RICHARD JEFFERSON opts OUT!!

[SequSpur]

I can't believe everyone that is happy with RJ opting out, do you not realise how big of a trade chip we just lost? This is the WORST thing that could happen. People are saying its good because we can do a sign and trade. A sign and trade?! So, what? We sign RJ for 5 years $40m and someone is going to want that?? His trade value is at it's LOWEST EVER. Before he opted out the only thing he had going for him was he was able to save teams a lot of money. Now we are at the cap and can't sign anyone except Tiago for the MLE. Him opting out means we are very limited in what we can do this summer. We have 0 tradeable assets that we are willing to let go.

When parker went out RJ dropped 20 a game and the spurs actually beat good opponents...it's to bad the in spurstalk re s can't see that but yet they compare bogans and bonner to in hall of famers...

i liked RJ, ...he brought the dunk back into the spurs...i shouldn't expect any difference of opinion hear...most of you like that pussy ball.

[ohmwrecker]

Anderson can shoot (and rebound for that matter) and Hairston can defend. RJ did neither.

I see . . . Anderson, who has yet to play in an NBA game and Hairston, who could not get playing time behind RMJ, Bogans and Matt ing Bonner are better options than Richard Jefferson. Genius.

[Mel_13]

Are they able to do this with his bird rights or something? I don't follow......do they have his bird rights? Confused as right about now.

Yes, they have his full Bird Rights and can sign him to any sized contract from the minimum to the maximum.

[jag]

Anderson can shoot (and rebound for that matter) and Hairston can defend. RJ did neither.

I wasn't aware Anderson was a sniper from downtown...his stats say otherwise. Isn't that what the spurs really need? RJ had a midrange game, that wasn't the issue. So tell me what Anderson does better than RJ.

And Bogans can play D.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

Jefferson staying in S.A.?

Richard Jefferson’s decision to opt out of the final $15 million season of his contract might not be a sign he’s willing to leave the San Antonio Spurs.

Sources said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has been personally working out Jefferson in San Antonio. The free-agent forward could re-sign with the team at a number that lowers the franchise’s luxury-tax hit while guaranteeing him more money on the back end of a multiyear contract.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...gentbuzz063010

[024]

i suggested a trade of jefferson to the bucks for salmons in a S&T but realized jefferson came from the bucks.

[Agloco]

Without him the Spurs would have more than likely been a lottery team this past year. Fact is R.J gets too much of the blame for the Spurs' disappointing year. He was not the reason why the Spurs rubbed one out, so to speak.

I'm thinking the only way the Spurs would have rubbed one out last year, or in any season for that matter is if they won the le. , I'd have rubbed one out if they did that......

[ohmwrecker]

I can't believe I just participated in a thread where I agreed with EricB (sort of) and SequSpur.

[Mel_13]

a S&T of salmons for jefferson with each an $7-8 million salary seems reasonable. bucks get a scorer and the spurs get a better fitting SF. i doubt salmons is on top of any lists. not many teams out there will give him above the MLE.

Pretty sure the Bucks don't want RJ back.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

WTF are you talking about. We have never had a 6-9 235 3 ever. Elliott was 6-8 sure but he was only 205.

In our system its all about perimeter defense and spacing the floor with an outside shot. Your length bull is just bull .

ing A. We need a three man taller than 6'6" in today's game. Or you can plan on a short post-season (if we even get there).

[Agloco]

Yes, they have his full Bird Rights and can sign him to any sized contract from the minimum to the maximum.

Ahhhh ok. I'm finally beginning to understand this mess now. Takes a bit for the gears to begin turning nowadays.Thanks again.

