San Antonio Spurs

[owNinZ]

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Healthy again, Spurs' Ginobili hopes to earn his keep

It seemed like an innocuous question, the kind one might pose to any acquaintance one hasn't seen since April.

“Hey Manu,” someone asked a certain Spurs guard earlier this week, “how was your summer?” Manu Ginobili was quick with the answer.

“Winter,” he corrected. “It was a lot of winter.”

Ginobili spent most of what North America would call summer at home in Argentina, where the seasons are flip-flopped and winter comes in May.

The second winter of Ginobili's 2008-09 calendar went much like the first. There wasn't much basketball involved.

After missing 43 games last season — including all of the playoffs — with various ankle ailments, the prescription for Ginobili's offseason included rest, rest and more rest.

The one non-negotiable rule: No picking up a basketball.

“I guess they didn't trust my judgment,” Ginobili said.

Ginobili arrived at training camp completely healed of the stress fracture in his right distal fibula that ended his season on April 5, and had transformed one of the league's most feared postseason performers into a helpless spectator for the Spurs' first-round playoff ouster against Dallas.

Of all the additions the team made during the offseason, and there were many, the one they might be most excited about is a healthy Manu Ginobili.

The Spurs were 36-12 with him in the lineup last season. They were 23-20 without him, including five playoff games.

“Hopefully, Manu will just be Manu,” Tony Parker said.

The last time Ginobili took an entire Argentine winter off — in 2007 — he responded with the best season of his NBA career.

A repeat would be nice for the Spurs. It would also be nice for Ginobili's pocketbook.

At age 32, Ginobili is entering the final season of his contract. Spurs general manager R.C. Buford says there is no firm timetable for talking to Ginobili about a new one.

“It could happen during the season, or it might happen after,” Buford said. “We'll just have to see.”

Even then, the Spurs will have to decide how much a 33-year-old Ginobili with a history of leg injuries is worth. The team will almost certainly want him to prove he isn't damaged goods before committing more money to him.

Coach Gregg Popovich will do what he can to keep Ginobili well enough to earn his keep.

Popovich estimates Ginobili, though physically healthy, arrived at camp in “C-plus shape” due to his offseason of relative inactivity. Even so, Popovich doesn't plan to push him too hard toward an A-plus.

Ginobili went through about three-fourths of Tuesday morning's practice, and sat out the evening session entirely.

“We'll keep him on that sort of schedule and try to be smart about it,” Popovich said.

Ginobili's injury saga began 18 months ago.

He originally injured the ankle during the 2008 playoffs, aggravated it while competing for Argentina in the Beijing Olympics, then underwent surgery just before the start of training camp last year. He missed three separate swaths of last season dealing with lingering complications.
By the time the playoff series against Dallas rolled around, Ginobili was shackled to the bench in street clothes, helpless. He felt he had let his teammates down.

“Not being able to lose with them, to win with them, to share the same emotions,” Ginobili said. “I really suffered.”

The Spurs are happy to have Ginobili back, because it makes the team better. But they are also happy to have Ginobili back, because it makes Ginobili happy.

“He's been a basketcase for at least year now, with his health so up and down,” Tim Duncan said. “He just wants to be a basketball player.”

His long winter finally over, his bum leg at last healed, Ginobili will have that chance again.


Source: Healthy again, Spurs' Ginobili hopes to earn his keep

[dandavix08]

Injury report key more than ever to Spurs' title dreams

By Scott Howard-Cooper, for NBA.com
Posted Sep 28 2009 3:45PM

There is no news from San Antonio yet, not until sometime after camp opens, but even the quiet is newsworthy. These are the mending Spurs, their continued status as title contenders teeters on a stack of medical charts, and so the non-event of recoveries going according to plan matters to the entire league.



There are no startling developments regarding Manu Ginobili. He is playing with restrictions -- the number of games per week, the time per game -- and will likewise be held back when training camp opens Tuesday. That is exactly what the Spurs anticipated when a stress fracture of the right ankle prematurely ended Ginobili's 2008-09 in April, taking with it any realistic chance of a sustained playoff run.

