The Official Prospects Watch Thread

[Bruno]

Tau is probably ing our championship chances with their crazy buyout demands.

They have asked a $3M (or $3.5M ?) buyout last summer. It's far from being crazy. In fact it's very reasonable given that Scola is the franchise player of one of the best team in europe.

[mountainballer]

Tau is probably ing our championship chances with their crazy buyout demands. That's their right, but it's still ing us.

the buyout was already there, when Spurs drafted Scola. Tau invests a lot of money in young prospects (consider, that in Europe it is the Clubs, who run all the youth programms), see also Splitter. they just don't have the financial recources to coach them for 6 or more years and then see the best of them them leave for NBA without any compensation, the moment they are starting to be productive.
the buyout has to be paid by Scola himself anyhow. last year was a good chance, when Tau reduced the buyout to 3 million and would have accepted, that Scola pays it over three years.
if Spurs had signed Scola for the 3 years/ 10 millions he demanded, he would be here this season. some called him greedy because of that demand. considering that Nocioni got the same when signing with the Bulls and Garbajosa even more from the Raptors, this isn't a greedy demand.

the whole: we have to get a center first strategy bits the FO in the ass. regarding talent Scola is far superior to the other FA aqisations. considering the aging of Horry (not exactly a secret this summer), the signing of Scola should have been the priority.

Bobby Knight, who'd coached Jordan at the 1984 Olympic trials, urged Blazers GM Stu Inman (an old pal) to take Michael. Inman said, "But we need a center." Knight yelled back, "So play him at center!" Inman didn't listen, and the result was a jaw-dropping scene: NBA commissioner David Stern walked to the podium and said, "With the second pick in the 1984 NBA Draft, Portland selects ... Sam Bowie, University of Kentucky."

ok, a bit out of proportion. just as a reminder.

[Mr. Body]

They have asked a $3M (or $3.5M ?) buyout last summer. It's far from being crazy. In fact it's very reasonable given that Scola is the franchise player of one of the best team in europe.

Let me add a to the Spurs organization for not bringing him over when they could this summer. A burst of energy off the bench would be astonishing, nay, miraculous.

They still think they can pull something nice for him by trade. I hope they can this summer.

... I might have said that before... about a year ago...

[ChumpDumper]

Eh, Scola's ACB stats aren't far and away better than Marcus Fizer's -- and Fizer was coming off a knee injury. You can certainly say he's top five in Europe, but that doesn't necessarily translate to the NBA.

[AFBlue]

Scola needs to come across the pond in order to establish any REAL trade value. We'll see him in a Spurs Uni next year and what happens after that depends on trades, draft picks, and the development of our pool of prospects (Javtokas, Mahinmi, etc.)

[leonarth]

Tonight, Pau defeats Aris Salonique 77 - 62 (Euroleague)

14 MAHINMI, IAN 11:45 min 8 Pts 3/4 Fg 2/2 Ft 3(off) 2 (def) 5 RBs 5 faults
19 SANDERS, MELVIN 16:00 min 10 Pts 2/5 Fg 2/3 3pt 1 (off) 2 (def) 3 Reb 1 Assist


ITW Melvin Sanders after his first game with PAU :

Pau-Orthez Forward
SANDERS, MELVIN

"It is a great pleasure to begin in a team with a victory. Aris has a good defense, but we found the solutions collectively. I was very enthusiastic to come to Pau before the game. I am more enthusiastic now as I had very good feelings in this arena with such fans as these."

[ChumpDumper]

Sanders? Screw Austin, Pau is officially our farm team now.

[Mr. Body]

I want Mahinmi in the NBDL next year. He's not getting enough minutes.

[ChumpDumper]

If he's as raw as he looked in summer league, he'd be struggling for minutes here too -- especially after signing Woods.

Next season, I imagine two or three of the bigs we have won't be back, so who knows?

[T Park]

Oberto retires or signs with like Indiana.
Horry retires.

no bonner?


Mahinmi looks like a freshman year college guy. Wich is his age as well.


