By Marilyn Dubinski | Pounding The Rock (PtR), 2025-04-02 01:33:50
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。
因伤病而偏离轨道与摆烂不同，而且马刺队已经无法跌到更低的位置了。
自从2020年我从圣安东尼奥搬到休斯顿后，我的工作日变得更长了，主要原因是通勤时间增加了。我从在圣安东尼奥郊区工作，每天早上8点到下午5点，通勤时间10分钟，变成了在休斯顿市中心工作，每天早上7点到下午4点，下午的通勤时间可能需要45分钟到1个多小时，这取决于交通和施工情况。（幸运的是，我早上出门足够早，所以通勤时间“只有”35分钟左右。）
更长的通勤时间也意味着有更多的时间听广播，90%的时间都在听Sirius XM上的NBA广播，早上是Frank Isola和Brian Scalabrine，下午是Justine Termine和Eddie Johnson。通常他们都没什么关于马刺队的内容可说（他们为什么要说呢？），但是昨天，我通常很喜欢并且90%的时间都赞同的Termine，称马刺队为一支摆烂的球队（而且不止一次）。我也在其他地方看到过这种批评，包括在PtR这里，不知为何，这让我感到恼火。
这个词通常带有负面含义，因为它指的是那些为了选秀目的而积极尝试输球或让自己处于输球境地的球队，但我只是觉得马刺队不是在这么做。这并不是说他们过去没有摆烂过——他们在2022-23赛季确实摆烂了，当时他们交易了德里克·怀特(Derrick White)、德章泰·默里(Dejounte Murray)和雅各布·珀尔特尔(Jacob Poeltl)这三位最好的球员，换来的是比即时可用的篮球天赋多得多的选秀补偿，当然，这在他们赢得选秀彩票并选中维克托·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)后得到了回报，就像1997年一样。上个赛季也可以被认为是一个摆烂赛季，因为他们在令人失望地追平了前一个赛季22场胜利的总数的同时，做了各种“实验”，但那已经是过去的事情了。
这个赛季不同了。他们在休赛期有所进步，引进了老将克里斯·保罗(Chris Paul)和哈里森·巴恩斯(Harrison Barnes)，以及看起来像是选秀日捡漏的斯蒂芬·卡斯尔(Stephon Castle)，他在选秀大会上以第四顺位被选中，也是年度最佳新秀的热门人选。尽管格雷格·波波维奇(Gregg Popovich)因中风早早离开，他们在进入2025赛季时仍然保持着胜率，但在经历了一段艰难的一月和二月赛程后，他们在做出一个只是为了让他们变得更好的举动时，仍然处于季后赛的激烈竞争中：用轮换阵容之外的球员换来了达龙·福克斯(De’Aaron Fox)。
不幸的是，福克斯和 文班亚马 只一起打了五场比赛， 文班亚马 的赛季在全明星周末期间突然结束，此前他被诊断出患有深静脉血栓（这解释了他前几周缺乏精力和类似流感的症状）。如果说这还没有给马刺队的季后赛希望带来打击，那么很快就清楚了，他们根本没有足够的人员来打入附加赛，福克斯带着受伤的手指打球，球队因为扎克·科林斯(Zach Collins)的离开和查尔斯·贝西(Charles Bassey)的膝盖受伤而缺乏内线尺寸，这导致了比斯马克·比永博(Bismack Biyombo)的签约，以及杰里米·索汉(Jeremy Sochan)更多地出现在中锋位置上。
全明星周末后，福克斯又打了12场比赛，期间马刺队的战绩是5胜7负，这并不算太糟糕，但也表明附加赛很可能不会发生，所以他和球队决定让他休息并接受自训练营以来就需要的手指手术，以便他能在休赛期早点恢复健康，并有整个夏天的时间与他的新队友一起训练并适应。如果你想把 这 称之为“摆烂”举动，因为福克斯本可以继续打球（而且如果 文班亚马 保持健康和/或季后赛仍然是一个现实的目标，他很可能会继续打球），那么我想就没有什么可争论的了。
然而，请考虑以下几点：当马刺队决定让福克斯休息时，他们几乎已经锁定了他们在积分榜上的当前位置：位于附加赛竞争行列的最底部，但又远高于身后的七支球队，无法再跌落。此外，虽然他们肯定容易出现一些令人厌恶的表现，比如周日对阵勇士队的比赛，但他们仍然取得了5胜2负的战绩（只有第一场胜利包括福克斯），同时在三月份创造了NBA最佳进攻效率。
这支球队并没有积极尝试输球，但他们在天赋和实力上都逊色于几支能够轻易利用他们弱点的球队。除了双方的一些例外情况（因为这就是体育的运作方式），马刺队基本上一直在赢他们应该赢的比赛，输他们应该输的比赛，而且在福克斯休息之前就是如此。当查看此后的结果时，很难争辩说如果没有福克斯掌舵，他们的战绩会有多大不同。换句话说，如果你觉得他们摆烂得不够而感到愤怒，你就不必生气，因为他们基本上是在自然而然地输球，如果你觉得他们在摆烂而感到愤怒，你也不必生气——因为他们基本上是在自然而然地输球。
总而言之，马刺队并没有摆烂，至少在我看来是这样。他们几乎没有机会获得比第七好的乐透抽签概率更高的顺位，而且他们真正争夺位置的唯一球队是波特兰开拓者队（尽管菲尼克斯太阳队正试图让事情变得有趣）。他们不能也不会通过输球来跌到联盟的底部，而且那些可用的球员都在努力赢得比赛，因为他们都有东西需要证明。
这个赛季不应该被添加到1997年和2023年（也许还有2024年？）的摆烂传说中，相反，它应该被记住为一个因他们的超级球星的健康问题而偏离轨道的赛季，但是尽管 文班亚马 只打了46场比赛，他们仍然比上个赛季有了很大的进步（最终应该超过两位数的胜场）。
这支球队应该因在本赛季带来的所有逆境中从未放弃而受到赞扬。这并不是一种浪费或糟糕的摆烂行为，因为他们一开始就没有摆烂。他们只是不幸。
点击查看原文：Why the Spurs should not be considered a tanking team
Why the Spurs should not be considered a tanking team
Being derailed by injury is not the same as tanking, plus the Spurs can’t fall any lower.
