Spurs of the Moment

Like we didn’t know this already. Well, maybe not all of us. There are some journalists, “experts”, and NBA enthusiasts who seem to think that Tony Parker wants to leave for NY or something. I will say this over and over just like I have been, the real issue at hand is how long Duncan can hold up. That’s what has Tony anxious, and that’s what pretty much everyone who has any interest in the Spurs is anxious about. Tony’s contract is up, but like Ginobili did last season, I expect Tony to go ballistic this year and get an extension. He had an off year with his injuries, but he will bounce back this year. And yes, he wants to be here:

“As we did last year, we were in constant communication with Manu’s people and I continue to have discussions with Tony’s representatives,” Buford said. “But I don’t know that means that Tony will be here if he plays well or if he doesn’t play well. He’ll have the opportunity to make an impact in that decision as well.”

Parker averaged 16 points last season; as an All-Star the year before, he led the Spurs with 22 points per game. He came off the bench throughout April after returning from a broken hand, but Popovich said Monday that Parker was a starter.

When Parker returns to All-star form, it won’t be a question of if he signs an extension, but when.

Here we go a-frickin-gain. I’m sure that people will not give this Tony Parker trade talk a rest until he signs a new contract extension (or gets traded). The latest buzz is courtesy of Yahoo! Sports and an article from the San Antonio Express News. In the SAEN article, found here, Tony Parker discusses this being the last year of his (current) contract and possibly the last chance he has at winning a title with Duncan and Ginobili. I think the sentiment is more a testament to Duncan’s age than anything. We know that Duncan is not going anywhere though, and Ginobili signed an extension at the end of last season.

Ginobili, too, went into the season on the last year of his contract. Ginobili, too, didn’t know if he would be back. The Spurs say everything is as fluid with Parker and that an extension is possible.

But everything else is also possible. If the Spurs don’t begin their season well, they will look to deal their most tradeable asset. And, when the season is over, they could lose Parker to free agency, no matter how well he plays.

I just don’t see how they let Parker go. What are they going to get back for him? Certainly not a better point guard, and they have talent everywhere else (although another small forward would be nice). The Spurs are in “Win Now” mode and getting some draft picks isn’t going to help them reach the promised land before Duncan’s knees give out. Then again, a lot does ride on how George Hill progresses again this year, not to mention the looming lockout.

The bottom line, however, is that this is all about Wins and Losses. If the Spurs struggle, then of course all bets are off, but after the injuries mounted, RJ struggled, Blair adjusted, and Mason fizzled out last year – the Spurs still finished well. I believe they’ll play much better this year with the Big Three taking some time off this summer, Blair and RJ more accustomed to the Spurs system, and the addition of Tiago Splitter and perhaps even James Anderson.

I can see the Spurs realistically winning the division, so don’t count on Tony getting traded anytime soon.

Remember Spurs backup point guard Jacque Vaughn? If you’re a casual hoops fan then probably not, but he did in fact exist and even played for the 2007 championship team. He retired a couple of years ago after 12 seasons in the NBA, but the Spurs have found a new gig for him as an assistant coach. His playing career never really amounted to much, but maybe he can soak up the coaching expertise of Greg Popovich and have a bright future someday. Never know…

When the Spurs picked James Anderson with the 20th overall pick in the draft, my first reaction was something along the lines of, “Huuuhh?” I hadn’t even considered it, so I thought that maybe I needed to go back and look at some highlights on Youtube or something, but there was nothing there that convinced me that I had overlooked something extraordinary. If this was any other team I would be ready to say that this was a bad pick, but with the Spurs you have to realize that there is almost always a method to the apparent madness. I figured that, as usual with the Spurs, the decision was not only based on talent, but also on the player’s disposition. The Spurs are known for not just shying away from any potential head-cases, but bringing in potentially great players who are willing to play team basketball and have a good attitude. That’s why I am hopeful that I did overlook something about James Anderson. Then, of course, this article came out on Sunday from the San Antonio Express News that details the humble roots of our newest Spur. It’s definitely the sort of player story to make any sports fan interested in seeing the player succeed.

