When Parker comes back, who gets left off active roster: Ian or Malik?

[TD 21]

Seriously though, while Finley has been done for a few years now, he's reached a new level of mediocrity this season..he's absolutely horrible..the guy sprained his ankle and was out for 2 months because he tried to make a simple rotation..he can't move anymore, he can't jump, he can't defend, he can't even shoot anymore..he's a poor man's Mason at this point, so what the is the point of having them both in the lineup, let alone have Finley starting..STARTING..he's a STARTER for our team..absolutely ridiculous..

We've been saying this for years though, nothing will change..

Give me a rotation of Duncan, Ian, McDyess, Blair, Jefferson, Hairston, Ginobili, Hill, Mason and Parker and I'll be happy..have Bonner and Bogans as the 2 guys at the end of the bench..

Use Mason as a situational shooter when we need the spacing..only use Bonner and Bogans if there is foul trouble or an injury..while those 2 aren't good players, they can at least come in and play 5 minutes at some point I would hope..

Finley should be in a ing suit every game..

He was bound to go from mediocre to fringe NBA player any season now. Missing as much time as he did didn't help, considering his age. If he's on your team, at this point in his career he's got to be a 12th-13th man. The guy is ancient, almost 37, as a swingman in this league with the mileage he has (around 35th all-time in minutes played and that doesn't account for playoffs). He's got to shoot around 45% from the field and 40% from 3 to justify his being on the court, otherwise his being terrible in every other area of the game completely outweighs the one supposed strength he has left.

I'm with you on the rotation; I'd start with this group...

Starters: PF- McDyess, SF- Jefferson, C- Duncan, SG- Hill, PG- Parker

Bench (rotation): SG- Ginobili, PF- Blair, SG/PG- Mason, C/PF- Mahinmi, SG/SF- Hairston

Bench (out of rotation): PF- Bonner, SG- Bogans

Inactive: SG/SF- Finley

[Chomag]

Seriously though, while Finley has been done for a few years now, he's reached a new level of mediocrity this season..he's absolutely horrible..the guy sprained his ankle and was out for 2 months because he tried to make a simple rotation..he can't move anymore, he can't jump, he can't defend, he can't even shoot anymore..he's a poor man's Mason at this point, so what the is the point of having them both in the lineup, let alone have Finley starting..STARTING..he's a STARTER for our team..absolutely ridiculous..

We've been saying this for years though, nothing will change..

Give me a rotation of Duncan, Ian, McDyess, Blair, Jefferson, Hairston, Ginobili, Hill, Mason and Parker and I'll be happy..have Bonner and Bogans as the 2 guys at the end of the bench..

Use Mason as a situational shooter when we need the spacing..only use Bonner and Bogans if there is foul trouble or an injury..while those 2 aren't good players, they can at least come in and play 5 minutes at some point I would hope..

Finley should be in a ing suit every game..

Unfortunately, this will never happen..even if Pop actually continues to play Hairston and Mahinmi, he'll probably sub them off and bury them after their first bad games, ignoring the constant inep ude we see from almost every other player on the Spurs' roster..

Well if Bogans is a starter the level isn't set very high.
I agree that Finley should be in a pure mentor roll at this point (ala Steve Smith) His playing days have come and gone, and he should have been done a season ago. He has been one of my favorite NBA players since his Phoenix Suns days but now he just has nothing as a nba player left to give. IT happens, so says life.

It's funny though how Pop quickly gave up on horry, and Bowen even though they had a bit more left in the tank then even Finely did yet he still plays Finley.

[MaNu4Tres]

McDyess
Duncan
Jefferson
Hairston
Parker

Manu
Hill
Blair
Mahimni

with Mason getting a few spot minutes to spread the floor when necessary at the SG or PG.


Bonner/ Bogans should never play unless someone is hurt or foul's out.

Finley needs to be in a suit or needs to hurry up and announce his retirement.

[TD 21]

It's funny though how Pop quickly gave up on horry, and Bowen even though they had a bit more left in the tank then even Finely did yet he still plays Finley.

