Spurs of the Moment

In a move that came as a surprise to pretty much no one, the Spurs have waived Antonio McDyess. We kind of knew he was going to retire since last season, but it’s a little strange that it took this long for things to materialize. “Dice” was a decent big man for the Spurs over the last couple of seasons, but he’s been on a steady decline for years now and only averaged just over five points and five rebounds in his two seasons with the Spurs. This should clear the way for more playing time for DeJuan Blair and Tiago Splitter.

Speaking of which…

The Spurs lost to the Rockets in their first preseason game this past Saturday. Blair had 16 points and seven boards in 26 minutes while Splitter scored 13 points to go with three boards in 27 minutes. Tim Duncan and Tony Parker didn’t play in the contest, but recently signed point guard TJ Ford did play. He finished with eight points (1-of-5 from the field) and six assists in 26 minutes of action.

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 signed their top draft pick, James Anderson, today. All that’s left is for us to see him actually play a game for the Spurs. Hopefully his hammy stops acting up because I need to see something so that I don’t think the Spurs wasted the pick.

Speaking of which, the home pre-season schedule was announced and the first game will be against the Miami Dwyane Wade and Friends on Saturday, Oct. 9. Tickets go on sale tomorrow. I really don’t know what else to call that team anymore. It’s clearly the Dwyane Wade show featuring LeBron James and Chris Bosh. Wade is the only true alpha-dog on that squad because it’s painfully obvious now that LeBron doesn’t have the requisite testicular fortitude and Bosh has always been a second banana playing first banana for a wack team.

There’s also a good read on Spurs.com about the impact of the Tiago Splitter signing. For all the scheming and salary dumping and shenanigans going on in the league, the Spurs are quietly putting together the pieces of a legit contender for 2011.

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.

Read more »

The Spurs erased the Heat’s 11-point lead in the 4th quarter on Sunday in a game with no Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili or even Dwyane Wade for that matter. The highlight? Probably DeJuan Blair once again. He played nearly 26 minutes off the bench and had 28 points, four assists and two steals. He only had four rebounds this time, and only one defensive board. Still, I can’t help but feel like the teams that passed him are going to be kicking themselves by Thanksgiving (if not already). *COUmemphisGH*

Read more »

    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.

Read more »