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What about when OKC plays small and puts Durant at the 4? Splitter couldn't even post up Fisher last year.
he was solid but damnit he needed to do a better job of securing that board at the end of the game. He still needs to show more balls out there but yeah, it was a good game for him and hopefully he can build from it.
What about when OKC plays small and puts Durant at the 4? Splitter couldn't even post up Fisher last year.
gnsf tbh.
as soon as splitter got the ball they called him for an offensive foul
duncans postup on artest would have gotten him ejected if he was splitter
he also gets called for the stupidest fouls
like when kobe runs right into a stationary splitter with his arms up
I was also on the Splitter more minutes bandwagon for a long time, including with Duncan and it makes sense for Pop to follwup on last season's big-man success against the Lakers, but we have Diaw now and tbh I think we could have won (much?) more comfortably with him playing the extended PF minutes tonight.
But will take the win of course and whatever lessons (including shambolic offense by Spurs standards) learned by Pop going forward.
If we're not going to get another big I want to see a rotation of Duncan/Diaw/Splitter on the playoffs. No Blair or Bonner, no matter what.
Ok rather than being condescending, how about having a memory of how Splitter has played over the long haul. If he gets better or keeps playing strong, I'll be his biggest supporter. But even this season we have seen Splitter go soft, finishing at the rim palm up instead of finishing with authority. This was a response to those saying we should play Tim and Splitter together more often. I think Splitter is still better off with the second unit so we can have a rim presence even when Duncan sits.
Somebody here proposed we should play the 2 centers together regularly. If the Thunder do indeed go small, how confident are you that the Spurs can truly take advantage on offense, keeping in mind Duncan or Splitter would have to defend an athletic perimeter player.
Don't gnsf me. I resent that. Just because I haven't been posting on this forum doesn't mean I haven't been an educated fan throughout the years.
I'm not a fan of Duncan/Splitter playing together against teams other than both LA teams and Memphis IMO..against other teams, Diaw is a better matchup..
Regardless, it's nice to see Splitter playing up to his potential and playing with balls..hopefully he starts finishing at the rim at the rate that we're accustomed to seeing..
Fully agree with Daf about the big rotation..hopefully neither Blair nor Bonner see the floor at any point during the post-season..
Well, ing DUH!!!!!
Years and years and any moron can see this....but wait....you don't have 4 rings so.....nevermind....
Pop knows better than what was obvious years ago....
This has only been obvious for a couple of seasons now...but I am sure Pop will immediately bench Tiago and bring back Bonner-ball!!!!!
Apologies for punting, but frankly, if you say "Splitter couldn't post up Derek Fisher" I don't consider you an educated fan, and I came to that conclusion while trying to explain it to you. Perhaps you were being hyperbolous or ironical, but citing a single bad play, particularly a freak play, to say why you think a player sucks is weak tea.
The Spurs have plenty of options to go small. Durant at the 4 is something that might need to be countered if it's effective, but it's something you evaluate at the time. Failing to play your best bigs together because the possibility exists that one of two teams with an incredibly talented small forward might change their lineup makes absolutely no sense, and failing to do so because Splitter got called for a cheap foul last year against a backup point guard is an order of magnitude less sensible. You play talented players together, and you play combinations that work, and you play your best center next to your best power forward. Up to this point, Duncan and Splitter have an embarrassingly small body of work together after three years.
Great teams impose their will and make other teams adjust. It'd be nice for the Spurs to do that for a change. Challenge a team to get past you, and once they get there, they've got to try to score over the trees. If they miss, that ball's not coming back down. If they figure out a way to break it down, then you adjust. If they shoot over it, you adjust.
A lot of us were excited to see Splitter and Duncan together in 2010. If it's such a bad idea, I wonder why Pop goes to it when he wants to beat the Lakers or when he gets desperate in the postseason. It's way past time to find out how it works for a longer stretch of games, and it's way past time for the Spurs to make sure both guys have plenty of rhythm together in case they need to be paired in the playoffs.
How dare you use common basketball sense in this forum. Pop is a hall of famer. 4 rings biatch.
How dare you insinuate that Lord Pop would not have done this years ago!
Blasphemy.
i don't really know how i feel about splitter starting.. don't get me wrong, i always liked the guy and think his performances are underrated, but it just doesn't seem worth to start him all season just for a team with a losing record. Perhaps the matchup start is the best choice.
My point was exactly...Pop has wasted more than a few years playing Bonner as a big. Most have been shouting that from the roof tops for a few years already...except of course the 4 rings people.
