Gregg Popovich is widely considered to be one of the best coaches in the NBA. But he is not free from criticism. One of the points of emphasis for his detractors was his seemingly misplaced confidence in the abilities of Matt Bonner. Bonner is not a bad player, but his minutes were too high for a contending team like the Spurs. So the forum-warriors claimed.
I can kind of see it. Bonner isn’t a threat to do anything but shoot threes and sometimes try a really goofy half-hook or something. He can’t defend, and he runs funny.
Though you can’t discount the fact that the Spurs have been good the entire time Bonner has been on the team. He must be doing something right. His minutes are the lowest they’ve ever been, but you can count on him to appear suddenly in the playoffs and hit some threes to the roaring of the crowd. They enjoyed his rare first quarter appearance tonight, and so did the commentators. I always thought it was kind of patronizing to overly cheer a not very good player. But Bonner seems good-natured about it.