International Prospect: Davis Bertans

[Steve-O-Matic]

I haven't seen Bertans play. From someone that has, how do we think he'll stack up defensively in the NBA?

Slightly better than Adam Morrison.

[yavozerb]

Pretty good article about Bertans:

http://www.poundingtherock.com/2014/...-bertans-draft

[Emperor]

Hope he's apart of the summer league squad. Looking forward to catching acouple of their games at UNLV.

[CGD]

Wonder if the Anderson pick means Davis stays in Europe one more year. From a roster spot point of view, spurs picking domestic would make it less likely unless they cut Daye. Of course Baynes and Mills could get rich offers elsewhere so who knows

[yavozerb]

Hope he's apart of the summer league squad. Looking forward to catching acouple of their games at UNLV.

I read an article that said Bertans well continue playing with his Euro team instead of coming over for the summer..Not sure how accurate the article was.

[yavozerb]

Wonder if the Anderson pick means Davis stays in Europe one more year. From a roster spot point of view, spurs picking domestic would make it less likely unless they cut Daye. Of course Baynes and Mills could get rich offers elsewhere so who knows

In my opinion Bertans was never coming over for the following season regardless of the draft..

[DrunkTXLabrat]

I read an article that said Bertans well continue playing with his Euro team instead of coming over for the summer..Not sure how accurate the article was.

Was that article from today?

[jyra]

http://www.eurohoops.net/2014/06/dribbling/51700

Spurs draftee Davis Bertans is still hot commodity and Partizan is facing its own share of financial woes. A team that thrives into producing players and selling them, may have to part ways with the Latvian forward and Galatasaray is interested.

Despite the recent quotes of coach Dule Vujosevic in Serbian press who said that recently drafted Bogdan Bogdanovic will leave the team and Bertans will stay, everything depends on the right offer. Nothing is set in stone yet, but Bertans can be a fit in Istanbul. His buy out is 200.000 euros and Galatasaray, after parting ways with Pops Mensah Bonsu, is examining the available front line options on the market. Βertans is one of them.

Galatasaray will play in the Euroleague next season so that would be a decent destination.

[BackHome]

Slightly better than Adam Morrison.

But much better then Austin..

[smaka]

Well, according to kosarka.si (which is not always right about everything they say, but still), what Bogdanovic said a couple of days ago, about him and Bertans playing in NBA next year, it was all bull .
Bogdanovic will stay in Europe for now, and probably Bertans will too. The site says Bertans got offers from Galatasaray and Olympiakos. The Turks are offering 200k € buyout to Partizan.

[tim_duncan_fan]

Is this coming over this year or what?

I've seen Timmy win one more and now I want to see the young guys start to come in.

Year of Baynes! Year of Kawhi!

Year of Bertans?

[CGD]

If he's getting offers from big clubs like Galatasaray and Olympiakos I see the spurs leaving him in Europe to see what he can do against better compe ion.

[objective]

I've watched all three of his Adriatic league games, and my conclusion ...

He can play RIGHT NOW. Would he get better with another year in Europe? Sure. But he's not a premee who is too raw that pulling him out of Europe would be tragedy.

His defense is mostly fine, especially his team defense. He usually had the Green role off the ball of helping off the corner and then getting back, and he was solid. He knew what was going on. He had a little trouble with guys driving on him because his knee brace gives him that stiff leg gait that Duncan has now, but being honest, he doesn't look worse than Marco. I think he's better than Marco straight up, but level of compe ion could be deceiving

He's a good passer (in context for his position). He moves the ball. He looks like he sees the court well enough to be good in the spurs offense .

Plus, he's an awesome shooter. Quick to pull the trigger, and more importantly, unafraid. And a bonus is that he would draw fouls with his drives because he would catch opponents off guard

He plays like a fast, skinny armed and narrow shoulder Bonner. Weak now with strength and post defense maybe, but with the added bonus of coming off screens in a deadly way and quick trigger that's hard to block.

He could pay with Kawhi and have Kawhi play smallball 4 and do pretty well I think.

[yavozerb]

The true question should be do the spurs need Bertans for the coming season? The answer is no, they do not. A player like Daye would probably be better for the spurs than Bertans at this point in his career. Bertans almost lost an entire year due to his knee injury and has been more of reserve type player up to this point. Let him get another season in Europe and hopefully he will gain more confidence and maybe even become a top 1 or 2 player for his club. No need to rush him over at this point.

[objective]

I don't disagree with the greater points. He likely wouldn't get much time, and the don't truly need him, he would be a luxury.