[ace3g]

WojYahooNBA

Y! Sports Free Agency Buzz: AInge dangling 'Sheed's contract in trade talks, Pop personally handling RJ workouts: http://tinyurl.com/256fylq

[ace3g]

WojYahooNBA

Y! Sports Free Agency Buzz: AInge dangling 'Sheed's contract in trade talks, Pop personally handling RJ workouts: http://tinyurl.com/256fylq

[ElNono]

I can't believe everyone that is happy with RJ opting out, do you not realise how big of a trade chip we just lost? This is the WORST thing that could happen. People are saying its good because we can do a sign and trade. A sign and trade?! So, what? We sign RJ for 5 years $40m and someone is going to want that?? His trade value is at it's LOWEST EVER. Before he opted out the only thing he had going for him was he was able to save teams a lot of money. Now we are at the cap and can't sign anyone except Tiago for the MLE. Him opting out means we are very limited in what we can do this summer. We have 0 tradeable assets that we are willing to let go.

The only way we were trading him was next January, IMO. Which means we would have wasted half a season trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, and getting some unknown talent in return.
Furthermore (and please correct me if I'm wrong), keeping those $15 million in the books basically strained whatever possibility we had of keeping Tony around in the long run.

Trades are not a sure thing either. We had nearly $10 million in tradeable expiring in the last trade deadline and we ended up not trading anybody and having to release Finley instead.

[My Fault]

Are they able to do this with his bird rights or something? I don't follow......do they have his bird rights? Confused as right about now.

Yes, they have bird rights on RJ so they are able either sign him to another deal or use him as a S&T.

[Agloco]

I can't believe I just participated in a thread where I agreed with EricB (sort of) and SequSpur.

I've agreed with Eric B on many occasions (which frightens me to no end really), but SequSpur? lol @ myself I guess.

[024]

Pretty sure the Bucks don't want RJ back.

yeah, i just remembered that. jefferson was a prolific scorer on the bucks. if he goes back and gets the same 20 pts a game for $8-9 million, everyone will be happy.

[OrEmuN]

Question:

This may be irrelevant if RJ resigns with a longer, smaller contract but just curious to know. Assuming that there are teams who are interested in RJ, why would these teams want to do a sign-and-trade with us since RJ is opting out ?

To my understanding, we own the birds rights to RJ. However, RJ will be a FA and as such, teams with cap space can sign RJ without a S&T with us. I cannot fathom how would they do a sign & trade unless they are trying to get rid of some bloated contracts which we will not want anyway

For teams over the cap, they can offer the MLE to RJ if he accepts. Unless they are willing to pay RJ more than the MLE, they will not require a S&T.

As such, from the above breakdown, am I right to say that S&T option is severely limited to over-capped teams who are offering more than MLE for RJ ?

[EricB]

I've agreed with Eric B on many occasions (which frightens me to no end really), but SequSpur? lol @ myself I guess.

It shouldn't.

Im a nice guy!

[FuzzyLumpkins]

ing A. We need a three man taller than 6'6" in today's game. Or you can plan on a short post-season (if we even get there).

We got to the second round last year with a 6-7 3 and our 3 previous championships were with a 6-7 3.

Its about perimeter defense and the 3-ball not length.

[MaNu4Tres]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...gentbuzz063010

I hope this is the case.

I'd much rather have Jefferson for 4 years at 32 million than having James Jones starting for the Spurs next year.

[Vinnie_Johnson]

Jefferson staying in S.A.?

Richard Jefferson’s decision to opt out of the final $15 million season of his contract might not be a sign he’s willing to leave the San Antonio Spurs.

Sources said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has been personally working out Jefferson in San Antonio. The free-agent forward could re-sign with the team at a number that lowers the franchise’s luxury-tax hit while guaranteeing him more money on the back end of a multiyear contract.

[Creation88]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...gentbuzz063010

this would be the worst ing thing to happen to this franchise since the Richard Jefferson trade.

[TD 21]

People really under rate the production he brought to the Spurs as the 4th option.

Sure he wasn't the "picture perfect fit", and sure he didn't average the 20 points he averaged in Milwaukee, but those 20 points per game was impossible to produce with the scarce amount of opportunities he had playing behind the big 3.

Even if he was the 4th option, he still scored in double digits in 58 games last year (more than 15 points per game in 32 outings). And was instrumental in many victories, even in the playoffs.

