Reply With Quote
Personally I would like to see more "trial by fire", as he is young and should handle it. Plus, this looks like it could be the best chance for another le run.
...but.....in Pop I trust...
Making sense of Tiago Splitter’s lack of playing time
by Andrew A. McNeill
48 Minutes of
There’s been some confusion in our comments and on Twitter as to why Tiago Splitter hasn’t seen as many minutes as the San Antonio Spurs, and their fans, would like. Allow me to do my best to explain.
There are two primary reasons why Splitter is only averaging 11.2 minutes per game so far this season, and both of those reasons are connected.
Keep reading →
Personally I would like to see more "trial by fire", as he is young and should handle it. Plus, this looks like it could be the best chance for another le run.
...but.....in Pop I trust...
Splitter is getting treated like he is a fifty year old vet. The guy is in his mid twenties, OF course he can always get injured as can any player but if the FO is scared he will shatter by playing anything over 10 minutes then why is he on this team?
He's right to say that it is a combination of things. One, Pop knows he can use the rest. Second, he doens't run the system as well as others.
Pop's biggest downer is that his coaching style and system requires lots of experience. Pop will not sacrifice anything to give a rookie a chance unless he absolutely knows he can handle it. This gives Tiago Splitter a disadvantage coming in. Now with missing preseason, we know splitter will unlikely get lots of playing time this season. The only chance we'll see him is if Bonner and Blair are struggling to get anything done in the playoffs. I want to see Splitter on the floor but not at the cost of the Spurs losing a championship.
I personally hope Splitter's learning ability is as good as advertised, and he will force Pop to play him.
If Bonner is hitting 3s I don't mind seeing Tiago coddled a bit. However, if Bonner isn't even shooting, I don't see how he's better at anything than Splitter. The defense already is Splitter >>>>>>>>>>>>> Bonner. Splitter has taken more charges in a quarter than Bonner has in his career.
Did you read the entire article?
It's a push. Splitter brings nothing to the table other than a charge. There's more to an nba game than just flopping.
Yes...^this
Bet he's preparing for carneval that's why he sucks ... seriously I'd be distracted the whole year just thinking of all the boobs down in Rio.
So Pop obviously thinks the Spurs can go into a playoff series against the Lakers with DeJuan Blair and Matt Bonner as the 2nd and 3rd bigs against Andrew Bynum Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom and win the series ..should be fun to watch.
One question I have is .. What's more 'unfair' to the playing group.. giving Tiago 30 minutes in the regular season to get him acclimated to the system .. Or letting Bonner clank open 3's in the playoffs and give up offensive rebound after offensive rebound and provide an open lane to the bakset for opposition lay ups abd dunks?
I think Splitter proved to be a little disrespectfull with San Antonio and Pop and the Spurs are making him pay for what he did.
He didn´t took good care of his body, played injuried for brasil just days after he signed his NBA contract, and was not in shape to start the camp.
Then he thought he was going to get a lot PT to regain shape and that´s not the way it is, he showed himself slow and soft, and he didn´t seem to have hit the weight room as much as he could.
We will see what he does during the All-Star break, he can either use it as a mini-camp or go on vacation, Pop will look at what he chooses.
I've asked this before, but is it possible we as Spurs fans over-hyped Splitter? Did we expect him to come in right away and put up solid numbers?
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.c...iago-splitter/What happened to Tiago Splitter?
Kurt Helin
Remember how certain people were really hyping Tiago Splitter before the season as the big man the Spurs really needed to balance out the front line with Tim Duncan? Remember how people were saying he was going to be a difference maker for the Spurs this season?
Okay, that was me. I admit it. And we’ve seen flashes of that Splitter but mostly we’ve seen him sitting. He’s averaging just 11 minutes a game.
What happened? A fantastic post at Spurs blog 48 Minutes of explains the litany of problems.
Remember that Splitter played deep into the European season last year then just straight into playing for Brazil for the World Championships. There he picked up a couple nagging injuries which he brought with him Spurs camp just a couple weeks after that. It was a lot of basketball.
Then came a strained right calf muscle a couple days into camp, which caused him to miss most of it.
“He had some things break down while he was in Europe and then he came here and had the problem with his calf,” Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich said earlier in the season. “I think all in all, his body is probably just telling him to take a break. So we don’t want to bring him back and stick him out there for an inordinate amount of time.”
