how much would you offer Popovich to coach your team?

[willguo]

Getting Popovich also increases your chances of keeping your free agents, perhaps even at below market costs.

Also, calling the Spurs a favorite over the 2001 Lakers is just not accurate.

[Mike G]

Correct -- at least in hindsight.
Spurs had the top seed and the best SRS in the league. In round 1 they dispatched the Wolves 3-1, and then the 4th best team in the league, the Mavs, by 4-1.

The Lakers had swept the Blazers and the Kings. So they had a better record against better teams. Still, the Spurs were +9.3 ppg before the WCF, the Lakes +11.6; and LA won by an avg of 22.3 points. That looks like about 20 ppg worse than expected for SA.

The frustrating series -- if you were a Spurs fan or a Lakers hater -- was the 2002 matchup. The Lakers were the slight favorites, by season SRS. Then the games went like this (SA-LA) :

Code: Select all

'02   Half   3rd Q   4th Q   Final
G1   38-32   23-25   19-29   80-86
G2   56-40   17-25   15-20   88-85
G3   52-53   19-21   18-25   89-99
G4   46-42   29-25   10-20   85-87
G5   45-39   16-23   26-31   87-93

I think it was that game 4 when their "go to guy" in the 4th was Danny Ferry. Nobody else could get a shot!

I wondered what a coach could have done differently with that team, in this series.
So yeah, it wasn't an upset. Just a different kind of humbling.