Spurs of the Moment

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.

It’s been weird these past few weeks. I have been meaning to post some thoughts on James Anderson and the draft as well as my thoughts on the LeBron James madness. Also, I’m not ignoring comments posted, they just aren’t working at the moment. But anyway, I figured at the very least I could do a quick update about a few signings that are Spurs related.

First and foremost, Tiago Splitter could be a Spur today. He is supposed to take a physical and then the buyout will commence. I, for one, am excited. This is the exact type of player that the Spurs have been desperate for over the past couple of years. We’ve had to endure several players from Antonio McDyess and Kurt Thomas to Fabricio Oberto and Matt Bonner trying to man the middle for the Spurs, and none of them were quite the answer. I think we have reason to be optimistic on this one.

That reminds me, the Spurs also re-signed Matt Bonner. I know it will be hard to contain the joy you are feeling at that statement, but please try to settle down.

On another note, the Dallas Mavericks are accepting some of the scraps off the Spurs table and are close to signing Ian Mahinmi. Good luck with that. We shall dub him Erick Dampier 2.0

There are several players besides the ones listed below who could potentially be drafted by the Spurs, but I have selected the ones that I found the most likely. Personally, I am for Whiteside or Crawford, but I trust the Spurs to get the most bang for their buck with the 20th pick. Here are the players that I consider the top prospects for the Spurs in this year’s draft.

Solomon Alabi 7-1 C Floirda St.
Alibi is already a controversial pick as the debate about whether he is a potential steal or potential bust rages on. He certainly has the height and raw talent to lure any scouts in with his upside, but will he be able to cultivate his game and thrive in the NBA? Air Alamo weighed in on the debate and had this to say:

In our opinion, whoever the Spurs select with the 20th pick will serve as an early indicator of how negotiations with Tiago Splitter are faring this off season. In our latest Mock Draft we have the Spurs taking Solomon Alabi from Florida State. Given Pop’s recent non-committal statements on that topic we’ve gone with what we think is a very intriguing prospect at this stage in the draft.  Alabi has only been playing organized basketball for about 7 years now, but has been pretty fully immersed in the world of USA-style hoops for that entire period of time (unlike say Ian Mahinmi).  Alabi is listed at 7’1” tall. He has been measured with a wingspan of 7’3” and a standing reach of 9’1”.  This length has served him well at the collegiate level but he relies a bit too much on that alone for his success.  He won’t have quite the same advantage at the pro level and his relative light weight (241 lbs) could be a problem.

Larry Sanders 6-10 PF/C VCU
Sanders is widely considered an “athletic freak” – and yes, that’s a compliment. He also is drawing comparisons to Theo Ratliff – the All-Star version, not the one the Spurs traded last season. Courtside with the Spurs chimed in about Larry Sanders and had this to say:

Sanders — a 6-foot-10 power forward/center not to be confused with a character Garry Shandling played on HBO — improved in each of his three college seasons, cresting at 14.1 points and 9.1 rebounds as a junior. His long arms and athleticism make him a natural rebounder, and he can finish around the rim with authority. Sanders has the ability to run the floor and finish breaks, fitting a role the Spurs have been looking to fill (mostly unsuccessfully) essentially since David Robinson retired.

Sanders is still raw as an offensive player — he lacks even the semblance of a post move — but scouts are optimistic he can polish his game given NBA experience.

The website NBAdraft.net projects Sanders as a Theo Ratliff type, which is a compliment. At his peak, Ratliff was an All-Star.

Daniel Orton 6-10 C Kentucky
Daniel Orton was a trendy pick in recent months, but he may be someone that the Spurs ultimately decide to pass on. His stock is dropping according to Yahoo Sports’s Adrian Wojnarowski:

There’s a great deal of uncertainty and caution surrounding Kentucky center Daniel Orton, who has cancelled several workouts in the final days before the draft, but has tentatively planned a visit with Indiana on Tuesday.

League executives say Orton has been out of shape and struggling with knee issues during the predraft process. Orton, a 6-foot-10 freshman, had planned to hire agent Raymond Brothers, but sources said an internal family struggle over control has kept him without formal representation. With so much uncertainty surrounding Orton, he could face a steep drop Thursday night.

Orton has been working out with former NBA coach Bob Hill. As one Eastern Conference executive said Monday, “There are too many red flags right now.”

