Monroe: No Hill means Spurs OK with standing pat
San Antonio Express-News
Monroe Nothing excites an NBA team's fans quite like the signing of a high-profile free agent.
The draft has its own thrills, but unless a team has lucked out in the lottery when franchise-changing players are available, there remains a wait-and-see factor. Ask any fan of the Bucks or Wizards. Even Oregonians know better than to plan a parade route through downtown Portland for next June.
But when your team signs a free agent whose abilities are well established?
Expectations rise, often beyond reason.
The last free-agent signing that truly changed the landscape at the very top of the league?
Shaquille O'Neal, signed away from the Orlando Magic in the summer of 1996, was at the center of Lakers teams that won three-straight titles. Even so, it took four seasons in L.A. for O'Neal to win his first ring.
Spurs fans remember when the Magic, burned so badly when O'Neal jumped ship, had designs of building a dynasty around Tim Duncan and Grant Hill. Both were free agents in the summer of 2000.
Orlando landed Hill. Duncan chose to remain here.
Four Spurs titles and five ankle operations later, Hill had a second opportunity to team with Duncan. This time, it looks as if he passed.
On the market again, Hill reportedly has decided he will sign with the Suns when free agents officially can put pen to paper next Wednesday.
Formal courtship between the Spurs and Hill never ensued. The Pistons, in fact, were far more disheartened by Hill's decision to go to Phoenix than anyone with an office on Spurs Lane.
Suns insiders believe assistant coach Alvin Gentry, who was on the Pistons' coaching staff through Hill's first five seasons in the league, was a major factor luring Hill to the Valley of the Sun. Don't doubt that Suns coach Mike D'Antoni, a Team USA assistant under Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, prevailed on Coach K to have a few words with the former Blue Devils star.
There are intangible factors at work, too. Hill may well believe it will be more fun running the floor with Steve Nash than with Tony Parker. It's hard to argue the notion. Nash is the league's best passer and its deepest thinker. Parker gets more cerebral on the court every season but remains more pure athlete than pure player. Plus, the Spurs already have Bruce Bowen at small forward and Manu Ginobili and Michael Finley at big guard. Those are Hill's positions. As fragile as his ankles have been the past seven seasons, Hill still wants to play, rather than sit.
Money clearly was no factor. Hill reportedly will get the biannual salary cap exception from the Suns, worth about $1.8 million. Had the Spurs made an offer, it likely would have been for the veteran's minimum, about $1.2 million for a player with 10 or more years of service. Hill has 12.
Hill could have gotten considerably more from the Pistons, at least double what the Suns offered. When Hill swears what he most wants is the opportunity to play for a championship, the fact he spurned a couple million bucks verifies the assertion.
You have to wonder why Hill regards Phoenix as the best place to accomplish his ultimate goal, though. After all, the Spurs have eliminated the Suns en route to their two most recent titles.
Maybe Hill believes the Suns would have won the 2007 NBA title had Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw not been suspended from Game 4 of the Spurs-Suns Western Conference semifinal series.
Hill, if healthy, will make the Suns better, and D'Antoni can use him during the regular season as Gregg Popovich uses Robert Horry — sparingly, with an eye on the postseason.
Now, the West is getting even more difficult to escape in April and May, and the Spurs don't appear to be playing games when they insist they want to give last season's players a chance to repeat. There may be a change or two at the end of the bench, but the core will remain.
It is a noble concept, and historically sound, too. After the Bulls won their first title, 11 of 12 players from the 1991 championship team returned for a successful title defense. Nine of the 11 came back for the 1993 three-peat.
The Spurs have paid attention.
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