Grading the Position: Power Forward

Landry would be good. I’ve wanted him for some time. Honestly, any guy like that would help.

IMO, Duncan is a center. He usually guards the other team’s biggest player in crunch time and patrols the paint on defense.

I agree that Bonner needs to see less time in the postseason. 10 minutes tops. He’s not made for the playoffs.

 Novak is another one trick pony, I don’t think he can guard anyone, but he should be kept around as an immediate and cheap replacement for Bonner on nights when Matty’s shot is off.

It will be interesting to see how the Spurs handle Dice’s departure. Who knows, maybe we will see Splitter and Duncan starting opposite each other next season. We still need a replacement for Dice though. I don’t think Dejuan Blair is going to cut it.

Since you didn’t put Blair in here, it means you’re classifying him as a center?

I like Bonner’s efforts. You can see him try night in and night out, especially on the defensive end. He just isn’t athletic or big enough to guard some of the league’s best bigs.

Maybe we could trade RJ for a young athletic big, someone who can rebound and defend. Points will come easy if those rebounds are offensive. I’m thinking Dorrell Arthur, Taj Gibson or Kris Humphries. I’m not sure about their contract details though.

This is where the FO is going to earn their money. IMO we need to make a trade to have any chance of upgrading our front line. A package of Blair (I want Blair gone next season and a trade is the best way I can think of getting rid of him) Hill and Dice or RJ. The FO should be able to get a good young big or at least a high pick to get a good big out the draft. I can’t wait to see Ryan Richards next year he could be a big part of solidifying our front line. Tim, Tiago and Richards it already sounds good.

Nice write up. Even in the twilight of his HoF career, Duncan is such a joy to watch. I appreciate him more and more, maybe because i have accepted the fact that it won’t last forever.

I like Landry, but he is another undersized big man. Pairing him with Blair would be too much of a mismatch.

I know that he wouldn’t be very popular here, but what about blatche? (i already brought the idea on 48moh). He is not a high character guy for sure, actually he is kind of a headcase and an underarchiever but he is talented. Just my 2 cent: the wizards try to build around Wall and Blatche is the last of the Arenas era. Not sure they want him next to Wall to set the culture. He even got into a fight with McGee (who is definitely a building block). And with a high draft pick in a draft loaded with PF (Williams, Kanter,…), they could very well want to part with him. McDyess partially guaranteed contract gives them flexibility going foward. When you see what LB was able to do with Tyrus Thomas, I wonder what Pop & co could do with Blatche.

The FO won’t do drastic changes anyway. We barely play the Splitter card and if Gist has made some strides on his game, he could very well make the roster as the fifth big…

The series with Memphis exposed one of our biggest problems, we need to upgrade the frontcourt and our interior defense, we tried to hide it by being a more offensive team but as everybody knows defense wins championships. In our froncourt we have good defenders who are already old (Duncan, Dyess), can’t defend (Bonner, Blair, Novak) or just didn’t play (Splitter), and since Dyess is most likely to retire that leaves us with one good defender who does´t have the legs of before. A dream of mine is Marc Gasol, I think he’s about to become a free agent and with Memphis paying Conley, Gay and Z-Bo maybe they won’t be able to pay Gasol tough it would be very stupid for them to let him go, the Landry idea it´s pretty good actually, he’s the better version of Blair. One thing it’s certain we need big work in our PF and C positions, I hope Splitter gets properly developed, and that I never have to see that Bonner/Blair frontcourt again. Also does anyone have info on Ryan Richards’ situation?

I get that everyone is saying that we need a young, athletic, defensive-minded big and I agree, but the reality is, those are hard to come by. That’s the reason the Spurs don’t have one.
The Spurs have neither the cap space nor the pieces to sign or trade for a good, established young PF, so most likely we’ll see either a reclamation project, an unknown or a veteran. Tyrus Thomas ain’t walking through that door. Neither is Marc Gasol or even Deandre Jordan.

If you want a guy that could make a difference, the options IMO are trading for a guy with a really bad contract (like Brand), rolling the dice on some talented but flawed head case (like Blatche) or hoping that a veteran (like David West or Kenyon Martin) takes less money to join the team.

Other than that the only other two likely scenarios would be trading Dice’s contract, Blair and the pick for Amir and James Johnson from Toronto (I’d do it) or Tony to Portland for Andre Miller and Oden (too risky and less likely).

An intriguing and potentially cheap free agent could be Mbah a Moute. He’s more of a combo forward but he can defend SGs, SFs and the smaller, quicker PFs. He is a restricted free agent but the Bucks have Maggete and Delfino at SF and Ilyasova, Larry Sanders and Gooden at PF so they are unlikely to match.

He would be a legitimate back-up SF, the best wing defender the Spurs have had since Bowen, and could help with guarding the Dirks and the Odoms of the league. The negative is that he can’t shoot the 3 at all. He is a career .214 three point shooter.

Excuse my hop backwards to SF but I can’t believe I forgot to mention Chase Budinger. That kid has serious game. I feel bad forgetting him since I’m reppin tha ’Stone. Anyone have the skinny on his contract? What about Jerebko?
p.s. we want Captain Kirk

Via the Express-News

Blair averaged 8.8 points and 7.3 rebounds as an unorthodox starting center. In mid-March, he was benched in favor of McDyess, whose defensive chops the coaching staff deemed more valuable in the postseason.

After Blair ballooned to nearly 300 pounds late in the season, Popovich challenged him to shed excess weight. In response, Blair dropped 20 pounds by cutting fast food out of his diet.

Heading into the summer, Popovich has challenged Blair again.

Blair’s future with the Spurs, the coach said, is not aligned with "working on his jumper or developing a jump hook. It’s not defense."

"It’s personal discipline, responsibility and maturity," Popovich said. "That will get him to the next level. Short of that, he’ll have a hard time."

Three-hundred pounds? Unless an athlete is an NFL defensive tackle, that’s not supposed to happen.