you know what you may be onto something. Gist would most likely match up better with the the likes of Carmelo and Lebron as well. didnt he also say he guarded smaller players overseas?
Gist, Harrison, and Gee are prospects. If any one of these 3 could consistantly hit open 3's, they would probably make this team. Mahimni is still a prospect going into his 6th year, now hes with Dallas. Sometimes you just have to quit fantasizing about a prospect and move on. The Spurs have already shown that they are indeed keeping a eye on the future with promising, young, players in Hill, Blair, Splitter, and Anderson.
I don't have qualms about those 4 talented players who were virtual locks to make the team. Even Pop couldn't mess that up.
It's the rest of the squad that Pop has assembled. IMO, Mahinmi, Hairston, Gist, Penney, & Jerrels = better supporting cast than RJ, Bonner, Neal, Temple, Gee & Simmons.
Bull ! I bet the latter will play significantly more NBA games in their careers. None of the first bunch are rotation NBA players, some of them will not play another NBA game in their life.
WTF happened to George Hill and all of the defensive potential he had? I hope he can improve as much on defense as he has on offense.
Steve Nash happened to him. Hope he will improve too.
Gee's legend seems to be growing the more we don't see him play.
If Gist can guard 3's I wouldnt mind having Bonner on the roster nearly as much. Pop kinda wants Bonner to be somewhat of a Horry ( a stretch 4). However If Gist can guard 3's that means Bonner can be Danny Ferry ( a tall 3 that can shoot on offense while not being compromised on defense). I seen the Spurs do cross matchups to accomadate their players abilities defensively back in the day. Against the Lakers they would have Rose the PF play against Deavan George, and Ferry the SF play against Horry. That seem to work. If the Spurs play Bonner/Gist together at the Forward Spots while having Duncan Play Center, They maximize Bonners abilities and dont expose as bad. On Defense Bonner plays the 4, While Gist ( a 6'9 mobile/athletic shotblocker in college) can guard the reserve 3's of the other team. On offense Gist would play the 4 grabbing rebounds and cleaning up, while Bonner would be a 3(like Danny Ferry) on offense launching from deep.
This scenario sounds alot better than watching another year of RJ at PF.
Or RJ at SF for that matter.
Yeah, I mean we have a whole bunch of 6-5 slow/old prospects at SF. Gist has the Size of a 4 but is still a better option than Simmons (old/slow/kinda short) Gee (Short) Temple (???? just no). At 6-9 he has length to trouble the shot of Your average backup SF's. He has decent side to side movement, enough to cut someone off or alter the guys path giving the help time to get in position ( even if the help is Bonner). Cause helping doesnt mean Blocking someones shot. Its simply being in position to stop or make it very difficult for a person to get a high percentage look. If Gist forces a guy baseline, while at the same time giving him a little bump on his way to the basket that will give Bonner or Duncan time enough to at least stand right outside that lane area and cut the guy off, like in all the years prior to 2009. Spurs had Fabricio Oberto (non-shotblocker) starting for them 2yrs in a row and still managed to be a top defensive team. Why? He simply understood where to be at what time on the defensive end (offense too).Or RJ at SF for that matter.
yeah, but Bowen was probably the only defender i've ever seen guard Nash the way he did. i don't think there's a player in the league that gives Nash any trouble. Nash might be the toughest cover in the league. it's guys like the Richardson that i was hoping he'd be able to cover and keep from going off on us.
lots of good points of view. you can almost make a good case for either Gee or Gist. not so much for Simmons. in a perfect world we could keep both.
It's interesting to see how the Nuggets play defense against the Suns:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEpBM...layer_embedded
They always bother Nash, he never gives a precise pass and then they rotate quickly on defense, closing out easy points opportunities.
Hairston + Gist = championship!
Don't forget Tolliver. He's been carrying the Warriors for a while now.
D-League championship, perhaps.
True to be said, there have been some mistakes:
- When the team cut Raja Bell in 2000.
- S-Jax was left go for nothing.
- His replacement Hedo was left to walk for nothing. After S-Jax and Hedo the Spurs struggled big time to get bigger wing players.
- Scola was left too many years in Spain, then traded.
Other than that Sato become a big star in Europe, but it took him many years. Javtokas could have helped but he injured himself.
It was obvious S-Jax, Hedo and Scola were talented players, not sure why the Spurs passed on them. In addition to the 0.4 s distraction, Manu's foul on Dirk, Crawford's sabotage in '06 and '08, that was the reason why the Spurs never repeated.
We'll see how Pop's new multi-tool set of Simmons, Neal, & Temple fair this year. I'm sure they'll be filling in at almost every position for every hairbrained lineup Pop can think of.
Last edited by TJastal; 10-20-2010 at 06:01 AM.
There was no room for Bell at the time; though that is one that would be nice to get back.
SJax turned down the Spurs offer to take less money elsewhere and you must not remember Hedo's stint that well.
Hedo whined about being a banch player, he also didn't play well against the Lakers in the playoffs. But he was solid talent since his days with the Kings. His stance with the Spurs wasn't so bad. Horry played worse than Hedo, remember that for both it was their first season with the Spurs.
SJax's agent probably started looking too late at the FA market, SJax was thinking the Spurs were to re-sign him. At that point, there wasn't a team that needed a SG/SF with cap space or the MLE available. But the Spurs offer was lower than one year at vet minimum and two years with MLE, which SJax got. Otherwise, he was good enough to find a team willing to guarantee playtime and touches to showcase his talents, despite being paid the veteran minimum salary.
Hedo is a unique talent that requires ball domination to be effective. As much as people complain about RJ, Hedo as well just did not fit in the Spurs system. And his performance in the playoffs most definitely sealed his fate. If I remember he signed for something around 5 mil a year with the Magic. That season as well the Spurs signed Brent Barry for about 4.2 million a year; which worked out well for them.
If anything Hedo's 2007-2008 season with the Magic was a bit of a fluke, only once previously had he shot 45%+.
With regards to SJax, he turned down a 3 year $10 million contract offer from the Spurs. So no it wasn't lower than vet minimum. Financially it turned out well for him after it was all said and done.
Last edited by L.I.T; 10-20-2010 at 09:53 AM. Reason: Added
Keep in mind that the 3 season period following the 2003 championship, S-Jax got: Ven Minimum AND 2 x MLE = $1M + $5.1M + $5.6M = $11.7M which was more than the Spurs offer during the same period.
His agent said he was a starter and they wanted a contract similar to other NBA starters. The Spurs said they wanted him back. When the Spurs finally specified their offer, S-Jax run out of better options. Never said he was offered a veteran minimum from the Spurs.
The Spurs had their reasons to offer S-Jax $10M for only 3 seasons, skip on Hedo's and Scola's services. My point is that those talented players walked for NOTHING in return or very little in the case of Scola.
For example, after the 2003-2004 season in Atlanta, the Hawks made a S&T with S-Jax which landed them Al Harrington.
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