TwoHandJam
08-30-2005, 03:36 PM
Another nice article by Emmett. :tu
http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_14005.shtml
By Emmett Shaw
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Aug 30, 2005, 09:51
With Nick Van Exel signing to join the Spurs -- probably using the team's bi-annual exception: $1.67 million on a one-year deal -- a shoe has dropped in the Michael Finley sweepstakes. The other stunning stomp would fall if Nickey's former Dallas Mavericks teammate signs with San Antonio. Many writers, including everyone on our site's Morning Shootaround gang, has assured us that Finley wearing orange and black is etched in stone. Just last night, yet another HOOPSWORLD editor told me there's no way Michael isn't joining Miami.
Few if any writers living outside South Texas realize that San Antonio does have its appeal. These writers think only two things about San Antonio. Last in per-capita income in the NBA. (They're right on.) A larger market than only New Orleans and Memphis. (Again, affirmative.) But a much less publicized fact is known among the league's players: Well over 50 percent of the people in this market are Spurs fans, many of them rabidly so. In late August, there are still street vendors here selling Spurs gear everyday in 100-degree conditions. You cannot drive anywhere in San Antonio without soon coming upon a vehicle's rear windshield tricked out with a Spurs logo.
For players like Van Exel and Finley, who are past the age of garnering big-bucks endorsements no matter where they play, the Spurs become a winning option. And despite the negative stereotypes, there actually is a breed of NBA player that would like to win big. Tim Duncan, so taken for granted both here and around the nation, is still the best big man in the NBA and is still only 29 years old. Yet the Spurs are not even an acquired taste for media outside this market. The rest of the nation is oblivious to the appeal of the San Antonio Spurs, who were mentioned as only a bland afterthought by ESPN on their recent Fifty States feature on Texas.
But players who have spent long careers in the Western Conference and have lost some big games to San Antonio have acquired a respect. Van Exel has, apparently. Personally, I didn't pay much attention to the Spurs' reported interest in Nick, the reason being that the Spurs had his position covered. Tony Parker, Beno Udrih, and Brent Barry have proven they can handle the position. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Denver Post had stories linking the team and Van Exel early in the month and last week respectively.
It's amazing how much grief Udrih takes for being smoked out of the NBA Finals by Detroit, but the Heat's guards were taken out the same way against that team. Miami's coach is usually blamed for not getting Shaq his touches in the ECFs, but it was the Miami guards who didn't -- because they couldn't -- get the big man the ball. The Pistons were the reason. The Pistons should be praised at least as much as their opponents are ripped. But there is only one Detroit Pistons to worry about, and they've fired their coach. Regardless, a 14-week-old undercurrent in San Antonio is that Beno Udrih can't play NBA basketball. With Van Exel now coming in amid a PG shortage that always plagues the league, you have to wonder if there will be subsequent trade action, especially if Finley signs with the Spurs.
(Yeah, I said it -- if Finley signs with the San Antonio Spurs. There has yet to be anyone report that the Heat will give Finley the whole mid-level exception of $5 million dollars. Everyone only says that they "can" offer Michael that. And for how many years will they pay him $5 million? Again there has not been a single report of how many years the Heat would pay Finley. What if the Spurs are offering more years? Michael Finley, at 32, fits as well in San Antonio as anywhere, because he can gradually take the SF load from Bruce Bowen (34). The question is will Finley's suspect D look better than reputed with San Antonio's shot-blockers behind him? The same goes for Van Exel. The Glenn Robinson experiment earlier this year indicates maybe so.)
It is possible that Udrih or Barry would be moved. Barry is fine as a player who now knows the sysytem, it's just that if San Antonio could slip him into someone else's cap or trade exception, the Spurs wouldn't have to pay luxury tax this year. If they add Fin and don't do something else, they will have to pay tax. The two most likely teams with the needed financial space are the Warriors and Cavaliers. I think the Spurs would pay the tax unless they could land a young performer like Mickael Pietrus, Sasha Pavlovic, or Luke Jackson. Who knows if those teams would do it, but it wouldn't surprise me. Nothing would after a guy who has had as many bad acting problems as Nick Van Exel has now been hired by San Antonio.
The "baby-faced killer", the man who makes big shots with the philosophy that "there's no such thing as pressure," has been fined and/or suspended for at least five incidents costing Van Exel $50,000 plus major lost salary over the years. On the other hand, NVE has not been publicly fined for the last four years. The arthritis in his left knee (operated on arthroscopically in October of 2003) is real, but Nick should be able to finish the new season by playing limited minutes. The Blazers, for whom he averaged 30 mpg, shut him down in March to play Sebastian Telfair the last couple of months of the season. Nick finished second only to Derek Anderson (92% to 93%) in OregonLive.com's "Send them packing" poll run on Eric Marentette's Blazers Blog; maybe Portland's trash is the Spurs' treasure.
