The 4-Down Podcast, episode 28: Spurs roundtable

Great podcast. Interesting to hear the thoughts from different blog sources. I do think Jefferson is a trade-able asset other than Parker. Finding a team that thinks Jefferson would be beneficial to them more than he’s beneficial to the Spurs AND getting talent in return is the hard part.

If the Spurs go in the direction of not blowing up the team and look to find the wright pieces to compliment it’s core, that will be hard as well knowing their cap situation and draft level with a not so talented draft this year.

One situation that may be explored is trading Jefferson for Varejao in order to get another big. Salaries match and the need for both teams is there for each players talent. Taking a chance (or maybe not so much if talks were conducted prior to agreement) the Spurs could examine the many SF’s available in this year’s free agency. A lot of good SF’s could be contacted but one in particular I’d like to see approached is Sasha Vujacic. Other’s may be more desirable, but realistically could the Spurs land them. And assuming the Spurs stay on track with how they utilize their wing players, Vujacic would fit that role.

Verajao might work out if Pop can be convinced he’ll work his tuckus off for him! The funny thing would be that we would own three of the top ten floppers in the league! 😛

I like Vujacic, too! Solid guy, from all accounts as well.

Is there ANYTHING that can be done to bring Dwight Howard to SA?

We would be getting rid of 4 players totaling 28 mil and bringing in 2 players at 34.5 mil. I’m all for trying to get Dwight Howard, but not at that cost.

Thought I’d share this note about Robert Horry’s daughter. The former Spur and his family are in our prayers.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Teenage-daughter-of-Robert-Horry-dies-after-life?urn=nba-wp5053

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=3p9dx66
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Dwight Howard is on the verge of becoming the next LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony. He’ll have one year left on his contract and has openly stated he WILL become a free agent. He wants to win, and he wants to play with people who want to win. Who wants to win more than Manu Ginobili? On top of that, if he joined up with Tim Duncan, it could be a reprise of the two towers. For Dwight Howard, it could be an apprenticeship he truly needs. LZ Granderson wrote an article for espn.com in which he says,
            “After one final season, Duncan will retire because there’s nothing more for him to do. He’s earned close to $200 million in NBA salary alone, so money won’t be an issue. And unlike David Robinson, who stuck around until he was 37 because he loved the game and felt Duncan could do the heavy lifting en route to one more ring, Duncan isn’t seeing much relief on the bench. Barring a trade, he’s looking at Dajuan Blair as his workhorse successor. And while Blair makes for a good story, Duncan knows the Spurs are going to need more than a good story to win another ring.”
        Dwight Howard is the reason for Tim Duncan to stay. Tim Duncan is the reason for Howard to sign an extension (and Robinson is an added bonus). With a big three of Duncan, Howard, and Ginobili, who wouldn’t want to come the Spurs’ way? Their biggest need would be a SF like Mickael Pietrus, Wilson Chandler, Shane Battier, or Tayshaun Prince.
        So, why would Orlando do it? They’re losing Dwight Howard anyway, why not get rid of Gilbert Arenas at the same time? Through Tony Parker to Atlanta, they would get Josh Smith and recoup some of their size. In addition, they would get more in Blair or Splitter (or both) and Jefferson. In one fell swoop, they would be
under the luxury tax and still have a decent team (basically becoming a first round playoff team… like this year). They would have several young building blocks (they love Nelson) and their line-up would look something like this:
PG – Nelson
SG – Redick
SF – Jefferson
PF – Smith
CÂ - Blair/Splitter
6th - Turkoglu
With Bass and Anderson as rotation bigs.

        Atlanta, of course, would have a real point guard.

        I would almost expect Tim Duncan to opt out of his final year and re-sign for significantly less like Robinson did. He’s made plenty of money and would really just be hunting for another ring. Mr. Eva Longoria would be out of the locker room (but in his stead Mr. Glock). I think there were some chemistry issues at the end of the season… there’s almost no other explanation for why they fall apart. They didn’t trust each other.

        And as far as free agents bigs go, I could see Franciso Elson, Kurt Thomas, Jeff Foster (SA ties), Alexis Ajinca, Joel Przybilla, or Nazr Mohammed playing for the MLE or LLE (again, assuming such things still exist). It’s also plausible for them to remain under the cap with such signings.

        But, I really doubt the Spurs’ front office would let Arenas into the organization. I feel like it would be the only way to get Howard right now though.

Spurs would look like this:
C - Howard        Blair/Splitter/FA
PF - Duncan       FA/Bonner      Ryan Richards?
SF - FA          Anderson       Green/Butler/FA?
SG - Ginobili      Neal
PG - Arenas       Hill            Quinn/de Colo?

I can see a lot of work has gone into these proposed trades but come on guys post realistic trades/moves we could make. Like seriously there is not a chance on God’s green earth that we see Dwight Howard in a Spurs jersey this year or next. He’s probably gonna end up in Clipperland or New Jersey/Brooklyn. We just don’t have the talent for Orlando to even consider us.

Tayshaun Prince and Shane Battier seem to make a lot of sense to me.
A couple of underrated pick ups could be:
Deshawn Stevenson, Reggie Evans, Dalembert, Earl Clark, Carl Landry, Humphries, Foster, Chuck Hayes…
We could also put in a cheeky offer for some of these guys:
Kirilenko, Afflalo, Wilson & Tyson Chandler, Jerebko, Thad Young, Oden, Kenyon Martin…

To be honest I just wanna fast forward to the start of the new season to see what magic Pop, RC & co have pulled out of the hat. Great podcast btw, ‘winter shoes’ still has me laughing.

