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Nice article. I was afraid Blair and Timmy would be a tough pairing since Blair is so undersized, but it's good to see this duo has a ton of defensive potential for the Spurs frontline.
Something that was sorely missed last year.
The defensive stylings of Tim Duncan and DeJuan Blair
by Andrew A. McNeill
48 Minutes of
AT&T Center — For the second game in a row this preseason, DeJuan Blair and Tim Duncan started together. And also for the second straight game, the Spurs got off to a quick start in the first quarter, this time in their 90-73 win over the Miami Heat.
The pairing of Duncan and Blair has almost everything the Spurs need, especially on the defensive end. Whether Duncan is listed at power forward and Blair at center — or vice versa — the two can easily switch players and positions at will.
Keep reading →
Nice article. I was afraid Blair and Timmy would be a tough pairing since Blair is so undersized, but it's good to see this duo has a ton of defensive potential for the Spurs frontline.
Something that was sorely missed last year.
As long as Pop does not put Blair on the floor with Bonner or as the lone big man in small ball I will be happy.
48moh puts out another solid read. As constructive criticism however, I will say that while it is nice to have a short read on a single subject (unlike newspapers who often throw together several topics to reach a word count quota) some of these articles are too good to be so short. The other side of that is that alot of the longer articles put out by 48moh tend to be b/c of extended stats, or stat analysis, which can be boring. Perhaps adding a video clip as an example of the chosen topic more often would be a good way to stick to the 1-topic formula (which I like) while extending its length, as well as the reader's knowledge.
On the basketball front, the defense of Blair is certainly underrated b/c of his size, and he seems to know how to use what he's got (quick hands going for strips/steals instead of pointlessly trying to block a shot in man-to-man).
One side of the "subpar interior defense" debate, which has been oft covered on ST the last 2-3 seasons, that has been largely overlooked is defensive rebounding. While people say "Bonner can't rebound" no one really points to d. rebounding as a crack in the spurs once solid defense. Usually people complain about a lack of shot blocking/altering, or height.
However, the ability to limit teams to one shot per possession was always an enormously important aspect of Spurs defense under Pop, and that has been missing maybe since 2007. Fabricio can't be overlooked as an integral piece to a championship, but his defensive rebounding, as well as the aged Horry's, were nothing to brag about. Decent, sometimes even solid, but not a play in play out type of thing. Since that season defensive rebounding has been a problem for the Spurs.
With Blair and Duncan playing next to each other that "you get one shot, then it's our ball" mentality can really come back as a feature of the team. McDyess and Splitter (allegedly) are also solid rebounders, and so those 4 guys should be able to execute this gameplan night after night.
It will only work if Blair has made some significant improvements defensively..
Both Duncan and Blair were poor defenders against face-up big men last season..when together, one of them would obviously have to pick up the D against a player with that style, which is pretty common in today's NBA..
Duncan was still very good at defending post-up players last season, but Blair was one of the worst post defenders in the NBA last year..I assume they will have Duncan guarding the post-up players anyways, so this might not be a big problem..
They were both good pick&roll defenders last year, so that shouldn't be a problem..
Blair was also pretty poor at making rotations last year, another thing he will have to work on..part of it will come from chemistry, the rest will depend on his physical improvements and basketball IQ..
Rebounding shouldn't be a problem at all, they're both very good rebounders..
It's pretty much entirely dependent on Blair..he was a pretty bad defender last year, he was actually ranked as one of the worst in the entire NBA..he'll really have to improve his lateral quickness against face-up bigs, and improve his overall team defense on rotations, those would be my 2 main concerns..
As much as I like the pairing, along with the "one shot and out" advantage on the rebounding side of things, I'm still skeptical that this pairing can be as successful against the more mammoth NBA frontlines - i.e. the Fakers.
I think it can work against teams not named the Lakers or Celtics. Blair also used to gamble quite a bit and get in foul trouble because of it, especially in non-consequential offensive boards. Hope he learned his lesson.
Did Blair say him and Tim fight for boards at the end there?
I am nervous about the defensive aspects of this pairing but I think the energy and rebounding offsets my worries.
People seriously need to stop referring to Blair as "undersized". He's got a longer standing reach and wingspan than anyone on the team but Duncan. Matt Bonner is undersized, despite being taller.
I think being shorter hurts his vision somewhat, he tends to get lost trying to look over the shoulders of the trees. There may be problems with certain teams as somebody mentioned before.