The Spurs have gotten great looks at Van Exel and Finley over the years. They played well for the Mavericks against the Spurs in both the regular season and the Western Finals a couple of years ago. Van Exel then blew the Spurs away again in one of his 39 games with the Warriors, scoring 16 in the 4th quarter, with three 3-pointers including the game winner and a backdoor pass to Eric Dampier for a key dunk down the stretch of a 91-89 upset. Those are the kind of nights -- on which he impacts winning games -- that Van Exel loves. He wants to be respected for that, and the Spurs let him know that they do. That re-assurance is what he needed to know. He needs to know if people notice how he averaged 25 off the bench in a series with the Kings in 2003.
We'll have to see if his terrible attitude is really changed. Nick got off on the wrong foot before he was even in the league, being publicly chastised by coach George Karl after his poor pre-draft interview with Seattle in 1993. Then it was coach Del Harris of the Lakers and official Ron Garretson who crossed his ire in infamous ordeals. There were the multiple fines and suspensions and a negative feature in Sports Illustrated. Coach Dan Issel said he dogged it in Denver. Van Exel had tiffs with coach Eric Musselman at Golden State, but the Warriors were chronically losing. Winning could ease Nick's frustrations. Again, we have to see. Only one year from retirement, the secret for NVE is to keep putting one foot in front of the other and to savor the good times.
While the Spurs continue to have $2.5 million in spendable exception money remaining, they’ve already paid a price for courting Finley. They lost out on Sacramento’s free-agent swingman Maurice Evans, who signed an offer with Detroit for about $1.5 million per season. The Spurs could have afforded that easily. Yet it’s okay, because taking a run at Finley is worth it. The Spurs already have a contending team with a lot of good chemistry on it, but Finley could be a very big addition. Meanwhile Evans would have been a deep reserve trying to prove himself to his new team.
Too bad about Evans getting away from the Spurs, but Mo will have a better chance of cracking the regular rotation in Detroit, playing for a coach who already knows him, Flip Saunders. Probably the most important thing Saunders can do for his new team is to play his bench. Rip Hamilton is a good player, but should he average all the 38.5 minutes he did last year under Larry Brown? Joe Dumars signed himself a keeper in Evans, and that means that the Spurs could settle for their own FA Devin Brown if his back injury is healed. But post-Van Exel, it looks like "either/or" now for Finley and Brown signing with the Spurs.
More so than any other contract or offer signed this summer, Evans’ finally norrows a market price for Brown. The Pistons and Spurs have a similar approach to signing unproven newcomers. Newbies have to get in line for the money. Ask Spurs draftee Louis Scola. Not that Brown hasn’t proven a thing or two the past two seasons, but he’s still in line behind Bowen, who toiled for relative peanuts for years and is probably still underpaid. The Spurs are not a Minnesota, a team that offers $15 million over five years for one-year man Damien Wilkens. Nor certainly like a Mavs club that contracts a Marquis Daniels for nearly $40 million and six years after a nice rookie campaign.
Matt Barnes, reported by the Sacramento Bee, worked out for the Spurs last week. Barnes is a restricted free agent of Philadelphia; the Sixers roster is full. At 6-7, the same height as Finley and Bowen, perhaps the 25-year-old Barnes will be able to spell Bruce at small forward. If Barnes’ workout went well, the Spurs could add him if Finley chooses to sign with Miami or elsewhere. But I feel like I did when I was up for the Spurs job with HOOPSWORLD. When I got involved with the process I didn't care if I got the position, almost hoping I wouldn't. Then as it went on, I wanted to win! I feel the very same about Finley and the Spurs. I was as ambivalent to Michael as most media is toward the Spurs. But the more I have studied the possibility, the better I realized how Fin would fit well on the Spurs.
