Duncan v Bird & Magic

Some went nutty the other day when Robert Horry suggested these San Antonio Spurs could hang with Bird's Celtics and Magic's Lakers. While I would suggest that Magic and Bird had a higher level of competition in their day than Duncan's Spurs have right now--the Eastern Conference is just so weak right now its dragging down the whole league--I do think that head-to-head the Spurs would hang with the classic squads. Yo, Ginobli, Parker and Duncan is a for-real trio, they're not just the best that were left, they are the best. And they've got the good coaching that gets the most of the role players like Bowen, Oberto and Elson. And they've got the veterans off the bench like Horry, Finley and Barry that can smell a championship and drive their teammates right to it.

The Celtics had a great starting five (Parish, McHale, Bird, Ainge, DJ) but not much off the bench (Greg Kite? Rick Carlysle? Bill 'Ol' One Leg' Walton?), and I think Parker and Ginobli driving from all over the floor would put some serious pressure on the Celtics up the middle. I'd take the Spurs in 7. And as for the Lakers, well, we'd finally see Tony Parker get out-classed, but with Bowen clamping down on Worthy, Ginobli taking it to Byron Scott and Duncan dominating Kareem, I think we'd see 7 games--and I'd probably take the home team. Isn't that impressive enough?

Every era is different and you have to look at each time period uniquely. And the Spurs are raging through their period, let's call it 'the high school era'. The movement of high school kids coming straight out has sent a ripple through the league that is still in play. Not even completely in terms of skills, it's more about getting to know the players. We learned more about Oden and Durant in 1 year of college ball than we've seen of Shaun Livingston or Sebastian Telfair or Deshawn Stevenson after years of riding pro benches. The skills are important but the visibility of the players is important too. And the Spurs are the smartest, strongest team in the 'high school era'. And note how adeptly the Spurs have used the high school era to poach talent from overseas. Everyone's trying to get the next Lebron while the Spurs content themselves with the next Oberto.

The Spurs are all alone right now. We got gypped out the Spurs-Suns series that we should've had. The Spurs thugged their way through that series (and somehow or other were allowed to get away with it!), and that's unfortunate because they didn't have to. We should've had 7 solid games out of that and instead got a pile of controversy.

The Suns are the only real competition in the west. The Mavericks have decided to take a powder, they'll be back but how strong can they be? The Rockets are a puzzle but still not as good as the Spurs. Ditto the Jazz. The Nuggets are a nice team but not a great one. The Lakers are floundering. The Warriors are nice but hard to make lightning strike year after year.The Clippers are simply not gonna get it done. The Blazers (Oden) and Sonics (Durant) are both a few years away. The Hornets are putting the pieces together but they won't be competitive any time soon. The Grizzlies charged so hard in the wrong direction last year its hard to imagine them winning at all for a few years. The T-Wolves are going in the wrong direction.

So as of right now I'm taking Spurs-Cavs again next year with the Cavs maybe good enough to take 2 games.