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With the way the market seems to be shaping up, I highly doubt Ersan can be had for just the full MLE. I remember a few months ago thinking that would be high for him butat some of the offers supposedly going around.
Michael Beasley or Ersan Ilyasova
With the way the market seems to be shaping up, I highly doubt Ersan can be had for just the full MLE. I remember a few months ago thinking that would be high for him but
Anyone heard anything new on Ryan Richards? Thinking he would be the perfect fit for timvp's #9 a project big man. Also wouldn't he be eligible to go down to the toros and develop his game?
I agree with each point. I especially embrace these 6 action items.
The only reason not to go after Lorbek would be if the Spurs can work a trade that would bring in an interior defender.2. Contact Boris Diaw's agent. Aggressively try to finalize an agreement. Next to Duncan, Diaw is the most important piece because without him, the Spurs would be left without a player capable at starting at power forward. Yes, Diaw has flaws but he fits and there's a chance he can be inked to a reasonable deal.
3. Figure out what it's going to take to convince Erazem Lorbek to sign. Lorbek is the next most important piece because the Spurs need a backup power forward after Matt Bonner flamed out again. Since he can only negotiate with the Spurs if he wants to come to the NBA, he's another player who might be relatively inexpensive. While there are other bigmen on the open market, Lorbek's skillset is a fit and the Spurs could wrap up negotiations quickly.
7. Decide what to do with Gary Neal and DeJuan Blair. Both are on cheap deals and are thus valuable to the team. The problem is that Neal may be overqualified to be the fifth guard and Blair may be overqualified to be the fifth bigman. However, given the long season, the advanced age of key players and their experience in the system, the Spurs may opt to keep both players.
8. Get rid of Matt Bonner. This is just something that has to be done. Yeah, he'd help you win regular season games but the time has come to remove him. He can't handle playoff pressure; it's indisputable at this point. Either amnesty him or salary dump him somewhere. Hypothetically the Spurs could keep him around as extreme depth but his salary is too high for such a role. Goodbye, Matty.
9. Add a project bigman. The Spurs need to make room on the roster for a project big -- preferably a center -- with some sort of athleticism. Being able to block shots and run the floor is a bonus. It'd also be nice if he is eligible to be sent to the Toros. This isn't a huge need obviously but the Spurs need this type of player somewhere in their pipeline.
10. Fill out the rest of the roster with youth and players with upside. The Spurs don't need any end of the bench veterans. Between the Big 3 and Stephen Jackson, the Spurs have the leadership and the veteran know-how.
^ This.
It's true. Many of the Western Conference teams are getting better. Heck, event the top team, OKC, a team that is already young, long and athletic, has just gotter even younger, longer and more athletic with the addition of PJIII.
So which of our core players do you propose to trade?
I don't think Neal's overqualified tbh. . .Ginobili is too old and injury prone to expect a fully healthy season. With Danny Green still being pretty one dimensional (on both ends), Neal's still going to get decent playing time even with Ginobili still going. After all, Ginobili tends to get time at SF and PG throughout each game anyway, so that will mean Neal will end up getting extra SG time while Manu's on the floor.
Blair's probably getting traded at some point this year for draft picks. Preferably something in the 18-24 range for next year. But I like the idea of keeping him even if they don't trade him. Yeah he's undersized, but he did well (in limited playing) against both OKC and Utah last season. I think again proving he's capable of going against teams that don't have elite frontlines and doing fairly well. You just can't use him against LA, Memphis, or any other team with super front courts.
And yeah. . .it's time Bonner goes. I don't care what we get back, if anything. Maybe we can get a late 2nd round pick for him. That'd be like, amazing.
I agree it's going to be a tight fit to get both Diaw and Lorbek. However, I'm interested to see how the market develops on Diaw. What other teams are going to make a hard push for him? Bad teams will understandably be wary that he'll balloon in size and become a malcontent. Good teams probably want a player with a higher upside, puts up more stats and isn't on the wrong side of 30.
