San Antonio Spurs

[MalditohoN]

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nuggets lost to the lakers in 6. stopping by to say thank u for the support spurs fans. we came up very short but still a fruitful season for the nuggets. thanks again. gudluck to both the spurs and the nuggets.

our pleasure bro... gudluck!

[tackielarla]

The Casspi question
By Jeff McDonald

The NBA draft is still nearly a month away. For everybody except the Lakers, Cavaliers, Magic and maybe the Nuggets, it's not too early to start looking ahead to June 25.

For the Spurs, much of the early speculation — emphasis on the word early — has surrounded a 20-year-old Israeli named Omri Casspi.

Casspi, a 6-foot-8 small forward, isn't exactly a household name in the Alamo City. Draft wonks, and certainly those in the Spurs front office, know exactly who he is. Casspi has been playing in the Euroleague since he was 17, most recently with Maccabi Tel Aviv. He has been on the Spurs radar for about as long.

He is a decent 3-point shooter (shooting nearly 40 percent for Maccabi Tel Aviv last season), in the mold of Utah's Matt Harpring. One of the Spurs' goals this offseason is to begin to get younger on the wing, and Casspi — still not old enough to drink legally in the United States — certainly fills the bill there.

Unlike other European prospects the Spurs have taken in recent drafts (see Splitter, Tiago), Casspi reportedly is bedazzled with the prospect of playing in the NBA, and would likely take a financial hit to make that dream come true.

So, what's to keep Casspi from taking a call from the Spurs on draft day? There are two intertwined factors.

No. 1 — There are rumors that Casspi will withdraw from the draft if he's not guaranteed to be a first round pick. At the pre-draft combine in Chicago earlier this week, he didn't exactly deny that rumor. At this point, Casspi is projected as a late first-round, early second-round selection.

No. 2 — The Spurs have no first-round pick this season, having dealt theirs (No. 25 overall) to Seattle/Oklahoma City in February 2008 as part of the Kurt Thomas deal. The Spurs do have three second-round picks (Nos. 37, 51 and 53).

Don't be surprised to see the Spurs try to trade into the bottom of the first round, if they think they have a shot at Casspi. That is one storyline worth watching on draft day.

Casspi, meanwhile, hasn't scheduled a private workout with the Spurs, and it remains uncertain that he would. He probably doesn't have to. The Spurs have been scouting Casspi for so long, they know all there is to know about him.

However, there is a long and growing list of prospects who have worked out or are believed to have worked out for the Spurs. Among them:

PG — Nic Wise of Arizona, Ben Woodside of North Dakota State, Kyle McAlarney of Notre Dame, Jeremy Pargo of Gonzaga, Donald Sloan of Texas A&M, Curtis Jerrells of Baylor and Nick Calathes of Florida.

SG — Dionte Christmas of Temple, Dwyane Collins of Miami, Alex Ruoff of West Virginia, Greivis Vasquez of Maryland, Va., Jermaine Taylor from Central Florida and Courtney Fells from North Carolina State.

SF/PF: Tyler Smith of Tennesee, Robert Dozier of Memphis and Leo Lyons from Missouri.

[ju-Luis]

tak-tak na atong mga pambato da... mka-baws ra lagi nya ta.. y updates dha bahin sa spurs regarding plans nila sa free agency or trades

[tackielarla]

^Read the previous posts for more news.

For now, namingwit pa sila Duncan.

[tackielarla]

Offseason Breakdown: Small Forward

The one spot on the Spurs roster that deserves a stick of dynamite is small forward. The frontcourt needs work, but the type of work that merely adds to a solid core. You understand this. You’ve left a hundred comments amen-ing the sentiment. The reconstruction of the Spurs’ wing is not an easy project. Essentially, the Spurs need to replace Bruce Bowen’s defense, add another ball handler, find someone who can score off the dribble and has three point range.

At this point, you should be laughing. Doesn’t every team want a player like that? And of course it would really help if said player were Hedo Turkoglu long. But while it’s not an easy project, it’s not an impossible one either.


It’s easy to see that combination of skills and toss your arms to the sky in a hopeless exhale. When players like that come along, teams lock them up with big contracts. The sort of contracts the Spurs can’t afford apart from landing a cap crushing salary dump. But don’t despair.

It’s not inconceivable that the Spurs simply hit reset on their small forward situation. They can do this by trading Bruce Bowen’s semi-expiring deal (or waiving it) and letting Ime Udoka walk. That would leave only Mike Finley as a SF reserve, assuming he opts in for the final season of his contract.

