The guy always puts up good numbers when he is playing. Why has pop black balled him? His rookie year, he was the damn man....now all the sudden he sucks?
Splain this to me
For every 1 good thing Blair did on the court, he did ~1.1-1.4 bad things. Because the Spurs are so good, against bad team, and especially in the regular season, that didn't really matter, Spurs could make up for it in other ways. But in the playoffs, when it mattered, it hurt us.
Basically, Blair never learned how to play defense, never learned how to cut down on him bone head mistakes, and is too short to rebound effectively against really good and tall teams. His negatives outweighed his positives, in the end.
ship his ass out then
He is still 100 times better than Bonner - but somehow Bonner keeps his job.
Bonner will probably get an extension again - and for more money too.
Beat you to it
When he's good he's good, when he's bad he's abyssmal. Pop's never had a lot of tolerance for inconsistency.
lol blair
lol spurfans overrating him as dennis rodman with offense
lol sucks
lol told you so
and Bonner still here
He peaked in the rookie/sop re games.
Blair was never "the damn man." He overperformed the offensive expectations for a 2nd round 6'7 center with no ACLs. That's a pretty low bar to jump over. Turns out he didn't outperform those expectations significantly enough to become a regular rotation player for the spurs — especially when better big man options became available (Diaw, Splitter, possibly Baynes).
Blair fed into the FO's and fanbase's image of the Spurs as the team that finds diamonds in the dustbin. Blair did have a handful of monster regular-season performances, from which both the coaching staff and some fans drew some wildly optimistic conclusions.
That Blair couldn't stay on the floor during the playoffs should have been the tell, but I get the feeling that Pop, like most great coaches, thinks that his doesn't stink.
Even great coaches and great teams make awful mistakes. Blair is one of those mistakes.
he bad
Blair was certainly worth the 2nd round pick we used on him. Was a good minutes eater for a few years
Playoffs
Bonner
Soft
Michael Finley-Pop
Blair has averaged 9 minutes per game in the playoffs.
How about the other Pop bois?
He sucks
i was also on the blair bandwagon back then and i still have faith in him even though he's been marginalized by pop. dude has both speed and muscle, and will probably develop into a paul milsap thing under the right guidance. still needs some work on his defensive awareness but it's not like you can always get a better defender out of guys like diaw, splitter or b
Difference is Millsap and Bass both have reliable jumpers. I had high hopes for Blair too, but its probably better if he gets traded to another team.i was also on the blair bandwagon back then and i still have faith in him even though he's been marginalized by pop. dude has both speed and muscle, and will probably develop into a paul milsap thing under the right guidance. still needs some work on his defensive awareness but it's not like you can always get a better defender out of guys like diaw, splitter or b
Blair looks really good when he is being hand fed layups thanks to a Manu Ginobili pick and roll. Other than that, he is not really an NBA quality player. Defensively, he turned whatever opponent he was facing into an MVP caliber player. He is too small to guard the paint, and is often outrebounded by taller players. Offensively, he has no jumper, limited post moves, and struggles to finish in a crowd for fear of being blocked. There is no place for a player like Blair on a championship contending roster, especially one that uses its bench a fair amount.
What happened was what always happens on ST. Doesn't matter if it is Blair or Neal or Anderson or Bertrans or Splitter... etc etc. If we draft them, they are expected to become the mvp of the league in short order. They are hailed as the steal of the decade and the appropriate Chuck Norris metaphores are applied. Once it becomes apparent that they will not be getting the rookie of the year award (despite being drafted late in the 2nd round), then the knives come out and it's time to run them out of town. Blair didn't shrink after we drafted him, he's the same height as far as I know. Did people realistically expect the next Charles Barkley out of Blair? He was a good pick for that draft slot and he produced well in the time here. He's had a better career with us than he would with any other team. He had his shortfalls but we knew that. Don't act so surprised. Trading him now would only help him as we pursue an upgrade at his position. Being on another team would most likely give an opportunity for another contract and more time in the NBA.
Rather than spit on him on the way out, I'd rather just thank him for his help and giving what he gave. He's still young and hopefully can produce for another team for another couple years. If at the same time we can get a draft pick out of it, all the better.
Did you know he doesn't have any ACLs?
Exactly!!! And though that was no secret, the hype went ever higher and higher. His unforgivable sin was that he exceeded what should have been expected from him early on. On this team he was a short C with no ACLs. Yet despite knowing all that, what we hear is "Why the F*** did he not at least earn an honorable mention on the all star vote? Loser!!!! "
He plateaued and gave what he gave. Now we're about to move on, no need to pee on the guy.
No Ginobili, no playing time for Blair.
which means he'll never suffer a torn ACL, and that's why he's tough as imho
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