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I see the 1st sentence, then I didn't want to read any more.
LOS ANGELES – The San Antonio Spurs had wanted his old running mate, Vince Carter(notes), but the Orlando Magic made the offer that most intrigued the New Jersey Nets. So, the Spurs’ front office turned to the Milwaukee Bucks for younger legs and a modestly smaller contract, believers that Richard Jefferson(notes) could make a dramatic difference in their chase of the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Bucks wanted Jefferson out of there so badly, they took nothing but expiring contracts and washed-up vets. This wasn’t cost-cutting, as much as cutting their losses. Bucks coach Scott Skiles had little use for Jefferson, found him to be a s of his old self and was glad to move him. San Antonio didn’t need Jefferson to be a star, but they did need him to be a competent complement to their championship core.
And already, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich has so little patience left for Jefferson. Already, he’s wondering how he’ll ever make him a Spur.
“They say that when they stop yelling at you, that’s when you have to be worried,” Jefferson said late Monday. “Well, he hasn’t stopped yelling at me yet.”
Here’s how long it took Popovich to explode over Jefferson on Monday night: One Lakers basket. Jefferson lost Ron Artest(notes) on a 3-pointer, and Popovich angrily sent a sub to the scorer’s table. Jefferson looks like the hitter squeezing the bat too tightly, bringing his bad at-bats out into the field where he makes more errors. It has started badly for him in San Antonio and only gotten worse.
No Kobe Bryant(notes), no Andrew Bynum(notes), and the Lakers still destroyed the Spurs 101-89. The Spurs believed the 29-year-old Jefferson would play an immense role in closing the gap with the Lakers, but never have they been so far away. After the summer, the Denver Nuggets privately believed they needed to make another move to elevate over the Spurs. Only, it hasn’t turned out that way. Denver has destroyed the Lakers – with and without Carmelo Anthony(notes) – and the Spurs are floundering in sixth place.
“We haven’t developed a trust, a communication, a camaraderie as far as executing on the court,” Popovich said. “Which is strange for us. We’ve never had this situation.
“…For some reason, I’m not getting through to this group.”
No one has befuddled Popovich like Jefferson. The Spurs are dumbfounded about how to reach him, how to use him, how to get him to play fluid, mistake-free basketball. Jefferson missed nine of his 11 shots against the Lakers, wide-open jumpers that didn’t fall. He makes $14.2 million this season and $15 million next season. Only Tim Duncan(notes) makes more among these Spurs. Jefferson is the reason that owner Peter Holt was willing to push the payroll past $80 million and well into the luxury tax.
Jefferson isn’t turning into a final piece to chase the Lakers, but a crippling, contractual albatross.
One mistake compounds the next, and Jefferson looks burdened, lost and alone. Scouts say “his confidence looks shot,” and that “he isn’t shooting the ball, as much as guiding it.” Jefferson knows his lapses on defense are far more glaring when he can’t score.
“When I’m shooting the ball like this, it makes it hard everyone to get their job done,” he said. “I’m not putting all the blame on me, but you have to look at yourself first.”
As much as anything, the Spurs have lost the iden y that won them four championships in nine seasons, that toughness, tenacity that made them a nightmare to play. The Spurs don’t grind teams anymore. They’re one game away from the All-Star break, and they’re no longer playing for seeding in the Western Conference. They’re trying to make the playoffs.
“I was in one situation for seven of eight years, and I’m the one who has to do most of the adjusting here,” Jefferson said. “Tony [Parker], Tim, Manu [Ginobili] are in their system. Keith Bogans(notes) comes here and he’s the defensive player that hits threes. [Antonio McDyess(notes)] picks and pops. I’m in a whole new system trying to find my way.
“But it’s not an excuse. I thought I would have played better by this point.”
Jefferson is smart and mature, and had a young career that benefitted incredibly with Jason Kidd(notes) feeding him the ball and winning him a $76 million contract from the Nets. League sources say the Spurs have raised his name in trades talks, but found out quickly there’s no market for him and his contract.
Together, Jefferson and the Spurs have to make this work. They have to find a way. The Spurs don’t want to bid on Amar’e Stoudemire(notes). They can’t pry Chris Bosh(notes) out of Toronto. Jefferson takes a long look around the NBA, and still believes he has time to resurrect himself out of that trade-bust category. Duncan is getting older, and Ginobili isn’t so fleet, and it isn’t like the Spurs don’t have issues beyond him. Yet, Jefferson understands he was brought here to be the acious young star who had grown fast in New Jersey, who went to the NBA Finals twice, who understood what it took to chase championships.
“Across the whole league, you’ve got a lot of guys going to different situations,” Jefferson said. “Vince in Orlando. Hedo [Turkoglu] in Toronto. Rasheed [Wallace] in Boston. All of them want to make an impact and it’s not happening everywhere.”
Those are all thirtysomething players closer to the end, and Jefferson doesn’t have that excuse. He knows that. So do the Spurs. For now, the Spurs and Jefferson are stuck with each other, and need to find a way together. Afterward, Popovich had gone into the locker room and ripped into his players one more time, calling them “soft,” and wondering how the they could be so mentally and physically obliterated without Kobe and Bynum on the floor.