Of course, we still have to look at the stats. At least I do. Anderson played three years at Oklahoma State and got better each year. He never averaged less than 30 minutes per game, and from his freshman year to his junior year when his minutes per game jumped from 30.9 to 34.1, his scoring average jumped from 13.3 to 22.3 points per game. So in just over three more minutes per contest his scoring average went up nine points. He shot the ball slightly better in his sophomore season, but he became a better passer by his junior year when he went from 1.4 assists per game to 2.4 per game. He still needs to work on his turnovers, also at 2.4 per game. He seems comfortable shooting the three, but I am not so sure I am comfortable with him shooting it at 34 percent. He may develop a decent three-point shot at the NBA level, but I don’t see it happening right away. He’s a decent rebounder at 5.8 per game in his junior year – up from 3.7 in his freshman year – so I think I’d rather see him play closer to the rim.

So what are we looking at here? It’s hard to say since we didn’t get to see him play in the Summer League, so we’re left waiting until the preseason. For right now, we’re looking at a 6-6, 210 lb.  Shooting Guard/Small Forward who can kinda shoot threes, has the same amount of assists as turnovers, can score about 22 points a game if he gets 15 shots, is an adequate rebounder, and has no special defensive skills to speak of (1.4 steals and .6 blocks in his junior year).  Looking at all of that, I don’t see much to get overly excited about, but as the Spurs have shown us time and time again, there are intangibles that don’t show up in the box score. Here’s hoping that those intangibles are what I overlooked and what James Anderson brings to the table.

Ready for some more good news, Spurs fans?

According to Greg Popovich, Time Duncan may be in better shape going into this season than he was last year at this time.

Gregg Popovich said Thursday that Duncan returned this summer for his 14th season perhaps in even better shape than a year ago, when the perennial All-Star reported to training camp 15 pounds lighter.

“He’s trim and slim. I think he’s even slimmer than he was last year,” Popovich said. “He’s really serious about this. He knows his responsibilities. He wants to win again.”

That’s certainly encouraging, and especially since he’ll finally have a decent running mate in the front court to take some of the pressure off him. Speaking of which:

Originally drafted by the Spurs in 2007, Splitter is a former MVP and championship winner in the Spanish League. He joins the Spurs amid high expectations — Popovich compared Splitter’s NBA-readiness to Manu Ginobili’s arrival in 2002.

That doesn’t mean Splitter will be a go-to scorer. Popovich said the Brazilian’s biggest impact will instead be rebounding and defense, but those contributions should be immediate.

“He’ll come in running, so to speak, and not have a problem,” Popovich said.

Also:

“He’s a really solid player who is going to have a great NBA career, but he’s not going to lead us in scoring,” Popovich said. “He’s not going to be our go-to guy.”

That’s fine, because the Spurs have plenty of scorers, but what they need the most is a return to good old fashioned Spurs defense. I think we can all agree that there is no “next Bruce Bowen” evident on the horizon right now, but that doesn’t mean the Spurs can’t do a better job on help defense and controlling the paint. Someone will eventually have to step up and at least limit the Kobes and Durants of the league, but simply becoming a more fine-tuned defensive UNIT would be a move in the right direction.

I can’t take it anymore. Even with the Fantasy Baseball Playoffs and the fact that football season has finally started and I am once again in an inordinate amount of fantasy football leagues (Eight to be exact – Money, IDPs, Keepers, Expert Leagues… you name it), I am anxious to focus on the upcoming basketball season. Let’s start today with a quick summary of what has happened and is about to happen in Spurs Land.

Last year we started the season with archaic has-beens like Theo Ratliff and Michael Finley, projects like Ian Mahinmi and Malik Hairston, and a deadly three-point shooter in Roger Mason. Oh yeah, and Keith Bogans (blech). None of them are in San Antonio anymore. Ratliff and Finley’s corpses were cast off mid-season, while Roger Mason’s jump shot and hopes for a lucrative off-season deal both died a horrible and unexpected death over an agonizing season of inconsistency.  Mason is now in New York where he will probably have much more opportunity to either find his jumper again or at least jack up tons of errant threes. Mahinmi was not retained and is now the problem of the Dallas Mavericks, and the promising Hairston decided he would rather play in Europe than watch his teammates play in the NBA. Oh, and Keith Bogans was allowed to leave (blech again).

