Kip Fanatic
09-02-2005, 04:08 PM
Mike Kahn / Special to FOXSports.com
Posted: 3 hours ago
Surprise, surprise ... Michael Finley didn't jump for the money and hype after all.
Instead, the 10-year NBA veteran skipped the money and allure of South Beach from the Miami Heat, all the love showed by the caravan from the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the tug of the heart strings from the Phoenix Suns and his buddy Steve Nash for a chance to get that elusive championship ring.
Indeed, he got no promises of starting and half the money offered by the Heat to sign a one-year, $2.5 million contract to play for the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs.
Michael Finley, while hampered by injuries the past few seasons, still owns a consistent jump shot. (Layne Murdoch/NBAE / Getty Images)
Released by the Dallas Mavericks on Aug. 15 in the league's new one-time amnesty waiver rule that allows a team to pay off a contract but avoid luxury tax (while still counting on the salary cap), Finley has nearly $52 million on his contract that will be paid by Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
Nonetheless, most observers believed he would go to the Heat, a huge favorite to win the Eastern Conference, plus they offered him $5 million a year. But in retrospect, there were some obvious reasons why he didn't find Heat president Pat Riley's offer as attractive. The Heat have already added Antoine Walker, James Posey and Jason Williams — all of whom would affect his playing time — on a team built around Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade.
Finley undoubtedly would have started at shooting guard for the Timberwolves, whose entourage sent to Chicago included superstar forward Kevin Garnett, and promises of a starting role on the remade roster with new coach Dwane Casey.
Ditto for the Suns, who drafted Finley in the first round of the 1995 draft out of Wisconsin, and had his former Mavericks teammate Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire lead the wooing parade with more assurances now that Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson are gone.
More importantly, neither the Timberwolves, nor the Suns have got the goods to unseat the Spurs in the Western Conference.
And while Spurs coach Gregg Popovich candidly told Finley he would come off the bench behind the wing combination of Manu Ginobili and Bruce Bowen, he will undoubtedly leapfrog erratic Brent Barry as the sixth man. And chances are Finley will play 25-30 minutes a game and be the leading candidate for the NBA's Sixth Man award entering the season.
Finley, 32, fits in perfectly with the way the Spurs have altered their offense the past couple of seasons. They have transformed from a walk-the-ball-up-the-floor, and run everything through superstar Tim Duncan to becoming eminently capable of running with any team in the league. Last season, Ginobili and point guard Tony Parker began pushing the ball for early offense whenever possible. Playing the Suns in the Western Conference finals last season, the previously slow-down Spurs averaged an astounding 108.2 points in taking out the highest scoring team in the league in five games.
The 6-foot-6, 225-pound Finley is equally comfortable playing the big guard or small forward position and has proven to be one of the elite shooters in the game — the one weak spot of the defending champion Spurs. He has averaged 19.0 points a game in his career, shooting .449 from the field, .370 from 3-point range, and .807 from the free throw line. Even more to the point, Finley has made better than 40 percent of his 3-point attempts the past two seasons, which is particularly vital for the Spurs as they attempt to stretch the defenses away from collapsing on Duncan in the halfcourt — not to mention all the open treys he'll find in early offense.
Finley joins the Spurs just days after they signed veteran point guard Nick Van Exel. Another exceptional 3-point shooter and a former teammate of Finley's with the Mavericks, Van Exel obviously put in a call or two to Finley during the process.
In the end, it was Popovich who laid it all out for Finley in their conclusive meeting. He is the consummate no-nonsense coach and executive vice president. It's all about substance with Pop and the Spurs, style points detract from the whole and are not tolerated (save Ginobili's occasional flash and Parker's lightning bug flurries). Ultimately, that's obviously what Finley was all about, and the way he has always played.
The deal is hardly perfect because it's difficult to know exactly how dependable Finley will be physically. An All-Star in both 2000 and 2001, his scoring average has dropped in each of the last five years, to 15.7 last season. And after being an ironman by not missing a game his first six years in the league — even playing in 83 during the 1996-97 season when he was traded from the Suns to the Mavericks — he has missed an average of 13 games the past four years. He has struggled with calf and ankle injuries in recent years; the Mavericks consequently chose to build around youngsters Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels.
But that doesn't mean this doesn't translate to a perfect fit. On the heels of adding Van Exel to a team that has won three NBA titles over the past seven years and two of the last three, it's hard to fathom they won't stroll to yet another Western Conference title and have a great shot at four of eight.