Finley shoots 3s like Larry Bird from the standpoint of not having to make a big effort to get the ball to the hoop. I like that. He takes the long shots with his normal stroke. There aren't that many players strong enough to do that. I like the way he cuts away from the ball -- with a purpose. I like the way he is explosive off the floor. I like his excellent combination of upper and lower body strength, and his possession of a back-to-the-goal offensive game. I like how his age fits as a stop-gap until Bruce Bowen's ultimate replacement is found in the next few seasons. It would take Finley a few weeks or months to get in sinc with the Spurs after his having bone spurs removed from his right ankle in June, but I especially like how he'd absolutely blow a lot of people's minds if he chooses San Antonio.
http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_14005.shtml
By Emmett Shaw
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Aug 30, 2005, 09:51
With Nick Van Exel signing to join the Spurs -- probably using the team's bi-annual exception: $1.67 million on a one-year deal -- a shoe has dropped in the Michael Finley sweepstakes. The other stunning stomp would fall if Nickey's former Dallas Mavericks teammate signs with San Antonio. Many writers, including everyone on our site's Morning Shootaround gang, has assured us that Finley wearing orange and black is etched in stone. Just last night, yet another HOOPSWORLD editor told me there's no way Michael isn't joining Miami.
Few if any writers living outside South Texas realize that San Antonio does have its appeal. These writers think only two things about San Antonio. Last in per-capita income in the NBA. (They're right on.) A larger market than only New Orleans and Memphis. (Again, affirmative.) But a much less publicized fact is known among the league's players: Well over 50 percent of the people in this market are Spurs fans, many of them rabidly so. In late August, there are still street vendors here selling Spurs gear everyday in 100-degree conditions. You cannot drive anywhere in San Antonio without soon coming upon a vehicle's rear windshield tricked out with a Spurs logo.
For players like Van Exel and Finley, who are past the age of garnering big-bucks endorsements no matter where they play, the Spurs become a winning option. And despite the negative stereotypes, there actually is a breed of NBA player that would like to win big. Tim Duncan, so taken for granted both here and around the nation, is still the best big man in the NBA and is still only 29 years old. Yet the Spurs are not even an acquired taste for media outside this market. The rest of the nation is oblivious to the appeal of the San Antonio Spurs, who were mentioned as only a bland afterthought by ESPN on their recent Fifty States feature on Texas.
But players who have spent long careers in the Western Conference and have lost some big games to San Antonio have acquired a respect. Van Exel has, apparently. Personally, I didn't pay much attention to the Spurs' reported interest in Nick, the reason being that the Spurs had his position covered. Tony Parker, Beno Udrih, and Brent Barry have proven they can handle the position. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Denver Post had stories linking the team and Van Exel early in the month and last week respectively.
It's amazing how much grief Udrih takes for being smoked out of the NBA Finals by Detroit, but the Heat's guards were taken out the same way against that team. Miami's coach is usually blamed for not getting Shaq his touches in the ECFs, but it was the Miami guards who didn't -- because they couldn't -- get the big man the ball. The Pistons were the reason. The Pistons should be praised at least as much as their opponents are ripped. But there is only one Detroit Pistons to worry about, and they've fired their coach. Regardless, a 14-week-old undercurrent in San Antonio is that Beno Udrih can't play NBA basketball. With Van Exel now coming in amid a PG shortage that always plagues the league, you have to wonder if there will be subsequent trade action, especially if Finley signs with the Spurs.
(Yeah, I said it -- if Finley signs with the San Antonio Spurs. There has yet to be anyone report that the Heat will give Finley the whole mid-level exception of $5 million dollars. Everyone only says that they "can" offer Michael that. And for how many years will they pay him $5 million? Again there has not been a single report of how many years the Heat would pay Finley. What if the Spurs are offering more years? Michael Finley, at 32, fits as well in San Antonio as anywhere, because he can gradually take the SF load from Bruce Bowen (34). The question is will Finley's suspect D look better than reputed with San Antonio's shot-blockers behind him? The same goes for Van Exel. The Glenn Robinson experiment earlier this year indicates maybe so.)
It is possible that Udrih or Barry would be moved. Barry is fine as a player who now knows the sysytem, it's just that if San Antonio could slip him into someone else's cap or trade exception, the Spurs wouldn't have to pay luxury tax this year. If they add Fin and don't do something else, they will have to pay tax. The two most likely teams with the needed financial space are the Warriors and Cavaliers. I think the Spurs would pay the tax unless they could land a young performer like Mickael Pietrus, Sasha Pavlovic, or Luke Jackson. Who knows if those teams would do it, but it wouldn't surprise me. Nothing would after a guy who has had as many bad acting problems as Nick Van Exel has now been hired by San Antonio.
The "baby-faced killer", the man who makes big shots with the philosophy that "there's no such thing as pressure," has been fined and/or suspended for at least five incidents costing Van Exel $50,000 plus major lost salary over the years. On the other hand, NVE has not been publicly fined for the last four years. The arthritis in his left knee (operated on arthroscopically in October of 2003) is real, but Nick should be able to finish the new season by playing limited minutes. The Blazers, for whom he averaged 30 mpg, shut him down in March to play Sebastian Telfair the last couple of months of the season. Nick finished second only to Derek Anderson (92% to 93%) in OregonLive.com's "Send them packing" poll run on Eric Marentette's Blazers Blog; maybe Portland's trash is the Spurs' treasure.
