Extreme Makeover: DeJuan Blair Edition

[Bruno]

DeJuan Blair does not look like himself. The stomach has flattened. The shoulders have narrowed. The flab in his trunk has vanished. Where did the wide body go?

Read More: http://www.nba.com/spurs/features/121121_rodriguez_blair

[swaggerjackson]

Last line of the article is the most interesting part.

[playblair]

crofl @ blair haters bashing blair for being selfish & lazy (rumors) ...... once again its proven blair is a hard worker & team player .....

bruno what do u make of diaws play this season ??? is this the real diaw or is he coasting

[Mel_13]

The physical changes in Blair are obvious, the article points to a developing maturity as well. It's just too bad that it took three full seasons for Blair to accept that the reason he didn't get playoff minutes was staring him in the mirror. Now it remains to be seen if he can keep his focus through the entire season

[freetiago]

blair fatness made him a good rebounder and finisher
now he cant finish or rebound
cant shoot either
so hes basically a SF or undersized PF who cant do anything

i actually thought his defense on smallball PFs has been ok so far though he just needs to stop trying to gamble for steals all the time

[Mel_13]

blair fatness made him a good rebounder and finisher
now he cant finish or rebound


His rebounding numbers are far better than Splitter's.

[timvp]

Blair gets shortchanged by Spurs fans, IMO. I doubt anyone in the league has been jerked around so much in terms of playing time and role. Sure, his immaturity professionally has been an issue as evident by him gaining weight during seasons, but for someone who is still only 23 years old, he's handled everything that has been thrown at him reasonably well.

So far this season, he's showing some interesting growth (adding a jumper, becoming a better defender, regaining some of his rebounding ability, etc.) and he still has a lot of room to improve. His ceiling is limited due to his size and his deteriorating knees but I wouldn't absolutely close the door on him becoming a valuable piece to this team.

[freetiago]

If splitter had the luxury of a coach who wanted him to perform better by playing him with duncan he would be fine
we saw that he could rebound well vs the best frontcourt in the league when he had a chance

[Mel_13]

If splitter had the luxury of a coach who wanted him to perform better by playing him with duncan he would be fine
we saw that he could rebound well vs the best frontcourt in the league when he had a chance

That's the weak sauce response of an apologist. Plus, it doesn't make sense and is contradicted by the facts.

[playblair]

tiago is a worse rebounder than bonner & diaw .....

.... @ the blair being overweight comments .... proof????... blair was doing what the staff asked of him .... the staff chose a horrible defender in dice to replace blair .... following year the staff chose a soft passive frenchman to replace blair ....


jackson blair = spurs toughness .....

[timvp]

tiago is a worse rebounder than bonner

Too far, tbh.

[Mel_13]

@ the blair being overweight comments .... proof????....

From the article:

Blair loves his new body and all it has brought him. “I’m a lot quicker,” he says. “I don’t get as tired running up and down the court.”

Once soft and round at 290 pounds, Blair has slimmed to a lean 265 and doesn’t plan to stop. “My goal,” he says, “is to get to 250.”

[Bruno]

bruno what do u make of diaws play this season ??? is this the real diaw or is he coasting

Diaw can and should play better than what he has done this year.

He has never been an aggressive player but he can shoot more than what he does with Spurs this year. For the record, he is taking 4.7 shots per 36 minutes this year while his career is 9.6 shots taken by 36 minutes. His energy level has been too very suspect in some games. Saying that, he is in a good shape so these issues could be solved with some talking. Another issue is that I'm not sold on his ability to be a bench player.

[timvp]

Another issue is that I'm not sold on his ability to be a bench player.

I'm starting to venture down that road as well. He's a high IQ player so I didn't think coming off the bench would be an issue ... but so far it definitely has.

[TD 21]

The physical changes in Blair are obvious, the article points to a developing maturity as well. It's just too bad that it took three full seasons for Blair to accept that the reason he didn't get playoff minutes was staring him in the mirror. Now it remains to be seen if he can keep his focus through the entire season

This was what they inferred, but the reality is, he could have been in the shape he's in now and it still wouldn't have mattered. The bottom line is, they didn't trust him because he's mistake prone, terrible defensively and couldn't stretch the floor.

If being in shape topped those things in terms of importance, then Diaw probably wouldn't have been brought in last season and if he was, he damn sure wouldn't have been the starting PF.

