San Antonio Spurs looking to rebound in more ways than one

by Jesse Blanchard

On the rare night this preseason in which the San Antonio Spurs newest starting center was not among the team’s leading scorers, DeJuan Blair’s impact was still felt in last night’s 108-85 victory over Caja Caja Laboral, leading the way to the Spurs 18 rebound advantage.

For the Spanish League team making it’s way through the NBA, Tim Duncan (10 points, 11 rebounds) might have been expected, and Matt Bonner (15 points) no different than most big men they see overseas, but the (generously listed) 6-7 rebounding machine known as DeJuan Blair certainly breaks most molds basketball coaches could hope to prepare for.

And so far this preseason Blair is certainly breaking the Spurs mold, as explained by The Point Forward’s Zach Lowe:

The Spurs have won the same way for a decade: with low-risk basketball. On offense, they want one good shot. That means no turnovers and (mostly) no crashing the offensive glass for fear of giving up a transition bucket on the other end. On defense, they want to force you into taking one bad shot. They don’t gamble for steals, and they don’t give you second chances.

The Spurs stretched that model to its breaking point two years ago, when they ranked last in offensive rebounding, drawing fouls on offense and forcing turnovers on defense. They topped the league in the opposite categories — defensive rebounding, protecting the ball and avoiding fouls. It was low-risk hoops, as if implemented by a computer system.

Neither a sweet shooting floor spacer, or cookie cutter system defender, DeJuan Blair’s presence in the starting lineup brings a touch of unpredictability and controlled chaos the normally formulaic Spurs have lacked outside of Manu Ginobili in recent seasons.

Like Ginobili before him, DeJuan Blair may be bucking the Spurs trends (and Popovich’s tendencies) by taking the team to the top of the offensive rebounding charts, second only to the Los Angeles Lakers at 13.8 per game.

An underrated part of the San Antonio Spurs championship mixes have been the energy big men mixing chaos into Popovich’s otherwise structured system. Between Antonio McDyess, Matt Bonner, and Kurt Thomas the Spurs have employed solid, if robotic big men–filling their roles by fitting into their defensive rotations and hitting jumpers without turnovers.

While they filled their roles adequately, the problem with system players is you can always account for them: how they defend, where they are on the court, their tendencies.

The Spurs championship teams have featured two prominent chaotic big men who went about it in very different ways–Malik Rose with his boundless energy and athleticism, and Fabricio Oberto with his intuitive feel for the angles and cuts. Both kept possessions alive that the Spurs otherwise wouldn’t have had, created havoc defensively, and generally brought things Popovich himself could not account for, let alone the other team.

In Blair the Spurs have a player that combines that energy and athleticism with the intuitive feel. Last season Blair helped take the Spurs to near the league average in offensive rebounds, and while it’s risky to take too much from preseason games, it appears the Spurs will be much better this season.

Because if the Spurs plan to rebound from last season’s sweep, DeJuan Blair’s offensive rebounding is a good place to start.