As I’ve thought about the Spurs wing situation, I’ve become increasingly hopeful. Why? Well, the Spurs do not have to arrive at their final destination overnight, they just have to start moving in that direction. If they can find one player this offseason who improves their wing rotation, then they’ve gone a long way. He doesn’t have to be a perfect composite of all the things listed above, but he needs to bring a couple of those characteristics. Adding depth behind such a player would then become a high priority, but the Spurs can show patience in that process. This is the first reason not to worry.

The second reason is that the Spurs should have plenty of options this offseason—the summer is setting up nicely for San Antonio. I would be amazed if the Spurs went into next fall without having made at least one significant move toward small forward recovery. And I suspect they’ll have taken two large steps on that front, one through trade or free agency and the other through the draft. Let me explain.

The Spurs are walking into an offseason that presents a perfect storm of possibility. Think about it. The price on free agents is coming down due to a hard economy and the ever present class of 2010 looming large in the background. Teams won’t want to spend. And some of those same teams will want to rid themselves of overpaid but otherwise useful players. This combination puts the Spurs in a good spot–they’ll have opportunities to improve through the trade market or in free agency, if they want.

I’m not going to pretend to know which direction the Spurs will choose, whether they’ll make a bold move or cleverly refine the edges. Personally, I like some of the oft-discussed bold move scenarios, and others not so much. The same is true of more subtle refinements. I’m stating the obvious, but it depends on who we are talking about and how much they cost.

But I came away from the Combine with a sense of optimism about the offseason ahead. The Spurs should be able to pull a decent Austin-bound prospect out of this draft. If they move into the first round, as recent rumors suggest, they could land a player who gets a shot at meaningful minutes next season.

So, I’m not going to include a list of players in this post. I’ll let you do that in the comments, and for good reason. Rather than publish the laundry list–one that ranges from Vince Carter to Tyler Smith, and stops at all points in between–I’ll let you talk it through. How do you think the Spurs should fix their small forward situation? Your conversation will demonstrate my point: they have plenty of opportunities to improve themselves at wing. There is reason for optimism.


http://www.48minutesofhell.com/2009/...small-forward/

[tackielarla]

More offseason news...

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Person of interest: Ben Woodside
By Jeff McDonald

In a sense, May was an uncharacteristically slow month for the Spurs. For the first time in a long time, there were no playoff games for them to play, having suffered their first first-round ouster since 2000 when Dallas beat them in five games.

In another sense, May was as busy as ever for the Spurs, with a steady stream of prospects darkening the doors of their practice facility for pre-draft tryouts.

The NBA draft is June 25. Between now and then, we here at Courtside will take a look -- in no particular order -- at some of the players the Spurs have auditioned and could be targeting with one of their three second-round picks.

We start today with Ben Woodside, a point guard from North Dakota State.

At 5-foot-11, scouts rightly wonder if Woodside has the physical tools to make in the NBA. He is also a tad on the old side for an NBA prospect, slated to turn 24 not long after draft day.

Still, Woodside produced in college. Boy, did he produce. A scoring point, Woodside carried career averages of 18.2 points and 5.1 assists per game, all while shooting 40 percent from 3-point range. He was considered to be one of the quickest college guards in the nation last season.

The guy can flat score. He dropped 60 in a game against Stephen F. Austin last season, impressive no matter the level. Woodside also produced against the big boys, pumping in 37 against Kansas in the NCAA tournament. Those numbers are difficult to ignore.

Scouts will also wonder about the competition Woodside faced on a nightly basis at North Dakota State, but it should be noted that the Spurs found a legitimate NBA player in the Summit League -- IUPUI's George Hill -- in last year's draft.

Backup point guard was a sore spot for the Spurs last season. Though they would prefer to have a traditional, past-first point behind Tony Parker, Woodside has played his way onto their radar.

It remains to be seen where he goes from there. The point-guard crop is fairly deep this year, stocked with players with more size and more length and who might be more NBA-ready.

[toyotacorrola]

mao mani cla ang gaabot pag 2005 finals..

[tackielarla]

mao mani cla ang gaabot pag 2005 finals..

Cool.

You suck at photoshop though.

[koontz_circle]

nganung tinidor man gisakyan ni Duncan? hehe

[ManWhore]

mao mani cla ang gaabot pag 2005 finals..

bwahahahhaha!