Spurs of the Moment

 I know we’ve all been anxious to see Tiago Splitter play for the Spurs, but it looks it will have to wait a little bit longer. Popovich has already named DeJuan Blair the starting center for the opener, and Splitter’s foot injury will likely keep him from suiting up at all right away. It makes sense to not rush him into action, but it is definitely frustrating to wait a few years for a draft pick to finally make his way to the league only to be sidelined almost immediately. This is good news for fantasy drafts though, since most people will not want to take a flier on a Euro-league import who hasn’t made any noise in pre-season due to injury. That will leave him available for late round draft picks for the more savvy among us.

To get a good idea of how likely it is that Splitter will play in the opener, here is what Popovich had to say: “Sure, it’s definitely in the realm of possibility,” he said. “It’s also possible I might play.”

I don’t take that as much of an endorsement that we should count on seeing either of them in a jersey until maybe a few games into the season, and then only Splitter. Although, Pop probably couldn’t shoot any worse than Roger Mason did last season.

McDyess did have some nice words to get fans excited about Splitter’s eventual court time.

“Today was the first day I saw him get out there and shoot the ball,” forward Antonio McDyess said. “He’s got a nice little touch to him. He picks up on the plays very easy and very quick. That’s very impressive, for a guy to come in and learn this system.

“I’m just as eager as the fans are, just to see what he has. He looks like a guy who can really play. It’s going to be exciting for him to get on the court, and I can’t wait for it to happen.”

I guess we’ll have to live with that for now, but I am sure the Spurs can handle the Pacers in their first game of the season. I just hope Tony Parker doesn’t roll his ankle in the first quarter.

Oh yeah, I also got the NBA preview magazine from Sports Illustrated (finally). They have the Spurs ranked 3rd in the West behind the Lakers (1) and Thunder (2). That means, of course, that the Spurs are ranked #1 in the division. I’ve seen a few writers who rank the Mavs higher, and I’ll at least concede that that”s debatable based on talent. What I don’t get is how a writer or two have Houston ranked higher than the Spurs. If you see this anywhere, immediately write that person’s opinion off. They know not of what they speak. There is no way Houston outperforms San Antonio this season. Yao won’t play but 20-something minutes a game, Ariza – their best perimeter defender who they signed when they let go of Artest – is long gone, and Aaron Brooks and Kevin Martin can score, but can’t guard me. Yeah, I said it.

But aaaanyway… go Spurs.. and Texas Rangers.

The Spurs traded Curtis Jerrells to the Hornets on Monday, about a week after releasing Kirk Penney. On Tuesday they released James Gist. The Jerrells trade makes sense for both teams. New Orleans could use another backup for Chris Paul, and some added backcourt depth, especially with Marcus Thornton struggling and about to lose minutes to Marco Belinelli. Apparently Dell Demps, who left the Spurs front office this summer to become the new Hornets GM, liked Jerrells enough to swap a 2nd-round pick for him. As for Penney, well I guess he wasn’t impressive enough on defense. He can shoot, but the Spurs have shooters. It’s the defense that needs to be tweaked. I am a little surprised though – not that he was cut, but that he was first to go. Gist was never gonna make the team.  I was gonna look up his pre-season numbers but no one cares.

That brings the total of Spurs players to 15, but Pop said he was thinking of cutting it to 13 earlier this pre-season. So who is left? Gary Neal, Bobby Simmons, Alonzo Gee, Marcus Cousin, and Garrett Temple. The Spurs could keep them all and just leave 3 on the inactive list or assign to the Austin Toros D-League team. However, if they cut two more than I would expect … crap I have no idea what to expect. I don’t even know if I have a preference for who they should keep except for Gary Neal who lit it up in the NBA Summer League. Incidentally, he is the only one who has a guaranteed contract, so I doubt that he’s in any danger. Temple’s chances improve with Jerrells gone, and since Parker was so injury prone last season I could see them hanging on to him. The rest I have no idea. Let’s just move on…

Tiago Splitter has yet to play a game for the Spurs, so Pop has declared DeJuan Blair the starting center for the Spurs opener. Also, the Spurs picked up the 4th-year option on George Hill’s contract.

Richard Jefferson suffered a non-serious ankle injury earlier this week. He is expected to play Thursday, so no worries. Tiago Splitter’s injury is lingering, however, and it looks like we will be waiting a little bit longer to see him in action.

Richard Jefferson’s ankle injury turned out to be less severe than feared.

The Spurs’ starting small forward was back on the practice court for the entirety of Tuesday’s practice and has been cleared for Thursday’s first preseason game in Houston.

“I was surprised,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Jefferson’s speedy recovery from the ankle pain that forced him out of Monday’s session. “I thought he was going to be hurting for a day or two, but he came right out, and he was great. He’s fine.”

