Spurs of the Moment

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.

The Spurs slapped around the Miami Dwyane Wades a few days ago. It’s a pre-season game and James and Bosh both sat out most of it, but it still feels good for the Spurs to be the first to beat them.  DeJuan Blair continued to have a solid pre-season with 13 points and seven boards.

In other news, Popovich is beginning to look at a new approach to his backup small forward situation. It’s become obvious that the “Next Bruce Bowen” approach will net little more than another Keith Bogans disaster, so he is now looking more at the offensive firepower side of things.

To find exactly what he’s looking for, Popovich would need to build a time machine.

“If I had my druthers, and it was a perfect world, I want Bruce Bowen to be 28 years old and back on our team,” Popovich said, echoing a persistent preseason theme.

Seeing as the world is imperfect, Popovich doesn’t always have his druthers and Bowen is 39 years old and wears bow ties on ESPN for a living, the search continues.

What Popovich wants most in a backup to Richard Jefferson is a defensive menace who could be, in the coach’s words, “a pain in the ass.” He isn’t certain anybody on Sunday’s charter flight to Mexico City for Tuesday’s game against the Clippers fits that description.

At this point, Popovich will settle for something less.

“If I can get somebody who can at least spell defense and say the word once in a while, then I’ll know they have some interest in it,” he said.

…

Absent the next Bowen, however, Popovich will accept the next Peja Stojakovic.

“The worse they are defensively, the better they’d better be able to shoot,” Popovich said. “Or there’s no reason to have them around.”

Uh oh. That sounds to me like more people will be getting cut than I originally thought.

Here are the ten players we know will be back:
1. Tim Duncan
2. Tony Parker
3. Manu Ginobili
4. George Hill
5. Tiago Splitter
6. DeJuan Blair
7. Richard Jefferson
8. Antonio McDyess
9. James Anderson
10. Matt Bonner

Beyond them, it’s hard to say who we should bother getting too attached to. There are eight other players vying for a spot:
Kirk Penney
Gary Neal
Bobby Simmons
Alonzo Gee
Garrett Temple
Marcus Cousin
Curtis Jerrells
James Gist

If the Spurs keep a maximum of 15 then the three who I think will get cut are Cousin, Gist and Jerrells.
If they cut down to 13, then say goodbye to two of these guys: Temple, Simmons or Gee.

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.

The Spurs finished 5-0 in the NBA Summer League this past week. That’s not really saying much in the grand scheme of things, but it beats going 0-5 any day. The Spurs’ top draft pick, James Anderson, did not participate in the Summer League due to a bad hamstring. Well that bodes well for the future. OK, fine, I will reserve judgement a little longer. Also, it’s worth noting that none of the Spurs stars, young or old, were on this year’s team and they still handled up. Nice..

Here are the averages of the best performers for the Spurs in this year’s Summer League:
Tyler Wilkerson: 12 ppg, 6.5 rpg – Best game: 20 points, 9 rebounds, one assist.
Alonzo Gee: 14.2 ppg – Best Game: 24 points, four rebounds, four steals, one assist.
Gary Neal: 16 ppg – Best Game: 25 points, two rebounds, two assists, two steals
Curtis Jerrells had a 20 point game, but not much else of note, and we saw him last season so we kind of know what he can do.

I like Gary Neal so far, and he has made a strong case for himself with his three-point shooting, and Wilkerson has some potential as well since he can grab some boards. I like Gee’s scoring, but his turnovers (3.8 per game) are terrible.
James Gist sprained his wrist and missed the second half of Summer League play. The injury may have hurt his chances of moving on with the Spurs this season, and it’s a shame he couldn’t compete a little longer. We’ll have to wait and see I guess.
Neal, Wilkerson, Gee, and Jerrells will probably all be at the Spurs training camp.

I’m not going to bother with an elaborate recap today. If you have ESPN or live in LA or San Antonio then you probably saw the game. It went something like this:

Tim Duncan shooting like Roger Mason on a bad day- check.
Kobe Bryant playing like Kobe Bryant – check.
Ron Artest stealing the ball at will – check.
Spurs falling apart in the second half – check.

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The Spurs finished their pre-season at 3-3 after dropping in the finale against the Pacers on Friday night 114-112. George Hill scored 21 off the bench, while Ginobili was off target all night shooting 2-10 from the field and missing all six three-point attempts. The good thing about Gino is that he will show up in the box score elsewhere when this happens. During this game, he also had three rebounds, three assists, a steal, and a block. Tim Duncan flirted with a triple double in 23 minutes with 15 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. DeJaun Blair continued his impressive pre-season campaign by tallying nine points, six rebounds, three steals and a block in 16 minutes.

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LeBron James, recovering from Influenza A, returned to the Cavs lineup and scored 22 points to go along with six rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Spurs last night. Tony Parker finished with 22 points also, and grabbed three rebounds while dishing out seven assists. Duncan had 13 points and nine rebounds, but didn’t play in the second half. Ginobili, Jefferson and Jerrells were all DNP-CDs. DeJuan Blair only played 10 minutes, but he had a decent stat line still: 7 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and a perfect 3-of-3 from the field. Coach Popovich took the night off and let his assistants handle the game. The replacement refs called 61 fouls. Yes, you read that right. George Hill and Tony Parker combined to shoot 20 free-throws by themselves. These replacement refs are some whistle happy dudes to say the least.

Now let’s talk cuts. Read more »

Well, so much for the Dwayne Jones era in San Antonio. The Spurs waived him yesterday and are now down to 17 players on the roster. I expect Marcus Haislip to be the next on the chopping block. After that it’s a toss-up between Malik Hairston and Curtis Jerrells. They’ll probably carry Theo Ratliff, Marcus Williams, and the Jerrells/Hairston survivor on the inactive roster.

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    The NBA season doesn’t officially begin until October 27th, but the pre-season action is now underway. The Spurs will take on the Houston Rockets tonight in their pre-season opener before facing Olympiakos on Friday. That’s right, folks, Olympiakos. Please try to contain your enthusiasm. We’ll get to those games in due time, but for now, let’s look at what the Spurs did over the summer.

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