if bonner cant shoot the 3s, he should at least make some of his new baby hook shots. hehe
If that's your premise, then testing it will be really simple. We'll see how many Dirk puts on a guy like McDyess, who has been in Pop's system for only one season, and how many he drops on Bonner, a guy that has been on Pop's system for 3 seasons. Under your premise, Bonner should do substantially better.
Pop's system can be complicated, but I've yet to see an actual NBA player that hasn't picked it up after a couple of seasons.
if bonner cant shoot the 3s, he should at least make some of his new baby hook shots. hehe
Now that Bonner is no longer a starter I think he'll do well especially since imo he's been having his best season and has expanded his game.
This is a much healthier and better team than the one that faced the Mavs last year in that first round exit; it should make things easier for Bonner and he'll be open more.
He's the third-best defensive big we have, so while he's an average defender, he's not as bad as you make him out to be. That said, the fact that he's the third-best defensive big on this team probably indicates that the Spurs aren't exactly intimidating defensively in the frontcourt anymore.
Even though he's clearly completely overwhelmed in big games/moments and against quality teams in general, shouldn't he be long overdue to shoot well, at least one time in this scenario? The guy is a 40% three point shooter, after all. Law of averages should come into effect.
If past results are indicative of how he will play in the PO again, then we are looking at another pure fail...
Yeah, he'll shoot well, when it doesn't matter -like it's a blow-out or something in at least one game. But once the less than 5 minutes ticker hits in the 4th and it's a close game, he'll miss everything.
Pop should know we shouldn't be depending on the Matties of the team to bring this home. The last 5 minutes should always be Manu and Timmy and Tony time.
It's not Matt's fault-he just doesn't have it in him and we all know that. Hopefully he can hit some shots that will help in the play-offs.
You all do realize that Matt has hit some key shots in big moments for us this year? Or do you all just want to have selective memory? Heck, he's probably had more clutch shots than injured Tony Parker has had this year. I remember in one game this year he hit two buzzer-beaters at the end of quarters.
End of quarter buzzer beaters? That's not pressure. Watch this guy in big games/moments or against quality opposition in general. He shoots awful and it kills the Spurs every time, yet Pop never learns his lesson. The Spurs are already worse defensively and especially on the boards with him in, he can't also be a liability offensively.
went to the game. counted the Bonner mistakes. Bonner scored 5 gave up 11. currently he's -6 in this series.
Mavs fans were literally laughing when he tried to guard Dirk. for the most part i didn't think Bonner's defense was too terrible. maybe a 6.5 out of 10 but he still couldn't make a ing wide open 3 ptr.
His D was pretty good, Dirk made some wild shots and Bonner contested them for the most part rather well, and git the foul called against him because he invaded Dirk's "space". I think the problem may have been, along with the rest of the majority of the Spurs, they got in early foul trouble which took them out of their game.
Besides he did hit 1-2 from three pt range, it was not like he missed a boatload of 3's like you implied creation88, he only took 2.
Keith Bogans is getting a pass. Now that's who REALLY sucks ass! Oh yeah, Bonner will again let all Spurs fan down. The off-the-mark 3pt misses by Bonner/Mason almost always result in noncontested fast break points. I'm mean who's back to defend fb pts? Bonner/Mason.
It's not pretty good D when your feet don't leave the ground to contest a shot.
He guarded Dirk most of the time. Almost anyone in the league guarding Dirk is going to let him score more points than they score. Even Duncan.
I'll give Matt a C last night. He hit a couple shots and played okay defense (Dirk was just unstoppable, no matter how guarded him), but it still wasn't what we need out of him.
every shot Bonner threw up there but 1 was NOT contested...wide open.
I thought Bonner played well enough. He just doesn't have the length to stretch out and really contest that turn around shot of Dirks. Let Barkley and the rest of the haters say what they want, the only real setback we had with him last night was his shooting. Aside from that he didn't get burnt by Dirk causing easy layups or dunks, Dirk just was hitting his jumper lights out last night.
Honestly the defense last night looked good. Outside from Dirk you have Butler scoring the big in double figures. Terry wasn't a factor (that usually eats us up I might add) We took a lot of their guys out of the game offensively I thought. Transition D looked good, didn't see too many easy buckets from that.
I'm curious as to how they are going to tweak it and also curious about the roster rotation coming into game 2. We are sadly going to see Mason early on in the first half and if he stinks it up he is going to see the bench the rest of the night leaving more minutes for Parker and possibly Temple in his first playoff game.
The big things the staff is going to be telling these guys is better rebounding, better ball control. I also expect to see some defense switches/adjustments on butler and some offensive adjustments with rotating the ball around in the half court set.
I still see Bonner getting the minutes, he's no show stopper but he gets the job done acceptably. I don't think he'll receive more minutes though.
Role players aren't useful if they can't fulfill their roles. Bonner is a three point shooting role player. The fact that he's the first big off the bench is not his fault. The fact that he's being asked to do something everyone and their mother knows he can't do isn't his fault. But HE HAS TO KNOCK DOWN HIS SHOTS.
But Bonner first big off the bench, and Bogans first non-big off the bench last night told me how the night was likely to go. When Pop runs home to momma, it's ugly.
What other options do we have? If Bonner doesn't come off the bench first, it's either Blair or Ian, who certainly wouldn't match up well with Dirk. It's not like we're loaded with NBA-quality bigs.
with the talent that Bonner has shootingwise, it's unforgivable he misses multiple wide open shots. He is plain old choking it up in the playoffs. But then again, so is Mason and Jefferson
he means, the man had uncontested shots that clanked. He's crying choke job. The man skeet'd too early in the locker room and couldn't nut up game time.
If he could have dropped that baby hook of his.
that would have been nice.
Liked the effort, but I agree with everyone the shooting needs to be there next game.
I hate to be the one to break this to you, but the Spurs didn't wake up yesterday morning and suddenly have that problem. If the Spurs had an actual center, like, I don't know, Theo Ratliff to back up McDyess, Duncan could defend Dirk for stretches and you could save Bonner for shooting three pointers when the matchup becomes favorable to your team.
We never had a 7ft Center like Theo on our team! I'm calling delusional shenanigans on you!
+2 right now.
2 3s
-2 bad rotation away from DIRK
-2 layup right by him
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