Reply With Quote
Still? Doesn't that require that he at one point was?
Not to turn teammates against each other as we've seen on here with Manu vs Parker, but from reading a few threads this morning got me feeling like a lot of people have lowered their expectation of him. I didnt watch the 4th qtr last night, but apparently, he did little to nothing(statsheet wise). Do you still want him out there starting? Or do you think he should earn his minutes.
Contrary to popular belief, I do not hate Splitter. Coming into the season, I had him starting. I am a Blair fan yes, but I became even a bigger fan of his after what seemed like blatant hate on him, for some mental mistakes that I've seen Splitter, Dice, and even Duncan make. There have been starting bigs on championship teams that has been Blair size. I dont get that whole he's too small crap
Still? Doesn't that require that he at one point was?
Splitter is struggling to find any team chemistry on the offensive end of the floor. He is having problems setting good screens, and what makes it worse is sometimes he sets them in an untimely fashion or in other words out of the flow of the offense. A lot of times he seems like he doesn't know where he should be on the floor. Unfortunately for him he is going to have to learn how to contribute to the team in other ways until they trust him to be a focal point on offense for the 2nd unit. If he worked on his passing or developed a jumpshot from around the key he could probably contribute more sooner. He has a knack for the pick n roll, and once him and Parker did very well working together.
The problem is whats more important to this team from his position is a solid defensive presence inside. He is agile and can move his feet well, but he isn't a natural shot blocker. He'd rather take a charge then go up for the block. His game is soft which I hate to admit. Hopefully someone gets him to hit the weights hard over the next off season, but it's still gonna take time for him to be tough inside. He will be serviceable on the defensive end with the right development, but probably has much more upside on the offensive end when all is said and done.
Now Blair on the other hand is a pick your poison type of situation. He is either causing mismatch problems for opposing teams, or is the mismatch problem for his own team. All depends on who is imposing there will more on that day, him or the guy he is defending. Pop knows this and plays him accordingly. If he is getting the better of the situation Pop keeps him in longer and lets him wreak havoc. If he is being a liability he gets yanked early and sees sparse minutes the rest of the way. To Blair's credit I would say he has been winning a lot more battles then he has been losing as of late. His passing has been exceptional as of late especially for a big, he has great hands, and he hustles out there. His eagerness to learn the game has made him much better also as the games go by. He has a good basketball IQ, and with Pop in his corner it should only get better.
But Pop understands what he has in Blair. And he knows what he gets and what he is giving up at the same time. Seems Pop is just fine with it as long as Blair stays tough and hustles.
And to answer your question; No Splitter is not greater then Blair. But that's only because Blair is much farther along in his development then Splitter is. The other aspect of it is all about matchups. I thought like most other posters did here that we would definitely need Splitter to matchup with the Lakers size, but with the way Blair played against the Lakers, I don't see it that way anymore. At this point it's obvious that Pop will use a mix of Dice and Blair depending on how things go, and unless Splitter all the sudden finds his niche on this years team, I don't see him being a factor until next year.
He doesn't know where to be because he doesn't know the offense or defense. Sean Elliott said himself him missing all of training camp really killed his growth.
Splitter hasn't gotten Blair minutes. Maybe once Pop feels he's secured HCA and 1st, Splitter will see more minutes.
Good post
Minutes are earned on the Spurs, not bestowed. I have to say that last night didn't help him AT ALL.
Regardless, the fact remains. Blair has laid a few eggs of his own, but he's started every game regardless.
Minutes are always bestowed. There's no counter for minutes earned. It's just opinion that they are, in fact.
Nice points. But
1. I disagree that Splitters ultimate value will be on the offensive end. For one thing, although he has a few post moves with the ball, his finishing skills are worse than most U.S. high school big men. He'd have to completely revamp his game to ever be more than a garbage/take-what-he-can-get on offense. Plus, given Pop's history, you know the entire focus of the coaching staff will be to make him a defensive force.
