A Night of Ugh
Lamar Odom has resigned with the Lakers. This solidifies the Lakers as prohibitive favorites to win the title. But I’m not worried. The Spurs have a realistic shot at reclaiming the crown. They’ll have to fire on all cylinders and catch a couple breaks, though. Odom is a difficult match up for the Spurs.
But hear this: don’t sweat it. The Spurs are pretty damn smart at what they do; from where I sit, they’ve already got this covered. If the sick with talent Lakers prove one player too much for the Spurs, San Antonio can piece together a nice package of expiring contracts in January or February in return for an impact player on a salary dump.  Matt Bonner, Mike Finley, and Roger Mason Jr. can put the Spurs within striking distance of 10-12 million dollar player. The contracts of Malik Hairston, Marcus Williams, Marcus Haislip and Theo Ratliff are all movable as well. In addition to their expirings, they could sweeten any potential deal with draft picks and/or the rights to Tiago Splitter. San Antonio has held a trump card back in the form of expiring contracts.
As we move into the season, remember that the Spurs have left themselves some wiggle room to gear up for the Lakers.
Elsewhere, Tony Parker’s recently injured ankle is enough of a concern to the Spurs that they’ve brought him back to San Antonio for tests. Parker and the French press are playing the injury off as minor, and painting a picture of an unnecessarily cautious Spurs front office. But can you blame the front office for erring on the side of caution? Last season ended before it began when Manu Ginobili injured his ankle during international play.
If Parker’s injury is even remotely serious, he needs to shut himself down. I don’t begrudge guys for playing for their countries.  In fact, I love Parker’s leadership as it relates to his national team and aspirations with ASVEL. In a vacuum I not only want Parker to play for his national team, I’ll promise to cheer for him all along the way. Ultimately, such commitments are good for the player and good for basketball. But at some point his debt to country must be counter balanced against an obligation to his employer and, more importantly, teammates. Or, to his teammates and, more importantly, employer. It’s a fine line that divides one form of loyalty from another. I’d say more, but I’m all awash in ambivalence. And I’m more than a little anxious to hear about the test results.
If you’re like me, then your feelings about San Antonio players playing in international competition race around like the hormones of a pubescent teen. My guess is that Peter Holt would like to pay tax bills while watching Tony Parker make baskets rather than watching him make eyes at Eva from a seat behind the bench. But it’s difficult for me to fully appreciate the value that playing for one’s country has to internationals. American fans have a difficult time wrapping their mind around the fact that international players value gold medals more than gold trophies.
A thread over at SpursTalk touches on this. If you make your way over, notice the difference of opinion between American and French posters. The Americans approach this question from a best-for-the-team, protect-your-assets standpoint. Â The French posters see the Spurs’ (over?)zealous concern for Parker as potentially damaging to his relationship with the franchise. What if Parker is really okay and San Antonio’s doctors come to the same conclusions as the French doctors? If France struggles without Parker and fails to qualify for play in September, will Parker hold a grudge against San Antonio for sabotaging the aspirations of his national team?
It’s a complicated debate. It’s complicated by the fact that neither position is arguing something as simple as right and wrong.
Ugh..
Its great to have the international players play for their home country. Not only does it sharpens their skills but makes for some good basketball.
As for the Lakers, I am not worried about them. The Spurs just need to worry about the team playing together to get a good rotation come the playoffs. Dont be surprised to see Blair in the starting line up early in the season. He has great skills that can only be improved on when on the court against the other teams #1 squad.
Courage, mes braves. Tony will be fine, and this will just give him a little extra rest in the offseason.
As for the Lakers, their hopes now rest on maintaining locker room chemistry on a team that:
…is led by the most unlikeable franchise guy in the league.
…expects unrelenting defensive effort from a pothead who just punked out in front of national news media and crawled back to a team that said to his face that it didn’t need him.
…exchanged a humble, hard-working, high-energy glue guy on the way up for an aging nutcase who one of the best front offices in the league (what team besides Houston could lose two All-Stars and still have the pieces to be a semi-legit contender?) couldn’t wait to get rid of.
…includes Sasha Vujacic, Luke Walton, and Adam Morrison. A guy who lets rookies chew him out during games, a guy who lives in fear of middle-aged women, and everybody’s favorite on-court crybaby.
