Blazers Had Agreed to Contract Terms with Tiago Splitter

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Baam

Splitter was the worst player in the Lakers series he was like +1 for the series, Bonner and Baynes did better on Howard who was triple teamed anyway. He did a bit better vs Memphis and his best defensive play wasn't on Zbo (and Bonner did just as well on Zbo basically), it was a switch on Conley that everyone remembers...

---

So you go by plus minus now I see? Funny some have a high + at times and the hardly hit a shot, meaningless stat at times. Bonner did not guard Howard alot, Baynes did for a game in a stretch. You go off one half? Bonner did not go as good on Z BO as Splitter, what games were you watching? Splitter was also huge in GS series whether you know it or not, aside from Stats when Tim sat that one game he was huge! He got on on D up top faster and he was a big reason we won that game. He did better than you are giving him credit for, bigtime.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spurraider21

to be fair Bonner played lights out against the Lakers

---

He shot the ball well, surprising.

Sorry but you're in denial, Bonner outplayed him overall, not to talk about Boris who took a huge dump on him... He had some moments and to be fair he got hurt but he sucked overall, that's the bottom line.

And Gary Neal also easily outplayed him the last 3 post seasons...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sean Cagney

He shot the ball well, surprising.

---

while games 3 and 4 were routes from the start, games 1 and 2 were a bit more... interesting. and in those games Bonner played pretty damn well. was nearly flawless from the field and played acceptable defense. when he got beat, he made sure he made dwight earn his points with free throws. he only gave up one and-1 to dwight that i remember. he was a +29 in an 11 point game 2 win (meaning we were -18 when he wasn't in) and he was a +18 in a 12 point game 1 win.

edit: just want to be clear that i was calling for him to be salary dumped this offseason. either waived for 1mil, traded, or amnestied. especially considering linko signed for 3.1* million and bonbon is making 3.95. but lets not kid ourselves and say he didn't play great against the Lakers and Memphis. he is a floor-spacing big that has great value when the other team has non-mobile bigs. this is why you don't see him get minutes against miami, gsw, etc

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by timvp

I split this out to it's own thread since it's rather substantial.

This makes it easier to swallow Splitter's deal -- even though I was fine with it. Despite his flaws, losing Splitter would have been devastating. Centers who can fit the Spurs system offensively and are also an asset defensively are exceedingly rare. Sure, he's not useful in all series and he tends to shrink under pressure ... but he's still one of the very few centers who'd be a fit next to Duncan on this team. I don't know if there are 5 other players who you could replace Splitter with who make less money.

---

If you wanted to be optimistic about Tiago (and, to be fair, I'm not entirely sure I am) you could argue that whatever jitters and intimidation he experienced in the 2012 West Finals were enough to get him over that hump in 2013 and allowed him to play very well in the 2013 West Finals. One would hope that having gone all the way through the playoffs, having dealt with that Miami team, and having had to play all the way through to Game 7 of the Finals might ease some of his passivity if he's faced with a situation like that again. Maybe, having gone through it once, he'll be able to put all extraneous stuff aside and just play basketball now, no matter the situation. When he just plays and is appropriately aggressive, he can be a real asset.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by timvp

I split this out to it's own thread since it's rather substantial.

This makes it easier to swallow Splitter's deal -- even though I was fine with it. Despite his flaws, losing Splitter would have been devastating. Centers who can fit the Spurs system offensively and are also an asset defensively are exceedingly rare. Sure, he's not useful in all series and he tends to shrink under pressure ... but he's still one of the very few centers who'd be a fit next to Duncan on this team. I don't know if there are 5 other players who you could replace Splitter with who make less money.

---

I'm not so sure the market set the rate for Splitter since it was only one team, but nonetheless, the Spurs had no choice but to match that contract or lose Splitter and then have to try to find a repalcement for him. And it's not like he is grossly overpaid.

I told you fuckers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mel_13

Blazers did reach agreement w/ Spurs C Tiago Splitter -- 4yrs, $36M. When became apparent SA would match, sides agreed not to go further.

https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes

---

Hmm....I wonder if we next get a new tweet how another team had offered Manu $14 million and we had to...........

Would rather have S&T to Portland for assets and used the money to go after Millsap tbh.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AFBlue

Would rather have S&T to Portland for assets and used the money to go after Millsap tbh.

