He's not any softer than the choker Bonner, and his defense is a uva lot better than Ginger. What'll the Spurs do next year with only a 37 year old TD and Diaw? You really don't expect that TD's going to keep up his great play for the next 3 years. Splitter's still a lot better than whatever big man out there who can possibly be had by the Spurs (which is not much considering how expensive any decent big man is). As far as I'm concerned, the height, size, mobility, hands, bball-iq, head, at ude are there - Pop just needs to give him a chance and not play him behind Bonner and Blair.