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Which front court lineup would you like to see Pop start next year? The Diaw/Duncan lineup was 'discovered' per se mainly in these playoffs where against OKC/Miami it was pretty much unstoppable.

I think the Diaw/Duncan lineup is better as spacing is much better and Duncan is much more effective as a C. But at the same time, SAS should stick with the Duncan/Splitter lineup for the regular season as you wouldn't want to give teams 82 chances to game plan for it. What do you think?

I like starting out with the Duncan/Splitter lineup to establish our defense but I have no problem with Splitter going to the bench at times due to matchup issues (like against the Thunder or Clippers) or when the offense goes stale.

Neither guy seems to care whether they start or not so I don't see a reason to commit to one starting pair for the entire season.

Nolan wrote:I like starting out with the Duncan/Splitter lineup to establish our defense but I have no problem with Splitter going to the bench at times due to matchup issues (like against the Thunder or Clippers) or when the offense goes stale.

Neither guy seems to care whether they start or not so I don't see a reason to commit to one starting pair for the entire season.

Agreed, it all depends on the opponent or the matchup. Its a nice problem to have.

I'm really curious to see what Pop does this year rotation wise. With Tony's health problems in the playoffs, Pop had to rely solely on team work to score. Like other posters, I think we will again have the most different starting lineups in the league. If Duncan won the first two chips due to his prime, Ginobili hit his prime on 3, Tony on 4, I have to think 5 was Pop hitting his prime. That's seems off because he didn't need last year to be a Hall of Fame coach, but he was unreal last year. 2013 may have been the best thing to happen for Pop. He realized something and just killed the NBA last year. My hope is last year was just the tip of the iceberg and we get the allusive B2B title.

I prefer Bobo/Duncan, but we'll see a little if everything next year.

Boarder Patrol wrote:Which front court lineup would you like to see Pop start next year? The Diaw/Duncan lineup was 'discovered' per se mainly in these playoffs where against OKC/Miami it was pretty much unstoppable.

I think the Diaw/Duncan lineup is better as spacing is much better and Duncan is much more effective as a C. But at the same time, SAS should stick with the Duncan/Splitter lineup for the regular season as you wouldn't want to give teams 82 chances to game plan for it. What do you think?

It's not just discovered in the playoffs. All season long our rotation has been with TD and Splitter starting the game. Then Diaw comes for Splitter and we have Duncan and Diaw on the floor usually with Manu Kawhi and Parker which gives us our best offensive lineup. Then in the regular season with Duncan playing less, he's usually subbed out for Jeff Ayres. But this Duncan Diaw pairing has been our best offensive line all of last year. You'd be correct if you said it was discovered last year in the playoffs.

I prefer Diaw Duncan to start because when Diaw comes off the bench with the second unit, it's usually with Jeff Ayres, who sucks even in 8-10 minutes a game. By starting Diaw and benching Splitter, it gives us a legit Center on the floor at all times. Also the starting lineup depends on Parker to create a lot because Danny can't dribble and Kawhi last year isn't aggresive as he was in the playoffs, and Duncan doesn't really force things anymore. So Diaw in the starting lineup gives us an added weapon.

I like Diaw as a starter. He really looked for his shot in the low post during the playoffs and gives us 5 players who can score.
Moving Splitter off the bench means we can always have legit big to anchor our defense and I like what splitter gave us in bursts offensively.
I remember a stretch of about 9 points he scored that kept the spurs going in one of our playoff games.
Plus I think establishing Diaw as an offensive option can help us manage TDs mins during the regular season too.


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It all depends on Timmys jumper. Hopefully everyone remembers how bad the offense of the starting unit was early in the season because Timmy couldn't hit that elbow pick and pop which destroyed spacing. If Duncan hits that shot at a 40% clip keep Splitter but if the offense struggles bring in Diaw.

srbram wrote:It all depends on Timmys jumper. Hopefully everyone remembers how bad the offense of the starting unit was early in the season because Timmy couldn't hit that elbow pick and pop which destroyed spacing. If Duncan hits that shot at a 40% clip keep Splitter but if the offense struggles bring in Diaw.

Sadly I do remember that. And your point is a great one, if Timmy struggles again to start the season that basically makes Tiago his backup until Tim starts spreading the floor again because we need a big that can space the floor on the floor at all times.

Radical as it may seem, I wouldn't mind seeing Pop experiment with a Splitter/Diaw/Leonard frontcourt, with Duncan coming off the bench to play 10-12 minutes each at the 4 and 5 over the course of a game. The real MVP of the Spurs is the system, and Splitter and Diaw play it to perfection, so why wear Timmy out against the league's lesser teams all season? Keep him at 20-25 minutes a night and control those minutes by gauging their need for him by making him and Gino the fulcrums of the second unit.

I know that would probably never happen, of course, but I think it'd be an interesting experiment.