---

Sure, why not go up against Memphis & Houston with an undersized front line?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by K-State Spur

Sure, why not go up against Memphis & Houston with an undersized front line?

---

yeah, I just don't get the millsap love here? I live in utah and would not want us to touch him.

take that you tiago-hating idiots

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by K-State Spur

Sure, why not go up against Memphis & Houston with an undersized front line?

---

Because the 'ship goes through Memphis and Houston right?

At this point, Splitter is what he is...a situational player. Paying Splitter $9M/yr when that's his ceiling is a poor decision. And extending his deal two years beyond the Duncan era compounds the issue of overpaying in the first place.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spurraider21

while games 3 and 4 were routes from the start, games 1 and 2 were a bit more... interesting. and in those games Bonner played pretty damn well. was nearly flawless from the field and played acceptable defense. when he got beat, he made sure he made dwight earn his points with free throws. he only gave up one and-1 to dwight that i remember. he was a +29 in an 11 point game 2 win (meaning we were -18 when he wasn't in) and he was a +18 in a 12 point game 1 win.

edit: just want to be clear that i was calling for him to be salary dumped this offseason. either waived for 1mil, traded, or amnestied. especially considering linko signed for 3.1* million and bonbon is making 3.95. but lets not kid ourselves and say he didn't play great against the Lakers and Memphis. he is a floor-spacing big that has great value when the other team has non-mobile bigs. this is why you don't see him get minutes against miami, gsw, etc

---

Yeah I was just going to say in some series he is completely useless like GSW and Miami, he should never step foot on a floor in a series against an athletic team with wings etc. out there, he has no use then. This is why I wanted to play INDY in the finals! Not just having HC but we match up better with bigger slower teams than we did say GSW and Miami (But thats heresay now). I wanted him gone too, that near 4 mill for a guy who could not play in the FINALS of all times is just too much to me, he is strictly a situational role player and I wanted him out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sean Cagney

Yeah I was just going to say in some series he is completely useless like GSW and Miami, he should never step foot on a floor in a series against an athletic team with wings etc. out there, he has no use then. This is why I wanted to play INDY in the finals! Not just having HC but we match up better with bigger slower teams than we did say GSW and Miami (But thats heresay now). I wanted him gone too, that near 4 mill for a guy who could not play in the FINALS of all times is just too much to me, he is strictly a situational role player and I wanted him out.

---

the fact that indiana doesn't have lebron would be sufficient reason to prefer them as an opponent to miami

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by timvp

I split this out to it's own thread since it's rather substantial.

This makes it easier to swallow Splitter's deal -- even though I was fine with it. Despite his flaws, losing Splitter would have been devastating. Centers who can fit the Spurs system offensively and are also an asset defensively are exceedingly rare. Sure, he's not useful in all series and he tends to shrink under pressure ... but he's still one of the very few centers who'd be a fit next to Duncan on this team. I don't know if there are 5 other players who you could replace Splitter with who make less money.

---

Even more noteworthy when you consider him playing next to Duncan barely 2 years ago was far from a sure thing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spurraider21

the fact that indiana doesn't have lebron would be sufficient reason to prefer them as an opponent to miami

---

Yeah, I mean that guy is alright!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Robz4000

Never really had a problem with it tbh. Manu's contract on the other hand...

---

Manu would have gotten his deal too... From someone else

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AFBlue

Because the 'ship goes through Memphis and Houston right?

At this point, Splitter is what he is...a situational player. Paying Splitter $9M/yr when that's his ceiling is a poor decision. And extending his deal two years beyond the Duncan era compounds the issue of overpaying in the first place.

---

Those are probably 2 of the 3 toughest competitors in the West along with OKC. How soon we forget that this team had major issues with big front line opponents. Tiago's ascension to the starting lineup has essentially made that moot.

Whatever Splitter is, when you look at bigs who are making 9M year - he's very comparable, better or equal to most of them. That's the going rate for a 6'11 efficient post player, even if they have certain matchup issues.

