New Spur Ray McCallum Ready To Get Back To Winning Ways

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LAS VEGAS — Ray McCallum Jr.’s night was going just about like anyone else’s last Wednesday. He was at his home in L.A. and then he received two phone calls. The first from Sacramento Kings interim general manager Mike Bratz telling him he’d been traded to the San Antonio Spurs. The second from Spurs general manager R.C. Buford welcoming him to the team.

“I was really excited and it (becoming a Spur) just felt like an honor,” McCallum said.

The trade, McCallum for the Spurs’ 2016 second round pick, fills a hole for the Spurs after Cory Joseph signed a four year, $30 million deal to return home to Toronto. McCallum isn’t Joseph, not as big and probably doesn’t have the ability to guard shooting guards like Joseph does. But Parker and de-facto second unit point guard Manu Ginobili have a recent history of getting banged up and needing rest on certain night, so McCallum’s ability to run an offense is crucial. In his 30 games as a starter with the Kings last season, McCallum averaged 11.2 points, 4.3 assists and helped nudge up the Kings’ offensive efficiency. He hasn’t talked to Parker yet, but is looking forward to playing with and learning from the six-time All-Star.

“I’ve always watched and tried to emulate some things from his game,” McCallum said. “Now to get the opportunity to be on the same team as him and watch and learn as best I can is going to better myself as a player.”

McCallum was in San Antonio last Thursday and Friday, the same time LaMarcus Aldridge was finalizing his deal with the Spurs. He said he met both Aldridge and Tim Duncan while he was the practice facility and has known Kyle Anderson for some time. When the Kings signed Rajon Rondo, McCallum said the idea of not being in Sacramento for his third season entered his mind.

“I was hearing a little bit about San Antonio. Truthfully I didn’t know if it was gonna happen,” McCallum said. “But it got done and I’m extremely excited about it.”

The son of a coach who he played in college for at Detroit, McCallum says Ray Sr. is really excited about his getting to play under Gregg Popovich. Jr. echoed his dad’s excitement, in large part because of the Spurs’ winning culture.

“I’m a winner, I won in college and now I’m going to get back to my winning ways so I’m really excited for that and I know he is as well.”

  • spurs10

    If he likes to win then his lucky break just came along because we are going to be winning a lot this season!

  • DorieStreet

    Sounds as if McCallum Jr. is going to come in and fit in.

  • GoSpursGo

    Spurs lost some seasoned players in Tiago, CoJo, Baynes, and Belli. i think the new guys, Bobi, McCallum, Simmons, and (effectively a new player for 2015) Anderson will ultimately be upgrades, but it will take time. I expect the Spurs will play .500 to .600 ball for the first half of the season, but will play the second half of the season at a 65 win pace.

  • DorieStreet

    No way in hell (pun intended) it takes that long to get going in 2015-16.
    Those 4 “new guys” you mentioned—you do realize they will have teammates to help them along—some fellas named David, Lamarcus, Matt, Boris, Patty, Manu, Kawhi, Danny, Tony and Tim. ( I think all of these individuals qualify as “seasoned players” too.)
    I will go out on a limb and predict that the Spurs “.500 to .600 ball” will only be through the first couple of weeks in November (a half-dozen or so games)—if it occurs at all.

  • GoSpursGo

    I probably should have mentioned West and Aldridge as part of the reason why the Spurs will stumble out of the gate. Yes, these are very Spursian players, but they have to learn a new system with complex rotations on both sides of the ball. Basically, between the 4 new role players and the 2 new rotation bigs, my guess is that between a quarter to a third of the minutes next year will go to new players. The Spurs are very much a chemistry and timing team, they will not gel overnight

  • Tyler

    .500 ball for half a season is a long time. I think they’ll “struggle” through the first 1/3 of the season at about 20-10-ish; good but not great (which is pretty normal for this team based on years past).

    I think defensively it’ll be a pretty easy acclimation for West and LA - both played in a similar style in which the big man dropped back on PnR’s last year. Offensively it might take some time, but both are pretty intuitive players.