Spurs of the Moment

I would say that the Miami Heat Dwyane Wade and Friends were just beat with the Ugly Stick, perhaps the entire Ugly Tree. And they can expect another drubbing on March 14th.

Highlights Below:

Well, the Magic definitely looked like they were an improved team after their recent trades, but unfortunately they decided to do so against the Spurs. It wasn’t even very close as the Spurs lost 123-101. It’s pretty difficult to win games when you allow the other team to score 123 points on 60% shooting. Gilbert Arenas finally came back to life and scored 14 points with nine assists and six boards, and is now looking more like a good fit with Orlando. They also got 15 points from Jason Richardson and 11 from Hedo Turkoglu. I don’t think they will miss Rashard Lewis and his lack of rebounding prowess. I am not worried about them too much, but I do sincerely hope they beat the crap out of Miami from now on.

Anyway, the Spurs were pretty much done in by poor defense and some off-shooting by Ginobili and a few others. Collectively they only shot 42% from the filed. George Hill is still out with a “strained right big toe” (huh?), but Gary Neal has continued to pick up the slack. Neal is now averaging 17.8 points and three rebounds in the past four games that Hill has missed. He’s shooting 47% from the field, 84% from the line, and 42% from downtown (11-for-26). Not too shabby.

Notable Spurs Stat Lines
Tim Duncan: 12 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist. Duncan shot 50% from the field and only played 20 minutes.
Tony Parker: 16 points, 3 assists, 1 rebounds. He also had 3 turnovers… his A/T ratio has been a decent 2.8 this season, but that sucked. He shot 7-0f-12 from the field tho.
Manu Ginobili: 10 points, 6 assists, 5 boards, and 1 block. He only shot 3-of-10 from the field and played just 20 minutes also.
DeJuan Blair: 10 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, and 3 steals. I am still not sure what to make of Blair this season. He can grab potentially 15 boards a game, but just hasn’t been getting close most nights.�
Tiago Splitter: 11 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block. Splitter had one of his better games so far in just over 17 minutes of action.
Richard Jeffferson: 10 points, 6 boards, 2 assists, and a steal. A little disappointing considering he played 30 minutes.
Matt Bonner: 10 points, 6 boards, 1 steal. And in seven fewer minutes than RJ.
Gary Neal: 16 points, 2 rebounds. His scoring has been great, but the lack of peripherals is worrisome. The NBA doesn’t need another scorer/one-trick-pony.

Highlights/Recap:

With the NBA season less than two weeks away, it’s time to unveil my Top 10 Spurs Fantasy Players. I am going to examine their value from a seasonal league and a keeper league perspective, and I will also name a few players who will be in similar draft positions so that you will get an idea of where to value them. Hopefully this information can help you all draft better teams than you would have otherwise… unless you’re in a league with me.

1. Tim Duncan (PF)
Duncan is the obvious choice here. Well, almost obvious. The concerns with Duncan – mainly injury history and age – are the same for the Spurs’ other two top dogs – Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. That’s why I can’t lower him for anyone else on the team, but it is worth mentioning that last year Duncan averaged his lowest rebounds (10.1 per game), points (17.9 per game), and blocks (1.5 per game) ever. His minutes went down to 31:18 per game, and the plan is to lower his minutes more this season as well as rest him in the second of back-to-back games. When he plays he will be the same double-double machine on most nights, but I wouldn’t recommend drafting him any higher than a 3rd round pick. For Power Forwards, I’d pick Amare, Dirk, Bosh, Pau Gasol, or David Lee before Duncan. However, I would pick Duncan before Zach Randolph, Odom, Millsap, or Jeff Green. In a Keeper League, this might be the last year you can get something for him in a trade, and I would avoid him in Keeper drafts unless he’s lingering there in the 6th or 7th round.

