Spurs' Thomas eager to leave bike behind
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/s...ke_behind.html
Jeff McDonald - Express-News
Kurt Thomas sat in a lonesome corner of the Spurs practice facility Thursday morning, a permanent scowl ironed on his brow.
For the first three days of training camp, Thomas has been pedaling away on a stationary bike, removed from his teammates while rehabbing a strained right hamstring.
Clearly, this regimen — more apt to ready Thomas for the Tour de France than the start of his 15th NBA season — will not do at all.
“I rode the bike for two hours (Tuesday),” Thomas said. “It was the longest I've ever ridden a bike in my life. Two hours!”
Indeed, it has been an inau ious start to a training camp that Thomas, a 6-foot-9 forward disguised as a center, has targeted as one of the most vital of his career.
After coming to the Spurs from Seattle in a trade last February, Thomas received a crash course in his new team's offensive and defensive systems — enough to get him by, sure, but hardly enough to make him comfortable in his new digs.
This training camp, as soon as he is physically able to participate, should cons ute his first opportunity to fully master the material.
“(Camp) is mandatory if you want to be as successful as you can be,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “He didn't get that last year, although he caught on very quickly. It will be better this year for him, to understand exactly what we're doing.”
Thomas had his moments last season, even while winging it.
Including the playoffs, Thomas averaged 4.5 points and 4.9 rebounds in 45 games with the Spurs. Of course, the Spurs have long coveted him for skills that aren't so readily quantifiable.
Though undersized, he can gamely scrap with opposing centers, taking some defensive burden off Tim Duncan.
On offense, he can be deadly from midrange, possessing a jump shot defenses cannot ignore.
Given the benefit of a full season, the Spurs say Thomas could turn out to be the most productive big man to pair with Duncan since David Robinson left the building in 2003.
Already, Duncan has fostered a keen appreciation for what Thomas can contribute. True, Duncan says, Thomas' numbers won't always leap out of the box score at the end of the night.
“But you can feel him out there on the floor,” Duncan said. “He takes a lot off my shoulders.”
Throughout his first four months in San Antonio, Thomas came to work with one overriding goal in mind.
“I was just trying not to get yelled at by Pop,” he said.
Every trip down the floor, be it on offense or defense, overflowed his mind with questions.
Am I in the right place? Am I really supposed to be over there? Did I get that last play call? Am I getting it confused with another call altogether?
“I was constantly second-guessing myself,” Thomas said, “and it's hard to play that way.”
After re-signing with the Spurs in the offseason, Thomas looked forward to his first training camp with the Spurs as a good time to close his corporate knowledge gap.
Which, in part, explains why he has spent much of it so far attached to a stationary bike.
Thomas tweaked a hamstring last week while stretching for a workout meant to keep him in shape for the opening of camp.
“I just overstretched,” Thomas said.
Certainly, this could be a troubling sign for the Spurs and their veteran center, who turns 36 on Saturday. “Overstretching” is not an injury that typically happens to 22-year-olds.
The injury, which is considered minor, has left Thomas unable to practice until next week at the earliest. Instead, he's spent the first part of camp in what he calls “Brunge Land,” the dominion of strength coach Mike Brungardt.
It is not to be confused with Disney Land.
“I am so ready to get out of here,” Thomas said after one of his daily visits to the unhappiest place on Earth. “I can't wait.”
Neither, of course, can the Spurs.
They are eager to see how Thomas might produce, once he gets off the stationary bike and finally knows what he's doing.
“On a night-to-night basis, he's going to know what to expect,” Duncan said. “He's going to have half a year under his belt, and he's going to know what Pop expects of him. He'll be great for us.”
The Tour de France, it seems, will have to wait.
I like hearing he could be the most productive big since David, but does he really have much compe ion? I wouldn't consider a group consisting of Rasho, Elson, Old Horry, Bonner, and Fab to be that. Still, if he can be a 10 and 10 guy, great. I'd rather Ian be that, since he'll be here longer, and could be the future of the team if he doesn't bust or get traded in 2010 for a star player.
Kurt wont be a 10 10 guy. He's to old, to slow and to short. The only team he can defend was the suns. The suns dont play the same anymore. And your right about one thing. Your only as good as the players you practice with. Ian is a bust, by the time he learns how to play in the NBA he'll be 30.
I'm glad the Spurs brought him back. We don't have anyone else on the team that can rebound besides Duncan.
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