Matt Bonner: Jonesing for a sandwich

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If you don’t watch The Basketball Jones on a regular basis, you’re missing out. Recently, The Jones’ Tas Melas took some time to join sandwich enthusiast, and recently re-signed Spur, Matt Bonner in the kitchen to create a masterpiece of the deli.

Or just a sandwich with chips. Have a look-see:

He’s really got a great ability to spread the mayo and open things up for the other ingredients.

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  • tradeTP

    Bushka- Still dont understand basketball I see. Thats okay, you can still post here.

    Obnviously your reading comprehension and analytical skills suck as well because anyone with a brain can read the numbers that state when Jefferson shoots more than 5 shots a game he is EXTREMELY more proficient.

    And yes, tweedle-dumb, the PG position is meant for someone with an understanding of HOW to get his team involved. The PG position is about winning, not just scoring. Thats why Gilbert and Allen Iverson suck. The best players in the game can score and know how to set up their teammates to win. That has nothing to with waiting until everyone esle has a turn as much as it does with allowing the team to flow successfully.

    Wanker? Really?

    And yes, Matt Bonner is a dipshit.

  • ThatBigGuy

    @ ChillFAN

    Well, he was 10th in the regular season, but 7th in the post season, so we were both right-ish. The reason he jumped up in the post season was because Mason Jr, Bogans, and Blair’s mins all dropped off the table. You could make a case that Blair just wasn’t ready/trusted/tired to play big mins in the playoffs and that playing a known quantity (Bonner) was a safer idea than playing Blair, who was an unknown quantity in the playoffs. Of course, you could make the completely opposite case and say Blair should have played regardless, but hindsight is 20/20.

    The reason I think Bonner is now the 11th man is because Blair is a year better and we now have Splitter, making Bonner our 5th big. At best he’s 4th, in front of Dice. This will cause his minutes to drop off the table. In this situation, there’s no way he can average more than 15 mins a game. I think Tim gets 25mpg, Blair and Dice each get 20mpg, and Splitter gets 25mpg. That leaves 6 mpg for Bonner.

    Anyways, that’s my thought process for how Bonner will be 11th man.

  • doggydogworld

    @TradeTP - “anyone with a brain can read the numbers that state when Jefferson shoots more than 5 shots a game he is EXTREMELY more proficient.”

    RJ played in 81 games in the regular season. He took more than 5 shots in 74 of them. He shot 47.7% in those 74 games, vs. 46.7% overall.

    This pattern is typical of players who are not the #1-3 scoring option. If they have a mismatch or hit a couple early shots they become the #1 or 2 option. By definition low FGA nights tend to come when they get shut down by a defender or simply have an off night. For an extreme example, in the playoffs Bonner hit 57% from the arc on nights he had more than 5 FGAs. In games with 5 FGAs or less he hit only 8% from the arc!

    Of note, RJ’s two lowest FGA games were March 8 and 10, at 1-3 and 0-2. These were the first two games Tony missed after breaking his hand. Tony also DNP’d a 1-5 game on March 5 and played, but did not start alongside RJ, in a 1-4 game on April 9. Those who want to dump Tony and rely on our “pass first” guard George Hill at point might want to wonder why more than half of the games where RJ got “shut out” of the offense came in a five week span when Tony was injured.

    What we really need from RJ is efficient three point shooting. In the regular season he was 32.6% from the arc in games with more than 5 FGAs vs. 31.6% overall. Neither number gets the job done.

  • tradeTp

    doggy- WRONG

    The games that RJ shot 10+ times (36) he shot the ball over 52% and only scored less than 10ppg twice….

    In addition those games that RJ was “shut out” others stepped up because of distribution. When Tony plays and he or Tim get shut out, the others dont get touches and in essence arent ready to produce.

  • doggydogworld

    My mistake. I didn’t realize “more than five shots a game” meant 10+ shots per game.

  • tradeTp

    “Usage percentages in the playoffs clearly show that when plays are ran to/through RJ he can score. The times he produced nothing were his lowest USG%.”

    Taking 5 shots a game was a generalization perpetuating my argument that Jefferson shouldnt be the 4th scoring option. The more shots he takes the better his percentages are. He is a scorer. Unfortunately for us, he cannot accept (and lacks efficiency) being the 4th guy. He was brought to the team to score. And he quit/threw a fit when he wasnt in that position. Im not saying that is right or wrong. But seeing the type of player Jefferson is/was (averages over 12 FGA) why you would try to place him in a system where he wasnt doing that? It ruins his game AND does not allow him to get to the line. Career low in that as well.

    Again, back to coaching, if your guys strength is getting 10 shots per game and hitting 52% of them why wouldnt you do that? Especially when getting those shots makes RJ play D and rebound better?

