STOP with the Matt Bonner Hate VOL VivaPopovich

[baseline bum]

your way off base.

last season we had no options, so basing your fears on last year is completely unsubstantiated

#2 i dont expect him to defend and rebound, i expect him to spread the floor and hit the three, and when he becomes a liability he will ride the bench

when the spurs need what dice/blair/ratliff provide, those guys will check in at the scorers table

this team is not going to get murdered by anyone

settle the down

It's not about becoming a liability. Bonner is a liability from the start. Not being destroyed by Gasol/Bynum/Odom from the get-go is pretty improbable if he's assigned to one of them. And expecting him to spread the floor and hit a three in big games is ridiculous. Bonner's an amazing choker. It's not even arguable after the way he couldn't score against all-world defender Dirk Nowitzki. There's no way this team needs to become dependent on Bonner, which Pop is looking like he's making it by keeping him in that ridiculous starting role.

[Parker2112]

It's not about becoming a liability. Bonner is a liability from the start. Not being destroyed by Gasol/Bynum/Odom from the get-go is pretty improbable if he's assigned to one of them..

dude your talking about the lakers. thats one team.
Gasol vs dice/blair/ratliff
bynum v tim/blair/ratliff
odom vs dice/jefferson/maybe blair

each new team=different matchup.

And expecting him to spread the floor and hit a three in big games is ridiculous. Bonner's an amazing choker. It's not even arguable after the way he couldn't score against all-world defender Dirk Nowitzki.

i agree. i dont want to rely on him more than 15 mins per in the playoffs. BUT WE WONT! STOP WORRYING! let the old guys play themselves into shape already

There's no way this team needs to become dependent on Bonner, which Pop is looking like he's making it by keeping him in that ridiculous starting role.

the old guys are playing their way into shape, there will be no reliance on bonner
this is a luxury

pop doesnt even like bonner...bonner is a whipping boy. its not like bonner is anything like pops crime dog crush

[jjktkk]

It's not about becoming a liability. Bonner is a liability from the start. Not being destroyed by Gasol/Bynum/Odom from the get-go is pretty improbable if he's assigned to one of them. And expecting him to spread the floor and hit a three in big games is ridiculous. Bonner's an amazing choker. It's not even arguable after the way he couldn't score against all-world defender Dirk Nowitzki. There's no way this team needs to become dependent on Bonner, which Pop is looking like he's making it by keeping him in that ridiculous starting role.

Bonner is in there for one reason. To space the floor with his outside shooting. Most knowledgeable basketball fans realize Bonner is not in there to rebound and defend the paint. On most nights he won't be playing more than 20 minutes. You start McDyess, or Blair that clogs up the paint for Duncan to post up and, or Ginoboli, Parker to drive to the hole. When more defense and rebounding is needed, you put in McDyess, or Blair. Or depending on the Spurs opponent that night, you can then start McDyess, or Blair. You Bonner haters on here crack me up. Pop's offense philosophy is not exactly rocket science.

[baseline bum]

Bonner is in there for one reason. To space the floor with his outside shooting. Most knowledgeable basketball fans realize Bonner is not in there to rebound and defend the paint. On most nights he won't be playing more than 20 minutes. You start McDyess, or Blair that clogs up the paint for Duncan to post up and, or Ginoboli, Parker to drive to the hole. When more defense and rebounding is needed, you put in McDyess, or Blair. Or depending on the Spurs opponent that night, you can then start McDyess, or Blair. You Bonner haters on here crack me up. Pop's offense philosophy is not exactly rocket science.

Most knowledgeable basketball fans know Bonner is not a good player.

[50Bestspurever]

Bonner is in there for one reason. To space the floor with his outside shooting. Most knowledgeable basketball fans realize Bonner is not in there to rebound and defend the paint. On most nights he won't be playing more than 20 minutes. You start McDyess, or Blair that clogs up the paint for Duncan to post up and, or Ginoboli, Parker to drive to the hole. When more defense and rebounding is needed, you put in McDyess, or Blair. Or depending on the Spurs opponent that night, you can then start McDyess, or Blair. You Bonner haters on here crack me up. Pop's offense philosophy is not exactly rocket science.

Bonner is not in there to rebound and defend the paint.

omg dude that is heart and soul of spurs basketball.

[jcrod]

Bonner is in there for one reason. To space the floor with his outside shooting. Most knowledgeable basketball fans realize Bonner is not in there to rebound and defend the paint. On most nights he won't be playing more than 20 minutes. You start McDyess, or Blair that clogs up the paint for Duncan to post up and, or Ginoboli, Parker to drive to the hole. When more defense and rebounding is needed, you put in McDyess, or Blair. Or depending on the Spurs opponent that night, you can then start McDyess, or Blair. You Bonner haters on here crack me up. Pop's offense philosophy is not exactly rocket science.

