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.

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.

George Hill returned last night from his ankle injury and made the start at point guard. He played 17 minutes and finished with six points on 2-of-4 shooting including a three pointer and 1-of-2 from the line. He also had three assists, one rebound, and a block. He says that the ankle “held up pretty good” and he expects to be ready to go against the Mavs on Wednesday. Understandably, he’d “rather shake off the rust in these last couple of games than in the playoffs.” That’s fine as long as he doesn’t hurt himself and rust on the bench during the first round. I think he’ll be alright and Coach Popovich will probably limit his minutes anyway.

There’s a good chance that Garrett Temple will be on the playoff roster even though Hill and Parker are both back from their injuries. He showed that he can run the team and play pretty mistake-free basketball. He still has plenty of work to do, but is already a decent defender and shooter which is part of why Keith Bogans has been (finally) removed from the starting unit altogether. It wouldn’t surprise me if Temple were to stick around after this season given his ability to rise to the occassion during this past week. He seems to have made a pretty good impression on the coaching staff anyway.

It is Temple’s skill and courage at the offensive end that has taken the Spurs’ coaches somewhat by surprise. After the rookie made 3 of 4 on 3-point shots and scored 11 points in Saturday’s win at the Nuggets, head coach Gregg Popovich pointed to Temple’s line on the box score and said, “We may have found one.”

And to think that the Spurs only had to nix a couple of older, little-used vets like Michael Finley and Theo Ratliff in order to make room for some new and improved players who can contribute right away. It’s been a long and arduous season, no doubt, but there is still plenty to be optimistic about in San Antonio.

In the span of 24 hours, the Spurs went from beating an elite Eastern team in Boston in a blowout, to losing to the lowliest team in the league in New Jersey. I like to blame Keith Bogans, but when you lose to the freaking Nets there’s plenty of blame to go around.

The Boston Blowout: (Spurs over Celtics: 94-73)
Let’s go over the Boston game first… then maybe I will run out of steam and not have to rip the Spurs so much for losing last night. The Spurs handed the Celtics a 21-point loss on Sunday, their worst home loss of the season. San Antonio outscored Boston 33-17 in the 3rd and that was all she wrote. Amazingly, the Spurs had 16 turnovers to only 10 for the Celtics, but a rebounding edge of 48-37 (14-9 offensive) helped the Spurs take command of this game. Also, the Celtics flat out couldn’t shoot, going 37% in the game including 1-of-14 from downtown.

Manu Ginobili was brilliant as usual, dropping 28 points along with seven dimes, three boards, and a steal. He was the high-scorer of the game and played 36 minutes – in a blowout -we’ll get back to those minutes. Tim Duncan was kind of pedestrian in the box score with only eight points and nine rebounds, but he only had to play about 27 minutes. Richard Jefferson had one of his best nights with his first double-double in forever. He finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and three assists. He shot 6-of-11 from the field and played only about 29 minutes. March has been kind to RJ and the glass is starting to look half-full with him in a Spurs uniform. George Hill also finished in double-figures with 15 points, three boards, three assists, and three steals.

For the Celtics, KG had a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards, and Pierce led Boston with 18 points. Then there was Michael Finley. You remember him, right? He’s the old guy who lost his mojo then decided he was worthy of more minutes on a contender or something and requested to be released from the team about a month or so back. Well, he played 13 minutes, went 0-of-2 from the field and committed two fouls. Oh, and he had one rebound. Wow, how could we have let this guy go?

The New Jersey Debacle: (Nets over Spurs: 90-84)
Then, just when it seemed the Spurs were a team to be reckoned with, it all came crashing back down. Manu Ginobili, who played 36 minutes the night before, had to sit out this game with back spasms. When I first heard about him sitting out, I figured it was more precautionary than anything – and it probably was. Afterall, if there is a team to rest players against, it should be the Nets. Well, the Spurs were already down Parker, so sitting Ginobili meant there was no real playmaker in the lineup. The Spurs also lost Roger Mason in the first half to a sprained finger. He played only nine minutes, but was actually having a pretty good game when he was hurt. He finished with seven points on 3-of-5 shooting, making his only three-point attempt, and dishing out two assists. The Spurs still controlled the game until halfway through the 4th quarter, though. Then the Spurs fell victim to miscommunication and carelessness. The Spurs had 16 turnovers for the second straight game, while the Nets had only four. That pretty much neutralized the 53-43 rebounding edge the Spurs had, as well as the fact that New Jersey shot only 37.6% in the game. They ended up with three more shot attempts and four more free-throw attempts – speaking of which, the Spurs only shot 11-of-20 from the stripe compared to New Jersey’s 21-of-24. It all came down to the Nets wanting it more and taking this game more seriously. The NJ players stepped up and played with some pride while the Spurs simply went through the motions and got smashed in the mouth for it.

