Quick Grades: Spurs vs. Mavericks - Nov. 26

[diego]

The thing with George Hill is he has played some of his best games against Dallas and the Lakers. He raised his game against those teams last season and he did it again in his first game against Dallas. Maybe it's a coincidence that he had his best game of the season against Dallas as he's just rounding into form, but most of the players on the team shrivel up against these teams and give us nothing in the last few years.

90% of the players in the NBA shrivel up against LA so even if you trade Hill for someone better there's no guarantee that guy will show up against our biggest rivals LA and Dallas. George Hill has shown up against those teams 90% of the time.

Guys like Matt Bonner and RJ seem to be the ones that disappear against our biggest rivals when we need them the most. That is the problem.

yes, but it will be difficult to trade guys that disappear for productive players, so you have to sweeten with good players, like hill, or splitter/blair and their potential + nice contracts. I like them as players, but they are not crucial to winning now.

against LA and dallas (especially now that they got chandler), we need better play from our bigs. Even if you believe Duncan is still capable of holding down the paint by himself against big teams like LA, Dallas, Boston, you dont want him doing that over 82 games. On top of that you consider his age and mileage, its clear Tim needs more help than manu and tony. with manu and tony playing the way they are, hill's importance is diminished. If it were up to me and I could turn hill + (neal or anderson) + bonner + blair + splitter + mcdyess (6 players!) into a wing defender who can shoot, a big who can rebound and defend very well and a big who can score and rebound even a little above average , I'd do it in a heart beat. I'd rather go have a short rotation of good to great players than a long rotation of average to good players.

As it is, we have a big who can shoot and rebound and defend, but only in spurts because of his age (dyess), an undersized PF who's only real value is 3pt shooting (bonner), an undersized PF who can score and rebound but needs to mature and even then will still be undersized (blair), and splitter. Splitter looks like he can become a solution to our problems, but how long will it take him to adapt to the NBA? to adapt to the team? to get healthy? and most important, to earn pop's trust? if you dont think the answer is within a year, then it makes sense to see what you can get back for him.

I'm not saying they all have to go either. But to me they are all expendable if you can get one player that is well-rounded enough to play extended minutes. When we face the Lakers and have to close out a game, we can't put dyess in to guard gasol one possession, then switch to bonner to open a driving lane the next, then switch to splitter to guard odom, then switch to blair to grab the rebound. we need a guy who can do at least two or three of those things at a time. right now, i'd guess that duncan + dyess is the best option for that, and its not a very encouraging option

as is the lakers will probably outrebound us and outscore us in the paint because of our lack of defense inside, not to mention make it much more difficult for us to score on them in the paint. the only way we can trump that is 3pt shooting (not going to happen in a series) or by improving our talent/size inside to take that advantage away from them. we have some good front court players, just not the kind we need to challenge them (or boston, and maybe not even dallas if chandler keeps playing like this)

[TD 21]

I'd certainly rather base Blair's ability to match up against Nowitzki by the game they just played rather than your estimation that he doesn't match up well because he's too small. 13 minutes of reality beats the out of the baseless opinion of someone on a Spurs message board, thanks.

And no. Let's be clear: Three guards and no center is smallball. The reason Blair isn't a good compliment to Duncan isn't because he's too short, it's because he's a ty defender a lot of the time, and THAT is what should cost him his starting job. It doesn't mean he's not capable of being a good defender, and if he puts it together I have no problem throwing him in against just about anyone.

If being unable to block Dirk Nowitzki's jumpshot is what makes a guy too short, then Bruce Bowen is the tallest mother er that ever played in the NBA.

Apparently you didn't see him struggle mightily when guarding those players (particularly Gasol) last season.

Against teams that have the type of size and length the Lakers and Mavs have amongst their bigs, Blair cons utes small ball. He's not a big enough big to make any sort of positive impact against those two teams. He's a ty defender against guys like Nowitzki and Gasol, in large part, because of how short he is. People can talk about Hayes all they want; guys like that are extremely rare. Generally speaking, you put a guy like Blair on guys like that, you're asking to get destroyed.

I don't care whether he's capable of becoming adequate defensively or not, this is not about developing someone the team can win without. This is about what gives this team the best chance this season and when they play elite or near elite teams, there best chance is with Blair stapled to the bench.

It's not about blocking Nowitzki's shot, it's about being able to bother it and make him work. McDyess proved in the playoffs last season that he was able to do that. Blair isn't.

[Obstructed_View]

Apparently you didn't see him struggle mightily when guarding those players (particularly Gasol) last season.

Against teams that have the type of size and length the Lakers and Mavs have amongst their bigs, Blair cons utes small ball. He's not a big enough big to make any sort of positive impact against those two teams. He's a ty defender against guys like Nowitzki and Gasol, in large part, because of how short he is. People can talk about Hayes all they want; guys like that are extremely rare. Generally speaking, you put a guy like Blair on guys like that, you're asking to get destroyed.

I don't care whether he's capable of becoming adequate defensively or not, this is not about developing someone the team can win without. This is about what gives this team the best chance this season and when they play elite or near elite teams, there best chance is with Blair stapled to the bench.

It's not about blocking Nowitzki's shot, it's about being able to bother it and make him work. McDyess proved in the playoffs last season that he was able to do that. Blair isn't.

I gotta tell you that your bar's a little high if you're passing judgment on him for last season against the best players in the NBA. And if you want him "stapled to the bench" based on that, then you're asking for a lot of smallball with Bonner as your center, and the Spurs ain't winning like that. Blair can rebound, he's got good hands, he's a huge energy guy who's very clever around the basket, and he's capable of playing and defending far better than he has thus far.

He should be on the bench to start the game, it's true, but you're a fool if you think he shouldn't be coming off it at some point to help the team.

[TD 21]

I gotta tell you that your bar's a little high if you're passing judgment on him for last season against the best players in the NBA. And if you want him "stapled to the bench" based on that, then you're asking for a lot of smallball with Bonner as your center, and the Spurs ain't winning like that. Blair can rebound, he's got good hands, he's a huge energy guy who's very clever around the basket, and he's capable of playing and defending far better than he has thus far.

He should be on the bench to start the game, it's true, but you're a fool if you think he shouldn't be coming off it at some point to help the team.

He doesn't have the tools necessary to adequately defend those players, rookie or not.

I want him stapled to the bench against elite teams, which is entirely different than stapled to the bench in general.

I'm not "asking for a lot of small ball". I'm talking about starting McDyess and making Splitter the first big off the bench.