Mid-season acquisitions Alonzo Gee and Garrett Temple are both still around as is Curtis Jerrells who was cut, then brought back later in the year.

The Spurs did mediocre in the draft by picking up James Anderson with the 20th pick and Ryan Richards at #49. I wasn’t a big fan of the picks (I liked Jordan Crawford, Dominique Jones, and maybe even Damion James better), but I am keeping an open mind.

Also added to the mix was Summer League sensation Gary Neal. And of course, the most unheralded major off-season acquisition, Tiago Splitter was finally brought to San Antonio from the Spanish League where he is the reigning MVP.

I’ll do some more analysis of the Spurs newbs in the coming weeks.

The NBA Preseason begins October 3rd, but the Spurs have their first game on October 7th @ Houston. Their first home game is October 9th vs Miami’s Dwyane Wade and Friends. The rest of the Pre-season schedule goes like this:
Oct 12 @ Clippers (in Mexico City)
Oct 14 @ Cleveland (at the U of Pittsburgh)
Oct 16 vs Vitoria (I believe that this is one of the 50 names for Tiago Splitter’s old Spanish League team)
Oct 18 vs Oklahoma City
Oct 21 vs Houston

The season opener is a home game vs the Indiana Pacers on October 27th.

Danny Ferry is returning to the San Antonio Spurs as vice president of basketball operations.

This really doesn’t make much difference to me. I don’t exactly know what he brings to the table that we weren’t getting from Popovich or Buford, but I suppose the more the merrier.

That’s really all I can say about this…

God, I can’t wait for pre-season to start.

Another guard is leaving San Antonio this summer. Keith Bogans has agreed to a 2-year, $2.5 mil deal with the Chicago Bulls. Bogans had a few solid games, but for the most part he never quite fit in and fell almost completely out of the Spurs rotation during the playoffs. He started 50 games last season, but only averaged 4.4 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.2 assists. During the post-season, his playing time dwindled to less than seven minutes per game and he only scored five points total over 10 playoff games. He was supposed to be a defensive specialist, but never really had that kind of impact over the season. I thought last year that Bogans or Hairston would emerge as replacements for Bruce Bowen as defensive stoppers, but neither really did and now both are gone. The Spurs’s Malik Hairston signed to play in Europe. Free-agent Roger Mason agreed to a deal with the New York Knicks last week.

Finally a Knicks/Spurs rumor that not only seems plausible, but doesn’t involve Tony Parker being traded.

It looks like Roger Mason is on his way out of San Antonio soon as he is reportedly close to a deal with the New York Knicks. He even mentioned that is was a possibility on YouTube:

[youtube h1t5Cd5qdso]

The Knicks were trying to pry Shannon Brown away from the Lakers but Brown went ahead and re-signed with LA.

Roger Mason was awesome during the 2008-2009 season, at least until the playoffs. Last year he was beyond inconsistent and even asked for a trade at one point. I still like him tho, and I hope he bounces back from last year.

Good luck in New York, Mase.

Well, now that at least some of the dust has settled, I figure I may as well weigh in on the LeBron James fiasco/shenanigans/debacle/whatever-the-hell-you-wanna-call-it. We all know the basics: LeBron had the opportunity to sign for more money with Cleveland, his hometown, and the only team he has ever played for, but decided to join forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami to form a super team henceforth know on this blog as Miami’s Dwyane Wade and Friends. As he put it, he is taking his ego.. err talents to South Beach. Here’s my take on the madness leading up to LeBron’s scurrying away from Cleveland, and the ensuing chaos.

The Decision
This was where LeBron went horribly wrong. I don’t particularly agree with the decision itself because it seems to me that it would be beneath him as one of the potentially greatest players ever to go hitch his wagon to Dwyane Wade’s.  Wade already has a ring anyway, and no matter how many they win together, Wade will always have that one more. But I can ignore all that, or at least I could if that was all there was to ignore. I get that he wanted to play with his buddies and try and win some easy rings and all that, but this was like taking your girlfriend on Jerry Springer to tell her you were sleeping with her sister, mother, and aunt and expected her to chill out and just remember the good times, even be grateful that you were with her for as long as you were. Who wants to be embarrassed and dumped in public by an attention whore? I don’t blame the people of Cleveland for hating this guy’s guts now. I won’t get into the allegations that he mailed in some playoff games over the last couple of years – at least not yet – but I find it strange that he never made it back to the NBA Finals even though his team continued to get better and better. We all knew there was no way he could leave Cleveland if they won it all, so maybe winning it all hasn’t exactly been as high a priority the last couple of seasons as getting out of Ohio and teaming up with Wade and Bosh…. or his team just choked, he had a wack coach, and his elbow was bothering him. I suppose that either is plausible.

