Carlos Delfino

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Maybe the dominoes stop falling with Jannero Pargo, or maybe they topple forward. I don’t claim any special knowledge of the Spurs front office deliberations, but I would like to suggest an outside the box midseason acquisition: Carlos Delfino.

48M0H, along with others, has consistently pointed toward two roster concerns for the Spurs. The first and more popular of the two is the need to add another productive big. The second is the need to add another wing. Michael Finley is a streaky player; Ime Udoka and Bruce Bowen are not giving the Spurs enough productive minutes. Adding a wing that has some shooting ability, but who can also score driving to the basket, makes sense.

My suspicion that Carlos Delfino is available is simply that, a suspicion. But the circumstantial dots are there for the Spurs to connect.

Carlos Delfino was one of several NBA players to sign an overseas contract last summer. Two others from that class, Nenad Krstic and Jannero Pargo, have since opted out of the contracts they signed. Many basketball fans heard over the weekend that former high school phenom Brandon Jennings is not happy in Europe, in part because he’s only been paid on time once since arriving.  This simply echos what we’ve heard elsewhere. The financial situation in Europe, and especially the Russian league, is not good. The New York Times puts the story this way:

Others could soon follow. With a shaky world economy, several European teams, particularly those in Russia, are struggling to make payroll. Players are being paid late, if at all.N.B.A. teams are watching closely, and preparing to pounce if more quality players break free of their contracts.

“There are some situations where they’re only paying the foreign players on time, and the domestic players are being asked to kind of understand the situation and get paid in due time,” said Bryan Colangelo, the Toronto Raptors’ general manager. “And then there’s some situations that might even be worse than that.”

Jannero Pargo recently opted out of his contract with Dynamo Moscow because he either wasn’t being paid or not paid on time. Earlier this season, Carlos Delfino refused to re-enter a game because of a pay dispute. Couple this with the knowledge that Delfino has an option in his contract for an early return to the NBA, and you quickly see where this argument is heading. Why then hasn’t Delfino excercised his option?

My suspicion is that Delfino is waiting until the Raptors make a move. Delfino remains a restricted free agent for the Toronto Raptors, a team for whom he may or may not want to play. Delfino must know that Toronto will not match his contract if it means paying tax, which is likely the case. As Shamsports tastefully concludes, “[Delfino] is especially not it [the answer for Toronto] when obtaining him means roundly buggering your extremely delicate salary situation. And so that’s why the Raptors won’t be signing Carlos Delfino this season. Or if they do, they’re dumb.” This of course would change if Toronto swung a cap clearing trade prior to signing Delfino, but this seems unlikely. Nevertheless, he and his agent are probably in wait and see mode. They still have a little more than a month to make a decision.

The Spurs have not tipped their hats toward Delfino. Gregg Popovich did, however, admit that the Spurs are monitoring the contract situations of Russian league players. The Star Ledger’s Dave D’Allesandro records Popovich’s reaction to Nened Krstic signing with Oklahoma City,

…. Popovich admits his heart fluttered after Nenad Krstic got away to Oklahoma City before he had a chance to weigh the merits of signing him.

“Ah, I love him,” said the Spurs coach, who has $2.1 million left on his midlevel exception. “But we thought Kurt (Thomas) knew the system, and Fab (Oberto) was just getting (healthy).”

The Spurs are a competently run team. One has to expect they’ve had internal discussions about Delfino. For the record, the Spurs have 2.1 million dollars of their midlevel exception left to spend. Depending on his other suitors, that could be enough to land the Argentine wing. Aside from a chance to play for the Spurs-and to receive his paycheck on time-the obvious connection to fellow countrymen Ginobili and Oberto could appeal to Delfino.

After yesterday’s loss to the Lakers, many Spurs fans are asking, “Where do we go from here?” The Spurs play to win, and so if there is opportunity to improve without altering the core, the team will move on it. I wouldn’t be surprised if San Antonio made a deadline deal and signed a free agent with their remaining exception. In other words, the Spurs will pursue their trade options and watch the waiver wirer for quality veteran buy outs. It’s possible they find someone through both pursuits.

The team’s hope at this point is to provide the Big 3 help enough to get back to the Finals. But let’s keep ourselves grounded. Unless Manu Ginobili regains form and the team continues to improve, the Spurs are merely a playoff team. They’re not a team that can win a championship. Even if they added a player like Carlos Delfino, we’re only talking about improving their edges, of adding a 8th or 9th man.

  • Pinky

    Hey I wanted to comment on your interview over at TrueHoop.

