Spurs Brazil
09-10-2007, 12:47 PM
Spurs: The Scola/Spanoulis Trade Mystery
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By Bill Ingram
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Sep 9, 2007, 13:44
In the wake of last week's FIBA Americas Tournament there has been a great deal of speculation that the San Antonio Spurs will find themselves in the spotlight as the 2007-08 season gets underway. It won't be for the usual reason, though. The defending champs will hang another banner, but many of their fans will be keeping an eye on the team playing just a few miles to the East.
Luis Scola has been the property of the San Antonio Spurs since the 2002 NBA Draft, when he was taken with the 56th overall pick. The Spurs, though, were never able to make the necessary arrangements to bring him over to the NBA. It's widely believed that Scola wanted to start, and obviously he wouldn't do that during Tim Duncan's tenure. The fact that a trade to a team that needed a starting power forward cleared things up immediately supports that idea.
So the San Antonio Spurs traded one of the best international power forwards - a teammate of Manu Ginobili and Fabricio Oberto - for a point guard who was never going to suit up for the team? Sure, it gave San Antonio some cap relief, but that's hardly going to be reassuring if Scola leads the Houston Rockets to a division title and perhaps more.
A little cap relief seemed to be the primary motivation in a deal that also sent Jackie Butler to Houston. Butler didn't play for the Spurs and Rockets GM Daryl Morey told HOOPSWORLD last week that he doesn't expect Butler to play for the Rockets, either. But now a source close to Panathinaikos has revealed that the Greek team paid the Spurs more than $1 million to release Spanoulis, who was as much a star in Greece before joining the Rockets as Scola is in Argentina.
All in all, it seems the Spurs saved as much as $13 million through this series of events. Five million from Spanoulis (two million in salary times two for luxury cap is four million plus one million from Panathinaikos equals five million). Then they saved 2.2 million times two years = 4.4 million from Jackie Butler or 8.5 say 8 million including the luxury tax. Total savings 8+5 = 13 million. Not bad.
It still won't be much of a consolation if the Rockets somehow use Scola as a means to overcome San Antonio's dominance of the Western Conference, but at least the deal makes a little more sense in light of this new information.
http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_23249.shtml
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Bill Ingram
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Sep 9, 2007, 13:44
In the wake of last week's FIBA Americas Tournament there has been a great deal of speculation that the San Antonio Spurs will find themselves in the spotlight as the 2007-08 season gets underway. It won't be for the usual reason, though. The defending champs will hang another banner, but many of their fans will be keeping an eye on the team playing just a few miles to the East.
Luis Scola has been the property of the San Antonio Spurs since the 2002 NBA Draft, when he was taken with the 56th overall pick. The Spurs, though, were never able to make the necessary arrangements to bring him over to the NBA. It's widely believed that Scola wanted to start, and obviously he wouldn't do that during Tim Duncan's tenure. The fact that a trade to a team that needed a starting power forward cleared things up immediately supports that idea.
So the San Antonio Spurs traded one of the best international power forwards - a teammate of Manu Ginobili and Fabricio Oberto - for a point guard who was never going to suit up for the team? Sure, it gave San Antonio some cap relief, but that's hardly going to be reassuring if Scola leads the Houston Rockets to a division title and perhaps more.
A little cap relief seemed to be the primary motivation in a deal that also sent Jackie Butler to Houston. Butler didn't play for the Spurs and Rockets GM Daryl Morey told HOOPSWORLD last week that he doesn't expect Butler to play for the Rockets, either. But now a source close to Panathinaikos has revealed that the Greek team paid the Spurs more than $1 million to release Spanoulis, who was as much a star in Greece before joining the Rockets as Scola is in Argentina.
All in all, it seems the Spurs saved as much as $13 million through this series of events. Five million from Spanoulis (two million in salary times two for luxury cap is four million plus one million from Panathinaikos equals five million). Then they saved 2.2 million times two years = 4.4 million from Jackie Butler or 8.5 say 8 million including the luxury tax. Total savings 8+5 = 13 million. Not bad.
It still won't be much of a consolation if the Rockets somehow use Scola as a means to overcome San Antonio's dominance of the Western Conference, but at least the deal makes a little more sense in light of this new information.
http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_23249.shtml