Bowen: First comes denial, then Frustration, Anger follows and finally Acceptance?

[Brazil]

Bowen has not shown any major slowdown. He is by far best defender in SPurs and not only that, he makes the whole team defense better when he is in.

playing him 20+ mpg is a nobrainer

How Pop cannot see that then ?

[z0sa]

I want some prime examples on how Bowen lost some steps. It seems this is everyones excuse but I don't see anyone backing it up.

His lack of PT nowadays points the most obvious finger for those who dare to use it.

Bowen, if he has lost anything (I don't think he has), is still the best defender on the team.

[HarlemHeat37]

I've posted this before..Bowen's great games since January..not good or above average games(he's had a bunch of those too), but GREAT games he's had..

vs. Houston: completely shut down Artest after he was dominating us..too bad Pop didn't bring him in until the 4th..his ball denial was a thing of beauty..

vs. Minnesota: played an all-around great defensive game..did a great job on both Gomes and Foye..

vs. Boston: completely shut down Paul Pierce, including a memorable weak side block..

vs. Portland: shut down Brandon Roy, annoyed him all game..

vs. Detroit: vintage Bowen in this game..one of his best of the season..

vs. NJ: shut down Carter, after Vince was dominating our entire D..

vs. NO: played only the entire 2nd quarter, but obviously it ended up being New Orleans lowest point total by quarter and FG% by quarter for the game..

vs. Utah: came in and completely shut down Mehmet Okur, after Okur was dominating us for the first 3 quarters..

vs. LA: played solid D against Kobe, making him go 4-11..Pop doesn't put him on Kobe the rest of the game though..

vs. NJ: shut down VC again..

vs. Indiana: very solid performance against Danny Granger..

vs. Chicago: held Ben Gordon scoreless for the last 10 minutes of the game..

vs. Miami: played great D on Wade, forced a lot of turnovers, got him off his game..

vs. Memphis: played great D on both Mayo and Gay..actually, in all the Memphis games this season, they've managed to dominate all of our defenders outside of Bowen IIRC..

I'll expand it to the rest of the season..

vs. Memphis: played great all-around D on everybody, and completely shut down Rudy Gay..one of his better games this season..

vs. NO: forced 3 turnovers in his 15 minutes of playing time..was by far the best defender on the team during this game..

vs. Dallas: arguably his best performance of the season..he shut down Dirk down the stretch, including a memorable block..he played great D on Terry and Barea..had a +21 impact, which led the team..

vs. Denver: one of the best Bowen performances I've ever seen..he ed with Carmelo Anthony's head in a major way..he forced Anthony into 5 turnovers, including multiple offensive fouls..Anthony picked up a technical foul out of clear frustration with Bowen's antics..

vs. Chicago: was able to play great D on Derrick Rose..a young, extremely athletic and quick PG..

vs. Memphis: shut down Mayo, forcing him to 3 points in the 1st half..Mayo's stats looked good in the 2nd half, but the game was out of reach when he was able to do his damage..


YES he's had some bad games, particularly against Durant and Joe Johnson..but it's impossible for a defensive player not to have some bad games..he's also playing an extremely difficult role, which is to come in the game and be a fire extinguisher..that's extremely tough to do against great scorers..

sure, he's lost a step..but he's still a good defensive player, and he's certainly better than our other options..I can probably count less than 5 great defensive games from Finley and Udoka combined..

there's absolutely no reason for him not to play..it's not like Ime gives us better offense..the only thing he does better than Bowen is pass the ball..Bowen makes 3s better, and he has much better shot selection..

Finley is obviously a better option offensively, but he's inconsistent as ..

I might have made a few mistakes in the research, but I doubt it, so doubters can look it up..I wouldn't make this up..I love Bowen, but I'm a Spurs fan before anything..so if I felt like he wouldn't help the team, I wouldn't want him on the floor..he clearly does help the team though..

[Brazil]

His lack of PT nowadays points the most obvious finger for those who dare to use it.

Bowen, if he has lost anything (I don't think he has), is still the best defender on the team.

The lack of PT doesn't enable us to have an objective opinion, he is not playing so it's kind of difficult to know if he has lost a step or 2 or not.

So I agree untill demonstrating the contrary he is still the best defender on the team like Boston is still the NBA champion.

Nevertheless what we don't know is: Bruce performance/shape during the training, only the team knows. At this point we cannot exclude that Bruce is struggling bad during the trainings.