LeBron vs. Kobe vs. Jordan
It became apparent during the NBA Finals that Kobe “6-for-24″ Bryant was nowhere near Jordan’s level. Actually, it was apparent to most of us for some time, but that pretty much sealed the deal. We always had high hopes for LeBron though. He has a tremendous skill set that has been compared to Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. However, after his flame-out in this year’s playoffs, Bill Simmons went on to write a brilliant piece on LeBron that summed up what we all had tried to ignore for too long. LeBron is not the second coming of Jordan, he is better compared to Dr J when you really look at it. As Simmons wrote:

Doc’s Philly teams kept self-combusting at the worst possible times. The ’77 Sixers took a 2-0 lead in the Finals, then blew four straight. They lost do-or-die playoff games by two points (1978) and three points (1979). In 1980, everyone remembers Magic (only a rookie) playing five positions, notching a 42-15-7 and improbably winning Los Angeles the title; nobody ever wonders why Philly, playing at home against a team missing the 1980 MVP (Kareem), laid such an unforgivable egg. In 1981, the Sixers blew a 3-1 series lead to Boston in the Eastern Conference finals, losing the last three games by five points total. (And by the way, they led in the final minute of all three games.) By the time Philly blew the 1982 Finals, the consensus on Doc was this: phenomenal player, loved by all, an ambassador for the game, one of the best ever … doesn’t quite have it.

Then Moses showed up, Philly finally won a title, and people everywhere forgot they had felt that way.

Back to LeBron: I think we know what we have. He’s Doc 2.0 with a little Magic and a healthy dose of Bo sprinkled in.

In all honesty, this is the biggest realization we all got from this whole ordeal. LeBron is not who thought he was, what we thought he could be, or what we wanted him to be. He just isn’t. He won’t be the legend we thought he could be, the savior of Cleveland Sports that we hoped he would be, or the competitor he probably ought to be. Jordan won his first championship in his seventh season, in LeBron’s seventh season he got booted out of the playoffs even though he was on the winningest team of the past two seasons and had a better team than the one he made it to the Finals with a few years earlier. Then he said F it and bounced. When it comes to sports hate, Kobe Bryant as at the top of my list. I can’t stand the guy, but right now I like Kobe more than LeBron because at least Kobe is more of a competitor. It doesn’t matter if you want to be or not, if you are among the best in the league you are going to be in Jordan’s shadow. Kobe is trying like hell to get out from under that shadow, and I can at least respect that. LeBron seems comfortable there, as long as he is a “global icon”… whatever the #!$^ that is.

Sour Grapes
Of course, things continued to get creepier when Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cavaliers, lashed out at LeBron in an open letter that read like a bitter ex-girlfriend trying to do voodoo on her former lover. In the letter, Gilbert called LeBron the “self-declared former King” as if he had nothing to do with pushing the whole “King James”, “We are all witnesses” crap on us for the past few years. He even went on to say that LeBron tanked a few games. This is all the very definition of the phrase “Sour Grapes”. In Aesop’s fable, the Fox couldn’t reach the grapes so he convinced himself they were no good anyway, and that’s exactly what Gilbert is doing. He couldn’t keep “King” LeBron in Cleveland and so LeBron is now a cowardly, narcissistic, quitter. Of course, then for good measure he tries to throw the hex at LeBron like some kind of jilted witchdoctor by saying that LeBron will take the “curse” with him when he leaves Cleveland. Furthermore, if he was so convinced that LeBron was quitting on the team, why fire Mike Brown? The only reason that makes sense is that he was trying to appease a player he despised in order to keep him around, but it’s not like LeBron was helping find a new coach. But look, I get it. Dan Gilbert is the owner of the team and the fans who pay to see that team are pissed off and heartbroken that their guy just left. He has a responsibility to those fans to empathize with them, and a responsibility as a business owner to try to keep their business, so he is gonna say what he needs to in order to fire them up and get them to keep coming to games. I just believe he could have done it without coming off like such an idiot.