Last year, Kobe was on a mission that gave his contemptible supporting cast (which at this point is everybody except Gasol, Farmar, and Bynum if he can stay standing) the fear or the fortitude to compete. Now they’ve all got rings, and there’s a new guy in town who has a documented history of breaking plays, punching fans, and shaving typographical errors into his head.
LA’s going down in flames. I’ll bring the marshmallows.
LO signing with the Lakers does give them an unbelieveable punch. They can play both fast and slow and are the team to beat this season. Their one weakness is @ PG.
Having said that, I think the Spurs have made their moves under the assumption that LO was going back to the Lakers. I honestly believe that if our team gels well (and with no injuries of course) we can compete with them in a 7 game series. May the better team win.
Go Spurs Go!
Of course if Ron Artest does his thing in LA (a la Indiana) then no saying what could happen!!
Yes, the LO signing basically salvages the hopes of the Lakers for another championship run. But I still think our roster can be used to guard him effectively. We do have Ian and Haislip who has the length and quickness to guard LO. I think DuJuan Blair can outmuscle Bynum for boards and slow Bynum’s limited offensive game. Duncan on Gasol will be a challenge, but if Duncan can get Gasol in foul trouble, I would like our frontcourt depth vs. the Lakers. Not a cakewalk, but if healthy we should beat them.
Let’s not kid ourselves. The Lakers of ’07 (i.e., Bryant, Gasol, Odom and a bucket of golf balls) were good enough to get to the Finals with relative ease. In ’08, they add Ariza to that group, and they win 65 games plus the title (Bynum was a non-factor after his injury). In ’09, they’re adding Bynum (can’t count on another freak injury, can we?) and switching Artest for Ariza (a wash — different skill sets but each obviously has his strengths and can add something to a team).
The mountain is higher today. I’m not sure by how much, but it’s definitely higher.
I don’t buy the chemistry thing. ALL of the top contenders have added a new piece (or pieces) this summer, so everyone’s going to have to deal with incorporating someone different into their system.
To me, the biggest issue is injuries. To go far, you have to get lucky and avoid the injury bug. That’s why Tony’s insistence on risking injury — knowing what happened to Manu last year!!! — is bugging the ____ out of me.
I Agree with Rand on what I think he said about the swapping for Ariza and Artest.
Ariza is 24, young, and just beginning to really take off in his career. He was the perfect fit to L.A, and Artest just doesn’t bring the same hustle, athleticism, shooting, and slashing ability Ariza brought.
And Odom is a hard cover, I can’t think of a player who might be able to sufficiently guard him, Any ideas?
i thought that was the reason the spurs signed haislip, isnt he gaurding odom? i would like to hear back from you guys, dont you think blair, can handle artest? they have the same stature
Just a bad time for no 1 in the league to have money that could lure LO elsewhere. But now the Spurs are prepared for Odom better than in previous seasons. Odom’s a tough cover cause he’s a 6’11″ slasher too big for perimeter players and too quick for our bigs to handle. This is the reason why we signed Marcus Haislip to guard guys like Dirk and Lamar. Ian is also another player on our team that can guard Odom which will be intresting.
Now will the Spurs counter this move? To me I have 2 concerns. 1. We have a lot of Bigs but r we big enough (you could argue we only have 1 true center Theo) 2. Do we have a lock down perimeter defender to put on Kobe and others.
Best case senerio for me is Bonner and Finley for Shane Battier.
Spurs Staring lineup: Duncan Mcdyess Jefferson Battier Parker
Bench: Ginobli Mason Hill Mahanimi Haislip Ratliff Blair Finley (possibly if Hou buys him out)
There is a new threat in SpursTalk. They say Tony and Holt are mad at each other or something. Is in french so I don’t know the details. Please tell me is a media exaggeration.
I like the idea of haislip inserted to challenge odom…it’ll be interesting to see how much playing time he gets this year.
no telling what artest would do if he was flipped like thabeet by blair!
Zack:
I know that Blair can handle Artest, he might be able to give Odom fits on defense.
I just had a thought: now that Ariza is gone, who are the lakers going to put on Parker and Manu? Artest cant keep up with them. Farmar and Vujajic will have to get some extended court time, which could be great for us. I’d say that cancels out the Odom advantage.
