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Haislip is not a NBA player. / Thread McDonald
An opening for Haislip
By Jeff McDonald
The news coming out of the AT&T Center after the Spurs beat Indiana on Saturday night was that Matt Bonner could miss up to a month with a broken right hand. Bonner will be re-evaluated Monday, at which point a timetable will be solidified, but it is evident the Spurs can expect be without their most accurate 3-point shooter for a considerable while.
This is a more significant development than you might think.
Of the five big men the Spurs suited up Saturday, only one -- Bonner -- is capable of stretching the floor to the 3-point arc. Remove him from the mix, and you're left with a collection of mid-range shooters (Antonio McDyess) and players who should never, ever shoot from outside the paint (DeJuan Blair, Theo Ratliff) to deploy next to Tim Duncan.
Bonner's absence could drastically alter how Gregg Popovich approaches his second unit. Duncan hinted as much after the game.
"He really plays some good minutes for us and changes the look on the floor," Duncan said of Bonner. "We'll have to adjust without him and hope he gets back soon."
There is one big man Popovich could tab that would not alter the Spurs' m.o. that much. Marcus Haislip has been little more than a tall man in a nice suit so far in his first season with the Spurs. Bonner's injury might be just the break, no pun intended, he was looking for.
Haislip, an intriguing offseason free-agent signee, has appeared in one game with the Spurs. His minutes have been limited by the dual facts that A) he is new, and B) Popovich has had five other big men for whom to find minutes.
Haislip, however, is now the only healthy big man on the roster with a 3-point shot in his arsenal. He's almost certain to be activated while Bonner is shelved. Might Popovich finally call his number on somewhat of a consistent basis?
It is difficult to envision Haislip approaching the 20 minutes a night Bonner was averaging. But if he can earn five or 10, and make the most of them, he has a good opportunity to earn Popovich's trust for down the road.
Bonner's injury appears to have provided a slight crack of an opening for Haislip. It is up to him to show what he can do with it.
Haislip is not a NBA player. / Thread McDonald
i'd rather see mahinmi getting minutes.
haislip is not going to help beat the lakers. popovich needs to start giving ratliff and mahinmi minutes. we're going to get murdered by big teams.
thats why we got him! odom, dirk, all those type of players so yes i do believe if he plays at a good level he'll help us out alot, hes way more athletic and since hes been sitting and watching plays he probably has a good understanding of whats going on out there
The opening better close quick.
is this is the same fans who called bonner suck just a few weeks ago? wow. now hesitate to give Haislip a chance to prove him self. i wander what we going to hear when bonner returns and Haislip's minutes get reduced again. Guess we have to just wait and c.
I Hope Marcus Get His Shot And Plays Extremely well!
I want Haislip to get a chance.
I don't know what all you people are on about that do not even want to give him a chance.
There are more and more severely challenged posters signing up at Spurstalk thinking they know an ounce of basketball when they know jack .
Not sure why giving Haislip a shot is a bad thing...
looks like ratliff will be getting some time again. haislip might get some minutes but i doubt he'll get more than 10 minutes.
also, no way mahinmi or haislip will ever see minutes in the playoffs. mahinmi and haislip have not even proven they can suit up and sit on the bench yet. yeah, lets have "i foul every two seconds" mahinmi and "i can't beat out bonner for a roster spot" haislip play against the elite bigs of playoff contenders. stop wishing for a miracle breakout. spurs' only hope is that bonner doesn't welt under the pressure and mcdyess + ratliff are 100% playoff time.
Give Ian some burn!
the whole point of the article was the need for a big who spreads the floor with a 3-pt shot. Does Ian spread the floor? I doubt it.'d rather see mahinmi getting minutes.
Too bad haislip got no playing time during the season so far. If he had gotten a little more playing time, he wouldn't be so new right now.
FML. I don't want to rag on Haislip, 1) Because he probably won't get that much burn anyways, but primarily because 2) I have not seen him play too much against NBA level compe ion.
What I have seen does not look promising at all.
I don't want bigs that spread the floor. I want bigs that rebound the ball, play decent defense around the rim, block shots and help Tim protect the paint. This would be a good opportunity to see if we have any of that or if we should be looking somewhere else for it.
At least there's one rational person on spurstalk.
Couldn't have said it any better.
It's not. There's just a lot of idiots posting now.
Theo averaging 10 minutes a game whie playing every game left this year would be nice, but I still would advocate Haislip and Ian getting a chance.
If he was better than Bonner, whom evidently sucks, it would not take a Bonner injury just so he could be activated, let alone getting time.
Is Haislip going to be the next Pops Mensah-Bonsu?
If Haislip can come in and bring the energy/rebounding/blocks that Pops brought, I would be happy.
Well in the preseason he looked pretty bad. When he was played at the 4 he was getting pushed around by the opponents bigs and when he was played at the 3 he missed just about every jumper he took, and defensively he looked pretty lost. I know basing things on the preseason may not mean a lot in the big scheme of things but I'm just sayin. . .
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