Blair is 6'6? Wow
Anyways, there is no way POP will start a rookie.
it's quite simple. if Blair gets the chance to become a ROY canditate, this team will not even make the PO.
if he becomes a starter and plays some 30 minutes, the team will be not half as good as we wish.
the case we should all hope for is that Blair becomes a regular rotation player, plays about 20 MPG, delivers 6 and 6 on good efficiency. then we will be good. if he plays more, it means that others don't play as well as the team needs them to play. then we won't be as good.
I doubt that Blair will be the ROY or a starter. I would look at Batum's season with Portland for a preview of Blair. Flashes of brilliance, great intensity, a few good offensive games, not a lot of minutes in crunch time. Blair is only 20, so he will probably need 1-2 yrs in the NBA to put it all together. But if he proves me wrong and goes 20 ppg 12 rbg all season with a game winning shot in the championship series, then that would be OK.
welcome to draft night
I like the idea of Blair starting but playing no more than 20 minutes a night...and not finishing games (that's for the Duncan-MacD Duo).
That's because, for his skills, I see him paired at best with Timmy...first of all 'cause for a good amount of minutes he can Help him a lot in the reboundin (expcially offensive rebounding) department, giving to Tim the chance to play a little more outside (expecially in regular season), second 'cause if it's true that Blair weak point is defense (particularly on pick and rolls) Tim is the only one really capable, on a regulare basis, to help then defense and, third, because of all the other players we have in his role (Haislip, Bonner, mahinmi) he's, in perspective at least, definitely the most skilled at a high level and the only way to improve the comprehensions of our game for him will be playing it from the beginning.
Finaly, because the way I see it, is we do need an experienced front line leader all the time on the court and two at the end.
So I feel that the best way would be to have Mac D like the logical subs ute of Tim for all the match apart for thye last 8-9 minutes of the game, when they finally can play together.
I think Blair will have a lot to say about if he starts or how many minutes he plays. If he exceeds expectations and show a ROY like performance, he can make it very difficult for Pop not to give him more playing time. I don't have any doubt that he'll get a lot of exposure in his rookie season.. I'm really hoping he makes a big impact for the SPurs.
I think that the main reason we took a lot of quality bigs other than Duncan, any of them with the chance, at least, to prove themselves for gaining minutes (we now have six : Mac D, Blair, Mahinmi, Bonner, Haislip, Ratliff) will be resting Tim for a very good amount of minutes during regular season.
The goal could be to let Tim play less than 30 minutes a game (more or less the some amount of Gino).
Some argument for the plaiyng time of Mac D.
Playing people over 32 and plenty of past playing time in their legs for more than 30 minutes a night is risky.
But reaching the goal will be possible only if some of the new and young Bigs (Blair, Mahinmi, Haislip) will show something enough for gaining big minutes.
Maybe, starting one or more of them could help a lot.
Hi...Have we met?
Blair will get the George Hill Treatment
I don't agree with this...
Blair was projected like a lottery pick just the day before the draft night in all mock drafts...and Thabeet, that's been dominated by him in NCAA games, has beebn chosen n° 2.
He's fallen to us anly because of his scaring and late publicized potential helth problems...that, if he's lucky, could never became a real problem for his whole carreer.
Hill was the typical - a la Mahinmi and to a less extension Ginobili and Parker - steal of the spurs for a skilled player never projected to be in the lottery or even near that draft position...
Usually is talent makes the decision...
So imho the point is only if Pop sees that Blair fit in the stystem fastly enough...to gain the "false" starter ('cause in the end of games Tim/Tmac will be the players) role.
I think there may be a few occasions where Blair starts, but I still think for the most part it will be McDyess. However, we may see Blair start on second nights of back-to-backs where Duncan and/or McDyess sit for the night. The game that fits this criteria that I most want to see him start is January 16th at Memphis (also March 6 at Memphis). "Blair vs. Thabeet: This time, it's professional."
Ha! I'd go that game.
4 pages of something that's never going to happen THIS year...
I also doubt Blair will win ROY but I do think he'll earn significant playing time. Offensive rebounding specialists are not easy to find and he'll make a name for himself before all is said and done.
And too many vets in front of him for him to be a starter this early. Maybe next year if some of those vets decline.
There are a few rookies out there that will be in a better position to win ROY this year and barring some freak injuries, Blair will end up 3rd or 4th in ROY balloting IMHO.
But I do think he'll get some looks and Pop already promised to play him a lot so he has a chance although a small one.
at people saying Blair will win ROY.
No he will not be STARTER...
END OF DISCUSSION
I don't think Blair will start this year, especially with guys like Duncan, Dice, Ratliff already there.
In addition, he's going to be fighting with GHill for PT.
1) If Blair gets minutes, George Hill's minutes will go down
2) If George Hill gets the minutes, Blair's minutes will suffer accordingly.
Ok, I know you were waiting for this:
How are Hill's minutes and Blair's minutes inversely related?
, it's getting harder and harder to troll around here.
For some reason, Pop likes to play Hill as a SG. You can't very well have a 6'2 SG and a 6'6 PF on the floor at the same time.
Last edited by Allanon; 10-04-2009 at 02:58 AM.
Well, I guess Fin is listed at 6-7''...
That for some reason is because thats his natural position.
Why couldn't a 6'6 great rebounding power forward play with him again?
Too much size given up. When you consider 6'9 is a typical West PF and 6'6 is a typical West SG, the Spurs would be at a defensive disadvantage playing 2 undersized players in key positions at the same time.
Some West PF/SG bench guys I could think of, numbers might not be exact:
Lamar Odom - 6'10, Vujacic 6'7
Carl Landry - 6'9, Barry 6'7
Juwan Howard - 6'9, Rudy 6'6
Birdman 6'10, JR Smith 6'6
Milsap 6'8, Korver 6'7
There's practically no team I know of that plays both an undersized PF and SG at the same time.
Amazing how teams have won with undersized power forwards before.
Blair's wingspan also makes up for any supposed deficiencies with his "height" as well.
Blair has an 8'10.5" standing reach. That essentially makes him bigger than alot of PF's who are your average PF height. Guys like Joakim Noah and Blake Griffin are shorter than Blair in terms of real height. Head to toe height is meaningless in basketball.
A guy like Sasha is 6'7", yet he has T-Rex arms, and i would guess his SR wouldnt be any more than 8'4" or 8'5", which is typical for a 6'3" or 6'4" player.
Carl Landry is 2 inches taller, yet Blair has him covered by 4 inches in terms of real height.
Last edited by mystargtr34; 10-04-2009 at 02:29 AM.
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