Przybilla...what might have been

[Mr. Body]

The Spurs have a rep for being a smart drafting team because of Manu and Parker and that's about it....those were good picks, but those were about the only good ones other than obvious picks Robinson and Duncan.

This doesn't get said often enough. This Spurs FO gets too much credit for being canny and savvy drafters. They've ridden for too long off the Ginobili pick, which they admit was luck more than anything, and the Parker pick, whic was pretty nice. Otherwise, their domestic picks have been atrocious for years and years - this regime picking up where previous front offices left off - and their latest foreign picks have been underwhelming. Give those players time, but surely underwhelming.

The league genius for drafting domestic talent with bad picks may well be Isiah Thomas. R.C. Buford, Presti, and Pop are hardly in the same class as Isiah as far as this skill goes.

[ChumpDumper]

This doesn't get said often enough.

Not that I disagree, but every day isn't enough?

[SenorSpur]

This doesn't get said often enough. This Spurs FO gets too much credit for being canny and savvy drafters. They've ridden for too long off the Ginobili pick, which they admit was luck more than anything, and the Parker pick, whic was pretty nice. Otherwise, their domestic picks have been atrocious for years and years - this regime picking up where previous front offices left off - and their latest foreign picks have been underwhelming. Give those players time, but surely underwhelming.

The league genius for drafting domestic talent with bad picks may well be Isiah Thomas. R.C. Buford, Presti, and Pop are hardly in the same class as Isiah as far as this skill goes.

....well said. Besides I would venture to say the Spurs botching the Howard draft "cancels out" one of their so-called steals.

[wildbill2u]

I think they draft Euros because they don't have to bring them over and pay them anything. The FO knows that picks at 29 or 30 don't often produce much in the way of domestic players so why give them a first round contract to pay out.

[Mr. Body]

I think they draft Euros because they don't have to bring them over and pay them anything. The FO knows that picks at 29 or 30 don't often produce much in the way of domestic players so why give them a first round contract to pay out.

I think we'll see a shift away from that. We have enough players in the int'l pipeline. Maybe try it again late second round, but we need players who can help right now. I see a domestic pick in the first this year.

[whottt]

I'd just like to point out that the Spurs were going to pass on Parker as well...the only reason they ended up taking him was because he got a phenomenal score on some sort of test the Spurs had him take...it took the testers alerting the Spurs that Parker's scores were of unusually high caliber for the Spurs to draft him...

To be fair, Parker stunk it up badly at the workout where the Spurs evaluated him.

Just to keep it real...the Spurs were going to take Nenad Kristic if he had been available the year he was in the draft. Would have been a great pick.


It's not just drafts...the Spurs have been lucky that some of their attempted FA signings have fallen through as well...

Derek Anderson and Chris Webber immediately come to mind.


But hey..what's the expression? 3 les is 3 les...sometimes it's better to be lucky than good....EG: It was luck that Jordan was there for the Bulls to draft...

[timvp]

I'd just like to point out that the Spurs were going to pass on Parker as well...the only reason they ended up taking him was because he got a phenomenal score on some sort of test the Spurs had him take...it took the testers alerting the Spurs that Parker's scores were of unusually high caliber for the Spurs to draft him...

Not only that, the Spurs had to have numerous teams pass on him who "almost" drafted him. Even the Celtics, who had promised him a spot in the first round, passed on him at the last second.

For the record, Tony ran the fastest 3/4 court time ever in the pre-draft camp. He also aced the IQ or whatever type test he was given. The speed and smarts were the reason he was drafted. The Spurs just hopped he had enough basketball ability to utilize those skills.

Manu was drafted pretty much just to have a Hispanic prospect in the pipe line. And at the time, he wasn't even the Spurs' highest rated Argentine player. They drafted him because he played shooting guard -- the easiest position to transfer from overseas to the NBA.

And truth be told, Giricek was always the higher rated of the two in the Spurs' system until the final year they were going to have to bring one of them aboard. Even when Manu was winning championships, the Spurs hated his defense and turnovers. And if Giricek wouldn't have hurt his knee, I'm not sure which one they would have picked.

What I don't get about the Spurs always claiming they were going to draft Krstic, Kirilenko, Stojakovic and others is that if they knew they were so good ... how come they didn't trade up to get them. Teams trade up all the time and to trade up to the mid-teens isn't even that hard. I mean if you knew Kirilenko was a stud, why not give up your late first round pick and another first round pick to move up to 15 or whatever?

[Mr. Body]

What I don't get about the Spurs always claiming they were going to draft Krstic, Kirilenko, Stojakovic and others is that if they knew they were so good ... how come they didn't trade up to get them. Teams trade up all the time and to trade up to the mid-teens isn't even that hard. I mean if you knew Kirilenko was a stud, why not give up your late first round pick and another first round pick to move up to 15 or whatever?

They are pretty conservative with risks. They don't take them very often. It'll probably happen again this year when they're two inches short of getting Corey Brewer or somebody.

That, and their assets are never that great. Trading up with a future pick isn't terribly exciting when that pick is #29.