2. Manu Ginobili (SG)
Gino moves ahead of Parker for a couple of reasons. First off, he has seemingly shaken off the injury label – the same one that Parker picked up last season. Also, he had a great season last year and seemed rejuvenated on his way to tying his second-highest scoring average at 16.5 per game. He also averaged 3.8 rebounds, 1.4 steals, and a his most ever assists at 4.9 per game. He shoots well enough at 44% from the field and 87% from the charity stripe, plus he knocked down 132 threes last season. In fact, you could make a strong case for drafting him ahead of Duncan. There is one snag though, and that’s that Popovich likes to bring Manu off the bench a lot, so his minutes are usually in the 25-30 per game range. He’s probably about a 5th or 6th round pick, but I wouldn’t laugh at someone for reaching for him late in the 4th round. I wouldn’t pick him before OJ Mayo, Brandon Roy, or Monta Ellis, but I would pick him over Vince Carter, Kevin Martin, or Jason Terry. In a keeper league I would not pick him up earlier than the 6th round.

3. Tony Parker (PG)
Parker’s stats took a nosedive last season as his scoring dropped from 22 points per game to 16 and his assists went from 6.9 to 5.7 per game. For a point guard who is supposed to score and rack up assists, that just won’t do. It’s bad enough that he doesn’t give you much in rebounding or three-pointers, but then there’s the fact that the only stat he went up in was turnovers. I feel like he will bounce back from a rough year that saw him play in only 56 games. Still, I’m cautious when it comes to drafting fantasy teams, so I would not pick him earlier than the 6th round. I’d pick him before Johnny Flynn or Rodney Stuckey, but not before Chauncey Billups or Devin Harris. In keeper leagues, I’d probably leave him alone until the 7th round at the earliest unless all the good point guards are drying up fast.

4. George Hill (G)
Hill started 43 games last year, mostly in place of Tony Parker. However, he also switched to Shooting Guard for several games and even started alongside Parker sometimes. What does that mean? It means that he will get minutes and it means that he showed us that he is capable of putting up at least 12.4 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game. He plays a major role on the Spurs not only because of his ability to fill in at both guard spots in the case of injuries, but also for his defense. This is one the up-and-comers to look for with the Spurs, especially if the Spurs do mess around and trade Tony Parker. In a seasonal league, I’d pick him up no earlier than the 8th round. I’d take him before Richard Hamilton, Jrue Holiday, or Jose Calderon, but I wouldn’t take him before Jameer Nelson, Jason Richardson, or Eric Gordon. In a keeper league, I’d probably reach earlier for him, say in the 7th round.

5. DeJuan Blair (F/C)
Blair averaged 7.8 points and 6.4 boards in his rookie campaign while only playing about 18 minutes per game. This year he could start even more than last year’s 23 games. He has reportedly been working on his shooting all summer and has averaged 13.8 points in the first four games of this pre-season. He’s a double-double waiting to happen. I’d pick him up as early as the 8th round in seasonal leagues, but you may be able to catch people sleeping and grab him later in the maybe the 10th round. I’d pick him before Villanueva, Haslem, or even Elton Brand. I wouldn’t pick him before Scola, Rashard Lewis, or Carl Landry. In Keeper leagues, pick him up earlier, maybe as early as the 7th, just like George Hill.

6. Tiago Splitter (F/C)
Possibly the biggest sleeper this year, I would wager that you can get him in the last round of any draft. There are question marks everywhere with Splitter, especially now that he has some foot problems. Still, I think he will be solid and is worth a late round pick in all leagues. He was the MVP of the Spanish league and should be able to help on the boards immediately. I suspect his scoring will pick up mid-season and he will finish the year strong. In Keeper leagues, you may want to reach for him as early as the 10th round. I’d pick him before Jason Maxiell, Matt Barnes, or Drew Gooden. I wouldn’t pick him before Al Thornton, Blake Griffin, or even the injured Carlos Boozer.

