I have to admit I turned away from the World Series and the Texans vs. Colts to see Splitter's first action.

My first impression is this guy is going to help a lot on the defensive end. He big, mobile and appears to have a good understanding of defense. He did a great job on ball screens, very surprising.

Offensively he didn't show a whole lot other than a nice feel for the lane. He got a nice dunk for his first NBA points.

I think this guy is a solid NBA player. Definitely starter quality. He's already the Spurs biggest player and they desparately needed that.

Everytime I hear Splitter's name, I think of the Spurs letting go of Scola for virtually nothing to the Rockets.

They saved like 7mm .

Didn't they trade him for like $700k in cash?

Jackie Butler+Scola for Vagina Spanoulis+3mm+2nd rounder and got under the luxury tax. Vagina had already agreed to being released from his contract to move back to Greece, so the Spurs didn't have to pay him a dime. Butler was owed like 2mm, and it was all LUX tax money. So 2mm+lux tax of 2mm+3mm in cash+2nd round pick=Scola. Spurs got paid 7mm for him. And they used the 2nd rounder to get Nando de Colo.

With the money saved, the Spurs were able to work a deal of Barry+Elson+1st for Kurt Thomas.

So it was basically:
Scola+Jackie Butler+Barry+Elson+1st for Kurt Thomas+7mm+Nando De Colo

meh, I don't really think the Spurs would be significantly better now with Scola. I guess that first year they really could have used the extra inside scoring presence. But, bottom line is I don't think they win the Championship with him.. so why bother beating ourselves up over it?

I just imagine a starting lineup of:

Tim
Scola
Parker
Manu
RJ

That's a pretty nice lineup, no?

Except for the times last year when TP, Manu and Duncan have been hurt, scoring really hasn't been our problem. Scola is not a great defensive player, and I would rather have a solid defensive PF/C than a great scorer when we already have TP/Manu/Duncan/Jefferson.

The guy I would really like is a guy like Battier or Courtney Lee that can play great D and hit threes. I'd rather throw a lineup of Duncan/Splitter/Jeff/Lee/Parker with Dice/Blair/Anderson/Manu/Hill coming off the bench.

I can't believe we can't find a replacement for Bowen after 3-4 years of searching.