体系。他们的防守投入通常到位,但在懂得如何应对的球队面前,他们的防守漏洞百出,很容易被利用。似乎没有人能弄清楚如何在48分钟内保持连贯性,而且全队缺乏紧迫感。马刺现在不是一支好球队。这并不意味着赛季结束时他们仍然如此,但现在他们确实有点糟糕。

我相信——至少我认为我相信——他们有一个变强的计划,但我无法完全理解。一切都似乎基于我们那位高个子法国天才球员能取得某种前所未有的飞跃。是的,维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)的标签就是“前所未有”,但事情之所以前所未有,通常是因为:它们真的很难做到。你可以看到,每次球传到他手中时,他都在竭尽全力地突破自己的极限,想要成为超级英雄,而为了做到一切,他最终一无所获。他很高,他极具天赋,但他还是个孩子。这一点很容易被忘记。

也许管理层知道这一切。他们可能在下着四维象棋,看到了我既没有时间也没有兴趣去理解的角度。也许他们整个休赛期都听到大家在谈论现在是“加油”或“allin”的时候了,而他们看着自己手中的牌,只是想:“听着,我们每天都在这里,我们比你们更了解这些球员。他们还没准备好。”

我正在接受这种想法。我的意思是,我还有什么选择呢?我不认为我们的管理层愚蠢、糟糕,或者有意推出一个让我抓狂的产品。他们可能看了我们阵容中的年轻球员,认为他们不错,但还不够优秀。他们可能认为他们中的大多数人并不是围绕着这个落入他们手中的世代球员建立冠军球队的长期解决方案的一部分。他们很可能非常了解文班的性格,并且明白这种性格倾向于在稳定下来之前先突破极限。他认为自己准备好了,而他们知道他没有。

那么你该如何处理这种情况呢?你给他一些在这个联盟里见过所有世面的老将,建立足够的基础设施来维持运转,然后放手让他自己去发现。没有人会告诉文班他能做什么或不能做什么。他获得经验的唯一途径就是亲身经历。他必须走出去,与像切特·霍姆格伦(Chet Holmgren)这样的宿敌——一个他知道自己比他更强的球员——比赛,然后看着自己的球队被对方彻底击败。他必须意识到,无论他现在认为自己有多优秀,都还有工作要做。

马刺正试图达到雷霆的水平,而雷霆并没有通过每次ESPN的某个评论员(或某个拥有“我们学到了什么”专栏的博主)认为胜利时机到来就孤注一掷而达到他们现在的水平。他们很有耐心,有条不紊,他们制定了一个计划,让这个小市场球队在未来几年里坐上了联盟的驾驶座。

马刺现在不好,更重要的是,他们甚至还没有准备好变得更好。一旦每个人都意识到他们应该真正努力解决的是哪个问题,我们才能最终开始前进。

要点:

  • 额啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊
  • 抱歉,我只是——我知道我刚才说服自己对我们现在作为一个团队所做的事情更有耐心,但如果你能允许我再来一次……
  • 额啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊
  • 一切都会好起来的。真的,会的。我知道,你也知道。随着赛季的进行,这支球队会看起来更好,也会变得更好,而且现在还很早,还有所有其他我们需要应用的注意事项。我知道,你也知道,我们都可以,比如说,同意对这些早期的比赛反应过度可能很愚蠢,对吧?我们都同意?好。
  • 我只是希望情况有所不同。管理层可以有耐心,但我个人,坐在家里的椅子上,想在十月的周三晚上玩得开心?我对看着我们在全国电视上连续第二次表现糟糕感到特别不耐烦。有条不紊的球队建设是很棒,但是雷霆球迷在社交媒体上说垃圾话对我的个人心理健康之旅有害。
  • 进攻感觉真的很停滞,我希望这能有所不同。迫切希望。把球传出去!多传一次!多传两次!过度纠正你认为你应该传球的次数,因为你现在脑子里想的任何数字都太低了!动起来!动起来!动起来!如果马刺需要我给他们发送一些配上弗兰克·奥申歌曲的球的运动的YouTube合集,我很乐意效劳。
  • 每当马刺的失误超过20次,我就想成为小丑。甚至不是好小丑中的一个。我要成为那部糟糕的续集里那个悲伤的小丑,他甚至不想再当小丑了,只是总是闷闷不乐。
  • 杰里米·索汉(Jeremy Sochan)?如果你现在正在读这篇文章,这些都不适用于你。你做得很好,伙计。

