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I don't know. With DeColo running the ship, his inexperience could possibly f it all up.
The rest of the NBA is screwed unless Pop messes it up:
Spurs now have a proven talented front line that with the missing links of Boston out have as good as FC as anyone except LAL and that difference is shrinking. The Spurs can and should divide the minutes among Duncan, Dice and then Spltter. The two other main reserves in Blair and Bonner should see at most 10-12 minutes a game, then if Bonner plays soft or shoots poorly Pop can turn to his commando type of hot shooter in Novak. It is not a LAL line but with Boston's hurt, the Magic being Howard and committee, and the Bulls off on the Spurs are now potentially a top 2-5 frontcourt - which they should have been more this year. Certainly, size wise there is now no other team in the West or East that the Spurs should fear and that especially includes the over-hyped Mavs with Chandler getting props for blocking a measly and pathetic 0.9 shots a game and the erratic Haywood or Ian behind him. http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/holli...s/_/position/c
By the way, the constantly over-hyped Chandler (7th in PER) that has led the Mavs to the 15th ranked defense, and went into a s when Dirk was out, plays about the same minutes as Duncan but Duncan (and a regular season type of Duncan) is grabbing about a block more per game and rebounds about the same rate and has not effective range on offense which is why his PER is 5th among centers in just the West rated by Hollinger while Duncan is top 3 still. Dirk deserves MVP cred for covering for the deficiencies of Chandler and the rest of that supposed big line as he remains the only true offensive inside or outside big threat on the Mavs other than the Bonner lite Peja ( and only from the outside). http://www.nba.com/statistics/sortab...ml?cnf=1&prd=1
Spurs are 13th in team defense but they have the potential to improve exponetially with Splitter, Duncan and Dice while the Mavs are what they are - Dirk and center by committee up front along with Marion or some other over-rated semi star.
Only Mr. "Single Single", i.e., K. Perkins bring on the over-media hype that Chandler does these days. Somehow, Perkins is even more over-rated, as despite the Thuder's surge, without Garnett and others he will not impact games when it counts (he never played more than 25 minutes or so in Bostons' victory year or until he was hurt last year and there is reason Boston dumped him and is trying to go with a committee and Shaq while they could salvage something before free agency, even though he was well-liked, nice guy/nice person but vastly over-rated!) as much even with the truly under-rated and improving Ibaka, the human pogo stick by his side - as both are not big threats. Spurs can kill Thunder either inside and outside and only the annointing of Durant with his FTs or Westbrooke will keep them in a series, that is if they the Thunder can beat the Nuggets (I am not sure they can - as Karl is a friggin true genius right now of a coach)
For more on Mr. Single Single see:
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/show....php?p=5003314
inside.http://duelingcouches.blogspot.com/2...overrated.html
http://www.talk-sports.net/nba/sucks...ndrick_Perkins
Spurs have IMO by far the best backcourt in the league (hard to make a strong case for any of the contenders as least hanging on the outside with the Spurs) with Manu, Hill, Parker and the balsy Neal; and a player who at least plays half smart in Quinn.
Spurs have other role players that can step up in short spots with Anderson, and Owens among them.
As long as Pop sees the light and doesn't play coach genius on us, and plays to the above strengths this team will go very, very far!
Last edited by Rummpd; 03-30-2011 at 01:38 PM.
I don't know. With DeColo running the ship, his inexperience could possibly f it all up.
Perkins isn't overrated. He's one of the best post defenders in the league. That's at a premium right now. Tell me you'd be pissed if the Spurs had him on the roster right now at he same salary that Presti decided to give him. Spurfan would be nutting in their collective pants.
Everyone needs to get a grip on reality. Putting Splitter into the starting lineup does not put the Spurs front court in the top 5. I'd say there is a 25% chance Splitter stays in the starting lineup when Dyess comes back.
