Spurs Off-season Priorities
by sambunnell on Feb 10, 2012 1:05 PM CST
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PrintTop 5 Things To Do...
1. Re-sign Tim Duncan.
2. Re-sign Danny Green.
3. Sign an athletic, defensive-minded, youngish power forward (Darrell Arthur???).
4. Sign a perimeter defender to play small forward (Nicolas Batum???).
5. Re-sign T.J. Ford...or another dependable back-up point guard.
Eventually, we want the roster to look something like this...
PG: Tony Parker - T.J. Ford
SG: Manu Ginobili - Danny Green - Gary Neal
PF: Tim Duncan - Free Agent Signing - Matt Bonner
SF: Free Agent Signing - Kawhi Leonard - Richard Jefferson
C: Tiago Splitter - DeJuan Blair
This literally makes us 13-deep.
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you left out:
build a bigger trophy case to help hold their 5th nba championship trophy.
huzzah!
by mikrobass3 on Feb 10, 2012 1:49 PM CST reply actions 1 recs
I love the enthusiasm that you show man, but what’s with all the fanposts about off-season plans and priorities in February? That’s for lottery teams that are already thinking about the draft, not for teams that are a lock for the playoffs and a threat to contend. I’m sure you have insight about the team as it is now. Maybe you think there’s no chance this team can contend and if that is the case I would love to hear the reasons why you feel that way more than I like thinking about what the team is going to do 5 months from now.
"Manu Ginobili is the ultimate human cheat code, the password to the rim."
-Alex Dewey
Don't want to dump ice water on this season...
Edg5…you’re right. I don’t think we can contend this season. It’s all about the Bulls and Heat. I don’t think any team out of the West can…even OKC. I think they are a big man away, as Perkins has been disappointing and Ibaka should be a threat off the bench…not starting. I think the Spurs may make it all the way to the Western Conference finals, but I think that is their ceiling. I refuse to get into reasons why, because I don’t want to rag on my team during the middle of the season. Instead of hurling negatives, why not suggest positives…like off-season additions. Duncan should be back next year, so we should be virtually the same team, but with more seasoned young guys after this year’s run. I’ve been a Spurs fan since I was born, and I’ve gotten decent at knowing when they have a championship-caliber team and when they don’t.
And what about the Mavs last year? And MIami in 2006? They never looked like contenders until they were rising the trophy over their heads…….Im sorry, but we are 2nd in the west (which is like being second in the whole NBA because the east SUCKS, aside from miami and chicago the rest of the teams are either flawed or downtight atrocious) and we have done it withouth ginobili. We have LOTS of potential, because half of our rotation is made up by very young players who are improving each game.
Besides….If you are right and our ceiling is the western conference finals….isnt that a damn good place to be? I hate when fans are so spoiled that they dont care about anything less than a championship.
my mom (who doesnt know a lick about basketball): "that guy is anything but World Peace"
I can respect you not thinking this is a championship caliber team. I’m actually not sure if it is. I don’t agree that suggesting off-season additions is really a positive way of addressing this year’s squad, though. I’m more interested in why you think the Spurs can’t win now than knowing that you want the Spurs to sign Batum and Arthur next off-season. It’s also premature because other teams are still sorting out their own rosters. A lot of guys are restricted free agents and the trade deadline is still ahead. It’s fun to do this kind of "rosterbation", but I just don’t think now is the time for it.
Having said that, you are free to post whatever you want. My comments are not intended to prevent you from posting; on the contrary, you seem like the kind of guy that has informed opinions about the team and I’d love to hear more about it. I just would hate for all of your contributions to be about next year when we have an exiting, albeit flawed, roster this season and a chance to go deep into the playoffs. I think we should just enjoy the ride right now and see where it takes us :)
"Manu Ginobili is the ultimate human cheat code, the password to the rim."