  • Tyler

    Why does is feel like we’ve had this same exact argument about Matt Bonner a dozen times? This is getting silly….

    It seems some fans still smoldering from a frustrating season have decided to take it all out on Bonner.

    Matt Bonner is an average NBA player on a good day, and many times less than average. But can we agree that he’s not the main reason the Spurs finished a disappointing 7th in the west? Or that he’s not the sole reason we were swept by the Suns? It’s simply unrealistic to think a role player who played less than 20mpg can tank a good team’s chances like the Spurs.

    But after reading some of these posts (Matt Bonner is a dipshit? Really? That’s a little overboard.), you would think he’s some sort of cancer.

    The hate Matt Bonner gets is totally unproportional to his impact on the actual games.

  • Jim Henderson

    Tyler
    July 19th, 2010 at 9:44 am

    I know you didn’t specifically direct your post at me, but I just want to reiterate that many of us are making more analytical & less emotional posts about whether the Bonner re-signing made sense to us. We don’t “hate” Bonner or feel the need to personally “insult” him. We simply don’t feel that he was worth 16 mil over 4 years to take up a potentially important rotation and/or roster spot on the team. We feel that there are/were other better options for our rotation (through MLW/LLE), players that maybe had more of a versatile game than Bonner, particularly defensively.

    So, for examples of a “non-bashing” Bonner approach, see the following post on this thread:

    Jim Henderson
    July 16th, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    …..and the following post on the “4-Down Episode 10…” thread.

    Jim Henderson
    July 15th, 2010 at 7:17 pm

    P.S. Please realize that I know that we could re-sign Bonner, AND sign other players using the MLE/LLE, but that’s really NOT the point for me on this issue.

    “It’s simply unrealistic to think a role player who played less than 20mpg can tank a good team’s chances like the Spurs.”

    Not “tank” the team, but a 15-20 mpg. role player can ultimately be very important, and have an impact on deciding many games for the team.

  • Tyler

    @ Jim

    Understood. I just wanted to make the point that the personal attacks on Matt Bonner the person as opposed to the player are pointless and have no value. At that point, it just devolves into mud slinging. And for a blog as good as this one, I hate to see that.

  • Tyler

    And seriously, has anyone looked around at the other blogs on the Truehoop network? This blog is by far, the most active in terms of commenters. Part of that has to do with the writers (which are great), but also the people that follow the blog.

    Most other NBA blogs are lucky to get 20 comments on a single post, yet this blog is getting 100+ on just about every post! That tells me we’ve got some serious diehard Spurs fans. And for a guy who could talk basketball 25 hours/day, you couldn’t ask for much more.

  • Ian

    @Tyler - that 100+ comments mostly come from pointless trade/FA signing scenarios and constant bitching & whining on coaching/certain players/FO. It’s something to be ashamed of being SA Spurs fans, not to be proud of - it just reveals how ignorant and classless we are as fans.

  • Jim Henderson

    Ian
    July 20th, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    That’s absurd. What do you find to be “meaningful” commentary? Always kissing the player & FO’s ass? No, silly & ignorant commentary is far more prevalent on other team’s blogs. All it takes is a brief spin around the NBA team blogoshere to recognize that fact.

  • Hobson13

    Ian
    July 20th, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    That’s crazy talk. Sure there is some bitching, but talking about free agent signings, trades, ways to improve the team etc. are all healthy conversation. Besides, what do you expect on an NBA blog, the intricacies of neo classical economics?

    “It’s something to be ashamed of being SA Spurs fans, not to be proud of – it just reveals how ignorant and classless we are as fans.”

    If you’re so ashamed of everyone here, why do you bother posting yourself? Look around the league, especially at the bandwagon heavy teams like the Lakers and Heat. Checking one of their blogs may give you an interesting insight into the minds of fans who are ignorant with regards to virtually every facet of NBA basketball.

  • Ian

    @Hobson13 - if you think repeating the same stuff (in some cases completely irrelevant to the post) over and over again is a “healthy conversation” we obviously have a very different idea of what a “healthy conversation” is.

  • Hobson13

    Ian
    July 21st, 2010 at 1:36 pm

    If you don’t like how the blog is handled or are uncomfortable with what is said, then I’m sure there are other Spurs blogs where you may feel differently. I know there’s some trash talk and nonsense in this blog, but I don’t appreciate you essentially painting everyone with the same brush. Besides, isn’t there an Amendment that says something about freedom of speach…

  • Jim Henderson

    Ian
    July 21st, 2010 at 1:36 pm

    “…..if you think repeating the same stuff (in some cases completely irrelevant to the post) over and over again…”

    Care to provide an example, and about how frequently such a post generally appears on a particular thread? Otherwise we’re left with guessing what it actually is that is troubling you about this blog.

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