Blair is horrible

[MaNu4Tres]

He has let me down the last two years after a promising rookie year to say the least.

Blair is nothing more than a 10-15 minute energy/clean up the garbage type big off the bench.

Always has been, always will.

[TD 21]

Blair/Anderson for Jason Thompson please R.C?

I'm not certain, but I think the Spurs would have to throw in Thomas to make it work financially. Either way, that's of minor concern. Value wise, that's fair. Unfortunately, there's no reason for the Kings to have interest in either player.

Without Thompson and with Whiteside not yet ready for prime time, they'd be down to one big who's over 6-9. Hickson is basically in the mold of Blair, only with a jump shot and Hayes, while a completely different player than Blair, physically is in the same mold. And between Evans, Thornton and Salmons, they don't need another scoring shooting guard.

Blair has potential to be a stat-padder on a team like the Raptors or Bobcats..

He's undersized and has disturbingly low basketball IQ..he's one of the worst defensive players I've ever seen, in the frontcourt..he's always out of position or gambling..

He's constantly taking poor shots..instead of accepting a niche as a superior version of Reggie Evans, he tries to be Charles Barkley, which will lead to his eventual demise..

Excellent post.

He's one of the most deceptive players in the league. If you don't watch the Spurs regularly, you'd wonder why Spurs fans constantly complain about him. After all, he does have a star caliber PER. But he's a classic case of the stats not telling the whole story.

I completely soured on him from his rookie season to his sop re season. A lot of his issues are role related. He has no business starting, particularly not for a non basement dweller. But even if he were playing the role he should be, as a 15 mpg energy big off the bench, I'm not sure he's mentally capable of handling that at this stage of his career.

[MattBonnerExperience]

I wouldn't say Blair is Horrible he gets rebounds and scores pretty well inside for being 6'6. The real problem is the spurs have no front court out side duncan and splitter so have to play Blair so much.

[pgardn]

Funny how much this site has fallen off of him. Regardless of whether it's warranted or not. Everyone used to be so excited about him.

I must say though, just looking at his Twitter account.. wow.

It was a good pick at the time imo. Hindsight is easy. The season seems a bit long for him. His intensity and focus appear to be tidal. I personally did not think this would be a problem.

[therealtruth]

I'm not certain, but I think the Spurs would have to throw in Thomas to make it work financially. Either way, that's of minor concern. Value wise, that's fair. Unfortunately, there's no reason for the Kings to have interest in either player.

Without Thompson and with Whiteside not yet ready for prime time, they'd be down to one big who's over 6-9. Hickson is basically in the mold of Blair, only with a jump shot and Hayes, while a completely different player than Blair, physically is in the same mold. And between Evans, Thornton and Salmons, they don't need another scoring shooting guard.



Excellent post.

He's one of the most deceptive players in the league. If you don't watch the Spurs regularly, you'd wonder why Spurs fans constantly complain about him. After all, he does have a star caliber PER. But he's a classic case of the stats not telling the whole story.

I completely soured on him from his rookie season to his sop re season. A lot of his issues are role related. He has no business starting, particularly not for a non basement dweller. But even if he were playing the role he should be, as a 15 mpg energy big off the bench, I'm not sure he's mentally capable of handling that at this stage of his career.

He's got to ask Chuck Hayes how to play defense as an undersized big. Maintain good defensive position and contest the shot.

[therealtruth]

It was a good pick at the time imo. Hindsight is easy. The season seems a bit long for him. His intensity and focus appear to be tidal. I personally did not think this would be a problem.

The problem is he's being asked to do much. He's being asked to cover the best forwards in the NBA. He should be coming of the bench were he can focus on energy and rebounding and his defense isn't important.

[spurs4real]

Did anyone notice at the end of the game when Duncan hit the game winning shot, the whole bench was standing up with 5 seconds left and Blair is sitting down never saw what happened. He stood up to see the ruckus with no reaction whatsoever. It's that "Me" at ude that sucks. He's pissed he didn't play the 4th Qtr. I wouldn't be surprised someone on the Spurs video team points that out to Pop. I see the doghouse coming out soon.