Hassan Whiteside 6-11 PF/C Marshall
Hassan Whiteside is high on a lot of peoples’ lists largely due to his defensive prowess. I’ve seen folks predicting everything between Theo Ratliff in his prime to Marcus Camby, which are both intriguing possibilities. Pounding the Rock mock drafted Whiteside and had this to say:

Whiteside is arguably the ‘Best Player Available’.  He is a shot blocker, leading the NCAA last year in blocks per game, per 40 possessions, and per 40 minutes.  All Spurs fans agree that a shot-blocking big is something we want.  He’s a good rebounder and efficient scorer as well.  His defense isn’t great, but this draft pick is for depth, potential, athleticism, and the future.  I guess the other two serious contenders for C are Daniel Orton and Larry Sanders.  Most of our bigs are currently on the shorter side of 6’10″ so I’d prefer 7’0″ Whiteside to 6’9″ Sanders.  I’m picking Whiteside over Orton for his shot blocking.  By the way, I would have taken Alabi over Whiteside.

Jordan Crawford, 6-4 SG, Xavier
Crawford is the only Guard on this list. The main reason is that the Spurs let Michael Finley go, and should be considering letting Roger Mason go, and need someone besides George Hill to pick up the slack in the backcourt for Ginobili and Parker. Crawford could very easily be the perimeter scorer that the Spurs wanted Mason to be last season. Bill Simmons evaulated him after the NCAA tournament, and he puts it all in perspective better than I ever could.

On the flip side, Xavier’s Jordan Crawford didn’t just score 55 points in the first two rounds or make a variety of clutch plays. He got to his spots. Those were 55 relatively easy points. Crawford had been pigeonholed as a “talented with a crummy attitude” second-round prospect, but those two games changed everything. He certainly didn’t hurt his cause Thursday night, pouring in 32 points and making a game-saving 3 in the first overtime. I guarantee every Kansas State fan was petrified of him. So why couldn’t he sneak into the top 20 of this year’s draft? How many NBA 2-guards make 40 percent of their 3s AND get to their spots? Trust me, it’s not a long list. Of course …

 …

Back to Crawford. By all accounts, it sounds like he had trouble suppressing his inner a-hole this season. Maybe dunking on LeBron last summer (and the subsequent Internet firestorm) was detrimental to him. But that’s a defensible character flaw. And a fixable one. These are young kids. They are easily influenced. They have no experience handling adversity or prosperity. Heck, on my podcast this week, Ohio State’s Mark Titus discussed how much Evan Turner changed since his freshman year, when he played with a chip on his shoulder and clashed with teammates and coaches. Now he doesn’t. What happened? He got older. He matured. He learned how to deal with other people.

What’s the difference between being a fixable head case and an unfixable head case? It’s simple, actually. You can’t become un-lazy. You can’t go from being clueless to having a clue. You can’t go from crazy to sane. You can’t go from selfish to selfless. You can’t go from soft to tough. You can’t go from being a knucklehead to being savvy. You can’t go from ADD to totally zoned in. You can’t go from being a DEFCON 1 hothead to a soothing presence. But you can absolutely mature from “being an a-hole” to “not being an a-hole.” Crawford may have had issues earlier in the season, but all we saw in the tournament was heart and swagger. That has to count for something.

Damion James 6-7 SF Texas
Last but not least, is Damion James. James is the player that 48MinutesofHell selected in their mock draft:

So we can see that the Spurs’ wing situation is thin. Jefferson will either be traded or wished-well when his contract expires. Gee and Hairston are interesting, but uncertain. And the Spurs need to upgrade their collective skill set at the 3.

What does Damion James does well is enough to justify the 20th pick. He can guard three positions, is a passable spot-up shooter, and can supply a brand of low-minute, high-energy hoops that necessarily enamores players to coaches. Beyond this, James receive high praise for his work ethic and professionalism, two things the Spurs value as basketball skills and not merely character traits.

So there you have it, the players I think are the most likely candidates to be Spurs in the next few days, and the case for each of them. We’ll see how it all plays out and in the meantime keep our fingers crossed for Tiago Splitter’s arrival in San Antonio.

So the mighty Spurs have been unceremoniously swept out of the playoffs by the Suns of all teams. The Suns who San Antonio beat mercilessly for a decade. I did not expect this. No one expected this. Anyone who says they expected this is a liar or a fool, albeit an inadvertently correct fool. I can only take solace in the fact that the Spurs did not go easily, but fought hard every game. There is a world of difference between the way the Spurs were swept and the way Atlanta is getting swept by Orlando. One is disappointing, the other is just plain ugly.

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Aaron Brooks wins Most Improved Player, George Hill and Kevin Durant finish tied for second.

Brooks earned 403 of a possible 615 points, including 62 first-place votes, from a panel of 123 sports writers and broadcasters. Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City and George Hill of San Antonio tied for second with 101 total points.