The Spurs have gotten great looks at Van Exel and Finley over the years. They played well for the Mavericks against the Spurs in both the regular season and the Western Finals a couple of years ago. Van Exel then blew the Spurs away again in one of his 39 games with the Warriors, scoring 16 in the 4th quarter, with three 3-pointers including the game winner and a backdoor pass to Eric Dampier for a key dunk down the stretch of a 91-89 upset. Those are the kind of nights -- on which he impacts winning games -- that Van Exel loves. He wants to be respected for that, and the Spurs let him know that they do. That re-assurance is what he needed to know. He needs to know if people notice how he averaged 25 off the bench in a series with the Kings in 2003.
We'll have to see if his terrible attitude is really changed. Nick got off on the wrong foot before he was even in the league, being publicly chastised by coach George Karl after his poor pre-draft interview with Seattle in 1993. Then it was coach Del Harris of the Lakers and official Ron Garretson who crossed his ire in infamous ordeals. There were the multiple fines and suspensions and a negative feature in Sports Illustrated. Coach Dan Issel said he dogged it in Denver. Van Exel had tiffs with coach Eric Musselman at Golden State, but the Warriors were chronically losing. Winning could ease Nick's frustrations. Again, we have to see. Only one year from retirement, the secret for NVE is to keep putting one foot in front of the other and to savor the good times.
While the Spurs continue to have $2.5 million in spendable exception money remaining, they’ve already paid a price for courting Finley. They lost out on Sacramento’s free-agent swingman Maurice Evans, who signed an offer with Detroit for about $1.5 million per season. The Spurs could have afforded that easily. Yet it’s okay, because taking a run at Finley is worth it. The Spurs already have a contending team with a lot of good chemistry on it, but Finley could be a very big addition. Meanwhile Evans would have been a deep reserve trying to prove himself to his new team.
Too bad about Evans getting away from the Spurs, but Mo will have a better chance of cracking the regular rotation in Detroit, playing for a coach who already knows him, Flip Saunders. Probably the most important thing Saunders can do for his new team is to play his bench. Rip Hamilton is a good player, but should he average all the 38.5 minutes he did last year under Larry Brown? Joe Dumars signed himself a keeper in Evans, and that means that the Spurs could settle for their own FA Devin Brown if his back injury is healed. But post-Van Exel, it looks like "either/or" now for Finley and Brown signing with the Spurs.
More so than any other contract or offer signed this summer, Evans’ finally norrows a market price for Brown. The Pistons and Spurs have a similar approach to signing unproven newcomers. Newbies have to get in line for the money. Ask Spurs draftee Louis Scola. Not that Brown hasn’t proven a thing or two the past two seasons, but he’s still in line behind Bowen, who toiled for relative peanuts for years and is probably still underpaid. The Spurs are not a Minnesota, a team that offers $15 million over five years for one-year man Damien Wilkens. Nor certainly like a Mavs club that contracts a Marquis Daniels for nearly $40 million and six years after a nice rookie campaign.
Matt Barnes, reported by the Sacramento Bee, worked out for the Spurs last week. Barnes is a restricted free agent of Philadelphia; the Sixers roster is full. At 6-7, the same height as Finley and Bowen, perhaps the 25-year-old Barnes will be able to spell Bruce at small forward. If Barnes’ workout went well, the Spurs could add him if Finley chooses to sign with Miami or elsewhere. But I feel like I did when I was up for the Spurs job with HOOPSWORLD. When I got involved with the process I didn't care if I got the position, almost hoping I wouldn't. Then as it went on, I wanted to win! I feel the very same about Finley and the Spurs. I was as ambivalent to Michael as most media is toward the Spurs. But the more I have studied the possibility, the better I realized how Fin would fit well on the Spurs.
Finley shoots 3s like Larry Bird from the standpoint of not having to make a big effort to get the ball to the hoop. I like that. He takes the long shots with his normal stroke. There aren't that many players strong enough to do that. I like the way he cuts away from the ball -- with a purpose. I like the way he is explosive off the floor. I like his excellent combination of upper and lower body strength, and his possession of a back-to-the-goal offensive game. I like how his age fits as a stop-gap until Bruce Bowen's ultimate replacement is found in the next few seasons. It would take Finley a few weeks or months to get in sinc with the Spurs after his having bone spurs removed from his right ankle in June, but I especially like how he'd absolutely blow a lot of people's minds if he chooses San Antonio.