By my count, there are eight players coming to the NBA after spending at least a year playing overseas.  Throughout the week we are going to look at each player’s individual game one by one, to see what we can expect from them this year in the NBA.

Past Editions: Nikola Pekovic | Timofey Mozgov

Out of the eight players coming over to the NBA from overseas, Tiago Splitter is probably the most well known name (Not counting guys like Josh Childress and Linas Kleiza, who have already played in the NBA).  Splitter’s name has been out there since 2006 when he was supposed to enter the NBA draft, but eventually declined.  The Spurs took him the next year after, since his age made him eligible.  Spurs’ fans have been waiting for him ever since.  After agreeing to an $11 million deal over three years, Splitter is finally coming over to the NBA.

The reason that there has been so much hype (and so much talk about how good Splitter’s deal is for the Spurs), and it is because he is a very talented.  At 6’11″ and 245 pounds, Splitter’s polished post game is what really makes him special in my opinion.

Quick Note:  In the clips, Splitter is wearing #21 for his team in the white jerseys.  He is wearing an arm sleeve which makes identification easier.

Strengths

Polished Post Game

I briefly mentioned this in the intro, but in my opinion Tiago Splitter’s polished post game is his best attribute.  In the post, Splitter really makes it tough for defenders because he really knows how to counter what the defense does to him:

Here, Splitter’s defender has his hand on his back and is trying to be physical with him.  Splitter counters this by feeling for the defender and quickly pivoting to the inside.  As he does this, he throws his off hand up (if he keeps his hand close to his body, it isn’t a foul) creating separation between himself and his defender.  This gives him the lane and the only reason he misses is because he is fouled (it doesn’t get called).

If his defender tries to be less physical with him, Splitter will take the space he is given and create even more. Here, Splitter backs his man all the way down to the rim and is able to finish the play with a basket.

However, where Splitter’s post game separates itself from others is that he is so polished down low and he is able to finish in a variety of ways:

In clip 1, Splitter executes a fantastic up and under, showing the ball quickly to the defender before taking it away and making his move.  The move results in a foul and a trip to the line.  In clip 2, Splitter is backing down his man and it appears that he is going to make his move to the middle of the court.  At the last moment, Splitter quickly shifts his weight, turns baseline, and hits the hook using his soft touch.  In clip 3, Splitter realizes that he has a smaller man on him and instead of trying to force it inside he simply turns and hits a baby hook, taking advantage of his height.

All of the three moves shown above are extremely difficult to execute and Splitter seems to be able to execute them with ease.

Passing Ability

When you have the post game that Tiago Splitter has, you are going to see a lot of double teams.  Splitter’s ability to pass out of the post complements his post game so well, and it really puts the defense in a  tough decision.  If you let him work one on one, he will do his work in the post.  If you double him, he will find the open man:

Here, Splitter is doing his work in the post when a guard on the outside tries to come down and steal the ball.  The second that the guard comes down, Splitter hits his teammate for the open jumper.

This time, the defense tries to send a double team from the opposite side of the court.  This works with some big men, because they keep their head down and by the time he realizes the double team is coming it is too late.  This doesn’t happen with Splitter, he always keeps his head up, and in this case the result is a fantastic skip pass to a wide open teammate.

It isn’t just in the post either.  What makes Splitter a good passer in general is that he always knows where he wants to go with the basketball instead of making the catch and then looking for a passing option.  This means Splitter makes his passes quicker and that is harder to defend:

Defensive Ability

In addition to his post play and his passing, Splitter does a very good job on the defensive end.  He isn’t a player who is going to pile up a ton of blocks or a ton of steals, but his impact can’t really be measured by those stats.  He works so hard on the defensive end and is usually in the correct spot on the court, that he is an asset when playing defense:

I already mentioned that Splitter doesn’t block a ton of shots, but he effects plenty of shots by challenging them and forcing the offense to miss/alter shots.

In both of these clips, Splitter is able to force a miss.  In the first clip, Splitter helps on the penetration and forces the offensive player to shoot the ball long.  In the second clip, Splitter helps on defense and the ball is kicked to the outside.  Splitter knows he isn’t going to be able to block the shot, but he closes out hard, forcing the miss.