Hows Sanikidze doing, is that in here and I missed it?

[T Park]

14 MAHINMI, IAN 11:45 min 8 Pts 3/4 Fg 2/2 Ft 3(off) 2 (def) 5 RBs 5 faults

i assume faults is fouls.

Damn hes a hack machine. That was his proBlem in summer league too.

[ChumpDumper]

If Oberto opts out, he'd still be a restricted FA.

[Marcus Bryant]

It's ok, come 2015 we'll be fine.

[T Park]

....

I personally would rather have Scola and Javtokas in here next year, if I had my druthers.

Apparently though Javtokas has fallen off the face of the earth though.

[ChumpDumper]

The scuttlebutt on Robertas is his coach doesn't like his lack of offense. Makes one wonder why they signed him.

[T Park]

It's ok, come 2015 we'll be fine

God you need prozac.

[Bruno]

I want Mahinmi in the NBDL next year. He's not getting enough minutes.

Do you realize that he fouled out in this game ?

Mahinmi tonight games sums up what he is : a talented but very raw project.
First half : 0 pts, 0 rbds, 3 PFs in 45 seconds
Second half : 8 pts, 5 rbds, 2 PFs in 11 min

[T Park]

The scuttlebutt on Robertas is his coach doesn't like his lack of offense. Makes one wonder why they signed him.

Good question.

He never was known as a Vlade Divac.

Although his supposed assets would be quite apreciated on the team right now.

[T Park]

Second half : 8 pts, 5 rbds, 2 PFs in 11 min

3 offensive, means he could've tipped in his own misses.

Yeah very raw, although, he shows great potential. Not ready to give up on him like some here are already.

[Bruno]

3 offensive, means he could've tipped in his own misses.

It wasn't on his own misses.

[Kori Ellis]

The scuttlebutt on Robertas is his coach doesn't like his lack of offense. Makes one wonder why they signed him.

Yeah it is hard to tell what's going on there.

I have realized (because of Noel's situation) that you can never figure out what's going on just because someone doesn't get playing time. Noel was told he had a chance to start before he left Seattle to sign with Maccabi. Now in Maccabi, he mostly racks up DNP-CD's and five minute games. He never had a chance to start. His agent calls their coach and they tell him everything's fine. (The GM even lied to Noel's agent and said Noel was playing 20+ mpg Like he couldn't see a boxscore.) Oh well, I guess at least he is making money but he's dying to play. Sometimes the coaches have obligations to play certain guys, etc.

I hope Javtokas actually gets on track and gets more playing time.

[ChumpDumper]

I feel bad for Noel. I think he'd have been a Sonic before Glyniadakis, and probably wouldn't have gotten waived in favor Andre Brown.

[timvp]

The good thing about Javtokas sucking is that he should now come for the minimum ... which is the price tag he should have come at to begin with. Nothing humbles a player than a year spent as a 12th man. Although he seems scared to make the trip over the pond, so we may never see him in the NBA.

Mahinmi is years away and there's a chance he's never more than a Jerome Moiso. Scola would probably be decent right now but his rebounding going down is a bad sign. Time for RC to fire off another email and for Scola to whine about it.

Sanikidze is a longshot to ever make it. The Karaulov experiment is pretty much officially over. He's never even started for a Euro team.

Now that the rest of the NBA has caught up in the overseas scouting, hopefully the Spurs can adapt and be able to locate domestic talent. Seeing as how this front office has never landed one American draft pick that panned out, I'm not holding my breath.

[LaMarcus Bryant]

timvp i gotta hand it to you, you always know how to give us a swift reality kick in the balls

[Bruno]

Sanders? Screw Austin, Pau is officially our farm team now.

Yes, our dear Melvin (look at the shirt) :
http://www.elan-bearnais.fr/equipe/20062007/sanders.jpg

The good news is for people like timvp who can fear to see Sanders back with Spurs : Sanders will stay with Pau until the end of the euroleague (even if he receives a nba offer) and so he won't be able to play in nba this year.