变得狡猾了 pic.twitter.com/dQsLPqZrft

— 圣安东尼奥马刺 (@ spurs) 2024年10月31日


赛后新闻发布会我们学到了什么

- 所以我们正在调整我们的预期?

  • 是的,我的意思是,是的。

- 你之前的期望是什么?肯定不是冠军吧?

  • 嗯,不是,但我当然没想到赛季四场比赛后我会因为看马刺比赛而闷闷不乐。我准备好了!我带着必胜的信念而来!我只是觉得…我不知道,我准备好今年玩得开心了,我想我有点超前了。

- 唉,我的意思是,这听起来有点悲伤。

  • 确实很悲伤!为我们感到难过。

- 那么我们如何扭转局面呢?新闻发布会应该是一个轻松的环节来结束一切。

  • 嗯,是的。也许问我一个无关紧要的问题?这通常会有帮助

- 当然可以。克努特·罗克尼,费尼尔司·泰勒·巴纳姆和马克·吐温。你只能和他们其中一个人共进晚餐。你会选谁?

  • 马克·吐温(Mark Twain)。轻松的选择。

- 真的吗?为什么?

  • 好让我说说我的想法。

- 详细说说?

  • 他知道他做了什么。
点击查看原文:What We Learned from the Spurs loss to the Thunder

What We Learned from the Spurs loss to the Thunder

San Antonio Spurs v Oklahoma City Thunder

Slow start for the Spurs continues to be slow

“We are trying to get to their level.”

That was the quote that stood out to me from Gregg Popovich’s post-game press conference. The Spurs are trying to compete on the same level as this Thunder franchise that, by all accounts, seems to be the most well-oiled machine in the NBA. Their stars are thriving, their role players fit perfectly, and their front office has secured enough draft capital to do pretty much anything you could ever dream of for the next decade or so. They are the model franchise in the NBA and, more specifically, they are a really good basketball team right now.

The Spurs are not.

The Spurs have the idea of a good team. They have the hazy outline of what a good team might look like, but that’s all it is at the moment. In practice, they are still bad. Quite bad. Even with the advent of a fancy new veteran point guard, they still don’t run a consistent offense with set plays that they can rely on. Their defensive effort is usually there, but it’s constantly misapplied and easy to exploit by teams that know what they’re doing. No one can seem to figure out how to put anything coherent together for 48 minutes at a time, and the sense of urgency is nonexistent. The Spurs are not a good team right now. That doesn’t mean they won’t be by the end of the season, but right now they kind of stink.

I’m sure—at least I think I’m sure—that there is a plan to get better, but I can’t totally parse it out. Everything seems predicated on our tall French wunderkind taking some kind of unprecedented leap. Yes, Victor’s whole brand is “unprecedented,” but things are typically unprecedented for a reason: they are really hard to do. You can see him out there straining against his limits to be a superhero every single time the ball comes to him, and in an effort to do everything, he’s ending up with nothing. He’s tall, he’s extremely gifted, but he’s also just a kid. It’s so easy to forget that.

Maybe the front office knows all of this. It’s possible they are playing 4-D chess and seeing angles that I have neither the time nor the inclination to comprehend. Maybe they heard everyone all offseason chattering away about how now is the time to “step on the gas” or “put our chips on the table,” and they were looking at what they had in-house and just thought, “Look, we’re here every day, and we see these guys a lot more than you do. They ain’t ready for all that.”

