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Bonner..is ehhh-ish
James White - By far, the most impressive on the night. I still think his shot is a bit flat, but I can't argue when it hits. He was aggresive tonight and played solid defense. He didn't look lost once on the floor. A great performance.
Jackie Butler - Also a solid outing. He especially showed good touch offensively from the perimeter. He showed strong hands and good rebounding skills underneath. He showed good anticipation on defense, and though he got lost once or twice, he was solid on that end of the floor. He also continues to shoot 100% from the line...not a small thing with this team. Yes he's still raw, but this effort was a good one....far better than the next guy...
Melvin Ely - Sucked a huge penis...I mean huge. He got his stuff thrown several times, looked lost on the court, and for someone who was supposed to be an offensive threat...his 0-fer night was a letdown.
Beno - Continues to jack up ill-advised shots when the D gives him nothing, but he CAN be a good shooter. He was fairly good tonight...
Bonner - I continue to be impressed with this kid's work ethic and second effort. He continued to hustle and was rewarded with second chance opportunities. I was also impressed with his mid-range game. He's got great heart and a decent game.
Oh yeah, and did I mention White was a badass?!?!
Bonner..is ehhh-ish
White needs to spend the whole summer under Chip Engelland's tutelage. If he could develop a relatively consistent perimeter game he would be an ideal Bowen replacement at the SF spot.
^^ Where would that leave the Spurs in the draft?
for us its a lotto pick all the way so as long as we get a guaranteed star..
Spurs have a need at backup PG, a SF capable of playing the PF in small-ball sets, and even a SG to replace Barry/Finley when their contracts expire after next year. There's plenty of options in this deep draft for present role players and possibly future starters...
James White - Defense was really good. The Grizzlies have a lot of guys who can score, but White played great one-on-one defense. Virtually ever time someone tried to take him off the dribble, he'd force them into a pass. His help defense has also greatly improved and he's already shown the ability to draw charges.
Offensively, he looked good. His jumper has no arc and it's ugly, but it went in. If he can continue to make it, that'd be huge for him. He can finish around the basket well and is a pretty good passer. White is a decent ballhandler but needs some improvement on handling it in traffic.
Overall, White looks like a good prospect. If you look at him as the Spurs second round pick this year, you'd have to be excited. Sure he's older than most draft picks, but he's younger than Manu was when he made it to the NBA and four years younger than Bowen was when he finally got a full-time NBA job.
White still has a lot of work to do, but the NBA potential is there. The best news to me is that it looks like he has a defensive stopper's mentality. Add a jumper and Pop will be forced to give him a look down the line.
Jackie Butler - Butler was also pretty damn good. You can already tell he's the most talented of the big men outside of Tim. He has great hands, good low post moves and even showed a nice passing ability.
The knock on him is that it looks like he runs with cement boots on. But as the game wore on, you could see him moving more freely and was reacting much faster. He's a true center, so he's not someone you want out there guarding the smaller power forwards.
He had hard matchup in Pau Gasol, but survived it pretty well. Gasol is one of the longest players in the league, but Butler found ways to get his shot off. His low post defense was pretty poor, but then again he's trying to guard an all-star post scorer with no weakside help.
Overall, Butler still looks like a very good bigman prospect. He's only 22-years-old and has the natural tools to be a good center. The most impressive play of the night from him was when he grabbed a D rebound and turned and unleashed a Wes Unseld like outlet pass to Beno for a layup. That's not something you see out of many 22-year-old centers.
He had a double-double in the third quarter in his first real game. Elson has one double-double in his first 81 games. Post all-star break, Butler has 23 points and 10 rebounds on 9-for-17 shooting in 36 minutes. I guess the demise of Butler as chronicled by Johnny Ludden and some SpursTalk posters was a bit premature.
Melvin Ely - Looked like a poor man's Jackie Butler.
Beno Udrih - Shot the ball well enough. If he can at least knock down shots, he might be a spot player in the playoffs.
Nice recap btw...I agree pretty much across the board. Although Ely and Butler look mean as out there together.