All in all however, I think its a good starting duo, and made all the better by Ginobili in the starting lineup feeding Blair on P&R's. I really look forward to seeing Blair as the opening day starter and seeing how it goes.
I disagree....So a player who has a large wingspan can play any position on the floor? Hill and Rondo both have 6'7+ wingspan, so according to your logic they could play the 3 or the 4 cause there wingspan dictates that. 6'6 or 6'7 (whatever is blairs ht) is "undersized" for the 4 position regardless of wingspan. Blairs lack of ht leads to many of his shots being blocked and bigger players who can simply shoot over blair on the defensive end (which happens often). Not sure how how you could deny this since I am sure you watch as many spurs games as I do.
agreed
I think Blair starting alongside Duncan is just a stop-gap until Tiago gets up enough on the system to replace Blair in the starting lineup. Give it until January, then Tiago will be our new starting center.
I'd rather see Blair/Duncan than Duncan/McDyess or Duncan/Bonner in the starting lineup. Dice doesn't show up during the season and he'll be seeing limited minutes and I don't need a reason for not wanting Bonner starting. At least you've got youth and potential starting with Blair.
Agreed.
At this point, McDyess should come off the bench, first off that's what he always wanted to do since he joined the spurs and second, Blair has gotten better it seems with a year under his belt. Tiago might be a candidate at some point for certain teams with size (fakers/celts). I just hope Pop doesn't get any funny ideas about Bonner starting like last year.
You really need to look up "standing reach". When Blair and Bonner and Dice put their hands in the air and stand next to each other, Blair's hands go the highest. How high the top of your head goes has absolutely zero bearing on whether or not your shot gets blocked. Blair's biggest defensive weakness is not being in position, not his length. Bonner's biggest defensive weakness is length coupled with an extreme lack of athletecism.
By the way, 6'7" wingspan isn't even close to enough to play the three in the NBA. Hairston had a 6'9" wingspan and was borderline. Don't try to make up ridiculous strawman arguments to shoot down when you clearly don't understand the concepts.
We'll see how fast Tiago can adjust to the nba and learn the spurs' schemes. I think it'll take more than January but we'll see. And the way Blair's been tearing it up so far and also how well he's fitting into the starter unit I'm not so sure Splitter is going to displace him.
, whatever you say oh wise one...Blair is undersized, you can take any measurement you want (ht, armspan,standing reach, penis size)for an NBA pf. Noah is 4 inches taller than Blair with the same standing reach and you are going to try and convince me since they have the same standing reach Blair is equally tough or effective down low? Oh wait, damion james standing reach is actually 1/2 an inch more than blair and noah so therefore he is going to dominate the low post.
I like the idea of Timmy and DeJuan starting but like others have said, I'm skeptical on their defensive games together. DeJuan is a good help defender and can cover the PnR decently but he was awful in the post last season being faced up by big men. Timmy is still good at it but he has been more easily pushed around due to his weight loss and he is no longer quick enough to be the help defender he used to be. Hopefully pairing them together can help to cover up the other's weaknesses, but I really hope at some point that Splitter is starting towards the end of the season.
Size is invaulable in today's game. I love Blair but he's only 6'6" and while he is very stout and strong, he doesn't have the height to compete against Gasol or Bynum. Hopefully Splitter is quick enough to check Gasol because Duncan can stick on Bynum and his glass knees.
Nobody said he's equally tough down low. That's a matter of skill or effort or even weight. When you create a ridiculous argument out of nowhere and attribute it to me, that's called a strawman. This is now the second time you've done it. Time to give it up.
What you just confirmed, however, is that Blair isn't any more undersized than Noah. Thanks for proving the point for me.
If you'd like to try to explain how Noah's effectiveness comes from his long neck and tall head, I'm sure we'd all find it entertaining.
I definitely lean towards your side of the argument, but can you explain why Blair does so bad against extremely tall frontlines? Blair might exacerbate things by just not being good on D, yet people just conveniently blame his height, idk. Is his vertical anything to write home about?
You should be called houdini then cause you can make something out of nothing. To say that its just as easy to shoot over Noah than blair cause he has the same arm length is just plain stupid. Get over it, Blair is and always well be undersized power forward.
Last edited by yavozerb; 10-11-2010 at 12:49 PM.
I think Pop is realizing that you have to maximize your possessions, and Tim and DeJuan paired together gives you those extra ones. Sure, Dejuan isn't a superior shotblocker, but he's a ing vacuum on the boards. What real difference does it make if you block three shots or grab three extra defensive rebounds?
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