Are the Austin Toros a failure?

by

For Spurs fans, the loss of Malik Hairston raises questions on multiple levels. Hairston’s departure from the Spurs gives rise to the question, “What’s up with the Toros? Are they even worth it?”

In some respects, the Toros program has been an overwhelming success. In a vacuum, the Toros are the model D-League franchise. But, as most fans know, it’s also necessary to qualify the Toros’ success. The Toros’ talent–Ian Mahinmi, Marcus Williams, Malik Hairston, Quin Snyder, Dell Demps– has mostly left Texas for better digs.  This, without mention of folks like Roy Rogers, DeMarcus Nelson, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, and Dwayne Jones.  Again, in a vacuum, good on the Toros.

But the Spurs are yet to develop a player in Austin who went on to make a significant impact in San Antonio.

Alonzo Gee, last season’s D-League Rookie of the Year, is this year’s version of the Great Austin Hope.  Beyond Gee, the Spurs are still looking at local hero Curtis Jerrells, who played well-enough for the Spurs/Toros during his first year in the program. And the Spurs have done well scouting the D-League for talent. Garrett Temple, for example, seems poised to play meaningful minutes in San Antonio, but his prospects are still cradled in potentiality, not actuality. Will any of these players actually make a dent in the Spurs’ rotation?

Again, it’s not the Toros aren’t turning out NBA talent. It’s just that that talent is not sticking in San Antonio.

A cynic might say the Spurs’ Austin program is more of a service to the NBA, and less of a service to the San Antonio Spurs. But I’m more positive about the Toros’ place within San Antonio’s system. That overwhelming success stuff holds true.

Taking everything together–Malik Hairston’s departure, the Spurs’ inability to keep their best developed-in-Austin talent in San Antonio, and the Toros’ impressive track record of success and talent development–I like to think this reveals more about the D-League and the pace of player development than it does a failure on the part of the Spurs/Toros.

Put differently, the Toros are limited by what seems an unreasonable expectation of players–that they will develop within a two year time frame (the NBA’s stipulated number of years for D-League eligibility). But who says player development should be on a two-year plan, and why doesn’t the league do more to help team’s like the Spurs demonstrate what a proper player development program looks like? The D-League, the Toros, and players like Malik Hairston are succeeding at the task of skills development. But, in general, the CBA’s D-League regulations are in desperate need of revision. Would Malik Hairston’s tenure with the Spurs have gone differently under a less restrictive set of D-League eligibility rules?

While this discussion is concentrated on Malik Hairston and an evaluation of the Toros’ place within San Antonio’s program, it raises important questions about what the NBA can do to help teams like the Spurs develop better basketball players.

A recent study suggested that D-League call-ups provide more value to the NBA’s talent base than late first round draft picks. Imagine that. Mining for talent in the D-League is more likely to produce an NBA player than selecting 25th in the NBA draft (of course, this, in turn, might say more about the quality of some NBA front offices than it does the D-League).  Perhaps part of Dell Demps’ recent appeal to NBA owners is that he comes from an NBA program with big success doing both.

The Spurs, for what it’s worth, are having success developing (understood here not in terms of developing “stars”, but players who can meaningfully contribute to professional basketball rosters) projects, second round selections, and undrafted players in Austin. The big takeaway, then, is not that Malik Hairston is not good enough for the NBA or that the Toros are failing by not developing players for the Spurs. Rather, I see Malik Hairston’s Siena contract as a sign that the NBA needs to revisit the issue of how to optimize the D-League’s value to the Association, not to mention finding ways to better reward NBA clubs who invest heavily in the project of player development.

← Older Comments
  • Jim Henderson

    ThatBigGuy
    July 30th, 2010 at 5:32 pm

    Yeah, good points. Wade & James will clearly be walking a tight rope with each other. Their usage rates were number one & two in the entire league last year, respectively. That will require a huge adjustment, and they will need a significant amount of mental toughness to navigate the transition successfully, because both players are pretty much hard-wired to be alpha-dogs. I just don’t think they have it in them to make it work at the championship level. Certainly not at first. They’ll win a lot of games, and be pretty fun to watch for the most part, but when it comes to winning it all, even after hogging all the talent, I’m not so convinced. They might be able to figure it out eventually, but the hype will be long gone by year three, and then they’ll have more of an uphill battle in that respect. People will start to doubt them.

    That said, on talent alone they can run over some people, so the rest of the league needs to confidently accept the challenge, and just go out and offer some steady and intense resistance. There’s still a handful of teams that can hold them off. And really, I don’t care what the Vegas odds makers say, in my mind the Lakers are still the favorite, no question.

