The San Antonio Spurs thread - A Fiesta of Youth

[Phat Toni]

what type of players are we hoping for in the draft tomorrow? big wings big wings who can shoot would be my preference.... Maybe a sneaky slider like Brandon Clarke?

If Bol Bol slipped he would be a great long term big man prospect.

 

[DaveyBoy123]

what type of players are we hoping for in the draft tomorrow? big wings big wings who can shoot would be my preference.... Maybe a sneaky slider like Brandon Clarke?

If Bol Bol slipped he would be a great long term big man prospect.

It just had to be a European with our 1st pick... If the Pacers hadn't done it 1 pick before, we would have drafted Goga Bitadze instead.

 

[Footypie32]

I'm quietly happy with our draft haul.

I'm excited for next season.

 

[Phat Toni]

It just had to be a European with our 1st pick... If the Pacers hadn't done it 1 pick before, we would have drafted Goga Bitadze instead.

yeah, here's hoping our new Euro turns out to be Dirk!!

The Pop era of Euro's we've drafted;

2015 - Nikola Milutinov - Yet to play NBA, Spurs still hold his rights
2013 - Livio Jean-Charles - Never Played NBA
2011 - Adam Hanga - Never Played NBA
2011 - Davis Bertans(Drafted by Pacers) - 200+ NBA Games and still active
2010 - Ryan Richards - Never Played NBA
2009 - Nando de Colo - Played 120 NBA games
2008 - Goran Dragic - Traded on draft night for Malik Hairston and future 2nd round pick, played 750+ NBA games and still active
2007 - Tiago Splitter - NBA champion with Spurs
2007 - Giorgos Printezis - Never Played NBA
2006 - Damir Markota - Traded for future 2nd round pick, played 30 NBA games
2005 - Ian Mahinmi - Played 600+ NBA games and still active
2004 - Beno Udrih - Played 800+ NBA games
2004 - Sergei Karaulov - Never Played NBA
2003 - Leandro Barbosa - Traded for future 1st
2002 - Luis Scola - Traded for Vassillis Spanoulis and a 2009 2nd rounder
2001 - Tony Parker - NBA Champion with Spurs and All NBA
2001 - Robertas Javtokas - Never Played NBA
1999 - Manu Ginobili - NBA Champion with Spurs and All NBA

It's quite good considering all picks are late 1st round or 2nd round.

Still would have loved Brandon Clarke or Nassir Little but here's hoping our new Euro can bring his game to the NBA

 

[Phat Toni]

Not a bad day for us with Gay coming back on a 2yr contract and Carroll is a decent addition at the price.

Big's (Centre/PF): Aldridge, Poeltl, Metu
Big wings (SF/PF): Gay, Bertans, Carroll, Samanic
Wings (SG/SF): DeRozan, Belinelli, Forbes, Walker, Johnson
Ball carriers (PG/SG): Murray, White, Mills

that takes us to 15 active players and around $121M in cap by my count which pretty much rounds out spots, might be a couple of two-way contracts up for grabs but that will be it.

If Murray comes back healthy and with the year of development for White this year we should see DeRozan back in his off the ball scoring role he played at the Raptors.

 

[Snarls Barkley]

Think Lonnie Walker is ready for a big year too.

 

[Footypie32]

While we don't have a real elite level guard just yet, we bat incredibly deep.

Derozan (G/F)
Murray
Mills
Forbes
White
Walker

Teams are going to have hard time when they have to rest their starters against us.

 

[MadTigerFan]

Nearly prefer Trey Lyles over Morris anyway.

 

[MadTigerFan]

Now do that for the team whom pays you Patrick

 

[BG__]

Now do that for the team whom pays you Patrick

They need to let him wear a boomers jersey under his spurs one. I swear the green and gold gives him super powers.

 

[DaveyBoy123]

So, what's the take from pre-season peeps?

- Is Pop still working out the Murray/White/Forbes quinella? Are we happy to rotate at will/on match-up?
- Can Big Jacob (or Lyles) improve enough to give LA more of a rest - at least early in the season?
- Can Walker or Samanic step up (if they remain fit) to help Marco fill the void of Bertans?

Any other pressing questions that need to be answered?

 

[Phat Toni]

So, what's the take from pre-season peeps?

- Is Pop still working out the Murray/White/Forbes quinella? Are we happy to rotate at will/on match-up?
- Can Big Jacob (or Lyles) improve enough to give LA more of a rest - at least early in the season?
- Can Walker or Samanic step up (if they remain fit) to help Marco fill the void of Bertans?

Any other pressing questions that need to be answered?

It wasn't too bad a preseason for us, mainly because we didn't get any injuries like an ACL to Murray in the final preseason game last year! I think we saw Pop and Co preferred the Murray/Forbes setup mostly as it looks like both have sightly improved a couple of their issues, Forbes D is better and Murray seems to have brought a little bit of range in his shooting back from injury..... I'd say Chip has been working with Murray very closely on that shot, he has a higher release point on his jumper now. If they both have minute averages of around 25 - 30 and Patty and Marco both fall in the 18-23 range that leaves White and Walker left with a couple of short 10 minute slots which shows we have some real depth in the Wing rotations because White/Walker would get significant minutes in a lot of other teams AND we haven't even mentioned Rozen and Gay yet!

