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feeling more comfortable on the court will.
A year in the Spurs system won't help you make wide open shots.
feeling more comfortable on the court will.
He's been in the league for 9 years, he should feel comfortable on the court anywhere. I don't buy this whole Pops playbook is so complicated stuff. Didn't he trim it down anyway?
Gross.
Yaaaayyyyy!!!!
Well, that's certainly debatable. I think the major reason Artest's individual defense appears diminished is because the Lakers' team defense is excellent. When Artest and Battier both played for the Rockets, Artest was clearly the better defender.
Jefferson's opt out pays off in new deal with Spurs
-Sources tells TNT's David Aldridge that forward Richard Jefferson's new contract with the San Antonio Spurs, officially announced on Wednesday, is for four years and $38.8 million, with a player option for the final season at a little more than $11 million.
Jefferson had opted out of the final year of his contract with the Spurs, which would have paid him $15 million next season, in order to test free agency. But most league officials believed the 30-year-old Jefferson would re-sign with the Spurs, who acquired him from Milwaukee last summer in a deal with the Bucks for Bruce Bowen and Kurt Thomas. Jefferson struggled for much of last season with the Spurs as he learned Gregg Popovich's system, averaging just 12.3 points, his lowest average since his rookie season.
But veteran players usually take at least a year or two to fully pick up the Spurs' complex offensive and defensive systems, and tend to improve greatly in their second or third season. The Spurs anticipate that Jefferson, a career 47 percent shooter, will return to his normal form next season.
Jefferson will make back all of the $15 million he gave up this year -- he will earn more than $27 million in the first three years of the deal -- and now has some security that he will not be a free agent in a summer where the possibility of a lockout by owners to get a new Collective Bargaining Agreement is increasingly likely.
By bringing Jefferson back for almost $7 million less than than he was scheduled the make, the Spurs were also able to bring over their 2007 first-round pick, Brazilian center Tiago Splitter -- considered the best big man in Europe -- and re-sign forward Matt Bonner for less in total than what they would have paid for Jefferson alone under his old deal. Splitter, who should be a significant part of the rotation next season, agreed to a three-year, $10 million deal, and Bonner returned to San Antonio on a four-year deal.
Spurs owner Peter Holt has committed to paying luxury tax again next season and in 2011-12, the final two years of star center Tim Duncan's contract. After that, San Antonio is likely to rebuild around Splitter -- who will be up for a new deal by then -- guards George Hill and Manu Ginobili, whom the team signed to a three-year, $38 million extension last season, and second-year forward DeJuan Blair.
-- posted 7/21/10, 7:35 p.m.
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