New Manu Article: La Nacion: "I need to free the mind, now my goal is Rio 2016,"

[TheGreatYacht]

Needs to retire, he's a liability

[SAGirl]

nostalgia-fan in me wants them both coming back, despite the obvious struggles, tbh...

too many memories bailing out porky, it's only natural, tbh...

If they both come back they just need better help, better roleplayers bc it should not be so heavily on them.
I thought Manu was retiring but not that he was done. For Tim, it's really the knee. He could return in a KG role but I hoped to not see him do so poorly and look so poor. Despite the loss that game 6 was an amazing game from Timmy. It felt at the time like his last.

[KimmyGib]

Manu had a really strong first half of the season and seemed to fade after the injury. For the first couple months the bench were out-performing the starters. The starters (namely Aldridge and Parker) got it going eventually and for a long stretch the Spurs looked as good as I've ever seen them so relatively early in the season. The TD and Manu injuries seemed to be turning points though, especially for the bench unit which was crap pretty much the remainder of the season. I'm gonna blame the injury for Manu's mid-season decline and give him the benefit of the doubt that he can still positively contribute if he decides to come back.

[coachmac87]

The FO will discuss their plan to pursue certain free agent/trade possibilities etc. with Duncan and Manu. Depending on who they pursue should dictate their roles and possibly salary..If Manu and Tim comeback that they must accept the idea of them having major reduced roles. IMO the best thing for the team would have the Big 3 come off the bench..but not sure if they'd be up for it.

[rasuo214]

If the Spurs can afford to keep Bonner all these years and guys like old Tmac and Ayers at the end of the bench then there shouldn't be an issue in having a roster spot for Manu and Timmy. So yea as long as they want to play they should have that option. Their presence alone is worth it.

[spurs10]

Gracias El NoNo! I hope Manu and Tim opt in! A victory lap season will be a lot of fun and a chance for everyone to celebrate their amazing legacy!

[testies]

I need to free my mind; now my goal is Rio 2016

SAN ANTONIO.- I haven't talked to anybody, I didn't get together with anybody... this just ended. Now my focus is to clear up my mind. I need to free my mind, digest and after a couple of weeks I'm going to set myself some new objectives. That said, my main goal now is the Olympic Games. It's time to relax. There's nothing else for me before that starts, and I'll take care of the National Team later. I suppose in a couple of weeks I'll think a bit more about my future. I'll probably sit down with Pop, with Tim and some of my teammates to talk for a while. We'll see then what are the objectives, and if there's going to be changes or not. It's still early for that.

It's obvious that my decision will have no effect on what my teammates are going to do, or anything like that. But I want to know what's the plan, what does the team wants to do, and what Pop thinks... That's not going to define what I end up doing, but I need to know, and make sure I understand the team's situation. I don't know yet what I'm going to do, but I know that if I decide to retire it won't be because I no longer have a job, but because I think it's the right time. I'm fortunate -because you can't always do it- that I have the option to choose. It's true that there's the possibility to continue for one more year, but I still haven't decided what to do. That said, the fact that I have that player option won't be a factor to decide anything either. I'm going to take as much time to think about this as I think is necessary.

During this time I think how things developed this season. It was a spectacular season most of the time, but we had a terrible series against Oklahoma City and were eliminated. That happens when you don't play well at certain moments that require you to play well. Even then, I thought it was a pretty even series, with three games that were decided right at the end, and could've gone either way. And in a tight series, some of those bounces can leave you out. Both on Game 2 and Game 5 anything could've happened. A couple of dubious calls, a missed shot, a steal... It's a shame, because we thought we were capable of reaching the conference finals and see what we could do against Golden State, but it didn't happen. They did a good job on key possesions, closed the games better and took the series. There's obviously some disappointment, I insist, because we felt like we were capable to move on to the next round. And last season was somewhat similar. The series against the Clippers was hard fought and we took it to a Game 7. They had a Chris Paul super inspired, and so... The playoffs are like that. There's a very fine line between who moves on or not. Example: Toronto against Indiana. They were about to be eliminated, won a key game with a miracle, and now they're playing the Eastern Conference Final. It's like that, sometimes it it happens in your favor, and sometimes against you.

Like I always tell you, truth is that I normally don't watch what's going with other series, or how the NBA season ends once we're eliminated, but I do have to say that I did watch the game between Oklahoma City and Golden State. And I did because my kids Dante and Nicola are slowly becoming fans of the game, and they wanted to watch Durant and Curry. I explained to them who they are, that Stephen was the best player of the season... So they wanted to watch the game, and we did watch it. After a while, the game was in the background, but since I was itching to play some more basketball I watched Bahia Basket afterwards, and that made me suffer like a dog. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the NBA game, and I did watch more as a viewer, more relaxed. What I did catch was a lot of fun.

There's other objectives for me this year. Even though it's very clear to me I have to mentally rest a bit, it's inevitable that I start getting an itch about the Olympic Games, because that's what's next. I want to relax right now, analyze what happened and see how I feel after a tough season. So the next few days I'll be avoiding the gym, running and shooting. But once the times we've discussed with my fitness trainer and physiotherapist are up, I'm going to start training with one objective: Rio de Janeiro 2016.

Stop exagerating whats he's saying lol

"we had a terrible series" he didn't say that, said it was unfortunate/bad

[MultiTroll]

Did Manu say if Pop was in the running for replacing Luke Walton as Kerrs assistant?

[Keepin' it real]

He's retiring. Book it.

[SAGirl]

He's retiring. Book it.

Bold!!! I was sure he was retiring even during the season not bc he looked done but bc it felt it was time and TD did look done often. Now I am not sure.

