Gooden commits to signing with Spurs

[timtonymanu]

so we spent the last month thinking we could land sheed, carter, salmons/miller, or wilcox/smith. but we ended up with Gooden. ill take it.

a week ago i would not have believed that Gooden was coming to the Spurs.

[Obstructed_View]

I'll believe he's healthy when I see it. It's a low-risk signing regardless, as Pops isn't likely to be the difference maker during a le run. I'd be praying for them to drop Udoka if I hadn't been reminded that he's got an option at the end of the season. There might be an outside chance that JV gets promoted to assistant coach, but that's pretty doubtful, and probably not worth the risk, as Hill hasn't developed into a solid enough backup at the point to risk going into the stretch run with just him behind Parker.

[jdev82]

You honestly think he is going to give the Spurs 13 points and 9 rebounds?

agreed. it depends where we will play in the rotation. some posters have said it before, but there are alot of options. gooden-duncan(which kills bonners fragile belief in himself) bonner-gooden when duncan comes out
gooden-thomas(lotta trash rebounds for them) gooden oberto
theres plenty. and i think this really helps us if all he does is rebound, and maybe score a little when we need to keep defenses from swarming the perimeter. he wont give us 8-9 a game, but what this does do is hes a great stong box out and it will cut 2nd chance points(which have been killing us all year IMO) in half. all big rotations will have at least 1 great rebounder.

[Bruno]

Gooden agreed to a buy out where he lost $1.8M in guaranteed money and his bird rights.
If Gooden and his agent have done that, it means that they are confident about Gooden's health and his ability to pass a physical and play this year.
There are reasons to be optimistic about his injury/injuries.

[Obstructed_View]

Gooden agreed to a buy out where he lost $1.8M in guaranteed money and his bird rights.
If Gooden and his agent have done that, it means that they are confident about Gooden's health and his ability to pass a physical and play this year.
There are reasons to be optimistic about his injury/injuries.

Good points. If nothing else they make me feel better about it.

[SA210]

Parker
Ginobili
Bowen
Gooden
Duncan


Good to go

[Spurs Brazil]

Gooden will help us. I just hope he's healthy enought to do it

[Agloco]

Good pickup given the cir stances......

[Agloco]

You honestly think he is going to give the Spurs 13 points and 9 rebounds?

That depends entirely on his role in the lineup. I can see him being at least as productive and Oberto and Thomas combined.

[polandprzem]

That depends entirely on his role in the lineup. I can see him being at least as productive and Oberto and Thomas combined.

haha no way

Gooden is not able to do things that Thomas can and Oberto can.

main qestion for me is, if he can understand his role and spurs system to be a helpfull roleplayer in a meaning being on the same place in rotation where Oberto is.
Also we do have a health issue

[MaNu4Tres]

haha no way

Gooden is not able to do things that Thomas can and Oberto can.

main qestion for me is, if he can understand his role and spurs system to be a helpfull roleplayer in a meaning being on the same place in rotation where Oberto is.
Also we do have a health issue

Gooden has more skills and talent than both Kurt and Oberto

[Borosai]

I'm very confident that Gooden will either help or he won't help, but not both at the same time.

[hater]

This is huge! Looking at the stats, there are only about 15 or 16 big men in the NBA who average 13 and 8.7, now we have two of them.

This should put us over the top for # 5!!!!!

If Gooden is healthy, Spurs/Lakers series becomes closer than ever.

[hater]

I'm very confident that Gooden will either help or he won't help, but not both at the same time.

actually you are 100% wrong. He will help on offense as he is athletic and very talented and even can create his own shot .

He will not help on defense at least to start with.

[MoSpur]

Good signing to sign Gooden.

[coyotes_geek]

Do you remember David Robinson's last season? Do you think having him on the floor took some of the heat off of Tim? Let me make it easier... who would you rather have on the floor with Tim: Robinson in his last season, or Rasho Nesterovic the following season?

When you compare D-Rob's 02-03 numbers to Rasho's 03-04 numbers, on a per-36 minute basis, they are really very similar. David averaged 11.7 points, 10.9 rbs, 2.4 blocks, and shot .469. Rasho averaged 10.9 points, 9.7 rbs, 2.5 blocks, and shot .469. And remember, that is adjusted to a per-36 basis, so it's not a matter of who played more minutes. Both were 7-footers, and both played the 5.

Based on that, it doesn't look like David was any more of a threat in 02-03 than Rasho was in 03-04. There was obviously a big difference between the two on the offensive end. But "knowing" it is one thing, and measuring it is another. I'm saying that one indicator is free throw attempts. David averaged 4.6 FTA/36, compared to 1.7 FTA/36 for Rasho. (And please don't try to blame it on touches. Rasho took 10.7 FGA, compared to 9.0 FGA for Robinson.) They put Robinson on the line more, because they had to. So which one of those guys do you think took more heat off of Tim?

Go do a search on FGA's for NBA centers. Look closely at the players at the top, middle, and bottom of the list. The differences will be obvious. I'll give you one good example: Dwight Howard averages 20.9 ppg, while Zach Randolph averages 21.8 ppg. Which one of those guys is more worrisome for opposing defenses? You can get a pretty good clue from the fact that Howard gets 10.7 FTA/36 vs. 4.8 FTA/36 for Randolph. Dwight Howard doesn't dominate a game because of a few more free throw attempts. He gets the free throw attempts because he can dominate a game. The FTA's are a symptom.

Gooden "only" gets about 3.8 FTA/36 minutes. Not up there with the big boys, but a of a lot better than the 1.2-1.8 that all of our other bigs since David have gotten. And it's enough to make a difference to Tim. I've watched this stat for a long time, and I'm telling you... the difference between a guy that gets 1.2 FTA in the low post and a guy that gets 3.8 FTA is huge in terms of how much attention the opposing defenses have to pay to them.

