Scrap the 2010 plan. We need to win now. Duncan and Manu aren't getting younger. They will be 34 in 2010. Bring in some key pieces now and win back to back les in 09 and '10.
the spurs front office ed up this team last summer for years to come. in 2010, the spurs will be a lottery team if they have the current lineup. it's done, the window is closed. no more championships in the foreseeable future.
dumbasses on this site are under the delusion that other teams aren't improving and that the spurs can just keep treading water. the spurs lost 4-1 to the lakers. next year, it'll be a sweep unless they make major improvements.
I assume you mean all of those things had to happen, but yeah, IF. Go with that. Regardless, I don't think it's a given they would have won the championship. I don't think they would've walked through the Celtics.
Splitter is coming in 2010.. It's all apart of the 2010 plan!
Christ I hope the Spurs FO learned from the 2003 plan and isn't stupid enough to stick with a 2010 plan, at least thinking they'll land a top FA. I have a better shot at winning the Powerball lottery than the Spurs have of landing one of the targeted premier FAs. There are a bunch of big market teams clearing space, lining up for those top FAs. Doesn't anybody remember what happen in the 2003 Brand negotiation when Nike stepped in with the endorsement package? Spurs have zero chance of landing Wade, Bosh, LeBron, etc..
The Spurs need to make it clear from now until the end of time to Splitter and his agent that they will retain his rights. Take any plan that his rights might be renounced entirely out of the equation. No more nice guy BS. Sometimes it makes people think you can be walked on.
I can understand with the whole scrapping the 08 plan to give the team the chance to defend, though I didn't agree with it at the time too much.
But the most puzzling thing about last year's re-signing of all the players to 'give the team the chance to defend their le' is the re-signing of Matt Bonner.
Bonner never even played last playoffs, how did he get included in the "defend his le" category with Oberto and Vaughn?
That would be like giving 3 years/9 million to Mengke Bateer in 03 and Gerard King in 99.
We have a good nuclear core of players with the Big 3 who should be productive for a few more years. The problem is the role players who didn't perform this year as expected because of age, injuries or whatever.
In one of the Laker playoff games, THREE of our starting five had a total of SEVEN points. They were all from Bowen and when you have to rely on Bowen for scoring you're in a world of hurt.
You can say it was just one game, but it is symtomatic of the continuing problem with starting Oberto and Finley who are inconsistent in all categories from game to game. No serious NBA fan can possibly believe that the Spurs can another Championship relying on guys like this in the starting lineup.
So you put Ginobilit back as starter and hope he can carry the minutes.
But then you look at the rotation replacements off the bench. Thomas, Udoka, Barry, Vaughn, Stoudamire, Bonner, Horry, Mahimi. Not a whole lot of consistency there because of the age and injury factor to cause any fear in other teams when they come in to relieve the starters. I like a couple of them but you could get rid of all of them and not be missing a whole lot.
2010. Here's the revised plan for NEXT year:
Play the Big three only ten minutes a game give Mahimi lots of minutes to see what's he's got. We'd have a terrible season, giving us a lottery pick (the next TDuncan) to go with the remaining years of the Big Three.
Tell the rest of this league and its administrators to STFU. The Gasol trade was a joke and putting the WCF on a every other night schedule while all the rest of the playoffs had a few nights off was su ious enough to take any thoughts of fair play off the table.
It's one way out of this jackpot we're in.
Right, the Spurs are set with their top 3 players. They basically need a scoring 2 guard who is of starting quality and a backup point guard who can score some.
They have their MLE (~$5.5 mil) and their LLE (~$1.9 mil). They have a trade exception worth about $1.8 mil and a couple other minor ones as well (~$500K). They have 3 picks in the draft, albeit low ones (#26, 45, & 57). They also have the draft rights to a couple international players (Javtokas & Sanikidze) who may be available to join the team.
Mahinmi should be joining the team next year which is tantamount to adding a lottery pick.
Their key free agent is Thomas, whose full Bird Rights they hold.
Bowen, Barry, Udoka (team option), Oberto, Bonner, and Vaughn (player option?) are useful role players. Again, there's not really a starting 2 in that group nor a desirable backup point. Vaughn is useful as a 3rd point/defensive sub.
With the Lux Tax threshold unlikely to be a concern next season, the front office should be free to upgrade the supporting cast some. Plus, it's obvious to them that some changes are needed this summer. So relax.
Ginobili's body will prevent him from getting another large contract.
As for 1 to 2-yrs contract, if it's a player now that they are either targeting (e.g., Magette?) or would like to target, they can give them the contract and say if it works out then they get a long-term deal b/c he is now the core of the team along with TD and TP.
That's stupid Pop's fault. Obviously something was seen in Bonner to sign him to a new deal. Wasn't he suppose to replace Horry? And what did Horry do this year? Pop wasted Bonner like he stuck with NVE and wasted developing Beno (which meant we were stuck with Vaughn and MMouse.
Real bright Pop.
Agreed about the WCF every other night sked. That had to be a first.
As for playing time, play to win in front of the home folks; but tell the road homies to stick it.
The Spurs should be able to offer someone a long term contract using the MLE this summer and still have a fair amount of cap flexibility in 2010.
TD, TP, Ian, and minimum roster spot charges will probably amount to $36 mil in the summer of 2010. The cap was $55.6 mil for 2007-08. It could very well be $60 mil by 2010-11. So we're looking at perhaps $24 to 25 mil in hypothetical cap space then. Supposing the Spurs signed someone to a 3 year or longer full MLE contract this summer then they still have about $17 mil in cap room left in 2010. That would be enough to go after most max level free agents.
I'm not opposed to the idea of having some cap flexibility every so often, but doing so absolutely at the expense of improving the team now with the big 3 together is not a great idea. If you can land a proven starting quality scoring swingman this summer with a long term MLE deal, you do it.
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