7. Richard Jefferson (SF)
I’m not high on Jefferson these days for fantasy purposes. If he isn’t scoring then he isn’t doing much else for you. I’ll give him some credit for stepping up his efforts on the glass last season, but it’s not enough for me to pick him very high. I’d pick him with a late round pick, maybe as early as the 8th or 9th round if I was in a deep league with people who all knew what they were doing, but most likely I’d pick him up in a late round just because no one else wanted him and he was still there in the 10th or something. I’d pick him before Kelenna Azubuike, Omri Casspi, or Brandon Rush, but not before Josh Howard, Ron Artest, or Corey Maggette. I’d pick him way late in a keeper draft.

8. James Anderson (SG/SF)
Anderson won’t be a significant fantasy contributor this season, but I’d take him with a late round pick in a keeper draft, which is the only reason he ranks above the next two players.

9. Antonio McDyess (PF)
Worth a late round flier, but I wouldn’t pick him up in a keeper league unless I needed another Power Forward really bad.

10. Matt Bonner (PF/C)
I wouldn’t even pick him in a Keeper league except as a late rounder to boost three pointers or have an extra player with center eligibility.

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.

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 is a new and improved rumor involving Tony Parker. This one has him going to the Pacers for Troy Murphy, Brandon Rush, and the Number 10 overall pick in the NBA Draft.

I am not sure what to think of this one just yet. On the one hand, I do not want to see the Spurs part with Tony. I think George Hill is great, but I am not 100% convinced he can replace Tony. Plus I hate the Pacers so there’s that. Then again, Troy Murphy is a great rebounder and can shoot the three – he is basically a one man replacement for Antonio McDyess and Matt Bonner. Brandon Rush is decent player with upside, but I am not sure where (or if) he fits into the Spurs system. Then we come to the #10 overall pick. That’s the most interesting piece of this puzzle. Would they go after Ed Davis, Ekpe Udoh, Cole Aldrich? Try and trade up some more for a shot at someone like DeMarcus Cousins? Who knows? I am somewhat intrigued by this scenario tho, and I trust Popovich and Buford to do what’s in the best interest of the team and winning another championship. We’ll just have to wait and see whow much truth there is to this one.

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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Well, here we go again. It’s time for another showdown with another rival – this time the Phoenix Suns. The Suns (54-28) have home-court in the series, but that means nothing to the Spurs who dismantled Dallas’s team in six games. The Suns shouldn’t be any more difficult to beat than those pesky Mavericks. Let’s look at who we’re facing.

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The Spurs evened their first round series with the Mavs at 1-1 with a convincing 102-88 victory. The Spurs never trailed in the game after jumping out to a 9-0 lead to set things off. Dirk, who had a monster game on Sunday, was off for the most of the night. Mavs fans should have known he wouldn’t be as efficient in game 2, but they are a delusional bunch.

Jefferson Steps Up
RJ bounced back in a big way with 17 first half points. He finished with 19 points and was aggressive all night which was exactly what we needed. He also had seven boards, one assist, and a steal. He needs to bring it every night like this and he did just that against the Mavs in three of their meetings during the season, not to mention the nice run he had while Ginobili was running wild and securing his contract extension. The Mavs now have to find a way to address him and that means things are going to open up for someone else a little bit… hopefully George Hill can get out of the doghouse in Game 3.

Tim Duncan is Still the Man
Duncan went off for 25 points and 17 rebounds and carried the Spurs in the second half, especially when he scored several straight buckets as the Mavs were trying desperately to rally late in the game. Haywood, Dirk, Dampier… no one could really stop him as he shot 11-of-19 from the floor.

Other Spurs Stat Lines
Manu Ginobili: 23 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals – Another great game from the rejuvenated Ginobili. Aside from the three turnovers, he was great.
Tony Parker: 16 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists – Tony is still coming off the bench, but unless George Hill gets his act together, that will soon be over – hell it might be over already.

Hill had seven points, three boards, one assist, and two steals in 31 minutes – not quite what we’re looking for.
McDyess was a little better with nine boards and four points.
Bonner played 20 minutes off the bench and had eight points.
DeJuan Blair, Roger Mason and Garrett Temple barely played.
Keith Bogans never saw the court – thank goodness.