Ever since I moved from San Antonio to Houston back in 2020, my work days are longer primarily because of the commute. I went from working from 8-5 in the San Antonio suburbs with a 10 minute commute to 7-4 in downtown Houston with an afternoon commute that can take anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour depending on traffic and construction. (Fortunately, I leave early enough in the morning that it’s only about 35 minutes.)
The longer commute has also meant more time to listening to the radio, and 90% of the time, it’s NBA Radio on Sirius XM, with Frank Isola and Brian Scalabrine in the morning and Justine Termine and Eddie Johnson in the afternoon. Neither usually have much to say about the Spurs these days (why would they?), but yesterday, Termine, whom I usually enjoy and agree with 90% of the time, called the Spurs a tanking team (and not for the first time). I have seen that criticism in other places too, including here at PtR, and for some reason, it irks me.
The term usually carries a negative connotation since it refers to teams who are actively trying to lose or putting themselves in a position to lose for draft purposes, and I just don’t feel like that’s what the Spurs are doing. This is not to say they haven’t tanked in the past — they most certainly did in 2022-23 when they traded away their three best players in Derrick White, Dejounte Murray and Jacob Poeltl for what amounted to much more draft compensation than immediately available basketball talent, and of course it paid off with them winning the draft lottery and Victor Wembanyama, just like in 1997. Last season could also be considered a tank season with all the “experimenting” they did on the way to disappointingly matching the previous season’s win total of 22, but that was then.
This season is different. They got better in the offseason with the addition of veterans Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes, as well as what is looking like a draft-day steal with ROY-favorite Stephon Castle at 4th in the draft. Despite losing Gregg Popovich to a stroke early, they had a winning record coming into the 2025 portion of the season before hitting a rough January and February schedule, but they were still in the thick of the postseason race when they made a move that was only meant to make them better: acquiring De’Aaron Fox for players who had been out of the rotation.
Unfortunately, Fox and Wemby only played in five games together before Wemby’s season came to an abrupt end during the All-Star break after he was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis (explaining his lack of energy and flu-like symptoms in the prior few weeks). If that didn’t already put a wrench in the Spurs’ playoff hopes, it was soon clear that they just didn’t have personnel to make the play-in with Fox playing with a bum finger and the team bereft of size with Zach Collins gone and Charles Bassey out with a knee injury, leading to the signing of Bismack Biyombo and more time of Jeremy Sochan at center.
Fox played for 12 more games after the All-Star break, during which time the Spurs went 5-7, which wasn’t horrible but also signaled that in all likelihood, the play-in just wasn’t going to happen, so he and the team decided to shut him down and get the finger surgery he has needed since training camp so he could be healthy early in the offseason and have the whole summer to train with and get used to his new teammates. If you want to call that a “tanking” move since Fox could have kept playing (and likely would have had Wemby been healthy and/or the postseason was still a realistic goal), then I guess there’s not much argument there.
However, consider the following: when the Spurs decided to shut Fox down, they were already pretty much locked into their current spot in the standings: at the very bottom of the play-in contention tier but too far above the seven teams behind them to fall any further. Also, while they are certainly prone to some abominable showings like Sunday against the Warriors, they still had a 5-2 stretch (with only the first win including Fox) while posting the NBA’s best offense for the month of March.
The team is not actively trying to lose, but they are out-talented and out-matched against several teams that can exploit their weaknesses too easily. With a few exceptions on either side (because that’s how sports work), the Spurs have basically been winning the games they’re supposed to win and losing the ones they were supposed to lose, and that was true before Fox was shut down. When looking at the results since then, it’s pretty hard to argue that their record would be much different with Fox at the helm. In other words, you don’t have to be mad if you feel they aren’t tanking enough because they’re pretty much losing organically, and you don’t have to be mad if you feel they are tanking — because they’re pretty much losing organically.
In the end, the Spurs are not tanking, at least not in my view. They have almost no shot at getting any higher than the 7th best lottery odds, and the only team they’re really jockeying for position with is the Portland Trail Blazers (although Phoenix is trying to make things interesting). They can’t and aren’t losing their way to the bottom of the league, and the players that are available are trying to win because they all have something to prove.
This season should not be added to the tank lore of 1997 and 2023 (and maybe 2024?), but rather, it should be remembered as one that was derailed by their superstar’s health woes, but they still improved a good amount (by what should end up being double-digit wins) from last season despite only having Wemby for 46 games.
This team should be commended for never folding despite all the adversity this season has brought. It has not been a waste or a terrible job at tanking because they were never tanking to begin with. They were just unlucky.
By Marilyn Dubinski, via Pounding The Rock