-Alex Dewey
Good response
I appreciate the humane blogging you seem to do. It’s refreshing. Anyway, I respect your opinion, and here’s my response. Our Spurs may be the first or second best in the West this year, which I’m incredibly proud of them for being. However, they will not win an NBA Championship this year, because there are two other teams in the East significantly better than they. We don’t have the defense to stop Miami like Dallas did LAST year. We also don’t have the system depth to keep pace with Chicago. The Bulls have reached that point where they can make key personnel changes and still win the same way. It’s called system depth. The Spurs used to have that, and they are building toward it again, but it isn’t there yet. Plus we don’t have an answer for LeBron, D-Wade, or D-Rose. Plain and simple. Thus…our need to keep our current players and continue to develop system depth, as well as add premiere perimeter defense. Anyway, that’s my take.
The Spurs defense cannot be judged yet. In a span of a couple of weeks, the Spurs went from 25th in the league in defensive efficiency…..to16th today. We can only speculate how good they will be by seasons end, but my guess is 9th or 10th.
A man gets the eye of a Tiger, but a Tiger gets the eye of a Manu.
I think you can argue that the spurs system depth is on par with Chicago’s. The Spurs have merely managed to post the second best record in the West without their best player, in a much tougher conference. While Rose has missed some games, he hasn’t been out nearly as long as Ginobili.
No one has an answer for Lebron, D-Wade or Rose. That’s why they are Lebron, D-Wade and Rose. With the exception of Lebrons self imposed choke job in the last few games of the finals, D-Wade and Lebron got their stats against Dallas.
While I am not exactly putting money on the Spurs to win the title just yet, my point is it’s a bit early to say the Spurs have no real shot at winning the title.
A man gets the eye of a Tiger, but a Tiger gets the eye of a Manu.
Certainly, if the Spurs are going to the Finals this season it should be considered great success for this team. Then, who knows what might happen in the Finals. Usually conferences are a bit more predictable (not this season West though) because the teams play each other much more. As for the Finals … look at 2004. The Lakers had 4 future Hall of Famers, the Spurs were the defending champs, and Kevin Garnett had the best supporting cast ever in Minny. Each of these teams would be a favorite against any Eastern team. Lakers – Spurs series was epic, and 0.4 s was the victory margin, opening a clear path to the trophy for the Lakers. But Detroit caught a break when Carl Malone went down, and Kobe and Shaq started to fight for the ball between themselves. At the end the underdog Detroit got the Championship. And by the way, they got their missing ingredient, ’Sheed, late that season. Both Miami-Dallas Finals went to underdogs, the Lakers were losing the Finals against Boston when Perkins got injured … So many things may happen between now and then, that just bluntly saying that the Spurs would lose to the Eastern team in the Finals is just wrong. What if the Est will be represented by Philly or Indy? We all saw stranger things happen in the NBA.
Both teams played hard
7 game series
Barring major injury, a seven game series determines the better team, almost without fail. I love my Spurs, but we could not take four of seven against the Thunder, Heat, or Bulls this year.
You’re definitely overestimating the Thunder.
Cinnamon and sugary as softly spoken lies, you never know just how you look through other peoples' eyes
by SpursfanSteve on Feb 13, 2012 11:28 AM CST up reply actions
Yep. So-so defense, no low post threat, Perkins underperforming (and future amnesty candidate?), Ibaka hasn’t made a big step forward, Maynor out for the season. They heavily rely on 3 three players… and are possibly in salary cap hell within 2 years…
Miami’s record is 9-6 vs. teams that would be in the playoffs per today’s standings, and 11-1 against lottery teams. Chicago is 9-4 vs playoff type teams, 14-2 against lottery bound teams. The Spurs are 11-7 vs playoff bound teams, 7-2 vs lottery teams. Of course some of the Western “lottery” teams as of today would include Utah, Memphis and Minnesota that might yet contend in the West and would certainly be in in the East.
The Spurs have played most of their games without Manu and Ford. Chicago and Miami have had various injuries that have caused starters to be out for a dozen or so games. Who can predict if any team will be fully healthy in a championship series? If any of these three teams made it to the finals but lost one of their top three players at the start of the series, the Spurs might be best equipped to get along without one missing piece. If all of them are healthy, the Spurs big three have been there before and won. LeBron had been a couple of times and not done so well, Wade is 50/50. But neither Chicago or Miami is going to win it on the strength of their bigs.
