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Just once, I'd like to see Pop out Bonner for his continued lack of blocking out.
Pop needs to rescind that awful "Malik Rose" type contract he gave Bonner.
Seriously, I don't know what Pop can do. He seemingly doesn't want to do the obvious, which is give minutes to players who can provide a better balance of defense and rebounding. His reliance on his new "offense-first" philosophy fails when shots aren't falling. Bonner and even now Gary Neal are both in severe slumps or defenses have wised up and are forcing them away from their strength. At least Neal can put the ball on the floor, Bonner is a hopeless case.
Obviously, Splitter needs time and should play ahead of Bonner - and at some expense of Blair.
Novak should see some court time, as well - at the expense of Bonner.
Danny Green should see some time, backing up RJ.
At this point, Pop should simply try some new combinations.
Just once, I'd like to see Pop out Bonner for his continued lack of blocking out.
IMHO:
There's nothing really the Spurs can do. It's too late in the season to try to force feed Duncan, change philosophies. With all the tapes that they have, I would think (they probably have done this already) they would look at film and see what they were doing right. Right now the Spurs just need to win a game to get that feel back.
bingo. Pop created this and now hes gotta ride it out.
Pop used to be like this. Demanding accountability on defense. I think he knows he doesn't have the personnel to pull that, and some of the players on this team need to be mentally pampered so they don't checkout.
At any rate, too late in the season for that now.
hey POP why did you play Blair with Duncan for 80% of the year if you aren't going to pair them again? Also Dice and Splitter looked pretty good together also.
Start Splitter with Duncan is a start-- Have McDyess be the first big off the bench. Have Blair or Bonner see spot minutes depending on match-ups.
Neal and Manu are taking too many bad ill-advised long shots, which are often early in the shot clock as well; leading to to long-rebounds- easy transition points for the opposition. Go to the film room and re-evaluate every questionable possession by each player. Tighten up their leashes on the offensive end a little.
More size for as much of the 48 minutes as possible. Meaning more Splitter, and also meaning less line-ups or stretches with Neal and Hill manning the 2 and 3; or Blair/Bonner at the 4/5. Those two scenarios should never happen if your a team that cares about defense.
Go to Duncan more, and also implement offensive sets with Splitter getting the ball in the post on occasion. The offense has been progressively getting more perimeter oriented as the season has gone on. It seems our players are more content taking long-jumpers, rather than finding ways to get in the middle of the defense. Going to Splitter or Duncan early and getting them established would make things very easy on our overworked guards.
Those are on the top of my head for now..
BTW- I personally believe Pop won't try to change anything and use the " We are who we are" excuse. Just saying..
Don't ever compare Malik to such a worthless player; Malik earned that contract, even if he didn't live up to it later on. The Bonner deal is way worse than even the Nesterovic contract. Charles Smith and Richard Jefferson are the only Spurs contracts in the same class as Bonner's.
Push the tempo more than ever. This team just sucks in the halfcourt, they need to push the tempo like they did at the start of the season. It would also make RJ more effective in a faster game.
Yeah that's going to solve all their problems.
Spurs fan just has to accept the fact that they were never contenders to begin with. SAS's relevancy expired nearly 3 years ago.
Malik's 7 year/42 million and Rasho's 6 year/48 million dollar deals were by far the worst of the Pop/R.C era.
Yeah, I think at this point it's putting the best players on a given night around Duncan, Manu and TP. And like I said earlier, being quick to yank guys for failing on defense and rebounding. We're so used to the Spurs being built around an 8 to 9-man playoff rotation and a defensive philosophy at all costs. That's not the equation this year. If we've got a deep bench, then I say use it to change the pace more often and make up for the nights when Bonner and RJ are The Walking Dead on defense and boxouts.
It must make opposing teams SALIVATE to see both of those guys in the game. To this point in my life, Samaki Walker and Sidney Green were the two most braindead and impotent Spurs I've ever seen. Like Barkley says -- they were limo players -- as in the opposing team sends a limo to make sure they make it to the game because they can't wait to play 'em. Bonner and RJ are right there, neck and neck with those guys in Spurs history, IMO.
Yes, but we know Pop isn't wired like that.
He's in a tough spot of his own making - standing pat and making changes share a high risk of not working. Now is not the time you want to be at a loss as to what works.
I don't really know why they went away from this..I would understand if they were intending to play a more defensive-oriented style, they would like to slow it down, but it's not as if they have done that either..
They might as well have continued playing up-tempo basketball..
Neither of those is comparable to Bonner for 8 years and trading Scola to give him that first contract.
Actually, Pop shouldn't have listened to Larry Brown and not persuaded R.C and Spurs F.O to give Jackie Butler that 3 year deal worth roughly 9 million.
Even with Bonner signed, Spurs would have Scola right now if they avoided Jackie Butler.
I can't blame you for thinking it's too late in the season, but honestly I don't think it is. Before this season, I would've never thought Pop would play an offense-first philosophy like we've seen this year. That said, I'm hoping that means he's capable of retooling on the fly as well. I think the pieces are available to make up for deficiencies like Bonner and RJ on a given night, and winning playoff series around Tony, Tim and Manu but the supporting cast has gotta produce and be held accountable.
As far as guys being mentally fragile, I think the deal has to be "sack up....be a pro...tonight's not your night....you get another chance tomorrow night....defend, rebound, be ready."
Comes down to holding guys accountable in my opinion.
Start Duncan and Splitter and commit to playing Splitter about 20-25 minutes. Move McDyess to the bench. Not sure moving Manu to the bench would work since he probably should play with Splitter. I think the odd man out should be Blair. Until he can consistently make a jumper, he's too much of a liability. And Bonner has to play with either Duncan or Dyess so that he'd have a bit more room to shoot.
So simple
Please don't remind me that we could have Scola now instead of worthless Bonner. Don't know why Pop can't see that the opponents just go at Bonner when he's in the game.
Pop has created this mess that he's in by not integrating Splitter. He has ridden the Bonner wagon and doesn't have any options now except continuing to play Bonner or watching Splitter make rookie mistakes that could have been corrected in the regular season with PT. With Splitter playing, the interior defense would be better, there wouldn't be a need for so much help defense scrambling all over the court and leaving wide, wide open shooters.
I'm afraid it's too late but to roll with what we've got. Bonner - stop hesitating and shoot the ball.
Maybe Pop's been trying to implement more of a half-court game in anticipation of the playoffs...
It's the pounding-the-rock philosophy... you're not going to change now, but keep pounding and hope the stone breaks... the problem is that we're hitting it with a plastic hammer...
Play our best players more minutes
Allen 41 min Jefferson 36 min
Rondo 41 min Parker 35 min
Pierce 37 min Ginobili 33 min
Davis 32 min Duncan 33 min
Garnett 28 min Dice 27 min
Defense goes up. No more Bonner/Blair pairing.
Alot of these teams we have been playing lately are playing their best players heavy mins. When the playoffs come around and we start upping our best players mins things will start to look alot different.
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