James Gist signs in Italy

[Bruno]

Some info about Biella :
http://www.draftexpress.com/article/...r-Italy--2369/

It sounds like a good place for a NCAA player without pro experience.

[VaSpursFan]

ok...i don't think the sky is falling because the Spurs still own the right to Gist...but I am perplexed by the move. Maybe they figure that Gist's development will be accelerated in Europe vs. the D league. Not sure, but this offseason is getting interesting with all the weird twists and turns. the next couple of months could be might entertaining for Spurs fans

[spurster]

Hmm. Is George Hill going with him?

[benefactor]

only ones who ever get to here i told ya so are my kids. i never saw what everyone else who fell(in love) with gist saw. can he play basketball? yes, but so can the rest of the guys he was playing with, (at about the same level ,non nba level) but i will stick to what i said about gist, it wont take him as long as it has ian to become nba ready.(and im one who doesnt think ian is nba ready still) so if its true and gist isnt in uniform this coming season, it wont bother me, i never saw him playing much anyhows(which in turns means at least he wont be shining the pine for 82 games) i know alot of people in here thought gist was our saviour, just like they did ian,(some still think it) and of course hill, but call it what you want i watched the SL games not just once, but at least twice each, not even caring about the score(just watching our players and (coach reactions while i could) and the spurs did what i thought they would do, sign the only guy who didnt looked lost, and was given the chance to stay, and play within his game(tolliver). the rest of the SL guys for the spurs looked basically like a watered down version of what alot of people call team usa(thou i would add our SL roster had no choice but to play spurs style bball) so some of the players imo couldnt get their game on.(show boat). somewhat like bonner, why on earth sign a guy who isnt gonna contribute just yet? or at all for that matter. personally by not signing gist it tells me the spurs have better moves ahead. thank god.......ian has been playing for the spurs it seems like forever, and he has still to this day not made an impression on me,(not like the way some ppl. in here talk about him) he looked like he could move his feet just a little better this past SL and thats all the improvement i seen in him (not sure who is in charge of scouting big men for the spurs, but other then getting david, then dropping a season and getting lucky with timmy, they waste alot of names and alot of picks) look at championship roster bigs, for the most part every yr. we have a 7fter. next to tim, and then someone in the FO says (nah rasho,nazr,elson, etc aint good enough anymore), lets find someone better, and every yr. it seems here we go again.(only this yr we go with the guy pop has been either torching or trying to get for the last 3 yrs it seems, the giant 6'9 almost 40 kurt thomas)......imo theses are all good signs the spurs FO have something good waiting for us, and god willing its coming soon

Sorry...I don't read these....

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Automatic F for our front office this season. We need energy off the bench, so we let the most energetic player not named Manu go to Europe.

Idiots.

It's like they handed the decisions this off-season over to the tag team of Jerry Colangelo and Mark Cuban.

That or Pop is making all the decisions after downing 2-3 bottles of wine.

I don't understand what they are trying to do. Go small ball with a bunch of short and streaky talent surrounding the big 3? Maybe they're planning on playing Pargo at the 4 in small ball...

We sign Pargo and we have a glut of guards, but are brutally weak at the 3/4 after our starters.

4:
Duncan
unproven Mahinmi
Bonner
Tolliver

3:
400 year old Bruce Bowen (still good but losing a step each year)
Slow footed Udoka
???

I mean come on, there is a gaping hole at the 3 after Bowen (Udoka's just not quick enough to guard the quick/long threes in the league), and Bruce is getting up there in age.

We've got squat the 4 after Duncan, who often shifts down to the 5 to play center.

We've been waiting for the front office to address the 3 spot and to a lesser extent the backup 4 since 2003. It's like they're stuck on stupid or something.

[BacktoBasics]

Whats the ing point of owning a D-league if you can't even keep your developing talent local. I don't have a problem with the wait to develop approach because I really never thought Gist was going to crack the rotation consistantly.

However the idea of owning a minor league team is to keep your developing talent close to home and exercise the luxury or working hand in hand with how you want your young guys to develop vs. relying on the methods of some other coach who doesn't give a about the long term value of your guy.

[Hook Dem]

Are your shift and enter keys broken?

Gotta agree with you Manny! His posts are hard to read with only one paragraph.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

.

[DisAsTerBot]

the idea of owning a minor league team is to keep your developing talent close to home and exercise the luxury or working hand in hand with how you want your young guys to develop vs. relying on the methods of some other coach who doesn't give a about the long term value of your guy.

By going to europe, we keep his rights but he doesn't take up a roster spot....if he was in the d-league, he would take up a roster spot.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

And just like that, Italy is a world super power again.

