2Cleva
10-02-2009, 11:30 AM
Five observations: Seeking best Manu
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Archive
SAN ANTONIO -- Five observations from Spurs camp:
1. The backstory
The story that could well linger in the background all season for the Spurs is Manu Ginobili's future with the team.
In the final season of his current contract at nearly $11 million, Ginobili is actually eligible for a contract extension any time between now and June 30, 2010.
Yet it's clear that the Spurs want to wait and see how the 32-year-old looks after ankle surgery and an offseason during which Ginobili was restricted to treadmill, bike and weight-room work -- with no basketball -- until the end of August.
Ginobili, according to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, has begun training camp "in C+ shape but very healthy."
"Totally 100 percent healed," Popovich said earlier this week. "And that was the important part. He's just trying to get back in shape."
Teammate Tim Duncan was only half-kidding when he described Ginobili as "a basket case for at least a year with his health [being] so up and down." Ginobili himself admits that last season was the "toughest of my career by far" and describes himself as feeling "like an alien" watching the Spurs' first-round exit versus Dallas in street clothes.
But Ginobili also insists that the uncertainty about his future will not affect his game or heap even more pressure on as he attempts to come back from his ankle woes.
"It's hard to just forget about it, because you know your free-agent season is important," he said. "But what I always say is that it's not going to be an influence on the way I play the game. The way I play the game is only one way."
Full steam, in other words. Ginobili does plan to take a few more midrange shots than he has in the past, instead of trying to get to the foul line on every trip down the floor, but thinks that one adjustment is "going to be enough."
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2. Pop's plans
Spurs players have been commenting all week about the simplification of the playbook.
And that's because Popovich, with eight newcomers among the 18 players in training camp, says he's made "a concerted effort this summer to become simpler" in terms of his sets and "really cut the number of things we want them to remember offensively."
But that's only Step 1.
Popovich also says he's determined to give Tony Parker, in his eighth season, more freedom to orchestrate San Antonio's offense without guidance from the bench.
Asked if the playbook will be expanded to something closer to its standard girth as the season unfolds, Popovich said: "Not nearly as much [as in past seasons]. I'm really trying to make an effort to call fewer and fewer plays and let Tony run the show and let the flow of the motion [offense] and the reads they make dictate most of the options."
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3. Deep thoughts
If anything excites the ever-restrained Popovich at this early stage, it's the Spurs' depth.
Reason being: With no less than 13 players he'd like to find playing time for, Popovich should have no trouble holding down the regular-season minutes logged by Duncan, Parker and Ginobili, which is always the aim in San Antonio.
"That should be a little easier this year," Pop said.
How did we arrive at 13?
Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess account for five of them. Roger Mason, Michael Finley, George Hill and Matt Bonner return from last season's rotation. Theo Ratliff and Keith Bogans are minimum-salaried defensive specialists. And Ian Mahinmi slots in alongside rookie DeJuan Blair in the prospects category.
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4. Center of attention
Everyone's loose at this early juncture. That includes Duncan, who poked fun at himself this week regarding his well-chronicled insistence that he is listed as a power forward, even though everyone knows he often winds up as the only big man on the floor for the Spurs.
McDyess confirmed that Duncan didn't wait long before greeting him with the news that Dice and Ratliff are officially San Antonio's centers this season.
"He made that perfectly clear the first day," Dice said.
Said Duncan: "I'm trying to go back to my natural position. Or my unnatural position, however you want to look at it."
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5. Miscellany
After tweaking an ankle on national-team duty with France earlier this summer but ultimately getting through the European Championships relatively unscathed, Parker is likely to be held out of the first few exhibition games as part of the Spurs' usual safety-first thinking. … Jefferson reports no issues with the thumb injury he suffered shortly before the start of camp, and he revealed on media day that he's been peppering Duncan -- his ex-teammate from the 2004 Olympics -- with claims that the Spurs traded for him because of Duncan's "deteriorating body." Says Jefferson: "I tell him he should be thanking me more than I'm thanking him." RJ's other best line: "I live in California during the summer and I've been hearing all the Laker fans all of a sudden not like me any more." …
Finley is encouraged by new arrivals such as Jefferson and even Marcus Haislip to address the Spurs' glaring lack of athleticism in recent seasons. Not so encouraging for Finley, 36, is the fact that he remains the Spurs' elder statesman despite the recent arrivals of fellow 1995 draftees McDyess and Ratliff. "I was hoping that they were one year older," Finley said. … Bogans has tried to temper repeated comparisons with defensive ace Bruce Bowen, who retired in the offseason after an eight-season run in San Antonio that established him as perhaps the league's most well-known perimeter defender. "Before I jump out there and say that," Bogans said of the Bowen talk, "let me stop a few guys."
It remains to be seen how many minutes Bogans will actually claim given San Antonio's depth and the long-standing reality in San Antonio, as described by Popovich, which suggests "that guys that we bring in usually do better the second year than the first year."