Well, I highly doubt that RJ with not transform into RJamnesty by next season.
If TD signs cheap which i think he will, amnestisizing RJ will give the Spurs huge flexibility in the offseason
A bit early for offseason predctions isnt it why not try doing some post about things currentley going on with the surs like how manu the wizard coming back will help the spurs out
GO SPURS GO
SPURS 2012 NBA Champions (if team is healty LoL)
It all depends on how the Spurs do during the playoffs. Championship would mean keep the team intact (resign Duncan, Green and TJ, keep RJ and bring in a 5th big from within the young prospects). An early exit would mean amnesty RJ, sign a defensive minded SF and same for PF/Center while tryng to keep or replace Green and TJ.
A casual diehard Spurs fan.
What about conference finals?
Does it have to be Championship or early exit? How about a Conference Finals or Finals loss? Which is much more likely…
I like Darrell Arthur a lot! I hope the PATFO has taken notice, too.
It's better to be silent and be thought of as a fool... than open your mouth and remove all doubts.
I would love him too but he is a RFA and Memphis should match anything the Spurs would offer. I hope I’m wrong.
A casual diehard Spurs fan.
Regardless of whether the Grizzlies organization is going to sign him or not, the PATFO needs to tender him an offer. If we truly think he’s worth the money, then we should offer him the money. If Memphis matches our offer, at least they’ll have less cap space. It’s a win-win situation for us.
It's better to be silent and be thought of as a fool... than open your mouth and remove all doubts.
It seems those often work out where the team making the initial offer then has to wait a few days before they can consider going after anyone else, and it often turns out they don’t get the first guy and in the meantime may have missed out on some second choice. All you wind up doing is helping the player establish a higher market value.
They definitely have. They are well aware of how he abused the team.
I doubt Grizz let him walk though.
Winter is coming
I’m not so sure. Grizz have to effectively choose between Arthur and Speights to stay under the tax next year(Sam Young will also be a RFA), and having Arthur out all season may make him the one they let go.
The longest, brightest day is followed by the darkest night.
The above roster leaves off Corey Joseph, who I’d expect back. Anderson seems a bit less likely and wouldn’t be a priority, but if he doesn’t draw much interest elsewhere I could see bringing him back. Da’Sean Butler has been doing fairly well with the Toros, and if no one else makes an offer I can see the Spurs adding him back to the roster late in the season like they did last season.
I’d think there might be a number of former Spurs/Toros that have been playing overseas that have been doing well and just reaching their mid-20’s that might get an invitation to the Summer League or training camp. Malik Hairston, Curtis Jerrels and James Gist fall into that category. I think that each of them are still younger than Neal was when brought in from Europe. I wouldn’t expect any to play a huge role but they might wind up in a role not dissimilar to Neal’s, giving depth and allowing some other moves to be made.
Ryan Richards has been playing in the Swiss League, and seems to have recently left the team. It seems like it’s been expected he needed more development, but he seemed to feel like he’d at least like to play in Austin.
Yeah I read Richards had left the team for personal reasons but I never found anymore on what his reasons were. Have you found out anything?
One thing i can do...................is FINGER ROLL.
by gunnin' gervin on Feb 12, 2012 2:52 AM CST up reply actions
I see there’s been a thread on Spurstalk, but it would seem all speculation. The main sentiment seemed to be that he was disappointed at doing poorly at a low level, apparently feeling that his stats should be even better than they are. Would you think if Bonner were in the Swiss League he’d be averaging 30 points a game with 15 rebounds? I think it would come down to whether or not he had talked to the Spurs or left on his own. I recall that he had mentioned he did not feel he could develop as well by staying in Europe as he would if he played in Austin. I’d think maybe the problem with him being in Austin might mean that for the Spurs to retain his rights they’d have to offer him an NBA contract. My guess would be that the Spurs may feel he needs more than 2 years in the DLeague before he’d be ready and don’t want to use an NBA contract his development. On the other hand, it could be they just wanted him to test his recovery from his shoulder surgeries over in Europe prior to giving him a contract, and he might be showing up in Austin soon. Ian wasted away a year due to recovering from injury, so I’d think they had wanted to be sure he’s able to play.