  • Easy b

    I think the heat will be the most scary if lebron changes his game a bit and does things like crash the boards, post up and generally continually forcing teams to change types of defenders to match up with the style he plays . If he stays more on the perimeter , other teams have a much better time containing him and the heat.

  • Easy b

    Damn, picked a bad time for grammatical errors – lazy text type style….

  • SpursfanSteve

    The thing is, when Lebron first got to the league, he wasn’t really the “Alpha Dog” type. He consistently made the best basketball plays (passing to Donyell Marshall for the missed corner 3 at the buzzer being the most obvious example). If he can break the habits he has formed since that time in his career, He’s Magic Johnson with Jordan and Kareem (and i know thats a big hyperbole for a Bosh comparison).

  • Big Whit

    When you stated “Are the Austin Toros a failure?” were you referring to the Toros organization, a single entity? Or was the intent to use “Austin Toros” as short for the Spurs’ development league experiment, also singular. I think the latter, as the Toros were very successful, having excelled in their league, but had limited success developing players for the Spurs, so far. I vote that the title is correct as is. I also point out it was not a total failure. It allowed us to examine several players including draft choices. Ian and Malik were close, had they improved enough to make the team we would be singing the praises of the “Toros” (and I use that as short for the Spurs’ development league experiment.)

  • http://www.48minutesofhell.com Timothy Varner

    Gang,

    The grammatical discussion is fun; I was treating ‘Austin Toros’ as a collective noun.

    FWIW: I debated “a failure” or “failures” before hitting the publishing button. I can see both sides of the argument and should probably consult a proper grammarian. Is Grammar Girl available? I also spent quite a bit of timing considering whether the chicken came before or after the egg. I’m inclined toward the chicken. But I’d like to hear the informed opinion of a theologian and a biologist before issuing any policy statements. Life’s hard choices.

    At any rate, I’ve decided to take the easy way out and plead the idiom argument.

    Here’s a completely off-subject question: how would you feel about a 48MoH forum/message board? I’ve always leaned against them because, well, there are several Spurs-related boards already, and one of them, SpursTalk, is a venerable institution. Is a another board really necessary? But our post threads often produce great discussions, and many of our commenters are budding essayist–Jim Henderson’s first 1000 words are always merely introductory. ;) In addition to this, the idea of a 48MoH forum has been suggested from elsewhere, so I’m brooding over the idea. Thoughts?

  • Jim Henderson

    SpursfanSteve
    July 30th, 2010 at 9:49 pm

    “If he can break the habits he has formed since that time in his career, He’s Magic Johnson with Jordan and Kareem (and i know thats a big hyperbole for a Bosh comparison).”

    Number one, you’re entirely ignoring the “usage” rate of the LeBron, LAST SEASON. He is clearly an alpha-dog. And number two, the comparison of the Heat big three with Magic, MJ, and Jabbar is laughable. It’s not even close.

  • Jim Henderson

    Timothy Varner
    July 31st, 2010 at 2:22 pm

    Hey Tim – Nice mixture of humor in your post! As to the forum idea, I don’t think we really need it, but then again, others might be getting “index finger syndrome” from regularly having to speedily scroll past my “War in Peace” posts. Perhaps a forum board could be a way to separate to some extent the shorter from the longer posts.

    I guess the word “pithy” just doesn’t seem to enter my brain too often. I think I’m under a 100 words right now though, so I’m going to leave you all reeling from the outright brevity of this post! Bye for now….

  • Jim Henderson

    By the way, Tim, I do get a short post in now & then!

    Jim Henderson
    July 29th, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    Well-written piece, Tim.

  • http://www.48minutesofhell.com Timothy Varner

    Jim, I know. Don’t take my joke too seriously. And thanks for the kind words.

  • Jim Henderson

    No, I don’t at all, Tim. I got a good chuckle. I’m just making a feeble attempt at playing along with the joke.

  • ITGuy

    Time for a new story, please.
    Go Spurs Go!!

  • Jacob

    @ that big guy

    +1

  • Tyler

    @ Tim

    What would be the benefit of a message board over the current design?

    I guess you could categorize the topics in the message board setting, but just like the comments under every post here, the comments will often wander of into some other topic.

    In other words, it’s not like the comments stay on-topic too often here anyway. Even if you did categorize the comments by topic, wouldn’t you see the same exact thing? And in that case, don’t you end up in the same place?

