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REALISTICALLY, shut down the team like boston did last year. limit the core to under 30 minutes and start running some secret drills that will magically improve the defense.
-I cant stand watch Jefferson anymore, every time he starts to dribble and it looks like hes gonna drive and possibly draw a foul, he ing passes the ball back out, thats not what were ing paying him for. I would rather him take it to the rim rather than pass it out, even if he misses.
-Splitter first big off the bench or start. He would at least give our bench a defensive kick, similar to what asik gives the bulls, and TBH I would rather toss the ball down to him against second units, then watch neal and company jack up long jumpers. If our second unit played defense it would allow GH3 to get into the open court where he thrives. Its better than our bench trading bucket for bucket.
-Hill needs to realize he can beat people off the dribble, for christ sakes his measurements in the combines were similar to Russell Westbrook, the kid is ing athletic.
-Pop just needs to give in. We get it, hes smarter than all of us, but everyone and their mother can see where riding bonner is gonna take us, and that Tiago must play.
Last edited by 5in10; 03-31-2011 at 11:36 PM.
REALISTICALLY, shut down the team like boston did last year. limit the core to under 30 minutes and start running some secret drills that will magically improve the defense.
Seems like the majority here believe in more minutes for Splitter...we can't all be wrong about this, can we? Can someone start a poll on this? I'm just curious as to how strong this opinion is among the fanbase.
Pop will never play Splitter over Bonner. It's no use getting pissed about it. Just accept it.
ing Pop.
The fanbase seemed to be split on Splitter, prior to Duncan's injury..
Then he played a great stretch of games, against touch compe ion, where he proved that he should be playing..generally, when you play well, you earn minutes, in every sports league, in life in general..
Following his stretch of games, it seems like virtually the entire fanbase was convinced that he could help..unfortunately, the most important decision maker isn't convinced, or has a hidden agenda..
We aren't going to have a contending team for a few years unfortunately. We are going to go through what Houston has been going through, for a while. Regular season notwithstanding, we are not going to be the presence in the league in the next 10 years that we were the previous 10, because there is no hidden rookie Tim Duncan out there who will sign for 500K.
stirring the pot
I think Pop is really high on the veteran pecking order... Other vets already went through the "initiation process" of "getting over themselves", a mandatory part of the Spurs "program". Only league vets have been able to avoid it (Finley, Dice, RJ).
Gary Neal seems to be the exception to the rule, but I think it stems mostly out of necessity for a good shooter.
They have solid roster but the issue is it is not being utilized properly.
Is Pop the problem? I'd say it is sure looking that way.
if he has a hidden agenda, he's a dumbass, becuase he's jeopardizing the last chance for Tim to get another ring if the Spurs don't get HC
Hill needs to drive the ball every chance he gets. I think he did it once today and beat everyone down the court. He gets so passive when he's playing with TP or Manu.
I was excited just like everyone else to see Splitter get some minutes in this big game. But in a stretch of about five minutes he missed a rotation on defense and then failed to put in a rebound after a miss shot. It was then that I could see why Pop would have some hesistations about giving Splitter minutes that we all yearn for.
We as fans have nothing to lose. We can and scream about who we think should play and then if that person doesnt do well we have nothing to lose. Pop on the other hand has games to win or lose and as a coach he cant be as foolish as we can.
No one is going to agree, but I think the best chance they have to win a le is to be the new Phoenix Suns and to embrace it. They need to pick up the pace the way they did earlier in the year and they have to do best to push that will onto other teams in the playoffs when the game slows down.
The Spurs have slowed down their pace as the season has gone on and they've played worse. They just are not going to be a great defensive team and thats become really really obvious.
The only hope is to play extremely good and efficient offense because they're not very good defensively and playing Splitter isn't going to change that.
Teams prepare and counter for that though, just like the Spurs prepared and countered the old Suns... it was a surprise when the season started... now it's not new anymore...
Yeah cuz throwing him out there in the 4th during desperation time is the right way to see what Splitter can provide....
Pop ed up by not giving him minutes early and riding with Bonner and Blair for too goddamn long
He need a crash course - as much playing time so that he can learn from his mistakes. There's the rest of the regular season, hopefully the first and second rounds until the Lakers when he's needed. Doesn't look like DAL is going to beat LA (if Spurs maintain #1). What's the alternative? Bonner? We know that's not going to work.
There's enough ing already and it's just a regular season game. Imagine when it's a playoff game. I guess we'll be resigned by then.
Teams prepare and counter for everything. Thats pretty much not the point. The team doesn't have the right players to play a defense first game and their best hope, IMO, is to run much more.
Will it win them a le? I don't know, but you're not going to win any les playing a defensive game withe the players we have.
I know this is being said at nauseum on this forum, and I am not saying anythin new that has not already been said.
Splitter does not need to start although he should, but he needs more real minutes and not just mainly garbage time minutes, if isn't starting, McDyess should, he should be the first big off the bench; and yes he need to play alongside Duncan even more.
It is not a coincidence the Jeff Green scored all 8 of his only points at will when Bonner was guarding him. I don't know if Splitter or Blair would have made a difference but IMHO that is where the game was lost tonight. The Spurs were up 4 or 5 I think, and the momentum turned in favor of the Celtics, and that was the game. When Bonner is in the game and misses more than 2 in a row at this point, Pop needs to pull him, unfortunately that is happening that I can see at this point. At this point the only thing Bonner needs to be doing is selling Beer in the nosebleed seats, but alas they would still pass him the ball to shoot.