The only way Bonner would put up 30 and 15 a game is if they let him play the whole game and shoot most of the shots. LOL. Bonner was a solid player at Florida and would most likely be a solid player in that league. He is playing good in the NBA due to style we play fitting a role he is good at. We Maximizes his strengths and when Timmy was younger we did a better job as hiding his weakness.
To be honest though no telling what s going to happen with this guy but I would like to see him and younger guys in general get more of a look for our front office
One thing i can do...................is FINGER ROLL.
by gunnin' gervin on Feb 14, 2012 10:16 PM CST up reply actions
Seems his complaint last year had been that the coaches in the lower European leagues weren’t interested in coaching players for development, they simply want to win. I’d think you’d also have somewhat of the problem Pop mentioned if he tried Manu rehabbing in Austin, guys knowing Richards was a Spur draftee out to make their mark against him.
I already knew that when he said he didn’t want to return to Europe. The European coaches are like any other pro coach. They want to win games to make sure they can keep there job and when you are playing for top level teams in Europe you have to be really great or fit there system to get a lot of run. I mean Jennings struggled out there in Rome and Rubio didn’t look like he was going to be this good in the NBA due to the last few years of playing on the team he was playing on.
I think the guy understands that he might be better suited for the NBA type style of basketball as opposed to the European type style. In the NBA the rules are geared way more in the favor of scorers. I truly don’t think the guy just left the team because he wasn’t dominating out there and I know the reason he did choose to go out there was because it was a higher level group that he would actually get minutes playing at. He actually stated something similar to this theory in a recorded interview.
If he would have stayed at Gran Canaria he wouldn’t have gotten as much run as he did with the team in Switzerland unless he just blew the coaching staffs socks off. I just hope next year they at least let the guy come and play on the Summer League team so we can see what he can do
One thing i can do...................is FINGER ROLL.
by gunnin' gervin on Feb 14, 2012 10:05 PM CST up reply actions
I think I’d be for trading for the draft rights to some additional international players if there’s a chance that they’re now ready to come to the NBA ala Lorbek. Portland has the rights to both Joel Freeland and Victor Claver, and Utah the rights to Ante Tomic. There are of course numerous international players that went undrafted but have developed into decent players overseas that could be the next Oberto for the Spurs.
Claver hasn’t shown to be as good as a lot of folks thought. Tomic and Freeland are pretty good, but at this point I prefer the Spurs just to bring Lorbek over, and shop Bonner/Blair for a more defensive-minded PF.
The longest, brightest day is followed by the darkest night.
Basically it was the Spurs picking up the rights to Lorbek as pretty much a throw-in along with Davis Bertans in the trade of George Hill for Kawhi Leonard that has had me thinking of looking at who has the draft rights to which players. The Spurs have typically been using a draft choice on very young international prospects with the idea that they might be ready after a few years. It might be nice if they were able to take some of the guess work out by letting someone draft them and then trade for the rights about the time they reach maturity, when perhaps the needs of the original drafting team has changed. Utah, for instance, drafted Tomic back in 2008. Since then they now have Derrick Favors, Enos Kanter, Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap; and possibly two first round picks this year. Tomic would seem less in their plans despite the fact that he is only about to turn 25. Viktor Sankidze is having a decent season in Europe now that he’s 25, but at 6’7" he might get a better shot with Utah than the Spurs. It all depends somewhat on who wants to come to the NBA and whether they can make more by staying where they are. I’d think the Spurs should have a reputation of being friendly with international players, and it seems more likely they can continue to draw such players to the city easier than they can some big name American-born player free agent. .
’d think the Spurs should have a reputation of being friendly with international players
To some degree, but they probably have a reputation of being hard asses as well. Scola is a good example of that.
Winter is coming
You’re right about Tomic. I also wonder if Orlando will be willing to part with Fran Vasquez, depending on what they get back in the inevitable Howard trade.
The longest, brightest day is followed by the darkest night.