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Archive
SAN ANTONIO -- Five observations from Spurs camp:
1. The backstory
The story that could well linger in the background all season for the Spurs is Manu Ginobili's future with the team.
In the final season of his current contract at nearly $11 million, Ginobili is actually eligible for a contract extension any time between now and June 30, 2010.
Yet it's clear that the Spurs want to wait and see how the 32-year-old looks after ankle surgery and an offseason during which Ginobili was restricted to treadmill, bike and weight-room work -- with no basketball -- until the end of August.
Ginobili, according to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, has begun training camp "in C+ shape but very healthy."
"Totally 100 percent healed," Popovich said earlier this week. "And that was the important part. He's just trying to get back in shape."
Teammate Tim Duncan was only half-kidding when he described Ginobili as "a basket case for at least a year with his health [being] so up and down." Ginobili himself admits that last season was the "toughest of my career by far" and describes himself as feeling "like an alien" watching the Spurs' first-round exit versus Dallas in street clothes.
But Ginobili also insists that the uncertainty about his future will not affect his game or heap even more pressure on as he attempts to come back from his ankle woes.
"It's hard to just forget about it, because you know your free-agent season is important," he said. "But what I always say is that it's not going to be an influence on the way I play the game. The way I play the game is only one way."
Full steam, in other words. Ginobili does plan to take a few more midrange shots than he has in the past, instead of trying to get to the foul line on every trip down the floor, but thinks that one adjustment is "going to be enough."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Pop's plans
Spurs players have been commenting all week about the simplification of the playbook.
And that's because Popovich, with eight newcomers among the 18 players in training camp, says he's made "a concerted effort this summer to become simpler" in terms of his sets and "really cut the number of things we want them to remember offensively."
But that's only Step 1.
Popovich also says he's determined to give Tony Parker, in his eighth season, more freedom to orchestrate San Antonio's offense without guidance from the bench.
Asked if the playbook will be expanded to something closer to its standard girth as the season unfolds, Popovich said: "Not nearly as much [as in past seasons]. I'm really trying to make an effort to call fewer and fewer plays and let Tony run the show and let the flow of the motion [offense] and the reads they make dictate most of the options."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Deep thoughts
If anything excites the ever-restrained Popovich at this early stage, it's the Spurs' depth.
Reason being: With no less than 13 players he'd like to find playing time for, Popovich should have no trouble holding down the regular-season minutes logged by Duncan, Parker and Ginobili, which is always the aim in San Antonio.
"That should be a little easier this year," Pop said.
How did we arrive at 13?
Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess account for five of them. Roger Mason, Michael Finley, George Hill and Matt Bonner return from last season's rotation. Theo Ratliff and Keith Bogans are minimum-salaried defensive specialists. And Ian Mahinmi slots in alongside rookie DeJuan Blair in the prospects category.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Center of attention
Everyone's loose at this early juncture. That includes Duncan, who poked fun at himself this week regarding his well-chronicled insistence that he is listed as a power forward, even though everyone knows he often winds up as the only big man on the floor for the Spurs.
McDyess confirmed that Duncan didn't wait long before greeting him with the news that Dice and Ratliff are officially San Antonio's centers this season.
"He made that perfectly clear the first day," Dice said.
Said Duncan: "I'm trying to go back to my natural position. Or my unnatural position, however you want to look at it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Miscellany
After tweaking an ankle on national-team duty with France earlier this summer but ultimately getting through the European Championships relatively unscathed, Parker is likely to be held out of the first few exhibition games as part of the Spurs' usual safety-first thinking. … Jefferson reports no issues with the thumb injury he suffered shortly before the start of camp, and he revealed on media day that he's been peppering Duncan -- his ex-teammate from the 2004 Olympics -- with claims that the Spurs traded for him because of Duncan's "deteriorating body." Says Jefferson: "I tell him he should be thanking me more than I'm thanking him." RJ's other best line: "I live in California during the summer and I've been hearing all the Laker fans all of a sudden not like me any more." …
Finley is encouraged by new arrivals such as Jefferson and even Marcus Haislip to address the Spurs' glaring lack of athleticism in recent seasons. Not so encouraging for Finley, 36, is the fact that he remains the Spurs' elder statesman despite the recent arrivals of fellow 1995 draftees McDyess and Ratliff. "I was hoping that they were one year older," Finley said. … Bogans has tried to temper repeated comparisons with defensive ace Bruce Bowen, who retired in the offseason after an eight-season run in San Antonio that established him as perhaps the league's most well-known perimeter defender. "Before I jump out there and say that," Bogans said of the Bowen talk, "let me stop a few guys."
It remains to be seen how many minutes Bogans will actually claim given San Antonio's depth and the long-standing reality in San Antonio, as described by Popovich, which suggests "that guys that we bring in usually do better the second year than the first year."