    FWIW, I’d like to keep the current setup. I like having the discussion right in front of me, instead of having to go through numerous threads to find where I last posted. Full disclosure – I’ve never been a fan of the traditional message board. It leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion.

  • http://www.yahoo.com Ryan

    I’d like to keep the current setup as well. This blog is one of the last few bastions I can turn to for reliable and in-depth Spurs coverage that hasn’t been overrun by trolling, negativity and name-calling. I feel if you do switch to something like that Tim, then its gonna turn exactly into what the regualar ESPN message boards are.

    If it ain’t broke.. don’t fix it. Just write more articles. :) Please and thanks.

  • Jacob

    Any word on a backup small forward?

  • Jim Henderson

    Not much left without a trade. Just Simmons & Hayes, from what I can tell.

  • c/o

    Crickets chirping in the background…

  • J2

    I don’t think it matters who owns the minor league team. Most AAA baseball teams are not owned by the major league team with which they are affiliated.

    I think the NBA doesn’t implement this model quickly because it would encourage more players to enter the draft out of high school, figuring they will get drafted, and either wind up in the D league or the NBA roster.

    There would likely have to be at least 3 rounds in the draft in this model.

    J2

  • rob

    I’m ready for some more original posts. We’ve talked ad nauseum about everything else.

    Just kidding. But….July 29 IS almost a week in the past. :)

  • Easy b

    What about Anderson ? Is he for real as an impact player this year (George hill comment)? Is he, like Blair before him, that immediate step up in skill level, poise and NBA -ready polish from guys like Neal and Gee and fringe rotation players alike to be in pop’s plans from the get go? Really haven’t seen any of his play so wondering what his strengths are etc…

  • Jim Henderson

    If the approximate 2 mil. plus that we have available to sign a free agent (MLE/LLE) isn’t enough to get a guy like Amundson, how about seeing if the Suns would be interested in a sign & trade with Amundson (they have his bird rights) for McDyess. It has become apparent that the Suns are not interested in re-signing Amundson, so why not try to get something for him. From what I can tell, all the Suns have at the 4/5 position is Warrick (undersized), Turkoglu (a SF/PF tweener), Lopez, and the 2nd round pick, Lawal (undersized). They could use some veteran depth, rebounding, a mid-range game, & post defense on their front line, and McDyess’ contract is only partially guaranteed for the following season, leaving the Suns with decent financial flexibility for 2011. Unless they have better options for 4.5 mil. to fill that need, it would be worth a shot. With Splitter on board, McDyess’ game is not needed as much by the Spurs as Amundson’s game is, and Amundson is nine years younger.

  • rob

    Timothy Varner
    August 1st, 2010 at 5:47 am
    “In addition to this, the idea of a 48MoH forum has been suggested from elsewhere, so I’m brooding over the idea. Thoughts?”

    I like the idea if it can be kept respectable. I’ve visited some of the other sites you mentioned. Hoping to have thought provoking conversation and an ability to broaden my knowledge in the realm of the Spurs and basketball in general.

    But too often many of the original posts in those forums turn in to “insult tennis” with little to do with topic and more to do with individual pride and verbal revenge.

    That’s why I find this site so rewarding to visit. There isn’t a million OP’s covering the same conversation.

    But if you were to operate this as a message board…I’m sure you would have one of the best in terms of integrity, knowledge and moderation.

  • rob

    Jim
    “and McDyess’ contract is only partially guaranteed for the following season, leaving the Suns with decent financial flexibility for 2011.”

    But that very scenario could be why the Spurs would want to keep McDyess so they could use that financial flexibility.

  • Jim Henderson

    rob
    August 4th, 2010 at 3:13 am

    “But that very scenario could be why the Spurs would want to keep McDyess so they could use that financial flexibility.”

    Use it for what. With Amundson we’re getting the guy we need for our front line, probably for a little less money per year. We’d have three young guys (Amundson, Blair, Splitter) and Bonner in our plans for at least the next 3-4 years. TD’s contract comes up for renewal in 2012, and will be reduced considerably at that time, if he stays, which I hope he does. Our back court would be in decent shape as well (depending on what TP does next year), with Manu & Hill. Of course, we need to develop our young guys in this area (Temple, Anderson, Neal, Gee), and if we’re over the cap, we still have an MLE to use (and an LLE if we don’t end up using it this year).

  • Pingback: 4-Down Podcast: San Antonio Spurs and Austin Toros | 48 Minutes of Hell

← Older Comments