[ElNono]

As long as he doesn't take out his frustration on 2 dozen burgers, he should be able to rebound from this bad stretch.

[spurs4real]

Someone mentioned twitter so I got curious and checked out his Twitter and dude is still awake right now 2:30am, don't they play tomorrow?

[ElNono]

Someone mentioned twitter so I got curious and checked out his Twitter and dude is still awake right now 2:30am, don't they play tomorrow?

They play Wednesday night

[spurs4real]

They play Wednesday night

Yes my bad.

[Hooks]

Blair is nothing more than a 10-15 minute energy/clean up the garbage type big off the bench.

Always has been, always will.

This is 100% true unfortunately I don't think Blair wants to accept that role at all. Someone posted earlier that Blair didn't even stand up when Duncan hit that game winner. Blair doesn't have that mentality the Spurs covet, he wants to be in the spot light.

He's got to ask Chuck Hayes how to play defense as an undersized big. Maintain good defensive position and contest the shot.

They're both small but physically their builds aren't really the same. Blair is a huge guy, very big upper body, BUT his legs look like he's never squatted in his life. I haven't seen his thighs but his calves are very thin, you don't see any muscle definition whatsoever, it looks pretty weird. Just google any pic of Blair and you'll see it.

Meanwhile Hayes has tree trunks for calves, they're HUGE, they've got to be at least 20 inches around. Those extremely strong calves allow him to keep his position, he's got a very solid base and his low center of gravity makes him very hard to budge, he's also got very quick feet.

[therealtruth]

This is 100% true unfortunately I don't think Blair wants to accept that role at all. Someone posted earlier that Blair didn't even stand up when Duncan hit that game winner. Blair doesn't have that mentality the Spurs covet, he wants to be in the spot light.

Blair seems like the kind of guy that would enjoy putting up big numbers on a bad team.

[BillMc]

This is 100% true unfortunately I don't think Blair wants to accept that role at all. Someone posted earlier that Blair didn't even stand up when Duncan hit that game winner. Blair doesn't have that mentality the Spurs covet, he wants to be in the spot light.

I agree. I think Blair is ambitious, and wants to be much more than he is. He's mentioned Barkley a dozen times in interviews over the years. The problem (as I see it) is two-fold:

1. In concentrating on all these offensive Barkley "moves" he's neglecting his one true NBA skill - rebounding.

2. He's unwilling to take a bench, energy role, as he wants to be more than that.

It may take a few years for him to accept himself as a role-player (even a starting role-player). The question is will his knees outlast his immaturity?

[Gagnrath]

Blair is a huge guy, very big upper body, BUT his legs look like he's never squatted in his life. I haven't seen his thighs but his calves are very thin, you don't see any muscle definition whatsoever, it looks pretty weird.

A few things with that and I'm amazed no trainer has pointed it out. When you have an injury you aren't going to work that part in the weight room while trying to stay in shape, you are going to do the doctor suggested rehab and likely not much else. In high school when his frame was developing is when Blair had his knee injuries.He developed a reputation as a hard working gym rat in this time frame. Want to bet that a slightly over balanced upper body is a result of that?

In the time since he has constantly had concerns stressed about his knees and over working them, its hard to develop muscle without alot of reps. Same is likely true with running. Add in any soreness and you likely have continued reluctance/unbalanced upper body to lower body work out regimentation which is also probably not helping by making his upper body heavier. I think/wish he would develop better lower body strength and think it would be helpful to him. I just don't see any really practical way to do it short of in the off season having him get on a low speed treadmill at a moderate incline and walk building up to hours per day while feeding him glucosamine, chondroitin and anti-inflammatory laced protein shakes.

[TD 21]

Did anyone notice at the end of the game when Duncan hit the game winning shot, the whole bench was standing up with 5 seconds left and Blair is sitting down never saw what happened. He stood up to see the ruckus with no reaction whatsoever. It's that "Me" at ude that sucks. He's pissed he didn't play the 4th Qtr. I wouldn't be surprised someone on the Spurs video team points that out to Pop. I see the doghouse coming out soon.

