Stat of the Day -- Vol. 2

[timvp]

So I was putting together my Offensive Thoughts on DeJuan Blair. I was looking for evidence that he is less explosive these days compared to his first two years in the NBA.

I decided to look up the number of dunks he had each season.

As a rookie, Blair had 33 dunks.








Last year, in his second year in the NBA, Blair had 26 dunks.





This season?







Wait, that can't be right.




*checks all available sources*





Wow, I guess it is.








Blair has zero dunks this season.




0.




After 59 dunks in his first two seasons, Blair has failed to register his first dunk this season.



:smchode:

[Wild Cobra Kai]

I look for that to change with his Mama Ginobili spoon feeding him.

[DPG21920]

Timvp, what are the odds the Spurs make a move to replace Blair via trade or from within by taking him out of the starting lineup?

[MI21]

That actually doesn't surprise me a whole lot. Well, 0 does, but the very low amount does. I don't know who got this into him but he now thinks he is Tony Parker and shoots floaters in the keyway instead of going hard.

I'm not sure if that was a coaching move to help him get his shot blocked less, but it would be interesting to chart his blocks against to see if this adjustment is actually working. Personally, I prefer he go hard at the hoop and draw fouls/dunks, I don't mind if he gets blocked a bit, it's better than playing soft.

That said, maybe it's just his declining athleticism. It's pretty obvious that his explosion has all but disappeared.

Kinda sad tbh, considering the guy is capable of this:

TIpfKMraQPM
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20g_R6qnYBA

[Hoops Czar]

Blair does all his damage in the 1st quarter. After that he goes down hill, or i guess when defenses start trying.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

Whoa....I just was talking to mookie earlier today how Blair never dunks anymore. That's all she wrote, IMO. Blair will be pretty much done after next season.

[therealtruth]

Maybe he needs to go to the bench. When he was coming of the bench last year, he had a huge put back dunk against the Nuggets.

[DesignatedT]

Them knees are quickly giving in. The Spurs need really need to move him, I just don't know what kind of stock he has around the league.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

Letting Mahinmi walk is looking stupider and stupider every day.

[benefactor]

Knees are going even quicker than I thought they would. He didn't help that by gaining weight last season. If he plans to play more than a few more seasons he's going to have to keep his weight down.

[ezau]

Bone on bone TBH

[DPG21920]

I C What Tim is doing here. What ails DeJuan Blair...

[phxspurfan]

Keep in mind his dunk totals probably proportional to his minutes played and number of FG attempts. And with a short season, he will probably have a smaller total number of dunks.

And also, get the man some H-E-B Texas Dippers corn chips, they're made for dunking.

[sabar]

It is all mental for Blair this season. There have been a lot of quotes this year with Blair and Pop talking about Blair's offense, over-thinking things, trying to get back to basics, etc. Plus he seems to have a fragile ego with regards to playtime, starting, and so on.

All this with his no ACLs and love of Whataburger is adding up...

[Russ]

'
Them knees are quickly giving in. The Spurs need really need to move him, I just don't know what kind of stock he has around the league.


Bone on bone TBH

Not a big fan of Blair, but I think the health arguments may be, well, bogus.

A lack of ACLs would not cause the knees to be "bone on bone." That would only happen from a lack of cartilage. (Just ask Tim.)

Nor would it seem to cause the knees to "give in." The ACLs give the knees stability. If the knees are stable without them, there is no reason to believe that such a situation could not persist indefinitely.

[TDMVPDPOY]

find me a stat that shows us, he never passes it out in t he lowblock...

number of circus shots fg%

[ElNono]

Either his knees are giving in, or he's turning into a finesse guy.... hmmmm

[Russo21]

That's funny as Blair having 0 dunks this season.

Then i look at our frontline... Blair, Bonner, Duncan, Splitter, umm who else? They are pretty much our only bigs?

I reckon we'd just about be a lock for having the fewest total dunks in the association this year? Our PG doesn't dunk, manu has been out, neal doesnt dunk, leonard and green not so much? RJ only makes 4 or 5 FG's a game.

Would be interesting to see our number of team dunks. I swear we'd be last in the league... Not that it matters as dunks dont equal wins but still... now im curious

[Wild Cobra Kai]

'



Not a big fan of Blair, but I think the health arguments may be, well, bogus.

A lack of ACLs would not cause the knees to be "bone on bone." That would only happen from a lack of cartilage. (Just ask Tim.)

Nor would it seem to cause the knees to "give in." The ACLs give the knees stability. If the knees are stable without them, there is no reason to believe that such a situation could not persist indefinitely.

The lack of ACLs causes major instability in the knees, literally grinding the cartilage down to nothing. If they're not bone on bone now, they will be. Don't be fooled that since it hasn't happened yet that the knees are stable and it won't happen.

[Solid D]

Letting Mahinmi walk is looking stupider and stupider every day.

Well, CBF, Ian still fouls slightly more per game than DeJuan does, plus DeJuan is still out-producing Ian in most categories.