I've already said Gooden will help. You don't have to sell me on that. I agree with you. But when it comes to how teams are going to defend Duncan the point I'm trying to make is that no matter how aggresive Gooden or anyone else around Duncan plays, nothing is going to be more worrisome to an opposing defense than Tim Duncan with the basketball, in the paint being guarded by a single defender. That double team is still going to be there. Can Gooden help make teams pay a steeper price for doubling? Sure. Can Gooden still help make Duncan's job easier even without significantly reducing the number of double teams Duncan faces? Sure. But I think it's incorrect to assume that Gooden's presence is going to make opposing teams radically adjust how they defend Tim Duncan.

We'll have to see how Pop intends to use Gooden but IMO the main benefit of having Gooden on the team comes when Duncan isn't even in the game. Let Gooden use is aggresiveness to be the front court scoring threat when Duncan is getting his rest. That's something the Spurs definitely do not have now.

[LockBeard]

Please make a haircut mandatory in order for this guy to play.

This was a good sign. Good Job Spurs.

[stxspurs]

Spurs come out the winner...between

Cleveland Cavs & Joe Smith @ 6.6 ppg / 4.5 rpg

Boston Celtics & Mikki Moore @ 3.5 ppg / 3.2 rpg

SA Spurs & Drew Gooden @ 13.1 ppg / 8.7 rpg (Better than both the other 2 combined)

Once again Pop & RC do their thing.

yeah it doesnt matter if he is injured and cant play...am i the only one that thinks that this isnt gonna work?(if sports hernia) every thing ive read is that he needs surgury.....if he cant play we paid for a name on the bench

[Old School 44]

Great pick up! I'd waive Vaughn and then immediately rehire him as an assistant coach. I like Pops long term potential, so I hope they don't waive him.

[mVp]

mmm good signing I guess... let's see what happens!

[polandprzem]

Gooden has more skills and talent than both Kurt and Oberto

I'm not agree with that.

But if you can make a case that he is, it really does not matter right now in situation like this.

[Mavs<Spurs]

And are you really this ing stupid? They average almost an identical PPS...the difference between them is that Gooden takes more shots...he's not going to now, he's going to take a lot less.

Bonner shoots at a much higher PCT..if he took the same number of shots Gooden did...he'd score more points than Gooden does.

He is not going to put up 13 and 8 for the Spurs...fools.

Listen idiot, you're talking to a ph.d. student in math.

And 4 rebounds for a center is unacceptable. Bonner is not a legitimate big.

Bonner is so slow and unathletic, he can't defend a second big. He is not a center. And he has exactly one talent: shooting a 3 -- which disappears.


You're the moron here, so you really shouldn't start iq debates.

Speak to the issue. If you think an idea is dumb, say that.

Because you'll find I a lot smarter than you if you start talking about iq.

[SenorSpur]

Great pick up! I'd waive Vaughn and then immediately rehire him as an assistant coach. I like Pops long term potential, so I hope they don't waive him.

I would agree. In terms of keeping a player who production arrow is pointing up, rather than pointing down, I'd encourage the same. Waive Vaughn, keep Pops and send him back down to D-League. So long as he retains a roster spot, the Spurs can keep him in their system.

[TDMVPDPOY]

Yeh biatches

[Spursmania]

Do you remember David Robinson's last season? Do you think having him on the floor took some of the heat off of Tim? Let me make it easier... who would you rather have on the floor with Tim: Robinson in his last season, or Rasho Nesterovic the following season?

When you compare D-Rob's 02-03 numbers to Rasho's 03-04 numbers, on a per-36 minute basis, they are really very similar. David averaged 11.7 points, 10.9 rbs, 2.4 blocks, and shot .469. Rasho averaged 10.9 points, 9.7 rbs, 2.5 blocks, and shot .469. And remember, that is adjusted to a per-36 basis, so it's not a matter of who played more minutes. Both were 7-footers, and both played the 5.

Based on that, it doesn't look like David was any more of a threat in 02-03 than Rasho was in 03-04. There was obviously a big difference between the two on the offensive end. But "knowing" it is one thing, and measuring it is another. I'm saying that one indicator is free throw attempts. David averaged 4.6 FTA/36, compared to 1.7 FTA/36 for Rasho. (And please don't try to blame it on touches. Rasho took 10.7 FGA, compared to 9.0 FGA for Robinson.) They put Robinson on the line more, because they had to. So which one of those guys do you think took more heat off of Tim?

Go do a search on FGA's for NBA centers. Look closely at the players at the top, middle, and bottom of the list. The differences will be obvious. I'll give you one good example: Dwight Howard averages 20.9 ppg, while Zach Randolph averages 21.8 ppg. Which one of those guys is more worrisome for opposing defenses? You can get a pretty good clue from the fact that Howard gets 10.7 FTA/36 vs. 4.8 FTA/36 for Randolph. Dwight Howard doesn't dominate a game because of a few more free throw attempts. He gets the free throw attempts because he can dominate a game. The FTA's are a symptom.

Gooden "only" gets about 3.8 FTA/36 minutes. Not up there with the big boys, but a of a lot better than the 1.2-1.8 that all of our other bigs since David have gotten. And it's enough to make a difference to Tim. I've watched this stat for a long time, and I'm telling you... the difference between a guy that gets 1.2 FTA in the low post and a guy that gets 3.8 FTA is huge in terms of how much attention the opposing defenses have to pay to them.

Thank you for a dam good post. It gets old hearing fans without giving the guy a chance or comparing Gooden to a d-league player like Pops.