 |
San Antonio remain in the thick of the West playoff race despite many experts confusion on the matter. "Yeah they saw what we were undertaking as a giving up, we saw it as a re-alignment in terms of age but the plan was always to keep the talent in place." GM Leeroy said earlier. "It's true that AD has finally hit his stride and while he has been much improved I think the improvement throughout the team and coaching has played just as much a part of our recent success."
Over the last few weeks San Antonio have been playing well however a couple of bad losses at the hands of the Lakers has the team realizing their place. Hanging o to the 5th seed by a thread a bad week or 2 and the 5th seed will quickly become 9th or 10th.
During his press conference the GM was pushed on the rumors that the team is considering shutting down Anthony Davis to prove a point. "No way would we do that just to prove a point. AD missed a week a while back and Marvin held down the fort just fine. He (Davis) has had a lot of minor niggles this season and if we decide to shut him down it will be for his long term benefit not for any other reason."
So the question becomes can the Spurs hang on to a playoff spot if they 'rest' Davis for the last 2 or 3 weeks of the season? The answer is unclear. The team played well with Davis out previously. Currently at 40 wins it is likely that they would need at least 47 wins to make the post season so there is still a lot of work to be done. If the team shuts down Davis they will likely bring him back in the event of a playoff appearance but this seems like a big risk to take at this point of the season. We know of at least 8 teams hoping the Spurs take the cautious approach with Davis.
|