Two guys who did more for the Spurs than Finley ever did. It's as if Pop felt indebted to Finley, a former star, for picking small market San Antonio in free agency and if that's the case, it's ridiculous. He never wanted to leave Dallas, so going to the Spurs not only allowed him to stay in the state, but it allowed him to join the best team in the league, with the best player in the league and play with three players who he could thrive playing off of.

Remember this gem from Pop sometime within' the past year-year and a half when asked about the shape Finley's in at this point in his career? (to paraphrase): "He hasn't lost a step, not even a quarter of a step".

[spurs10]

Did Pop say anything after the game that might give us an idea? I'm probably dreaming, but it must be obvious that Malik and Ian played much better than Fin and Bogans. Although I'm sure it would be a drag telling Fin to put on his suit, I still want to believe Pop will do what it takes to win...unless they have already decided something else behind closed doors, in which case everybody should be getting refunds on their game tickets.

[TD 21]

McDyess
Duncan
Jefferson
Hairston
Parker

Manu
Hill
Blair
Mahimni

with Mason getting a few spot minutes to spread the floor when necessary at the SG or PG.


Bonner/ Bogans should never play unless someone is hurt or foul's out.

Finley needs to be in a suit or needs to hurry up and announce his retirement.

Not bad. I thought about starting Hairston too, but want to see more off the bench from him first. I don't see Hill as a long term starter. Not a good enough play maker to play full time PG and not big enough to play full time SG. That being said, right now he's the fourth best player on this team and either the second or third best is already coming off the bench and the other one is in and out of the lineup, so there is no logical reason to pull Hill.

A nine man rotation ultimately works better though. We're getting to the point in the season where ten is too much, even for a team as old as the Spurs. They need to settle on a primary eight or nine and use another, say, one for spot minutes and that's it. It needs to be the same players every game, playing around the same minutes, entering/exiting around the same time, so that everyone knows their role, how much/when they'll play, etc.

[angelbelow]

Finley please.

[siraulo23]

Give bogan's mins to hairston

Play Ian, instead of going small

Hope that Finley can shoot some open shots because pop will play him no matter what

[objective]

aaaaannnnnnnnnnnddddddd . . . IAN comes through for the grand prize.

Gotta love watching Finley sitting splayed out on the bench, nodding his head like he owns the place . . . because he does. That guy is bulletproof sons!

[HarlemHeat37]

We joke about Finley having some pull, but he really does..somebody needs to do some hard investigating..

[TD 21]

Inexplicable that Mahinmi wasn't active. People will say, "well what's the big deal, he wouldn't have played anyway and the Spurs still won". The big deal is that McDyess went from looking like he had a potential season ending injury to magically returning, but what if he hadn't? If he hadn't, the Spurs would have lost (Pop was determined to hold Duncan to 32 minutes, he refuses to play Blair for more than roughly a 9 minute stretch each half and he won't play Bonner, so they wouldn't have had enough size; as it was, they barely did). And even though he did, the Suns (hard as it is to believe and strange as it sounds saying this) out-sized (close enough to a word) the Spurs in this game, as evidenced by their nine blocks and the Spurs having issues covering the length of Frye (arguably the softest big man in the league) on the block, as well as the early trouble Lopez gave them.

This is where inexplicably giving away Ratliff and not playing Mahinmi hurts the Spurs. Even if this team begins to perform up to expectations, big deal. They don't have a backup center and with Pop having gone away from Bonner, yet unwilling to go to strictly a three big rotation because he's trying to manage all three's minutes, there's a stretch each half where the Spurs are playing with Blair as their center and generally Jefferson as their power forward. You can't win playing that way.

People talk about what's wrong with this team, Jefferson needing to step up, Parker needing to get healthy, etc., but the biggest problem is the lack of a backup center. As an aside, I'd like to know opposing starting power forward's averages in points/rebounds against the Spurs this season. They've never been able to cover Stoudemire, but almost every power forward goes off on them.