But I think there's something to be said for getting him into the spurs culture for real while there is still time. After next season, the roster might be devoid of players with experience in the spurs winning ways beyond Kawhi, splitter, and Kyle Anderson. So what happens if the big three are gone and maybe pop is retired to wine country?

I think being here for a year and absorbing knowledge and learning by watching will be incredibly helpful. I've read about how Kawhi would learn by being with Duncan, and you can see the moves he's picked up from Parker and Manu. I think I've even heard Kawhi himself talk about how important the big three are too his development. I've heard players in other sports talk about the importance of young pups learning from old dogs, the benefits of it.

If the big three have only one year left, if the spurs winning environment with high standards and expectations had only another year at this level, then Bertans being a part of that I feel is better for him than playing more minutes against Prokom or Rytas or Valencia or whoever he would play against.

[spurraider21]

The true question should be do the spurs need Bertans for the coming season? The answer is no, they do not. A player like Daye would probably be better for the spurs than Bertans at this point in his career. Bertans almost lost an entire year due to his knee injury and has been more of reserve type player up to this point. Let him get another season in Europe and hopefully he will gain more confidence and maybe even become a top 1 or 2 player for his club. No need to rush him over at this point.

i don't see a situation where Daye will really be useful

[yavozerb]

i don't see a situation where Daye will really be useful

lol, as dumb as this this sounds I agree with you, esp. after what I just said. Completely forgot about Anderson and his roster spot. no room for Daye anymore and must wait on Bertans.

[Darkwaters]

lol, as dumb as this this sounds I agree with you, esp. after what I just said. Completely forgot about Anderson and his roster spot. no room for Daye anymore and must wait on Bertans.

I think theres a strong chance that the Spurs could cut Daye in training camp. In other words, they're optimistically hopeful about Daye, but definitely not unwilling to simply jettison him if needed.

I sure hope so at least. I think Daye isn't worth the roster spot personally.

[bluebellmaniac]

I think theres a strong chance that the Spurs could cut Daye in training camp. In other words, they're optimistically hopeful about Daye, but definitely not unwilling to simply jettison him if needed.

I sure hope so at least. I think Daye isn't worth the roster spot personally.

His salary is guaranteed as of midnight tonight. If they were going to cut him, it would have already happened.

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

I think theres a strong chance that the Spurs could cut Daye in training camp. In other words, they're optimistically hopeful about Daye, but definitely not unwilling to simply jettison him if needed.

I sure hope so at least. I think Daye isn't worth the roster spot personally.

The Spurs do not spend 750k on a camp invitation.

[objective]

I don't know, spurs have eaten more money than that before. They owed Mercer more than 1.5 million iirc after they cut him in late February. Different timeframe, but more money. There's been other instances I'm sure of guys at camp who has guaranteed salary and were cut. Lloyd Daniels maybe?

[Darkwaters]

His salary is guaranteed as of midnight tonight. If they were going to cut him, it would have already happened.

Thats my point, I think they might consider just eating his guaranteed salary if he doesn't work out. Undoubtedly a long-shot, especially for a very frugal Spurs team, but I really think Daye will be that underwhelming.

[Captivus]

I don't disagree with the greater points. He likely wouldn't get much time, and the don't truly need him, he would be a luxury.

But I think there's something to be said for getting him into the spurs culture for real while there is still time. After next season, the roster might be devoid of players with experience in the spurs winning ways beyond Kawhi, splitter, and Kyle Anderson. So what happens if the big three are gone and maybe pop is retired to wine country?

I think being here for a year and absorbing knowledge and learning by watching will be incredibly helpful. I've read about how Kawhi would learn by being with Duncan, and you can see the moves he's picked up from Parker and Manu. I think I've even heard Kawhi himself talk about how important the big three are too his development. I've heard players in other sports talk about the importance of young pups learning from old dogs, the benefits of it.

If the big three have only one year left, if the spurs winning environment with high standards and expectations had only another year at this level, then Bertans being a part of that I feel is better for him than playing more minutes against Prokom or Rytas or Valencia or whoever he would play against.

Good point.

[Mel_13]

Galatasaray is no more in the race for Davis Bertans, according to Ismail Senol.
The Latvian forward whose NBA rights belong to the Spurs is too expensive for the Turkish team.
Bertans has contract with Partizan Belgrade and the buyout to free him is too high for the Turkish powerhouse.

http://www.sportando.com/en/europe/t...s-bertans.html

[AFBlue]

While I think it would be valuable for Bertans to spend next year in the system, I think the Spurs value roster flexibility and could make the case (as many of you have) that additional time overseas could be just as valuable. I don't have an opinion on whether he should come or not, but I doubt he will cross the pond this summer.