I think the biggest danger for LA with Artest is that he is not content to just play defense. He wants to score. During the playoffs, he took countless ill-advised shots, I mean, just shitty, no-damn-sense shots. No one on the Rockets would challenge him when he did so. But with the Lakers, at least Kobe will. I can’t imagine any scenario in which Artest will not grow tired of such hounding really quick, no matter whether the team is winning or losing. I think he and Kobe will come to blows at some point, if not on the court, then off.
I’m of the Pop mentality where the team should always want to beat the best. I too like the overall moves by the Spurs this off season. Matching up against the Lake Show looks very strong for the Spurs…with a few presumptions.
1. Healthy Tim, Tony and nearly as important as Tim, Manu. He cures what ails many wounds.
2. I think Gasol is ripe for a punch in the chops 24/7. He has a nice finesse game but more often than not my overall impression of him is as a big softy.
3. Until proven otherwise, I’ll mark down something similar for Bynum. At his young age a player has to be on the floor for long, dependable stretches of the season and during a game. I guess this is why they took a drive down “Artest Avenue”.
4. Presuming much, the Spurs collective drive to win is unmatched and Manu vs Kobe is tit for tat. That is one hell of a match up.
5. Lastly, I like the now “unknown” quality of the Spurs. As much as there is potential some of the new guys may falter, there’s also the possibility they may shine.
It will be fun to watch.
You can act like Gasol and Bynum are too soft, that Artest’s going to run the team chemistry, nobody likes Kobe, whatever. The Lakers are the better team until we prove otherwise. But I think one of the big things we’ve improved on with respect to LA is depth. However we match up against Odom, Gasol, Bynum and Kobe, I think we have a better chance at staying competitive when the starters are getting a rest. Farmar, Vujacic and Walton can rack it up against a mediocre bench without any consistent scoring threats. I’m confident that Roger Mason jr., Blair, and even a well-rested Finley with an improving George Hill at point will play a major role in a playoff series against the Lakers.
I think Rand’s analysis is on point. I also agree with BigJ re Pop’s mentality; I’m reminded of a few LA fans who didn’t care that their team edged SA in the ’08 WCF with Manu at 50%. Not beating a team at it’s best eventually exposes your shortcomings, as happened in LA vs Boston (and to Dallas vs Denver). If our guys beat LA I want them having no excuses and us to earn it. I also know that the winner of the East will be a lesser mental challenge, as LA has Kobe, Phil, their top 5 scorers from last season and are the defending champs.
I don’t recall SA struggling with Odom in the ’08 WCF even though Oberto was guarding him. Seems best to be physical with him and lay back enough to make him a shooter; it takes away his offensive rebounding and ticks of Kobe. Without Ariza, LA would not have won the title and we’d still be talking about Odom not coming through. It’s also worth noting that what guys like Odom and Brown gave LA last year came in contract years. Now Odom returns having to help babysit Artest and not receiving the contract respect he wanted.
Lastly, the pickup of Artest was meant to help with Melo and LeBron. The trade-off of him vs Ariza helps with those guys but hurts their overall defense in terms of foot-speed and athleticism. Artest is a worse matchup trying to guard TP or Manu. Perhaps LA worried too much about playing the Nuggets then Cavs and forgot who their main competition has always been. Advantage Spurs.
Bucks cut Bruce Bowen. I still think he’s a solid defender and believe we didn’t play him much last year cause Manu was hurt and we needed scoring. Anyone see the Spurs picking him up despite our limited roster space?
We have 0 roster space right now Kahuna, otherwise i’d say it was probably likely.
The Spurs could sign Bowen to a vet minimum and make a decision on him–or some other roster hopeful–at the end of camp. They’ll have to trim to 15 before the start of the season. Best bet scenario: find a trade partner that wants Bonner and gives nothing in return. That’ll clear a roster spot.
It’s kind of rich to get on Odom cuz he’s a ‘pothead’ when our star player has a tattoo of a jester and wishes to be called Merlin.
Right now i believe we have no roster space (13) guaranteed contracts:
1: Timmy
2. Manu
3. Tony
4. Jefferson
5. McDyess
6. Blair
7. Hill
8. Mason
9. Haislip
10. Finley
11. Mahinmi
12. Ratliff
13. Bonner
and 2 partially guaranteed…
14. Hairston
15. Williams
as a spurs fan, i would like us to pick up Bowen but i think we need to clear a roster spot to get him… if we can’t do that, i hope he decides to retire and maybe join the Spurs’ coach/training staff…
Timothy Varner,
i know Bonner lack some skills… but i think his shooting ability from 3 will be valuable to our current lineup… i believe he struggled last season being a starter (he should not be) now he will be just coming off the bench to provide some offense… i like the idea of clearing a spot for Bowen, but giving up Bonner for nothing seems too much… just a though…
Fact: Matt Bonner is a better 3 point shooter than Bruce Bowen at this point in time.
