Bonner vs. McDyess: Who you trust?

[Rick Von Braun]

I wish I could trust both of them!

I think the most glaring deficiency the Spurs have is in the paint. Please pencil for me your opinion of the 4 playoff rotational paint players? After TD, we have:

Blair: no playoff experience, undersized, still missing a lot of easy layups and dunks. Still a diamond in the rough if he stays healthy.

Dice: significant decline in physical a en, not rebounding and/or boxing out as well as I expected from him, greasy hands. Lots of experience and toughness though.

Bonner: tries hard, efficient shooter, not very good defensively. I still think it is smoking mirrors with him in the playoffs as proven ad nauseam in past years.

Mahinmi: not ready.

If TD has a bad game, this team has a glaring hole in the paint. This is the MAIN difference from previous years. In the past, the Spurs always found a pair of solid contributors to play along TD in the championships runs (in this order):

02/03: (1) David, (2) Malik
04/05: (1) Horry, (2) Nazr
06/07: (1) Oberto, (2) Horry

Who will be the top contributors this year?

09/10: (1) ??, (2) ??

Notice that we always had a 6-10 and above frontcourt player besides Timmy. No length this year. This is the main issue in the postseason IMHO.

[TJastal]

McDyess 90% of the time.

Bonner is good for the 2nd unit and if he's really hot and helping the spurs build/maintain a lead then yes I'd leave him in for the stretch run but keep him on a short leash.... and pull him at the first usual "Bonner might be choking" signals (bricked shots, dumb passes, turnovers, refs singling him out for dumb fouls, etc)

I thought Dice was a beast in the 4th quarter of the laker game and gave the spurs exactly what they paid for this past off season, yet all I see here is the usual Dice haters ing and moaning how he needs to get better. So typical.

[SenorSpur]

He sucked against the Mavs. Just stop saying he sucked in the last two post-seasons, he only sucked in the five games against Dallas.

I don't give a how many minutes he played in '08 versus the Fakers, that doesn't excuse the fact that he failed to nail wide open 3's when left open in that series.

[Mel_13]

I don't give a how many minutes he played in '08 versus the Fakers, that doesn't excuse the fact that he failed to nail wide open 3's when left open in that series.

I gave you all the details last month, but you keep insisting that you saw something that did not happen. He played in only one game in that series, for three minutes of garbage time at the end of game 3 and did not attempt a single shot.

Bonner's playoff failures as a Spur are completely confined to the five games of the 2009 Dallas series. There is no other history. No matter how many times you say he failed in previous playoffs, it did not happen.

[sa_kid20]

McDyess 90% of the time.

Bonner is good for the 2nd unit and if he's really hot and helping the spurs build/maintain a lead then yes I'd leave him in for the stretch run but keep him on a short leash.... and pull him at the first usual "Bonner might be choking" signals (bricked shots, dumb passes, turnovers, refs singling him out for dumb fouls, etc)

I thought Dice was a beast in the 4th quarter of the laker game and gave the spurs exactly what they paid for this past off season, yet all I see here is the usual Dice haters ing and moaning how he needs to get better. So typical.

I agree with this. Although Matt has been playing well lately, Dice is most likely gonna be the guy in crunch time in the Playoffs. Like in the Orlando game for example, Matt had one of his better games of the season but it was Dice that played the last 6 minutes of the 4th. Same thing happened against LA on sunday with Dice playing nearly the entire 4th Q. Hopefully Matt keeps playing the way he has been lately when the Playoffs come around cause we're gonna need his effectiveness off the bench, but in crunch time we need an active Dice to be that guy next to Timmy. I just hope Dice plays well enough in the Playoffs where Pop doesn't have a dilema on his hands when crunch time comes around.

[lennyalderette]

ill go dice has alot of playoff exp. and can rebound defend and really thats what we need down low not a white guy bricking threes running like a T-Rex bahahaha jk happy bday bonus

[L.I.T]

I've been pretty impressed lately with Dice's play in 4th quarters. He's been providing timely boards and decent defense overall.

Bonner is still a relatively unknown element with regards to the playoffs; while Dice has a history of playing well. In the fourth quarter I would trust Dice over Bonner.

That being said, I hope that Bonner can provide good minutes early in games to keep Dice rested for fourth quarters and crunch time. No matter what, both have to - at a minimum - maintain their current level of play to give the Spurs a shot.

[PURO SAN ANTO 210!]

I gotta say boner haha!

[siraulo23]

the last two games, dice has been very active and was able to hit some j's

bonner has been good as well mixing up his game

Hopefully we'd be able to rely on both, if they keep up their level of play at the moment

[raspsa]

Trust both of them. Dice's juices starting to bubble. Bonner's raised his game.

[Spurs7794]

...and versus the Mavs last spring?

He did suck but you claimed that Phil Jackson's defensive strategy in 2008 was to leave Bonner open. This is true, he did not have any of his players guarding the bench where Bonner was sitting.

[MI21]

McDyess for me.

The constant 1/2 day breaks between games, slower pace, rougher style of play and respect level from the referees all works in Dice's favour. I trust him to make his shots more than Bonner and rebound the ball better.

Give me him If I must choose one.

[Spurs7794]

Based on what I've seen this season, I actually trust Bonner. McDyess is a better rebounder and defender but he bobbles alot of passes. AND he doesn't move the ball well. Not saying he's a ball hog but his passes are often too early or too late and get deflected. But when Dice is focused on boards and D and hitting his j, i trust him in crunch time.

[TampaDude]

Bonner's got the range, but Dice has got the experience. We need both.

[Dice]

I thought Dice was a beast in the 4th quarter of the laker game and gave the spurs exactly what they paid for this past off season, yet all I see here is the usual Dice haters ing and moaning how he needs to get better. So typical.

It used to bother me when I read people's post talking about how poor his game is overall but then I got to know the trend of a lot of the posters and see that Tony, Tim, and Manu all suck too. I'm amazed at all the spot-on assessments made of players after each game and the overall opinions of players from a lot of the basketball masterminds that are all over these forums.

Bonner has been gravy on the offensive end since he's been really using the drive with the hook(?). His defense is suspect in the post but he does a decent job on the perimeter.

I think McDyess is doing what the team brought him in to do. The FO didn't scout McDyess out and think they were getting a shot blocking big. They got him to play solid D in the post and to rebound-both of which he's done and IMO would have done better sooner had the rotations been set early in the season. His numbers are all down from last season but he's also averaging 10 less minutes a game.

I like McDyess in the game when you need a board.

Bonner when you need a three.

[ohmwrecker]

I know it was "only the Kings", but McDyess had a real nice game last night. Hopefully, he is rounding into playoff form.
By contrast, Bonner regressed to his Great White Dope status. It's either feast or famine with this guy. Not very reassuring.
I realize I am bumping my own thread, but I thought the disparity in performance was worth a look.