So for those of you who still don’t know who this George Hill guy is, well you should know after Game 4. Still, he was creating a stir around the league before now and this is just further evidence that the Spurs know how to draft talent and will not fade into obscurity as the Big Three get older.

Spurs’ edge over Mavs: Fear not

Blair celebrated his 21st birthday just three days earlier. Hill will turn 24 in another week. The Spurs don’t usually win with players so young and with their stars contributing so little. Still, all of their championship teams owned the same trait: From Mario Elie to Stephen Jackson, from Steve Kerr to Bruce Bowen, from Malik Rose to Fabricio Oberto, the Spurs’ supporting casts were cut from the same sturdy fiber that Hill and Blair now share. There’s a reason why Jaren Jackson left the Spurs with a championship ring and Hedo Turkoglu didn’t. To survive in San Antonio, one must not only withstand the heat of the playoffs, but also Popovich’s personal fire.

More props given to Hill and Blair. It seems that finally more people are noticing that the Spurs have not just stood around and waited for their stars to get old while adding on a vet here and there (McDyess, Jefferson). In fact, the Spurs have been developing other talented players too like Malik Hairston and maybe even Ian Mahinmi, not to mention other players they picked up during the season such as point guard Garrett Temple.

Spurs’ Blair keeps his head in game

Knowing that the slightest hint of bravado might have given referees an excuse to call a double technical — the better to clean up some of the chippiness that characterized the second half of the Spurs’ 92-89 victory — Blair beat a hasty retreat toward the Spurs’ bench.

One more reason we have come to like Blair so much. Not only is he a maniac on the glass, prone to ripping off the arms of future-draft busts, and a beacon of hope to ACL-less people the world over, but he has a rare trait known as “common sense” that keeps him from getting into trouble with the refs during big games.

Dallas Morning News columnist: Spurs know how to win, Mavs don’t

This isn’t about effort or desire or any other intangible. This is about the Spurs, a franchise with championship pedigree, finding ways to win, while the Mavs, a franchise with a history of choking in the playoffs, finds ways to lose.

Uh oh, don’t look now but it sounds like trouble in paradise. The home team is getting berated by their own newspaper, but it’s not like they don’t deserve it. You can only rip out a city’s heart with uninspired play for so long before they show up with pitchforks and torches.

Ginobili will sit out World Championships

“My body kind of needs it, and I want to play the (2012) Olympics, so I decided to pass on this one.

“Besides, there’s another little factor here: My wife is going to have twins in a month. Those are the times you don’t want to miss. Both, one next to the other, makes me take this tough decision.”

 Thank goodness. I figured his better sense would prevail over his competitive side this summer. Plus it looks like the Spurs have a chance of going deep in the playoffs this year so he will need the rest.

The Spurs got blown out by the Magic 110-84. This game was all kinds of ugly as the Spurs got outscored in every quarter and were particularly bad in the 3rd when all hopes of a comeback completely disappeared. Manu Ginobili and Richard Jefferson were the only two Spurs players who gave us any hope early on. RJ was the best Spurs for once, and he finished with 20 points, six rebounds, three assists, one steal, and one block. Ginobili had 18 points, three rebounds, and three assists.

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The Spurs have won seven of their last eight games and are on a three game winning streak again after that debacle against Cleveland. OK, so they only played the Clippers, T-Wolves, and Knicks, but as the Knicks showed our North Texas Nemesis, if you don’t come to play, there are no easy wins in this league – not even against the cellar dwellers.

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Today the Spurs signed guard Cedric Jackson to a 10-day contract. Jackson played some forgettable minutes earlier this year for the Cavaliers. The Spurs have a little room to sign someone after releasing Finley, and since Parker is out for the next 4-8 weeks with a broken hand, and Mason’s shot is M.I.A., the Spurs had to take any opportunity to add some scoring punch off the bench. I don’t know how much he will factor in, but every little bit helps – at least in theory. In reality, Pop will give him like two minutes of garbage time against the Knicks and that will be all we ever see of him. I just hope he doesn’t pull a Mahinmi and proceed to turn the ball over three times before getting yanked.

Then again, maybe we’ll get lucky…
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The Spurs lost 97-95 last night to the Shaq-less and LeBron-less Cavaliers who also played with only 1/2 of Antawn Jamison. How did it come to this? Well, I’m glad you asked. Allow me to break it down box-score-commentary style.

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The Spurs won the second game of a back-to-back, played defense, and shot 50.6% from the field. On the one hand, I’m very happy with the win. On the other hand, I shouldn’t be so shocked when they play well – especially against a team that is 9th in the West and is missing their best player. Then again, screw it, I am gonna enjoy the win since it’s all the Spurs basketball we are gonna get until Friday when they play the Hornets again.

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