I believe the Spurs have moved on, even though a need for our team is a shut down perimeter defender it’s not worth cutting a prospect like Marcus Williams for probably a 1 yr signing. I’m keeping my fingers crossed the Spurs can get Shane Battier for Bonner and Finley
George Hill is an excellent defender. He did as good a job on Kobe last year as anyone else we had on the roster. I dont think we need anything better than what he brings. He cant guard Lebron/Melo because hes too small, but he can guard the Kobe/Wade types in the league.
Oh, and in my opinion, Udoke would be a better pickup than Bowen at this point.
It’s worth noting that in all those times we beat the Suns, we never had an answer for Amare. We never consistently shut down Dirk, either. We don’t have to nullify the opposing roster player-by-player if we play good team defense from start to finish. This has always been one of our major strengths, and I think with the added firepower and reliable bigs this season, the Lakers are going to be stretched on their own defensive rotation. If we can tire out their frontcourt, maybe get someone in foul trouble, it gets a little easier to tighten up on those second or third options, even when without that one lockdown perimeter guy. I’m not saying it wouldn’t help, but I’m not worried that it’s a glaring hole.
Robby,
You can call me Tim.
I agree about Bonner–as a back up he’s a terrific player with a unique skill set. But the Spurs are already going in a different direction upfront. And they contracted his replacement a few weeks back. The writing is on the wall, go read it and see what it says.
Beyond this, the Spurs currently have 7 bigs. He’s the odd duck out. He should be an attractive player for someone. He’s movable.
I don’t think that Bonner or Bowen would play much for the Spurs in 09/10. But Bowen could shore up the weakest point on the roster while helping groom the next generation. He has a legacy in San Antonio. Bonner is an expiring contract on his way to the next town. Between the two, assuming their current ages, I’d prefer Bowen to Bonner every time.
BB,
Great point re: Dirk and Amare.
SpursfanSteve,
Bowen is 5x the player Ime Udoka is.
Any chance we can get mark gasol? He’s young, big and awesome and i’d love to see him stick it to his brother in LA:)
Thanks for the clarification Tim *(Varner)… there’s another Tim here that why… just hoping for all the best for the Spurs…
The thing about not having Bowen that I’m gonna love is other teams would put their best perimeter player on Bowen they can’t anymore. Example Kobe would always have to work so hard to score against us but he’s a great enough player he could still go off, but then he would come down and guard Bowen which basically means he’s getting rest.
He can’t do that when we got Parker Ginobli and RJ on the floor, for the 1st time ever Kobe will be forced to play D against us.
Although with that being said we still need a perimeter Defender who might not have to play as many minutes as Bowen once had to. Yes we have George Hill but there’s a reason why were trying to teach the natural 2 guard to play the point. It’s so we can take TP out of the game for a guy who could D up chris paul and other pg’s while still being able to run the offense. Hill can stick w/ guys like Kobe but they just shoot over him. Hill suited to guard pg and undersizes 2′s like Ben Gordon.
BB, you got it right. Man I used to laugh while I watched Amare get his on the offensive end only to watch TP zoom by him and Nash to get an easy two. Or, when Manu would drive the lane at him and score.
This is an defensive aspect the Spurs lacked last year. If their team D returns to the tops of the league they tend to run into success with this formula.
Hmm, allowing the team’s best player to score 30+ points a game? That’s a strategy Kobe’s been known to fall for at times…
BigKahunaTC,
I think we have another good wing defender in Malik Hairston… he’s skill set is comparable if not better to Ime Udoka… and i think getting a year under his belt makes him more comfortable with our system… an he can also shoot, if things pan out he is own new version of Bruce…
Hey, one other thought: for a guy who has a career of responding marvelously to adversity, what should we expect from Manu this year?
He’s currently written off by scores of the national media as an “old” oft injured, not to regain form star. I can’t imagine that sits well with him?
At least I hope it doesn’t.
I would love to see Bowen back with the Spurs, but it appears there is no spot for him. I would also not want to see him wear the jersey of a Western Conference competitor.
