Splitter??

[jimbo]

I woudlnt say light years but he can put the ball in the hole on his own accord and not just just from drop offs to him from penetrations in the lane and the pick and roll.

when has that little right handed hook 5-8 feet away from the basket ever fallen consistently?

Never. I'm just saying that's the difference between a 9mil a year big and a 15 mil a year one in today's NBA.

[Juggity]

Made it last year by getting lucky matchups and injuries to other teams stars.

The spurs eviscerated Memphis and LA and then took one of the greatest teams of all time with one of the greatest players of all time in one of his greatest seasons to seven games. That's not luck.

The Thunder were an inferior team last season. They burned out in the playoffs with Westbrook's injury. Spurs win in five or six if it comes down to it (but it didn't — memphis took care of them in five).

With Kobe, the Lakers maybe win 1 game in that series. Again, the spurs were just a better team in all respects. Dwight didn't want to be there, didn't want to play with Kobe, etc. and was already intent on leaving in the offseason.

And of course, the Golden State series was probably the best playoff series win last year. A young upstart team with a ton of deadly shooters getting incredibly hot from 3. Pop's adjustments saved that series.

[DMC]

The ability to recover from injury (mentally and physically) is part of being a good player. If an injury can render you useless even after you're healed, what ing good are you?

[Capt Bringdown]

I like Tiago's D, but I don't know if he's a good fit for this team. We've got too many softies as it is.

[TheGreatYacht]

Tiago is one of the best defensive bigs in the NBA.

Is that why he got raped by Ibaka, West, Lee, Griffin, Aldridge, Favors, TERRENCE JONES

[r0drig0lac]

Is that why he got raped by Ibaka, West, Lee, Griffin, Aldridge, Favors, TERRENCE JONES

[szkorhetz]

PlayNando with the occasionally goods.
Splitter will never be a good player paired with Tim, that just wont happen. I mean, defensively Splitter is amazing, but on the offensive end he is garbage. In todays NBA having two almost seven footers on the court with neither having a consistent jumpshot will kill everything on your team.

Ilyasova, Gibson, Thompsons(Tristan or Jason), Millsap, Hawes or even ing Thaddeus Young would help us hugely.

[AFBlue]

He was actually playing with effort and intensity to start the season, but that has disappeared post-injury. He's just athletically overmatched and weak against the small ball, which happens to be the strategy for every legit contender outside of Indiana.

I get why they paid him (corporate knowledge, good defensively, preserve Duncan), and I hope he proves me wrong...but at this point Splitter in the starting 5 come playoff time will likely lead to an early exit.

[PingPong]

I want to add a stat, available now with the new tracking cameras.

This is a ranking of players ordered by what % of "available rebounds" (vicinity 3.5ft), a player gets.

Top 100

Without Tiago, Kawhi "weirdo" Leonard rebounding stats will fall to the half. Or even less. But Splitter's offense belongs to the WNBA, tbh...

[Kyuui-Musikq]

Never. I'm just saying that's the difference between a 9mil a year big and a 15 mil a year one in today's NBA.

Then we agree with the sentiment that we have to throw some money out there and get that nxt level guy; the 12-15 mil per yr big.

[james evans]

afblue, the spurs were suckered into that deal by a bidding war that didn't exist. noone in their right mind would get in a bidding war over tiago splitter. that itself is comical to even discuss. if portland wanted to pay him an insane amount of money, then they should have let them and used that money and half of the cash they gave ginobli to sign a decent big like an al jefferson. i'm not saying ginobli isn't playing good this season, because he is, but he's not worth $7 million either. for his performance in the finals he should have been given $4 million at the most and used 3 million of that along with the 9 million they gave to ter to get a decent big man. i still can't believe that sack of is making $9 million per year. he must really be killing ayers and diaw in practice cuz i haven't seen it yet on the court..

[james evans]

So he shot 56% last season with no one playing defense on him?

i know u like to argue for the sake of carrying on conversations, but even you know deep down splitter is fukin garbage. u can lie to me, u can lie to everyone else on this site, but when u start lying to yourself , that's when the real problems start.

[Skull-1]

i know u like to argue for the sake of carrying on conversations, but even you know deep down splitter is fukin garbage. u can lie to me, u can lie to everyone else on this site, but when u start lying to yourself , that's when the real problems start.