In fact, I'll bet you a Fin.
Posted: 3 hours ago
Surprise, surprise ... Michael Finley didn't jump for the money and hype after all.
Instead, the 10-year NBA veteran skipped the money and allure of South Beach from the Miami Heat, all the love showed by the caravan from the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the tug of the heart strings from the Phoenix Suns and his buddy Steve Nash for a chance to get that elusive championship ring.
Indeed, he got no promises of starting and half the money offered by the Heat to sign a one-year, $2.5 million contract to play for the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs.
Michael Finley, while hampered by injuries the past few seasons, still owns a consistent jump shot. (Layne Murdoch/NBAE / Getty Images)
Released by the Dallas Mavericks on Aug. 15 in the league's new one-time amnesty waiver rule that allows a team to pay off a contract but avoid luxury tax (while still counting on the salary cap), Finley has nearly $52 million on his contract that will be paid by Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
Nonetheless, most observers believed he would go to the Heat, a huge favorite to win the Eastern Conference, plus they offered him $5 million a year. But in retrospect, there were some obvious reasons why he didn't find Heat president Pat Riley's offer as attractive. The Heat have already added Antoine Walker, James Posey and Jason Williams — all of whom would affect his playing time — on a team built around Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade.
Finley undoubtedly would have started at shooting guard for the Timberwolves, whose entourage sent to Chicago included superstar forward Kevin Garnett, and promises of a starting role on the remade roster with new coach Dwane Casey.
Ditto for the Suns, who drafted Finley in the first round of the 1995 draft out of Wisconsin, and had his former Mavericks teammate Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire lead the wooing parade with more assurances now that Joe Johnson and Quentin Richardson are gone.
More importantly, neither the Timberwolves, nor the Suns have got the goods to unseat the Spurs in the Western Conference.
And while Spurs coach Gregg Popovich candidly told Finley he would come off the bench behind the wing combination of Manu Ginobili and Bruce Bowen, he will undoubtedly leapfrog erratic Brent Barry as the sixth man. And chances are Finley will play 25-30 minutes a game and be the leading candidate for the NBA's Sixth Man award entering the season.
Finley, 32, fits in perfectly with the way the Spurs have altered their offense the past couple of seasons. They have transformed from a walk-the-ball-up-the-floor, and run everything through superstar Tim Duncan to becoming eminently capable of running with any team in the league. Last season, Ginobili and point guard Tony Parker began pushing the ball for early offense whenever possible. Playing the Suns in the Western Conference finals last season, the previously slow-down Spurs averaged an astounding 108.2 points in taking out the highest scoring team in the league in five games.
The 6-foot-6, 225-pound Finley is equally comfortable playing the big guard or small forward position and has proven to be one of the elite shooters in the game — the one weak spot of the defending champion Spurs. He has averaged 19.0 points a game in his career, shooting .449 from the field, .370 from 3-point range, and .807 from the free throw line. Even more to the point, Finley has made better than 40 percent of his 3-point attempts the past two seasons, which is particularly vital for the Spurs as they attempt to stretch the defenses away from collapsing on Duncan in the halfcourt — not to mention all the open treys he'll find in early offense.
Finley joins the Spurs just days after they signed veteran point guard Nick Van Exel. Another exceptional 3-point shooter and a former teammate of Finley's with the Mavericks, Van Exel obviously put in a call or two to Finley during the process.
In the end, it was Popovich who laid it all out for Finley in their conclusive meeting. He is the consummate no-nonsense coach and executive vice president. It's all about substance with Pop and the Spurs, style points detract from the whole and are not tolerated (save Ginobili's occasional flash and Parker's lightning bug flurries). Ultimately, that's obviously what Finley was all about, and the way he has always played.
The deal is hardly perfect because it's difficult to know exactly how dependable Finley will be physically. An All-Star in both 2000 and 2001, his scoring average has dropped in each of the last five years, to 15.7 last season. And after being an ironman by not missing a game his first six years in the league — even playing in 83 during the 1996-97 season when he was traded from the Suns to the Mavericks — he has missed an average of 13 games the past four years. He has struggled with calf and ankle injuries in recent years; the Mavericks consequently chose to build around youngsters Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels.
But that doesn't mean this doesn't translate to a perfect fit. On the heels of adding Van Exel to a team that has won three NBA titles over the past seven years and two of the last three, it's hard to fathom they won't stroll to yet another Western Conference title and have a great shot at four of eight.
In fact, I'll bet you a Fin.