[spurs10]

He's retiring. Book it.

The ball is in his court. Why retire when you can make a few more million and have a good time saying goodbye to the NBA and his countless fans. His deal is already done. He just has to say 'sure why not' and they write him a check. Tim probably needs to get the word on his knee. Both probably feel they deserve the money.

[ElNono]

Stop exagerating whats he's saying lol

"we had a terrible series" he didn't say that, said it was unfortunate/bad

literal translation would be "bad series"... in the context of what he was trying to convey, not sure how "terrible" is exaggerating, tbh...

But feel free to post your own translation whenever you want, tbh, I have no exclusive rights to this , lol

[DPG21920]

I cannot believe he is playing for the national team if he's thinking of coming back. I also found it interesting how he was "implying" that if he wants to play and SA doesn't want him that he would easily get a job elsewhere.

[tmtcsc]

I think Manu needs to relax.

[ElNono]

I cannot believe he is playing for the national team if he's thinking of coming back. I also found it interesting how he was "implying" that if he wants to play and SA doesn't want him that he would easily get a job elsewhere.

Maybe it was lost in translation, but what he was trying to say is that he's got a guaranteed deal for next season. ie: if he's retiring, it's not because his deal is done.

[DPG21920]

Maybe it was lost in translation, but what he was trying to say is that he's got a guaranteed deal for next season. ie: if he's retiring, it's not because he doesn't have the possibility to play.

I got you and that makes more sense Struck me as odd and came off as subtle threatening like "do what I want or I leave".

[ElNono]

I got you and that makes more sense Struck me as odd and came off as subtle threatening like "do what I want or I leave".

I had to do a double-take too when translating because it did sound odd the way he wrote it. But once you read the entire paragraph it's clear he's talking about his player option/guaranteed deal.

[tmtcsc]

I cannot believe he is playing for the national team if he's thinking of coming back. I also found it interesting how he was "implying" that if he wants to play and SA doesn't want him that he would easily get a job elsewhere.

I didn't take it that way. He has another year on his contract and there's not as much mystery as to whether he could come back this time. That's the way I read it anyways.

[SAGirl]

I cannot believe he is playing for the national team if he's thinking of coming back. I also found it interesting how he was "implying" that if he wants to play and SA doesn't want him that he would easily get a job elsewhere.

Actually when he announced the NT I thought that was it, now that I recall that. Thought no way Manu's body would hold up that much to come back, but why worry about that if it's your last year right?

Pop did rest him through the season a lot and the testicular injury gave him a month of rest. He doesn't sound regretful or negative except admitting they had a bad series, and it was disappointing bc they felt good enough to progress. He's really noncommittal either way but be does still enjoy playing enough to look at the next thing, the Olympic games, so he still has the fire.

I didn't get the sense he was implying he would easily get a job elsewhere. I thought he referred to the fact some players are forced to retire even if they feel they can still play and contribute (Rasual Butler much?), whereas he's free to decide when it's time for himself. It sounded like he was very appreciative of that fact to me.

[tmtcsc]

literal translation would be "bad series"... in the context of what he was trying to convey, not sure how "terrible" is exaggerating, tbh...

But feel free to post your own translation whenever you want, tbh, I have no exclusive rights to this , lol

Eh, I would have upgraded 'bad' too. Getting beat 3 times in a row is terrible after starting off so well. If the man himself was telling me it was a 'bad' series, I'd correct him on the spot and say 'terrible' series.

[ElNono]

frankly, he's had a reduced role and salary for a few seasons now... it's probably more about the roster spot than anything, but if we're still carrying scrubs like Bonner around, I'm sure there's room for Manu (and Tim too).

[SAGirl]

Eh, I would have upgraded 'bad' too. Getting beat 3 times in a row is terrible after starting off so well. If the man himself was telling me it was a 'bad' series, I'd correct him on the spot and say 'terrible' series.

Lol he omitted entirely any reference to the bench. . "We --- dat bench --- were all aweful 6-13!!!" Is what he should have said right?

[SAGirl]

frankly, he's had a reduced role and salary for a few seasons now... it's probably more about the roster spot than anything, but if we're still carrying scrubs like Bonner around, I'm sure there's room for Manu (and Tim too).

Definitely... we ain't trading Tony either. We are probably running this thing right back. The marginal oldies like Kmart, Miller probably are not brought back. I even think they take D west back if he doesn't retire.

The only one I think Pop has soured on is Boris. He really coasted the majority of the season and was nowhere to be found in the playoffs. Wasn't even impactful against the Grizzies. D west in some matches, then Anderson superseded Boris. That's not a good sign.

I think Pop brings some moderate support from FA (not enough cap available for anything major in an off season in which everyone will have cap), but we should get better bigs. From there on hopefully we get improvement from the young players we do have.

I didn't see them making major changes unless TD and Manu retired bc they would be forced to. They leave too huge of a void, but it's clear we do need better support and the youngsters need to improve.

[Nbadan]

frankly, he's had a reduced role and salary for a few seasons now... it's probably more about the roster spot than anything, but if we're still carrying scrubs like Bonner around, I'm sure there's room for Manu (and Tim too).

I agree....but ......the mind may be willing, but is the body able?

[EVAY]

nostalgia-fan in me wants them both coming back, despite the obvious struggles, tbh...

too many memories bailing out porky, it's only natural, tbh...

Manu has been my favorite spur since he joined the team. I hope he comes back. I hope tim comes back. I hope both come off the bench though, and begin coaching as they are playing.That is the real role I want for both of them.

Oh, and by the way, poor Manu wasn't bailing out ANYBODY in our last playoff series. I love him. But he played poorly.