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Thanks RC.
Buck Harvey: Wake mistake — Spurs face a rare, wrong choice
Web Posted: 05/09/2006 12:00 AM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/c....1258ad56.html
They've been the model of scouting. Of vision. Of luck.
That's why a Spurs mistake is glaring now, and it could come into view as early as tonight. Just as someone from Wake Forest decided the first game of the Spurs-Mavericks series, another could decide the second.
Meet Josh Howard.
The One Who Got Away.
Howard is unaware he got away from anyone. He says he's never heard of the angst in San Antonio.
This goes back a few years. Tim Duncan was at Wake at the time, schooling collegians as he did the Dallas 7-footers on Sunday. Watching from the stands, just a skinny kid, was a Winston-Salem native.
Howard said he met Duncan once in those days. But mostly, he admired Duncan from afar, and for good reason. Howard was a high-school post player, and he wanted to learn Duncan's footwork.
Years passed. Duncan went to San Antonio, Howard followed him to Wake. Howard stayed in school for four years, just as Duncan did, and his senior year, he was the first unanimous ACC player of the year since David Thompson in 1975.
Yes, that means Duncan was not.
Howard seemingly did everything well. Pro scouts liked the 6-foot-7 package, though most saw Howard falling toward the bottom of the LeBron-Carmelo-Wade first round. Several mock drafts, coincidentally, predicted the Spurs would take him.
"Howard is a versatile scorer at small forward," a West Coast newspaper wrote then, "who could complement defensive specialist Bruce Bowen."
The Spurs understood as much. But the two prospects who intrigued them more were Boris Diaw, Tony Parker's buddy who stars now for Phoenix, and Ndudi Ebi, a high-school project out of Houston who has since failed.
Howard? The Spurs were less fixated on him than they were creating cap room to sign Jason Kidd. Howard still earns less than a million dollars, making him the kind of bargain that Parker and Manu Ginobili once were. But unsure what the salary cap would be that summer, the Spurs wanted to free every dollar for Kidd.
In hindsight, the Kidd plan was as erroneous as the Spurs' analysis of Howard. They saw Howard as a slasher, and they already had one in Ginobili. Didn't they really need shooters to spread the floor for Duncan?
Even after coming up with a find with the 28th selection just two years before (Parker), they still didn't like the odds with another No.28. When Diaw and Ebi went off the board, the Spurs traded that first-round choice to the Suns for one in the future.
Gregg Popovich signed off on it with only one reservation. He knew Duncan liked Howard.
Then Dallas, drafting next, took Howard, and Popovich quickly second-guessed everything. Having just edged the Mavericks in the Western Conference finals, had the Spurs helped their rivals?
They have. But a lot of other teams missed then, too. If the 2003 draft were held again, Howard would go as high as fifth.
Weighed against the Spurs' body of work, guessing wrong at No.28 should be forgivable. It happens. Besides, luck matters as much as homework late in the draft, and even the Spurs' successes show that.
If the Spurs really knew what Ginobili would become, why did they wait until No.57 to take him? They took someone else in 1999, with a draft-day trade, at No.40.
But logic doesn't change what has followed. Howard has become the Mavericks' second-best player, as well as someone who would fit beautifully next to Parker and Ginobili.
Howard isn't without flaws. He's not much of a passer, and Sunday showed that. He finished without an assist, as well as a season high in turnovers.
His defensive reputation, too, comes with an asterisk. He's a high-energy gambler, not a stopper as Bowen is. Dallas will often put him on Bowen instead of Ginobili, for example.
Still, he can rebound and score and fill the cracks that his teammates leave behind. Sometimes that means he gets lost among the Mavericks' shooters, but he can change games just doing that.
Howard almost did Sunday; he led the Mavericks at halftime in scoring. So tonight he comes back for another chance, as the rare Spurs' mistake.
As the One Who Got Away.
Thanks RC.
Well, you can't win them all, I guess.
i'm sure it won't be a replay of the bowie/jordan draft.