About his defense, I know he wasn't Bruce Bowen on the defensive end, but the guy showed progress as the season progressed; not so much on the ball, but off the ball; especially in putting in the effort and contesting shots around the rim more effectively than any big man outside of Duncan. I'm not saying he was Dikembe Mutombo by any means; but he was progressively active in this regard, especially in the last few months of the season.

Overall saying he didn't do anything is foolish to say.

Without him the Spurs would have more than likely been a lottery team this past year. Fact is R.J gets too much of the blame for the Spurs' disappointing year. He was not the reason why the Spurs rubbed one out, so to speak.

There were other reasons why the Spurs failed when it was all said and done. Most notably, the lack of having an established clear cut 5th wing ( part of it was Pop's fault) and the lack of interior defense that doomed the Spurs in the end. Not so much Jefferson.

Pop stubbornly made the wrong choice for the team by investing in the wrong players (Mason, Bogans) all damn year. Even when these two players were atrocious for the last 3 months of the season, Pop didn't budge and stubbornly played the law of averages game. In the end, Pop put the team in a very vulnerable position from a depth standpoint by stubbornly giving Mason and Bogans the responsibility as the 5th wing. It made no sense to do this and still doesn't til this day.

As a result of Mason and Bogans maintaining their atrocious status, the Spurs back court and Jefferson were forced way too many minutes and it showed in their 4th quarter execution down the stretch ( even in the Dallas series ).

Pop should have given more responsibility and prepared Hairston or Temple somewhere in the last 2 months of the regular season, when Mason and Bogans were consistently horrid. (Believe it or not, Hairston and Temple had more productive minutes than Mason and Bogans did all season; even if they played less minutes. )

If Hairston or Temple would have panned out as a 5th wing, Spurs could have stretched their bench enough, which would've given Manu more gas at the end of games to " go for the throat", and Hill wouldn't have had as big of a responsibility offensively ( because of Manu and Tony having less but more efficient minutes, and more efficient touches). But Pop was too stubborn to find this out.

By no means am I blaming the year on Popovich, but he certainly could have made different decisions in regards of the rotation that could have put the Spurs in a better position to compete in the playoffs. Many people just point at R.J and blame him. I couldn't disagree more.

Hopefully now Splitter can come in to help the interior defense and hopefully Spurs can find a respectable replacement for R.J via trade ( less likely) or for the LLE. If not then I hope Hairston, Gee and Anderson are ready to contribute.

I agree with most of this, but not the two parts in bold...

1) Whenever people bring this up, they forget about the part where if said player wasn't in that spot, someone else would have been, so at minimum a percentage of his production would have been there. He's not a player like Duncan or Ginobili, who's contributions go beyond the stat sheet.

2) At no point last season did I feel Jefferson played too many minutes. When he was acquired, I thought he'd play the type of minutes Hill was playing in the second half of last season.

Assuming that the Spurs stay under the luxury tax in 2010-11, converting 1yr/15M to 3yrs/24M would represent a huge savings for the Spurs. Even at 4yrs/32M, it's close to cost neutral.

Yeah, I know. I could see the Spurs grudginly going to 4 years too, because if he is going to re-sign it was probably agreed to beforehand, in which case I could see him asking for 4 years. I'd imagine the Spurs are probably trying to get away with 3. If they go to 4 though, then maybe they get him for $28 million total instead of 32? Jefferson's agent is probably looking for something in the ballpark of what Marion got from the Mavs last season.

I'll say this in Jefferson's defense. He seems genuine in the sense that he cares enough to put in the hard work to improve next season and going forward if he's back. He's not a shot creator and doesn't have great lateral quickness, but he's still athletic enough overall and talented enough to be a better player in this league than he's shown in recent years (at least theoretically). Clearly, the Spurs see that in him, which is why Pop is working him out and why they might re-sign him to a multi-year deal, despite him coming off a mediocre season.

[jag]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...gentbuzz063010

Marcus Bryant called that move. It's pretty much what i hoped for because it makes no sense for Jefferson to leave that much money on the table with no plan. If this happens, you'll have about 5-10 geniuses in here upset that Hairston or [unnamed d-leaguer] won't be starting.

this would be the worst ing thing to happen to this franchise since the Richard Jefferson trade.