There are no startling developments regarding Tony Parker. He sprained his right ankle in July playing for the French national team, travelled from his home country to San Antonio so the Spurs could see for themselves that it was a mild injury, then returned to his summer job and played eight of nine games in the European championships in Poland. There is the issue of lack of offseason rest, but, again, no urgent injury concerns.

There are no startling developments regarding Richard Jefferson... yet. This is a hold-your-breath moment, though. Jefferson dislocated his right thumb two weeks ago and has been wearing it in a splint. He is scheduled to see a hand specialist today for an exam that will update the timeline on how soon the new starting small forward can jump into contact drills. The timeline may turn out to be no timeline -- the doctor could pronounce Jefferson healed and clear him for Spurs duty. Being ready for Day 1 of camp has been realistic all along.

While Jefferson is the biggest unknown, pending the doctor's visit, Ginobili will be a concern all along because he suddenly has a history of ankle problems off 2008-09 alone. Surgery on the left ankle cost him camp, the exhibition slate and the first 12 games of last season. Then the stress fracture sidelined him for good in early April, ushering in the crossroads campaign. If the past year is proven to be a fluke-ish series of events and he has the mobility to reclaim the trademark reckless abandon, no problem. If it's the start of a very aggressive player breaking down, that whole title-contender thing gets re-evaluated.

"Our intent is to have him in playing shape for the regular season and the Playoffs, not training camp," general manager R.C. Buford said. "We've had no setbacks."

Besides, these are the Spurs. Coach Gregg Popovich rations minutes for his veterans early in the season anyway, and in San Antonio, "early in the season" is, like, February. Not a lot of panic going on there over what happens before Halloween.

On a roster loaded with championship experience and maturity, it's been years since Popovich has needed a reason to slow play October, November, December and January. Now, he can choose from health (Ginobili, Jefferson), full summers (Parker) and age (Tim Duncan at 33), but the reality is that the factors probably change nothing. Pop kept his guys corralled before and would have done the same this season even with perfect health, aiming for the Playoffs and only the Playoffs, so the only real impact is if an injury returns.

Ginobili is on schedule, Parker is on schedule and, barring unexpected bad news from the hand specialist, Jefferson is (at worst) pretty much on schedule. The meaningful news from San Antonio is that there is no news. The Spurs are healing.

[johnnyblues]

good news to start the day

[johnnyblues]

dia pa ai: http://www.48minutesofhell.com/2009/...training-camp/

Jamie Dixon at Spurs Training Camp

University of Pittsburg head coach Jamie Dixon was in San Antonio yesterday, taking in DeJuan Blair’s first practice. I’m hopeful he and Coach Popovich were able to have a long conversation about Blair.

DeJuan Blair is an all-world force on the boards. He’s especially good on the offensive glass. And by especially good, I mean he’s a singular talent that comes along once in a generation. John Gasaway of Basketball Prospectus provides this summation:

Let’s start with two numbers that were already present in separate compartments of my brain but that Ken Pomeroy brought to my attention as a wedded couple:

25.1 21.1

Ah, the decimals, the Courier typeface, you just know I’m gearing up to wield some incredibly complex calculations in support of my choice, right?

Hardly. The number on the left is Blair’s offensive rebound percentage this year. The number on the right is Colorado’s offensive rebound percentage. Repeat: the number on the right is what the entire Colorado team combined to accomplish this season, rebounding 21 percent of their own misses. Blair by himself hauled in 25 percent of his team’s misses during his minutes. For the record Blair also outperformed Nebraska, Samford, Weber State and Iowa State, among others. He is a team unto himself…

…this is the first year we’ve seen a player dominate the offensive glass to such a ridiculous extreme that he alone can outperform entire teams.

No problem with any of that, right? Well, no. But there is a lingering curiosity.

