Pop is a practical guy. As long as Bonner isn’t being asked to guard someone that outclasses him, he’ll happily take his three-pointers, benefitting by what Bonner has to offer instead of lamenting over what he lacks.

Pop needs the core unit to begin to gel. It has been over the past 5 games. This is why Pop has been playing Malik more and gave Hailslip a chance. It didn’ t help that the unit with both of them in brought the lead down to 10 points.

If they held the lead, they would have seen the full 4th quarter.

With that said, the core unit still is not fully there. Growing pains are going to be there, but you want to focus on the guys who need it most (RJ, McDyess, Mason’s new role, Bonner’s new role, Hill’s new role).

-Randolf is on a cheap contract, so GS would have to throw in another contract to equal balance out the trade.

Since Timmy has come back from injury, in his last 6 games, these are his numbers:

33.4 mpg
20.8 ppg
60.4 fg% (8.2 fgm/14.8 fga)
85 FT% (4.5 ftm/5.3 fta)
10.7 rpg (3 off/game)
4.8 apg
1.7 to/game
1.8 bpg

On a random tangent, Timmy’s statistical production has been ridiculous. I can’t comment if he’s actually played well (I live in the UK and its quite hard to watch matches at like 2 am on schoolnights ). But 11 odd rebounds, 75% FTs, 55% FG & 3.6 assists in 30-odd minutes is pretty awesome.

Anyway since this is a Spurs forum, my 2 cents, Spurs do need to find some consistency in their game, but as others have said, that’s what November-December is for. Bonner last year had some great games until Pop started using him heavily, then teams figured him out and shut down his shot.

I like Bonner to start games , but I’d love for us to use an athletic big off the bench. Putting all our eggs in the McDyess/Ratliff basket could see an early playoff exit, especially considering the load on Timmy so far this year. Putting a package of Finley/Bonner maybe together for a young big (anthony randolf? dreaming…) would be great.

Love the Spurs down here in Sydney Australia – been supporting them for many years, since the early days of the Admiral. Cheers all!

And then the Spurs have more defensive oriented players so Pop can hide Bonner much more than last season.

As long as Pop can buy McDyess/Duncan/Manu more time, the better. Heck, if he can get Parker extra time off, the better.

Kaveh, the Lakers are the defending champs, they are the team to beat, but acting like they have the title won on November 26th is rather ignorant. Its a long season, injuries can happen, bullcrap salary dump trades can happen, teams get hot, etc etc.

Since Pau Gasol came back, it has been a completely different team. They look so smooth and so dominant. It isn’t iso’s anymore, but an actual offense. They look down right unstoppable, and the biggest key is the advancement of Andrew Bynum. I believe it was the author of this blog, along with ME, during the offseason who said that Bynum was a budding star. Only to be ridiculed by others on this board. Well, Bynum is a true star, a 20/10 per night type of guy, shooting an incredibly high % from the field. Add that to Gasol, another 20/10 guy, and you basically have 2 Duncans on the team, lol.

Oh yeah, Artest IS what he was cracked up to be. After watching all the lakers games, I have come to the belief that Artest is by far the best perimeter defender in the league. He just completely shuts players down. His strength is unbelievable. Also, he fits perfectly with the lakers because he is surprisingly an incredible passer.

Oh yeah, and the best 6th man in the league (fine, maybe second to a HEALTHY Manu), Lamar Odom.

Oh yeah, almost forgot about a little guy named Kobe Bean Bryant. L-E-G-E-N-D

The number of games played or minutes player, i believe, has absolutely no effect on the PER. Also, the pace of the game is factored out. For instance if Duncan scores 25 points in a game vs Boston, it is worth more than if Amare Staudamire scores 25 points against Goldan State, becuase the Suns and Warriors play at a much faster pace than the Celtics/Spurs. Points per possession is more important that total points is what i am attempting to say.

Also, Parker’s PER is not that low. It is 17, which is respectable. The funny thing is that Hollinger projected Parker to have a PER of about 23 before the season started. He was projected to have one of the top ten PER’s in the league i think, or at least close to the top ten. That’s why i picked him up for my fantasy team, which now has made me sorely disappointed.

The part of the write-up i disagree with are as follows:

1) The only benefit to Bonner’s game is not just that he can shoot from behind the arc. Another real positive about his game, and perhaps the sole reason why he has such a high PER, is his efficiency. This is the biggest attribute for a role player, in my opinion. At least on the offensive side of the ball. Bonner is the most efficient player on the Spurs team, and perhaps one of the most efficient in the entire league. This means that he does not waste possessions and is extremely smart with the ball. His TS% is a blazing 64%, but even more impressive is his eFG% which is at 62%. TS% takes into account free throws, 3pt shots and 2pt shots and gives you an effective FG%. eFG% does the same with 3pt shots and 2pt shots, since shooting 35% from 3pt land is much better than shooting 35% from 2pt land (50% better to be exact). Shooting 40% from 3pt land is like shooting 60% from 2pt land.

This is the big fault i had with Richard Jefferson. RJ is a volume shooter, an inefficienct volume shooter. This is why i thought he would not be a fit in Spurs land because he lacks the efficiency necessary to be a good role player. Kobe and Lebron can shoot lower %s, but that’s because they get so many shots. If you shoot a lower number of shots, your % must be much higher. You must be a more efficient shooter. RJ has been doing really well this year, shooting a TS% of 56% and a eFG% of 51%. But even that is simply too inefficient for a role player, at least a good one.

2) I think that you have too high hopes for Mcdyess. In my opinion he has been a big disappointment. Every number is down from last year, even if you compute them on a per-minute basis. His PER has fallen from 16.6 to 13.5, and this has nothing to do with the number of minutes he is player. That is a huge dropoff. The average NBA player has a PER of 15. Mcdyess has gone from above average to below average.

Bonner does much more for you guys than Mcdyess. Mcdyess does have killer mid-range shot, but Bonner’s is better. Bonner also spreads the floor for players like Duncan/Manu/Parker/Jefferson, which Mcdyess does not.

Come playoff time, Bonner may not play like he did in last year’s playoffs. He may play like he does during the regular season. And his attributes are more beneficial to the Spurs during the post season. Spreading the floor becomes more important during the playoffs, as the game slows down and the defense is tightened up.

Also, this 4-man spreading the floor tactic is exactly what the Magic used last year to get to the NBA finals. It was with Rashard Lewis playing the 4. The Spurs are even better equipt to do so because of the other players on the team, especially Parker and Manu who both are lethal driving the lane.