The depth chart in the Bigs is where the tail of the season will be told IF LaMarcus and Jakob can play 75+games and keep the work load under control then we're fine if one or both have significant stints on the sidelines we're in real trouble. Lyles is ok but a little vanilla, Metu looks like he's improved but he can't cover the heavy minutes if either of the main two guys go down.

Looks like we will take more 3's than we did last year, ball movement looked pretty good, defensive structures look ok but will be a touch patchy at times due to integrating a lot of young wings into the system. Our depth is our key, i would only rate the Jazz, Nuggets and Clippers as having better 2nd units and with that I'd expect us to be in the 45 to 50 win range so right on the playoff bubble with about 6 other teams. If we can hit that last 6 weeks fresh and healthy we should be fine but it's a tough run home as we play some tough teams and a bunch of games against those 'bubble' teams in March.

 

[DaveyBoy123]

Guys, it's not looking good.

 

[Phat Toni]

Guys, it's not looking good.

Doesn't look great at the moment..... I haven't actually check the stats but watching most games i'm seeing that offensively we look ok if only a little stagnate with certain groups on the floor but the real problem is that our D is very poor at this point but nothing that can't be fixed by finding the right combinations and more minutes going to Murray and White. Dont forget we were sub .500 at the end of Nov last season with a much easier schedule.

The real question for me is the future of DeRozen in the silver and black..... Murray, White, Forbes, Walker and even Johnson all need to start getting shots and consistent minutes, DeRozen is stopping that and right from day 1 i felt he was almost the Anti-Pop style of guy. He's got a Player option this off season and due to the weak free agent pool my guess is he'll opt out. I know is not a done thing at the Spurs to trade a big piece mid season but i feel this could be the right thing to do to move him on and find something in return that wont impact the development of 5 players mention earlier. I'd like to see us target some more bigs in a swap, I don't know what he'd really be worth on the market but something like shipping him to the Knicks who have a team full of PF's that isn't working and maybe bringing back something like Randal.

 

[Phat Toni]

I see today that the Magic are looking at a potential trade for DeRozan, whats the thoughts have they got anything that would make sense?

 

[DaveyBoy123]

I see today that the Magic are looking at a potential trade for DeRozan, whats the thoughts have they got anything that would make sense?

Yeah, saw that article on cbs. They loosely suggest Gordon, who is still rather young & could be worked with. Unsure they'd deal Vucevic, who is 29. I don't watch the Magic enough to know all the pros & cons of either. And I'd presume they still think too highly of Isaac to trade him.

 

[Phat Toni]

Yeah, saw that article on cbs. They loosely suggest Gordon, who is still rather young & could be worked with. Unsure they'd deal Vucevic, who is 29. I don't watch the Magic enough to know all the pros & cons of either. And I'd presume they still think too highly of Isaac to trade him.

Gordon is ok they would have to throw something else in to match the salary's and there is a bit of gap between player value there as well, maybe we flick them Jacob and they give us Bamba or Isaac!?! I'd be very happy with that, would probably set us back in the short term but would be better for us long term.

 

[UnitedWarrior93]

We stink

 

[Phat Toni]

We stink

can't close a game out at the moment.

 

[MadTigerFan]

Terrible

 

[UnitedWarrior93]

Much like my soccer club, change is needed at SAS.

 

[DaveyBoy123]

Much like my soccer club, change is needed at SAS.

Yeah, they should do something like give Lonnie Walker some minutes... Especially in the 4th quarter!

 

[DaveyBoy123]

Well, 2 OT wins in a row (unsure we deserved to win either) keep us alive for the playoffs going into what feels like an all-star break since the next game isn't until Friday the 13th. Hopefully they can take the 5 days to work on some stuff.

 

[Snarls Barkley]

Still optimistic that this season could turn around.

I like all the young guys. Lonnie and Poeltl are showing good signs, always liked Dejounte and he’s starting to get more consistency after that injury, White and Forbes probably don’t count as young guys anymore but play roles, really wish we still had Bertans. Keldon Johnson’s numbers and highlights have been good in the G league and can see him becoming a player going forward. Spurs seem to be using the rookie year as a G league development year. Was Walker last year, White before that, Forbes before that.

The +/- numbers when Aldridge and DeRozan are on the court are concerning. Really everyone bar Patty’s is awful to be fair. They were 11-14 last season before things turned around last year, don’t think its out of the question that it could happen again. 8th seed might only need to go 41-41.

Interesting to see what happens if things continue to go downhill from here. There isn’t a lot of good players on the trade market at the moment (Love the only big name and his contract isn’t enticing) so DeRozan and Aldridge may be able to get decent returns if it comes down to it. Maybe one of those teams fighting for a 7th or 8th seed may give a good young player for one of those guys to get them over the line.

 

[DaveyBoy123]

Still optimistic that this season could turn around.

I didn't reply when you posted because I just wasn't sure. 2 weeks later and nothing has changed. Anything is possible really, but I think we ultimately miss the playoffs. I think the rodeo road-trip may be the deciding factor this season.

If it all clicks, the 7th seed in the West is possible (I doubt we go any higher). If it stays roughly the same, we probably end up 10th in the West. If it goes to crap, then I guess 14th is possible (since the Pels beat the Blazers today).

A trade of some kind is possible, but I don't ultimately seeing anything significant happening, so the improvement has to come from within.

One question I have is who has been our most consistent player this season? Most, if not all, have been all over the place.