The other issue was that you'd rather give the money to Millsap, an undersized 4 who does virtually every thing worse than Tiago (except shoot midrange jumpers) for almost the exact same price.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sean Cagney

Yeah I was just going to say in some series he is completely useless like GSW and Miami, he should never step foot on a floor in a series against an athletic team with wings etc. out there, he has no use then. This is why I wanted to play INDY in the finals! Not just having HC but we match up better with bigger slower teams than we did say GSW and Miami (But thats heresay now). I wanted him gone too, that near 4 mill for a guy who could not play in the FINALS of all times is just too much to me, he is strictly a situational role player and I wanted him out.

---

Once he was recovered from the injury - he was pretty decent against GSW, with an excellent game to close out the series.

Splitter is a wet pussy, but he was a top 15 defender among big men this season and unlike a lot of defensive bigs, he's competent on the offensive end..it's unfortunate that he's soft and has been a letdown in the playoffs, but it would have been foolish to let him go, tbh..

The Spurs are now a defensive-minded team, tbh..they ranked 3rd in defense this year, and Splitter was arguably the team's 2nd best defender this season, behind Duncan, tbh..statistically, Splitter was only behind Duncan on this team in defensive value IIRC..

He couldn't play against Miami, but that's the case for most secondary bigs in the league, tbh..let's hope he uses the embarrassment as motivation, though..

Still don't like the deal.. He's peaked offensively and that's pretty sad because the dude is soft and can't finish consistently. He's been blocked by the rim a lot of times. I can't argue with the stats of his defense but look at the system, the first sign of small ball and Pop will pull him. First major fuck up when he switches on a player Pop pulls him, I'm not saying that it's not the going rate for a big but I'd rather have someone who's a tad undersized who can rebound consistently and shoot or go up strong.. Someone like JJ Hickson.

Our success in LA was predicated on double and triple teaming Dwight and knowing they didn't have any shooters, we had a better team. Against GSW it was our perimeter defense that saved the day it wasn't because Tiago was stopping Bogut from going HAM or whoever else they threw at us. Memphis was a beefed up version of LA, they have bigs but they don't have consistent shooters who spread the floor. We were still bringing doubles against Zbo and leaving guys open because they couldn't put up enough points to beat us.

Can't just stick Tiago on Dwight without help coming over and that leaves shooters open, in fact if they can put Omer at the 4 then I'm sure Pop will go small with Diaw or Pendergraph because it spreads the floor. Tiago is useful against OKC but he won't be a game changer, helps against GSW but again if they go small we'll do the same, he'll help against Memphis but again they have no shooters. Against Indy he's a body out there but no way will he get the best of Hibbert ( a guy that Duncan works with in the summer).

His value is good against a few teams and the regular season for a spell but playoff basketball he's useful if everything lines up properly.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by silverblackfan

That changes things a bit. Glad the Spurs were able to keep Splitter.

---

Quite a bit. They came up with the deal not S.A.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Baam

The Blazers have an history of fucking with the Spurs for the hell of it.

I don't buy that it's a good signing. He has been worse than Bonner on this last run. That's a fact. Bonner outplayed a prime Tiago Splitter so let's give him a huge contract.

---

http://replygif.net/i/357.gif
What the hell playoffs were you watching? Before the Finals, Tiago was one of our best producers on the defensive side.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AFBlue

Would rather have S&T to Portland for assets and used the money to go after Millsap tbh.

---

No freaking way. Millsap would be good to play small ball. We lose our 7 footer we're screwed against Houston, LA, and anyone else with an actual legit Center.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by timvp

I split this out to it's own thread since it's rather substantial.

This makes it easier to swallow Splitter's deal -- even though I was fine with it. Despite his flaws, losing Splitter would have been devastating. Centers who can fit the Spurs system offensively and are also an asset defensively are exceedingly rare. Sure, he's not useful in all series and he tends to shrink under pressure ... but he's still one of the very few centers who'd be a fit next to Duncan on this team. I don't know if there are 5 other players who you could replace Splitter with who make less money.

---

I agree.

And I thought Splitter doesn't care if he is benched or play longer minutes. He is injury-free missed only 1 game in regular season.
If we sign other centers (like Oden) and lose Splitter, health will again haunt us before playoffs...losing homecourt to Miami has something to do with the big 3 missing combined 51 games last season (TD-13 games, TP- 16 games, Manu -22 games). With the way TD played in 2012-13, homecourt advantage in the entire playoffs was possible. And they could've eliminated the Heat in 5-6 games.