Who knows, maybe Sanikidze will turn out to be useful.
YEah I've always liked Howard. On NCAA 2003 he is a basketball GOD.
I don't like him as a player, never have. Something about him always has rubbed me the wrong way. Perhaps the uncanny resemblace to a character from "Antz." Really, it doesn't bother me at all that we don't have him. Now keeping Barbosa instead of giving him away for nothing...that kinda bugs me. Heh. Puns.
This was entertaining, but really a "fluff" piece. It ignores the salary cap, position depth, etc. You can't sign everyone that might be a great player some day (unless apparently, your mama named you Isaiah). If the Spurs' worst mistake in the last ten years is letting Howard get away, then they are only re-confirmed as the best front office in the league. Oh well...
Let's not overlook the fact that the draft pick we traded away turned out to be Leandro Barbosa...
And no hindsight is not 20/20...I raised that night when traded that pick away.
imo very good article, last few years we had alot of good scoutin only to miss out or traded them away.
Well to be accurate, the Spurs actually pick Barbosa and then traded him to the Suns.
um those were good scouting seriously, but im more intriged on the current players that are farmin in europe like ian/scola/javtokas and bruces replacement Alexis Mang-Ikri Wangmene who currently lives with RC Buford
KORI, any other news on this kid so far beside livin with rc and goin to school, does he hang out at spurs gym or games etc??
Yeah, Howard is good but if the Spurs would have drafted him, Bowen might not be with the team anymore. I'll take Bowen, thank you very much.
I don't know much about him. I just know that he's 17 and goes to Central Catholic. And I have seen him listed somewhere as 6'9 even though somewhere else it says he's 6'7.
The only Spurs prospect who is hanging at all the games that I see regularly is Sanikidze. I guess we'll see him on the Spurs summer league team and get an idea if they are bringing him in next season.
Nah i actually think if we had drafted him, bowen wouldve also been sign to start, and allow howard to learn his trade, since wasnt he a first or second pick, if he was teh first round, we can afford to keep him b4 dishin out the money on him.
2005
Rnd 1 Ian Mahinmi (not nba ready, alot of potential upside)
2004
Rnd 1 Beno Udrih
2 Sergei Karaulov (not ready yet, still farming)
2003
Rnd 1 Leandrinho Barbosa (traded to suns for future pick)
2002
Rnd 2 Luis Scola (spurs own rights, maybe nba next season)
2001
Rnd 1 Tony Parker
2 Robertas Javtokas (spurs own rights, maybe nba next season)
1999
Rnd 2 Emmanuel Ginobili
If we hadnt draft barboza, we couldve drafted howard, but traded barbz for a future pick, did we use that future pick on ian or beno?
Let's not forget...we had the opportunity to draft Greek Baby Shaq with that pick...
If you have a chance to draft a player nicknamed Greek Baby Shaq, you do it, no questions asked!
The greek sofo dude, is a bust, look at him now.
He's not a bust...he was like 17. And he actually had a good season this past year.
Besides...that's not the point. The point is that he is nicknamed Greek Baby Shaq.
Neither. Spurs traded that pick to NY in the package with Malik to get Nazr.
Is Sanikidze still "underweight" by NBA standards? Last I heard he was weighing in at like 205 but it's been a while.
He looks thin, but I don't know for sure how much he weighs. He's been here almost all season "rehabbing" so he might have put on some weight.
Now look at the other guyz that were drafted in the 2nd round
2002 - 28th au, 35th boozer, 46 matt barnes, 50th songalia
2003 - 49th james jones, 51th korver
2004 - 30th verajao, 38th duhon, 43 arizor
2005 - alot of prospects in the 2nd round who are not gettin any PT or overrated players droppin on draft nite
Duhorn dropped alot when he stayed an extra year at college, but we picked the victory cigar from slovenia
bynum > sofo imo
something about that relationship isn't right
Well he's not technically Bruce's replacement. He's a boy from Cameroon that RC adopted.
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