Reply With Quote
1st Translation - urunobili
2nd Updated it to make it flow better Englishwise- MIB
San Antonio – The most important thing I would like to tell you is that I am healthy, pain free, finally healed and now just trying to recover my game. I think I am at about eighty percent at this stage. My shooting has to be better and I have to respond quicker on defense, but considering that the pre season just finished, this is normal for the majority of the players in the NBA.
Of More concern is that it’s been harder for me to get into a rhythm. I’m progresing slowly. I’m not penetrating as much to the hoop. I have tried to a little and I don’t know if it's lack of leg strength or confidence but it’s been tough to get to the basket.
In addition, I’m happy with the playing time that I played on the pre season; against Oklahoma I had 23 minutes on the court. I don’t know how that will work for the beginning of the regular season, but I would like to play a lot of minutes to feel useful and start to tune up with our new teammates.
Truth is that it’s gratifying to be able to travel with the team again; it has been a while since I did it last, but I still don’t have that adrenaline yet that you should feel before a final. I would say my expectations are doubled because next season starts on Tuesday and I will be back playing again after a long time off. It will be nice to wear my jersey and feel what I feel with the fans twice as loud.
About our team’s performance in the pre season, you have to point out that Pop generally uses his subs utes so as to not wear down the regular rotation players. I need to mention something about both George Hill and DeJuan Blair. They were the best players in pre season. I think Blair will be a huge surprise. He barely surpasses 6 feet 7 inches, but he has a lot of at ude, a special grit to pull down rebounds and he scores easily. He is very intense and fights fiercely for every ball. If you are going after a ball with him, he will pull your arms down. It has been a while since we last had such an athletic and intense bigman on the team. Though he is the 4th bigman off the bench, there is a lot of hope on what he can contribute. Anyways, I think the starter will be Matt Bonner, because of his ability with long range shots, he opens up the floor for Tim and the rest of us.
The game style will be a more free, more fluid game and with lots of pick and rolls. We will no longer be waiting for Tim to arrive and establish himself in the paint as we have done in the past. Though I guess that will also depend on the games we’re playing. The running style adapts better to how Tony plays. I am not saying something new if I say that this is now more Tony’s team than Tim’s. Will that benefit me or not? I truly don’t know but we will see it on the court and it will depend on how each games goes.
There are no doubts that this year more than ever, the only objective is to win the championship. The franchise has made a great effort to put together this great roster. It is the very first time that the salary cap was exceeded here. Almost 13 million dollars past the limit. Since I have been here, that's never happened before. The Spurs understand that this is the time to go all-in and pursue another le. They want to take advantage of mine and Tim's last years and be able to compete at this championship level. With the arrival of players like Richard Jefferson, Antonio MyDyess and Theo Ratliff, plus the investment in young talent like Blair. San Antonio saw the chance and decided to do this big investment.
Anyways, the road will be hard because there are other strong teams that are much improved with the arrival of great players. Cleveland, Boston, Orlando, Denver, the Lakers, Portland and Dallas are all in as well.
Lastly, I have to recognize that this will be a key season for me. A contract season because next year I will be a free agent and I have to show my best to secure a great future. My next contract will depend on how well I play this season.
I do not want to forget to mention Fabricio Oberto. Even though I will miss him being here because we would share a lot of time on our trips together especially during those long travel weeks out on the road. The franchise will also miss him. It has been mentioned to me already by the assistant coaches and by my teammates. He has always been a well-liked guy and his absence will be felt.