Logic says Diaw is an average bigman who is unrestricted and still relatively young thus will get an MLE-ish offer somewhere. But with Diaw's baggage and extremely unique skillset, it's not a sure thing that offer comes. And if that's the case, the Spurs may be able to get him for around $3 million in first year salary.
If that happens, could the Spurs land Lorbek with a three-year deal that begins at $2 million? It might be a longshot but if he really wants to come to the NBA, that just might be enough.
Now if it comes down to Diaw vs. Lorbek, which could very well be the case, I'd probably go with Diaw. That'd be the much, much safer pick out of those two because we know he's a fit. Lorbek has the higher upside but that would be an extreme roll of the dice to try to replace Diaw with Lorbek. We don't know if Lorbek is an NBA rotation player, much less a starter.
Hopefully the Spurs can figure out what's going to happen with Diaw and Lorbek rather quickly. If they can't land both, then finding another bigman becomes a priority.
Assuming all these variables come true, it would still boil down to this:
With being in the Championship Series on the line...
Game 3
Originally Posted by timvp
Pop C-
The players didn't seem ready for the amount of fire the Thunder would bring to the game. Pop, too, seemed unprepared. His playcalling oscillated between non-existent and confusingly bland. The Thunder threw the book at the Spurs and I didn't see many in-game adjustments by Pop. Rotations-wise, I was disappointed. Matt Bonner was overwhelmed yet Pop inexplicably continues to show belief in him. I thought Diaw and Leonard should have played more. When things started going south, going to Blair to try to change the tenor of the game would have been worth a shot, especially since the Spurs were lacking interior scoring and energy -- Blair's two strengths. Heading into Game 4, Pop has a lot of decisions to make when it comes to countering the Thunder's adjustments. Perhaps even more importantly, Pop needs to ensure that his troops bring the appropriate amount of enthusiasm and desperation.
Game 4
Originally Posted by timvp
Pop C-
First of all, playing Bonner was a mistake. Bonner is totally overwhelmed by the moment. With as well as Blair played, in hindsight Pop probably should have used him beginning in Game 3. I would also like to see better plays called when the bench unit is in the game. There has to be something in Pop's bag of tricks that is able to take advantage of a defense that is switching everything. Leonard also deserved more minutes and, perhaps most blatantly of all, Ginobili needs to play more than 25 minutes. That's an absurdly low number of minutes with so much on the line. Defensively, the Spurs have been horrible this series and Pop deserves a portion of that blame. On paper, Pop's defensive scheming was supposed to help the Spurs overcome the Thunder's brigade of talent. Thus far, that hasn't been the case. I don't think it's hyperbolic to suggest that Game 5 is the most important game of Pop's career, especially because he doesn't have a superstar version of Duncan to fall back on. Pop needs to make a number of difficult decisions regarding the rotation, continue to adjust the offensive sets to account for how OKC is defending, and figure out a defensive gameplan that gives the Spurs a fighting chance. Pop, the time is now to show why you are a future Hall of Famer.
Game 5 at home.
Originally Posted by timvp
Pop F
As both teams were preparing for Game 5, I went on record to say this contest would go down as the most important game of Pop's coaching career. He had many items to consider, many possible avenues to explore and no superstar-level Tim Duncan to rely on. Now that the game is over, I still feel like it was the most important game of Pop's career. Unfortunately, Pop was an unmitigated disaster. His first quarter rotations made absolutely no sense. I realize he was dealing with foul trouble but to play Blair at the center of a small ball lineup when the defense was already porous to begin with was astoundingly stupid. Pop shuffling players in and out added to the confusion. By the second quarter, it was obvious that Pop had committed the coaching cardinal sin: he took the game out of the hands of his players. As the game progressed, Pop was better ... but that's not saying much. The rotation was still a question mark and the playcalling was lacking. I've always been a big supporter of Pop but this was an embarrassingly bad coaching effort. Now he faces the even more difficult task of leading the Spurs to a Game 6 win over the Thunder. From what we saw on Monday night, there's little reason to believe that Pop is up to the challenge.