I didn't notice this, but I'm not surprised. It's always been obvious that Blair is not the hand in glove fit for the Spurs culture that virtually all of the other young players are that have been brought in the past three and a half years.

I'm guessing they wanted to acquire a top three big in the off season, with him as the trade bait, but were reluctant to include Anderson and/or the 1st round pick. They probably couldn't find what they deemed as a clear cut upgrade with just Blair and McDyess' contract being offered, so they decided to give him one final chance to see if he'd mature and improve. He's done neither and at this point is the weakest link on this team, because of the role he plays.

With Green's emergence as a rotation caliber player, Anderson struggling mightily and it becoming more obvious by the game that Splitter is the fourth best player on the team and should be a no brainer to start, the writing is on the wall. I'd be surprised if they're not offering Blair and Anderson around for a third big (such as Thompson) that would enable Splitter to start right now.

[pgardn]

I agree. I think Blair is ambitious, and wants to be much more than he is. He's mentioned Barkley a dozen times in interviews over the years.

and he is a dreamer...

I guess its ok. As long as you put in the work because no way he has this type of talent, no way ever.

[Calispursfan11]

If only Blair could be like Charles Barkley in his prime... But, he can't.

[Paranoid Pop]

I think he's really the defensive black hole of the team, against the Hornet Neal's D looked a better, he was very active, Bonner had a Scooby-Doo moment when the ball hit his back and that ended up being an interception but I guess these things happen when you are active even if you suck. But Blair's D looked passive and terrible, he has arguably the worst defense on the roster and he's a starter... If he could trade either Blair or Bonner, I would probably trade Blair just because it's so ed up that he's a starter.

[therealtruth]

I think he's really the defensive black hole of the team, against the Hornet Neal's D looked a better, he was very active, Bonner has had a Scooby-Doo moment when the ball hit his back and that ended up being an interception but I guess these things happen when you are active even if you suck. But Blair's D looked passive and terrible, he has arguably the worst defense on the roster and he's a starter... If he could trade either Blair or Bonner, I would probably trade Blair just because it's so ed up that he's a starter.

Blair would do fine bringing his energy of the bench.

[Paranoid Pop]

Blair would do fine bringing his energy of the bench.

I don't know, people were saying that he was losing his motivation whe he was benched last year.

[therealtruth]

I don't know, people were saying that he was losing his motivation whe he was beched last year.

Last year benching him for Dice probably didn't make sense. I think Pop overreacted to the Lakers game where they were blown out. Blair had developed pretty good chemistry on offense with the starting unit and Dice stabilizing role of the bench was perfect for him. The only reason you make that switch is if the upside of the move beat the negatives. In this case the negatives were Dice getting tired sooner and the disastrous Bonner/Blair defense. The supposed benefit of improved defense wasn't enough to overcome the worse starting offense and worse defense of the bench.

Now if Pop had chosen to start Splitter the upside might have been worth it. Splitter could have improved the defense and been able to develop on offense and Dice is still on the bench to prevent Bonner and Blair from playing together. The Spurs likely don't lose in the first round.

[dbestpro]

Against Atlanta, Blair looks like a junior varsity player in a scrimmage against the varsity team.

[spurs4real]

I think the reason Blair has been exposed is because before Manu got hurt, Manu would set Blair up running to the basket. Now without Manu, theres no one to feed him the ball in scoring position. He now posts up and looks for his own shot. Some genius in the Spurs coaches should see this and tell him "do not post, that is not your game!" It aggravates me to see him get the ball from Tim Duncan when Timmy is supposed to be posting up not Blair. WTF!!!

[Spurs7794]

I think the reason Blair has been exposed is because before Manu got hurt, Manu would set Blair up running to the basket. Now without Manu, theres no one to feed him the ball in scoring position. He now posts up and looks for his own shot. Some genius in the Spurs coaches should see this and tell him "do not post, that is not your game!" It aggravates me to see him get the ball from Tim Duncan when Timmy is supposed to be posting up not Blair. WTF!!!

Exactly. Tim Duncan is the biggest enabler on this team.