duncan228
12-23-2009, 02:10 AM
http://media.mysanantonio.com/images/P1_Spurs_Bogans_1223.ART_GMA7I2DO.1_KEITH_BOGANS.1 5337780.jpg
Keith Bogans has assumed Bruce Bowen's old role.
Spurs' Bogans relishing his role (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Spurs_Bogans_relishing_his_role.html)
Jeff McDonald
Spurs guard Roger Mason Jr. has watched teammate Keith Bogans grapple with an All-Star ballot of NBA scorers this season. He's seen Bogans claw with Carmelo Anthony, harass Baron Davis, lay into the likes of Jason Terry, Monta Ellis and Stephen Jackson.
On nights like these, Mason says he barely recognizes his old friend.
“I didn't know he was a defender until he came here,” said Mason, who has known Bogans since they were 9-year-olds growing up in the Washington D.C. area. “I always thought of him as a scorer first.”
Bogans, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard, built his six-season NBA career by being a bulldog of a defender, but he wasn't always this way. In college at Kentucky, he was a bona fide point-producer — so good at putting the ball in the hole that he still ranks fourth on the school's blue-blooded all-time scoring list.
It was a conversation with his old coach at Kentucky, Tubby Smith, that Bogans says changed the course of his career, transforming him from prolific scorer to, as Spurs teammate Manu Ginobili calls him, “a pain in the butt” defender.
“In this league, everybody's a scorer,” Bogans said. “I had to find something to do that other guys didn't do. Not too many guys in this league play defense.”
Even after three consecutive double-digit outings, Bogans is averaging 5.4 points — a paltry number at a position often dominated by point-a-minute scorers.
As far as the Spurs are concerned, any offense Bogans supplies is superfluous. Signed just eight days before the start of training camp, Bogans has earned a starting role based on his ability to defend people.
“There's a lot to be said for one of the starters not really needing the ball,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “In this league, you can use that. It's difficult to guard people the way the rules are, especially perimeter-type people.
“Come playoff time, you have to be able to make those stops.”
The Portland Trail Blazers, the Spurs' opponent tonight at the AT&T Center, are partially responsible for turning Bogans into a starter. He earned his first nod of the season at Portland on Nov. 6, as a counter to Nate McMillian's decision to start Andre Miller alongside Brandon Roy and Steve Blake.
Save for one night in Dallas, when Popovich opted to start Ginobili instead, Bogans has been a fixture in the first five ever since. In games in which Bogans has started and logged at least 20 minutes, opposing guards are shooting 39.8 percent.
It is not often a team will find its starting shooting guard on the free agency scrap heap. That's where the Spurs discovered Bogans, signing him to a minimum deal on Sept. 21 after Milwaukee declined to retain him.
“I didn't think we were going to lose anything by giving him a shot,” Popovich said. “Because when I looked out there in the world, I didn't think there was anybody else that had the potential to take on that role like Bruce Bowen had, and relish doing it night after night.”
One of the players Bogans studied over the years was Bowen, the former Spur and an eight-time member of the NBA's All-Defense team.
Bogans is two inches shorter than Bowen, and stockier. Where Bowen used his quickness and footwork to smother opponents, Bogans uses his strength to knock them out of their preferred spots.
“He grabs you, holds you,” Ginobili said. “He takes defense very seriously, even in practice.”
Sometimes, however, Bogans can't help but have flashbacks to his sweet-shooting days in Kentucky blue. The ball will swing to him in the corner, and he will remember the scorer he once was.
This is the Bogans that Mason remembers from their days in D.C. It is not who Bogans is now.
“I can hit an open shot if I have to,” Bogans said, “but I'm a defender first.”
Keith Bogans has assumed Bruce Bowen's old role.
Spurs' Bogans relishing his role (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Spurs_Bogans_relishing_his_role.html)
Jeff McDonald
Spurs guard Roger Mason Jr. has watched teammate Keith Bogans grapple with an All-Star ballot of NBA scorers this season. He's seen Bogans claw with Carmelo Anthony, harass Baron Davis, lay into the likes of Jason Terry, Monta Ellis and Stephen Jackson.
On nights like these, Mason says he barely recognizes his old friend.
“I didn't know he was a defender until he came here,” said Mason, who has known Bogans since they were 9-year-olds growing up in the Washington D.C. area. “I always thought of him as a scorer first.”
Bogans, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard, built his six-season NBA career by being a bulldog of a defender, but he wasn't always this way. In college at Kentucky, he was a bona fide point-producer — so good at putting the ball in the hole that he still ranks fourth on the school's blue-blooded all-time scoring list.
It was a conversation with his old coach at Kentucky, Tubby Smith, that Bogans says changed the course of his career, transforming him from prolific scorer to, as Spurs teammate Manu Ginobili calls him, “a pain in the butt” defender.
“In this league, everybody's a scorer,” Bogans said. “I had to find something to do that other guys didn't do. Not too many guys in this league play defense.”
Even after three consecutive double-digit outings, Bogans is averaging 5.4 points — a paltry number at a position often dominated by point-a-minute scorers.
As far as the Spurs are concerned, any offense Bogans supplies is superfluous. Signed just eight days before the start of training camp, Bogans has earned a starting role based on his ability to defend people.
“There's a lot to be said for one of the starters not really needing the ball,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “In this league, you can use that. It's difficult to guard people the way the rules are, especially perimeter-type people.
“Come playoff time, you have to be able to make those stops.”
The Portland Trail Blazers, the Spurs' opponent tonight at the AT&T Center, are partially responsible for turning Bogans into a starter. He earned his first nod of the season at Portland on Nov. 6, as a counter to Nate McMillian's decision to start Andre Miller alongside Brandon Roy and Steve Blake.
Save for one night in Dallas, when Popovich opted to start Ginobili instead, Bogans has been a fixture in the first five ever since. In games in which Bogans has started and logged at least 20 minutes, opposing guards are shooting 39.8 percent.
It is not often a team will find its starting shooting guard on the free agency scrap heap. That's where the Spurs discovered Bogans, signing him to a minimum deal on Sept. 21 after Milwaukee declined to retain him.
“I didn't think we were going to lose anything by giving him a shot,” Popovich said. “Because when I looked out there in the world, I didn't think there was anybody else that had the potential to take on that role like Bruce Bowen had, and relish doing it night after night.”
One of the players Bogans studied over the years was Bowen, the former Spur and an eight-time member of the NBA's All-Defense team.
Bogans is two inches shorter than Bowen, and stockier. Where Bowen used his quickness and footwork to smother opponents, Bogans uses his strength to knock them out of their preferred spots.
“He grabs you, holds you,” Ginobili said. “He takes defense very seriously, even in practice.”
Sometimes, however, Bogans can't help but have flashbacks to his sweet-shooting days in Kentucky blue. The ball will swing to him in the corner, and he will remember the scorer he once was.
This is the Bogans that Mason remembers from their days in D.C. It is not who Bogans is now.
“I can hit an open shot if I have to,” Bogans said, “but I'm a defender first.”