We wanted to see Duncan-Splitter in '10 but that year Splitter started off hurt and missed camp and never really made much of an impact that year. Pop likes to have a rim protector on the bench so when Duncan sits we won't have to resort to the turd towers of Bonner and Blair. In '10 he often used McDyess as that backup. However if you remember near the end of that season McDyess moved into the starting 5. Memphis went on to pound us, but I do remember Splitter having a double double or two in that series.
As for why Pop starts Duncan and Splitter together in big games like this, its a matchup. It happened last season too. Last season in our first matchup with the Lakers pop sent out Duncan and Blair and for the first quarter had Duncan guarding Gasol. Yes, that means Blair was guarding Bynum. The game was never close. Bynum went on to finish with 30 rebounds. Less than a week later, in a game against the Lakers, this time in LA (I game I can gladly say I attended. I'm a lonely Spurs fan in Los Angeles, as you can imagine), Pop started Splitter with Duncan simply to counter the Laker twin towers, because he had no other choice. He did this in the third meeting against the Lakers as well, and it worked out well.
If the matchup demands it, such as a Lakers matchup, Pop will start Splitter with Duncan out of necessity. You should also realize that Duncan played 36 minutes tonight, something that was forced because there no longer could Pop sub in Splitter for Duncan. A Splitter-Duncan combo is also a possibility should we meet Memphis, or even the Clippers if Deandre Jordan keeps playing like he did against us last week. While a Duncan-Splitter combo is a good idea, it leaves our bench bigs all to be undersized. Would you really trust Diaw, Bonner, or Blair to protect the rim? Also, playing Tim and Splitter together is a huge risk because if one of them gets in foul trouble, there's a good chance we would have a turd tower sighting.
And yes, there was some hyperbole in the Splitter-fisher comment, as there was one painfully memorable sequence in that series. But over the course of the Thunder series, Splitter's impact was minimal. I will grant you that he sparked us in the 4th quarter of game 1, but he was virtually nonexistent the rest of the series. After that game 1 his high in rebounds was 2. The Thunder don't have their Perkins-Ibaka lineup out there for long stretches at a time. In those rare minutes, a Duncan-Splitter combo SHOULD be used, but the Thunder play a majority of their minutes with Durant as a stretch 4. I don't know if we could rely on Tiago or Duncan defending one of their perimeter players, and I'm equally unsure about Tiago's ability to score in isolation against smaller players, especially in crucial playoff moments.
Continued... Ideally I'd like to see Splitter getting over 25 minutes a night. He is currently averaging 15 minutes per game and Bonner is averaging 10. By giving those minutes to Tiago, we could literally hit two birds with one stone.
Another oft-repeated thing that I disagree with, primarily because it's just not true. Splitter was indeed hurt during camp, but his lack of impact was due to all the DNP-CDs he racked up along with being pulled at the first mistake when he did get time and then benched as punishment for several games. Despite that, Splitter was the best player for the Spurs at times against Memphis, and there were a lot of people that knew the Grizzlies were going to be a nightmare matchup for the Spurs without a developed Splitter and without Splitter and Duncan having any time together. Among those that knew that: The Grizzlies.
Manu missed camp his rookie year due to a badly sprained ankle and he was well-established in the rotation by the playoffs.
If it fails, fine. It's never too late to go back to what you were doing before. It's ludicrous that they haven't gotten more time, and it's equally ludicrous that Splitter hasn't been more integrated into the rotation going on his third year with the team.
Everything else is speculation until we see how it goes.
I'll be the first to agree Splitter's ineffectiveness that year was due to the DNP's. I never stated otherwise. He was definitely mismanaged that rookie season because (as I mentioned) we had McDyess on the bench, who was a competent backup rim protector (which we currently lack outside of Tiago)
I remember a TWolves game last year. They tried going small with Derrick Williams at the 4. Splitter made them pay in the post and they had to abandon it very quickly. It's called imposing your will on the other team. Does anyone honestly believe the Spurs are going to win a championship by playing better small ball than the Heat? No they'll win by taking advantage of their lack of an inside presence.
Splitter is still very good. No surprises.
Splitters smile says: "Finally I did something right" ...
Keep your confidence Tiago!
Whatever Pop does, it's good to hear Tony Parker interviews saying the focus has changed to defense in this season. This alone should give Splitter more playing time.
So good to see him finally play a tough game, good energy and hustle from him the way whole through.
Splitters smile says: "Finally I did something right" ...
Keep your confidence Tiago!
His ing face when the Spurs won after his scramble on the board was priceless, he looked like it was the greatest moment thus far in his life. Hopefully he enjoys the feel of winning a hard fought game and it motivates him to keep playing like this in the future.
Looks like Duncan was anticipating Splitter to kick him in the balls.
Splitters smile says: "Finally I did something right" ...
Keep your confidence Tiago!
you're right
Kobe's look at Artest is priceless as well ...
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