>end grade quotes
And then we have Game 6 the elimination which you haven't brung yourself to grade yet. Granted it was ref rigged in the 2nd half but with an 18 point lead at halftime you lose?
Can you really hope in the 2013 playoffs for better then up 2-0 WCFs with a completely healthy lineup and homecourt advantage?
I think that the FO has to do two things. The first one is to keep everyone (Green, Diaw, Mills) and add Lorbek. Then trade for an all-star PF or C, were Bonner as serviceable player with $4M base salary could help.
For example, Howard is a gonner in Orlando, they cant demand much for him. If Howard accepts to sign an extension, the Spurs could offer Kwami, Splitter, De Colo's rights or a future first round pick, plus Manu to make the numbers work, on the condition he gets bought out and returns.
^
if the Spurs are unable to get both Diaw and Lorbek, they should pick up a player along the lines of Reggie Evans (maybe DJ White's that type of player) to bring some toughness to the front line. This would still allow an athletic C to get some PT too in certain situations.
Neal had a bad playoffs and some of that might have to do with his injuries and disrupted rhythm, but if he's not going to be more agressive in driving to the hole (I'm not sure if he can) he limits his worth. The Spurs need players that will get to the lane and draw a foul. Tony and Manu fit that role, but it's probably not a good idea for TP and Manu to take too many hits during the season and even in the playoffs. They need a couple more players that are not afraid to drive the lane and get hit - Green? Leonard? Denmon? Anyone?
Blair needs to go to another team regardless of how cheap his contract is - it's better for him and in the long run it will be better for the Spurs.
I really hope the Spurs can go after Anthony Randolph. Odds are he won't amount to much, but he still shows some really good moments and his upside eqautes to a perfect need if he actually pans out some.
after going up 2-0 on the thunder tim legler said the spurs would win the le and where set up to win multiple les.
our only weakness is the NBA and their minion refs.
Marcus Bryant had a good point about this team not having time to gel (from no training camp, mid-season trade & Diaw signing...) and they still reached the WCF. However, we don't know if we can duplicate the health or level of play from Manu and Tim which obviously makes things tough to decide.
The point about the above is risk - when it comes to Diaw or Lorbek, if you have to decide, if the goal is to win do we think the Spurs with a known in Diaw are good enough to win it all? Because if not, do you not have to take a risk on Lorbek or someone else if your goal is to win it all?
Tough call.
Jesus, get rid of Matt Bonner at this point is a major plus. I knew that years ago.
Yeah, and here I thought the new CBA was going to reduce the money that teams threw at free agentsWith the way the market seems to be shaping up, I highly doubt Ersan can be had for just the full MLE. I remember a few months ago thinking that would be high for him but
No CBA will save the teams from themselves. They will always, always, always overbid and do incredibly stupid things. They'll keep trying to amend terms, but it won't do any good.
CBA do protect owners from themselves. Even if they offer tons of crazy contracts, at the end of the season, CBA mechanisms will ensure that they haven't given up more than about 50% of the BRI to players.
Oh, it certainly was in their favor. But one of their key talking points / goals was to reduce these ludicrous bids for players. Whether that was bull or not, it was an impossible task.
I'm not talking about getting rid of core players - only upgrade the talent around them. Start by removing the last vestiges of dead weight on the roster. Spurs were really motivated in getting rid of RJ - and rightfully so. Same approach needs to be taken with the other remaining players that are proven non-playoff performers and thus are considered wasted roster spots.
Well, contract numbers you hear doesn't really reflect the reality. 10% of their salary is put in a escrow fund and if owners spend too much money on players they keep that money. A $40M contract is in fact a $36M contract and the $4M remaining will be returned to owners if they spend too much money as a whole.
You agreed with a post that started:
"The Spurs won't even make it to the WCF with the approach of staying basically with the same core."
I should've clarified my initial post. My bad. No way am I advocating getting rid of core players now. That will come once Manu and Tim retire.
I agree.
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