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I appreciate your work here, DPG.
No I believe Pop views that Splitter>Oberto, regardless if it doesn't show in Splitter's playing time.
I appreciate your work here, DPG.
I hope you're right cdiddy. I feel this team has a legit shot at the finals (even if they're not a favorite) due to cir stance and Pops mindset with regards to Tiago can obviously have huge implications.
Splitter is capable of playing 30+ minutes but Pop is giving him Dice's minutes from last year. Heck if Dice was here he might not even play him.
Have you noticed how effective the Splitter/Bonner tandem has become on both ends of the court? I know it's not fashionable to notice anything positive that involves Bonner, but the chemistry between the two of them is very good (Splitter mentioned it in the TV postgame last night).
You state that as a fact. Your evidence?
Heck, I noticed and pointed it out in this very same thread...
I'm still skeptic it will translate to the playoffs though. It's not like Matt hasn't shined in the regular season before. But credit where credit is due, that Dallas-comeback lineup that includes Tiago and Matt have played some stoic defense out there.
I'm a big fan of the enforcer concept too. That 5th/6th veteran big who holds all the records in the weight room and is savvy enough to play smart defense (or lay some serious wood lol.) I liked Massenburg as well because he always looked so intimidating. If Blair was a legit 6'9 he be a great one.
Splitter does a FANTASTIC job of finding Matt for the open 3. Their tag team partnership produces at least 1 open 3 for Matty per game. In the regular season, if the possession ends with a wide open Matty 3, then I'm content. On the flip side Bonner really does spread the floor (also not fashionable to use Bonner and spreading the floor in a serious tone) for Tiago to work in the post.
Defensively, Splitter does a great job protecting the paint. Matt is still pretty invisible on defense which could suggest that Tiago is doing a good enough job in the paint area for our defense to be passable.
Definitely have noticed that, but as many others have stated, Bonner has let the team down in the playoffs numerous times, so at this point it would be foolish to think otherwise (even if we hope for the best).
Even if you take that out, in my opinion Tiago deserves more than 21MPG and he deserves more consistent minutes (last 5 games for Tiago: 19, 16, 28, 17 & 14). I also believe that despite how good the chemistry between Tiago and Bonner are, that you should play to your strengths and having two legit bigs to defend, rebound, score and pass is what gives the team the best shot to win a le (which is the goal). So for as good as Bonner and Tiago have been, Blair has been bad as a starter and that needs to change and there are legitimate concerns about Bonner and Blair's playoff effectiveness.
I really just wanted to see how ST felt about Pop's assessment and use of Tiago. It seems as if basically everyone thinks that Pop is being flat out intellectually dishonest when he states Tiago is much more than a blue-collar guy who's getting as many minutes as he can afford to give him. I also wanted to question that if Pop truly believes that, but another team doesn't, if they are offered a top 15 pick for Tiago in this year's draft isn't that pretty damn good value for a bigger Oberto (in Pop's eyes if what he says has any shred of truth to it).
How many?
Do you have any idea the greatest number of minutes that Tiago has played in any professional season?
I was looking that up today... 25mpg sounds like his average, although during the lockout he did average 30mpg in Spain... small sample size though.
He's young though... I don't particularly see any specific physical constrain that would prevent him from working up his minutes to around 30...
He's played an average of 29MPG at least once and 28MPG a couple times as well. Given, the season was shorter, but those were his averages. Whether or not we think he can hold up is another question, but the real question is he deserves more minutes. When someone deserves something, he should be given the chance to fail at it.
Yeah, and that was playing 2 games a week in a season that stretched over 7+ months. He never reached 1500 minutes in any one season.
At 21 mpg, he'll be right at 1400 minutes in a 4 month season playing 4 games a week with the playoffs still to come.
Duncan 27 mpg
Blair 22 mpg
Tiago 21 mpg
Bonner 20 mpg
Only ST could look at those numbers and conclude that Pop hates Splitter and doesn't appreciate his various talents and skills.
I'd say he needs to average 25MPG consistently with the ability to play 27-30 in the playoffs. That 25MPG shouldn't be the anomaly, it should be consistent.
In the games he's played over 25 minutes:
16/7/1 block on 77% FG
8/7 on 33% FG
12/7/2 on 71% FG
25/10 on 85% FG
5/8/2 on 28% FG - First game of the season
I just find it odd that Spurs fans imply we just happen to have the only players in the league that can't play normal minutes without being babied.
The seasons were longer in months, but with fewer games.
So what is the number? 24? 26?
That makes no sense to me. How many minutes do college players play? By that logic, because they never play as long as NBA players/seasons, they aren't capable of doing so.
What has shown you that he is incapable of playing 27MPG over the course of a longer season? Is he more fragile than any other player that played overseas only to come to the NBA?
The fact he's behind Blair, with Tim playing a career low in minutes per game and only ahead of Bonner because he gets garbage minutes tells me enough about Pop's thoughts on him (that and all of the comments Pop makes about Tiago since last season).
So an extra 4mpg will make everyone happy?
And your inferences are yours alone.
I didn't say he wasn't capable of more minutes, only that he had never done so before. You inferred the rest.
So an extra 4mpg will make everyone happy?
I'm in.
Many people think and have commented that Tony, Tim and Manu have to have minutes regulated and even need to sit out games. It's not just me at all.
Also, why ask the questions of how many minutes he Tiago played then? What were you getting at by saying he's never played more than x minutes and that their season had far less games?
It's not about the extra four minutes. It's about 25 MPG being the norm. There is absolutely no reason (this is just my opinion) that Tiago should have as many games under 20 minutes as he does over that mark (even if it averages out because to date, it only averages out because Tim sat a game and he gets garbage time minutes).
I'm talking about 25MPG consistently, when the game matters, with only a few isolated games beneath that mark. Not 50% of the games with sub 20MPG.
He's fairly young though. That he didn't play those many minutes before doesn't mean he can't play them now. I mean, I'm pretty sure Manu didn't play as many minutes before walking in to the NBA. Same goes with a lot of college players where the game is only 40 mins.
Well, I personally never said Pop hates Splitter or some such. I do think Pop has a very particular vision of Splitter the player that he commented on himself, something pointed out by Bruno and timpvp in another thread, and that I don't particularly think reflects fairly on Tiago.
Many people here say Tiago can and should play 30mpg. That would have him playing about 2000 minutes in 4 months with the playoffs still to come. Perhaps he can do it. Fact is, he's never played even 1500 minutes in a 7 month season, inclusive playoffs.
You have a ridiculous schedule and 4 players to share 90 minutes. I'm not convinced the current distribution is the travesty that some here seem to think it is.
But if an additional 4mpg will keep the peace, I'm in.
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