Did not this team sign Dennis Rodman? J.R. played for Byron Scott (whom Jason Kidd hated) when he was 18 years old, give the kid a chance to grow. Not saying he has Kobe's will to win, but no one does except Gino maybe, but that does not mean he does not care.
I can say he does more than he doesn't by the way he competed in this years playoffs. He was all up in Kobe and not backing down. He upped his play. He also was in Karl's doghouse last year, took the criticism in stride, did not complain and worked his way back into the rotation.
Byron Scott did not begin as a great coach. I thought he was overrated like Doc Rivers until this year's playoffs. Also, he wrote off Stephen Jackson. Whether you wanted him to stay in SA or not, it's hard to say he doesn't have talent.
But to your point of would he like to play in SA? no. Of course he doesn't. We were most useful to him earlier when he couldn't get playing time. Now, he doesn't need us to get money or playing time. If anything, we're probably the team he should avoid. Who wants to finally be on the cusp of getting a starting job and then come to SA and have to be in Manu's shadow and possibly Pop's doghouse.
Rodman cared about winning.
Does Smith care about winning?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
The Spurs are not a team to place a 5 million + / year bet on whether a guy has a heart and will focus for them.
And I have little doubt Smith is a player who would rather around on a lesser team where nothing is required of him than have to bust his ass off the bench.
It is definitely a concern, but he is so young it is not that much of a gamble in my opinion. Tony Parker was a gamble. I just think they need to do something to bolster the scoring. If they can do that with a guy that is athletic that is better, because all athletic guys can be good defenders, it is just effort at that point. There are players like Finley, who physically can not be good defenders, J.R. can physically do it, Pop will demand it and he knows that everyone on the Spurs will be putting in the effort as well.
DerMarr Johnson has a rep as a doofus, and we signed him for the balance of the season this year. I remember him acting like a complete fool, topped off by mean muggin' our bench when he hit 2 or 3 treys in garbage time during a game against us last year. Didn't stop the Spurs from signing him.
A draft pick by definition is a gamble, yes, but that makes the point moot.
Signing Butler was something of a gamble, but was fairly cheap for a big man prospect, even if it turned out to be a bust.
JR Smith at a certain amount of money is a good risk. At the full MLE, which is what it would take, well, that's pretty rich for one-dimensional player with real character concerns and who is technically unproven to want to win or play within a strict system like the Spurs. Analogies to Stephen Jackson don't make sense in that sense, because this is a lot of money.
So when Mr. Body says he's done with a thread it means the opposite, right?
Spurs fans will about anything. If JR Smith is willing to come to SA for a MLE contract you can be rest assured the front office will oblige him.
I meant that night.
This thread is too much fun to let go. The annual "The Spurs could serious look at this balla, seriously!" thread.
Give Holt a call and explain away.
Maybe they do. Going after him in the past is hardly precedent. As I've said, going for a guy when he's extremely cheap is very different than spending all your available cash on him.
If by "one dimensional" you mean that all he can do is score from anywhere in the half court all by himself without a set play, then we agree. That's a pretty nice ing dimension to add for the MLE.
Yeah, if he could, like, defend people or rebound the basketball and stuff. Or play within a set offense. He has Earl Boykins-itis. He looks great making shots but then you realize his team keeps falling behind.
He'd be replacing Mike Finley, so that whole "can't defend" thing kind of gets lost in the shuffle.
His offensive skillset + defense > MLE.
I guess you mean like Jack when he came to the Spurs but a couple of years older.
I agree with Mr. Body. The Spurs should sign Kobe Bryant with the MLE. He does it all.
We couldn't get him with the LLE?
Sorry if already discussed in this extensive thread, but didn't we already have JR Smith on our team in the past?
What happened?
No, we've never had JR Smith.
Atlanta's GM didn't answer his phone on the trade deadline day 2006. NO was ready to give him to us for Barry, but the salaries didn't quite match. There needed to be a third team to take a small contract. Billy Knight pulled the greatest FAIL in the history of NBA deadline day.
Why was it Billy Knight's failure? He didn't want to do any trades. He claims he was attending a funeral and had his phone off at the time.
Man up. Pick up your phone and say no deal. It's kind of your job to take calls as an NBA GM. If you're at a funeral, designate one of your subordinates to take calls. Of course, from what I've heard about the ATL organization, this is par for the course.
i admit, i thought this sounded like a bad idea at first. but i'm warming up to it.
if you can get him to reign in his shot selection just a bit, but not destroy his aggressiveness (a lot easier said than done), he could take off.
it's a gamble, but the Spurs are past the point where they can afford to play it save and maintain the status quo. if this team is going to get to the top of the mountain again, they'll have to hit on a gamble or two.
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