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Haddadi can stand with his arms straight up and foul anyone that comes close to him with the ball and spell Bonner's minutes adequately.
Haddadi and Yi Jianlian currently don't have teams. Personally, Yi is a solid pickup and he's just head and shoulders better than Bonner in every aspect.
Haddadi can stand with his arms straight up and foul anyone that comes close to him with the ball and spell Bonner's minutes adequately.
Matty sucking isn't news. He'll have a few above average shooting nights and the apologists will come out in full force. The problem isn't him though. It's Pop thinking he's the centerpiece. We definitely won in spite of him tonight.
Why you guys limiting yourself to free agent bigs? The Spurs can also do trades, you know?
Well, the Spurs won, and they finally played Splitter and Anderson, and as a bonus, Leonard didn't get thrown to the end of the bench. Can't be much more pleased with the season so far.
This. Even if Splitter played a lot due to the other bigs foul trouble, I liked he raised to the occasion.
I'll just focus on the ones who are actually available or not guaranteed now.
Dwayne Jones - can only really rebound at the NBA level. Slow.
Chris Daniels - big but slow. I prefer some athleticism for this last spot.
Jamal Sampson - think he injured his ankle before training camp. Maybe the best all-around candidate for a fifth big from the D-League at this time. Looked good in the first game of the season against the Toros. Grabbed like 20 boards, but the Toros' bigs were nowhere near his level.
Greg Stiemsma - can block shots, pretty terrible otherwise.
Chris Wright - a little small but I wouldn't be against trying him. I'd also try Lance Thomas if NOLA waives him - less of a shotblocker, but plays bigger than he is with high energy.
Brian Costner - can score a lot of ways but would make you pine for Bonner's defense and rebounding.
Brian Butch - too Bonner-ish.
Ajinca - no objection to signing him.
Granted, these are all 5th big candidates. I still think the Spurs need to acquire someone better than Bonner and Blair.
I'd give Splitter an A-. His defense was just the kind of thing the Spurs need to win, and he was incredible at times. Blocking shots, tough post defense, everything on that side of the court was good to see.
It might not have been fair to the team though.
IM amazed TIMVIP didnt catch this stat, but the spurs jacked up 33 3 point attempts, making 10, Thats a total of 33 out of 88 shots for entire team on 3 pointers. I hope you all see the problem with this.
Leanard is more of a slashed type player, and here he was jacking up 5 of his 9 shots as 3 pointers. I believe RJ is more of a slasher to, but for some reason, we can take advantage of these skills of our players. I hope we dont try to make Leonard into a RJ type players, waiting on the wings for 3 pointers. Anderson, Boner , Manu and RJ Jack up enough 3 pointers as it is, without havign to worry about our rookies.
On another note, if not for the turnovers of Grizzz, we would have easily lost. Most times I look at FG% and rebounds of game and u know who won. 46% to 39.5% and out rebounded by a few would tel me we got whipped. Especially seeing we jacked up 33 3 pointers and only made 10. I think the Grizz lost this game more then the Spurs won it.
Lets hope these trends change.
I saw that too, the threes concern me at times, way too many. Thats my gripe with the Spurs they settle for way too many IMO.
Watching Bonner grab 0 rebounds and get physically dominated on defense was definitely hard to watch. Still, don't think its fair to expect anything positive from having to defend one of the more physical frontcourts. The good news is that it didn't feel like he played 28 minutes. In fact, I was quite shocked to see that he ended up playing that much. Too many positives came out of tonights game to waste time feeling sorry for Bonner.
Looking towards the future.. hopefully we find that 5th big soon, still a little uncomfortable having only 4 with the shorten seasoned and injures always being in the back of your mind. I do kind of agree with Chump here.. it'll be hard to find one better than Bonner.. mostly because of Bonners experience, understanding of the system and overall a Coach Pop favorite.
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I felt like Splitter played all game. Whether he was making great defensive plays or he was looking foolish on offense - he stood out. On defense he was mostly in the right place at the right time, on offensive his "seemingly" low basketball IQ was frustrating.
Making lemonade. We don't have solid interior play outside of TD, and Tony had a lot of trouble penetrating against the big frontline.
Thanks for the info - I'd say start the auditions sooner than later.