Most knowledgeable bball fans know thats called defense. The championship is won on defense not offense. They should start off strong defensively.

[sabar]

Most knowledgeable fans know that minutes in a blow out of a scrub team on the first day of the season is not indicative of playoff roster or minutes. No one heres knows crap about how the rotation will look until spring rolls around. Also, our team sucked ass last playoffs, with or without bonner. We had no useful bigs outside Duncan. The corpse of Kurt Thomas or Pops Mensah Abdul Jabbar weren't gonna get a championship either.

[jjktkk]

Most knowledgeable bball fans know thats called defense. The championship is won on defense not offense. They should start off strong defensively.

So, jcrod, when are you taking over for Pop? Or maybe Pop will hire you as a defensive consultant, since Pop knows nothing about defense. Did i not say Bonner is not in the lineup for his defense. You think Pop doesn't know that defense wins championships? By Bonner being in the lineup, it opens up the offense. When Pop needs to toighten up on defense, he will make the necessary adjustments.

[baseline bum]

Most knowledgeable fans know that minutes in a blow out of a scrub team on the first day of the season is not indicative of playoff roster or minutes. No one heres knows crap about how the rotation will look until spring rolls around. Also, our team sucked ass last playoffs, with or without bonner. We had no useful bigs outside Duncan. The corpse of Kurt Thomas or Pops Mensah Abdul Jabbar weren't gonna get a championship either.

It's obvious Bonner is expected to play a major role when he's a starter, so quit playing dumb. It's also obvious that his game runs contrary to what has delivered les to this team since 1999, and plays into what has been the downfall of this team three of the last four years (piss-poor rebounding and lackluster defense).

[baseline bum]

So, jcrod, when are you taking over for Pop? Or maybe Pop will hire you as a defensive consultant, since Pop knows nothing about defense. Did i not say Bonner is not in the lineup for his defense. You think Pop doesn't know that defense wins championships? By Bonner being in the lineup, it opens up the offense. When Pop needs to toighten up on defense, he will make the necessary adjustments.

Pop has loyalties to ty players sometimes despite their incompetence. See the huge minutes Finley got guarding star players at Bowen's expense all of last season despite the fact that the team played much better with Bruce on the floor.

[ElNono]

Sounds familiar.

lol @ Bonner being the minutes leader in this blowout. lol @ people complaining about Bonner and loving Blair, when Blair's D made Bonner look like a decent defender. Don't get me wrong, I was lovin' me some Blair down in the low post offensively, but defensively DeJuan was slightly better than an AT&T orange cone.

Blair rebounds. He's really no better than Matt defense-wise, but he gets boards and he scores high percentage shots. Rebounding is huge if we pretend to keep Tim fresh. The reason Tim amassed like 7 boards in 6 minutes is *because* Bonner is useless rebounding, not the other way around. But when Tim has to fight for boards against two 7 footers (ie:Gasol, Bynum) it's a major problem.

Last season we gave up second chance points like there was no tomorrow. That has to end if we pretend to win anything.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Blair rebounds. He's really no better than Matt defense-wise, but he gets boards and he scores high percentage shots. Rebounding is huge if we pretend to keep Tim fresh. The reason Tim amassed like 7 boards in 6 minutes is *because* Bonner is useless rebounding, not the other way around. But when Tim has to fight for boards against two 7 footers (ie:Gasol, Bynum) it's a major problem.

Last season we gave up second chance points like there was no tomorrow. That has to end if we pretend to win anything.

Nice reply.

And I'm sure that Bonner's defence will improve quickly as he comes to understand the NBA game and how it's called. I'm sure, with his physical talents (strength, low centre of gravity, long arms, nimble feet), that he can become at least as good as Malik was at disrupting the rhythm of his taller opponents, and probably a bit better. Look at what he did to Thabeet! Kid's a quick learner, and I think his D will come on quickly.

[Mel_13]

Nice reply.

And I'm sure that Bonner's defence will improve quickly as he comes to understand the NBA game and how it's called. I'm sure, with his phsical talents, that he can become at least as good as malik was at disrupting the rhythm of his taller opponents.

I think you typed the wrong name

[OrEmuN]

I am neutral towards Bonner. I think he is a limited role player whose expiring contract may be more valuable than his ability at this point of time. However, until he is traded and whenever he steps onto the court, I will hope that he does well to help the team win.

