Przybilla...what might have been

[Solid D]

Tonight

Przybilla ....0-1 FG 0-0 FT 3 Reb 0 Ast 1 Stl 2 TO 1 BS 0 Pts

Oberto......2-2 FG 0-0 FT 4 Reb 1 Ast 0 Stl 0 TO 0 BS 4 Pts

Season

Przybilla...18.1 mpg .500 FG% 4.3 rpg 0.4 apg 1.8 bpg 2.2 ppg

Oberto.....18.8 mpg .572 FG% 4.9 rpg 0.9 apg 0.4 bpg 5.7 ppg

Some were sad JP decided to sign in Portland for 4 years plus a player option year Avg. $6M/yr. Totalling $31M

[timvp]

Przybilla's numbers are horribly down this year. He might be the worst center in the league right now.

However, there is good reason. He got kneed in the jewels by Troy Murphy early in the season so hardcore that he had to be put in the hospital and missed a month of action.

Any man can forgive him for his less than amazing play so far. :guin

[T Park]

Yeah, he gets excused from bad play for about 4 years.

[Mr. Body]

There but for the grace of...

Too bad we couldn't get Mourning.

[T Park]

I would've prefered Mutombo honestly.

But Mourning would've been perfect.

In hindsight,

an offseason of Alonzo Mourning and Trevor Ariza would've had the Spurs at 30 and 6 right now.

[VaSpursFan]

I would've prefered Mutombo honestly.

But Mourning would've been perfect.

In hindsight,

an offseason of Alonzo Mourning and Trevor Ariza would've had the Spurs at 30 and 6 right now.

ariza is impressive in the limited minutes he gets in orlando. perfect bruce understudy without the 3 pt range...but that's why we pay chip the big bucks :lol :lol

[AFBlue]

ariza is impressive in the limited minutes he gets in orlando. perfect bruce understudy without the 3 pt range...but that's why we pay chip the big bucks :lol :lol

Long, skinny, and freakishly athletic Bowen understudy...yeah I think his name is James White, and he's got a guaranteed minimum contract.

[T Park]

Yeah, only thing with Ariza, is he plays as good although slightly Better defense.

Better reBounder as well. All things White can turn into im assuming though.

[phxspurfan]

white is too skinny to be a good rebounder, isnt he?

[dbestpro]

white is too skinny to be a good rebounder, isnt he?
How skinny was Rodman?

[Mr. Body]

How skinny was Rodman?

Not even close to as skinny as James White. 'Sides, it's not an issue of being skinny, it's an issue of strength. White is not a strong guy at all.

[MannyIsGod]

Not even close to as skinny as James White. 'Sides, it's not an issue of being skinny, it's an issue of strength. White is not a strong guy at all.Actually, its an issue of positioning. If you're smart and can get inside of players, then you should be able to get a bunch of rebounds barring you can outjump people. Strength is an issue in getting good position, but not as much as you'd think.

In the end you need a balance of things. I don't think Oberto is very strong, but if dude just had some vertical leap he'd own the boards because he's great at getting position. Too bad he's a worse jumper than Rasho was.

[Mr. Body]

Oberto is very strong. Not fantastically strong, but pretty strong. He's just not very athletic.

I get your point that, for wings rebounding can be a simple matter of athleticism - spring in and snatch a board from the pile - but by all accounts White shies from contact and is too weak to scrum for the usual rebounds. I do think he can be a better rebounder than some of his Toros games have shown, but there's a reason he doesn't use his athleticism much in the half-court set and in traffic - his body can't take it. The guy is extremely weak.

[tlongII]

Przybilla's numbers are horribly down this year. He might be the worst center in the league right now.

However, there is good reason. He got kneed in the jewels by Troy Murphy early in the season so hardcore that he had to be put in the hospital and missed a month of action.

Any man can forgive him for his less than amazing play so far. :guin


He actually had to have surgery for the injury. He was messed up.

[objective]

Pryzbilla's non-signing was a blessing, thankfully he turned the Spurs down.

BTW, if the Spurs had wanted Ariza they could have drafted him, he was picked right after the Spurs traded up to get Viktor Sanikidze.

