It wasn’t about Phil. It was about Walsh, Phil, Perry, Buford, Riley and everyone and every conversation that comes after them.

The Spurs were fortunate enough to have their franchise player go down with an injury just in time to draft the greatest PF of all time. A player that also happened to be more dedicated to winning than earning money than any player before or since him. A player that remained healthy & highly motivated enough to be productive until he was 38-39.

Buford became vice president/assistant general manager in 1999 when the team already had both Robinson and Duncan and won their first championship. Before that he was an assistant coach and in scouting.

His career is fairly close to a former coach that took over a team with Jordan and Pippen and then was actively helpful in building a team in LA that had Shaq and/or Kobe. It’s still an amazing accomplishment to win that much, but my guess is a lot of people would have won championships in San Antionio, Chicago, and LA with that kind of head start.

The Pau and Aldridge contracts are already hamstringing San Antonio.

Anyone want Gay for a couple of years at 8-9m to play with KP?

How about the shell of Parker last year or for 15M this year?

This period marks the beginning of the end of the Spur era. They are going to have to rebuild around Leonard with limited young assets and no high picks – assuming Leonard even stays because of all the mistakes they’ve made with free agents in recent years. He wants to play with a young team.

Hey, don’t get me wrong. I’d sign on for that combination of luck and skill to win a few championships. But the Spurs have maneuvered themselves into a bad spot over the last few years. They are old, can’t win, have bad contracts, and the remnants of their championship era and free agent signings are still too good to get a good draft pick. They are close to done. Apparently they all blow some.

Sure, Buford’s team has won four titles while he was GM (plus a fifth when he was an assistant GM), they’ve never won less than 50 games during his first 16 seasons as GM, he’s won the Executive of the Year Award twice and the Spurs have the fifth best record in the NBA this year with their best player playing only nine (very limited) games so far (they’ll likely make it 17 seasons in a row of 50 or more wins for Buford), but naturally, dude’s overrated.

But let’s all be sure not to criticize Phil Jackson too much.

Even though it didn’t work out, the bargain made a little sense at the time.

So in other words he screwed up free agency, now is stuck with 2 overpaid aging players on bad 3 year contracts, a team that is way too good to get a decent draft pick, an unhappy star player, and most likely the beginnings of the decline of the Spurs. Doesn’t sound like much of a genius to me.

WTF was a supposed genius like Buford thinking when he gave 37 year old Pau Gasol 3 years at 16m starting this year when his minutes and overall production have been declining for years?

It was part of a two-ended bargain the Spurs made with Pau. Pau had a $16m player option for this year as part of his last contract, which he would have opted into. The Spurs asked him to opt out so they could sign free agents, and in exchange they would reward him with a multi-year deal. He opted out, but then San Antonio struck out in free agency, yet still had to give him the contract they promised.

Even though it didn’t work out, the bargain made a little sense at the time.

I think Kanter is a lock to opt in. That’s why I think we should try to get bad contracts (if possible) and add picks or eurostash for Lee and KOQ. I’d be ok with a couple second rounders for WHG too. We are not in a position to improve our team until 2019-20, so let’s ride with what we have (but don’t play veterans unless we really have too, it makes no sense at all. And if KP gets tired of losing, duh. Look at yourself in the mirror, dude).

So, we’ve tanked last year. And the year before that. And the year before that.
You think we should add trash to tank this year, and tank next year, too. And screw KP, let him walk.

Really? That’s the plan?