[Obstructed_View]

That person is the Producer at News4

Wow. Can he feed himself?

[DaBears]

Originally Posted by Obstructed_View

Last two weeks
Points 17.9
Assists 2.6
Rebounds 9.6
Blocks 1.1

Next?

Thoses states are no supstar stats!! If Duncan is going to put up those numbers in the playoffs we might as well just pack it in. Now

[Myrak]

Last two weeks
Points 17.9
Assists 2.6
Rebounds 9.6
Blocks 1.1

Next?

Originally Posted by Obstructed_View

Last two weeks
Points 17.9
Assists 2.6
Rebounds 9.6
Blocks 1.1

Next?

Thoses states are no supstar stats!! If Duncan is going to put up those numbers in the playoffs we might as well just pack it in. Now

I agree. Those are average stats. Tony is our lone Super Star at this point. I would not replace Timmy with any other player though. But, I would start Bruce over Finley, and let Tony shoot 5 or 6 times more per game.

I blame POP for our problems. Even with all the injuries, he just is not getting folks comfortable and into their roles. Coaching has cost us 4 or 5 games of late.

[DaBears]

IF Duncan get get 24pts, 11reb, 2blks a game and TP averages 23pts 7.5 assists per game & 2 steals 1 blk a game and everyon else on the team hits a toal of 5 3-pointers a game for the playoffs and play some tight defense limit the TO's & shoot over a 45% FG average we gota a shot at making it to the WCF.

[DaBears]

Oh have i mentioned we needs to create some turnovers and open up the fastbreak game too. Its much harder to manufracture offense win you are not getting easy points here and there.

[Brazil]

At least we have a definitive answer for this thread !!

[SA210]

Bruce needs to start!

[Solid D]

Just a couple weeks ago, he held various guys like Stephen Jackson and Jason Richardson in check for 28+ minutes a game. Unless something has happened to him in the last 10 days that we don't know about, he's 10 x better than the alternative.

I said it in another thread, but I'll say it again. If Manu/Tim were playing awesome, I might say it's a good idea to try to win with offense. But the Spurs aren't good enough to win on offense right now. So they need to clamp down on D. Clamping down on D means more Bowen, more Hill and more Thomas. Less Finley, less Vaughn and less Bonner (unless he's shooting lights out).

+10M

[Brazil]

Exactly !!

[peskypesky]

Defense wins championships. Pop knows that. Bruce will be getting big minutes in the playoffs. I've said it all year and I'm still saying it.

[SA210]

Defense wins championships. Pop knows that. Bruce will be getting big minutes in the playoffs. I've said it all year and I'm still saying it.

Yea, but that wasn't Pop's plan. I don't buy it. If he plays Bruce now as he should, it's only cuz he opened his eyes.

Bruce needs to start. We have enough offense in our starting lineup.

It should be TD, Gooden, Tony, BRUCE, Mason

[peskypesky]

Yea, but that wasn't Pop's plan. I don't buy it. If he plays Bruce now as he should, it's only cuz he opened his eyes.

Bruce needs to start. We have enough offense in our starting lineup.

It should be TD, Gooden, Tony, BRUCE, Mason

You're preaching to the choir, my friend.

[Brazil]

Yea, but that wasn't Pop's plan. I don't buy it. If he plays Bruce now as he should, it's only cuz he opened his eyes.

Bruce needs to start. We have enough offense in our starting lineup.

It should be TD, Gooden, Tony, BRUCE, Mason

I'm not sure about starting Gooden, we need punch and scoring for the second unit !

[Mugen]

if bonner continues to play like this then i say we sit him and try give fabby a run these last couple of games, cuz if bonner aint hitting shots then he has no purpose at all to be out there.

hopefully fab's heart is ok.

im all for starting bruce and benching fin. i agree that the 2nd unit needs goodens scoring

[SA210]

I'm not sure about starting Gooden, we need punch and scoring for the second unit !

Yea that's cool, but we need Bruce starting.

[Brazil]

For me we should go with Tim mason tp bruce and bonner depending on the match ups or fab if he is ok
second unit hill fin gooden ime kurt - gooden for the scoring and kurt for defense and rebound

[Brazil]

Yea that's cool, but we need Bruce starting.

we are in line !!!

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Brazil, you forgot self-pity, and bargaining!

Oh, and frustration=anger.

[Brazil]

Brazil, you forgot self-pity, and bargaining!

Oh, and frustration=anger.

I made a weak copy paste of a google article le, I was hoping that nobody would notice...