Is it Bonner's fault?

[S4Spur21]

sooooooooo MANY members on here actually sucked up to the idea that Matt Bonner would be a legit center for us in the playoffs.


Guess what? He's ing WEAK as .


There is a reason our interior defense looks like .

There is a reason why we give up so many offensive rebounds which = more points for Dallas.

Tim Duncan absolutely has ZERO help when Bonner is in the game. I don't give a if he can stretch the defense.

He's pure garbage. He wouldn't start on any other playoff team, in the entire NBA.

[peskypesky]

And you'd think one with Zydrunas Ilgauskas wouldn't have a shot either but what do I know.

you're not really comparing Bonner to Ilgauskas, are you? If you are you're a know-nothing. Ilgauskas is a former All-Star, Bonner is a scrub. Big big difference.

[itzsoweezee]

I find the whole "it's Pop fault" theory just plain ridiculous.

Bonner has been a starter for the whole year. In the RS, his FG% was 50%. In the playoffs, his FG% is 21%. It's hard to blame Pop for Bonner not being able to shoot in these playoffs.

Same thing for Mason. His main trouble in this series is that his defense has been atrocious. It's hard to link that Pop giving him some time at the PG spot is the reason why his defense is so bad.

Pop has made some mistake but you can't put everything wrong with Spurs on him.

pop is giving bonner the minutes. boner isn't putting himself in the lineup. it's 100% pop's fault. if boner gets major minutes again in game 5, what will the excuse be then? it's pretty freaking obvious now that boner has nothing to offer.

[weebo]

And you'd think one with Zydrunas Ilgauskas wouldn't have a shot either but what do I know.

Big Z > Matt Bonehead

[completely deck]

you're not really comparing Bonner to Ilgauskas, are you? If you are you're a know-nothing. Ilgauskas is a former All-Star, Bonner is a scrub. Big big difference.

take a look at the numbers if you don't believe me.

[Borosai]

Matt Bonner!

[tmtcsc]

Mason should take some of the blame. Pop can't go out and play for these guys. When they have open looks they need to shoot the ball and they need to attack the glass when they don't shoot.

This is all on the role players. We've counted on them a lot this season and the playoffs is no time to role up in a ball and disappear.

A little home cooking is what we need to get our mojo back. Winning in Dallas is inevitable. We just need take care of tomorrow first.

[Sean Cagney]

Not all THIS CLOWNS FAULT, but he is utter garbage out there on O and D.

[Bruno]

You could see after Game 1 shooters were not going to be effective. And we have players on the bench that both have a post game or can play the pick and roll a lot better than Bonner. Not only that, they rebound better than him. This is not rocket science. We have a 4 game sample now, and he's only been partially effective on only one game. And I say partially, because he started to shot the ball when we already had a 20+ point lead, and Dallas was gambling left and right to try to catch up. Why not try something else? I mean, it's not like he's guarding Dirk one on one either. But you know what? I bet dollars to donuts he's going to start tomorrow, and play the bulk of the time at his position. So, is it Bonner's fault he can't get an easy shot or is put on a position where he can't contribute? Or is it Pop's fault for being stubborn?
Please Bruno. Mason, and for that matter, Finley too have been sucking on defense for a long time now. In Mason's case, he used to be able to offset it with his scoring. But not in this series. And if you see he's sucking on defense, why wait until the 4th game of the series, when we're already in a hole, to give Hill a chance? Whose fault is that? Mason's?

I was saying "If Bonner and Mason sucks, it's on them".
You answer is "If they get playing time, it's on Pop."

Do you realize that there is no oppositions between both things ?

I can't certainly blame him for things like players going through the motions, instead of playing with heart. But you can't tell me he's blameless being stubborn in his ways when his scheme is clearly not working. He's hoping Duncan will start to dominate anytime soon to open up the shooters, and if he doesn't then he'll happily see the season end without actually trying anything else. And that, I can put squarely on him.

Well I said "Pop has made some mistake", I don't know why I consider him as "blameless".

Not playing Hill, is to me, Pop's biggest mistake in this series. Mavs have a small and offensively oriented backcourt. They are a good matchup for Hill.

And I'm not sold by your assumption that Pop is giving too much playing time to Bonner and Mason. Both sucks but the alternate solutions suck.
Parker has been great in this series, Duncan has do what he can do with his knee(s), Bowen has been quite solid, Hill has show good things but was in the doghouse and the rest of the team sucks.
When you have only 4 decent players including one who is in the doghouse, it's just impossible to put a good team on the floor. I have a hard time saying who deserves the more playing time between Mason, Finley, Udoka, Bonner, Gooden and Thomas.

[portnoy1]

This will sound kinda funny;but actually alot of the spurs problems offensively are Tony Parkers fault.

[ElNono]

I was saying "If Bonner and Mason sucks, it's on them".
You answer is "If they get playing time, it's on Pop."

Do you realize that there is no oppositions between both things ?

The problem is that, offensively speaking, I don't necessarily see them sucking. I see that they can't play their role, and you have to give Dallas props for that. They're just innefective under the scheme our coach is using. They're being set up to fail. And Pop is not doing a thing to change that. He's hoping they'll figure it out, instead of him being hands on and doing something about it.
This stubbornness and lack of adjusting reminds me of the 2004 playoffs. We win the first 2 games handily, then PJ adjusts and makes us beat them from the 3 pt line. Pop never countered. He sit pat and we lost the next 4 games.

Well I said "Pop has made some mistake", I don't know why I consider him as "blameless".

Not playing Hill, is to me, Pop's biggest mistake in this series. Mavs have a small and offensively oriented backcourt. They are a good matchup for Hill.

And I'm not sold by your assumption that Pop is giving too much playing time to Bonner and Mason. Both sucks but the alternate solutions suck.
Parker has been great in this series, Duncan has do what he can do with his knee(s), Bowen has been quite solid, Hill has show good things but was in the doghouse and the rest of the team sucks.
When you have only 4 decent players including one who is in the doghouse, it's just impossible to put a good team on the floor. I have a hard time saying who deserves the more playing time between Mason, Finley, Udoka, Bonner, Gooden and Thomas.

The only obvious change he made in the lineup was pretty much forced on him, and it was playing Bowen more, after sitting his ass all season long. We're very fortunate that Bruce is a hard worker and stays in shape, otherwise this would have been very, very ugly.
Hill needed to play more since Game 1, when Barea was doing whatever he wanted.
As far as the rest of the role players sucking, well, if after 20 minutes you only have 1 rebound collected, you're taking no shots, you might aswell give somebody else a chance. You really have nothing to lose there. But why keep rewarding a guy that obviously doesn't work against this opponent by giving him 30+ minutes a game? Just try somebody else already.
Even if it's not in scoring, anybody that can help you grab rebounds and cut down on the second chance points could have won the last game for us.

But Bonner will be starting tonight. And he will be playing the bulk of the minutes again. And Hill will probably be glued to the bench until it's desperation time once more. And frankly, we've seen this movie before.