Rookie center Tiago Splitter has had no such luck recovering from his injury. The strained plantaris muscle in his right calf needs more time to heal before he will be cleared to play.

“He’s a couple weeks (away),” said Popovich, who then admitted to some uncertainty about Splitter’s prognosis. “Ten days. Two weeks. Who knows? It’s been a few days already. Before you know it, it will be a week.”

DeJuan Blair has spent the summer working on his offensive game. Hopefully we get to see some of that on display in the pre-season. Once he gets better at scoring and not picking up stupid fouls it will be nearly impossible for Popovich to sit him.

Quarterbacking a fastbreak was about all Blair couldn’t do in Sunday’s scrimmage.

He spent his summer U-Hauling his offensive game away from the basket, adding a mid-range jumper and other actual basketball moves to his repertoire. It’s a safe bet most of the 7,812 at the AT&T Center — who had not seen Blair in action since last season’s playoff ouster against Phoenix — had no idea what they were witnessing.

Blair’s first two baskets came on quick teardrop jump hooks, which only looked like they’d been lifted from Parker’s bag of tricks.

Blair, who finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, later threw in a 12-foot baseline jumper, then hit a spinning jump-hook on Richard Jefferson.

Now that’s what I like to hear. He is expected to be a major part of the Spurs future, so we need him to hone his skills in every way for when Duncan’s wheels fall off.

In other news, today marks my Spurs of the Moment birthday or one-year anniversary or whatever you wanna call it. It’s been fun so far, and things will only get better this year. Go Spurs Go!

I just felt compelled to touch on a few topics real quick…
A couple of weeks ago it was reported that Allen Iverson could be headed to China to play ball. Is AI’s ego really so out of control that he would rather play in China than be a backup in the NBA? If so, then all I can say is “Wow”… have fun in China sucka.

Greg Oden’s knee is still in shambles. I am gonna say that by roughly November 2012 we will all be on the same page about Oden being a bust.

I like the Golden State Warriors so I am delighted that Don Nelson has finally been relieved of his coaching duties. He seemed to be on a mission to ruin as many careers as possible while in Golden State. He ran off Baron Davis, feuded with Monta Ellis, inexplicably toyed with everyone’s minutes, possibly ruined Anthony Randolph (I think he’ll show and prove in NY tho, if the Knicks don’t trade him to Denver for Melo first), and basically started D-League teams half the time for no apparent reason other than he is a crazy old man.

LeBron is still an ass. Sorry, no link. I think the evidence is everywhere.

The NBA is making Technical Fouls even more stupid than ever. In an effort to eliminate any passion or emotional connection to the game at hand, refs will now be able to call techs on players for punching the air in frustration. I can only assume that glaring at a ref will now draw an automatic 20 game suspension. Atta boy, David Stern.

Ever wonder why Avery wasn’t missed in Dallas?

There was a rumor floating around in cyberspace this week about the Knicks possibly trading Wilson Chandler to the Spurs for their first round pick in 2011. Apparently the Knicks want to use the pick in a Melo trade. I’m down with both of those moves. There may be some truth to it.

Tiago Splitter has a strained plantar muscle in his foot and will miss a week or so. Well that sucks, and hopefully this isn’t the beginnings of the dreaded plantar fasciitis. Stay tuned, but I think he will be back in time for a couple of pre-season games.

Meanwhile, Tim Duncan is apparently in great shape and ready to ride “until the wheels fall off“. The only real question has been exactly when are the wheels going to fall off? Well, not this season it seems. Once Tiago’s foot stops aching, he will be able to provide more support for the Spurs frontcourt along with the veteran McDyess and the emerging talents of DeJuan Blair.

After a summer that included conditioning drills designed to minimize stress on his knees, Duncan is prepared for a truncated ration of regular-season playing time. He hopes for a better start to the Spurs season that won’t scuttle coach Gregg Popovich’s plan to lessen his workload, which is to include an occasional night off in the second game of back-to-back sets.

Some of you may recall that the plan last year was to rest Duncan in the second of back-to-back games, but that didn’t quite pan out while the Spurs were fighting for a playoff spot.

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…

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:

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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.

According to the folks over at Project Spurs, Malik Hairston has signed with Euroleague team Montepaschi Siena in Italy. There’s no mention of the Spurs severing ties with Hairston on Spurs.com or mySA (yet), but a quick look at the Montepaschi Siena website shows Hairston listed on their roster.

Apparently there are just too many shooting guards to wade through for some quality playing time now that Gary Neal and James Anderson are in the picture. I can’t say I blame him for going somewhere else to get paid and build his skills against some new competition.

Goodbye, Malik. It’s been real.