Why isn’t San Antonio a popular FA destination? What can the city do to change that?

[james evans]

A lot of NBA players don’t want to play for Gregg Popovich because of his at ude

BINGO!!!! WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!

[Hoops Czar]

biggest FAs to sign in the last 20 years:
-LA
-michael finley past his prime
-brent barry past his prime

and that's during sa's golden age...

This has to do with a Front office failing to thrive in today's NBA. There's nothing to do in OKC either but they can still attract free agents.
You have a do nothing GM in Buford and a coach/GM who doesn't like players who shrug their shoulders, stare into the cameras, flex their muscles and in the mid 2000's actually put a ban on slamming the basketball. This is a rap/hip hop league and Pop doesn't want players to express themselves? He should coach in Europe instead of bringing Europe to America.

[gambit1990]

Tracy McGrady, Antonio McDyess, David West, Robert Horry, Rudy Gay. The list of washed up vets we signed is long

vince carter just said he’s playing another year...

[Degoat]

Why y’all such haters?? Of course players would like to play for the spurs but we never have the money to pay them

[JeffDuncan]

Why y’all such haters?? Of course players would like to play for the spurs but we never have the money to pay them

That's the bottom line.

[Dverde]

Regarding free agency...Spurs are the nice Walgreens Assistant Manager the players marry after they were treated like by flashier former boyfriends and their kids need a reliable father figure. Their best years are behind them as they get fatter knowing the Spurs will not call them out on their looks getting gradually worse.

[gambit1990]

“players want to play for spurs”... yeah, when they can barely play anymore

[Brazil]

that's a topic we never discussed before

[cjw]

Tracy McGrady, Antonio McDyess, David West, Robert Horry, Rudy Gay. The list of washed up vets we signed is long

You realize Horry was an integral piece to the 2005 le run (got a ton of burn in the playoffs)? Oh wait, you wouldn’t remember that.

[BD24]

Move the AT&T Center downtown or to a non-ghetto area. Kick out all the ghetto people. Become more diverse instead of being 90% Mexican.

It will never happen, tbh.

Putting the stadium downtown would be a great first step. Especially with the downtown revitalization/growth going on the last couple years.

San Antonio is a great city for regular folks. If your a ing multi millionaire though there is better places to live

[Avitus1]

From a fan perspective build the arena somewhere else in the city. The location of the AT&T center sucks and will never get better without knocking down buildings/houses and overhauling the area. The Spurs should be playing in an arena where the fans can leave and go do something afterwards like grab a drink or some food. Either that or the arena should be in an area with actual space to have these types of places built and not just promised.

From a player position I’d imagine marketing the team needs to be better to bring in more fans and money which would hopefully be more enticing to potential players.

[Mirrornick]

When is the last time a large market like New York, chicago or Toronto ever signed a big name free agent?

And how about la. When did the Lakers. Who did they sign before LeBron? I don't believe in the notion that only large markets can get superstars.

[pad300]

To be a "top" tier FA draw, you need a beach and southern coastal weather, ie Cali and Florida teams... There is no way to get that here.

[DPG21920]

To be a "top" tier FA draw, you need a beach and southern coastal weather, ie Cali and Florida teams... There is no way to get that here.

Lakers have done a tremendous job the past 6 years . Toronto too!

[Hoops Czar]

When is the last time a large market like New York, chicago or Toronto ever signed a big name free agent?

And how about la. When did the Lakers. Who did they sign before LeBron? I don't believe in the notion that only large markets can get superstars.

You need several key ingredients to attract elite free agents. First, you need building blocks for the future (I'm not talking about role players that can put up numbers once evey 5 or 6 games). Second, you need cap space. Third, you need assets to make trades in order to free up cap space and/or build around your elite free agent. Fourth, you need a front office that gives a . The Spurs don't meet any of these criteria to attract free agents.

Toronto has been in salary cap the past four years but dumping DeRozan and Valencunias' contract freed up a ton of cap space so expect them to be a major player in free agency in the offseason. Chicago is rebuilding and New York has lousy ownership but expect them to sign both Durant and Irving in the offseason.

[Frenchfred]

Harden and Durand left OKC. They only got George.

[gambit1990]

Harden and Durand left OKC. They only got George.

harden got traded and durant is a pussy.

[Frenchfred]

Harden was traded because they couldn’t agree on an extension. At the end of the day, OKC was not exciting enough to make him stay.

[ZeusWillJudge]

How about a thread about why ST attracts so many feebs who want to start a clever discussion so badly that they actully put the word "Discuss!" up front?

Do you really not understand the differences between big market cities and small market cities, OP? Do you really think there is "something we can do" to change SA into a big market city? Discuss!

[davidbowie]

keep san antonio lame

[baseline bum]

This would definitely help from a fan perspective. I have no idea why they thought they could build AT&T next to a golf course and a bunch of stock yards and hoped it would "revitalize the area". Actually, I do...because that line was bull and they just wanted the cheap real estate.

The Dome was a horrible game environment, but it was great to be able to walk out from games and go downtown or to Sunset....but it's not like the players were doing that.

The city was trying to piggyback a big expansion to the convention center onto the arena they had planned next to the Alamodome in the summer of 1999. The Spurs were scared a tax increase to expand the convention center would fail a public vote and kill their gravy train so they went to the county instead to subsidize them. Hence why the AT&T Center is on county property next to Freeman Colosseum.

[baseline bum]

Harden and Durand left OKC. They only got George.

They wanted to pay Harden like a bench player. He was fine taking a sixth man role but not sixth man money.

[BatManu20]

Move the AT&T Center downtown or to a non-ghetto area. Kick out all the ghetto people. Become more diverse instead of being 90% Mexican.

It will never happen, tbh.

/thread.

[R. DeMurre]

I think there's a lot of mythology around places that are or aren't popular FA destinations. Before LeBron signed with the Lakers last year, they hadn't signed a significant FA in a long time. The Knicks and Nets are in NYC and neither has made a big FA splash in many years. Miami hasn't done much since the Big 3 days. Most of Chicago's additions have been through the draft and trades. I do think that Pop is one of those coaches that opposing players praise, but also secretly would fear playing for. OKC gets lots of props for being "active," but they've had four MVP level players in less than a decade and still have zero rings, and next year they'll have the highest team payroll in the NBA and not much to show for it, aside from being in about the same place that the Spurs are.

[Trueblood]

A major earthquake causes the RGV to fall into the ocean making SA beach front property. Even then I have my doubts.