[TDMVPDPOY]

has he even have a double double this season??

contract year and his playin like shit :(

maybe his hoping the spurs win the championship and reward him a malik rose type contract....lol will we be sucked into this contract renew again?

[Fireball]

Blair led the team in double doubles early in the season ... but I noticed early that he might not be able to throw it down anymore ... we need Rookie Blair back or get him off the team

[TDMVPDPOY]

what are your guys thoughts on this...

is he better at
- posting down low circus shot?? or
- receiving ball on baseline and working jab step towards the rim for some circus shot?
- PNR?
- go up strong without the circus shot, attempting to miss with weakass attempts to get another offensive rebound...

[therealtruth]

It's pretty bad when Matt Bonner has more dunks than you.

[dylankerouac]

Interesting. At least his yearly averages are in line with last year and the previous year.

Although he is averaging rebounding one less ball every game and blocking half as many shots too.

I have also noticed DB's minutes for this year and last year are approximately the same, they did not increase or decrease. This could mean Pop has accepted what Dejuan can bring to the table and is asking this from Blair. At least Dejuan is consistent in this regard.

[venitian navigator]

I would't be surprised if his lack of dunking is to put in relationship with some medical advise...after all, with his knees situation, the high Jumping and coming down are the thinghs that can really hurt, in the long run, his knees.
That and probably :
1) Pop asking to put more attention on defense (that I see improved this year since last one);
2) Blair understanding that dunking is not the favourite move by Pop

can explain the total "change" in De Juan approach to the game.

That said, I still can't understand what we're waiting for signing some other bigs (actually we lack two) considering :
1) Tim's age;
2) Splitter supposed fragility;
3) Blair knees and not so wonderful offensive year;
4) Bonner impossibility to play in the paint...

no one that could really help and just waiting the trade deadline? However, I think that could be too late for anyone to adjust to our system ...

[MarCowMar]

That is scary. Blair was beasting in his first year. Hopefully he is just having mental or weight issues. He is such a fun player I'd hate to see a shortened career for him due to injuries.

[jjktkk]

I would't be surprised if his lack of dunking is to put in relationship with some medical advise...after all, with his knees situation, the high Jumping and coming down are the thinghs that can really hurt, in the long run, his knees.
That and probably :
1) Pop asking to put more attention on defense (that I see improved this year since last one);
2) Blair understanding that dunking is not the favourite move by Pop

can explain the total "change" in De Juan approach to the game.

That said, I still can't understand what we're waiting for signing some other bigs (actually we lack two) considering :
1) Tim's age;
2) Splitter supposed fragility;
3) Blair knees and not so wonderful offensive year;
4) Bonner impossibility to play in the paint...

no one that could really help and just waiting the trade deadline? However, I think that could be too late for anyone to adjust to our system ...

Theres really not alot of bigs out there. I'm hoping the Spurs make a trade, or maybe pick up a big another team waives. But its starting to look like the Spurs will roll with what they have now.

[Bruno]

Wow, crazy stat. Nice find.

Surprisingly, his FG% at the rim is better than in the two previous years:
http://www.hoopdata.com/player.aspx?name=DeJuan%20Blair

Another really bad stat about Blair is when he is playing PF, the opposite PF scores 20.6 points per 48 minutes with a .516 eFG%. Blair is clearly outmatched by most of the NBA starting PFs. It will tremendously hurt Spurs in the playoffs and the front office better do something about it if they want to make something relevant this year.

[mudyez]

It is a typical Pop move!
We all know, if Pop hates two things, its behind the back passes and dunks.

Blair is just rying to keep his job!

[z0sa]

Blair is the primary component holding Spurs title hopes down IMHO. I am no expert on FO stuff but if we can trade him, let's do it already.

[polandprzem]

I think that the FO staff are looking for many options.
Blair is valuable when aggressive and hits the board like machine and finishes close to the rim. If this aspect of the game is down this season his value goes down to the point that the spurs produce a big hole that the opponents can expose and take advantage of

[Solid D]

He seems to have made a decision to do as many quick release shots & reverse layups as possible.

[timvp]

:lol @ Solid D's sig.

[Kewni Leonard]

It would make sense to start playing him a decent amount, get his trade value up and then let him go. Not only is he one of the best bargains in the league, but he's not going to resign here; he hates Popobitch.

[timvp]

First dunk tonight.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

I don't think there's much to say other than he's clearly lost some athleticism.

But he played decent offensively tonight.

[ElNono]

First dunk tonight.

And another knee scare

[vander]

he's just learning Pop's system

[007nites]

His body weight is around 275 right now. It's hard to get up 6'7" 275 in the air to dunk.

[Man In Black]

I think it's a save the body move. Like what they tried to do to Manu but then Manu reverted back to his,"this is how I play" maneuver.

[Blake]

just threw down a scary dunk tonight

[MI21]

As embarassing as it was to have Sean going on about DeJuan's completely stock standard 2-hand dunk, DeJuan just had another dunk.

Feels like all of a sudden he is getting a dunk every game. I would say he has had 6-8 in the last 2/3 weeks.

[Robz4000]

He's had at least one dunk a game since the OKC game.