[playblair]

^ terrible defensively ???? interesting seeing as how dice was the one who was horrible against the grizz & suns yet people blamed blair ....

diaw was owned by perkins... tiago by collison .... blair is the only big on the spurs with the power to compete against the west bigs ....

[Paranoid Pop]

^ terrible defensively ???? interesting seeing as how dice was the one who was horrible against the grizz & suns yet people blamed blair ....

diaw was owned by perkins... tiago by collison .... blair is the only big on the spurs with the power to compete against the west bigs ....

He's a midget, can't rebound against the tall PFs, not mobile enough vs the great SF that can play 4 like Durant and Lebron.

[Seventyniner]

He's a midget, can't rebound against the tall PFs, not mobile enough vs the great SF that can play 4 like Durant and Lebron.

However, he can definitely hold his own against backup PFs like Collison and Jordan Hill. He just isn't good enough to rely on as a starter against top teams.

[freetiago]

great game from blair
5-7 for 10 pts 5 rebounds
-1

splitter
+19

[playblair]

+ - stats arguments r wack .....

blair didn't give up an o rebound ....

[Chinook]

great game from blair
5-7 for 10 pts 5 rebounds
-1

splitter
+19

No one should be debating how awesome Splitter was tonight, but Blair did his job as much as anyone could've expected him to. For playing 20 minutes, 10/5 is a good stat line. And it's not like the Celtics' bigs were going off on him, either. For the game, the Spurs' bigs went for 69pts/30reb/11ast in comparison to Boston's 30pts/19reb/2ast. That was the story of the game. Credit goes to all four members of the front court for making that happen.

[Poolboy5623]

No matter how many stat padding games dejuan puts up, he's always going to come up short when it counts(literally). I like Boris but I think pop just needs to start him and keep it that way. I played ball. Starting is a big deal for a lot of guys, at any level. It will help his confidence big-time and help to play with Timmy..if he stuggles with taller opponents, bring in tiago right away. Pop needs to pick a lineup and go with it..it doesn't help anyone when he's tinkering with it night in and out.

[therealtruth]

No matter how many stat padding games dejuan puts up, he's always going to come up short when it counts(literally). I like Boris but I think pop just needs to start him and keep it that way. I played ball. Starting is a big deal for a lot of guys, at any level. It will help his confidence big-time and help to play with Timmy..if he stuggles with taller opponents, bring in tiago right away. Pop needs to pick a lineup and go with it..it doesn't help anyone when he's tinkering with it night in and out.

I agree to a certain extent but I am just happy Bonner's out of the rotation. It's almost as good as waiving/trading him. Blair is a sort of unknown quantity in the playoffs because he hasn't had a chance the past couple of years.

[Poolboy5623]

I agree to a certain extent but I am just happy Bonner's out of the rotation. It's almost as good as waiving/trading him. Blair is a sort of unknown quantity in the playoffs because he hasn't had a chance the past couple of years.

Yeah, don't get me wrong I loved seeing Bonner hit some of his threes..but those times seem to be at an end with the spurs..I always said with him, to be affective he had to hit every 3..or at least almost every one....and that's just not realistic. I will still always give him credit for effort and he seemed to care. If I'm not mistaken has Blair been given chances in the postseason? I seem to remember seeing him get some time but on a very short leash...?

[Stabula]

The smile gives him away. It’s as big and wide as he used to be. :lol

[JRHernandez88]

Yeah, don't get me wrong I loved seeing Bonner hit some of his threes..but those times seem to be at an end with the spurs..I always said with him, to be affective he had to hit every 3..or at least almost every one....and that's just not realistic. I will still always give him credit for effort and he seemed to care. If I'm not mistaken has Blair been given chances in the postseason? I seem to remember seeing him get some time but on a very short leash...?
Garbage time...

[JRHernandez88]

No one should be debating how awesome Splitter was tonight, but Blair did his job as much as anyone could've expected him to. For playing 20 minutes, 10/5 is a good stat line. And it's not like the Celtics' bigs were going off on him, either. For the game, the Spurs' bigs went for 69pts/30reb/11ast in comparison to Boston's 30pts/19reb/2ast. That was the story of the game. Credit goes to all four members of the front court for making that happen.agreed