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a monster 3 pts and 2 rbs from our starting center last night.
and that's going vs. probably the softest frontline in the NBA, the pacers.
Bravo Pop. Bravo!
I can live with Bonner- he spreads the floor and if he's shooting well, will make room for Duncan down low.
That being said, our rebounding and shot blocking will suffer and I'm not for making Tim exert himself on the defensive end too much. His shooting last night may be a reflection of this.
Bogans? I'm at a loss why he's wearing anything other than a sportsjacket. It defies logic.
Start Mason but I guess we're beyond that.
a monster 3 pts and 2 rbs from our starting center last night.
and that's going vs. probably the softest frontline in the NBA, the pacers.
Bravo Pop. Bravo!
I agree that other than Duncan, Bonner has been the most solid and consistent defensive big man of the 4 regulars. That said, I expect McDyess to continually improve through the rest of the year, and Blair to continually improve through the rest of the decade. Also, if the Spurs don't net a new big man via trade, the excuses for not playing Ratliff have come to an end. He should start steadily getting 5-10 minutes a game and work his way up to 15-20 come playoff time; if that doesn't happen and the defense doesn't gel, I don't know what Pop is thinking, both with current rotations and when he signed Ratliff in the first place.
I'm all for making big changes if it means the Spurs suddenly become the best defensive team in the league and once again allow 90 points or less. I don't think it's going to happen. I'll be keeping an eye on the Spurs opponent ppg average to see if it starts to drop a few digits or not. I'm also interested to see what happens to the offense. Will they continue to average over a hundred points? We will see.
I don't have a problem with Bonner. He probably fits best together with TD.
Problem is an undersized Bogans at the SF position. Together with Hill being an undersized SG we have really small wings and that will hurt us in many ways.
But what is an alternative? Jefferson? We already saw he doesn't fit with the starters so maybe playing with Ginobili more could make wonders for him.
WHY NOT EXPERIMENT IF AT THE MOMENT WE ARE NOT A CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER.... with experimenting we at least have a chance to change some things.
Hard to explain or justify this piss-poor starting lineup. In fact, I expected to suddenly hear crickets in my head when Timvp tried to justify Pop's decision. IMO, inserting Bogans and Bonner into the starting five puts this team into an early disadvantage. Essentially, they'll start the game in a hole. I guess Pop is still bemoaning the loss of "corporate knowledge".
I've seen enough of Bonner's act to know that any lineup that features him is destined to fail. The longer he plays, the more he gets exposed. What more do we need to see from him? He tries hard, but been made painfully obvious that he's a role player, not a starter.
By the way, saying that "Bonner is currently the team's best defensive bigman outside of Duncan" is just like saying death by lethal injection is the preferred method over the electric chair.
If Bogans can hit his open looks and step up his defense, perhaps it's salvageable. Then the Spurs will only be playing 4 on 5.
Pop has officially lost it
Bonner is playing terrible since the injury. He should get a bunch of DNP-CD
Bogans over RJ also made no sense for me
Meet the new boss...
And Pop officially lost it on opening night, folks.
The absolute last thing Pop should be doing is decreasing Blair's minutes.
I went with, "I doubt it will be successful. We'll see."
I'm not quite ready to give up on Pop but this lineup might be the final straw. It has a few decent points but it's laughable to think this lineup is a championship lineup. I literally laugh trying to imagine this lineup leading to any type of postseason success.
This starting lineup doesn't even translate into regular season success.
Perhaps Pop is seeking to improve his lottery chances?
the second unit should regularly win in the little practice time they get.
Manu
Mason
Jefferson
Blair
Dyess
"I doubt it will be successful. We'll see." is the only correct answer because it's clear that Pop is going to ride this boat wherever it takes him, regardless of the success or failure of individual players.
In addition, I guess Pop is punishing Blair for showboating during the all-star break by putting him in as many positions to fail as possible and then punishing him for it. He's broken some good players in the past; I wonder if Blair can be ruined?
Too many Yes Men in the Spurs organization these days...works fine when we're winning, but when the ship starts to turn it can be disastrous. Somebody seriously needs to stand up to Pop and tell him this ain't gonna fly.
This lineup screams out how much we need a backup (in this case starting) big wing and big man. I don't have anything against each player starting but the combination is awful unless they are raining 3s and even so. We need to package one of our many little used shooters for ANY 6'7-6'8 atlethic player. I mean ANYONE. That way, I wouldn't mind seeing this particular lineup:
Tony
Hill
RJ or ANY 6'7-6'8 athletic player
Bonner
Timmy
Which would leave a scary, big minutes bench of:
Manu
Mason/Finley/Bogans (depending of who gets traded, we just need one of them)
RJ or ANY 6'7-6'8 athletic player
Blair
SAM
Leaving as end of rotation/inactive:
Ian
Rattlif
12th man (Hairston if we trade 2 of our shooters).
If a trade doesn't come, I would be willing to plug Hairston or any other DLeaguer that fits the description.
I'm waiting for Pop to bury Blair's ass on the bench... You know it's coming...
Pop has probably been wanting to bench RJ for weeks, but kept him in the starting lineup just in case he miraculously boosted his trade value. Now that the Spurs know nobody wants him they have officially gave up on him.
Who agrees with Pop????
Is that you TPark?
The second unit looks better than the starting unit at this point.
I think it will ultimately fail but I guess we'll see.
After the Denver game I figured Pop would have a set rotation for the rest of the season but I expected something better than this.
The two ideas that you pointed out and I agree with are: defined offensive roles and defense. Unfortunately we don't have the personnel for the latter. I'm okay with Bonner since he provides great floor spacing and makes good rotations (some of those complaining about the sequence last night where Duncan went for the block and Hibbert wasn't boxed out falls on the guards, Bonner was out on the perimeter guarding Murphy) but I hate having Bogans as a starter. Not only does it put us at a size disadvantage but his defense doesn't nullify that and his offense is pretty bad.
Barring a trade for some defender or big man, I don't see the logic going forward with this lineup. The one good thing I guess is that RJ seemed comfortable coming off the bench. If nothing else, hopefully this lineup can provide consistency. Pop's constant tinkering has been a source of problems in and of itself.
And I gotta agree with lurker23, if Ratliff doesn't starting getting minutes WTF is he on this team?
Expect a wannabe Chumpdumper-type one-liner from him about how we must all want Jerry Tarkanian to coach.Who agrees with Pop????
Is that you TPark?
Terrible starting lineup...if no trade is made today though, it won't matter anyway. They will basically have raised the white flag...maybe this is Pop's way of tanking (crossing fingers).
Doubt it, he'll be coveted when his weak contract runs out so he can bid his time til that happens if Pop goes renegade on him. I think he'll be fine and able to ride out the storm of Pop
I understand the move because of rotations being missed but this only fixes that and not much else. Dice was atleast showing some progress but the switch puts that in reverse. Jefferson I could care less if he starts or comes off the bench cause he's been nothing more but a waste. Bonner played well once he came off the bench and is in no way a good option as a starter...
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