DeJuan Blair provides Tim Duncan relief

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At the 2009 pre-draft combine DeJuan Blair boasted a body fat percentage of twelve percent; Blair’s current body fat measures eight percent. He’s almost as trim as George Hill, who still, for the moment, plays Beauty to Blair’s Beast.

Last season, Blair logged most of his minutes at center. At yesterday’s open practice, he showed off a handful of new shots, including a couple of cute teardrops and a twelve-foot jumper. As Blair continues to refine his offensive game, he becomes more of a power forward. This, in turn, allows Blair more minutes with Tim Duncan and, theoretically, Tiago Splitter. Even though the Spurs’ frontcourt rotation will only include one new player (Splitter) this season, it’s a very different group.

Andrew McNeill recently asked the question, Can DeJuan Blair become an All-Star when Tim Duncan retires? That’s a good question. But I’m wondering if Blair can force a more basic issue this season. Will Blair’s newly developed skills translate into 30 minutes per night? Blair averaged a modest 18 minutes per contest last season, and played only nine minutes per game in the postseason. He was productive, but limited.

The biggest benefactor of DeJuan Blair’s offensive evolution may well be himself. Blair has good speed and handles for a man of his size. His game is deceptive in this way, but he motored to the hoop on a number of occasions last season. If opponents have to respect his shot, Blair will exploit his more earth-bound defenders by taking them off the dribble. Gregg Popovich will have one of those problems which are nice to have — where will he find minutes for Matt Bonner and Antonio McDyess?

Considering Tiago Splitter, and remaining optimistic about DeJuan Blair’s growth, the Spurs’ regular season dependence on Tim Duncan may be over.  If the Spurs can get 50 minutes of scoring and defensive production from Blair and Splitter, then the Spurs’ frontcourt has already entered a new era.  It won’t be the DeJuan Blair era, but it won’t be all Timmy, all the time either.  Tim Duncan, finally, has legitimate help.

  • McShane

    Oh it would have been nice to go to the open practice… Will there be video of it? (The live stream was turribal in the words of Barkley).

  • http://www.bpifanconnect.com Alix Babaie

    The Spurs are going to surprise a lot of people this season. Every league “expert” has them basically going into the toilet. It should not shock any die hard Spurs fan, as this team has always been so disrespected. Watch NBA, the best coach and the best power forward ever will have something to say about prematurely annointing the Heat or the Lakers with the 2010-11 NBA crown! GO SPURS GO, DRIVE FOR FIVE!!!!!

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  • BlaseE

    I think most Spurs fans agree Splitter and Duncan are the inevitable starters whether we see that on October 27th or not. Well, consider the rest of our rotation:

    Dice in his first season with us had 50 starts (regular season).

    Blair in his first season with us and the league was able to get 23 starts (regular season).

    Bonner has started 75 regular season games over the last two seasons (8 last season and 67 the year before). Some people might have some strong counter arguments against Bonner, but we won 54 games the season he started 67 times.

    Considering Duncan has 152 starts over the last two seasons, our returning 4 man rotation has 300 of the 328 regular season front court starts over the last 2 years. Splitter will eventually be ahead of 148 of those starts on the depth chart.

  • BankShot21

    Let Duncan play majority of 1st Quarter (10-11 minutes)…limited 2nd Quarter (maybe last 5 mins of quarter), 1st 6 mins of 3rd Quarter, and last 8 minutes of 4th. A strict diet of these minutes,foul trouble or not should thwart any burn out by the postseason.

  • bduran

    “I think most Spurs fans agree Splitter and Duncan are the inevitable starters whether we see that on October 27th or not.”

    Well, I’m not one of them :). Blair is so productive if he shows a reliable jumper this season I don’t see Splitter being productive enough to replace him. There may be matchups where Splitter is better for us, but if Blair can keep up his per minute production for 30 minutes and not clog the lane for everyone else when playing alongside Duncan, then I think he’s our second best big.