    I was going along fine (“Ok, yup, ok”) until I got to the ethical defense of Bruce Bowen. Screeeeeech.

    “Some would argue that there is a code beyond the law, an unwritten ethical code of the court. I would argue that, although this idea is not without merit (and certainly something I fully subscribe to when playing), such notions recede into the background when it is your professional responsibility to do everything within your power to win.”

    As a human being and sportsman, you have to control your own actions, whether or not the officials can detect the violation. The officials are operating under the assumption that players are reasonably attempting to play within the rules, not the other way around. When that assumption is subverted, it undermines the spirit of the game. This applies to both amateur and professional matches equally.

    I may be naive in these comments, but I know that’s it’s not naive to say that someone who deliberately plays on the near or over the borderline of the rules should not be admired for their play. That’s different than making a statement about whether it’s legal or illegal, but I wanted to express that here.

    Thanks.

  • http://www.collegefastbreak.com/ Ryan

    Not a fan of Carlos Delfino. I was at one point, but his act in Detroit got old after a while.

    Not dependable from a defensive standpoint and surely erratic as heck on O.

    That said, guy has a ton of skill.

  • Chris K.

    Lots of interesting ideas here.

    First of all, I have to take issue with your (Pinky) assumption:
    “The officials are operating under the assumption that players are reasonably attempting to play within the rules, not the other way around.”

    I’m not sure this is true, or if it is true, if that should matter to a professional player.

    But then again, I have to question Gordian’s assumption that NBA players have a “professional responsibility to do everything within your power to win.”

    I think the responsibilities of NBA players are very murky. As far as ethical responsibilities go, this is just a game, and the NBA players are just entertainers. They are hired workers who play to get paid.

    I don’t believe that “doing everything within your power to win” is written into an NBA players contract.

    The sad truth is we fans care much more about winning than many players do.

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

    I’ll let Graydon argue his own points, but if ya’ll want to read the unabridged version of his argument, it’s available here.

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

    Ryan, his defense was sturdy last season. Maybe he was motivated in a contract year. Don’t know. His offense is always hit or miss. But relative to what the Spurs can likely swing in a trade, he’s a good option.

  • Nico

    My first comment goes towards Pinky, basically Bowen is one of those players other teams love to hate on because he’s not on their squad. So my apologies to Pinky.

    But how can you not respect a player who commits to one aspect of the game very few take to: solid defense. Remember, who this guy has guarded in key battles and rendered them useless. It’s hard to imagine what the Spurs squad would have been like without him during the playoffs over the past few years.

    Secondly, I really think the Spurs are going to do some outside the box things. By that I mean, they are obviously going to take someone everyone forgot about or never knew about and fit him into our system. That’s the one thing I’ve always found about the Spurs, you may question their moves… but at the end of the day, those boys know what they’re doing as you so gracefully pointed out.

    Finally, I really see the spurs trying to find a big man before they address a wing man. Delfino looks good, and especially nice since we have fellow Argentinians that will obviously aid his transition to Spurs basketball. But, the key to the Lakers match up is size, Kobe no longer needs to take over the game to ensure a win. That fact alone is enough to understand the gravity of the situation.

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

    Nico, I’d guess you are correct about the Spurs prioritizing a big over a wing. Truthfully, it’s going to be difficult for them to land an impacy player on either front, let alone both.

  • Pinky

    Hey guys,

    Thanks for not killing me here.

    I’m not just picking on Bowen for the record, I’m also talking about floppers like Sasha Vujacic, and blatant rules violators like Chris Paul (jumping into players on jump balls, pushing in the back, punching guys in the testicles …). They’re all players of varying degrees of talent, but one thing they do is try to bend the rules. I was actually a little happy that the league fined Kobe Bryant for his arm-swinging, which was totally unnecessary, especially for a player of his caliber. While flopping is not dangerous, the other sorts of things are dangerous, especially the little shove James Posey and others like to give opponents as they go up for a layup. It’s so slight that it’s hard to detect as a ref. Just because you can get away with doesn’t mean you should do it.

  • Stand

    Maybe I have him confused with someone else, but I had thought that it was Delfino who actually doesn’t care for Manu. I believe it was something about him feeling like he should be the man on the national team, but I could be remembering this all wrong. If that is the case though I am not sure if Delfino would be the most harmonious pickup SA could go after.

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

    Stand,

    You might be right. I don’t remember. From what I understand, they got along fine at the Olympics. But that’s a consideration, you’re correct.