I’m coming around to that line of thinking. I mean, what choice do I have? I don’t think our front office is dumb, bad, or predisposed to putting out a product designed to drive me nuts. They probably looked at the kids on our roster and think they are good but not great. They probably think most of them aren’t part of the long-term solution to building a championship team around the generational asset that has fallen into their laps. They are likely very attuned to how Victor is wired and understand that this wiring lends itself to pushing past a breaking point before settling into where it needs to be. He thinks he’s ready, and they know he’s not.

So how do you handle that? You give him some veterans who have seen everything there is to see in this league, build out just enough infrastructure to keep things moving, and then turn him loose to go find out for himself. No one is going to tell Victor what he can or can’t do. The only way for him to get it is to live it. He has to go out there and play against a personal rival like Chet Holmgren, a guy he knows he’s better than, and watch his team get absolutely worked by the other team. He has to realize that it doesn’t matter how good he thinks he is right now—there’s still work to be done.

The Spurs are trying to get on the Thunder’s level, and the Thunder didn’t get to where they are right now by going for broke every time some talking head on ESPN (or some blogger with a “What We Learned” column) decided that the time for winning was now. They were patient, methodical, and they put a plan into place that has landed a very small-market team in the driver’s seat of this league for years to come.

The Spurs aren’t good right now, and more importantly, they aren’t even ready to be good. Once everyone realizes which problem they should actually be trying to solve for, that’s when we can all finally start moving forward.

TAKEAWAYS:

  • Ugggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
  • Sorry, I just— I know I kind of talked myself into being more patient with what we’re doing as a team right now, but if you could allow me just one more…
  • Uggghgghghghghghgghhghhhhhhhhghhhhhhhhh
  • It’s going to be fine. Really, it is. I know that, and you know that. This team will look and be better as the season goes on, and it’s still really early, and all the other caveats that we need to apply. I know that, and you know that, and we all can just, like, agree that overreacting to these early games is probably silly, right? We all agree? Cool.
  • I just wish it were different. The front office can be patient, but me, personally, sitting in my chair at home, wanting to have fun on a Wednesday night in October? I’m feeling particularly impatient about watching us lay our second consecutive egg on national television. Methodical team building is great and all, but Thunder fans talking trash on social media is bad for my personal mental health journey.
  • The offense feels really stagnant, and I want that to be different. Desperately. Whip the ball around out there! Make the extra pass! Make two extra passes! Overcorrect on how many passes you think you should make because whatever number is in your head right now is too low! Move! Move! Move! If the Spurs organization needs me to send them some YouTube compilations on ball movement set to Frank Ocean songs, I’d be happy to oblige.
  • Every time the Spurs turn the ball over more than 20 times, it makes me want to become the Joker. Not even one of the good Jokers, either. I’m going to become the sad Joker from the bad sequel who doesn’t even want to be the Joker anymore and is just kind of bummed out all the time.
  • Jeremy Sochan? If you’re reading this right now, none of this applies to you. You’re doing amazing, bud.

gettin’ crafty with it pic.twitter.com/dQsLPqZrft

— San Antonio Spurs (@ spurs) October 31, 2024


WWL Post Game Press Conference

- So we’re adjusting our expectations?

  • Yea, I mean, yea.

- What we’re your expectations before? Surely not a championship?

  • Well, no, but I certainly didn’t think I’d be bummed out watching Spurs games four games into the season. I was ready to rock! I was coming in guns-a-blazin! I just thought…I dunno, I was ready to have some fun with it this year and I guess I got a little ahead of myself.

- Shoot, I mean, that sounds kind of sad.

  • It is sad! Hate that for us.

- Well how do we turn this around? The press conference thing is supposed to be more of a lighthearted bit to end things on.

  • Um, yea. Maybe ask me a non sequitur question? That usually helps

- Sure thing. Knute Rockne, P.T. Barnum, and Mark Twain. You can only have dinner with one of them. Who are you picking?

  • Mark Twain. Easy.

- Really? Why?

  • So I can give him a piece of my mind.

- Care to elaborate?

  • He knows what he did.

By Charlie Thaddeus, via Pounding The Rock