Reply With Quote
i would say most likely. it's not like splitter would have scored that much anyways and probably would have been in too much foul trouble to make a meaningful impact on the defensive end.
In their 2 losses the Memphis front court has crominated Duncan and Co. Sure, TP's been bad, but he can't stop the Memphis bigs. Gasol's Game 1 performance is looking less and less like an aberration, especially with Red Rocket guarding him at times. Outside of the last 2 minutes of Game 1, Bonner's 3-point shooting has been non-existent, so why is he still on the floor?
i would say most likely. it's not like splitter would have scored that much anyways and probably would have been in too much foul trouble to make a meaningful impact on the defensive end.
I think a 7-footer who's shown he can play good post D could've been the difference in 2 3-pt losses. Bonner is invisible on both ends, so there'd be no drop-off in offensive production.
Spurs would be up 3-0. Splitter plays in game 1 and he probably scores 8-10 points and, being the good defender that has shown he is, would've helped defensively. he wouldn't even have need to play much better from a defensive standpoint--just not let them (Gasol and Randolph) score 49 on 19/25. They go 17/25--still bad--and the Spurs win that game.
while i do agree that splitter should have been given at least some minutes to prove himself, he's way overhyped on spurstalk. the spurs would 90% still be down 2-1. the losses are definitely a team effort and not just because splitter isn't getting minutes.
been saying this for a long time though. after Spurs whooped LA in the first game of the season, i was on here saying it didn't mean because the playoffs are a different animal and that the Spurs needed to develop Splitter. Pop has ruined this team. and i knew he would too.
Gasol scoring one-on-one against Bonner in the post 9 times out of 10 is not a team effort. no matter what kind of bull Pop says.
if there is enough of a mismatch on the floor, team effort can only help so much.
Yup. In the first and second quarter (mostly the 2nd) you saw that matchup a bunch of times.
good switch
i swear i could give a if we lose and we can't help it (which has happened a lot of times), that's just the way it goes, but there's nothing more frustrating than a team losing because of a coach that won't make the right decision.
i second this
I'm surprised so many of you are still wanting Splitter in place of Bonner. Bonner has been all that bad. Blair on the other hand is a complete liability on both ends. Splitter should replace Blair not Bonner.
Bonner is giving you nothing on either end. Blair is bad too but at least he's decent on the offensive glass.
We'd be up at least 2-1 and it wouldn't be a 5 on 4 matchup for 20 minutes per game.
I don't know, but I would be a little more lenient with my opinions of Pop because he would at least be trying to do something different. I would still be disappointed though.
This. If Bonner's not dropping 3's, then it literally is a 5 on 4 game. He's done nothing to nullify his defensive liability.
It's crazy. Splitter must've been a giant or something to Pop. Cause he has deserved more playing time. In fact when he's played he's not only shown he's been better than Bonner & Blair, but also McDyess--when he's gotten consistent minutes and not been yanked after 20 seconds
He knows for the fact that we lack rebounding and D in the paint. Yet he's still dumb enough not to play Splitter. He's in love. True love.
Pops made bad decisions for the last 3 years though. He's done. His blatant disrespect of Bowen in '09 giving him 20 min per was the worst.
Of the10 min Blair played in game 3, how much time was with Bonner, I'm guessing around 7 minutes, mostly between the end of 1st and start of 2nd quarter where memphis build a double digit lead ( their plus minus together must have been horible)
Pop also decided to go with Bonner and Dice together with bonner defending gasol ! the result Gasol litterally ate him up alive.
On those two occasions about 15 min of playing time, Splitter could have been playing instead and would have done a much better job. That alone caused us the W.
Having said that playing splitter now won't solve the problem it's to late, Pop has his chance to integrate Splitter into the rotation at the start of the playoffs , after what he showed he can do in the last 12 games of the regular season, this is all on Pop
If you take the foul trouble the Grizzlies' bigs have been in so far this series, and you factor in how much better Splitter is at drawing fouls on both ends than the rest of the Spurs' bigs, you have to think the Grizz finish one or all of these three games with at least one person fouled out by the last two minutes. How huge is that for a series where all three games have been close? How big would it have been to have Randolph out of game three in the last minute?
Probably up 3-0 with Splitter at his rightful place, which is starting next to Duncan..
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