    I know that’s a lot of question marks, but Splitter has to have at least as many while making the transition this year. I’m excited about Splitter but I do worry that we are expecting too much out of him in his first year. We’ve at least seen some of what Blair can do in the NBA.

  • BankShot21

    Couldn’t agree more.Tiago will help with the Bynum/Gasol…Garnett/O’neil’s…even the Boozer/Noah match ups….possibly Chandler/Nowitzki/Haywood matchups. His length will lighten the load 4 TD in those instances but I don’t see him or many other bigs in the league being more productive than what Blair showed us in extended minutes last season (Two 20/20 games and 20/20 game in rookie sophmore challenge).

  • BlaseE

    Tiago is a much more complete defender and an excellent pick and roll player on top of being 6’11”. I think Splitter should start because we need more defense than offense with Parker, Hill, Duncan, and RJ as the other expected starters.

    Plus, it makes more sense to sub Blair for Duncan to maintain awesome rebounding. Blair has good chemistry with Manu on his PnR too.

    So while I agree, Blair might be more capable of putting up explosive numbers, Splitter should be the better complimentary player. I think Blair is the more situational player of the two (partly due to his height and partly to his developing game).

  • doggydogworld

    DeJuan started alongside Timmy in the open scrimmage. First time I remember seeing them on the court together since the All Star break.

  • senorglory

    Improved offense won’t get Blair a starting spot, or necessarily significantly more minutes- not until he plays solid team defense and limits his personal fouls will Pop bump up Blair’s playing time. IMHO.

  • idahospur

    As Pop benched Hill in his rookie playoff season, he benched Blair. Duncan wasn’t allowed to explode as a player until D-Rob gave the controls to him. NBA playoff ball is a different world than this players have seen in college. Maybe Europe playoff ball is a better fit.
    I just hope nothing gets held back this year. I want to see the Spurs battle all the way to the WCF and see how we stack against the Lakers. I hope for good, quality playoff games, and hopefully avoid a certain ref along the way.
    I’ve been thinking that the first front-court will be Duncan/Bonner then Splitter/Blair, with Dice providing recovery minutes. I’m sure many will think I’m crazy for starting Bonner but its a good fit that leaves a balanced 2nd team ready to play. At the end of competitive games, let Duncan and Splitter work together to finish the job.

  • bduran

    “Tiago is a much more complete defender and an excellent pick and roll player on top of being 6’11″ ”

    I believe that these are both things that will take a while to fully translate to the NBA and the Spurs system. Ultimately it comes down to, does the amount that Splitter reduces the other teams production relative to Blair exceed the amount that Blair will out produce Splitter by? I think, this year at least, the answer is no. Of course, we’ll have to see.

    I also worry that Splitter and Duncan on the floor together will clog the lane in much the same way that Blair and Duncan did last year, reducing everyone else’s offensive production. Does anyone have a scouting report on Splitter’s mid range game?

  • SPURS all day

    i have put in allot of thinking about who is going to start next to Timmy, and i agree with idahospur. The Spurs should start BONNER at center or powerfoward, whichever position Timmy wants to start i think BONNER should play next to Timmy. OR McDyess should start. The Spurs just need to note clog up the paint, cuz Tony needs all the room in the middle he can get so he can go to work.

    Yes i do believe DEFENSE is the priority though.
    With Splitter coming off the bench he will bring defensive intensity, cuz hes really doesnt have the outside shooting touch to put him next to duncan.
    And Blair comming of the bench will bring intensity on the offensive end and offensive rebouding. Splitter at center and Blair at powerfoward i think would be a bada$$ frontcourt bench. And if the rookie James Anderson lives up to the draft steal hype and plays at the starting SG, Manu playing with Splitter and Dejuan Blair off the pick and roll will be deadly.

    lets not forget about Hill, and hopefully the sharp shooter Gary Neal coming off the bench as quality backcourt players.