2. I also disagree that because Blair played well against the Lakers in one game, that the Spurs don't need Splitter. We'll see what happens the rest of the series, but nobody would be surprised if next game Blair goes for 2-and-3 and gets dominated on defense. Unless the Lakers complete implode, the Spurs are ultimately going to need lots of McDyess, or, hopefully Splitter, to succeed against them.
ulosturedge with the goods
1) Blair understands physical American basketball. Splitter still does not.
2) Blair makes mistakes. All players do. What Pop will not tolerate is passivity, something Blair never displays. When Blair F's up, Pop also doesn't hesitate to pull him and limit his minutes, even though almost any time he gets big minutes he produces.
3) Keep thinking that Pop bestows minutes. It'll allow you to stay on the Poor Splitter train without thinking that the Spurs actually DO use complex analytics/stats to help determine playing time.
That's complete and utter bull . Don't make me point out specific examples to counter that tripe you typed.
If minutes were earned, you wouldn't need a ing head coach. People would just enter the game and play they minutes they have earned. I guess Matt Bonner earns 30+ a game?
Perhaps you think a coach like Pop feels that a player has earned minutes, and therefore gives these minutes to that player. There are too many examples where that's not the case, so then it has to be false.
The coach decides who plays when. It's not based upon how they played last time. Maybe indirectly it affects the coach's decision, but in the end, it's up to the coach and that makes it bestowed.
You make great points. Any credible spurs fan knows that we will need both at their best to beat the Lakers. Coming into the season, I was really expecting a Gasol-lite player. One thing Gasol does better than any Euro I see, is dunk. He's still soft at times, but he can put you on a poster. I haven't seen that type of athleticism from Tiago yet.
Tiago doesn't play offense above his head. Gasol does. One of Pau's greatest skills is that he knows how to handle the ball and can get to the rim in one movement after catching the ball, and the ball itself rarely goes below his head. It's usually just a fluid movement from the catch to the basket, all up high. That requires high passes and that requires training with the team. Tiago hasn't had that team training. Shootarounds don't count.
We all see different things. I noticed that Splitter moved without the ball into open areas quite a bit, often off the P&R but teammates didn't hit him with a pass.
I don't think a big who is willing to take a charge a lot is playing 'soft'. You can get killed in this league by taking charges against players with this size and speed.
Splitter has given up, he was playing better earlier in the season. It looks like he's getting pop's rookie treatment, all those dnp's make him the 5th big, no doubt about that, maybe next year. Lets hope bonner and blair will be enough to get us a championship.
It's not soft as in toughness, but soft as in physicality. Tiago needs to level someone. Spurs fans remember how David would never lower the boom on people and he was called soft for that. He took an elbow from Malone that put a bunch of s ches in his mouth, but Dave does not retaliate. I just think a championship caliber team has to have it's Bruce Bowen, someone who doesn't mind being hated.
Are you serious? Blair is a second year player while Splitter has been playing professional B-ball since he was 15. Blair has hardly developed at all. I hate to say this, but Blair, with no ACL's has a higher upside than Splitter ever will.
Holy crap people. He hasn't played in forever, give the guy a break. For those who want a decent breakdown of what Splitter can do, this video is pretty good (aside from the re ed "like a young Dwight Howard" comment, that was ridiculous)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVRHX8JinRk
He still has to learn NBA ball. He grew up playing FIBA, and, to quote the Great Timmy Duncan " FIBA."
He didn't look impressive in that video. I can find similar situations for any player in the league. He moves to set a lot of picks, but if he cannot finish at the rim, it's only going to result in a pop or pass out of the tandem.
We haven't seen enough of Splitter to make a fair determination. Blair gets regular minutes, Splitter does not.
It seems to me that much of the criticism leveled at Splitter's play could also be attributed to Blair - even the "soft" accusation (Blair couldn't stop an armchair from scoring).
At any rate, giving Splitter even limited minutes seems to me to be a win all the way around -where's the problem? We're playing well, we can afford it, and it would give other veterans more rest for the playoffs.
It is soft for a 7 foot player to be trying to take a charge instead of being ascertive and going for a block or a challenging defensive stop.
Those flip shots are so gay, they need to go.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