The San Antonio Spurs are a routinely poor offensive rebounding team. In fact, John Hollinger tells us that the Spurs’ offensive rebound percentage was the worst in basketball last season:

San Antonio was the best defensive rebounding team, pulling down 78.1 percent of opponents’ missed shots, and yet the worst offensive rebounding team, collecting only 22.1 percent of their own missed shots. It doesn’t seem possible that a team could rebound so well defensively and so horribly offensively, but in fact the two are very different skills. Additionally, San Antonio’s playing style — with Duncan having his back to the basket and four shooters spacing the floor — has never been conducive to high offensive rebound totals.

And there is something else that Hollinger omitted. Gregg Popovich prefers transition defense to offensive boards. On defense, the Spurs motto is to allow their opponent one, and only one, tough, contested shot. They close out, box, board and break. On offense, they want to create one high percentage shot and then immediately get back on defense. For the most part, the Spurs leave the offensive glass alone in exchange for the opportunity to set up a fortress up around the opposing team’s rim. It’s a transaction that produces historically great defensive teams.

So, then, how should Gregg Popovich treat DeJuan Blair, king of the offensive glass?

This, I think, is a good conversation for Pop to have with Dixon. What are the best ways to space and screen for DeJuan Blair? Luke Winn describes how Coach Dixon was able to assist Blair at Pitt:

Blair’s job mostly calls for him to set an early ball screen (for Fields) while he’s running down the floor, and then camp out in the paint after that. Pitt then attempts to free Blair up for post touches by setting across-the-lane screens, off of which he can receive the ball at close range to the basket, lower his shoulder, and drop it in for two points. Rarely does he roam outside the lane to receive passes, and this keeps him in prime position to clean up others’ misses.

If Coach Popovich wants to maximize DeJuan Blair’s production on the offensive glass, these are the sort of things he’ll have to consider. It’s something to watch.

[owNinZ]

Popovich, Parker, and Spurs Point Guards


One of the noteworthy discussion points from yesterday’s media session is the news that Tony Parker will sit out the first few weeks of camp, with the exception of shooting drills and strength conditioning.

This, of course, is Gregg Popovich in fine manager-of-minutes form, a role he’s performed with great success in previous seasons. Tony Parker went through the same process at the start of last season. Lots of time with the strength coach, and not much time on the court. It’s a good formula for a veteran player who spent the summer slogging through an international tournament.

While it would be nice for Parker to develop chemistry with the Spurs’ new additions, players such as Antonio McDyess and Richard Jefferson, Parker’s absence from early camp scrimmages should mean extended minutes at point guard for George Hill.

George Hill is still learning to direct a team, but looked remarkably improved in that respect during summer league. Giving him extended preseason minutes with the first team should prove invaluable as the season progresses. This sounds like hyperbole, but I mean it as straightforwardly as possible: George Hill’s ability to contribute meaningful minutes is critical if the team hopes to advance against its best opponents. The ability to overcome the Lakers, Trailblazers, Cavs, Magic, and Celtics takes root early and grows throughout the season.

Parker’s prolonged offseason will provide the Spurs with an opportunity to see Marcus Williams at point, as well. There isn’t much give in the current roster. If Williams can merit serious consideration as a reserve point guard, he ought to make the team. But more importantly, the Spurs’ backcourt will be deep and flexible, providing Pop with match- up options he’s never had as the team’s coach.

This is something we’ll discuss in more detail going forward, but a reliable third point guard gives the Spurs security if they decide to rest Parker in some back-to-back scenarios. In the long run, that’s best for the team. It keeps their stars–in this case, Parker–rested and healthy, and it provides their young players the minutes they need to develop.

Source: Popovich, Parker, and Spurs Point Guards | 48 Minutes of Hell

[jcatruman]

GO SPURS GO. hapit na jud mga 28 days more to go.

[johnnyblues]

day 2 sa training camp videos:

Pop
http://www.nba.com/spurs/multimedia/090930_pop.html

Finley
http://www.nba.com/spurs/multimedia/090930_finley.html

Bogans
http://www.nba.com/spurs/multimedia/090930_bogans.html

kataw-anan interview ni pops. sagol politika.