George Hill led all the Spurs with 19 points, four rebounds, and three assists. Tim Duncan had a double-double with 13 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, and two blocks. He also had four turnovers though – see “4th quarter miscommunication”. Richard Jefferson had a nice game with 16 points, five rebounds, a team-leading five assists, and one block. Matt Bonner finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, three assists, and one steal. DeJuan Blair also had a double-double with 11 points, 11 rebounds, and one assist.

That brings us to Keith Bogans. When the two best backcourt players on the team are sitting out, this is the time to step up your game and carry some of the load. Instead of doing that, Bogans started the game, played 19 minutes, and finished with this stat line: One point, one rebound, three fouls, 0-of-2 from the field, 1-of-4 from the free throw line. Are you kidding me? Can someone check this guy for a pulse? A Heart? A Jump Shot? Something… please? That is ridiculous. I am not saying that Bogans lost the game single-handedly, but I am saying he should be forced to earn minutes behind Malik Hairston and not the other way around. Hairston, by the way, finished with four points on 2-of-4 shooting, and five rebounds in 26 minutes. No, he is not “the answer”, but it sure as hell isn’t Bogans. I just hope Popovich has seen enough so that we don’t have to endure KB in the playoffs.

By the way, I am also growing tired of Antonio McDyess’s so-so games since he went back into the starting lineup. It’s not a huge issue when the Spurs are winning, but I don’t know how much more I can watch him play 20 minutes or so and not break double-digits in scoring or rebounds. He’s had exactly two double-doubles this year, one in November and one earlier in March (against the Knicks). He has only grabbed double-digit rebounds one other time this month and hasn’t scored in double-figures at all outside of that Knicks game. This is not a matter of minutes, or playing Blair over him – Dice just needs to play better, period.

Ginobili To Test Free Agency
From the San Antonio Express-News, Ginobili is ready to test the free agent market this summer. If we lose him this summer then it will go down as strike two for the Spurs management (strike one being the Luis Scola misfire).

“I know I’m going to get a job,” Ginobili said Monday before sitting out the Spurs’ 90-84 loss at New Jersey with back spasms. “It doesn’t matter where or how. I’m not going to be unemployed.”

Spurs Sign Gee … Huh? Who?
This is also from the San Antonio Express-News:

The Spurs signed forward Alonzo Gee for the remainder of the season, bringing their roster to the NBA’s maximum 15.

Gee, a 6-foot-6 rookie from Alabama, became available after Washington declined to pick him up for the rest of the year after he completed the second of two 10-day contracts Sunday.

The Spurs sweetened their offer to Gee, who played for the team’s summer league entry in Las Vegas and spent most of the season with its Development League affiliate in Austin, by including a make-good offer for next season that would bring him to training camp.

Since Gee joins the roster after March 1, he will be ineligible for the playoffs.

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 Good News: The Spurs have won four straight games, are 36-24 (12 games over .500), and are in 7th place in the West still – 5.5 games ahead of Houston (9th) and Memphis (10th).
The Bad News: Tony Parker is out for the next six weeks with a broken hand.

That’s the short and sweet version of events, but I feel compelled to elaborate. Let’s start with the wins.

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Well, as expected, Michael Finley is joining the Boston Celtics. I wish him well and all that jazz, but seriously – does he expect to get that many more minutes in Boston than he did in San Antonio? Paul Pierce barely sits down long enough to tie his shoes, and Marquis Daniels will also be in front of Finley in the rotation. Maybe he just figures the Celtics have a better shot at the Finals in the East than the Spurs do in the West… it’s a fair assessment. Also, Pierce is battling a thumb injury so it’s conceivable that Fin will get some extra minutes if Pierce takes any longer to recover.

There are no more Spurs games until Friday, so for those of us in need of a Spurs fix, I give you another installment of “Odds and Ends”… enjoy.

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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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