Cd021 is the idiot who says, over and over, that Manu's turnovers in Game Six of the Finals "didn't really hurt us". That's all ya need to know about this guy....

[Jwash_1986]

Cd021 is the idiot who says, over and over, that Manu's turnovers in Game Six of the Finals "didn't really hurt us". That's all ya need to know about this guy....

Naw, I know he didn't say that? Manu himself even know that was a major part of the game six lost.

[cd021]

Naw, I know he didn't say that? Manu himself even know that was a major part of the game six lost.

I did say that. Most of Manu's turnovers occurred during the 1st 3 quarters of game 6. All told he had 3 in in the final 17 minutes of the game. Only one of those turnovers actually cost us points (2 Ray Allen Free throws) I've been outspoken but the brunt of game 6 obviously falls squarely on Popovich.

BTW Manu's 8 turnovers accounted for 7 points by Miami. We were up 5 with 30 seconds and Manu had already committed 7 of those. Obviously that isn't the reason we lost the game.

1. Take Duncan and Parker out 5:30 + a full timeout to start the fourth. Stick a lineup consisting of Manu, Green, Neal, Diaw and Splitter on the floor. None of which were playing exceptionally well at that point. We saw a 10 point lead cut to 4 and Miami's crowd get into it. Our offense never looked the same after the end of the 3rd quarter.

2. Duncan out on the final possession (granted that's long, been Pops philosophy)

Skull-1 is the premier Manu basher on ST. Manu could score 40 in 23 minutes and he would call him a ball hog. Every knows he's a clown. I blocked him months ago but he continuously direct quotes me. And he calls me an idiot...

Manu like Tim takes blame for every post season failure. Whether its actually his fault or not. Manu to his credit had an remarkable game 5 (24pts ,10 assists) and was the 3rd leading scorer in game 7 with 18 points when Parker was MIA in Miami.

[cd021]

i know u like to argue for the sake of carrying on conversations, but even you know deep down splitter is fukin garbage. u can lie to me, u can lie to everyone else on this site, but when u start lying to yourself , that's when the real problems start.

I've enjoyed our talks too. I'm not saying he isn't a frustrating player. He gets blocked a remarkable amount for a player of his size, but to say he can't finish at all is obviously wrong. He was second in FG% last season. One doesn't get to that point by accident. He has tried to be more physical at the rim this season, it hasn't worked nearly as well. He is at his best as a finesse player.

He should come off the bench and feast on the inferior backup big men. Thats were he should play at.

[ThaBigFundamental21]

No he is not. I don't know who started that BS.

Thank you, in no way is he one of the best Defensive bigs. No in way. Him and Tim together are very good defensively. Me personally, I feel that is because of Tim's D, and Tiago's height. Not necessarily Tiago doing all that much right. He never blocks shots or gets steals, it is a case of 2 7 footers playing together, with Tim covering Tiago's ass.

[freetiago]

Splitter covers Duncan's weakness
Duncan cant defend anything on the perimeter

Its why the Spurs got burned in games 1 and 2 vs Golden State in the playoffs
then when Splitter came back suddenly the defense is elite again
Duncan can only drop back in the paint and contest some shots as long as the guy doesnt have a running start otherwise he backs off

and Splitter doesn't block shots but he contests everything
Dirk airballed a fadeaway he was draining all night on Diaw once Splitter guarded him in the 4th

[ThaBigFundamental21]

Splitter covers Duncan's weakness
Duncan cant defend anything on the perimeter

Its why the Spurs got burned in games 1 and 2 vs Golden State in the playoffs
then when Splitter came back suddenly the defense is elite again
Duncan can only drop back in the paint and contest some shots as long as the guy doesnt have a running start otherwise he backs off

and Splitter doesn't block shots but he contests everything
Dirk airballed a fadeaway he was draining all night on Diaw once Splitter guarded him in the 4th

Like I said, Splitter's size helps. But he is not a good Defender, he is not a good player. Splitter isn't half the player Tim Duncan is and Tim Duncan is almost 40. What does that tell you? Splitter is a backup starting for the Spurs because he is filling a key deficiency. He is an overpaid scrub. He is horrible. He was thrown around like a rag doll by everyone on Houston's roster last night, and rejected time and time again by Howard. And lets not pretend like it is anything new or surprising. Any time we play a quality opponent he s the bed. Derek Fisher rejects the guy.

