The Rasual Suspects
Preseason isn’t a time many of us take seriously. Players and coaches don’t care about wins and losses any more than fans do. The goal is for everyone to stay healthy and get a glimpse of what’s to come during the regular season. But there is a group of players for whom preseason is critical: those two to five guys looking to grab that last roster spot. It’s a position that doesn’t come with any glory. Hell, you’re probably not suiting up for the bulk of your team’s 82 games.
So why do it? Why not go to Europe? Why not grab playing time in the D-League? In Europe, there’s more playing time and a competitive salary. The D-League will get you the playing time being the 15th man doesn’t afford and constant exposure to NBA scouts stateside. And what are teams looking for when they’re filling out the end of the roster? The answers, unsurprisingly, aren’t cut and dry.
The San Antonio Spurs were an interesting case study this preseason. There were, realistically, three players vying for that final spot: Reggie Williams, Jimmer Fredette and Rasual Butler. Three guys from drastically different NBA backgrounds. Williams did the D-League thing before all the cool kids realized what an asset the D-League was, playing for the Sioux Falls Skyforce. This the 2009-10 season when there was only a handful of single-team affiliates. The D-League just wasn’t valued across the league like it is now. Williams then got some really nice run on a couple of bad Golden State Warriors teams that finished the season 36-46 in 2010-11 and 23-43 in a lockout-shortened 2012 campaign. Injuries robbed him of playing time in Charlotte the following two seasons and he never really recovered from that lost time. For this reason, I don’t think we look at Williams as an NBA veteran. He’s only played a full season once and that was in his second year in the league. Because of the inconsistent playing time, only ardent NBA fans are even familiar with Williams’ game.
Fredette’s story reminds me of an awesome college quarterback drafted in the first round who flames out because the expectations were too high and the fit with his team was never there. In Jimmer’s case, he was taken far too early as the 10th pick in the 2011 draft by the Sacramento Kings. Here’s a quick list of players taken after Fredette: Klay Thompson, Alec Burks, both Morris twins, Kawhi Leonard, Nikola Vucevic, Kenneth Faried, Nikola Mirotic and Jimmy Butler. Fredette’s game never came close to catching the same fire in the NBA that it did at Brigham Young.
To be fair to him, Jimmer went to a franchise in the Kings that, from the locker room all the way to ownership, lacked the stability necessary for rookies to thrive. The Maloof brothers couldn’t wait to sell and they were running through coaches faster than most of us run through tennis shoes. We saw very little development in his game and, to make matters worse, his confidence was shot midway through year two. If you’re looking at Fredette’s time just in Sacramento, it’s tough not to think of him as a tragic figure. Then again, he didn’t catch on in Chicago or New Orleans either, both franchises with much more stability where Fredette could’ve carved out a defined role. Despite his nomadic status, Jimmer’s skill set suggests he could be a Gary Neal or Steve Kerr-type player in the right system.
Butler is your prototypical NBA journeyman. Coming into training camp this season, Butler played for seven teams in 12 seasons. He started for some teams and averaged seven minutes a game for others. His two best seasons came playing in New Orleans in 2008-09 and Los Angeles, playing with the Clippers in 2009-10. After that he bounced around a lot and didn’t play a ton until last season with the Washington Wizards. This season was the third straight year he was in training camp on a partially guaranteed deal competing for a roster spot.
Turns out Fredette’s run in San Antonio was much more hype than substance. He played in two preseason games and scored just four total points. A report from Yahoo! Sports’ Michael Lee suggested Fredette isn’t exactly a team player.
“Jimmer thinks everybody is stupid,” said an NBA assistant who worked with Fredette. “He thinks everybody needs to come and just turn over their offense and let him shoot it anytime he wants. That’s not how the league works.”