[owNinZ]

McDyess Was Longtime Target of Spurs



In the 2 1/2 months that passed between his final game as a Detroit Piston and his first day as a San Antonio Spur, Antonio McDyess contemplated his future in the NBA.

His conclusion, reached in the hours before the free-agent market opened on July 1: Unless he got a contract offer from the Spurs, he would retire, giving up on his quest for an NBA championship ring after 13 seasons.

“That’s how strong I felt about coming here,” said McDyess, the 6-foot-9 veteran who figures to be the team’s starting center on opening
night.

The Spurs felt strongly enough about adding McDyess to their reshaped roster to offer him a three-year contract worth about $15 million.

Both sides feel fortunate to finally have connected.

“There have been years when I’ve been trying to come here before, but they turned me down,” McDyess said. “I feel privileged to be here.”

General manger R.C. Buford put together the deal that made McDyess a member of the Spurs.

“We’ve admired him as a player for a long time,” Buford said. “We’ve always thought he would be a good fit with our group. We’re glad the time has come that we’re able to work together.”

The formal courtship of McDyess was relatively simple: a to-the-point negotiation between Buford and agent Andy Miller and a few phone calls and text messages from Tim Duncan, the Spurs’ two-time NBA Most Valuable Player.

A man of few words, McDyess appreciated the simplicity of Duncan’s recruiting pitch.

“What did I tell him?” Duncan said. “Come to the Spurs. We’d love to have you.”

The way McDyess sees it, Duncan should feel obligated to help him finally achieve his career goal of winning an NBA title.
“He took a championship ring away from me back in 2005,” said McDyess, a key player on the Pistons team the Spurs defeated in a memorable, seven-game NBA Finals. “He’s got his four rings.”


McDyess does have something Duncan covets: a gold medal from the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Duncan was to have been on the 2000 U.S. team, but had to drop off the squad when rehabilitation after an April knee operation did not progress quickly enough to allow full participation in the Olympic tournament.

McDyess replaced Duncan and was one of the heroes of an Olympic semifinal victory over Lithuania, when his offensive rebound and putback basket provided the game-winning points.

He still counts standing atop the Olympic medal platform in Sydney as the highlight of his basketball career.
Nevertheless, he would trade that gold medal for one of the four rings Duncan has.

“I don’t think about that Olympic thing,” McDyess said. “I always think about that Game 7 in ’05, seeing Tim and the other Spurs celebrating. So I think we’re pretty much even.”

Now that he is one of Duncan’s teammates, McDyess says he is willing to do whatever the Spurs ask of him. That includes playing center, despite being a couple of inches shorter than Duncan, who prefers playing the power forward spot he calls “my unnatural position.”

“It’s nothing new to me,” McDyess said. “I played center in Detroit, too. Sheed (Rasheed Wallace) did the same thing. I’m just trying to get in where I fit. I don’t set expectations to be on the court a certain time or play a certain position. I just want to be out there and play.”
McDyess admits he came to camp needing to get in regular-season game shape, strictly by design.

“I don’t kill myself during the summer to try to come into training camp and do the same thing.” he said. “I just calm down in the summer and save my legs for the end of the year.”


Source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/s...ith_Spurs.html

[owNinZ]

The 10 Best Centers of the last decade


10. Alonzo Mourning

9. David Robinson



8. Yao Ming

7. Amar'e Stoudemire

6. Zydrunas Ilgauskas

5. Jermaine O'Neal

4. Ben Wallace

3. Dwight Howard

2. Shaquille O'Neal

1. Tim Duncan




Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/bal...urn=nba,193423

[johnnyblues]

unsa maning writer sa yahoo (kelly dwyer) oi. pf na si duncan. he's the best sa pf position ever. kung center hisgutan, mas maayo si shaq keysa niya. wa jud ni tawhana klaro iya basketball info.