And hopefully the FO sees this (they can't NOT see it) and are working out another gem.
Is it dog-pray.jpg time?
Yeah at least this way the Spurs FO can't pretend that the bigman position is fine. There's an obvious hole there now. They can now enter the draft and FA with one main goal in mind -- get a big.
I'll wait to see what the FO comes up with before I call on higher powers
what kind of crazy calculus is this?If Mahinmi had gone to college for four years starting at 18, he would have just finished his senior year - so it's not like he's over the hill
Yes, we are clearly short of big men, but this trade is just a no-brainer..it's not like we lost Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett here, we lost Oberto and Thomas..
I find it hard to believe that the front office doesn't have a plan to follow this up..I would be surprised if Mason, Bonner, and/or Finley aren't traded for a big man, or if ownership just pays the luxury tax and uses the MLE..the trade is more believable, although I wouldn't have believed that we would pull this trade off, so anything can happen..
there's no way they don't have a plan though..I highly doubt they believe in Bonner and Mahinmi as our 2 big men next to Duncan..one guy that gets moist under pressure, and the other guy can't breathe without injuring something..
I'm really not worried. If we sign/trade for one more decent vet big man we can fill out the rest of the roster with youngsters and we will be set.
I honestly think Holt realizes that. I don't see how he could look Tim Duncan in the eye and say "thanks for giving up $10 mil on your extension. we got you RJ. now it's up to you and Matt Bonner to hold down the front court." One way or the other the Spurs are going to find a way to add an MLE caliber big to the roster. Even if it means taking an even bigger luxury tax hit short term.
But, perhaps I'm just setting myself up for disappointment.
Spurs have to sign an major rebounding/defensive big, and then fill the rest out with min contracts and pray for some production from them.
The most production we really need outside a healthy big FOUR (that sounds so good btw)...is from players 5-9....players 10-12 just have to fill in adequately whenever someone is in foul trouble or is injured.
[QUOTE=exstatic;3483188]
You people realize that you HAVE to have 13 players, and the Spurs are sitting on 10, or 11 if you count Finley as staying, don't you?
Bowen = 1 spot
and it's very possible, though not very attractive, that Fabricio will be back as the starting 5. = 1 spot
I agree in general, but we definitely need a big man that is worthy of a starting spot..that's still a big hole..
we used to be able to rely on Duncan to completely dominate the paint defensively, and dominate on the boards..while he's still great at both aspects, he's obviously no longer in his prime, and won't be able to completely make up for a guy like Bonner..we need a guy that can start and deserve the spot..
I love what Boston does, having Kendrick Perkins playing next to KG..
There is a huge gap in the 4/5 spot, and Bonner is not the answer.
Have we forgotten about Udoka as trade fodder?
I'm not going to worry about the Spurs lack of bigs when it's not even draft day yet. The Spurs will probably try to trade up, and then I'm sure they are going to float a package of Mason/Bonner out there to try to bring back some kind of vet big.
Oberto/Thomas were just bodies for the most part. So the team isn't any worse off than they were yesterday. It's easy to fill your roster with bodies that get you 3 and 2 (or whatever Oberto's stats were this past year). The Spurs will get something done to upgrade.
We haven't forgotten, but it's not like Udoka can get you much. Yes, technically the Spurs can use him in an S&T, but since he made peanuts the Spurs can only re-sign him to peanuts because he'd become BYC otherwise. The only situation Udoka holds S&T value in is if the Spurs have a deal they'd like to make but are stuck being $1 mil short on getting salaries to match.
I wouldn't wish Udoka on any team, even if it brought back something good..too cruel..
Exactly. The spurs did not have a frontline before the trade. They needed to clean the frontline of ineffective players anyways.
Yeah, getting rid of Oberto and Thomas is more of a plus than a minus. Both good players but both showed in the playoffs that their best days are behind them. The roster spots can be used to try to locate a big who could flourish into a legit start.
Besides, Oberto will get cut (and possibly Thomas, too) so if the Spurs strikeout elsewhere they could come back to square one.
My thoughts exactly.
Clippers already HAD Marcus Williams, and let him walk.
How many 3 for 1 trades do you pull before you have like 6 guys making $90M?
I'll be straight up: I'm not a huge RJ fan. I think he is an excellent role player, but a role player nonetheless, and no role player of any caliber should be paid $14-15M. That's a cap killer. For that money, you need to be able to hand a player the ball and say "go win me the game". RJ can't do that. He pretty much plays off of other players.
I'd LOVE Richard Jefferson at $8-9m. That extra $6-7M can get you a high quality big of the Gooden/Villanueva/'Sheed stripe. Instead, the Spurs have pretty much handcuffed themselves this year.
You are assuming they will not trade or use the MLE. I would tend to agree with you, but then again I cannot see them making this move if it "handcuffed" them. Why would they do it then? Don't you think they saw the problems upfront last year?
That extra $$ keeps this from being a Gasol level robbery. As is, though, it's a pretty damn good trade and not a trade the Spurs could afford to pass up on.
I'd much rather have Jefferson now than go into free agency needing to trade or sign for a big and a wing. Now they can use all their efforts to find a big -- whether draft, trade or FA.
I agree. This is addition by subtraction.
The Spurs don't need to rebuild in the traditional sense, but they do need to look at the 5 position as a rebuilding project.
When you rebuild, you first have to strip down to nothing. That's what the Spurs have done.
Now they can look clearly at what they have to do -- get athletic at the 5 (not Rasheed, nor Bonner, nor Oberto nor Thomas).
The view is much clearer now.
For 2 years left on his contract there wasn't going to be a better deal out there for us to improve at the 3 spot. We have a window of two years. Obviously Pop and R.C know what they are doing. You don't understand it because ...I won't get into it. Spurs would still be "handcuffed" even if they didn't make the trade and added a piece with the MLE say Gortat. They would have then had a big hole at the 3 spot if they decided to go that route. This trade was GREAT for the spurs for the fact that they will have a chance to maybe bring back Bowen, Oberto, and maybe even Kurt for all minimum deals. And we still have Mason and Bonner as trading chips for a veteran starting big man next to Tim. Now if Jefferson's deal had 5 years left on his contract then yeah I would agree with you. But it's not. We could even use his expiring contract as a trading asset next year if things don't work out. If that doesn't happen we will have a lot of cap space in 2011 for Duncan's last hooray.
Thank you DPG. I commend you for having common sense.
Well, the other thought I had today was that Mason and Bonner's deals expire after 2010. That's about 7 million in expiring contracts. Finley, if he agreed to exercise his option and be traded, would give them another 2.5 million in expiring contracts.
So 9.5 million to play with for some team looking for cap relief/more room next summer.
I agree with ex in general that there is no guarantee Holt is going to just keep spending money. We already have some players in the pipeline who we've invested time into. Ex is right - we aren't going to keep getting big contract players.
And to be honest, I want to see Gist and Ian get a chance to play, as well as Hairston.
Having said that we still need a veteran who can rebound. I don't know how we could get Foster but assuming he has anything left he would be the ideal player to target in my opinion.
If we could somehow package Bonner and Finley and get something in return, I would be very happy.
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