I feel for you guys and Parker. Hopefully he gets his rest and comes back 100% healthy for next year. I know how much it sucks having your best players play overseas over the summer, as Pau Gasol is currently playing somewhere (i believe). Hopefully everyone can come back healthy and a full roster on all teams comes to play, as i think next year could be an NBA year for the ages with all the competition. Another blogger compared this upcoming year with the 1980′s, as that was a decade when the same teams basically competed for the championship. There were elite teams, just like this next year.
Rand,
Unfortunately your post seems more like a wish list than what is likely to happen.
I’ll try to answer them one at a time
1) You say Kobe is the most unlikable guy. Fine, but realize that he is also the most popular NBA player. He is both the most hated and loved player in the NBA. Lakers fans like me love Kobe for what he does and stands for. Plus, either way this doesn’t make a difference whether the lakers win or lose. Kobe’s likability did not change from last year when the Lakers won the championship, or perhaps from 2000-2003 when the lakers 3-peeted.
That “pothead” you are talking about, Lamar Odom, is the best role player in the entire NBA in my opinion. Here is a guy with the third highest +- in the entire NBA. That is the difference in points with him on the court vs him off the court. Here are the top 5: 1) Lebron 2) Chris Paul 3) Lamar Odom 4) Dwane Wade 5) Kobe Bryant. Now I’m not saying that Lamar is as good as those 5, i’m just point out 1 stat (a very important stat) that gives you a glimpse of just how important Lamar is to the team. To try and put him down by calling him a pothead who got punked, etc., is a bit immature. Not to mention that he is the hardest cover for your team –who is going to cover Lamar?
Artest vs Ariza. Well, I loved Ariza and was a HUGE fan. But in almost all aspects of the game, Artest is a better player. Especially on defense. Ariza is great at playing the passing lanes, but against the dominant 3s in our league, he would get man handled. Lebron/Carmelo/Pierce, etc. In fact, we would usually switch Kobe on those dominant people because Ariza could not handle them. Now we have Artest, who is the best in the entire league at covering those 3.
And this post is long enough, so i’ll stop there. As always, time will tell.
Great post Graydon,
I agree that although signing Odom makes the Lakers stronger, the Spurs were expecting this to happen anyways and I still like our chances. Although i’ll give them the edge in terms of talent in 1-5, the spurs have more depth, focus, and hunger. I think that will help us defeat them IF we’re healthy.
I’m a little worried about Tony getting upset at the organization, but not too much. The front office is too professional to let issues or grudges linger for too long without doing things to settle them down.
My only complaint:
That picture is painful to my eyes, and heart. It hurts to watch.
ahh! I meant Tim, great post Tim.
kaveh how’s richard jefferson’s +/- stack up against those guys you mentioned
RJ has a bad +/- because he was a starter on a terrible team. Now he is being asked to be a third, fourth, or even fifth bannana on a contender. I think not being asked to shoulder so much of the offensive load will help all facets of Jefferson’s game.
when the Spurs signed RJ, they don’t expect him to make them champions right away, Spurs are a reasonable team… thats why they added Dice and Haislip got lucky with Blair… and if things really go well Ian and Ratliff will contribute…
and more importantly we must stay HEALTHY… all of players specially the BIG 3. I wish Tony will understand why did the Spurs want more tests… only being cautious… I know you love to help your country Tony, the Spurs and fans love you here too… i hope there is no Hate between you and Spurs…
i’m hoping BB was joking. Kaveh has flamed the boards with RJ’s +- since we made that trade.
Indeed I was. Tony’s been mad at the Spurs before. I bet everyone will be best friends again by the time the season starts. He probably recognizes that the Spurs are among the more tolerant organizations when it comes to international play in the offseason, this episode aside.
Tim,
What about trying to ship Bonner, cash (to even the salaries) and a 2nd round pick to Golden State for Brandan Wright instead of trading him for essentially a roster spot?
While BW had two disappointing years in the league, I think the gamble is good, both in the short run (he’s a combo forward who can play as a big 3 or a quick 4, despite definitely missing the 3pt range) and in the long run (if he has a strong training camp, the FO can exercise the option included in his rookie contract, if not, he basically would be the same expiring contract Bonner is).
Golden State is clearly going with Randolph (who, obviously, is far better) and I think they are quite open to trade young players with potential who saw limited PT in exchange of… nothing/Devean George.