But it was these 11 players who achieved 56 wins, third in the Western Conference and third in the league during the regular season and showed the strongest performance in the entire league during the playoffs, sweeping Westbrook and Howard's Rockets 4-0 in the first round and also dominating the Lakers in the second round.
It was then that people realized the Spurs system was far better than they had thought!
The media sharply commented—if Popovich hadn't messed around and tried to PUA Zhang Yang, and had honestly given him the max salary, the Spurs of last season and this season would have been unbeatable, possibly even completing what the Lakers hadn't from the 11-12 season to the 14-15 season—surpassing the three-peat.
His, Zhang San's, haters even gave him the nickname 'system player,' because the Lakers' tactical system was directly copied from the Spurs, and according to those people, his All-NBA First Team selections were all thanks to the Spurs system.
