I think Tiago Splitter should get 25-30 minutes a night

[greekgods12]

He proved to me he could played and i believe he could average 10-12ppg this year if he is given consistent time for all 82 gms. He could keep td fresh. Pop has to stop messing with his minutes he is a real smart player

[dbestpro]

The problem with Splitter is that he is easily injured. To top it off, he is a free agent in the off season, and someone will offer him 8-9 mil per year. I like Splitter, but I do not feel he is worth that much. We should make him part of an offer than brings back an A grade player or risk losing him for nothing.

[TDMVPDPOY]

if the sperms aint bringing back splitter cause some other team is going to give him a payday...lol lettin curry go when we can just lock him up on a cheap deal long term

[greekgods12]

i just like his game and he is always moving. He plays very hard if he could just improve his fts 5%-8% he is worth 6.5-7 million per year

[Leetonidas]

He's bolting as soon as he can so the Spurs need to play him and increase his trade value and ship him out. After his first 3 years riding the bench no one would blame someone of his talent for bolting the first chance he gets

[Richie]

Splitter could easily average 15/8 with 30 minutes per night. Giving him less minutes than Blair and Bonner is ridiculous.

[rmt]

He's bolting as soon as he can so the Spurs need to play him and increase his trade value and ship him out. After his first 3 years riding the bench no one would blame someone of his talent for bolting the first chance he gets

Wouldn't blame him at all - just very poor development by Pop - having him play behind Bonner and Blair for most of his time with the Spurs. Even if his post game is soft, his pick and rolls are excellent. His defense - just by virtue of being bigger and taller - are much better than Bonner and Blair. People forget the 30 point beat down by LAL before Pop started Splitter against them.

[superbigtime]

Wouldn't blame him at all - just very poor development by Pop - having him play behind Bonner and Blair for most of his time with the Spurs. Even if his post game is soft, his pick and rolls are excellent. His defense - just by virtue of being bigger and taller - are much better than Bonner and Blair. People forget the 30 point beat down by LAL before Pop started Splitter against them.

Amen. Oft injured bigmen just seem to stay in Pop's doghouse.

[Vic Petro]

It's Pop's fault this guy is made of glass? And when he does play, he's soft as charmin. He has some skills but if some team wants to give him an Asik pay day I have no problem with letting him walk. Or better yet trading him beforehand.

[Spurs da champs]

I think the spurs need to trade Splinter while he's still worth something.

[racm]

Splitter for Varejao, tbh

If you're gonna invest in oft-injured Brazilian big men might as well get the defensive player, tbh

[rmt]

It's Pop's fault this guy is made of glass? And when he does play, he's soft as charmin. He has some skills but if some team wants to give him an Asik pay day I have no problem with letting him walk. Or better yet trading him beforehand.

He's not any softer than the choker Bonner, and his defense is a helluva lot better than Ginger. What'll the Spurs do next year with only a 37 year old TD and Diaw? You really don't expect that TD's going to keep up his great play for the next 3 years. Splitter's still a lot better than whatever big man out there who can possibly be had by the Spurs (which is not much considering how expensive any decent big man is). As far as I'm concerned, the height, size, mobility, hands, bball-iq, head, attitude are there - Pop just needs to give him a chance and not play him behind Bonner and Blair.

[lefty]

I think Scola and Curry should play 20 minutes each


I hope Pop will do it

[therealtruth]

The irony. Splitter is the kind of intelligent but athletically limited player Pop says he likes but he refuses to play him. I don't think Oberto or Elson would have gotten minutes with the current version of Pop.

[Vic Petro]

He's not any softer than the choker Bonner, and his defense is a helluva lot better than Ginger. What'll the Spurs do next year with only a 37 year old TD and Diaw? You really don't expect that TD's going to keep up his great play for the next 3 years. Splitter's still a lot better than whatever big man out there who can possibly be had by the Spurs (which is not much considering how expensive any decent big man is). As far as I'm concerned, the height, size, mobility, hands, bball-iq, head, attitude are there - Pop just needs to give him a chance and not play him behind Bonner and Blair.

I'm not excited about the prospect of paying Splitter $10m/yr after next season.

[tim_duncan_fan]

Splitter sucks.

He really is as soft as he plays on the court.

[rascal]

Splitter could easily average 15/8 with 30 minutes per night. Giving him less minutes than Blair and Bonner is ridiculous.

How many centers in the league averaged 15/8? Splitter is not good enough offensively, lacks any type of shot away from the basket and is not a good free throw shooter to average 15 ppg.

[Bruno]

Splitter playing 25-30 mpg might very well be what Pop is planing. It's worth noticing that Splitter played a lot of his preseason minutes alongside Duncan which could be a sign Pop is planing on giving him more than the backup C minutes.

If Spurs are serious about being better defensively, the way to do it without a trade is to go with a bigmen rotation of Duncan, Diaw and Splitter. All three will play 25-30mpg and the remaining minutes will be small ball, garbage time or one of Blair/Bonner playing few minutes. Going with that rotation and having Mills as backup PG will immediately make Spurs significantly better defensively.

[therealtruth]

Splitter playing 25-30 mpg might very well be what Pop is planing. It's worth noticing that Splitter played a lot of his preseason minutes alongside Duncan which could be a sign Pop is planing on giving him more than the backup C minutes.

