Spurs of the Moment

No Spurs game today, but here’s a look at the implications of road records in the playoffs, including San Antonio who has a 15-15 road record this season.

Still, the Spurs are 24-10 at home, the West’s fifth-best home record, which is two spots higher than San Antonio currently sits in the conference standings. Granted, only 2 1/2 games separate the No. 4 seed, Utah, from the final four in the West, but unless the Spurs — and only the Spurs — are able to close that gap, they will find themselves in the rare position of playing from a lower berth. That means more road games, right from the get-go.

While it looks more and more likely that the Spurs won’t knock themselves out of the playoff hunt this season, getting there is just the first half of the battle. I’d love to go on about the Spurs gelling and becoming a great road team this year in the playoffs, but they will most likely be facing the Lakers or Mavs, in which case that won’t be a whole hell of a lot of comfort. The playoff seeding could shake out any which way over the next month, but I think all sane Spurs fans are holding on to the hope of Duncan and Co. turning it up a notch in the playoffs that we haven’t seen all season – that is as opposed to the delusion that the Spurs are among the elite contenders right now. Let’s face it, the Spurs are only getting mentioned as possible champs based on a decade of rep, not performance this season.

Jerry Stackhouse talks trash about RJ… well it’s not on the level of Shaq vs Kobe circa 2007, but it’s not flattering either.

“When it comes down to a half-court set and just being able to play half-court basketball I don’t think he’s that special of a player, in my opinion. It’s just one of those things where it’s just not a good fit. It wasn’t a great fit for him in Milwaukee when he was here. He had some big games but really nothing special. He wasn’t a guy that really helped them go to another level as far as wins and losses. And I think they’re finding out in San Antonio that he may not be the right fit for what they want to do. If I know [head coach Gregg] Popovich like I know him I could very easily see him not in a San Antonio uniform next year.”

Alrighty then. I must admit that I find it hard to see RJ around after this season as well. It all comes down to who wants to make room for 2011 with his expiring deal. In other words, whichever poor stupid NBA franchise fails to improve in any way in 2010 via free agency or the draft – that’s the team we will be looking at as a possible taker for RJ’s bloated contract. Barring some miraculous, consistent improvement in his overall game, I would love to see him sent packing this summer, but the truth is he will likely be in San Antonio until at least February 2011. Ugh.