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.

Well, the trade deadline was disappointing for Spurs fans. We managed to get slightly worse defensively by trading Theo Ratliff, an under-used shot blocker, for next to nothing. Technically we traded him for a conditional second-round pick in 2016. I guess it won’t matter in the grand scheme of things, Ratliff was not going to make or break the Spurs season. Read more »

The latest rumor (from Adrian Wojnarowski’s twitter) is that the Spurs are trading Theo Ratliff to the Bobcats for a future pick. I really hope that isn’t the extent of the Spurs activity today.

I’ll update this post when more info is available… for now I am far from elated. (2/18/10 3:34 PM)

2/18/04  4:04 pm:

Well, it’s official. The Spurs have indeed traded Ratliff to Charlotte, re-uniting him with former coach Larry Brown. Brown was Ratliff’s coach when he had his only All-Star season in Philly. According to Courtside with the Spurs:

The Spurs are expected to receive a future draft pick from the Bobcats, giving them some relief from the luxury tax they will have to play this summer. Under NBA collective bargaining rules, only $825,497 of Ratliff’s veteran minimum salary of $1.3 million counted against their salary cap. Combined with the recent buyout of Marcus Haislip’s two-year deal, the Spurs will have saved about $1.7 million in luxury tax payments.

Well, so much for optimism. Let’s just hope that this group gets it together in the coming weeks.

I am really not a fan of the way Mason is becoming so expendable. There are players I would much rather see get moved than Mason (Finley, Ratliff, Bogans, McDyess, Bonner, Jefferson). Unfortunately, Mase has to look out for his best interests, and it is in his best interest to play more consistently since he is a free agent this summer and would like to get paid. Can’t blame him for that, and I appreciate a player who doesn’t pout on the bench and give half-ass efforts just because he doesn’t get his way. Any Spurs fan should really hate to lose a guy like that. Read more »

Coach Popovich is suggesting a change with the D-League rules that is essentially robbing Ian Mahinmi of getting any shot at playing time.

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I suppose it’s not a foregone conclusion that a team will create a highlight reel every time they play the T-Wolves, but the Spurs sure made it look easy. I highly recommend the video below as evidence of this. The Spurs finally looked like a team comfortable with each other and were firing on all cylinders last night. The final score of 117-99 was three points more than I predicted, and the Wolves scored 10 more points than I expected, but I can’t be the least bit bothered by that after the way the Spurs handled business. It wasn’t just that they won, but that they were so fun to watch. If this chemistry is a glimpse of what’s in store for us down the stretch then watch out LA, Dallas and all other would-be contenders. Above all, one player stood out the most, and I guess by the title above you know who that was. Manu Ginobili was one rebound shy of a triple-double and turned down Popovich’s offer to stay in the game with a few minutes left to try and get it. Statistics, Triple-Doubles. A Jedi craves not these things.

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The Spurs beat the Clippers 103-87. The Spurs led by as many as 25, only had seven turnovers, and held the Clips to 43.9% shooting. Once again, they did what they were supposed to do – beat a weak team, score over 100 points, shoot better than 50%, and rest Tim Duncan (he only played 25 minutes). I’m not impressed or thrilled by any means, but the lack of enthusiasm is better than being filled with bewildered disappointment. Let’s see how they finish the year before we get too excited.

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