This was pretty terrible.

Houston won 101-87 at home in the first of two pre-season match ups. Timmy and Tony sat. It was ugly for a while but there were some bright spots.

Let’s just randomly talk about it, k?

Corey Joseph: He did some nice things. I don’t know how excited to get about this. We’ve seen a ton of point guards do nice things in a regular season games. Hell, Antonio Daniels did nice things for a whole season before wilting in the bright lights of the Staples Center.

Still I like what I saw.

TJ Ford: He looks comfortable playing point guard, which is good. George Hill never looked comfortable with his role. Pop had him doing a lot of things from the very beginning –learning to play defense, learning the complicated offense, adjusting to the league. TJ is a veteran, and can run a team. He isn’t an all-star or anything but has been in the spotlight in college and played in some relatively big games. I like it.

He really will be a nice addition just because there shouldn’t be a tremendous dropoff from Tony in terms of style. TJ is still relatively quick and fast and is a streaky shooter –like TP.

Kawhi Leonard: I only saw a few minutes of him play, admittedly. He looked really smooth out there. There is no doubt that he has some talent and will face a steep curve this season.

Novak: Looked Novakian ‘cept for missing threes.

Everone else: DeJuan Blair is concerning. He didn’t look like the Beast that started out the year in 2010, but it was only the first pre-season game. He’s talked a lot about getting his head right and returning to form. We’ll see about that. He had nice stats that box-score fans will point to but I wasn’t sold on his performance. To be fair, it was the first game.

See you at the scrimmage on Monday. It’s free!

I was thinking about this because I saw it being mocked somewhere (I forget where) and happened to be checking out the Spurs schedule. Was our Wake Up Call against Memphis last year? What is that supposed to mean?

I suppose it means “Was the loss in the first round a point where the organization realized that they really and truly could not win a title with their current structure?”

I don’t think so. I don’t think they thought that. They likely think they have a decent enough shot every year and they’d be right. They do have a decent shot compared to the dregs of the league. The Spurs will win more games than the Kings. Probably.

What are we basing that on? Talent? Coaching? The combination thereof?

Yes. We are.

Our strengths were never in youth and athleticism but in execution and tenacity. As you get older and less athletic you have to become even more of an executor and tenacious to make up for it. Look at Boston. They have a bunch of old guys that know all the tricks and won’t be found out of position, and they have just enough youth and athleticism in Rondo to let them win those battles. It is beautiful.

I’m interested to see how we Tiago and Kawhi step up to fill those youth and athleticism roles. Though we can’t duplicate Boston’s HOF executors, we have a few guys that have done it before. Like our favorite drive-time San Antonio sports radio guys says, we just need to make it through these 66-games healthy and anything can happen when we get to the tournament.

There is a small room for error in these Tim Twilight years, no question. Nothing is over, though. I am not ready to give up on this team, however slight those chances may be.

Tonight we play Houston sans some regulars. It will be a good look at the young ‘uns.

NBATV 7:00 pm
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