Week In Review: Raise Your Hand

Portland Trailblazers, Memphis Grizzlies, Portland Trailblazers, Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, New Orleans Pelicans, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans.

Those are your Spurs’ last 10 opponents, folks. Results: 4 wins, 6 losses.

Last month the Spurs played 18 games in total. Most were against likely playoff teams. Most were played without Kawhi Leonard or Tony Parker.

Overall, it was the worst December of Tim Duncan’s career.

Raise your hand if you are glad December is over?

(Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports )

Yep. Me, too.

So now, while you have your hand raised, let’s try a few more.

• Raise your hand if you thought the Spurs overpaid for Splitter.
• Raise your hand if you rolled your eyes when the Spurs signed Boris Diaw.
• Raise your hand if you were mad that Marco Belinelli was the big free agent signing two years ago.
• Raise your hand if you took way too long to really like Corey Joseph.
• Raise your hand if you wanted to keep George Hill.
• Raise your hand if you ever said, “This is probably going to be Duncan’s last year.”
• Raise your hand if you have ever said, “It’s time to fire, Pop.”
• Raise your hand if you are balding like Manu.

I can raise my hand for all but one of these, and I’ll let you guess which one.

In the last month, for every above example I can raise my hand, I have been wrong.

The last month of Spurs basketball has been the most difficult month of regular season basketball to watch in a really long time. It was grueling, brutal and painful.

And sooooooooooooo worth it.

It has genuinely shown me that the San Antonio Spurs, the organization, is far more intelligent, far superior, and possesses far more fortitude than you or I or any one amongst us.

The reason I raised my hand is the same reason why this team won four of its last 10 games with a bunch of D-Leaguers, a 59-year-old power forward, a pudgy 5-man off the bench, no Finals MVP, no All-Star Point Guard and a mad scientist at the helm. It’s also the reason the Spurs lost only 6 games and not 10.

There is enough analysis out there right now to describe December for this Spurs team. Worst in the Duncan era, blah blah blah. Raise your hand if you’re fine with not talking anymore about it. Ok, cool. On to the other stuff.

Here are my key stats on Tiago Splitter. Ready? Here it goes: Tiago Splitter is 6’11’ and weighs 245lbs. That’s it. Expert analysis.

I want you to look around the league and think about the second best big man on each team. Not the first, but the second. Then compare that player to Tiago Splitter.

But before you do, imagine that second best big man playing in the Western Conference, playing in a 10-man rotation, and averaging less than 30 minutes a game.

There aren’t too many comparable players out there, are there? Big men are at a premium in the NBA. You can’t teach height. You can’t teach size. You can’t teach vision.

We silly little Spurs fans can bash Tiago Splitter all we want, but notice the difference in our substitution rotations, our defensive rotations and our second unit rotations when Splitter is on the court.

The reason Duncan can do what he does, the reason the guards can get where they get, is because Tiago is there, in the right spot, on time, and getting it done.

Put simply, Tiago has to be healthy for the Spurs to succeed. I’m so glad he is back.

Tiago Splitter is the 64th highest paid player in the NBA. That may sound like he’s paid too much. But here is a list of NBA Centers who get paid more to play than Tiago Splitter:

Amar’e Stoudemire
Brook Lopez
Andrew Bogut
Roy Hibbert
Kendrick Perkins
Javale McGee
Larry Sanders
Andrea Bargnani
Anderson Varejao
Derrick Favors
Nikola Pekovic

Now I realize it was dumb to think Tiago is overpaid.

Some other thoughts…

* The Boris Diaw we saw in that Wizards game (which I attended with my one-year-old son, who was glued to the action for 48 minutes) is the Boris Diaw who makes a difference. I don’t mind a pudgy BoBo, as long as he using the pudge. The Boris against Memphis and Portland is fat. The Boris against LAC and Washington is Big-Boned.

* I’d like to extend a personal apology to Marco Belinelli (thanks for reading, Marco) for my lack of enthusiasm when you joined the team. In December, you averaged 11 points a game, shot over 43 percent from the field and 40 percent from beyond the 3-point line. Thanks for being such a good fit here in San Antonio. We all think you are really great. Also, I think it is very neat when you surprise us with a dunk.

* CoJo. Man, oh man, CoJo. How sweet has he been this month? How much has his game developed? How much does he represent everything that the Spurs are? How excited were you when he faked out Chris Kardashian in that Wizards game? (Like I said, I was at the AT&T center and I am pretty sure my son said his first words: “Ball Fake.”) CoJo has earned himself a batch of minutes. I’m as glad as the next person to see Tony Parker come back, but I really hope Pop finds a way to keep Corey Joseph playing at a healthy clip.

* George Hill who? For those of you who joined Spurs Nation after last year’s NBA Finals victory, allow me to explain: George was one of Pop’s favorite players and backed up Tony Parker for a number of years. He was long and lanky and could match up with short or tall guards. He wasn’t a particularly great shooter, but he was a solid ball-handler. Lifelong Spurs fans grew to like him. However, no one cares about him now, because we dumped him for a younger guy with a 7-foot wingspan and a mellow personality. We never liked George as much as this new guy. So that’s why when the new guy has a torn ligament in his hand and can’t catch the ball, Spurs fans lose their ever-loving minds. (Pop said, “His hand doesn’t work.” – Oh.) Hurry back, Kawhi.

Editor’s note: The Spurs announced Tuesday that Kawhi Leonard could be playing again in two weeks.

* Duncan isn’t retiring. Maybe not ever. He’s going to play when he is 83. He’s going to hobble out there with a walker and put up 12-9. Honestly, I’m sick of talking about him. He isn’t even that good, awesome, great, efficient, solid, durable, incredible, time-defining, monumental, game-changing, the best player of his generation, fun to watch… He is fairly decent at playing basketball.

* Pop needs a raise. And probably a glass of wine. But what he did in the month of December is nothing short of miraculous, given the circumstances. I can think of 29 other coaches in the NBA who would have done worse. Being that it’s a given that Pop would do the best in this type of situation, who would you say would have done the next best? I would say Tom Thibodeau, then Rick Carlisle, then Doc Rivers and… Scott Brooks would be last.

* Finally, have you guys seen Manu’s bald spot? I have. I saw it from the 14th row of section 204 at the AT&T Center. So why can’t Manu see it? What I mean is, Manu refuses to admit that his body can’t do what it used to do. He still plays like he did when he was 25. Come on, Manu. Slow down, buddy. Just a hair? Please? That wrap around the waist between two defenders is cool… until you can’t do it anymore. Then it just looks bad. Please stick to moving the ball with easy and grace, stick to pull-up jumpers in transition and stick to being crafty and leave the silliness to the And-1 mixtape tour (how’d that work out for you, Raefer Alston a.k.a. Skip-to-my-lou). Manu might be one of the most intelligent people in the NBA. If only he played like it. If only…

Watch out Spurs fans: the Schedule is getting easier, the Spurs are getting healthier and the Thunder are making stupid trade decisions. The NBA is just now warmed up and I sense a rise in the rankings.

Raise your hand if you think the Spurs will sweep January.

That’s ridiculous. Put your hands down.

Go Spurs Go

*Addendum: Um… well this is awkward. I said all this nice stuff about the guys and then they went and vomited out that second half last night. Holy Cow, was that bad basketball. I don’t know if you watched the Kentucky-Ole Miss game, but it was kind of the same thing, except Kentucky won.

Instead of trying to play Spurs basketball, the Spurs should just, well, play Spurs basketball.