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I'm happy that there is what seems to be a calm sense of importance right now.
Gotta give props to Pop for falling on the sword for RC. Also kept the door open for Splitter at some point in the future.Tiago Splitter’s decision to return to his Spanish League team next season hasn’t drastically altered the Spurs’ offseason game plan, Popovich said.
Splitter, the Spurs’ top draft pick last June, signed a four-year deal with Tau Ceramica this month worth several times what the Spurs could pay him under the NBA’s rookie salary scale.
“When he agreed to come, he didn’t know they were going to offer him so much (in Spain),” Popovich said. “With the way the economy is, he would have had to be an idiot to come here next year.”
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b....18a2db19.html
It's also a good sign that Pop seems involved in the offseason a lot more than usual. The last few summers, Pop has let RC run the ship while he disappeared to the Maine wilderness. This summer Pop has stayed in town.
Hopefully offseason magic ensues.
I'm happy that there is what seems to be a calm sense of importance right now.
A classy reaction from a classy coach
Yeah , Pop got pissed!
I found some article that I printed some time ago. It was about Splitter and his intrest in coming over to San Antonio.
That NBA is his goal, that the championship with Tau will be a good way to preapre for the NBA. He was so sure back then that he will be in Texas it was insaine he changed his mind.
No money was mentioned in the article, and Splitter did not gave a damn about money (baq then).
sheeee
What part of this quote you don't understand?
“When he agreed to come, he didn’t know they were going to offer him so much (in Spain),” Popovich said.
When you are offered as much as he was offered, it's hard to not give a damn about money. Like Pop said, it would be insane to turn down TAU's offer.
I dont understand that:
What part of this quote you don't understand?
i think this gives us a nother 4 yrs to start tankn
It's good that Pop's not holding a grudge or bitter about it. Good example.
Although, I'm sure they now recognize TAU players/Euro committed drafts = hassle.
If Splitter performs well then after 4 years he can expect a bigger amount to resign with Tau.. if the Spurs can still only offer a rookie contract at that time, there's no real incentive to join the Spurs.. Spurs have to re-think their BUy-Euro strategy.
There is no guarantee that the rookie scale will be as restrictive in 4 years or possibly 2 years. The Spurs could also try and get the guy a better contract in 2 years instead of four (if his play warrants it). We'll see.
Pop is being smart. The guy is now locked in for at least two years and there is no benefit to the Spurs by trashing the guy for taking an unexpectedly good deal.
Also, did you note that Pop said " When he agreed to come". That tells me that RC and Pop got a verbal committment from Splitter. That committment was broken, but it's like high school recruiting. He didn't sign anything.
Hopefully, Splitter will cash in for a couple of years and then give the SAS a shot. At 25 he would be young enough to have a long and lucrative career - Manu started here at that age.
He has a NBA buyout after two years and it's equal to the maximum the Spurs can pay. By then maybe he'll be ready to make the jump. If not, it was a low 1st round pick and a good gamble that didn't work out.
Well, not publicly anyway. I'm sure behind closed doors Pop was not so diplomatic and understanding, but the Spurs FO is in no position to burn bridges right now so it was definitely the right thing to say.
Well you make a run at him in two years and hope for the best. Don't trade his rights. If it is all for naught you chock it up like what Marcus says to a bad low first round pick. Disappointing but not the end of the world.
Don't trade him though lest the ghost of Scola comes back to haunt us.
Just curious, are those over-sea contracts guaranteed?
That's what I have been saying. People are upset because he took more money. Why? Any one of us would take more money. The dude is looking out for himself. Nothing wrong with that at all.
I hope they don't trade his rights. I think he has the potential to be a very good player.
Tiago doesn't have to be "let off the hook." Whoever decided to draft him does. I hope this decision coupled with the Scola debacle gets some people fired.
Maybe the NBA should consider relaxing or changing its police re rookie contracts to allow NBA teams to be more compe ive in bidding for foreign talent. Guys like Splitter, etc. are rookies in name only having years of pro service under their belts before joining the NBA. They shouldn't be put in the same boat as recruits out of the college ranks. This will ensure that the best Euro talent makes it to the NBA.
he put in his contract option to go to the NBA in two years, and in the NBA he can go only to the spurs, so this say that he want to play for the spurs in two years.
I think David Stern will update the rookie salary thing. He wants this game to be worldwide, which it pretty much is, but if he wants to stay competetive, he is going to have to make changes when it comes to rookie salaries.
They should be fired because the Spurs didn't want a large luxury tax liability and because they didn't select a scrub with a low 1st round pick and end up with a guaranteed contract for said scrub instead of taking a chance on a lottery pick talent who fell to them because of his contract situation?
no, because they should have known that it is nearly impossible to enforce personal services contracts in the Spanish courts. You can draft a million Spanish players, and even get them under contract, but you can never enforce the contracts.
So they should attempt to force a player out of a more lucrative deal?
no, they should stop drafting Spanish players (or players from any country where it is impossible to enforce personal services contracts).
It's not as if the Spurs passed on a wealth of talent selected after Splitter and Scola in the '07 and '02 drafts, respectively.
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