As a unit they did the one right thing;they responded to an Pop-style ass-chewing. Then the second thing they did right was hustle their asses off. What more could a coach want out of his reserve unit? Finally there was that run that almost put the game away. Not being able to match Griz's last minute pushback was a learning moment, both off and def. But the go-to pecking order was firmly established that last period. Um-hummmmmm.
rack the LJ
Vaughan sucked tonight. He tried to do too much and missed multiple chances to pass to the open man. His plays caused too many turn overs or left players with little time to react. He played hard, but he did not stay within himself.
What did James White's conditioning level look like? White has been noted for his near perpetual motion on offense. How did he look in 39 minutes of action? Did he tire or was he active all night long?
The same question goes for Jackie? I understand he has those cement boots on, but otherwise was he reasonably fit? I know hes trimmed down a fair amount. But does he look like he can reasonably play 28 mins a night?
Thanks for the analysis for those of us who couldn't see the game and watch their progress. Radio can only do so much.
Bearing in mind that they have Mahinmi, Scola, Sanikidze, and Karaulov plus four picks in June's draft they will have some prospects to work with going forward. But of course they'll still sport a supporting cast laden with 35-somethings next season.
Don't they still have the rights to Javtokas as well?
Yeah, him too.
White
Butler
Ely
Mahinmi
Scola
Javtokas
Karaulov
Sanikidze
07 1st round pick
07 2nd round pick
07 2nd round pick (Bucks)
07 2nd round pick (Bulls)
Surely there's a couple of rotation players out of those twelve.
Add to that whatever the Spurs get for Beno, because his ass is probably in Cleveland before October.
Forget Karaulov. You guys really need to forget him. He was a mistake. They literally drafted him on a rumor.
Javtokas won't ever be in the NBA. My guess.
Sanikidze is at least two years away from showing NBA promise, but even as a young man, isn't getting younger.
Mahinmi, by many accounts, isn't ready for the NBA yet. There is good debate whether he'll be brought over next year.
Ely probably just walks.
That leaves White, Butler, Scola. And the picks.
+ Bonner & Udrih (if you want to count him as a 'prospect').
Manu, Scola and Oberto would be an interesting second unit.
You bring over Mahinmi next season. Get him acclimated to the system. Under that #28 pick contact he'll cost you little for the next 4 to 5 seasons. No sense in deferring his NBA entrance with TD in his 30s.
I think Scola could work out very well for the Spurs. Forum consensus is that he'll never be a Spur. I'm not so sure.
Javtokas seems unlikely after what went down last summer, but they still have his rights and if they have room, he may be given a shot.
Sanikidze has fallen off the map. He might be another candidate for the 1st season on the bench treatment to learn the NBA game.
Karaulov? Sure, a long shot. They have his rights so he's listed.
Butler won't be leaving anytime soon.
White has looked very good in limited action. Quite an accomplishment to play that well in the system as a rookie who joined the team in mid-season.
Ely? If there's room and his price stays low, he'll stay.
It'll be very interesting to see what they do with these 4 picks. One would think that they'd use at least one pick on an American collegian. Hopefully they have their international scouting together and don't F up as they did with Nocioni.
They should have their mid-level exception this summer too.
White - will be back
Butler - will be back
Ely - is a hedge in case they deal Scola
Mahinmi - should be brought if he's not slated to play more than he did this season. He'll definitely get playing time in an expanded D-League in Austin or McAllen. Invite a guy like Deji Akindele to compete with him in summer league and keep whoever does better. We need that type of player regardless.
Scola - or get off the pot.
Javtokas - Whatever he wants is probably too much.
Karaulov - Who?
Sanikidze - one more year overseas to find out if his body can take it.
Only one of those guys I think will ever be a Spur: Mahinmi. Not sure he'll be a good one. I hope he doesn't come this summer, in a way, because I'm hoping we bring in two rookies from this draft. There's no way they have White, Butler, rookie 1, rookie 2, and Mahinmi on the roster.
The only other guy who will ever play in the NBA, IMO, is Scola. But like others here I don't think he'll ever be a Spur. In fact, I think the Spurs already have a clear idea where they're trading him to (Chicago, NJN).
Im really glad to hear you guys say Butler was effective. I am really hoping that this guy can turn out to be something for us long term
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