In addition to his help defense/closing out, Splitter is also a good defender in the post:

What really impresses me is that he can be so physical without fouling.  This is because he’s not using his arms to create the contact, instead he is using his chest.  He absorbs the offensive player’s attempts to back him down, and when he goes up for a shot, Splitters arms are free to contest.

Weaknesses

Not A Threat On  The Outside

Splitter’s two biggest weaknesses come from the fact that he doesn’t really have the ability to shoot the basketball from the outside.  Now, to his credit he knows his limitations and doesn’t force things (in fact I didn’t see him shoot one shot from outside of the lane in the four games I watched), but eventually teams are going to realize this and try to force Splitter to make his catch further away from the basket:

In each of these two clips, Splitter makes a catch on the outside and immediately looks for a teammate to pass to.  However, Splitter can’t find anyone and he is forced to put the ball on the floor.  In both instances, he is able to dribble himself into the post, but when he does that I have noticed that he doesn’t look as comfortable (or as polished) in the post.  The results of the two moves above are an airball and a travel.

Teams will start noticing that, and when they do they will begin to sag off of him big time:

Now normally this wouldn’t be a huge problem.  Duncan has a pretty good high post/outside game, so Splitter can work in the post while Duncan works on the outside.  However, Duncan has a very good low post game too, so you know the Spurs are going to want to take advantage of it.  This will force Splitter to play the high post, but since he isn’t a threat his defender will be able to double down on Duncan, making him ineffective in the post.

Foul Shooting

Now it should be mentioned that Tiago Splitter shot 79.1% from the free throw line in ACB play this past season.  However, it is hard to judge whether or not this was a fluke.  In my personal opinion, I am leaning towards it being a fluke, just because to have you shooting percentage jump from 68.2% (his percentage the previous year) to 79.1%.  Up until this past season, that 68.2% from the line was the best mark of his career.

Another reason that it could be fluky is that Splitter shot about 63% from the line during EuroLeague competition this year.  Now ACB and EuroLeague games pretty much overlap (though the ACB season does extend longer), so it is interesting that he shot it so poorly from the line in EuroLeague and so well during the ACB season.

The final reason I think that Splitter’s FT% is a fluke is that there are still some things wrong with his shooting form.  Mainly, he lets the ball rest on his palm:

Ask any good shooter and he will tell you that the key to getting good rotation on your shot is your fingers.  As you flick your hand when you shoot, your fingers want to me the last thing touching the basketball.  To get good rotation consistently, a shooter wants to create a little pocket between the palm of the hand and the basketball.  A good indication of proper hand position is that if you can see a gap between the palm of the hand and the basketball.  However, here you can see the ball is just resting on his palm.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the hype around Tiago Splitter is most definitely warranted, there is no question in my mind about that.  He is so polished on the offensive end in terms of his post play and his passing ability that I can see him being one of the top offensive back to the basket centers in the NBA this season.  Splitter has fantastic touch around the basket, and he always keeps his head up, so when defenses double him, he can find the open man.  On the defensive end, Splitter works very hard, and you know Coach Pop is going to love him for that.

However, his lack of shooting ability on the outside will create some problems at first (and maybe even during the entire season).  Coach Popovich is one of the best coaches there is though, and I think he will figure out what to do with Splitter when he wants to take advantage of Tim Duncan on the inside (one thing that immediately comes to mind is to have Splitter cut to the rim as soon as his man leaves him to double).

Update: Links

Came across two really good Tiago Splitter links and thought I would include them.

First, over at The Painted Area, they have a breakdown of Splitter’s game against the Dominican Republic from FIBA Americas in 2009.  I actually tried to get my hands on this game because it showcased Splitter against pro-level competition, but no luck.  The Painted Area does just an even better job looking at that individual game than I could have done.

Also at 48MinutesOfHell, they look at how Splitter will fit on the Spurs.  It is a video and very well done.  Go check it out!