Episode 8 of the 48MoH Podcast: Report From the Chicago Pre-Draft Camp

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The San Antonio Spurs have a lot on their plate, despite having been ousted from the NBA Playoffs two and a half weeks ago. The silver and black have the NBA Draft in about a month and free agency not long after. In the latest 48MoH Podcast, Tim joins me to talk about covering the NBA Pre-Draft Camp in Chicago. What did he hear about the Spurs offseason ahead in the Windy City? Did he see World Wide Wes?

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  • http://www.48minutesofhell.com ChrisG

    The Spurs drafted Dragic on behalf of the Suns

    Thanks for clarifying that. Honestly, I didn’t even know that was within the rules to do that.

  • http://www.48minutesofhell.com ChrisG

    @Bduran

    “Blair is better than Dragic. Yes I think we can ignore one fourth quarter. Blair’s rookie year was far, far better than Dragic’s. Dragic looks like a guy who’s starting to come on late in his sophmore year. However, I’ll wait for him to have a good full year and Blair to not develop further before I start bemoaning the trade that brough us Blair.”

    I just don’t agree with that. Blair can only be used at situational times. There are players we is expected to guard that he can not handle. His lack of any perimeter game forces him to defend these players. Until the Spurs pick up a Channing Frye type player, that allows Blair to camp near the basket at the offensive end and not be forced to guard the opposing center than Blair can only be used in certain instances.

    Look, I love Blair’s lighning fast hands on the glass, but he is a liability on the defensive end because of his size.

  • bduran

    “I just don’t agree with that. Blair can only be used at situational times.”

    Blair looks to develop into a production machine. In 18 minutes he grabbed 6.4 boards and scored efficiently as an undersized rookie. He steals the ball at a decent rate and looks like he may turn into a decent blocker on help D. He will never be great on D, but pair him up with another big who is and he’ll be fine.

    Dragic shot 40% his rookie and year and didn’t exactly accumulate a lot of other stats. Not good. Also, i was wrong above, his shooting % went down towards the end of the year, although he did start getting more assists. He sophmore campaign is OK from a production standpoint, but not great. i don’t know about his D. So far he’s had one bad year and one subpar year. I’m not ready to coronate him yet. Get the image of the Spurs game out of your head.

    When thinking about what Blair brings, you can’t just focus on D. We’re unlikely to get someone who outproduces him. So you have to think how much increased opponent production does Blair allow by being on the court and how much more does Blair produce than whomever else we could get? I find it hard to believe that Blair doesn’t become a good enough defender that he isn’t a net positive. I think he’s a net positive right now and will only get better.

    The one problem I have with Blair right now is the need to pair him with a jump shooter because of his lack of one. If we either a) get a jump shooting big or b)help Blair develop his shot then Blair needs lots more minutes.

  • Jim Henderson

    Trust me, ALL aspects of Blair’s game will improve in due time. And please remember, Dragic is 24, Blair is 21. That’s a BIG difference. Blair’s played just one year in the NBA, Dragic two years. That’s a BIG difference. It is very common that 2nd year guys make a big jump in their play. Blair will be no exception. And by the way, poor to mediocre “D” is a VERY common thing to see in VERY young, rookie players. Blair will become a better defender at the PF spot. He will learn to get better position. He will learn to avoid silly fouls. He will learn to strip down low like all top undersized “bigs” do. And he’s not bad at steals, shot-blocking, and of course, great at the final element of defense, the defensive boards. Offensively he will become a monster once he develops that knock down 15-20 footer, and improves his handle a bit, which he will. Just be patient, and watch with delight. This guy will become a real player. I don’t see how anyone cannot see that. How many guys do you know, in the HISTORY OF THE GAME, that have gotten TWO 20/20 games in their rookie year, at 6’6″, with no mid-range jumper, and at age 20? I’ll give you the answer: NONE.

  • bduran

    “How many guys do you know, in the HISTORY OF THE GAME, that have gotten TWO 20/20 games in their rookie year, at 6′6″, with no mid-range jumper, and at age 20? I’ll give you the answer: NONE.”

    Hollah

  • ThatBigGuy

    @ ChrisG

    We both sucked at the Dragic point. Moving on.

    I’ll bring it on Scola though. Your quote on the FO seeing Scola being who he is before the trade:

    “Yeah, there is a way. However, the brass didn’t see it. That is the friggin point. The Spurs traded away a valuable player for junk.”

    Pure, fact-less conjecture. There is no way you can know that. I base my argument on the fact that the Spurs are a business and acted upon a classic business model to ensure the profitability of the organization.

    If you have product on the shelf that’s not moving, it’s costing you money, because you don’t have room for a product that does sell. Scola was a product sitting on another continent, not bettering the team, so after 5 years (!!!) they parlayed a non-existent player into something that could help the team.