[VaSpursFan]

Pryzbilla's non-signing was a blessing, thankfully he turned the Spurs down.

BTW, if the Spurs had wanted Ariza they could have drafted him, he was picked right after the Spurs traded up to get Viktor Sanikidze.

we could have drafted josh howard too. there are times that i wonder about our FO.

[Mr. Body]

if the Spurs had wanted Ariza they could have drafted him, he was picked right after the Spurs traded up to get Viktor Sanikidze.

But Isiah Thomas is infinitely better at drafting domestic talent than the Spurs. Pop and Buford never would have seen that one (and didn't).

Again, I call for the SAS FO to steal Isiah's draft notes this year.

[objective]

A reasonable circumstancial case can be made for the Spurs being sub-par at domestic scouting.

They haven't drafted a US-produced player other than Tim Duncan who has made any impact in Pop's entire tenure.

Now every team in the league has passed over better players and made mistakes, so everybody does it, but I don't know if anyone else has so long a tenure and has reliably missed out on US product.

Just doing position for position, Beno over Duhon, Sanikidze over Ariza, Karaulov instead of Butler, Bracey over Mo Evans, Carrawell over Michael Redd, Corey Alexander over Eric Snow. Heck even though it's blasphemous they took one foreign scoring point guard over a domestic scoring point guard just about the same age, Parker over Arenas. But that's just nit-picking, Parker has been great and an all-star.

That's probably why they finally hired someone to be their director of college player personnel. Better late than never.

[Mr. Body]

Didn't now they finally got a director of college player personnel. Another one you missed: Mahinmi over David Lee.

It's pretty obvious by now the Spurs have been very good at foreign scouting (depending on how some of the young'uns turn out), but they've been abyssmal at domestic scouting. Absolutely atrocious.

[objective]

Didn't now they finally got a director of college player personnel.

Sure did, here's the details, from September:


The Spurs have hired ex-Indiana Pacers scout and University of South Carolina head coach George Felton as director of college player personnel.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA091606.3C.spurssignings.2d7ddea.html

[TDMVPDPOY]

even if we sign him for the MLE, or watever he was asking, his stats will not inflate but decrease, sumwhere what nazr or rasho was avg for us....

we suck

[objective]

If memory serves, the Spurs offered him 4/24 . . .

Which would have destroyed the 2008 plan.

All for . . . Joel Pryzbilla?

[T Park]

Uhh,

Guys isn't Sanikidze like 20, and Mahinmi 19 or 20.

Why are we all of a sudden giving them the stiff name, instead of waiting till they get over and play.

[objective]

I don't see anything wrong in comparing a 20 year old small forward taken 42 and a 21 year old small forward taken 43, and comparing them two and a half years after their draft selection.

I didn't include Mahinmi in my list because A. his draft was slightly more recent than Sanikidze's, and I'm willing to wait at least 2 full seasons post draft before evaluating, and B. because Mahinmi had signed to be a starter for a Euroleague team, though it didn't work out that way. Sanikidze didn't.

[whottt]

The Spurs have a rep for being a smart drafting team because of Manu and Parker and that's about it....those were good picks, but those were about the only good ones other than obvious picks Robinson and Duncan.

I remember the night we did the trade with Phoenix...I raised hell about it. And I knew Kidd wasn't coming(and was happy about it).

[Mr. Body]

The Spurs have a rep for being a smart drafting team because of Manu and Parker and that's about it....those were good picks, but those were about the only good ones other than obvious picks Robinson and Duncan.

This doesn't get said often enough. This Spurs FO gets too much credit for being canny and savvy drafters. They've ridden for too long off the Ginobili pick, which they admit was luck more than anything, and the Parker pick, whic was pretty nice. Otherwise, their domestic picks have been atrocious for years and years - this regime picking up where previous front offices left off - and their latest foreign picks have been underwhelming. Give those players time, but surely underwhelming.

The league genius for drafting domestic talent with bad picks may well be Isiah Thomas. R.C. Buford, Presti, and Pop are hardly in the same class as Isiah as far as this skill goes.

[ChumpDumper]

This doesn't get said often enough.Not that I disagree, but every day isn't enough?

