Buying Into Keith Bogans, Congrats to Manu

Keith Bogans is the talk of the town right now. After his performance against the Mavs, I’m even starting to buy into the Keith Bogans movement. I don’t think many of us thought he would be relevant this year, not with Manu healthy, Roger Mason and George Hill’s emergence and all the hype surrounding the signing of McDyess, the trade for Jefferson, and DeJuan Blair essentially falling into the Spurs’ lap on draft day. Right now Mason is struggling with his shot, but the rest of those guys are playing as well as or better than we thought they would. Part of the reason is that opportunites came a lot faster than we expected when Tony Parker and Tim Duncan both missed consecutive games with ankle ailments. In the grand scheme of things, those injuries – provided they don’t linger – could inadvertently propel the Spurs into the top spot in the West. The Mavericks and Lakers may have something to say about that, but the Spurs depth right now simply can’t be denied. The bench guys are playing with more and more confidence after two straight wins without their superstars and the defense is coming along nicely after holding the Mavs to a season low 83 points. Best of all, no one is whining about their role. Matt Bonner went to the bench and improved, Finley played only six minutes against the Mavs and didn’t gripe. As for KB, he is beginning to thrive in his new role, and may be turning into our new Bruce Bowen afterall. Think about it - he is a tenacious defender, can shoot the three, people seem to hate him, and his name even sounds like Bowen. I admit I was nowhere near a believer early on, but I think I just hadn’t seen enough of Bogans to make a fair assessment. This is one of the drawbacks to fantasy sports, I looked at Bogans as a once-in-awhile waiver wire guy who got hot from the field sometimes when he filled in for injured starters in Orlando or Milwaukee, but I had never really had the opportunity to see him play extended minutes. So far it looks like he was simply not in the best situations before. With the Spurs he has a specific role – a role that he seems all too eager to excel in. I hope the past couple of games weren’t a fluke, and I hope he continues to start. At 6′5″ he isn’t quite as tall as Bowen (6′7″) but he has the height to match up with most shooting guards, and with players like Duncan, McDyess and Jefferson around to back him up he’ll be able to afford the occassional gamble on defense. Looking at his career numbers, he has had some issues with low shooting percentages, only surpassing 40% from the field three times in his six-year career (not counting this year). However, nearly half of his shots each year are three-pointers and he is a career 35% from downtown. That’s not Steve Kerr numbers (45% career 3PT%), or even Bruce Bowen (39%), but I think that KB could conceivably improve on that in the Spurs system where he is more likely to have uncontested three-pointers with Duncan, Blair and McDyess in the paint and Manu and Tony’s ability to penetrate and dish, not to mention the plethora of three-point shooters the Spurs can have on the floor at any given moment. So far this season he’s shooting 42% from beyond the arc and annoying the hell out of the opposition. Let’s hope he can keep that up, especially in the playoffs.

Also, congratulations to Manu and his wife who is pregnant with their first child.  Soon there will be an army of Ginobilis to carry the Spurs torch and wreak havoc on the future Mavs and Lakers of this world. Yes!

Tags: Antonio McDyess, Bruce Bowen, Dallas Mavericks, DeJuan Blair, George Hill, Keith Bogans, LA Lakers, Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson, Roger Mason, San Antonio Spurs, Steve Kerr, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker