Spurs of the Moment

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:

The Spurs dusted off the Indiana Pacers with a 122-109 victory. Tiago Splitter didn’t play since he is still dealing with his foot injury, but the surprise of the night was James Anderson who went for 10 points with an assist and a steal to boot. He played 27 minutes off the bench and was actually pretty decent. We may have something here.

The Good:
-Three Point Shooting: The Spurs shot 9-of-20 from downtown with contributions from Ginobili, Anderson, Hill, and Jefferson. Bobby Simmons tried but was 0-for-2. Let’s not count his shenanigans and say the Spurs were 9-of-18 from downtown.
-Free Throw Shooting: The Spurs shot 81% from the stripe going 29-for-36.

The Bad:
-Defense: The Pacers shot 53% from the field. That will never do. A better defensive team would have made things more difficult for the Spurs in the 4th quarter and maybe pulled off the win. Also just letting Indiana hang around so long was a little annoying. This game almost looked like it was going to be close until the final buzzer. The Spurs managed to pull away in the 4th, but they need to pounce on teams early, especially weaker ones.

Notable Spurs Stat Lines
Tim Duncan: 23 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 4 blocks. Did I mention the 10-of-12 shooting? Why people continue to harp on his age I don’t know, but he looked just fine in this game.
Manu Ginobili: 22 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block. He also went 5-of-9 from beyond the arc. Gotta love his all around game.
Tony Parker: 20 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals. Of course he had to throw in his usual 4 turnovers, but otherwise he had a good game.
Richard Jefferson: 16 points, 2 boards, 2 dimes, and a steal. Not bad at all.
George Hill: 16 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal. Hill did a great job of getting to the foul line and went 7-of-9.
DeJuan Blair: 9 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals. Blair started at center and I honestly expected a little bit more, but I did like seeing him go 5-of-5 from the free throw line. Maybe he will improve on last season’s 55% free throw shooting.

Notable Pacers stat Lines
Danny Granger: 26 points, 4 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals. 10-of-18 from the field and 3 three-pointers. Not a bad night for their main guy.
Roy Hibbert: 28 points, 9 boards, 3 assists, 4 blocks. 10-of-17 from the field and 8-of-8 from the line. Hibbert looked good and put up better numbers than Granger.
Darren Collison: 19 points, 8 assists, 2 rebounds. A solid Pacers debut from D.C.

Coyote Ugly
The Pacers Bench:
They combined for 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting. They went 2-for-9 from downtown and 3-for-6 from the line. The high note was they played some defense with six steals and a block, but they helped shoot Indy out of the game. Outside of TJ Ford they were terrible.

 I know we’ve all been anxious to see Tiago Splitter play for the Spurs, but it looks it will have to wait a little bit longer. Popovich has already named DeJuan Blair the starting center for the opener, and Splitter’s foot injury will likely keep him from suiting up at all right away. It makes sense to not rush him into action, but it is definitely frustrating to wait a few years for a draft pick to finally make his way to the league only to be sidelined almost immediately. This is good news for fantasy drafts though, since most people will not want to take a flier on a Euro-league import who hasn’t made any noise in pre-season due to injury. That will leave him available for late round draft picks for the more savvy among us.

To get a good idea of how likely it is that Splitter will play in the opener, here is what Popovich had to say: “Sure, it’s definitely in the realm of possibility,” he said. “It’s also possible I might play.”

I don’t take that as much of an endorsement that we should count on seeing either of them in a jersey until maybe a few games into the season, and then only Splitter. Although, Pop probably couldn’t shoot any worse than Roger Mason did last season.

McDyess did have some nice words to get fans excited about Splitter’s eventual court time.

“Today was the first day I saw him get out there and shoot the ball,” forward Antonio McDyess said. “He’s got a nice little touch to him. He picks up on the plays very easy and very quick. That’s very impressive, for a guy to come in and learn this system.

“I’m just as eager as the fans are, just to see what he has. He looks like a guy who can really play. It’s going to be exciting for him to get on the court, and I can’t wait for it to happen.”

I guess we’ll have to live with that for now, but I am sure the Spurs can handle the Pacers in their first game of the season. I just hope Tony Parker doesn’t roll his ankle in the first quarter.

Oh yeah, I also got the NBA preview magazine from Sports Illustrated (finally). They have the Spurs ranked 3rd in the West behind the Lakers (1) and Thunder (2). That means, of course, that the Spurs are ranked #1 in the division. I’ve seen a few writers who rank the Mavs higher, and I’ll at least concede that that”s debatable based on talent. What I don’t get is how a writer or two have Houston ranked higher than the Spurs. If you see this anywhere, immediately write that person’s opinion off. They know not of what they speak. There is no way Houston outperforms San Antonio this season. Yao won’t play but 20-something minutes a game, Ariza – their best perimeter defender who they signed when they let go of Artest – is long gone, and Aaron Brooks and Kevin Martin can score, but can’t guard me. Yeah, I said it.

But aaaanyway… go Spurs.. and Texas Rangers.

The Spurs traded Curtis Jerrells to the Hornets on Monday, about a week after releasing Kirk Penney. On Tuesday they released James Gist. The Jerrells trade makes sense for both teams. New Orleans could use another backup for Chris Paul, and some added backcourt depth, especially with Marcus Thornton struggling and about to lose minutes to Marco Belinelli. Apparently Dell Demps, who left the Spurs front office this summer to become the new Hornets GM, liked Jerrells enough to swap a 2nd-round pick for him. As for Penney, well I guess he wasn’t impressive enough on defense. He can shoot, but the Spurs have shooters. It’s the defense that needs to be tweaked. I am a little surprised though – not that he was cut, but that he was first to go. Gist was never gonna make the team.  I was gonna look up his pre-season numbers but no one cares.

That brings the total of Spurs players to 15, but Pop said he was thinking of cutting it to 13 earlier this pre-season. So who is left? Gary Neal, Bobby Simmons, Alonzo Gee, Marcus Cousin, and Garrett Temple. The Spurs could keep them all and just leave 3 on the inactive list or assign to the Austin Toros D-League team. However, if they cut two more than I would expect … crap I have no idea what to expect. I don’t even know if I have a preference for who they should keep except for Gary Neal who lit it up in the NBA Summer League. Incidentally, he is the only one who has a guaranteed contract, so I doubt that he’s in any danger. Temple’s chances improve with Jerrells gone, and since Parker was so injury prone last season I could see them hanging on to him. The rest I have no idea. Let’s just move on…

Tiago Splitter has yet to play a game for the Spurs, so Pop has declared DeJuan Blair the starting center for the Spurs opener. Also, the Spurs picked up the 4th-year option on George Hill’s contract.

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.

Richard Jefferson suffered a non-serious ankle injury earlier this week. He is expected to play Thursday, so no worries. Tiago Splitter’s injury is lingering, however, and it looks like we will be waiting a little bit longer to see him in action.

Richard Jefferson’s ankle injury turned out to be less severe than feared.

The Spurs’ starting small forward was back on the practice court for the entirety of Tuesday’s practice and has been cleared for Thursday’s first preseason game in Houston.

“I was surprised,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Jefferson’s speedy recovery from the ankle pain that forced him out of Monday’s session. “I thought he was going to be hurting for a day or two, but he came right out, and he was great. He’s fine.”

Rookie center Tiago Splitter has had no such luck recovering from his injury. The strained plantaris muscle in his right calf needs more time to heal before he will be cleared to play.

“He’s a couple weeks (away),” said Popovich, who then admitted to some uncertainty about Splitter’s prognosis. “Ten days. Two weeks. Who knows? It’s been a few days already. Before you know it, it will be a week.”

DeJuan Blair has spent the summer working on his offensive game. Hopefully we get to see some of that on display in the pre-season. Once he gets better at scoring and not picking up stupid fouls it will be nearly impossible for Popovich to sit him.

Quarterbacking a fastbreak was about all Blair couldn’t do in Sunday’s scrimmage.

He spent his summer U-Hauling his offensive game away from the basket, adding a mid-range jumper and other actual basketball moves to his repertoire. It’s a safe bet most of the 7,812 at the AT&T Center — who had not seen Blair in action since last season’s playoff ouster against Phoenix — had no idea what they were witnessing.

Blair’s first two baskets came on quick teardrop jump hooks, which only looked like they’d been lifted from Parker’s bag of tricks.

Blair, who finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, later threw in a 12-foot baseline jumper, then hit a spinning jump-hook on Richard Jefferson.

Now that’s what I like to hear. He is expected to be a major part of the Spurs future, so we need him to hone his skills in every way for when Duncan’s wheels fall off.

In other news, today marks my Spurs of the Moment birthday or one-year anniversary or whatever you wanna call it. It’s been fun so far, and things will only get better this year. Go Spurs Go!

Tiago Splitter has a strained plantar muscle in his foot and will miss a week or so. Well that sucks, and hopefully this isn’t the beginnings of the dreaded plantar fasciitis. Stay tuned, but I think he will be back in time for a couple of pre-season games.

Meanwhile, Tim Duncan is apparently in great shape and ready to ride “until the wheels fall off“. The only real question has been exactly when are the wheels going to fall off? Well, not this season it seems. Once Tiago’s foot stops aching, he will be able to provide more support for the Spurs frontcourt along with the veteran McDyess and the emerging talents of DeJuan Blair.

After a summer that included conditioning drills designed to minimize stress on his knees, Duncan is prepared for a truncated ration of regular-season playing time. He hopes for a better start to the Spurs season that won’t scuttle coach Gregg Popovich’s plan to lessen his workload, which is to include an occasional night off in the second game of back-to-back sets.

Some of you may recall that the plan last year was to rest Duncan in the second of back-to-back games, but that didn’t quite pan out while the Spurs were fighting for a playoff spot.

Here we go a-frickin-gain. I’m sure that people will not give this Tony Parker trade talk a rest until he signs a new contract extension (or gets traded). The latest buzz is courtesy of Yahoo! Sports and an article from the San Antonio Express News. In the SAEN article, found here, Tony Parker discusses this being the last year of his (current) contract and possibly the last chance he has at winning a title with Duncan and Ginobili. I think the sentiment is more a testament to Duncan’s age than anything. We know that Duncan is not going anywhere though, and Ginobili signed an extension at the end of last season.

Ginobili, too, went into the season on the last year of his contract. Ginobili, too, didn’t know if he would be back. The Spurs say everything is as fluid with Parker and that an extension is possible.

But everything else is also possible. If the Spurs don’t begin their season well, they will look to deal their most tradeable asset. And, when the season is over, they could lose Parker to free agency, no matter how well he plays.

I just don’t see how they let Parker go. What are they going to get back for him? Certainly not a better point guard, and they have talent everywhere else (although another small forward would be nice). The Spurs are in “Win Now” mode and getting some draft picks isn’t going to help them reach the promised land before Duncan’s knees give out. Then again, a lot does ride on how George Hill progresses again this year, not to mention the looming lockout.

The bottom line, however, is that this is all about Wins and Losses. If the Spurs struggle, then of course all bets are off, but after the injuries mounted, RJ struggled, Blair adjusted, and Mason fizzled out last year – the Spurs still finished well. I believe they’ll play much better this year with the Big Three taking some time off this summer, Blair and RJ more accustomed to the Spurs system, and the addition of Tiago Splitter and perhaps even James Anderson.

I can see the Spurs realistically winning the division, so don’t count on Tony getting traded anytime soon.

Ready for some more good news, Spurs fans?

According to Greg Popovich, Time Duncan may be in better shape going into this season than he was last year at this time.

Gregg Popovich said Thursday that Duncan returned this summer for his 14th season perhaps in even better shape than a year ago, when the perennial All-Star reported to training camp 15 pounds lighter.

“He’s trim and slim. I think he’s even slimmer than he was last year,” Popovich said. “He’s really serious about this. He knows his responsibilities. He wants to win again.”

That’s certainly encouraging, and especially since he’ll finally have a decent running mate in the front court to take some of the pressure off him. Speaking of which:

Originally drafted by the Spurs in 2007, Splitter is a former MVP and championship winner in the Spanish League. He joins the Spurs amid high expectations — Popovich compared Splitter’s NBA-readiness to Manu Ginobili’s arrival in 2002.

That doesn’t mean Splitter will be a go-to scorer. Popovich said the Brazilian’s biggest impact will instead be rebounding and defense, but those contributions should be immediate.

“He’ll come in running, so to speak, and not have a problem,” Popovich said.

Also:

“He’s a really solid player who is going to have a great NBA career, but he’s not going to lead us in scoring,” Popovich said. “He’s not going to be our go-to guy.”

That’s fine, because the Spurs have plenty of scorers, but what they need the most is a return to good old fashioned Spurs defense. I think we can all agree that there is no “next Bruce Bowen” evident on the horizon right now, but that doesn’t mean the Spurs can’t do a better job on help defense and controlling the paint. Someone will eventually have to step up and at least limit the Kobes and Durants of the league, but simply becoming a more fine-tuned defensive UNIT would be a move in the right direction.