As far as a 3rd big - a trade would have to be the only option since the FA market is just about closed.
Targets?
-Turiaf (a couple of months down the road)
-Petro
-Tyrus T.
or someone young like:
-Jeremy Evans
-Larry Sanders
The two guys that most impressed me were Leonard and Splitter. Both were very active on the defensive end and caused the Grizz a lot of problems. Hopefully that continues. Both were extremely rough on the other end though. I expect Leonard to calm down a little and figure it out as the season goes along. Splitter... if he gets a few garbage buckets a night I'm happy. I have to close my eyes every time he starts backing his man down and goes for a move.
Parker looked tired and lazy to start the game, thankfully he turned it on later. Bonner was pathetic, much worse than his usual work. But being that we only have four bigs, pray that there are no injuries.
a lot of positive things to take out of game 1 of the season, so the optimism is high and that makes the glaring weaknesses in the front line even harder to digest.
It's going to be an interesting season and if the Spurs find themselves struggling to keep up, I hope the FO does what's necessary to solidify the depth where needed and possibly sacrifice where depth is not as much of an issue. If they can package Bonner with that trade, I wouldn't object to the FO shedding that financial liablity.
It wasn't just the Grizzlies turnovers. The Spurs defense was good. They contested most of the shots and made most of the rotations. They also rebounded well.
Splitter, Anderson, and Kawhi were great tonight defensively. You can already tell this team is a huge upgrade defensively over last year (and probably the previous 3 years) because of those three guys. Plus, Blair was more active and in position defensively than in the past. RJ looked confident shooting threes out there.
The only weekness was once again Bonner, who couldn't hit or defend . Spurs need to sign someone with legit size and athleticism to be the 4th big. If they do, I think the Spurs could take the West this year because everything else seems to be in place. I think Ford will eventually be alright for us.
I know it's only part of his game but the bolded part worries me a bit, as Pop tends to dislike players who gamble on the defensive end (or at least he used to). I'm really not sure what a guy like Leonard has to do to impress Pop and get some PT (other than eating sandwiches, lacking energy and shooting well from 3pt land in the regular season - none of which seems to be part of Leonard's strengths).
timvp, thanks a lot man, i come here to spurstalk, just to read your posts
mabuhay!!! (that means long live in the Filipino language)
go Spurs go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
didnt Splitter deserve an A minus for today?? his inside defensive presence was key
trade Blair or Bonner, get Yi Jianlian!!!
Neal with it
It wasn't a pretty game or an impressive performance but I liked the intensity and focus the team showed after a a sloppy first quarter. Spurs needs to play better defense than last year and it is what they did in this game.
Manu was the MVP of the game but RJ deserves a lot of credits for what he did. Props to him to start the season like that after the talks about Spurs amnestying him.
TJ Ford was disappointing. He was Jacque Vaughn with a worse defense. He better start attacking more the rim soon or Pop rather play Joseph (a better defender) or Neal (a better shooter) at the backup PG spot.
I'm not sure I agree with Blair having a better grade than Splitter, unless the basis of grades is expectations. Yeah it's easy to be critical of a 7 footer who plays soft and reward an undersize big for playing bigger than his size.
But I think Splitter size on the defensive end was key to neutralising gasol and zach , while on offense he had some good screens for Manu
here is what Pop and project spurs had to say:
Tiago Splitter is now being used as the stable for the Spurs’ offense with the second unit. Though he scored just five points on 2-of-7 shooting, his defense was key in the Spurs win. Splitter grabbed eight rebounds along with two steals and two blocks. After the game, coach Popovich was impressed with Splitter, “He was real special tonight,” said Popovich, “Tiago did a good job. He deserves a lot of credit.”
But really how does someone (Splitter) who is your achor on defense (Tim played just 20 min) be valued less than Blair who played just 10 min picking up 4 fouls. No way Blair is more valuable than Splitter, if Bliar get's injured and we get a d-leaque replacement, the seasons not lost. But if Splitter gets injured we're toast !
But these are GAME not Season grades ... and in the little time Blair played he was good both on offense and on defense. Splitter played great defense, but had little luck on the offensive end. Thats how I think TIMVP meant it ...
Also, Blair played closer to his ceiling than Splitter did for last night's game.
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