Total B.S. if Pop gives even 75% of the minutes to Duncan, Dice and Splitter who exactly do the Spurs have to fear up front except plausibly LAL because and only of an improving Bynum, the talented Gasol and Odom? Duncan is still a beast when motivated and was not hurt badly, Dice is a smart player and a good defender, and Splitter is tall enough to at least contest shots and has drawn about 15 offensive charges already.
Perkins is over-rated period. He fills up space & tries hard & is by all accounts a good guy and team-mate, but in reality is simply a taller Blair and not even as good offensively.
Ainge is no dummy and if Perkins was truly better than that he would have been signed by the Celtics even with Perkin's over-belief in his value, as bigs even over-rated ones are a hot commodity. Ibaka is the real defensive threat on the Thunder and the Spurs have enough outside shooting that if they get hot can toy with the inside outside of the Thunder all series long. Meanwhile, the Thunder now have less offensive threats and Popovich will just let Durant and Westbrooke go off with variable double teams, cover the rest of their limited offensive assets man on man, ala most of the Nash/Amare years and it will be over in short series. Spurs would win a series vs. Thunder at worst 4-2 if the Spurs play even 85% of their potential.
If Pop had been able to work in Splitter since the beginning of the season, then a Duncan/Splitter combo w/Dice off the bench would be a top 5 frontcourt in the league, especially defensively.
Duncan is still one of the best defenders in the league and Splitter has shown flashes of being an exceptional defender like most of us assumed, very similar to Varejao.
It's not better than Bynum/Pau or Nowitzki/Chandler but an obvious improvement over Duncan/Blair or Duncan/Bonner.
Still makes me sick to think of how much better this team would be if that had been the case. Gonna be awful to watch Splitter sent back to the end of the bench when Duncan returns and Bonner/Blair getting his minute again.
Will see, I believe a paradigm shift may have occured last game when Splitter not only started but finished. He would have to be not the genius he is supposed to be to put Splitter behind both Blair and Bonner. Could happen but against the bigger teams I think Splitter has a > role.
Slim chance but don't hold your breath. It took a Duncan injury for Splitter to even see the floor. It took 3 horrible losses with Bonner/Blair getting heavy 4th qtr minutes for Tiago to even get time in the 4th.
When Duncan gets back, Tiagos going right back to the bench and we are rolling the dice with Bonner/Blair again.
Pop's so called "genius" died when he benched Bowen in favor of Finley. Pop will give his bs excuse saying the playoffs aren't for Tiago.
Then he'll start him at the beginning of next season and the Pop lovers will say that Pop is such a genius for realizing that Tiago needsto start
I really enjoyed this read and agree on most everything. It will be very telling how Pop handles the rotations on this 8 game stretch ending the regular season. Should we have all our guys back, maintaining our still sizable lead for hca is very doable. The most positive thing by far in our losing streak has been the play of Tiago, and Hill of course. It would be a big mistake to treat Tiago as most rookies and sit him for the playoffs. TP has voiced this same thing with his comments about him having played in 'big' games already. Thanks for the good read.
Perkins is a pretty fair system defender but has to prove he is a true one on one top tier (his only plausible real strength besides his confidence in his own abilities) defender without Garnett and others besides him. I expect he will fall short of that as teams take him outside and outquick him at least this year. Maybe if he gets thinner and quicker he can truly become a help defender. Whatever, he gave the Thunder some size and let Ibaka play but they also lost scoring. So far Harden and Ibaka have stepped up but the Thunder also have not caught the Mavs as some expected, and won't. So Spurs will be taking them down in the 2nd round, if the Thunder can get by the deep and well coached Nuggets who may have in fact, a true top 5 FC with Nene (great player), Martin and that wierd Birdman etc.
A positive thing about Perkins for both parties involved is he signed an extension quickly for the Thunder . To be fair he does he does seem to have desire and by all accounts works hard. Long-range he may surprise but he will never be a true top 5 center by any stretch of the imagination, and IMO playing more minutes Splitter has a higher upside on both sides of the ball especially if Splitter gets a year with the weights.
Last edited by Rummpd; 03-30-2011 at 01:54 PM.
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