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Hibbert is 7ft+, I think anyone is gonna get their shot blocked or altered by him. Let's see how he does versus a smaller big man!
Glenn Baby Davis and Paul Millsap are super effective role players. I hope Blair can help the spurs as much as those two guys help their respective teams. If Blair develops a mid range jumper, he could be better than those two guys.
Hibbert is 7ft+, I think anyone is gonna get their shot blocked or altered by him. Let's see how he does versus a smaller big man!
I don't think he's too short. I just think he needs to be smarter with his options once he has the ball, he shouldn't be a shoot first kind of guy, unless he has a dominant position. There were times where I felt he should have just collected and passed out. The breakaway outlet pass from Timmy was an example. He didn't gather himself and he should have just passed back to TP for an easy layup.
He'll be much better once he stops pressing, does he need to get over himself a little? Probably, I'd rather that he gets us 9-10 board with half of them offensive, combined with 50% shooting and none of them blocked back in his face. That's all recognition of when you have a dominant position.
So how many teams do you think Blair can beast on? I just think when he is out there the Spurs are at a disadvantage unless we can run then he can do some things. Hopefully he can adjust and tweak his game so he can stay on the floor because he gives it all he has.
I agree. He didn't play very well, and didn't do a good job of picking his spots. I'm wiilling to chalk it up to being overly excited that he was starting. If he's still doing this in two weeks then we'll revisit.
Too short for what exactly? His game last night was serviceable and had a lot of bright spots but its hard to see him putting up all star numbers ever, imo. He's going to have bad games and he'll likely not ever be a huge defensive stopper but height is the most overrated stat ever.
Its all about wingspan.
offensively, wing span matters. you'r bringing the ball up from a lower point if you're shorter. you could have a guy that is 5'11 with an 9 feet wingspan and it would affect him.
defensively, not so much.
says the 5'4 man
It's really about making the proper read and then acting from a dominant position. If it was just about height, then Chuck Barkley wouldn't have amounted to much. The same goes for Larry Johnson, Leonard Truck Robinson, Wes Unseld, Paul Silas, and Larry Smith.
If DeJuan just stays focused on when best to attack, then he'd be better. He forced some that he shouldn't have. If he makes the right read, both him and the team will be better for it.
Blair is perfect for the Bench. Tiago would be perfect in the Starting Lineup and is the perfect compliment to Duncan. I don't see what the fuss is about.
I'm not saying Blair isn't good because is is awesome for us, but its not enough to just beast on crappy teams. When we matchup against the Lakers, Celtics and other great teams in the league who are big, long and dominate on the frontline, we can't possibly start Dejuan Blair and expect good results.
We just can't expect that, and I pray to God Pop isn't expecting that. Because at the end of the day, the guy is still 6'6. Period.
i dont mind blair starting i love the fact that pop is giving blair good minutes to grow and you better believe hes going to get better this isnt his ceiling dude.
btw would you rather bonner start because with tiago out thats who wiuld have been starting, this is the way i see it once tiago gets comfortable i say he starts w/timmy and have dice/blair off the bench this would awesome .
i also think if tiagos healthy he and timmy should start until duncan retires. when duncan retires i think blair will become good enough to start and just might be in allstar form by then.
ok so whats making blair a bad presence down low? his rebounding? no his offensive moves? (needs work/but hes doing that) defense? yes!! its not bad effort its bad timing and hes not jumping to try and block shots which he needs to do, if he works on his leaping/quickness i think be able to defend just fine. as it is the opponent cant get into offensive position when posting up blair, so there are alot of good things blair can do he just needs to add somethings.
btw i would much rather have blair out there than bonner did you see the game change once matt got hurt??? thats sad
He tried to go top shelf, but it was locked!
Only to be swatted away every time
Defensively on both those oops to McRoberts, he cheated and was caught adrift in the middle, it made it too easy for Collison to find McRoberts. Having said that, Blair is the perfect guy to defend Bynum but to do so he has to start his work early. Bynum has said in interviews out here in So Cal that the guys he hates to play against are the shorter guys with strong bases because he says,"They get into my legs and don't let me get a good jump to the ball." That's what DeJuan needs to do is stay in fairly close contact and not drift away. Man and Ball - you need to see that DeJuan.