Working in local TV news in Sacramento, I had heard second and thirdhand stories like Lee’s report. No doubt Fredette and his camp were unhappy in Sacramento and it wouldn’t be surprising if he felt like he never got a fair shot in Chicago or New Orleans. Regardless, it’s clear he didn’t gel with what the Spurs were trying to do, and with the loss of Marco Belinelli, the Spurs could’ve used a gunner with Fredette’s absurd range.
With Jimmer gone the competition for the final roster spot was down to two, and while it was clear the Spurs valued Williams’ corporate knowledge from the months he spent in San Antonio last season, this was Butler’s spot to lose. During the preseason, Butler was routinely the first of the partially guaranteed players off the bench, the best defender of the group and the most confident shooter. It’s actually a little surprising Butler had to prove himself worthy of a contract in training camp for the third year in a row. Last season he shot 39 percent from 3-point range in Washington. Anecdotally, he’s regarded as a good defender, though his 101.9 defensive rating last season suggests he was average at best. A potential bright spot? Butler’s defensive rating post All-Star break was down to 98, which could indicate improvement as he became familiar with the Wizards’ system.
The problem is Butler really fell off post-All-Star break. Before the hiatus, Butler shot 43 percent from 3 and then it fell all the way down to 28 percent after the break. Last week after Butler learned he made the team, he told reporters he doesn’t feel like he’s proven himself yet, which helped his motivation to continue to find his place in the league.
“Little bit of a chip on my shoulder,” Butler said. “But it gives me an edge so I still feel a sense of having to prove something.”
That quote is telling on a couple of levels. With career earnings north of $22 million according to Basketball Reference, Butler, assuming he’s been even a little bit responsible with his money, could retire instead of going through the same routine year after year of finding a new team, fan base and city to prove himself to. Or, if money is the issue, he could head to Europe where his skill set would do serve him well. In 2011, Butler actually signed with Gran Canaria of Spanish ACB league during the lockout, but never played for them, eventually landing in Toronto when the lockout lifted. Who knows what a season in Europe would’ve yielded for Butler? Alas, the road not traveled.
So after a solid yet unspectacular year, Butler finds himself on the Spurs, looking to prove his worth once again. This year might be a little different. Butler isn’t just trying to prove he’s more than a training camp invite. There are probably a dozen other teams that he could’ve gotten a tryout with, but being a Spur was incredibly appealing to Butler.
“This is the gold standard of the NBA. So to have the opportunity to be a part of this culture, to play for Coach Popovich is a huge deal to me. Just the way we play the game, it’s very exciting to me.”
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Spurs picked a player of an advanced (basketball) age to fill out their roster, the team is filled with intelligent players who have been around the block. Whether it’s Boris Diaw, Marco Belinelli, or even going back to Antonio McDydess, they’ve shown that they’re partial to smart veterans. No team is going to turn down youth and athleticism, but intelligence matters more in the Spurs’ system. Butler’s experience in San Antonio so far has been far different from his previous stops.
He’s scored 16 points in his first 42 minutes of action, but in the last two games he’s reached double digits in minutes and may be replacing Kyle Anderson as the team’s backup small forward. He proved last year he can carry a bigger burden for part of the year, but tailed off offensively after the All-Star break. He’ll get some run as the Spurs rest guys during back-to-backs and as Pop experiments with different lineups — we already saw Butler play power forward during the preseason — but the question is about playing time. Can he challenge Kyle Anderson for his minutes? He may not want that. He may be content playing the veteran role off the bench while collecting a paycheck. That might be happening around the league, but it doesn’t appear to be Rasual Butler’s mission.
Whether it’s auditioning for his third team in as many years or saying he still has a chip on his shoulder after 12 seasons in the league, Butler appears to be wanting more than a spot at the end of the bench. Motivation can be very powerful if you know how to harness it and Butler seems to have found a way to use it to his advantage. Whether it helps lead to an expanded role in San Antonio remains to be seen.
This piece was edited by Graydon Gordian and Andrew McNeill. Illustration created by Caleb Saenz.
