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we now have more hope at least with jack's showing
Diaw will make them better defensively?
we now have more hope at least with jack's showing
Sign D.Robinson and bench Bonner, then we are a better defensive team.
Defense wins championships.
I don't like thinking about this - so I'm not going to.
Another shot blocker would greatly improve our defense and so would starting Splitter over Blair. However, I think we have enough defensive pieces in place (short of another big per buyout) to compete on that side of the ball. Also, I think Leonard and Green will improve enough by the time playoffs roll around to be solid defenders and don't forget Sjax.
Start Tiago. Live with Blair/Bonner.
There's creative ways Pop can start Tiago and still avoid Blair/Bonner playing together.
Why Pop doesn't try this? My guess is because of Pop's fear of Blair mentally checking out if he gets demoted in the rotation-- which I brought up earlier this season.
Some people act like these guys are robots, without personalities. Like it or not, that's one of the things that Phil Jackson did well - keep all the little egos intact. Could Blair check out (again) if he's demoted? Damn betcha. I didn't see your earlier post, but I would have agreed with it then, too.
Even in Pop's rest-heavy system, Blair is getting really short minutes for a starter. The Spurs are so short on bigs, that they need him to be in the game. The only place they can hide him is with Timmy. And if they demote him, he gets even worse. Sounds to me like good reason to have him in at the start.
Of course, I'm still not sure what the deal is with Splitter's lack of minutes. But maybe we saw it when he came up lame after playing more.
Got to have a defensive minded coach and I'm not sure Don Nelson is ever going to change.
Without RJ, it's a 2 game sample... whether Kawhi or Jack get his minutes, it's already a plus. It can't be understated how much we sucked defensively at the wings with that getting 30+ mins a game.
Spurs still suck defensively. Tiago has to play more minutes period if they want a shot at being above average defensively.
He already checked out last season. Maybe it's time to stop relying on guys that mentally check out and start trying something else (ie: Tiago).
People have been screaming for more low post scoring and defense with Tiago and Tim since last year. It hasn't happened and I doubt it happens as long as Pop is coach. He was swearing last summer he wanted to go back to defense first but continues to trot Bonner out there for major minutes. Somebody needs to ask him how not playing his best defensive players improves the defense?
Speaking of defense, SJax gave me some hope last night. His individual defense was really good and his help defense was miles better than anything we ever saw out of RJ. I know it's an extremely small sample size but the Mavs only scored at a rate of 78 points per 48 minutes while SJax was in the game.
When SJax wasn't in the game, the Mavs scored at a rate of 121 points per 48 minutes.
Fluke? Yeah probably but it's some hope that there may be better defense in the future.
Timvp, does Pop care enough about defense to start limiting Blair and Bonner?
I don't think him playing Blair and Bonner is about him not caring about defense. IMO, he just doesn't think Duncan and Splitter can coexist.
And Kawhi had a great game against Durant Friday night. You know RJ was getting some of those minutes if he was still around.
Out with the soft is always an upgrade, IMO.
Then why was RJ playing so many minutes over Green and Kawhi?
Also, why would he think they can't coexist?
But he does think Duncan and Bonner can coexist.
A playoff opponents dream come true coach.
Also is there not a way to increase Tiagos minutes while still limiting Blair/Bonner? I guess it would take Splitter getting more mins than "Pop can currently give him" since Tiago is getting as many minutes as pop can get him.
High salaried player playing more than their current talent calls for = The storyline for every team in every sport, tbh.
Plus, perhaps Pop wanted to keep RJ's trade value high enough to trade him away. If that's the case, Pop was a genius. (Probably just an accident, though.)
He views them both as strictly centers.
In spite of Duncs alongside:
DRob
Man From Nazr
Oberto (to a lesser extent)
Rasho-Elson for small but decent role minutes.
We know that can't be true because he played Oberto and Duncan and won in '07. Tiago is more skilled Oberto. If Blair can coexist with TD Splitter can.
Why rely on mental midgets when you can rely on Spanish League MVP's.
With Splitter and Duncan at C and PF there are several lineups could be elite defensively with Parker, Leonard, Jackson, Green, and Ginobili in the mix for the other two spots.
We get a full dose of Bonner instead.
We also have the makings of an elite smallball defensive lineup.
Only thing that i can think of is that Splitter doesn't know how to play sets where he is not the primary bigman but how ing hard can it be to stand outside the piant under the basket? I wish he would at least allow Splitter to try and defend people on the perimeter. He has Blair do it.
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