TheGreatYacht posted some sobering stats the other night.

@POR 0pts, 4reb, 0-2 OKC 6pts, 9reb, 3-8
HOU 6pts, 3reb, 2-3
IND 2pts, 2reb, 1-3
@LAC 2pts, 3reb, 1-2
OKC 6pts, 11reb, 3-9
HOU 6pts, 4reb, 2-7

If this isn't an eye opener you are in serious denial.

[TheGoldStandard]

Like I said, Splitter's size helps. But he is not a good Defender, he is not a good player. Splitter isn't half the player Tim Duncan is and Tim Duncan is almost 40. What does that tell you? Splitter is a backup starting for the Spurs because he is filling a key deficiency. He is an overpaid scrub. He is horrible. He was thrown around like a rag doll by everyone on Houston's roster last night, and rejected time and time again by Howard. And lets not pretend like it is anything new or surprising. Any time we play a quality opponent he s the bed. Derek Fisher rejects the guy.

TheGreatYacht posted some sobering stats the other night.
@POR 0pts, 4reb, 0-2 OKC 6pts, 9reb, 3-8
HOU 6pts, 3reb, 2-3
IND 2pts, 2reb, 1-3
@LAC 2pts, 3reb, 1-2
OKC 6pts, 11reb, 3-9
HOU 6pts, 4reb, 2-7

If this isn't an eye opener you are in serious denial.

He can't stay on the floor with those teams because he lacks the athleticism to stay in front of most of those bigs or the strength to match up. His biggest strength is that he is long, he puts his arms up all the time and stands very still, he doesn't overreact and swipe down at balls because he lacks the athleticism to do that. Most players are expecting him to swipe down to go for a block but nope not Tiago, call that discipline or whatever but it's more like he just makes like a tree. When bigs step out and for the majority of the teams we could face in the west this is what they expect to do against us he's pretty useless. He was successful against Dirk on one play tonight because Dirk wanted to shoot over him, had Dirk put the ball on the floor Tiago would have been in trouble and that's not saying much because Dirk isn't that fast or athletic, both these guys could barely clear a phone book jumping.

[crc21209]

Splitters D and rebounding are good, but it's his damn softness on the offensive end that drive everyone nuts around here. It's pathetic at the little flip shops he attempts. , I'm pretty sure Splitter is the only big man who constantly gets blocked by guards and small forwards...

[rascal]

He can't stay on the floor with those teams because he lacks the athleticism to stay in front of most of those bigs or the strength to match up. His biggest strength is that he is long, he puts his arms up all the time and stands very still, he doesn't overreact and swipe down at balls because he lacks the athleticism to do that. Most players are expecting him to swipe down to go for a block but nope not Tiago, call that discipline or whatever but it's more like he just makes like a tree. When bigs step out and for the majority of the teams we could face in the west this is what they expect to do against us he's pretty useless. He was successful against Dirk on one play tonight because Dirk wanted to shoot over him, had Dirk put the ball on the floor Tiago would have been in trouble and that's not saying much because Dirk isn't that fast or athletic, both these guys could barely clear a phone book jumping.

He lacks athleticism because he sucks.

[rascal]

Splitters D and rebounding are good, but it's his damn softness on the offensive end that drive everyone nuts around here. It's pathetic at the little flip shops he attempts. , I'm pretty sure Splitter is the only big man who constantly gets blocked by guards and small forwards...

Splitter is not soft he just is not very good, too slow and can't jump, doesn't have any perimeter shot, can't protect the rim weak shot blocker and has trouble getting to the basket creating his own shot on his own without being setup with a pNr.

[Cry Havoc]

Made it last year by getting lucky matchups and injuries to other teams stars.

ing hilarious considering posters like you were talking last year about how Memphis is a match up nightmare for the Spurs and that we'd be lucky to push the series to 6 games.

[Skull-1]

Naw, I know he didn't say that? Manu himself even know that was a major part of the game six lost.

Yeah, he did. He wrote eight pages packed with "advanced stats" to "prove it".