Why is everybody so quick to forget about the injury? How many times have we seen one of the Spurs players get injured, and Pop wouldn't allow them to come back as quickly as they wanted to? And when he did let them come back, he wouldn't let them have the minutes they wanted right away?
I talked about this when the injury was first reported, but I'll repeat it. A friend of mine had a plantaris injury, and his orthopedist told him, "It's never just the plantaris." It's a small muscle that doesn't do much, but from what I understand that is why it is not a common injury. And a lot of the time it comes along with a small ACL tear. And when athletes try to come back too quickly from the plantaris, they often wind up injuring the ACL much worse.
Splitter's injury is only 2 months old. Looking at his minutes, it's not hard for me to believe that Pop could be watching his minutes closely, and bringing him along slowly. (Which would be the ideal way to bring someone back with a potential ACL problem.) In the few games where Pop has put Splitter in for extended minutes, he has held him to few or no minutes in the next game. I don't think it's a punishment, and I don't think Pop is stupid. What else is left?
I think the Spurs have learned a lot about injuries that are caused by repeated stress or trauma. And if they could do things over again, I bet they would have held Tim out of more games. This year they have the luxury of being 16-3, with Splitter playing short minutes. How much better could they have been, up to now?
Personally, I don't think Pop will give him a lot of minutes until that injury is at least 90 days old. I wouldn't. It's early in the season, and early in Splitter's career. What's the rush?