Lol whats up with the love for Earl Clark?? Right now there’s a feeling of last resort in Spurs nation. We are coming up with trades that don’t even help our team. I mean people are thinking about signing Andre Freaking Kirelinko!? I understand why people would think he could help our team (Defense), but come on this guy was horrible last year and is clearly washed up. Why would you risk on having him when at the same price we could go after Thaddeus Young. I watched him in the playoffs, and he is something special. The way he impacted the game on the defensive and offensive sides was remarkable. Speaking of Philadelphia I’m still a strong believer in a trade for Andre Iguodala. He’s a lock down defender and a playmaker. I may be wrong, which I usually am, but I think RC and co. having something cooking for draft day.

As an armchair GM, you have to ask yourself, Â “Do you want Dwight Howard?” The dollars work out here, but Orlando doesn’t get anything back. If I’m Otis Smith, I know I can do better than Josh Smith for Dwight Howard, as Len suggested.

As for the money issue, my assumption was that Tim Duncan opts out and resigns for much less, more than making up the ~8.5 million the Spurs are taking on. I think they’d be over the cap but under the luxury tax (like this year).Â

I’m not sure if Duncan would opt out and resign if the Spurs didn’t bring in someone like Howard.

I didn’t put too much thought into what Arenas would do for the Spurs, it was hard enough for me to put him on the trade. You’re probably right about Hill’s dip in production, but for ~$17million, he’d better be working his a** off for the Spurs. I don’t see Arenas producing off the bench (he’s got that same mentality AI had).

As an alternative, you could have them split the minutes down the middle and have a crunch time lineup of Howard, Duncan, [FA], Neal, and Ginobili with Neal and Ginobili co-running point.Â

How about moving RJ and Bonner for Iggy. He and the sixers are not on the same page and there was rumors of trying to move Iggy for Kaman but sixers want more for him. Bonner is 6’10” and can spread the floor so I keep hearing and RJ can either fight for the starting job or come off the bench. Not too bad for Sixers but great for us. Money works in this trade. Being that the draft is weak this year as I keep hearing again. Then I would move Blair to get a top 5 first round pick to get a big like Kanter, or Biyombo or some of the like. Blair is a proven rebounder and nothing is certain about the top big men in the draft as to panning out. So I would take my chance on bringing in one of those bigger bigs. Plus get another big with the MLE. I don’t know but I really would like the spurs to go after Iggy. What do you think.

I would LOVE to steal either (Chandler is my FIRST choice)Â or both from the Mavs!
However, I doubt we’ll be able to out-wallet Cuban, though. I think he’s gonna try and keep as many of those guys around for next year as possible and see how far they can take it again.
But we’ll see. I’m afraid the only way our guys can draw in any coveted FAs is gonna be to pocket-up. With an obviously declining Duncan, there’s not as much draw/belief out there that we’re true contenders.

Interesting story
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/16/report-cavaliers-shopping-j-j-hickson-too

Cavs are interested and trying to secure a situation where they can get both Irving and Williams. If they can’t get both they will more than likely pick up Irving first in the draft and hope Williams is available at 4th.

Reading this…I wonder if the Spurs would approach this trade idea.

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=3fg8qag

Giving Atlanta a solid PG and replacement to Smith in Hickson/Varejao

Spurs lesson their financial commitment whhile landing a top PF and can then approach a SF such as Vujacic in free agency.

Why not a straight up RJ for Hickson deal? Cleveland has one LARGE hole at the SF position and their have been many rumors about them wanting to trade for one. Also, the Cavs have a huge trade exception which would allow this trade to occur. We could throw in a future 1st rounder or this year’s first rounder in it as well.

I like both trades Sam.

RJ, for a few reasons, is just not a Spurs type player. Â RC tried, he tried, Pop tried, hell even Timmy and Manu tried, but nobody could make RJ fit the Spurs correctly.

Pick up a guy like Mbah a Moute, give Butler and Anderson some time at the 3. Â Add Kaman or Hickson to the front court and I think the team would be far, far better off doing that than a repeat of the past 2 years.

I just think that it would be a more likely trade that the spurs would do since they are not usually involved in 3 team deals.

Just to remind some people Splitter hasn’t hit his ceiling yet in the NBA. I wouldn’t throw him at the back of the bus just yet.

We’re not throwing him at the back of the bus. Splitter is great but we need depth in our front court. Even if Splitter had developed more this year I still don’t think our front court would be able to match that of Memphis. McDyess is almost certainly retiring also.

They didn’t try hard enough. In the beginning of the years Spurs were pushing the tempo and it helped RJ’s game. He was averaging 20 and leading the team in scoring. Spurs stopped pushing the tempo and RJ got reduced to a 3 pt shooter and passable defender. I still think he’s capable of helping the team but the team has got to make the adjustment. It can’t just be big 3. They’ve got to include him. RJ’s better of a 1-3 option and Duncan a 4th option. That’s when the team was playing the best.

Where did I say Hickson was better? I prefer Smith. Hence my trade idea for Smith. All I said in response to Sam was IF it came down to a deal that could only land Hickson I’d take Hickson. Regarding “playoff worthy”…Bonner has value but has never shown to be a “playoff worthy” player. History shows his season averages always drop… Significantly… in playoff situations. If he’s a great locker room guy…let him be that on a team rebuilding with youth. Cleveland perhaps?

In the playoffs, as you hopefully know, the game becomes half court execution. Â And RJ shrinks quietly into the long goodnight when that happens. Â I’ve seen it two years in a row and that is more than enough.

First the Spurs should have looked to keep pushing the tempo even in the playoffs since that worked well for them. Second they also need to help Jefferson get involved in the half court with play calling. He’s not that creative an offensive player. He needs backdoor cuts and passes to really get going.

If we were to get Kaman somehow who does Splitter come off the bench for?Â