On a lighter note, for those Bonner-haters, your consolation prize may be speaking to a Hornets fan and saying, " we played Bonner for 28 min and you guys still can't win ? OMG ?!"

[4down]

No way the Spurs will have any chance versus LA with Bonner going against Gasol. Bonner has shown he can't play in big games (playoffs last year, anyone?) and he's an enormous defensive liability. With rebounders like McDyess and Blair, there's no excuse to run out a soft shooter like Bonner for major minutes. Bonner should play 15 minutes a night max.

I agree that his defense does prelude him from playing major minutes, but i think an average of 17-20 MPG would be within reason. He showed a little bit of ability to drive with a little runing hook which would be great if he were to get consistent with that.

I think the great thing right now is that we have really good options along with Bonner to counter different situations.

[Chomag]

All I want to know is why some give someone so much praises over 1 dimension even when that 1 dimension is the lowest percentage shot in the game of basketball. IMO it's very overated as far as stretching the floor. Ask any team and the NBA and I guarantee that everyone of them would say that they would rather give up a 3 then a higher percentage shot. How many teams do you think have a game plan that involve stopping Bonner? Most teams want to give him that shot al day rather then it come from somewhere else.

It's good for a player to have a 3 pt shoot, but a NBA caliber player needs to have other aspects to his game then just that one.

[TJastal]

Good game for the spurs, but it comes against a hornet team who's center hadn't even practiced yet and probably the worst bench in the league.

As for Bonner, this game was a great example of how he can get the spurs into early defecits. Mel13, you wanted examples well here you are. He cannot guard the better PF's of the league and David West took advantage and teed off on him early. Add to that Bonner launched and missed badly on his first couple shots.

Luckily the spurs bench players came in to turn this game around before it got out of hand. Once the spurs had a sizeable lead, then Bonner came in and hit his 3's, once the pressure was off. He didn't really impress with his mid-range game at all. He had a very awkward looking running hook shot in the lane that fortunately bounced in and then proceeded to miss a 5 foot uncontested bunny shot that McDyess would have just slammed home. That shot just made me cringe because it barely caught iron. Bonner's mid range game just makes me cringe, period.

I really wonder what's going to happen w/Bonner when the spurs face some tougher obstacles. As for now, it's all good, the spurs' bench came through and carried the team today.

[Solid D]

Blair rebounds. He's really no better than Matt defense-wise, but he gets boards and he scores high percentage shots.

Blair has a lot of learning to do defensively. Saying he is no better than Matt defense-wise doesn't really describe the comparison of the two players defensively. Blair's D was pretty awful in the Hornets game. Taller players easily scored over him and he was late on help D. He does have the pyriamid base defending post-ups that Bonner lacks, but just a couple of moves rather than passing out of the post got the opposition a fairly easy bucket over DeJuan.

DeJuan will probably become a decent defender before the shot gets to the rim, eventually. He's already got the "after it gets to the rim" handled, so I'll give him that.

Offensively, Blair is obviously highly productive and inspiring.

[ChumpDumper]

All I want to know is why some give someone so much praises over 1 dimension even when that 1 dimension is the lowest percentage shot in the game of basketball.

It's not terribly low when Bonner shoots it.

IMO it's very overated as far as stretching the floor.

I think the value of drawing a big man defender above the three point line in a half court set is quite well known and an actual hallmark of championship teams over the last decade.

Ask any team and the NBA and I guarantee that everyone of them would say that they would rather give up a 3 then a higher percentage shot.

Depends on the situation.

How many teams do you think have a game plan that involve stopping Bonner?

Bonner makes it more difficult for teams to defend the Spurs that other teams game plan for.

Most teams want to give him that shot al day rather then it come from somewhere else.

Then why do they defend him at all?

It's good for a player to have a 3 pt shoot, but a NBA caliber player needs to have other aspects to his game then just that one.

If you do one thing very well, you can be in the league. The main issue is when and how much to use Bonner given his limitations. The fact that the Spurs signed two new players expressly to play more than Bonner tells me that this amount will be less than last season.

[ElNono]

Blair has a lot of learning to do defensively. Saying he is no better than Matt defense-wise doesn't really describe the comparison of the two players defensively. Blair's D was pretty awful in the Hornets game. Taller players easily scored over him and he was late on help D. He does have the pyriamid base defending post-ups that Bonner lacks, but just a couple of moves rather than passing out of the post got the opposition a fairly easy bucket over DeJuan.

DeJuan will probably become a decent defender before the shot gets to the rim, eventually. He's already got the "after it gets to the rim" handled, so I'll give him that.

Offensively, Blair is obviously highly productive and inspiring.

Completely agree with you.