Spurs Waive Darius Washington

I just found this on his site: http://dwash.net/HOME/tabid/70/Default.aspx

PERSONAL BLOG

12/28/07
I am disappointed to announce that the San Antonio Spurs waived me today after playing 18 games for them. It is never easy to be waived from a team but I understand their decision.

I would like to personally thank Coach and everyone at the Spurs for allowing me the opportunity to learn from and play with the best. I really am thankful for the veteran players especially Robert Horry that helped show me the way in my first season. And, of course I want to thank the fans for being so supportive of me.

I don't know what's next but for now I will work hard in the gym and prepare myself for the next move. Hopefully I will be able to report more in the next week or so. Thanks for visiting my site. [/I]

STop the Presses! Big news! An undrafted rookie free agent is waived.

Does anyone see a special player in these Season averages:

Season Team G GS MPG FG% 3p% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG
07-08 SAS 18 0 8.1 0.438 0.333 0.538 0.2 0.9 1.1 0.8 0.3 0.0 0.78 0.90 2.9

Oh, the humanity!

I can't remember if it was timvp or Bruno who called this? But the Spurs have till the 10th to decide on Williams and/or Langford.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b...d.2eb2d31.html

Langford joins Spurs in time to face Toronto

Web Posted: 12/29/2007 12:19 AM CST

Mike Monroe
Express-News

With shooting guards Manu Ginobili and Brent Barry both on the shelf with injuries, the Spurs moved to shore up their thinning wing positions on Friday by calling up a second wing player from their Austin Toros affiliate in the NBA Development League.

Keith Langford, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Kansas, joined the Spurs in time to suit up for Friday's home game against the Toronto Raptors.

Langford's signing did not come in time for him to have a practice with the Spurs, but he had been in training camp.

The Spurs on Wednesday had called up small forward Marcus Williams from the Toros, which had given them 15 players under contract, the league maximum. To make room for Langford, point guard Darius Washington was released.

Washington played in 18 games, averaging 2.9 points and 0.8 assists. He had been assigned to the Toros in early December, and then recalled after Tony Parker was injured.

Neither Langford's nor Williams' contract is guaranteed, and the Spurs will have until Jan. 10 to decide if they will keep either player, or both, for the remainder of the season. The NBA requires that all players under contract as of Jan. 10 be guaranteed for the remainder of the season.

In nine games with Austin, Langford averaged 23.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists.

"It's another body," Popovich said. "You never know what might happen. Maybe they will get in a game, and maybe they won't."

With the Spurs struggling mightily in the first half, Langford made his NBA debut much sooner than expected. He replaced Bruce Bowen after a timeout with 8:39 left in the first half. Playing just over four minutes, Langford missed his only shot and committed a foul.

Williams, who played the final two minutes of Wednesday's game against the Bulls, did not play Friday.

In all likelihood, the Spurs will keep only one of the two players past the Jan. 10 contract guarantee date. Though both are believed to be on rookie minimum contracts, the Spurs would slide just over the league's luxury tax threshold if both players were guaranteed.

So McDonald said that Spurs can keep one player past January 10th and stay below the tax. I guess that, if he is working like Ludden, he is getting this info from Spurs. So, Either I've a mistake (it won't be the first nor the last time) or ESPN number was false or Spurs know that Washington will be claim from waivers.

If Spurs keep one, I hope it will be Williams because he seems to have a higher upside than Langford and because I like him :). If Spurs want to have some help for this year, there are better options than Williams and Langford. If Washington is picked from waivers, Spurs should have enough space below the Luxury tax to end up the season with a 15 men roster.

So with all these former Toros players being waived, does that mean they will no longer be playing for the Toros? I think they are all a good fit at least in the D-League.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Budkin

So with all these former Toros players being waived, does that mean they will no longer be playing for the Toros? I think they are all a good fit at least in the D-League.

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Williams will likely be back on the Toros. I think Washington might go to Europe if he clears waivers, but I believe he could rejoin the Toros if he wanted to stay in the D-League. I'm pretty sure Sean Banks stayed on with Tulsa for a few games after he was waived by the Hornets a couple of seasons back.

Thanks ChumpDumper- as always you've got the Toros knowledge!

ChumpDumper gets special treatment from people in the Toros organization.

Nothing more than any season ticket holder, really.

I thought Darius had more raw talent than either Langford and Williams combined.

I liked his size and speed. I assumed he would make various mistakes, but I figured if he kept at it he would eventually learn the system.]

I also thought he would be a nice change of pace from Tony, being a more physical point. I guess the Spurs didn't want to take the time to mold him.

Don't really know much about Langford, and to be quite honest, don't really care to know.

:lol you don't really know much about Langford except the total amount of his raw talent.

Why do you not care? You pick and chose whom to care about when they become Spurs based soley upon the player he is replacing?

Unfortunately for Darius, he wasn't improving his game quickly enough for the Spurs liking. You can certainly say it's not fair if that's your opinion, but there are only so many roster spots and so much money to spend.

What I do not understand is how Pop et al can consider the first third of a season of a ROOKIE POINT GUARD's play to be worthy of just ditching him like that.

its stupid, just flat out stupid, a case of overanalyzing the situation IMO

he's a rookie
of the hardest position to learn

what did they expect, him to be churning out triple doubles off the bench after just 3 months in the system?

I think they expected more improvement than they saw. He probably suffered by comparison to Ian's development more than anything. It will be interesting to see if any other NBA team picks him up.

I thought it took a year to learn the Toros system...