Forget about charles
He Should watch some videos of Z-Bo

I don’t think he is still in Pop’s doghouse- all that article says is that he got benched, but we all knew that was coming for Dyess at the end of the year anyway, and we all know that one of the reasons he didn’t play as well/as much at the end of the year is because he had a relative in the hospital.

I doubt we go after a big via trade or free agency. We may draft another one, but we’d have to give up something and not get equal value back- and that is something our FO has always been loathe to do.

I’d be shocked if any of those players get moved. The length Bonner’s and RJ’s contracts makes them borderline unmoveable, even when coupled with Blair or Hill.

I’d be especially shocked if we trade George- even though his offense wasn’t consistent this year, he’s still our best defensive wing, hands down, and since one of Pop’s goals is to become elite defensively again, trading him wouldn’t make sense.

Spurs fans are also not used to guys who don’t buy into the Spurs ways of doing things (or at least keeping it under wraps).

What the hell does that mean?

Again, his role changed. Blair is a role player- when you change his role it’s going to hurt his performance, and his role has been changed 3 times in 2 years. He went from being the star off the bench to the last option starting to having no clue back on the bench. Blair’s struggles this year, aside from the weight gain, were entirely coaching related.

Let’s evaluate that point. His rookie year, he came off the bench with Manu handling the ball- someone who creates offense for everyone and an energy guy on defense that gambles and wins. Blair excelled then not just because Manu is all powerful and makes everyone better, but because that style fits Blair. This year, when he started, he was rarely involved in the pick and roll with Manu and a lineup of shooters. He was involved with Manu and Tony, in a lineup with Jefferson and Duncan. Not only did Blair become less of an option, but when he got the ball the paint was more clogged and he had less space to pass back to the perimeter or make a move to the rim without getting an offensive foul. Then, at the end of the year, he gets moved back to the bench, but the only creator on the bench is…? George Hill, of the “I didn’t realize their was a guy rolling to the basket after the screen” fame? Gary Neal, the “Pop told me to shoot so I’m going to shoot all the time” guy? Matt Bonner? Frequently, Tony would come back in the game with the bench unit, but more often than not he would create for the perimeter players and not for Blair. You don’t think that’s difficult to adjust to offensively? And none of our bench players looked good on defense in the second half of the year except Tiago and George.

Basically, if Blair had struggled this much in year two while he had the same role, your argument would have some real weight to it (see what I did there?) Yes, he showed a lack of maturity by allowing himself to get out of shape toward the end of the year. Pop spoke with him about it, and Blair immediately responded by dropping the weight. Blair isn’t a veteran. He’s 22 and he’s still learning how his body reacts to different things. He knows now that he can’t indulge his desire to devour whataburgers and maintain a good playing weight. I know you think that’s common sense, but I can give you an example from my own life that would show it’s not so common. I was a wrestler in high school, and I could eat anything I wanted and never gained a pound. Fast food, ice cream, dorito’s, anything- and I never had to worry about making weight at the end of the week. The other guys in my weight class (for those of you who are wondering I was 5’7 and 115 pounds at the time, the max weight allowed was 119) had to count every calorie and every carb to make sure they made weight. Different bodies react differently to different foods, and even that changes over time. I can’t even look at ice cream now without gaining weight, and I’m only 23. Knowing how to take care of your own body is a maturity thing, and everyone goes through it. With him, it’s more pronounced because he’s 6’6ish and built huge, so every pound is going to be noticed.

And Tiago wasn’t a much better big the first half of the season. In fact, statistically Blair was either equal to him or superior to him in every statistical category until about a month before the all star break (with the exception of charges drawn). Dice was never going to start early in the year (but he always was at the end of the year), and do you really want to argue here that Bonner should have started when you keep bringing up defense and disappearing in the playoffs?

Also, saying he played no defense is absolutely ignorant. He was second on the team in steals behind Manu, and was tied for most steals per game by bigs with Dwight Howard until he was moved back to the bench. Blair is at his best when he is allowed to front his man and force a difficult entry pass. When Blair stopped fronting (or 3/4 fronting) was when he started to get beat defensively. We don’t know if Pop told him to stop or if it was something he did on his own, but I’d guess that if Pop wanted him to keep fronting he would have kept fronting.

Also, can we all PLEASE stop reading into what Pop said? Or, actually since everyone else thinks they can read Pop’s mind, I’ll give it a shot. What Pop meant in the interview is that Blair, at the age of 22, is still becoming a man, and needs to grow up and mature if he wants to be a consistent rotation guy for the Spurs. We expect these maturity issues from guys his age, we expect the mistakes, but we also expect them to learn from their mistakes and move on. He’ll be in my doghouse if he shows up to training camp out of shape, but I don’t expect he will because we’ve talked about it and he’s always done what we ask him to do, and that always makes me happy.

See how easy that is? It’s just as easy (and accurate) to say he was never in Pop’s “doghouse” as it is to spin it so that he was/is. Can we all agree to knock this ESPNish bullshit speculation as to Pop’s state of mind off? Please?