Reply With Quote
POOP now waking up some?
As he has for 14 years running, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich expects to be able to chisel Tim Duncan's name into his starting lineup for the 2011-12 campaign, whenever it begins.
Though Duncan has passed his 35th birthday, he remains under contract for next season, and Popovich sees no reason to doubt the two-time MVP will return for another go-round.
“Timmy's given me no indication he's considering retiring, or anything like that,” Popovich said.
In what has seemed to be an annual offseason ritual ever since David Robinson hung up his Nikes, the search is on for someone to be Duncan's frontcourt running mate.
With the playoff wounds inflicted by Zach Randolph and Memphis' bruising frontcourt still fresh, and with Antonio McDyess all but officially retired, Popovich said this week that finding a partner for Duncan will be the team's top offseason personnel priority.
The Spurs have not ruled out exploring the trade or free-agent markets to accomplish that goal, once they open for business, but are more likely to look in-house to fill the void.
One returning candidate is 22-year-old DeJuan Blair, an undersized forward at 6-foot-7 who started 65 games, but battled weight issues and fell out of favor in the postseason. Another is 25-year-old Tiago Splitter, a 6-foot-11 former first-round draft pick who arrived last summer amid a frenzy of fanfare only to have his rookie season undermined by alternating spates of injury and inactivity.
Two weeks removed from a playoff ouster, and with plenty of offseason in front of him, Popovich hasn't committed to anyone just yet. At times, however, he appears willing to talk himself into the dawning of the Splitter era.
“I think Tiago has to be a linchpin for our future here, because he has the size, the length, the toughness, the grit, the consistency,” Popovich said. “He's going to be a stalwart of this team going forward.”
A limited offensive player, Splitter already has begun offseason work with Spurs shooting guru Chip Engelland to work on his free-throw stroke and to move his game a bit further from the basket. That work, however, is likely to be interrupted when Splitter joins the Brazilian national team for preparations for the Tournament of the Americas later this summer, and won't resume until the NBA's collective bargaining issues are settled.
Though Splitter did not spend much time paired with Duncan this season, and doesn't have a jumper to spread the floor as McDyess did, Popovich thinks the two could coexist. For proof, he points to Fabricio Oberto, a player similar to Splitter who started next to Duncan on the Spurs' 2007 championship team.
“We played with two bigs before, when Fab was here,” Popovich said. “Fab and Timmy were the starters, and we got it done.”
Splitter appeared in 60 games as a rookie, after missing all of training camp and the preseason with a calf injury. He did not see action in the postseason until Game 4 against Memphis, after which he became a rotation fixture.
“When you miss the entire training camp and you're a rookie, you're going to have a tough time in any program,” Popovich said. “After that, he got injured once or twice more. At the time, when he would get a little healthy and be available, we were rolling. DeJuan was starting, so we didn't change it.”
Blair averaged 8.8 points and 7.3 rebounds as an unorthodox starting center. In mid-March, he was benched in favor of McDyess, whose defensive chops the coaching staff deemed more valuable in the postseason.
After Blair ballooned to nearly 300 pounds late in the season, Popovich challenged him to shed excess weight. In response, Blair dropped 20 pounds by cutting fast food out of his diet.
Heading into the summer, Popovich has challenged Blair again.
Blair's future with the Spurs, the coach said, is not aligned with “working on his jumper or developing a jump hook. It's not defense.”
“It's personal discipline, responsibility and maturity,” Popovich said. “That will get him to the next level. Short of that, he'll have a hard time.”
As it has been for nearly a decade of offseasons now, when it comes to Spurs' big men, Duncan is the only sure thing.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/s...ck-1379352.php
POOP now waking up some?
FU Pop, you did the same thing to GHill his rookie season.
I'll be dammned if Tiago doesn't start next season's games
Watch Pop call Tiago his favorite player now.
Blair's future with the Spurs, the coach said, is not aligned with “working on his jumper or developing a jump hook. It's not defense.”
“It's personal discipline, responsibility and maturity,” Popovich said. “That will get him to the next level. Short of that, he'll have a hard time.”
Bonner must be loaded with personal discipline, responsibility and maturity why he gets so much playing time. It's sad (especially after watching CHI's defense) that Pop doesn't value defense any more.
Pop is 1 season late
Don't see anything new here, clearly, defence is still not a priority for pop. It will be the same next season, "bla bla bla..we're contenders"...then one and done in the playoffs, followed by..."It was the injuries"..excuse.
C Sam Dalambert
PF Kenyon Martin
SF Grant Hill or Prince
SG Redd
Would love to land any one of those guys and none are unrealistic and all unrestricted? Unrealstic signings would be Nene or Yao, wishful thinking.
Can't wait til the season is over and for the offseason wheeling and dealing to begin!
Out of all those players, the only one we MIGHT have a shot at is Prince.
And@ Michael Redd. I didn't know it was 2006.
the one good thing is i dont hear that arrogant at ude ive heard in years past when speaking about doing something different and i have to tell my self , that if anybody can go back to playing good D it would be the spurs.
Just trading bonner alone increases our defense! cross your fingers spurs fans that coach head is offered a deal he cant refuse!!
only thing i liked about this article is reading that the FO would be up to trade and a pickup thru free agency. theres at least a little bit of hope that blair and bonner could be on there way out of san antonio. dammit now watch it be splitter being traded away.
One returning candidate is 22-year-old DeJuan Blair, an undersized forward at 6-foot-7 who started 65 games, but battled weight issues and fell out of favor in the postseason.This might be the first confirmation that Blair was in the dog house because of his weight.After Blair ballooned to nearly 300 pounds late in the season, Popovich challenged him to shed excess weight. In response, Blair dropped 20 pounds by cutting fast food out of his diet.
I'm just glad they're making it a priority. Counting on Blair and Splitter would be a big mistake in my opinion. We need an athletic big who can D up and block some shots. Much like a Chandler, Camby and/or Ibaka...that's what we need and we've never been able to give Duncan. We get someone like that and a solid wing who can also D and hit open 3s and we'll be fine. I'd LOVE to have an Okafor type and Tony Allen type.
We had an athletic 6'11 guy named Mahoney or Mahinney or something like that... not sure what happened to him, he must've blocked too many shots for Pop's liking
lol true...but we need someone who can step in...not develop. how many shots is he blocking now? how many minutes is he playing? is he shutting anyone down?
"Do everything humanly possible to become a more elite defensive team."
-pop
He'd been better than nothing. uva lot better than either Bonner or Blair. A Serge Ibaka type player. The biggest knock on him was he was too "foul prone". Well guess what? Ibaka was 2nd in the nba in disqualifications and that hasn't stopped him from playing/developing/contributing.
“We played with two bigs before, when Fab was here,” Popovich said. “Fab and Timmy were the starters, and we got it done.”
And what made this dumb get away from that???
Pop needed a new love after Finley. Unfortunately, the object of affection became the sandwich boy. Mind has been messed up ever since.
Then why isn't Mahimni contributing for the Mavs, instead of doing the same thing he was doing with the Spurs Einstein?
ding ding ding....exactly. it's not like he's tearing it up. the comparison between him and ibaka is weak. i'd take ibaka over anyone we currently have or mahinmi 7 days a week and twice on sunday. c'mon man.
Duncan's age, the Spurs no longer having a perimeter shutdown defender maybe? Duncan in his prime could allow me or you to start alongside him. Oberto didn't play much his 1st year as a Spur either.
Uh, because two starter-quality centers are ahead of him in the rotation?
I was too young to see bird play, was he more athletic than ginger?
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
