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The good folks at DX are peerless. They’ve recently posted on Tiago Splitter’s development as a player. And they have a sleek new interface. You should visit the new site, if for no other reason than to read more of this:

Obviously a high-level rotation player and likely starter whenever he decides to step foot in the NBA, Splitter has a very difficult decision coming up when his current contract expires in the summer of 2010. The paltry $836,000 he’s slotted to earn from the Spurs on the very cumbersome first round rookie scale can’t compete with the 2.3 million dollars net he currently earns, meaning he’d have to take something in the neighborhood of a 75% paycut for the honor of playing in the NBA.

Talking to Splitter after the final, he seemed non-committal at best when the topic was broached, although it’s pretty clear that he would love to play in the NBA. “Right now it’s the middle of the season and I’m only thinking about Tau. The Spurs have some good players and we’ll have to see what happens.” In response to my question about whether his slot on the Rookie scale might impact his decision, Splitter obviously didn’t seem too happy with his predicament, jokingly asking me if I could “talk to David Stern about that.” He reiterated that “it’s a dream to play in the NBA,” stating “I’m still young, and for sure I want to play there”, but said that “we’ll see what happens when my contract is up in two years.”

Thanks to Brandon Hoffman for the email and link.