[hater]

Hmm. Is George Hill going with him?

as what? the Avian boy?

This ing move is terrible!!!!!!!!!!!! how the can Spurs office be doing this kind of ty job.

Are you seriously telling me you have the 2008-09 season depending on Ian ing Mahinmi?!??!?!?!

[urunobili]

as what? the Avian boy?

This ing move is terrible!!!!!!!!!!!! how the can Spurs office be doing this kind of ty job.

Are you seriously telling me you have the 2008-09 season depending on Ian ing Mahinmi?!??!?!?!

life's tough isn't it?

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

I hope this is a sign of a move being made soon since they really wanted that roster spot for someone else.

[hater]

I hope this is a sign of a move being made soon since they really wanted that roster spot for someone else.

yeah, probably an old decrepit player. I heard Shawn Kemp wants to come back.

[lefty]

Wow

Scola, now Gist



We have no choice but to bring David Robinson out of retirement

[ElNono]

So much for all those people claiming the Spurs would sign Gist later on. To me, he was the only NBA ready player we had in the SL. So if he has a good year overseas, then he'll be out of reach. The rights mean nothing if you can't pay up.

That leaves Bowen/Udoka at the wing. Pray one of them doesn't go down.

[lefty]

We can win the le IF everybody is healthy.

That's a big IF.

So.........

[nkdlunch]

I don't understand this move. Seems like spurs have not learned from Scola, Splitter ups.

They should have sent him at least to D-League, so they can recall him anytime during the season. In Italy he is stuck there for at least a year if not more.

Gist was Spurs best new player. He even had better summer than mahinmi. what a mess

[loveforthegame]

Disappointing news but not surprising. It's likely the Spurs wanted him to go to Europe to get a lot of minutes and work on various things. They can sign him next year or the year after depending on roster spots and progress. It's the same thing they wanted out of Marcus Williams but he refused.

I understand the plan to send him to Europe instead of the Toro's because he won't take up a roster spot but I hope it doesn't backfire where teams offer him more money.

I wonder if they hope Hairston does the same thing or if they think he was more ready than Gist for this season?

[Solid D]

So the Spurs have roughly $6M to work with to keep under the $71M Luxury Tax threshold ($65M roster thus far). It was estimated here that Gist would likely have represented $800K in 2008-09, had he been signed by the Spurs. That's not a lot of money so the Spurs are either seeing more improvement needed with Gist, or are locked in on a couple of players that would eat up that $6M. J.R. Smith would also eat up a good amount of that money....for example.

[The Truth #6]

I'm questioning the idea that letting Gist go to Europe was part of the Spurs plan. Wasn't it obvious that he could come in and help on some level with shotblocking and rebounding, in other words, the things we sorely lack?

Either the Spurs were asleep at the wheel, or they low-balled him with a contract offer which then set him off to look for more money in Europe. Are they suck single taskers that they can't deal with Pargo and Gist at the same time?

[JPB]

More regrets on not having be able to draft Batum...

After what Batum said on draft night and with the spurs still not having sign Hill, you could argue that Nicolas was SA first choice.

But I agree that Gist going in Italy might mean spurs are on some vet 3.

On the other way, what's happening isn't so suprising if you know your spurs.
It's been more than 5 years now that they haven't put their picks in their NBA roster.

the plan has always been to surrender the big 3 with proven NBA players who can produce quickly and help win les (Finley, Horry, Udoka, Mason). Which worked pretty well so far, even this year.

With already one young gun propably this year (Ian), it's no surprise they let go one or maybe two other ones (Gist and perhaps Hill).

what you have to ask yourself is who do you want to have on your bench in game 7 of o tough series ? Gist, Hill or a player with less upsides but NBA proven ?

[nkdlunch]

what you have to ask yourself is who do you want to have on your bench in game 7 of o tough series ? Gist, Hill or a player with less upsides but NBA proven ?

on the other hand, if we had young guys who could log big minutes maybe we would not be in game 7s. Spurs would be in better position in playoffs and young guys could play big minutes to make series shorter.

truth is, we've had extended series partly because our old guys can't hold big minutes.

[Spurs Brazil]

I'd rather see Spurs signing him

[Solid D]

I'm questioning the idea that letting Gist go to Europe was part of the Spurs plan. Wasn't it obvious that he could come in and help on some level with shotblocking and rebounding, in other words, the things we sorely lack?

Either the Spurs were asleep at the wheel, or they low-balled him with a contract offer which then set him off to look for more money in Europe. Are they suck single taskers that they can't deal with Pargo and Gist at the same time?

If Gist was signing with CSKA, then maybe Gist would be going for more money but Pallacanestro isn't known for being big spenders.