The Spurs starting center is Duncan, not Blair. Duncan just insists on keeping up the absurd lie that he is a "power forward" by having the Spurs call him that. He is the Spurs center, not Blair.
Second, Blair is 6-7, not 6-6, and he is 270 with a huge wingspan, which is hardly undersized at all for the PF position. The NBA is full of 6-7 and 6-8 power forwards, most of which do not have the wingspan, nor weight of Blair.
This whole thing about the Spurs starting PF/C positions being undersized is BS. Are they undersized against teams like Boston or the Lakers? Yes. But so is just about every single other NBA team.
And Splitter could never guard heavy centers in the low post anyway. He never could in the Euroleague, so why do so many Spurs fans think he will now?
He is much more effective against the Pau/Garnett/Dirk type of players on defense. So he should be used as a defensive match up against them. Especially if Bonner is missing shots. He won't be that effective against guys like Bynum or Howard on defense, just as he struggled on defense against heavy centers in Euroleague.
He should be used to guard the Dirk/Gasol/Garnett types. So basically, at this point he is a defensive subs ute for Bonner, if Bonner isn't spreading the floor.
With that being said, that is assuming that Popovich keeps playing McDyess. Splitter is better than McDyess is and he should be playing over him. But it's not going to make this huge difference, like the Spurs winning a le or not. But 80% of this forum is convinced that is the case.
If the Spurs wanted a true center, that is a defensive center and that can guard the other big, heavy 7 foot centers then they should have signed Javtokas instead of Splitter. Javtokas excels at exactly that and Splitter does not and never has.
It is more proof that the Spurs European scouts appear to be complete re s.
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Spanoulis
