Monroe: Splitter figures to start

[Mel_13]

That my friend, is REBUILDING.

A process that can begin the day after Tim Duncan plays his last game as a Spur.

[The Truth #6]

To me, the only reason to rebuild is when your nucleus of talent is old and have little chance to compete for a le. Which, pretty much describes the Spurs. If the Spurs played in LA, Miami or NY, then it would be easier to just RELOAD w/ top notch talent but there are few top 5 in the league talent that really want to play in SA.

SA's formula for success in 1999 and since has been to DRAFT well. TD, Parker, Ginobili were all drafted and became elite. The role players were all trades or FAs. This past draft was a weak one. The Spurs should just bite the bullet, play the younger players (Anderson, Splitter, Leonard) and see where the chips lie. If they're lucky (YES, LUCKY), they'll become a lottery team NEXT year when the draft is strong. Maybe they'll be even luckier and get a top 5 pick and draft the next PF of their future.

That my friend, is REBUILDING. I know lots of fans don't want to hear it, but at the current rate of success (make playoffs and lose), they will never get a draft pick good enough to get anyone of value (they had to trade Hill to get a pick just outside the lottery in one of the weakest drafts in history).

To me that sounds like rebuilding. REBUILDING, on the other hand, would be exploding the Big 3 for future draft picks and developing the real young players/tanking. But it would alienate the fanbase so much it might take years to get them back. And Holt needs to fill seats and sell hotdogs to keep the team slightly above water.

[The Truth #6]

Coach,

Reading your post again made me notice another point. You seem adamant that the Spurs will be very lucky (as in LUCKY) to be a lottery team next year. Tanking seems to be much easier then succeeding in my opinion. If the Spurs want to tank, why do you think it will take luck (or LUCK) to do so?

[Ginobilly]

To me, the only reason to rebuild is when your nucleus of talent is old and have little chance to compete for a le. Which, pretty much describes the Spurs. If the Spurs played in LA, Miami or NY, then it would be easier to just RELOAD w/ top notch talent but there are few top 5 in the league talent that really want to play in SA.

SA's formula for success in 1999 and since has been to DRAFT well. TD, Parker, Ginobili were all drafted and became elite. The role players were all trades or FAs. This past draft was a weak one. The Spurs should just bite the bullet, play the younger players (Anderson, Splitter, Leonard) and see where the chips lie. If they're lucky (YES, LUCKY), they'll become a lottery team NEXT year when the draft is strong. Maybe they'll be even luckier and get a top 5 pick and draft the next PF of their future.

That my friend, is REBUILDING. I know lots of fans don't want to hear it, but at the current rate of success (make playoffs and lose), they will never get a draft pick good enough to get anyone of value (they had to trade Hill to get a pick just outside the lottery in one of the weakest drafts in history).

I agree 100%! This upcoming season should be a fun one for Spurs fans. This year Pop is going to be forced to play rookies/2nd year players( 03 anyone) more than any other season. Anyone who thinks that Splitter will make the Spurs worse by being in the starting lineup with TP, Manu, Tim, is just a plain ass hater or a ginger fan.

[ChuckD]

To me that sounds like rebuilding. REBUILDING, on the other hand, would be exploding the Big 3 for future draft picks and developing the real young players/tanking. But it would alienate the fanbase so much it might take years to get them back. And Holt needs to fill seats and sell hotdogs to keep the team slightly above water.

The only alternative is to be half alive like Indy. They built their team around a B player, and are stuck in the middle, one year in the playoffs, one year with a low lottery pick. It's an almost unbreakable cycle if you don't have the courage to blow it up and be bad for 2-3 years, a la SEA/OKC.

[ElNono]

Last offseason I had a long back and forth with TD 21 about Splitter, how it would take time for him to adapt, how Pop doesn't really have a problem giving rooks the one season sabbatical treatment, how once Bonner was re-signed Splitter would suffer, etc etc etc.

Considering how pissed off TD 21 was about the Splitter's situation to end the season, I have to gather that (unfortunately) I was mostly right.

Back then, I recall mentioning he isn't a better player than, say, Scola (oh noes, that name again). He's not far, and he's superior physically, IMO. But unless you're a beast like Howard or Lebron, some of that physical edge can easily be offset with basketball smarts (which Scola has done time and again when playing against Tiago).

I still think that's Tiago's ceiling. Against below-average or average teams, he can probably put up good to great numbers. But against good to great teams/players (ZBo, Pau, Bosh, etc), I don't think he'll have as much an impact.

The good news about Tiago is that he doesn't shy away from physicality. Something we've been missing since Oberto left, and Tim has had to deal with which obviously taxes him greatly. He should do a good job as a low post banger on defense (besides of his shot blocking abilities), and that should be an improvement right there. Ofcourse, this is provided he gets some meaningful time out there.

[benefactor]

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[Cane]

lol rascal but this isn't too far behind tbh; although Fabbs deserves it :

This site has many annoying posters, but you are probably the only one I would do physical harm to if I ever met you face to face. People should be given the death penalty for being as dumb as you.

[Killakobe81]

How EXACTLY did you or anyone else know that a guy who shot greater than 45% from the 3 for most of the season was going to shoot around 31 or 32 in the Playoffs. Pop is supposed to be clairvoyant?

Ok, if Pop is such a bad coach, then why was the team playing so well in the early part of the regular season? Is Bonner so old that he can't maintain pace an entire season? The better perimeter defense displayed on Bonner is supposed to open up greater lanes for the penetrators (TP and Manu and to some degree RJ - if he had been in the game) but those that are supposed to either didn't capitalize or were too hurt to. Bonner is a ROLE player. Does it make sense to blame his lack of defense during the 15-20 minutes he's in the game as the cause for the Spurs demise. McDyess played EXCELLENT defense on Randolph IMO, Zach just played BETTER offense. Nothing against McDyess - he just didn't get it done. We can all speculate that if we had Channing Frye or Thompson or Josh Smith that the outcome would've been different but the Spurs DIDN'T HAVE those guys. Pop played the guys he had. On top of that, when the starting SF (that's really the only one you have) isn't good enough to be on the floor in the Playoffs, what should've been Pop's move then? Danny Green? Move your injured and undersized for the position SG to SF and put in another undersized player at SG?

We all want to criticize Pop for not seeing what seems to be obvious after the fact but I just don't agree...

Agreed. Pop is a top 5 coach who no longer has a top 10 player in the NBA, tough to win in the playoffs without one ...

I would take Pop over his pupil Mike Brown, who is a "solid" coach ...

Problem is many fans (Laker fans too) find it easier to criticize their coach or GM (phil/Pop) instead of their team's star: Kobe, Duncan, Lebron etc. ...

[ElNono]

People that claim that posters are ing about Pop's love affair with Bonner only after the fact haven't really been around (I'm sure a few more posters jumped into the failboat after this season, but I digress). One only has to bump up the 'Spurs re-sign Bonner' thread from last offseason to take a look at the reaction back then. If the argument is that Pop (current VP of basketball operations IIRC, with a direct hand in the FO) didn't have any other big man to play instead of Bonner, the fault is entirely on him for sticking with him last offseason instead of going a different route.

I liked Pop a lot more when he didn't have this kind of love affairs, and he was an in-your-face coach. He has changed. He's still a heck of a coach though.