Vasquez is never coming to the states. LOL. He is getting paid to well and loves where he is playing at from the few things I heard about him. Orlando was pissed years ago when he didn’t want to come to the NBA. But to be honest I don’t blame him for staying where he is and being looked at as a great player.
One thing i can do...................is FINGER ROLL.
by gunnin' gervin on Feb 14, 2012 9:48 PM CST up reply actions
Actually, he said in a recent interview that he signed a 1-year deal with Barca only because the lockout prevented him from coming to the NBA this season. Orlando wanted to bring him over, but obviously the lockout derailed those plans.
I have the weirdest Bonner right now.
Well it’s about time the guy came over he is almost 30 now. The 11th pick in the draft and they waited 8 years. Well 9 if he comes next year for the guy to cross the pond
One thing i can do...................is FINGER ROLL.
by gunnin' gervin on Feb 15, 2012 9:38 PM CST up reply actions
Years ago, players would spend four years in college prior to the NBA draft and so would wind up being a 22 year old rookie taking a year or two to break into the rotation. Nowadays the majority of the more talented players are going into the draft when they’re just 19 or so and haven’t received as much development. If they don’t go high in the draft and become instant starters they are considered busts. I’d think that as long as the Spurs aren’t among the lottery picks (which are risky enough as is) that they might as well be targeting players in their mid-20’s that have had a chance to develop their game in Europe.
Freeland is a good player but he is supposedly signing a very nice deal for the team he is playing with overseas.
One thing i can do...................is FINGER ROLL.
by gunnin' gervin on Feb 14, 2012 9:44 PM CST up reply actions
4. Sign a perimeter defender to play small forward
….What, Kawhi Leonard isnt enough?
A man gets the eye of a Tiger, but a Tiger gets the eye of a Manu.
I wouldn’t mind another 6’7" or bigger guy with defensive chops to play the SF minutes Kawhi doesn’t. But I think Kawhi and Green can cover the position pretty well, with Neal as the primary backup at the 2.
The longest, brightest day is followed by the darkest night.
@SportandoBasket
San Antonio Spurs scouts Dennis Lindsey and Claudio Crippa will be in Turin in weekend for Italian Cup Final Eight to watch Viktor Sanikidze
Interesting.
I have the weirdest Bonner right now.
Well if everything goes as expected, Spurs are going to waive RJ. I think this might dictate whether they bring him in for summer league. Now is the time, if ever to start the ball rolling on him. After the draft, he was touted as the next Kirilenko…
Winter is coming
I wonder a little if they’ve got their eye on some of the other players, like Bourousis, Hairston and Macedonian national hero Bo McCalebb.
I have the weirdest Bonner right now.
I figure they are watching them all. It’s like an extra value trip. So many guys they can focus on at once.
Winter is coming
McCaleb has been playing really good ball
One thing i can do...................is FINGER ROLL.
by gunnin' gervin on Feb 15, 2012 9:32 PM CST up reply actions
I just noticed the Macedonian national hero part. LOL. On hoopshype they did an interview with Bo and he said he isn’t in a rush to go to the NBA but I bet if teams come knocking with a guaranteed deal he would come
One thing i can do...................is FINGER ROLL.
by gunnin' gervin on Feb 15, 2012 9:34 PM CST up reply actions
Won’t RJ be making ~8Mill/year? That’s a lot to pay a 3rd stringer. I’m sure they amnesty him this offseason.
I expect they have already tried to trade him without much success, but I’d think it could still be possible rather than simply paying off his remaining salary. Thirty teams means 30 starting SF’s, and I’d think he still rates in the top 30. With as many options as the Spurs have, he likely would be scoring more on most other teams. If he were an unrestricted free agent would he wind up with no offers even close to his salary? I’d think a trade might still be possible during the offseason, though it might require taking on someone else’s bad contract in return while giving up some inexpensive young talent.
Also his contract would have 2 years remaining for 16M. Not sure who are the free agents, but it’s not a long term contract going into next season. So yeah… Spurs might not get a lot of talent back, but other teams could use it.
But then post season could drive up his stock a lot or drive it down…
Winter is coming
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