If Spurs are serious about being better defensively, the way to do it without a trade is to go with a bigmen rotation of Duncan, Diaw and Splitter. All three will play 25-30mpg and the remaining minutes will be small ball, garbage time or one of Blair/Bonner playing few minutes. Going with that rotation and having Mills as backup PG will immediately make Spurs significantly better defensively.

I agree 100% about improving the defense. Blair,Bonner, and Neal are the weakest links defensively and reducing their minutes will only help.

[rmt]

Splitter playing 25-30 mpg might very well be what Pop is planing. It's worth noticing that Splitter played a lot of his preseason minutes alongside Duncan which could be a sign Pop is planing on giving him more than the backup C minutes.

If Spurs are serious about being better defensively, the way to do it without a trade is to go with a bigmen rotation of Duncan, Diaw and Splitter. All three will play 25-30mpg and the remaining minutes will be small ball, garbage time or one of Blair/Bonner playing few minutes. Going with that rotation and having Mills as backup PG will immediately make Spurs significantly better defensively.

I'm all for this but 25-30 minutes doesn't give TD any games off (e.g. on back-to-backs) or account for the inevitable injuries. They need some else (had hoped for Curry) - especially against Dwight who can play just about all (playoff) game long.

[benefactor]

If Splitter plays over 25 minutes I'll set the over under at 20 games until he injures something so small that no one has ever heard of it.

[Bruno]

I'm all for this but 25-30 minutes doesn't give TD any games off (e.g. on back-to-backs) or account for the inevitable injuries. They need some else (had hoped for Curry) - especially against Dwight who can play just about all (playoff) game long.

I agree that Spurs need to have another center under contract in addition of Duncan and Splitter but that's another unrelated issue.

[spurs10]

I agree that Spurs need to have another center under contract in addition of Duncan and Splitter but that's another unrelated issue.

I can't imagine who it could possibly be. All the guys I'd love to see are too expensive.

[DPG21920]

It's fairly simple IMO - Without a trade to change the variables, the Spurs only have what they currently have to work with. Under these circumstances, if the Spurs truly want to get better defensively and that is a point of emphasis they simply have to play their best defensive players more minutes. That however comes at a cost - on the offensive side of the ball. Due to the best defensive players having an awkward fit together offensively, Pop has forsaken those line ups in favor of more desirable offensive units. The question will truly be is the defensive upgrade worth the offensive downgrade? Pop has to think so in order to do this.

[therealtruth]

It's fairly simple IMO - Without a trade to change the variables, the Spurs only have what they currently have to work with. Under these circumstances, if the Spurs truly want to get better defensively and that is a point of emphasis they simply have to play their best defensive players more minutes. That however comes at a cost - on the offensive side of the ball. Due to the best defensive players having an awkward fit together offensively, Pop has forsaken those line ups in favor of more desirable offensive units. The question will truly be is the defensive upgrade worth the offensive downgrade? Pop has to think so in order to do this.

I don't think any sacrifice of offense is need. Oberto played with TD and he's even more limited offensively.

[therealtruth]

If Splitter plays over 25 minutes I'll set the over under at 20 games until he injures something so small that no one has ever heard of it.

I would rather have Splitter playing 20 games at 100% of his ability and potential than 50 games at 60%. If he's not durable it would be something good to find out sooner rather than later.

[Richie]

I don't think any sacrifice of offense is need. Oberto played with TD and he's even more limited offensively.

Timmy isn't the same force as he was then

[Bruno]

Splitter is better than Blair and playoffs Bonner on both end of the court. Giving Splitter more minutes will make Spurs better defensively and offensively.

[benefactor]

I would rather have Splitter playing 20 games at 100% of his ability and potential than 50 games at 60%. If he's not durable it would be something good to find out sooner rather than later.
He's not durable. This is something we already know. Might as well play him the minutes though...nothing to lose tbh.

[Obstructed_View]

Love to see it happen, but expect him to get beat up. He's very physical on both ends, which is how he ends up getting kicked in the thighs and going to the floor as often as he does. The trick is for the Spurs to have any kind of urgency to get him back when he gets banged up.

[rmt]

I'm not excited about the prospect of paying Splitter $10m/yr after next season.

And what is the alternative? Which big man will EVEN COME to SA? Is there any big man as good as Splitter (height, size, mobility, hands, bball-iq, head, attitude) out there who could be had for what Splitter would cost? Remember Splitter loves it in SA - Manu and De Colo (Spanish girlfriend) are here - lots of foreigners on this team. Think he wants to go to some shitty organization where no one speaks Spanish. If Pop had played him more, he'd have developed more and would be worth $10m. Is the choking, 33-34 year old Bonner at $4m during the playoffs better? Play him a lot this year and see what he brings - it's not like SAS has a lot of options (where big men are concerned).

[jag]

Splitter could easily average 15/8 with 30 minutes per night. Giving him less minutes than Blair and Bonner is ridiculous.

"Ridiculous" is putting Roger Mason at point guard. "Ridiculous" is allowing yourself to be out-coached by Lionel Hollins. "Ridiculous" is being asked to believe Eddy Curry could play a somewhat significant role on a playoff team.

What's happening with Tiago is not ridiculous. It's criminal! Criminal, I said!