    It was a smart move. Again, there is no way ANYone could have seen a 27 year old Euro making that big of an impact. Houston got lucky.

  • TrueFan

    @ ThatBigGuy

    Your inventory metaphor is the best explanation I’ve ever heard regarding the Scola situation. Right on the money.

    However, you then proceed to say that no one could have seen a 27yo Euro playing so well. That simply doesn’t follow from your otherwise great argument, and I’d like to suggest tweaking your point here to make the overall point stronger.

    Houston got lucky — but not because Scola played so well (I know multiple people who felt at the time that he could come in and contribute on any team). Rather, Houston’s luck lies in the fact that Scola’s buyout dropped so quickly after they acquired him.

    Focusing on the unforeseeability of Scola’s buyout, rather than the unforeseeability of his strong rookie production, makes the strongest case that the Spurs front office wasn’t stupid for trading Scola. That’s because even if the Spurs front office didn’t know that Scola would be 3rd in RoY votes, they had to know that he was much more likely to be an immediate contributor than Jackie Butler. But it didn’t matter to the Spurs how good Scola was if all signs were he would never come over.

    The Spurs made the smart business move based on the information they had at the time and got burned when a crucial piece of that information (Scola’s buyout, and thus, availability), changed so quickly after they made the move. As you no doubt know, that kind of thing happens all the time in business. In other words: “sh*t happens.”

  • td4life

    Re: Scola’s buyout
    It was assumed by Scola (and acknowledged by the spurs) that he would not be a good fit next to TD, because both guys are better with the ball… Scola was VERY highly regarded by summer ’07, the reigning and two-time MVP in Europe was widely and confidently predicted to make the all-rookie team, but he wasn’t seen as great fit next to TD, and didn’t want to be buried behind in him in the rotation. Once he was acquired by Houston, he was able to find his way to the NBA in short order.

    ThatBigGuy is incorrect: It was not at all unpredictable that Scola would do well from the start, far from it, rather it was just the nature of the pro sports business that he was determined to go to a team where a star in his prime would have a solid opportunity.

  • http://wallmart.com roboSID

    SCOLA had reviews as a Manu but bigger…A big MANU???????? ru kidding me .SPURS new but thought they where fine with TIM an they get what they deserve for being SNOBISH.They where right on with Parker,Manu, why did they question them self with Scola an Dragic?They got some screws loose with this reinvention of the wheel with a CENTER who shoots 3’s.Get SPLITTER and another BIG sign a free agent proven shooter.Dump contracts

  • DNITCH

    Anyone think we can sign Channing Frye for a replacement of Bonner? He makes just under 2 mil and will be a FA.

  • Hobson13

    DNITCH
    May 30th, 2010 at 9:54 am
    “Anyone think we can sign Channing Frye for a replacement of Bonner? He makes just under 2 mil and will be a FA.”

    In the end, I’m not sure Frye is that big of an upgrade over Bonner. In fact, upon closer examination, I think he is almost a Bonner clone. During the playoffs Bonner shot 37% from 3 as opposed to 35% for Frye. A big knock on Bonner is that he is wildly inconsistent from game to game. If you look at their game by game stats, they both either shot really well or really badly. Even though Frye was helped out by the Suns incessant zone defense, neither one possess great one-on-one defense or can rebound well for their size. Neither are shot blockers yet they don’t have the lateral quickness to guard many of the quicker 4’s in the league nor the size to guard many 5’s.

    This brings me to my last point. I think this well intended lust for a “super athletic stretch 4″ may be misplaced. There are only a few really good stretch 4’s out there in the entire league (Lamar Odom, Antawn Jamison, Bosh, Amare, Alderidge, and maybe a few others) and we certainly can’t afford them. I’m of the opinion that we should concentrate on the twin tower approach that worked well with Tim and the Admiral. With all of Robinson’s strengths, 3pt shooting was not among them and yet that tandem worked fine. Sure we can’t get another Robinson, but surely we can get people better than Rasho Nesterovich, Nazr Mohammad, Fabricio Oberto, Matt Bonner, etc. My point is that it may be fools gold spending so much energy attempting to get a 4 who is a 3 pt shooting ace. If our next C or PF can “only” consistently shoot out to 18 ft, that would be enough. Perhaps Splitter can remedy much of this issue. If not, we might have to trade for one.

  • grego

    With the Dragic deal, you get Blair and Hairston. The story of this trade isn’t over. This year will probably be a big year for both guys to try and grow. Hairston has some promise, so not all is lost.

    Spurs have had a cozy relationship with the Suns for a while. They also picked Barbosa for the Suns back then.

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