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pops right cant play two "centers" at once
its not like the spurs have had success with some sort of twin tower front before
In Buck Harvey's article, Pop blew my mind with this quote:Seriously, Pop? 20 minutes is as much as you can play him? You have about 70 minutes available at power forward and center outside of Tim Duncan, yet it's only possible to carve out 20 minutes for Splitter? And you consider 20 minutes for Splitter "a lot"?Asked if Splitter needed to be on the court more, Popovich shrugged. “It’s hard to get him on the court any more than he is because he is playing a lot. There are only two bigs at a time, and sometimes only one because teams play small. He’s getting as much time as I can play him.”
pops right cant play two "centers" at once
its not like the spurs have had success with some sort of twin tower front before
What were you saying about pulling the Senile card?
Another Pop quote from tonight:Pop always says Splitter is a blue-collar player or doesn't have skills ... but WTF type of skills is he expecting out of Splitter? He looks pretty damn skillful to me on the low block, with his overall coordination and with his passing. You can say a player like Oberto didn't have any skills but Splitter is definitely "skilled", tbh.“He’s a big-time pro,” Popovich said. “He’s a workhorse, and a really fun basketball player to watch. He’s not gifted with a lot of skills, but he plays the game the right way.”
Pop is not and will continue to not play him bc its what everybody wants. It's too obvious of a solution. Pop likes to think he knows something nobody else knows. And since everyone knows tiago should play more pop ain't doing it.
F POP Now, he is an idiot the last few years. I still got love for him though, he lead us to a few les and was my fave coach for a good while! Now he has just lost it though.
I just bumped your comment and Bruno's in the other thread about this... spot on
splitter is still a work in progress far from finished but he needs time. why not unlesah him?!? ur only other options is a wanna be malik rose and pops new brad lohaus
"Scola wasn't skilled, like Matty, that's why we shipped his ass out"
I'm holding onto that card ... for now.What were you saying about pulling the Senile card?
But, man, Pop is making it difficult. This should be a no-brainer . . .
maybe pop wants more of a shotblocking defensive center but that sure as isnt bonner/blair either
Splitter should be averaging around the same mins as his fellow Brazilians like Nene and Varjeao, which is around 25-33 mins IIRC
Unfortunately even with Splitter playing more, Spurs still need another shot alterer in the paint, especially since injuries are more of an inevitability than not in this crazy season and we're relying on Blair and Bonner...and if Blair is taken out of the starting lineup, who knows what that will do to his confidence and game like last season showed
Okay, so this will probably be an unpopular theory, but is it possible that part of this is Duncan's fault? Tim is my all-time favorite Spur, and he's never struck me as a selfish player, but Pop/sportswriters are always claiming Splitter/Duncan won't work together because they essentially play in the same spot on the floor. So, assuming that this is true, just for a moment...
Duncan/Bonner = Duncan plays on the low block, Bonner gets his minutes because he spreads the floor, although he can only shoot from 3. He has no mid-range game to speak of.
Duncan/Blair/Splitter = Duncan plays on the low block, Blair/Splitter play clean-up, but get far less minutes than Bonner because they don't spread the floor. They each have no mid-range game whatsoever, though Blair occasionally tries, bless his heart.
Now, when Duncan and Robinson were playing together, didn't Robinson swallow his pride and spend a lot of time out of the paint offensively working on his jumper and playing the hi/low with Tim? Tim was a great post player, and did that extremely well, and Robinson had the better mid-range game and was not as strong in the post as Tim during that time.
Isn't Tim, out of every big the Spurs have, the best at spotting up from 18 feet and nailing a set shot? Could the lack of time Splitter is getting have something to do with Tim refusing to leave the painted area offensively due to ego, selfishness, denial, etc.?
Not trying to troll here at all. I think the theory has merit and want to know what others might think.
In addition, could Splitter's improved play in the post be by design? Is it possible Pop just wasn't sure Splitter could play that role, and perhaps now that he knows (please let him know!) Splitter can manage it, we could see Duncan take more of an Admiral-esque role from here on out? (hope hope)
I'm just waiting for the RJ+Tiago for Kapono salary dump, at which point I might as well just turn in my Spurs fan card until he checks into an asylum.
Moron since 2006. Glad to see some of you are starting to figure this out.
I had the same reaction to that quote. Tiago is showing more skills than any big man not named Tim Duncan the Spurs have had in the last 3 years.
What is Pop doing? Enough with the blue collar . Tiago's ripped off that collar and Pop doesn't like it.
Marc Gasol wasn't great when he came to the NBA, but he has improved leaps and bounds. Does Pop not realize players can improve? Is he against it?
I agree that Tiago is a pro but I'm hoping Pop is not thinking, Splitter is a profesional, he won't complain if I don't give him more minutes.“He’s a big-time pro,” Popovich said.
I really hate to question Pop but Splitter should be playing 30+ minutes this season. IMO Tim would benefit as he is mostly a jump shooter at this stage of his career and Tony looked pretty darn good in the pick and roll with Tiago.
If a moron can win a le, then clearly NBA coaches are greatly overrated.
tbh, even if we entertain this idea that Splitter isn't really skilled, our current frontcourt is so ing pathetic outside of Duncan that a "scrub" like Tiago is able to post a 25-10 line... there's just no excuse not to run small amounts of offense through Tiago in the post with Tim stretching the court in the Dice/DRob role.
I just don't understand how that's worse than trashman Blair living under the basket trying to catch some leftovers and Bonner chucking up 3's.
With TD's emphasis in the perimeter jumper this year I can't see why he can't play with Tiago. But for this to happen, you've got to give them minutes playing together for this to work,
If it were up to Sean Elliott, Tiago would be seeing 40+ minutes a game with 80% of the plays for him!
If Pop is sticking to his rotations, then I agree with him: he can't play him more. IMO, he needs to realize the obvious and start playing his best players.
If a moron can win a le when he should have won two or three, then his impact can't be overstated.
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