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Spurs have until sometime in January to decide what to do. The remainder of his contract becomes fully guaranteed then.
Bonner 0 points and 3 rebounds in 7 minutes
Blair 0 points and 3 rebounds in 12 minutes
As long as Bonner is paired with another big man, like Splitter, he's probably more useful than Blair.
Spurs have until sometime in January to decide what to do. The remainder of his contract becomes fully guaranteed then.
Bonner as a fourth big (have we really seen him in that role before?) can't do that much damage, especially in the playoffs when the 3 other bigs + small ball should eat up most the minutes. For the regular season, for right now, Bonner has to play Blair's minutes (and that is pretty limited) or at least be an even split.
Either way, Blair has not been pretty good, or ~neutral or anything but poor. The reality is, Spurs need Jax & Kawhi healthy so they can go more small ball and leave Blair/Bonner out for the most part.
splitter cant post guards in the playoffs & diaw wont shoot .... blair is needed ....
blair fat .... blair should put the weight back on & dominate on the inside again ... no need to be a diaw type player anymore ....
The reality is that, in the long term, it doesn't matter. If Pop already has the quick hook with Blair, it's safe to say he won't trust him to play any minutes in the playoffs regardless. That means Bonner will get minutes unless we run a lot of semi-small with Kawhi/Jack.
Bonner is too, but less than Blair. Rotation should be TD 32 min, Splitter 32, Diaw 32(Sjax should take some minutes from Splitter/Diaw when he comes back).
You must have missed the playoffs the last half dozen years. Bonner is the king of starting a run by the opposition even if he's on the court just for a few minutes.
Bonner will make the Spurs a better regular season team; I've always said that. But if the Spurs learn to rely on Bonner for ANYTHING, that will hurt them come playoff time.
Blair being injured/fat won't have a bearing on the playoffs because he'll be out of the rotation by then anyways.
i'd flip him for a high 2nd rounder to a ty team.
once they get Jack/Kawhi get back, Pop can run small ball more and lessen the need for that 4th big. Still be able to keep Bonner's mins. to a minimum and you really don't lose any defense/rebounding with Kawhi or Jack there instead of DeJuan tbh.
I'd find it hard to believe that some D-Leaguer can look worse than DeJuan has the last month.
Everything Pop has done this year has been aimed at getting Bonner out of the rotation. You're just being paranoid, tbh.
If the fallback option wasn't Matt Bonner, I would be all for dumping Blair.
I don't buy that Bonner has improved. He looks this good, IMO, cause he's a comfortable role. No pressure for him to play in crunch time.
Right now, we just have to hope Blair isn't hurting the team on certain nights. Tonight was an example of how much he can hurt the team.
Well, I also said that small ball + the 3 main bigs will eat up the majority of the minutes anyways, especially in the playoffs, so I don't see how giving Bonner Blair's minutes right now could hurt. Not what I meant entirely when I said "especially in the playoffs"...I meant that the 3 best bigs will play more minutes and small ball will be used which is the correct move. For now, can't see an argument that keeps Blair in over Bonner because when the playoffs role around, Bonner in a 4th big role will be extremely minimized and even if the Spurs do trot him out there, Blair has been so bad that Bonner is the lesser of two evils.
Plus, Bonner over the past couple years was not the fourth big and the Spurs did not have the small ball options they have now (Green, Jax, Kawhi...).
timvp, in an indirect way, you're guaranteeing a trade. That or you're suggesting they'll play a three big rotation/small ball in the playoffs. Think about it: You're saying Pop has aimed to get Bonner out of the rotation and that Blair will be out of the rotation by the playoffs.
It's not about "relying on Bonner", it's about him being able to help the team more now. We've got 59 more games before the playoffs and if neither is going to be in the rotation by then, as you suggest, then shouldn't they rely on the one who gives them the best chance to win right now? This can (and should, if they're serious about winning a championship) be rectified by the deadline though.
TBH if Blair in his current role will be out of the playoff rotation, then putting Bonner in that role should have the same effect. Bonner will be out and so will Blair regardless - difference is in the regular season Bonner is better than Blair right now.
Considering his play in the last couple of weeks and the looming contract deadline, I suspect the Spurs are working the phones as we speak. The problem is that he's on a cheap contract, so it will be hard to fetch anything of much value for him.
KMart would cost $1.2m at the veteran's minimum if he wants to sign for that... but the Spurs would probably need to cut Blair and JA to make numbers work...(is JA fully guaranteed?)
The fact we keep talking about Bonner or Blair year after year makes me want to go drink myself stupid half the time. WOW we have two bums we can't get rid of.
tbh, so far so good, but the closer we get to the playoffs, the closer I think he's going to go back to him. I'll feel better if this situation stays like this after the trade deadline is done.
They've given Blair more than enough time. Pop should drop him from the starting line-up at the very least. I refuse to believe that it's impossible for Pop to put together a big rotation that starts one of Diaw or Splitter and then gives Bonner around 10 minutes during certain stretches. Blair's lack of defense and his current lack of offense are handicapping the team. He's making it easier for other teams to beat us inside and on the boards. And don't even get me started on his professionalism (or lack thereof). After that Twitter fiasco I won't be upset if the Spurs don't keep him after this year.
fkn get rid of the 2 turd tower and just sign kmart or birdman, fck classy organization...when stern is out to get us
In the playoffs, I want Diaw starting next to Duncan with Splitter getting most of the other minutes. Any leftover minutes should be taken by small ball.
Strongly disagree. When Blair plays, the Spurs never learn to rely on him. He's just down there getting some trash points or rebounds. Pop can yank him at any time and nobody misses him.
But Bonner is a totally different animal. Regular Season Bonner provides fool's gold spacing that doesn't exist in the playoffs. Recent history goes like this: The bench comes to rely on that fool's gold spacing. They're able to run one play (Ginobili-Splitter pick-and-roll) because teams can't defend it in the regular season due to the spacing. Come the playoffs, the bench suddenly doesn't know what to do because that Bonner fool's gold spacing is gone. They can no longer rely on that one play and everything crumbles unless Manu pulls out heroics.
It's not worth potential regular season wins to go back to relying on fool's gold. It just isn't.
I think Blair is still hurting from that ankle, he only sat for what, one game?
To be honest, even as a longtime Bonner hater, I can't help but feel like I'd rather see Bonner over Blair until Jackson is back to play smallball 4.
You're missing the point. This is about what's best between now and the deadline, not now and the playoffs.
Bonner can at least hit the 3.
I know that he is kind of an enemy to us Spurs fans, but is there any way we can get Garnett in a trade? His defense is still rock solid and if the Celtics feel that they are slipping as the trade deadline approaches could they think about moving him for some younger pieces?
I can't believe you guys are willing to be burned by the Bonner stove once again. We haven't seen the "Bonner wins minutes in the regular season, Bonner starts putting up unbelievable plus/minus numbers, Bonner becomes a key cog on the bench, Bonner gets murdered in the playoffs" movie play enough times? Really?
We can pretend that a miracle trade will come along and rescue the Spurs from relying on Bonner or some other fortuitous turn of event will take place but that likely wouldn't happen. What is likely to happen if the Spurs rely on Bonner is that he'll legitimately earn his regular season minutes before falling on his face come April. By then, it'll be difficult to become unaccustomed to that spacing he provides in the regular season.
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