Game Stats
The Spurs had the rebounding edge 51-42
The Spurs had only nine turnovers in this game – they had nearly twice as many in Game 1
The Spurs shot 48% to only 37% for Dallas
The free-throw discrepancy of Game 1 was non-existent in this game

Game 3
The Mavs will surely be looking for stronger efforts from Marion and the Dampier/Haywood combo – especially on defense. The Spurs are shooting very efficiently in this series so far and the Dallas defense has yet to do anything about it. This will be their undoing. Mwahahahaha…

You know how all season long I have been harping on the way the Spurs don’t take care of the ball? You know how I said that the Spurs had to play near mistake-free basketball in order to win this series? Well, last night’s Game 1 pretty much summed it up better than I ever could. A few things went right, but a few more things went wrong for the Spurs. It’s not time to lose hope though. We knew this would be a longer series – no matter who eventually wins. Hopefully the Spurs can bounce back from this loss with a better game plan and better execution, and steal Game 2 in Dallas. Let’s review…

What Went Right
-Points in the Paint: The Spurs had a 50-34 edge here
-FG%: The Spurs shot 50% to the Mavs 47.3%
-FT%: The Spurs shot 85.7% to the Mavs 73.5%
-3PT%: The Spurs shot 36.4% to the Mavs 35.7%
-Manu Ginobili: 26 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals
-Tim Duncan: 27 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists (although no blocks)
-Tony Parker: 18 points, 1 rebound, 4 assists, and 2 steals off the bench

What Went Wrong
-Turnovers: 17 Total – Ginobili had five and Duncan had six.
-Rebounding: Mavs won this battle 45-37 – I am surprised DeJuan Blair only played eight minutes. He was not in foul trouble. Didn’t do anything too stupid, and had four points (2-of-2 shooting), two rebounds, one assist, and one block. I think we could have used more of this type of efficiency.
-Free Throws: The Mavs shot 34 free throws compared to only 14 for the Spurs – I actually counted on this sort of discrepancy when I saw that Bennett Salvatore was one of the officials – when he’s around, always bet on the home team shooting a gang of free throws. Just ask the Mavs about Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Miami a few years ago.
-Dirk Nowitzki: 36 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block – As soon as I saw Matt Bonner enter the game in the 3rd quarter with the score tied I knew trouble was on the horizon. The Mavericks immediately scored six unanswered points with Dirk capping off the mini-run with a shot over Bonner’s outstretched hand. It does no good to stick your hand up as if you are contesting Dirk’s shot if your feet are glued to the ground. That’s how Bonner plays defense – flat-footed, stuck to the ground, waving his hands in front of his defender. That is not going to stop a lot of players, especially Dirk.
-George Hill:  Hill was 0-for-2 from the field with zero points, two fouls, two turnovers, and three rebounds.
-Richard Jefferson: Jefferson wasn’t that bad, he just wasn’t that good. He had only four points, but he did manage to grab seven rebounds, and he played defense better than Bonner or Bogans.
-Keith Bogans: I thought this guy was supposed to be a defensive player…? He did absolutely nothing but watch Caron Butler make shots over his head.
-Roger Mason: 0-for-2, one assist, four fouls – ’nuff said.

What Needs to Happen
-George Hill needs to show up. I don’t wanna hear about his ankle. I wanna see him scoring and making some stops late in the game.
-Richard Jefferson needs to be more assertive. The rebounding is great, but he needs to attack the basket and help balance out the free-throw attempts.
-Take care of the #$!% ball! Can’t say enough about this. There is no reason for our two best players to combine for 11 turnovers in the game. None.
-Unleash The Beast! Popovich needs to quit punking out and let DeJuan Blair loose. The Spurs can out-rebound the Mavs and rough them up a little in the process, but we need someone who isn’t afraid to be physical and fight for loose balls – that’s Blair.