48MoH: Making sense of Tiago Splitter’s lack of playing time

BTW, looking at this from the offseason angle, it's part of the reason I didn't want Bonner re-signed. With Tiago seemingly unable to help this season and Blair's level of play being somewhat of an unknown, Bonner was just the obvious guy to have an extended role, even more so with Dice coasting through the regular season. IMO, that's one weak link going forward besides of the hole at backup SF...

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Originally Posted by TDMVPDPOY

against the suns today, spurs up 13-19 pts, yet couldnt even get some pt

so pop puts in a bonner/blair lineup, suns shortened lead down to 9pts

fck that shit

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pop was resting him knowing he was going to play him more wed and thursday back to back games


splitter played all summer and splitter has never played 82 games plus playoffs

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Originally Posted by ElNono

He's obviously way too raw on the offensive end, and his rebounding is not at an NBA level yet. I don't expect much from him this season.

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The same could be said for our starting center.

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Originally Posted by Capt Bringdown

The same could be said for our starting center.

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Dejuan can board. Some nights better than others. He also has a season under his belt. Plus I fully expect Matt and Dice to command the most minutes when it matters, much like last offseason, unless Blair is tearing it up.
Tiago is too green right now. I'm very disappointed specially with his poor rebounding. But it's understandable in that he never played against so athletically gifted players like in the NBA. Offensively, with guys like Manu, TP, TD and RJ getting the most of the offense, he would need to make do with whatever he can scrape, and Blair has been obviously more adept in that role.

And BTW, I agree that Dejuan has gotten into somewhat of a blackhole at times. The truth is, however, that we don't run that much offense through him anyways.

He just needs time to acclimate to what the Spurs run and the level of play in the NBA. We still shouldn't much from him this year.

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Originally Posted by guitardude27

5 possessions of Blair in the low block or trying to drive the ball from the free throw line like Amare is too many. And the forced passing to him in the open court needs to stop, he's not Lebron James or anything. He's not talented like Malik Rose who was actually quick in his prime, had a faceup game and could step out and hit 15 footers with consistency. His job on offense needs to be solely a finisher when his man leaves him to stop a penetrator (as well as offensive rebounder).

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His role on offense should be collect scraps, finish off any easy layups and that's about it. But sometimes good teams will force you to run some offense through your weakest link, and I thought the Suns did some of that tonight. Blair found himself a few times all alone 7 foot off the rim with nobody around. Props to Gentry for that. In those situations, we'll have to adjust. Either bring in Dice/Bonner or run plays where Dejuan doesn't need to go that far away from the basket.
Then again, even on a night where he Was somewhat sloppy, he managed to put 10 and 8, which is fine for his role (especially his 8 boards).

I don't think he can guard those guys...
I'm not really sure Splitter can either at this stage in his NBA career...
So we'll probably see TD, Bonner and Dice going at them...

As far as the rest of your post, I think it boils down to the fact that you really don't need to run offense for Blair, and that makes him a good fit for the starting unit. Ultimately, I think Dejuan should be capable of giving you 10 and 10 on most nights, and that's probably more than what Tiago can give you now.

Dejuan needs to develop some semblance of a mid range jump shot.

With the way Phoenix was guarding him at times, I'm surprised Dejuan didn't take his sweet ass time and just pretend he was shooting a free throw. I can recall 2 occasions where they just left him wide open in "no man's land" because they knew he had no jump shot.

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Originally Posted by guitardude27

No.

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You say no, I say no, but he's out there guarding Dirk, ZBo, etc. So he's definitely going to have that role.

Splitter needs to be thrown out there into the fire....that's the only way

I'm so not impressed by Tiago Splitter. Offensively he's very limited. He has no range on his jumper, he's soft and can't bang on the post. He's a poor rebounder for a 7footer, and I haven't noticed how well he passes the ball yet. He is a good man to man position defender, but although he moves his feet well on defense, I don't see him being physical enough or a good enough shotblocker to deter much interior scoring..

In his defense, he plays the pick & roll well on both offense and defense.. BUT this is not enough to overshadow the big holes he still has in his game.

My Verdict...keep his ass on the bench. As stupid as this may sound, -Bonner has shown me WAY more this season.

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Originally Posted by guitardude27

So he just needs to hit the weight room?

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IMO he's got lots of work to do besides that man....

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Originally Posted by G-Dawgg

I'm so not impressed by Tiago Splitter. Offensively he's very limited. He has no range on his jumper, he's soft and can't bang on the post. He's a poor rebounder for a 7footer, and I haven't noticed how well he passes the ball yet. He is a good man to man position defender, but although he moves his feet well on defense, I don't see him being physical enough or a good enough shotblocker to deter much interior scoring..

In his defense, he plays the pick & roll well on both offense and defense.. BUT this is not enough to overshadow the big holes he still has in his game.

My Verdict...keep his ass on the bench. As stupid as this may sound, -Bonner has shown me WAY more this season.

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Good luck with Bonner in the PO.