[SenorSpur]

This doesn't get said often enough. This Spurs FO gets too much credit for being canny and savvy drafters. They've ridden for too long off the Ginobili pick, which they admit was luck more than anything, and the Parker pick, whic was pretty nice. Otherwise, their domestic picks have been atrocious for years and years - this regime picking up where previous front offices left off - and their latest foreign picks have been underwhelming. Give those players time, but surely underwhelming.

The league genius for drafting domestic talent with bad picks may well be Isiah Thomas. R.C. Buford, Presti, and Pop are hardly in the same class as Isiah as far as this skill goes.

....well said. Besides I would venture to say the Spurs botching the Howard draft "cancels out" one of their so-called steals.

[wildbill2u]

I think they draft Euros because they don't have to bring them over and pay them anything. The FO knows that picks at 29 or 30 don't often produce much in the way of domestic players so why give them a first round contract to pay out.

[Mr. Body]

I think they draft Euros because they don't have to bring them over and pay them anything. The FO knows that picks at 29 or 30 don't often produce much in the way of domestic players so why give them a first round contract to pay out.

I think we'll see a shift away from that. We have enough players in the int'l pipeline. Maybe try it again late second round, but we need players who can help right now. I see a domestic pick in the first this year.

[whottt]

I'd just like to point out that the Spurs were going to pass on Parker as well...the only reason they ended up taking him was because he got a phenomenal score on some sort of test the Spurs had him take...it took the testers alerting the Spurs that Parker's scores were of unusually high caliber for the Spurs to draft him...

To be fair, Parker stunk it up badly at the workout where the Spurs evaluated him.

Just to keep it real...the Spurs were going to take Nenad Kristic if he had been available the year he was in the draft. Would have been a great pick.


It's not just drafts...the Spurs have been lucky that some of their attempted FA signings have fallen through as well...

Derek Anderson and Chris Webber immediately come to mind.


But hey..what's the expression? 3 titles is 3 titles...sometimes it's better to be lucky than good....EG: It was luck that Jordan was there for the Bulls to draft...

[timvp]

I'd just like to point out that the Spurs were going to pass on Parker as well...the only reason they ended up taking him was because he got a phenomenal score on some sort of test the Spurs had him take...it took the testers alerting the Spurs that Parker's scores were of unusually high caliber for the Spurs to draft him...

Not only that, the Spurs had to have numerous teams pass on him who "almost" drafted him. Even the Celtics, who had promised him a spot in the first round, passed on him at the last second.

For the record, Tony ran the fastest 3/4 court time ever in the pre-draft camp. He also aced the IQ or whatever type test he was given. The speed and smarts were the reason he was drafted. The Spurs just hopped he had enough basketball ability to utilize those skills.

Manu was drafted pretty much just to have a Hispanic prospect in the pipe line. And at the time, he wasn't even the Spurs' highest rated Argentine player. They drafted him because he played shooting guard -- the easiest position to transfer from overseas to the NBA.

And truth be told, Giricek was always the higher rated of the two in the Spurs' system until the final year they were going to have to bring one of them aboard. Even when Manu was winning championships, the Spurs hated his defense and turnovers. And if Giricek wouldn't have hurt his knee, I'm not sure which one they would have picked.

What I don't get about the Spurs always claiming they were going to draft Krstic, Kirilenko, Stojakovic and others is that if they knew they were so good ... how come they didn't trade up to get them. Teams trade up all the time and to trade up to the mid-teens isn't even that hard. I mean if you knew Kirilenko was a stud, why not give up your late first round pick and another first round pick to move up to 15 or whatever?

[Mr. Body]

What I don't get about the Spurs always claiming they were going to draft Krstic, Kirilenko, Stojakovic and others is that if they knew they were so good ... how come they didn't trade up to get them. Teams trade up all the time and to trade up to the mid-teens isn't even that hard. I mean if you knew Kirilenko was a stud, why not give up your late first round pick and another first round pick to move up to 15 or whatever?

They are pretty conservative with risks. They don't take them very often. It'll probably happen again this year when they're two inches short of getting Corey Brewer or somebody.

That, and their assets are never that great. Trading up with a future pick isn't terribly exciting when that pick is #29.