The KG Rule
There’s one real reason I partially don’t fault LeBron for leaving Cleveland, and that reason is Kevin Garnett. KG toiled away in mediocrity for years in Minnesota, only sniffing the Finals once. He was loyal to a fault and to the point that most basketball fans wanted him to get traded to a half-way decent team. We couldn’t bare to watch him wither away without a championship, or at least playing in the Finals once. Even Ewing, Barkley and Malone got to experience the NBA Finals, and KG was at least on their level. I feel like if a potentially great player has spent more than five years on a crappy team, then we should let him walk away without judgement and without branding him a cowardly, disloyal, selfish jerk. I will call this “The KG Rule”. When he was traded to Boston and won the whole thing in his first season as a Celtic, we were all happy for him and even had to wonder how many more he could have won and how much different his legacy could have been if he had played on a legit contender his whole career, or at least a few years sooner. Who can blame LeBron for not wanting to toil away in Cleveland to the point that people are begging him to request a trade? The only snag here is that LeBron’s ceiling is higher than KG’s, and he hasn’t been on mediocre teams his whole career. So while I want to apply The KG Rule to him, I can’t really do it in good conscience… the shoe just doesn’t quite fit.

Wade’s Team
Now LeBron is in Miami, teamed up with another alpha-dog who already has a championship to speak of. Who do you think is the leader here? The guy who has already been with the team for seven seasons and won a title or the new guy who is still chasing one? This is Wade’s team by all accounts, no matter how anyone sugar-coats it, and now LeBron can play second banana to Wade and not take all the criticism when they lose. The problem here is that he won’t even get half the love when they win. Bosh will get some credit as the only one of the three who plays in the paint, and Wade is undeniably the leader here, so LeBron is gonna have to get used to being Prince James.

Cleveland Now
So where does this leave Cleveland? They still have capable players in Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison. They have a potentially solid player JJ Hickson waiting in the wings for more playing time. They recently traded for point guard Ramon Sessions and dumped the problematic Delonte West in the process. Plus they received a gang of draft picks when LeBron decided to split. They have a decent future ahead of them. They are obviously not an elite team by any means, but not all is lost. They will still have to fight for a playoff spot, but I think they could still make it to the post-season. I certainly hope so, and who wouldn’t watch a Cleveland-Miami first round series and secretly(?) root for the Cavaliers?

Balance of Power
Plenty of fans, writers, and other random observers have already given Miami the trophy for the next few years. I am not one of them. The Lakers blew it against Detroit a few years back with Kobe, Shaq, Malone, and Payton after everyone handed it to them. Injuries can strike anyone at any time – just ask Dirk, Ginobili, Garnett, and a slew of others who missed crucial playoff games in the past. But more than those things, other teams are getting better as well. The Lakers signed Matt Barnes and Steve Blake, an upgrade at point guard over Jordan Farmar, and are still the reigning champs. And don’t think that Kobe isn’t working out as you are reading this so that he can erase that 6-for-24 performance as well as Miami’s title aspirations. The Mavericks have choked in the playoffs the last few years, but have also reloaded with Tyson Chandler and Dominique Jones, and it would be sweet for them to get back at Miami. The Spurs added Spanish League MVP Tiago Splitter along with draft pick James Anderson. And that’s just the West. What about Orlando who is still a threat, and Chicago who just added Boozer? Any of these teams could beat Miami next season and after, and personally, I hope they all do.

To sum things up, I don’t think LeBron was wrong to leave Cleveland. I think he was stupid to leave. Five championships in Miami won’t mean as much for his “brand” as one in Cleveland would. And there is no guarantee he will win any at this point. He jumped ship but it was the way he did it, by basically taking a crap on his former team and city on live TV, that made it so reprehensible. The sad thing is that despite his childish, selfish, easy-way-out attitude, he is likely to win a championship or two, maybe more if he’s lucky. But I won’t be rooting for him.