It is becoming more and more apparent Pop is gone away from the defense first mentality that he had during the championship run. Ownership needs to confront him about this, but I think Holt won't I don't think.
I agree with the others that say running more is basically the Spurs only chance. It's never worked for any team in the playoffs...but it gives them a better shot than what they are doing now.
It really is a difficult situation.
But it was pretty alarming to see against the Celtics that the Spurs simply couldn't get a stop when they so desperately needed one. So, one thing could be to try and make the defense as strong as possible, which means: Start Splitter or bring him in as the first big off the bench, limit the Blair/Bonner combo to as few minutes as possible.
Another possibility is to push the tempo again. It worked earlier this season, it might work again. If the Spurs play slower halfcourt offense, they tend to get static and predictable these days.
the only puncher's chance they'd have is to start Splitter, cut Bonner down to a situational shooter who is out of the rotation, and cut down on RJ's minutes with either the marginal Green or fat Anderson getting the bulk of that time and hoping their hunger and hustle is worth more than RJ's soft lapses.
But none of that is going to happen.
It's going to be more of "5th Big Bonner", who by the way is playing more minutes this year than last. It's going to be more DNPs and "set-up to fail" games for Splitter. There's going to be more of RJ at the 4. There's going to be more garbage like Novak inbounding with less than a second (when if you need a tall guy to inbound, Splitter is a damn, damn good passer). There's going to be more IGNORE games. Such as Novak outplaying Bonner so bad that Pop has to ignore him and bench him. Same with Green and Anderson with RJ. Splitter and everyone not named Duncan.
The only switch Pop might make is to bench Manu, and it won't make that big of a difference.
repeating myself from a couple of weeks back:
The Spurs are frauds who win games based on good health and the individual efforts of the big three with some regular season help from Gary Neal. That won't be good enough to win a le. They still have choke artists and disappearing acts like Bonner and Jefferson getting ready for playoff mode, they still don't have enough size without an established Splitter, and have unproven playoff commodities like Neal who could pull a Roger Mason, though I feel Neal's game is more well-rounded and can avoid a complete disaster.
Dice as a starter isn't working. Not handling extra mins well, just looks tired and has no lift on his jumper. Did look better when playing limited mins. Tony and Manu are having to deal with extra attention , more-so in the 4th when Dice is least fresh.
Bonner is hurting the team on D. Rondo said how "they kept it simple" running 1 play . That was around the time he was involved on a switch. With Bonner on the court Spurs struggle to get stops. If they do it's usually by luck.
There has to be another adjustment.
I see your point regarding Splitter making a mistake or two...but which is worse...playing with heart and defending and moving your feet and being a presence that can alter shots?
or being in the right place, making the right rotations...but still being scored upon at will by EVERY player that wants to?
Bonner might not miss rotations ...but it is like he is invisible because NO NBA player hesitates to take him to the rim as soon as he sees Bonner guarding him...and what does Bonner do...gets in position...moves his feet...raises his hands straight up...and gets scored on...never even TRIES to block the shot...just leaves his hands straight up...has ANYONE ever seen Bonner actually try to block or change the shot? No.
Finally, the Spurs coaching staff has had since LAST ING SUMMER...to integrate Splitter into the offense & defensive schemes...but they didn't...months upon in' months of in' complacency...there is no excuse for NOT having Splitter up to speed by now-that is all on the coaching staff.
You are telling me you can have a coach for shooting, a coach for every in' thing you can think of---and ALL of them together could not have Splitter up to speed????
Give me a in break... Splitter was absolutely right in spending a couple of more years overseas...I used to be pissed at Splitter for making the Spurs wait...but now I see how he has been mis-handled and it makes me sick.
The Spurs need to find a way to counter when other teams clog the lane. Tony was having a party in the first 2Q then suddendly they start playing a zone and we cannot score anymore. Also RJ has to start attacking the rim hard, he is the only athetic player than can actually dunk in traffic, enough with the soft layups already.
Too many freaking jumpshots are killing us. At this point it is pretty obvious the refs will not call illegal defense ever again, at one point last night Garnett was so lost under their own basket he literally was turning his head left and right to find his guy and nothing. It's frustrating.
There's no magical cure for the lack of perimeter D on this squad, so we pretty much have to give up on that this year. However, starting Splitter with Duncan can go a long way towards setting the defensive tone on the interior. Then Dice can resume his usual bench role (where he plays better anyway, and has his whole career) and try to make up for the deficiencies of Blair/Bonner (who should never play together, ever again). If a team is hitting their jumpshots, good for them. I'll take my chances with that over a 7 game series rather than allowing mediocre big men to have a field day against our interior (inferior?) D. In other words, it's better to have 1/2 of the D be fairly solid than both parts being half-assed.
If Pop is going to stick with the 3-pt shooter lineup, I would much rather see Novak on the floor than Bonner at the point. Novak IMO, has shown that he is willing to make an effort on the defensive end of the court.
Bonner being on the floor is the reason the Spurs lost this game, along with many other games, his defense, and lack of offense doomed the Spurs. It was like he was a spectator at a parade, and Bonner was just watching it. His man pretty much scored at will.
Bonner made several mistake in the meat of the game. When Splitter came into the game it was pretty much already lost at that point, he was basically getting garbage minutes. Splitter making a couple of mistakes in garbage time vs Bonner making then and turning momentum is comparing apples to oranges, besides when Splitter had his chance starting he played well overall and IMO, showed he deserves more than garbage time minutes. Bonner on the other hand showed he doesn't even deserve garbage minutes.
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