  • SPURS all day

    But if do have a feeling coach will start Splitter.

  • Jim Henderson
  • Jimbo (Oz)

    All, if you want to see what a real expert thinks of the Spurs chances this season, as well as learn a lot about what it really takes to win in the NBA, read this article (and this guys other stuff):
    http://arturogalletti.wordpress.com/2010/09/30/tweaking-the-championship-equation2011-contenders-rev1-1-and-young-stars/

  • Hobson13

    Jim Henderson
    October 4th, 2010 at 6:29 pm

    Good article. It’s obvious that Blair has put in a LOT of work over the summer. We had commented months ago that it looked like Blair was thinner. Apparently he’s not lighter, he just bricked out over the summer. I had hoped for modest improvement from Blair this season, but he may be on the verge of having a breakout year. If he can consistently knock down 15 footers he will be a pain to guard even for guys 3-4 inches taller. The guy is only 6’6″ but weighs 265 lbs with only 8% body fat!? He’s not going to be fun to guard in the post for those 6’10” 240 guys.

  • GitErDun

    6’10” 240 guys may well be thoroughly bruised and battered when they are through playing Blair, or at least they will know they have been in a fight. Add to that that Blair shouldn’t be getting the Rookie Foul calls he got last year. He should be getting some respect from the Refs, especially when playing against another Big who is a rookie.

  • GitErDun

    Seeing him take advantage of DeMarcus Cousins should be fun. Cousins already is known as a complainer and the refs (and Blair) may show him NO MERCY.

  • BayAreaSpursFan

    i have been reading alot bout Blair improving jhis game over the summer. Im dying to see the Spurs play again… Im hoping Blair average about 25+ minutes per game .. Lets GO SPURS!!!!,…bring that 5th championship home…….

  • rob

    http://www.nba.com/spurs/multimedia/101003_practice.html

    Video starts at about the 6:00 minute mark.

  • Manolo Pedralvez

    Dejuan Blair, power forward extraordinaire, now that’s a thought that should send chills down the opposition’s spine.

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  • Jim Henderson

    Jimbo (Oz)
    October 4th, 2010 at 6:51 pm

    Interesting analysis, but a couple of significant flaws. The prediction is almost entirely based on WP48. While WP48 is a very useful statistical tool in making evaluations, it does not accurately capture the true value of team defense. Instead, it focuses on box score stats, which are significantly skewed in favor of “offensive” production. Also, the criteria leaves out “star” players like Yao because he happened to miss the season last year. Also, the Rockets had nine players last year (most if not all back) that had a WP48 higher than the league average of .10. The Spurs had four. In addition, this guy’s analysis projects the Nets to win more games than the Rockets (36 to 35). I’ll give you a million dollars if that happens. There are other things that are also problematic, such as dismissing age as a factor, or properly weighing last years playoff WP48 for those players with 15+ mpg. LA had 4 players with WP48 above .14, Boston had 3 players above .14, Orlando had 3 players above .14, and the Spurs had just 1 player above .14.

  • Hunter

    @idaho spur
    “ive been thinking the front court should be Duncan/bonnet then splitter and blair.” ya we tried that and look where that got us out in 5 games to the dallas mavericks. who we killed last year in the playoffs. It has to be duncan and splitter starting. Splitter could be the next Artemis Zibonias or however u spell the name of the old portland center, plus he’s a 7 footer and were gonna need that if we want to beat the lakers. Bonner gave us 5ppg in 09 no way in hell do i want him starting

  • J2

    Bonner is for a matchup against a defender/rebounder who is not a major offensive threat. Bonner’s defense is then adequate if he can just keep his man boxed out, and on offense, Bonner spots up beyond the 3-point arc to pull one of the other team’s post players out to the perimeter, giving Tim or DeJuan some room to operate. He’ll get 5-10 minutes a game, and if there are any points where one of the other post players is injured, you’ll be glad Bonner is on the roster to help out.

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