When's the last time you blocked somebody with your head?
Davis and Millsap are bigger, though. They're undersized at about 6-8 (maybe a little under...even though Daivs is now listed at 6-9), but Blair is barely over 6-6 in shoes. The way I see it, when you're undersized to begin with, every inch under that (for a PF, anything under 6-9) becomes significant.
I think the Spurs, if relatively healthy, can win 50+ with Blair starting the majority of the games, but ultimately, they probably can't line up that way once the playoffs commence and expect to win.
It's probably going to have to be Splitter starting, with McDyess as the first big off the bench and the fourth big (either Blair or Bonner) used depending on match-up, what the team needs at the time, etc.
It would be wise if Pop were to, post All-Star break, after he's given Blair a turn to guard Gasol (personally, I'd put him on Bynum instead), Nowitzki, Aldridge, Scola, etc. and evaluated how he's done against each, go to the aforementioned lineup.
More time to evaluate is definitely in order. He needs to learn to not rush things, he was patient for the first 5 minutes and scored 7 points. Then he started rushing and just plain taking bad shots, and he went 1-8 the rest of the way. Whenever he made jumpers in the preseason he was set, last night he put one up too quick just so he wouldn't get blocked... 4x.
His game last night was most definitely not serviceable, and definitely didn't have a lot of bright spots. I am glad he made all 5 of his FTs, they did like pure. Also, the one good shot I saw him take was the And1 post move. If he isn't taking a wide open shot or in a pic n roll with Manu, I'd rather Blair use his post moves than any pump fake while in the air shots. Or trying to lay it up on someone 7 inches taller than him. He should work harder on not letting his man go wherever he wants. Blair has a stronger, lower base than most in the league, so he should take advantage of that on defense like he does when he goes for rebounds.
I agree this was definitely just a bad night from him, considering how lights out he was in almost every single preseason game.
Man, I wish I knew for sure I could watch Saturday's game, to see if he gets back to his new and improved preseason self. A board every ten minutes is just embarassing, hope he gobbles up every single one he can against NO and the the Clips.
Last edited by Manufan909; 10-28-2010 at 07:22 PM.
If hes going to settle for a jump shot, with all the offensive weapons on the starting rotation, pass the ball. @Whoever started the, if Blair could develop a jump-shot... he can't. Stick with the hooks, layups and clear-outs in the lane and by all means do not look for your own shot. Look how well he did last year and Pop never call a play for him.
Barkley didn't play center.
Blair is only a temporary option. Once Splitter gets up to speed he will be the starting center.
Blair did well coming off the bench playing against other bench guys. Now he is a starter and the level of compi ion will be much better. All in all he did OK for the first game of the season. Many of you want him to dominate and he may do that in time. For now, he needs to be serviceable as he adjusts to the level of compe ion. The honus of dominator remains on the big three, for now.
Personally, I'm not looking for him to dominate. I'm looking for him to be competent defensively and I don't think he can be that against the players I listed. Unfortunately, those are the starting PF's on many of the best teams in the West (didn't list Thunder, who start Green at PF, who's really an SF and the Jazz, because I'm not sure how things are going to shake down once Okur returns; he could defend a lot of PF's, Jefferson could, or Millsap could if he remains starting).
In a related note, why do some say the Spurs are too small in the middle? Once Splitter returns, which is two games away, they'll have two long 6-11 guys manning the pivot (it's irrelevant that they list Duncan as a PF; he exclusively guards C's, therefore he's a C) and there's a good chance they'll be the second best C duo in the league.
Exactly, the Pacers were packing the paint and being very physical. They played Parker pretty well but I also felt they got away with a foul or two. Parker had 9 assists and we shot 36 foul shots.
Jefferson was getting calls and it definitely seemed like they made a choice to not allow layups. Hibbert rotated well.
so all last year blair was "a beast". now he's being called "too short"? make up your minds, if chuck hayes can play center for the rockets when he's built like a guard, i think a tank physique type like blair can cover pf.
I think he just had a bad game, 7-2 hibber had something to do with it as well. Doesn't really matter, splitter is gonna start eventually, meanwhile blair will get some good experience he can later on unleash against opposing teams 2nd string guys.
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