Gist Highlight - Angelico Biella

I would argue that there is no way the supporting cast could be worse, so even complete question marks or outright dubious nba-caliber players like Gist and Sanikidze and Hairston filling out spots 6-15 on the roster would be at worst a wash and maybe one of them turns legit and helps out.

Realistically the Spurs probably can't take on more salary than they would ship out (like Vince Carter), and probably can't sign anyone to a large cut of the MLE because of the luxury tax.

And then there's Pop falling in love with useless players and ignoring others.

There's one way to fix that and to realistically fill the roster.

Gut everything not TD, TP, Manu, Hill.

And if that means buying out Finley, Oberto, Kurt Thomas and Matt Bonner than do it.

If possible, package as many useless contracts together (like Bonner and Kurt Thomas) for a single player, regardless of how bad he is. The key is to reduce the number of players from this active playoff roster.

And fill the rest of the roster with minimum-type players like Gist, Sanikidze, Hairston and the second round picks of this year and some d-league players and hope Mahinmi is able to sneeze without tearing a pec and growing invisible bone chips.

Yes, most of them could be trash. Hell, most of them if not all will be trash. But they will all be able to be signed with the budget at hand. The ones that work out will still be able to be retained in the 2010 plan because of their low salary. If it's a disaster . . . hey, so what, 2010 will still be right there anyway. But if it works, you have young capable role players under cheap contract AND the 2010 plan to work with.

And it forces Pop to play the youth. It takes away his favorite toys.

Maybe it leads to Pop finding himself again. I remember in the 03 dvd Pop early in the season after a loss describing the team making "young type mistakes" and how hopefully they could improve. That's what the Spurs need again, Pop to be forced to let the youth try and grow and succeed/fail like in 03.

So to sum up, my realistic dream roster:

TP/Hill/2nd rounder
Manu/Hairston/2nd rounder
Bowen?/Sanikidze/Hairston/M.Williams
Mahinmi/Gist/D-League
Duncan/maybe Javtokas/Gist/d-league

That's a team that could just as crappily lose to the Mavs in the first round with zero help for TP and TD and everyone else shooting 0-15 or whatever and grabbing 1 rebound and committing crucial turnovers.

They could to it cheaper with more potential to be better.

Gist's team has outside chance for Italian playoffs. it will be close but maybe they make it. If they make it wait to see how he does in playoffs against real competition before you judge him.

if you just take the overrating and the underrating from this thread and mix it, we might be right there.
of course Gist wouldn't be able to solve our problems if he joins the Spurs this summer and I also don't think he has starter potential long term, but I do believe he can develop into a decent role player within some years.
fact is, the Spurs do need his type of player and it's also obvious they know it.
reportedly they have been quite interested in Travis Outlaw in the last years and Outlaw comes very close to what could be the best case scenario for Gist. both have very similar qualities and also very similar flaws, especially when talking about ball handling and bbiq. Outlaw has developed into a more than decent role player on a meanwhile very good team. Gist might nor have the same upside, but I don't see a reason why he shouldn't play this role on a future Spurs team.
he did devlop quite nice this year in Italy and the fact that Biella is overachieving is also a result of his impact. (they were expected to be one of the bottom teams, but won 4 out of the last 5 and are now almost qualified for the PO). Gist sometimes gets into foul troubles quickly and therefore has some bust games, but it's not that he was the second coming of Ian in this regard. his 13ppg and 6rpg ( in 27 minutes) are very nice numbers, even if the Italian league isn't any more what it was when Manu played there, but it's still light years ahead of the D-league.

overall I think the example of Outlaw showes that you can turn this type of player into something, if you are patient and give him the chance to play, just what the Blazers did. (ok, maybe Spurs should leave him in Europe for another year or two, the chance that he ends up in the D league when he comes in this year is to big and d league usually means lost years for any somehow talented player)

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Originally Posted by mountainballer

if you just take the overrating and the underrating from this thread and mix it, we might be right there.
of course Gist wouldn't be able to solve our problems if he joins the Spurs this summer and I also don't think he has starter potential long term, but I do believe he can develop into a decent role player within some years.
fact is, the Spurs do need his type of player and it's also obvious they know it.
reportedly they have been quite interested in Travis Outlaw in the last years and Outlaw comes very close to what could be the best case scenario for Gist. both have very similar qualities and also very similar flaws, especially when talking about ball handling and bbiq. Outlaw has developed into a more than decent role player on a meanwhile very good team. Gist might nor have the same upside, but I don't see a reason why he shouldn't play this role on a future Spurs team.
he did devlop quite nice this year in Italy and the fact that Biella is overachieving is also a result of his impact. (they were expected to be one of the bottom teams, but won 4 out of the last 5 and are now almost qualified for the PO). Gist sometimes gets into foul troubles quickly and therefore has some bust games, but it's not that he was the second coming of Ian in this regard. his 13ppg and 6rpg ( in 27 minutes) are very nice numbers, even if the Italian league isn't any more what it was when Manu played there, but it's still light years ahead of the D-league.

overall I think the example of Outlaw showes that you can turn this type of player into something, if you are patient and give him the chance to play, just what the Blazers did. (ok, maybe Spurs should leave him in Europe for another year or two, the chance that he ends up in the D league when he comes in this year is to big and d league usually means lost years for any somehow talented player)

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perfect!

Outlaw comparision is the closer thing i've in my mind, but i think Gist should be better than Travis too, all depends by his mind.

If we r goin to leave James in Europe i hope we will send him to a Euroleague level team.