And by the same token, in order for someone to be a rotation player they have to first play in a single game. The fact that you had to project half of the guys you mentioned into positions they haven't yet attained to try to make your case shows that it's a pretty weak case.
The fact is the last 13 Spurs drafts have produced four rotation players. Hopefully Splitter and Anderson turn out to be great, but they aren't yet.
D-League players are bottom of the barrel players, Toros don't work with awesome prospects. Turning them into legit NBA players isn't easy.
Spurs haven't draw an edge with owning Toros but at the same time it hasn't really hurt them. From what I've understood, a D-League team isn't that expensive.
Spurs just need to keep working with the Toros. It could generate one day a legit NBA player. Heck, maybe Gee is that player...
I don't expect much from the Toros. They work with scrubs. And it's hard to make a legit NBA player working with scrubs.
i've heard they make around 25/30k/year. It's not much considering NBA standarts.
Doesn't the fact that having the highest winning percentage during that same time frame, translating into always picking late in the first round, have SOME impact on not picking up many rotational players?
Since picking up Sean Elliott in '89, the Spurs have only drafted in the top 20 of the first round three time: #18 in '92, #1 in '97 and #20 this year. Only 2 other times have they had a pick in the top 25. That leaves 16 years where they had at best the 26th pick. In 25 years they used 3 lottery picks to win four les, when some teams get lottery picks every year.
How many times can we expect them to catch lightning in a bottle? How many other teams have had more success this deep in the draft? Not defending the FO, just trying to understand some of the what appear to be extremely high expectations on picking long odds winners.
If you'd like to argue the point that Splitter and Anderson are not going to be in the rotation this year then go ahead.
Again, feel free to argue otherwise, but Splitter and Anderson would make 6 guys in the rotation this year.The fact is the last 13 Spurs drafts have produced four rotation players. Hopefully Splitter and Anderson turn out to be great, but they aren't yet.
On top of that the Spurs also used several of their picks to acquire players who went on to help the Spurs win rings. The 1998 1st rounder brought Antonio Daniels to town. The 2000 1st rounder got Steve Kerr. The 2002 pick got Speedy Claxton. The 2003 and 2006 picks got Nazr Mohammed. Considering the roles those guys played in helping the Spurs win rings, I'm more than okay with the return on those investments. Afterall, the whole point is to win championships, right? Or is the point to just see how many of your own draft picks you can put on your roster so that you can pat yourself on the back and say "look how awesome we are at drafting"?
Austin Toros make Austinites Spurs fans.
We didn't need the Toros for that.
I've been to some Toros games and they are entertaining, but the level of play between D-League and NBA is really disparate. You don't really notice when watching, but seeing those guys play in the NBA you realize how different it is. It will probably take some time until we see a real star player come out of the D-League and I don't know if it's profitable enough to allow that to happen. So far, the farm team is not yielding crops.
Should open up the d-league to anyone who is not in the NBA including aging veterans. That would be fun plus you could see if some players still have something left in the tank for game time.
Hill and Blair weren't their first year. There's no guarantee that Anderson and Splitter will, though the dwindling list of options is giving both a better shot. Going by history, Pop doesn't trust or play rookies, even really good ones. In other words, don't count your chickens.
They may have lost minutes, but they both played.
I think people need to realize that outside of the top 10-12 picks in the draft, its unbelievably hard to find good players. 90% of players not drafted in the lottery are out of the league or warming a bench within 3 years. And only 3-4 guys each year are "sure things." Spurs fans need to get some perspective and realize how good our FO has done so far... As coyotes said we got Kerr, Daniels and Speedy from picks we dealt and drafted Manu, Tony, Hill, Blair, Splitter and Anderson without once picking higher than 20, not many other teams can claim that kind of success in the draft.
That said, The Toros have not given us anything of worth yet.
splitter was always going to be a rotation player and he would be on any one's roster, even the lakers. as to anderson, no one mentioned that he was going to be a 25 minute per game player. he is there to fill the void of roger mason or finley which most of us will consider an upgrade.
It is already that way.
Given the financial constraints of the teams and the steep talent and skill dropoff after the first round of the draft, I don't see why anyone expects so much from the D-League. I think the average number of real rotation players produced by the D-League is probably about one a year if you look back over its history.
Hill played 77 games his first year, and 78 games his second year.
Blair played all 82 games his first year.
There are lots of pro-basketball leagues in the world.
There are only two reasons why a legit NBA player will be found playing in the D-league:
(1) His team assigned him to the D-league.
(2) He wasn't drafted and is using the D-league to show off his skills. He should be picked up within the first year otherwise he simply isn't NBA ready.
There is no other reason to be in the D-league, unless you can't make it elsewhere.
Blair...
Hill...
Beno...
Manu...
Parker...
Basically all the guys who eventually proved good enough to stick in the NBA got playing time as rookies under Pop.
I assumed OV meant in the playoffs, but, yeah, wrong either way.
Last edited by lowdown; 07-29-2010 at 01:58 PM.
No, Pop benched them in the playoffs and he parked them behind inferior vets and gimmicky lineups. When a guy gets 20 minutes one night and then no more than six minutes for the next five games, he's not a rotation player.
True or False? Beno was in Pop's rotation as a rookie.
Ginobili played most of the fourth quarter in the clinching finals game.
This IS Pop we're talking about . . .
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