Missing camp really hurt because Splitter has never been really comfortable in the Spurs offense this season. He has to set a lot of picks but it’s about timing and placement, and Splitter is off in those departments compared to other bigs on the Spurs roster. Popovich has options
So he hasn’t gotten a lot of run, then combine that with how well the Spurs are playing and you have a coach not about to give him big minutes to learn on the job.
“I can’t just go and experiment and give him 30 minutes to get him going,” Coach Pop said. “It’s not fair to him or to the whole group. It’s just got to happen slowly and we’ll see what’s required as far as the team is concerned because that’s what I have to look at.”
Come the playoffs when the Spurs could face longer front lines — Lakers, we’re looking at you — Splitter could play a key role. But for now, his minutes will be limited as he figures it all out.
11 minutes per game? WTF? I understand the concept of bringing him along slowly and learning the system, all that bull . 15-20 minutes would help his learning curve. Watching Bonner try to rebound out of position with his little alligator arms pains me. Not once has Pop paired Tiago and Tim. Lakers are going to maul our little team.
after some time I just gave up complaining about Splitter minutes... but I remember Pop post-game interview saying Tiago was always in the right place, quick learner, etc
against the suns today, spurs up 13-19 pts, yet couldnt even get some pt
so pop puts in a bonner/blair lineup, suns shortened lead down to 9pts
fck that
Tiago missing training camp was huge. He has the talent to be a solid player with the Spurs and chances were that he would contribute but not as much as many here would have hoped this year. Hopefully, come playoff time, he would have progressed enough where he can actually help the team by spotting Tim against the bigger line ups they'll face.
Really, nothing new here. It's the Oberto/Bonner/Mahinmi treatment. One season to look around and learn and he will be given a more solid chance in season two to see if he can earn a role.
He's obviously way too raw on the offensive end, and his rebounding is not at an NBA level yet. I don't expect much from him this season.
When we got Splitter, I thought defensively he'd bring more as a 7footer than drawing charges. How about some blocks! I hate that Timmy is our only shot block threat...
If the shoe fits right. As long as the spurs are winning there is no reason to run him out there for minutes. It takes time for some rookies. Splitter has shown promise. Spurs are doing the right thing and being patient with him.
I read the article and it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It's very common for teams to bring in players mid season before the trade deadline, and those players get into the rotation rather quickly. The Suns and Magic just did that, and they aren't going to sit those guys out until next season.
So, it's a lame excuse to sit a guy because he wasn't in training camp. He didn't come from the D-league. Either he will be help or he will not. If he's not going to help why not wait until next year to bring him in?
I think Pop is creatively saying "we're winning, why with it?"
[Watching Splitter out on the floor, mainly on the offensive end, you can see why his playing time is limited. While he shows flashes of the basketball IQ that draws comparisons to Fabricio Oberto, he sometimes appears lost on the offensive end. In these moments, he resembles a five-year-old playing soccer, just following the ball from player-to-player.]
This. Except on both ends.
You can see that he has good instincts, and a great basketball IQ. He puts himself in the right place at times, and looks very good. But you can see that he's doing it on general instincts at times. And other times he gets stuck in no man's land.
I really like the guy, and he's going to be really good for us. And if we had an injury, I have no doubt that he could step in and give us some solid minutes now. But I can understand Pop saying that it wouldn't be fair to him or to the other guys right now.
This Spurs squad is developing some real chemistry, and (as always) has some great guys on it. I'm hopeful some of them will stay and work with him over the ASB. Brent Barry did that with some of the second team guys, and it made a difference.
It's a real luxury to be able to leave a guy with that much talent on the bench. But I'd feel a lot better come playoff time if he had more minutes under his belt.
The reason to bring him this year is that the clause allowing him to come over was affordable to the Spurs and the player really wanted to come over, not to mention he agreed to a fairly cheap contract. If he would have stayed in Europe, being that he was a hot commodity there, the Spurs had the risk that he would sign an extension to his older contract or some other Euro team signing him up long term.
BTW, looking at this from the offseason angle, it's part of the reason I didn't want Bonner re-signed. With Tiago seemingly unable to help this season and Blair's level of play being somewhat of an unknown, Bonner was just the obvious guy to have an extended role, even more so with Dice coasting through the regular season. IMO, that's one weak link going forward besides of the hole at backup SF...
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