The Spurs watch Jefferson jitter over 3-foot putts and miss hanging curves and wonder where in the world his game has gone. When asked about needing Jefferson, about the franchise needing to somehow get a return on this investment, Popovich simply said through gritted teeth, “That would be a great thing.”
The sarcasm suggested that Popovich had waited long enough, that these Spurs were running out of time for Jefferson, out of patience. Jefferson hadn’t come to the Spurs to be a savior, but to make them relevant in the Western Conference again, to stand up to the champion Lakers. Jefferson had come to give Duncan and Ginobili one more shot at a le, one more run, and this has turned into a startling failure.
Yes, Gregg Popovich is still screaming at Jefferson, still trying to will something out of him. For how much longer, who knows? For now, the Spurs and Jefferson are stuck with each other. They’ve got to make this work, or perhaps Richard Jefferson turns out to be the last breath of San Antonio’s dynasty.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns
I see the 1st sentence, then I didn't want to read any more.
WOW. That is really all I can say. The truth is a .
QUESTION:
Even if RJ turns it around...starts hitting wide open 3's and mid-range jumpers, starts driving to the basket with purpose, starts getting 20 point games...does this even make the Spurs a contender at this point?
Not without another defensive presence in the post.... all that would do is make us a good team again, 2nd round capabilities. Wouldn't beat a Denver/LA tho.
i'm glad to hear that pop is ripping jefferson. i've always had the impression that he's been coddling him.
Yeah this is exactly what i'm thinking.
This what he said. Pop is still Pop, but for some reason like he says, he is not getting through to this group.“We haven’t developed a trust, a communication, a camaraderie as far as executing on the court,” Popovich said. “Which is strange for us. We’ve never had this situation.
“…For some reason, I’m not getting through to this group.”
Shocking.
Looks like it will be a year wasted for Tim Duncan. I don't blame the Spurs FO one bit though. Who knew Jefferson couldn't handle being the 4th option in a structured offense? Who knew he wouldn't give effort on defense? Who knew his confidence would be shot halfway through the season?
Stopped here.
Jefferson would not play a minute in any relevant game of any major Euroleague team.
Period.
No Messina, Scariolo, Ivanovic, Obradovic, or Ghershon would give him other than garbage time minutes.
He played 33' last night.
This is the problem- as well as people on here keep saying-shooting, shooting, shooting. Shooting is such a scape goat. Players have slumps and bad shooting games, the huge glaring problem is s at ude. He mopes around the court, he doesn't move his feet, he has no energy or drive, he's like a ing statue. If he would just become more aggressive, maybe knock a guy on the ground, talk some , get loud and bring some presence to the court then his shooting would come around. But instead he plays with his thumb up his ass like a big baby...until pop or someone can light a fire under his ass and get some ing heart in this guy idc if he makes a few shots more a night-he still will be worthless
I'd rather the Spurs sit on his fat contract and see what they can work with to try to improve than overreacting. I dread another Jackie Butler scenario. We should not trade Splitter. While he might not be a shoe in for the defensive big role we need, he's our best and cheapest shot.Depending on Manu's extension we might be left with only 1 swingman in the summer and no more than the MLE and LLE to work with.
Injury exemption, Injury exemption, Injury exemption...
It's the best we can wish for.
If you watched him play for the Bucks, your last two questions could have been answered very quickly.
Exactly. His shooting percentages (save free throws, and more significantly free throws ATTEMPTED) actually aren't so far off of what we would have expected. It's the absolute lack of energy and hustle in every other facet of the game.
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMa...radeId=yf8omor
He's providing Eddy Curry numbers, i.e. empty box scores in all but points.
troubling article, looks like the team has tuned him out.
Incorrect. The last breath came with 0:00 on the clock, 4th quarter Game 5 of the 2008 WCF.
Wow, if that's true the joke was on SA all along.
The problem with the Spurs is that they are trying to get their moneys worth from RJ by playing him 30+ minutes. But if he is hurting the team more than helping them with his 2-11 shooting and making one out of every two free throws, sit his ass down. I mean Finley can give you that everynight and you don't have to pay him 14 million.
If the Spurs were ever even close to acquiring Vince Carter last season and decided not to, they are paying for it with Jefferson.
Carter isn't much better, has a bloated contract too and would have cost us Hill at least. Pass.
Pop needs to find a mirror and start screaming to himself too... Sure, Richard has blown donkey , but he's only part of the problem. Putting together lineups, sticking to useless and soft guys, complete disregard for defense... all those things are on Pop.
I can fault Richard when he's not giving us at SF. But when Odom is toying with him at PF, that's entirely on Pop.
"Not fitting in" is a bull excuse, you don't have to fit into a team to give effort on the boards or on Defense.
Upon all other wishes for this team I hope this is not true and by some miracle he will be traded.League sources say the Spurs have raised his name in trades talks, but found out quickly there’s no market for him and his contract.
Come on Philadelphia....Jefferson at 15 mil for one season isn't as bad as Iguodala for 5 more years. And if from what I've read you're not looking to be in contention for a couple more years...Jefferson as a Sixer would help that cause.
PLEASE!!!
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