48 MOH: Splitter not getting big minutes because he's injury-prone

[TD 21]

Granted, I haven't been able to watch the Spurs at all this year.

But, agree with it or not, I don't think it's hard to see what Pop's rationale is:

Tim and Tiago are both centers, they don't compliment each other offensively, and he doesn't see the upgrade defensively as bein enough to overcome the offense.

Seems to me Pop's been perpetually scarred by '08: the defense was sound, the offense wasn't quite good enough.

I don't believe he feels the Spurs can play the type of D it takes to play the grind-it-out game of yesteryear. It's the only thing that makes sense to me. It has to be his rationale - even if it's terrible rationale.

I'll take my chances with the Spurs' best players, and that includes Tiago.

But Pop ain't savin Tiago from himself. He may be tryin to save Blair from his, maybe jack up his trade-value, but I don't believe he feels Tim and Tiago can co-exist the way we all hope or think he can. I don't believe he feels the Spurs can beat the best of the best in the halfcourt playin Tim and Tiago like Tim and Dave - different time, different players.

No bueno.

If he's drawn this conclusion from such a small sample size, then he really is an idiot. They don't compliment each other any worse offensively than Duncan and Robinson did or Gasol and Bynum do. Suffice it to say, both those duos proved to be slightly effective. Two centers can co-exist together if one can defend power forwards, shoot from mid range and pass. Between Duncan and Splitter, they've got all three covered (if Gasol and Nowitzki can consistently defend fours, then Splitter can too), so there's no excuse. And by the off chance is won't work, they've at least got to exhaust that option before prematurely drawing a conclusion. There's no other team in the league that plays their fourth best player barely over 20 mpg and rarely plays it with one of their three best players. It's insanity.

timvp, Pop can't overreact and baby Splitter upon his return, because he's even more concerned with babying Duncan. And after a few weeks where Duncan inevitably plays in excess of 30 mpg, Splitter probably won't even be eased back in to the extent a player usually is on this team.

[Fireball]

this article definitely was a jinx

[therealtruth]

This. Never seen a coach like Phil Jackson do something like that either (including micromanaging minutes). Injuries are just part of the game. Can happen at any time. Luckily, there's no season ending injury in this case. You just move on.

Exactly. Jackson never micromanaged minutes and never really had a problem with injuries. You just play the players and make sure you have sufficient depth if an injury does comes up. Pippen was injured for the first half of '98 but Kukoc stepped up, Pippen came back from injury, and they won the le.

[therealtruth]

Injury prone or not, you can't coach based on the probability or likely-hood of an injury. You coach to win ball games in June! Period!

Of course managing players minutes and all that has something to do with the long-run of the team's overall health--which is important for success. But so does building familiarity with your teams best two post players. That is something Pop has failed to do the past 2 years with Splitter and Duncan. I don't think anyone expects Pop to play Splitter 35 minutes a night in the regular season, but what we do expect is for Pop to take initiative in getting his two best big men acclimated with one another-- by playing them together more. And with the way this roster is constructed, playing them together more means he needs to increase Tiago's minutes from 21 mpg to at least 26-28 mpg because of Bonner and Blair's roles with the team.

All in all, when gets real (late April-May), Pop can't afford to play on the safe side and limit Splitter's minutes (because of the probability of an injury) and Pop can't be content with 21 minutes for Tiago because it's what "worked" in the regular season (when teams didn't have 1-2 weeks to prepare for the Spurs). That significant dose of the Bonner/Blair ship has sailed. Pop needs to do whatever he can to give Splitter and Duncan more run together whenever Splitter gets back, which should build more cohesive chemistry between the two on both ends. This Splitter/Duncan predicament is going to be critical for the Spurs overall success this year.

When's the last time the Spurs won a championship since Pop started micromanaging minutes. Pop believes in it but there's no proof it works. That's what we were saying last season. These guys are getting plenty of rest so they will be able to turn it on in the playoffs. You don't turn it on. It has to be on from the start.

[TJastal]

When's the last time the Spurs won a championship since Pop started micromanaging minutes. Pop believes in it but there's no proof it works. That's what we were saying last season. These guys are getting plenty of rest so they will be able to turn it on in the playoffs. You don't turn it on. It has to be on from the start.

It's a good idea in theory. And it would work if applied correctly.

I just think Pop goes way too overboard with the "micromanaging" aspect to the point where guys are getting injured because they're oftentimes stiff or cold from either too much rest on the bench or having their minutes bounce up and down from game to game like a yo-yo.

[Wild Cobra Kai]

Some guys can't play big minutes, Manu being one of them. They just break down.

Splitter may be another in that mold.

[Russ]

I just think Pop goes way too overboard with the "micromanaging" aspect to the point where guys are getting injured because they're oftentimes stiff or cold from either too much rest on the bench or having their minutes bounce up and down from game to game like a yo-yo.

I had the same thought after the early playoff exit last year when Pop complained that late season inuries caused the Spurs to lose their rhythm. Actually, both Tim and Manu were injured right after sitting out games at the end of the year that they normally would have played in . . .

Pop decided that having the team playing at the top of their game wasn't as important as the team resting and staying healthy. Ironically, the plan produced just the opposite result. Keeping players out of games completely toward the end of the season (rather than just limiting minutes) may have backfired.

Both Tim's ankle injury and Manu's arm injury came the first game back after sitting out, and not even dressing for, a game. Maybe that's just coincidence, but it also may be that keeping older players loose and in rhythm (even for only 10-12 minutes/game) is better than sitting them out completely and then bringing them back cold and "out of rhythm."

Not only did both of Tim's and Manu's injuries came in the first game back, they also occured in the first couple of minutes of the return game after sitting the game before.

Perhaps because the players weren't in "rhythm" after sitting out games? Injuries usually don't happen to players who are loose and warmed up, but rather to those who are cold and rusty. And when do those injuries usually happen? Right when the overly-rested player first returns to action after the layoff. . . .

Pop is a great coach, the best the Spurs ever had by a long shot, but this year it looks like he violated many of his own protocols regarding staying hungry and aggressive. Instead, he tried to finesse it going into the war that is the playoffs.

The result? The injuries didn't case a lack of rhythm as Pop implies. Rather, the willingness to abandon that rhythm likely caused the injuries in the first place. And an all too early end to the season. Such irony.

http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthre...89#post5198689

Some baseball observers claim that pitchers actually get more arm injuries now than they did when no one worried about pitch counts or innings limits. Why? Because a lot of work may actually help prevent injuries (or so the theory goes).

Anyway, it seems that Pop is not sitting out players for entire games as much this year. And Duncan seems to be hanging in there pretty well.