Rumor: Malik Hairston to Montepaschi? (Confirmed)

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Originally Posted by yavozerb

If the spurs strictly wanted just an above average perimeter defender then Bogans would have been re-signed or Hairston would be playing more. The fact is the spurs will live with an average defender at the 3 as long as he can provide some help on the offensive end.

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Who do we have that is an avg defender at the position?Also, your reasoning is what a lot of us disagree with.

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Originally Posted by ceperez

Yup. But this is the NBA, it's either you got talent or you do not.

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Originally Posted by MannyIsGod

I wish Malik the best but the NBA is a business.

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No, I understand. But at the same time it reflects poorly on the Toros, that's all. It's not like Neal is a known quality player.

I am almost 100% sure the Spurs wont' go out and get a vet SF, btw. If they do they're going to be effectively paying 5 mill or so for him if Bruno's lux tax calcs are right.

I think Pop is going to have to give young players a good amount of minutes this year. Thats a breath of fresh air.

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Originally Posted by DPG21920

As things stand today, with all of the unknowns, if it was between Neal & Malik I feel the spurs made the wrong choice. There are a lot of question marks around both players, but Malik's defense and rebounding were needed just as much if not more than Neal's shooting IMO.

But I feel Neal does not have the tools to defend at the Nba level, but Malik has shown the ability to shoot, at least on the DL level. I feel Malik had a better chance at being a decent shooter (plus he can finish at the rim) than Neal has at being a good defender. If both skill sets are valued, I feel Malik had the higher ceiling.

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Well we're going to find out who's right. Hairston and Neal have basically swapped places, except that I expect Neal to be given far more opportunity to play than Hairston ever got.

Dude you're acting like Hariston's mother. :lol

It's gee time

If the Spurs do carry 13 players it will be interesting who the odd man out is. Gee does have Dleague eligibility left but Temple seems the likeliest to see IR most of the time.

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Originally Posted by DesignatedT

It's gee time

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Is it? I think Gee will be touring with the Toros...

I see more of RJ for 30+ minutes and the rest with Hill and the 3 guard lineup...

We shall see...

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Originally Posted by DPG21920

Who do we have that is an avg defender at the position?Also, your reasoning is what a lot of us disagree with.

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The bigger question: Who do the Spurs even have outside of RJ now that can reasonably be expected to defend NBA threes? Hairston was undersized but he had length and had shown the ability to defend bigger guys. I think some folks aren't realizing that Neal is way too small to play the small forward position and that Anderson was widely regarded to be a terrible defender.

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Originally Posted by MannyIsGod

Dude you're acting like Hariston's mother. :lol

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No I'm acting like a guy who hates smallball. I hope you like it, because you're gonna get your fill of it.

Hairston never showed anything on an NBA court that showed he could be a big time contributor. I understand the argument of keeping him over Neal because our lack of players at the sf position but IMO Neal does have more upside and so does Gee. I love Malik and wish him well if he's gone. Neal would have been a guaranteed first round pick back when if it wasn't for the law.

I don't know what hating small ball has to do with conspiracy theories.

Actually, I think we'll see far less of four smalls on the court this year. The Spurs have 5 solid bigs and there really shouldn't be a reason to play small ball. I do think we'll see a lot of our 2s getting minutes at the 3 which will be interesting to see on defense but those 2 spots are fairly interchangeable.

Better interior defense will go a long way to making that a smaller issue as well.

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Originally Posted by Obstructed_View

The bigger question: Who do the Spurs even have outside of RJ now that can reasonably be expected to defend NBA threes?

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Two words: No one - which is the question I asked earlier in the thread. As we know, RJ aint that great at guarding anyone, either. Therefore, it seemingly was important to have a backup SF, whose skills could offset the defiencies (defense, 3-pt shooting) that RJ doesn't provide.

I guess Pop is comfortable with his smallish roster.

Unless you are talking about small ball being undersized at the 1 and 2 positions your wrong. No way we play more small ball than we did last season after rj failed miserably at it. Splitter signing and Blair looking at a big time minute increase will prevent it.

Wow hairstons defense is more overrated Than George hills on this board. :lmao at people thinking Hairston is some shut down defender. Please

We'll have an undersized 3 a lot of the time out there. For pretty much the entire Duncan Era, we've had undersized 3s. Its not the biggest deal in the world.

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Originally Posted by DesignatedT

Hairston never showed anything on an NBA court that showed he could be a big time contributor. I understand the argument of keeping him over Neal because our lack of players at the sf position but IMO Neal does have more upside and so does Gee. I love Malik and wish him well if he's gone. Neal would have been a guaranteed first round pick back when if it wasn't for the law.

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Malik showed in limited minutes that he was an NBA level player. At this point Neal has not. Why do you feel Neal has a higher upside?

Whats Temple's wingspan? I think Solid D is onto something about being able to defend 3 positions. They might actually be expecting big things out of Temple.

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Originally Posted by MannyIsGod

We'll have an undersized 3 a lot of the time out there. For pretty much the entire Duncan Era, we've had undersized 3s. Its not the biggest deal in the world.

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Those undersized 3's could shoot 3's and defend

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Originally Posted by DesignatedT

Hairston never showed anything on an NBA court that showed he could be a big time contributor.

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And Neal did?

Actually, the more I think about it the more Gee is going to be RJ's "backup". Temple is just as big but I think Gee will slide into that role quicker.

There's a log jam at shooting guard. Its going to be strange.

I like Temple a lot. I thought he and Malik would be nice. Like most said, this does not do anything really for the Spurs chances, but this is ST and we care about guys 1-15 :lol

Hairston had a limited sample size last year, but he was ranked the #1 isolation defender in the entire NBA last year..again, small sample size, but still meaningful from a potential standpoint..the offensive player went 5-31 against Malik in 1 on 1 situations..something like that isn't just ignored, it's obviously worth reading into..most of it was against rotation players too, not star players for the most part, but a lot of rotation players..

I like Temple and I think he's going to be a good player, but I don't think he's big(not talking about height) and athletic enough to defend SFs..

I find it hard to believe that the Spurs would let him go without looking at him again in TC/preseason, especially when they've all made comments about how high they are on him..

So I would assume that he chose to go to Europe so that he could get more money, playing time and an opportunity to develop his game so he can have a future in basketball..or the Spurs just didn't want to guarantee his money when they already have a bunch of swingmen on the roster already..

Hopefully it's the former..choosing a horrible defender and a sexual predator over Hairston, just because he can shoot 3s, is a bad move going forward IMO..the Spurs had a big need in 3-point shooting coming into this season, but it looks like they might be putting too much of an emphasis on it..people seem to forget that the Spurs of the past few seasons had too many 3-point shooters and not enough defenders, and it appears that they're going down the same road again..

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Originally Posted by DPG21920

Those undersized 3's could shoot 3's and defend

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Well if Malik could shoot he'd probably still be here. Or if he had anywhere near half of Bowen level defense.

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Originally Posted by MannyIsGod

Actually, the more I think about it the more Gee is going to be RJ's "backup". Temple is just as big but I think Gee will slide into that role quicker.

There's a log jam at shooting guard. Its going to be strange.

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I think Pop is in love with Temple's D and shooting, and said as much when interviewed. I definitely see the Temple SF experiment extensively tested this season.