Agreed. Ahearn could be gone once Parker is back. He is there in case Vaughn or Hill gets hurt.
IMO, Spurs will closely look at D-Legaue. If a big plays well there, Spurs will cut Tolliver to sign him.
Even if no bigs shine in the D-League, Tolliver will have a hard time making the team past January 10th when contracts becomes guaranteed. I think he needs to show more things.
I'm very curious about the details of Tolliver's contract: what are its provisions and when does it become guaranteed? And to take it the next step - if it becomes guaranteed, then how does that affect our ability to bring in other players? I like Tolliver okay but not enough to sign him to a guaranteed two year deal if that means we can't add Gist next season. I"m not sure if that's the case at all but I can't recall all the expiring contracts at the moment.
Right now I'd rather have Gist then Tolliver. Obviously that's not going to happen but I don't want to keep an undersized power forward who can't rebound and may not actually be a good shooter. We need rebounding more than anything from our bigs, which is why, in my opinion, Tolliver is glued to the bench.
(Off topic, but I actually like the idea of Ahearn as our 3rd string PG behind Tony and Hill. Unfortunately, there's that whole JV situation. We seem to do be doing well with Mason and Hill running the point. We'll do even better when Parker returns. I don't see where JV fits into the rotation. Ahearn looks to be a great shooter which is a quantifiable skill we could use. He also looks to be a decent passer, which is also a good thing.)
Edit: Oops, didn't see the January 10 deadline from the previous post.
Only $200K of Tolliver contract is guaranteed now. The is to say his salary until mid December.
Spurs have no financial incentives waiving him before that.
If they don't waive him before January 10th, the first year of his contract is fully guaranteed.
The second year of his contract is fully unguaranteed until July 1st, $25K guaranteed until August 7th, $200K guaranteed after that. As every contract, it will becomes fully guaranteed if he isn't waived before January 10th 2010.
If Ian works out and Oberto and Thomas round into form, there won't be much need to find another big man. In that case, sending Tolliver down to develop him while rotating prospects through spot 15 seems like a decent enough idea. All bets are off if the Spurs' big men continue to underperform.
tolliver has potential. hes shown that hes a smart player so far and one who loves to hustle but he needs to work that shot whether its the 3 or inside. the only thing that bonner does better right now is shooting AND hitting. tolliver appears to be better in everything else so pop is probably waiting for that to come around. sending him to the dleague wouldnt be so bad either.
Agreed.
BTW, there isn't anything from the Spurs sending Ahearn to Austin, right? I know he was with Dakota but unless the D-League closed another loophole, he should be eligible for the Toros.
Yeah, Ahearn can be sent down this season. That would be great for the Toros since the point guard position outside of of Squeaky Johnson looks to be in disarray.
With Vaughn being a FA after this season, using the 15th spot to groom an eventual third point guard isn't a horrible idea. If Ahearn has been impressive in practice, I could see him sticking around while the Spurs keep an eye out for a better prospect.
Tolliver is alright.
Pop is showcasing Matt Bonner to develop the League's interests a la Malik Rose.
True enough, though with the relative success this team has had with Manu and Mason playing the point, it could be ok to expand the search to decent handling bigger guards like Coby Karl, Dontell Jefferson or Cedric Bozeman. Like you said, there is plenty of time to see how Ahearn and the others are playing. Six games tomorrow!
You going to the game?
Oh yes. Breaking out the old school teal shooting shirt for the season opener. Take that, T Park!
Agree, so far he doesn't show NBA level.
this makes more sense then any of the others I read.
Tolliver is a D-league Lifer
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