Tag: Antonio McDyess

Amnesty for Jefferson still on table

With the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement still days away from official ratification, front offices across the league are not yet fully open for business. Still, for teams hoping to upgrade their roster, there is still much work to be done between now and Dec. 9, the date when the starters’ pistol simultaneously sounds on free agency and the opening of training camps.

At his news conference Friday afternoon, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich detailed some of the task at hand.

“That’s what we’re doing now: Trying to decide who we want to sign and what free agents to go after and do we want to make any trades,” Popovich said. “That’s all going on right now and that’s the emphasis between now and training camp opening.”

It’s safe to say the Spurs have many balls in the air, and many scenarios in play. One they appear to be seriously considering, based on their free-agent target list so far: Using the amnesty provision on Richard Jefferson.

The Spurs are believed to have been in contact with representatives of at least four free-agent small  forwards: Dallas’ Caron Butler, former New Jersey Net Bostjan Nachbar and Washington Wizards Josh Howard and Maurice Evans.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the Spurs have already decided to waive Jefferson, who has three years and nearly $30.5 million left on his deal . It only means that option is on the table, and general manager R.C. Buford is apparently preparing for that contingency.

Using amnesty on Jefferson, who has mostly underwhelmed in two seasons in San Antonio but did shoot a career-best 44 percent from beyond the arc last  year, would allow the Spurs to get well below the luxury tax line.

That would give them access to the full mid-level exception, worth $5 million, and the only shot they’d have at Butler, who is said to prefer Chicago anyway. The Spurs could probably keep Jefferson and still chase Howard, Nachbar or Evans, but after claiming losses last season, team chairman Peter Holt might have extra incentive to move below the tax line anyway

If the Spurs are going to make a significant roster splash, they might be more likely to do it via the trade market than free agency. Antonio McDyess’ $5.2 million contract is only guaranteed for $2.6 million. He could bring back decent value from a team looking to slice payroll, especially since he could retire anyway.

As it stands, the Spurs will have as many as 13 players under contract if and when they sign their two first-round rookies, Kawhi Leonard and Cory Joseph.

“Everybody’s got to put their team together,” Popovich said. “Some people have a lot of guys signed, like we do. Some teams don’t have very many guys. And of course we’re all calling the same agents about the same free agents.”

The upshot, as training camp approaches?

“I don’t know how it’s going to look or who’s going to be here Friday,” Popovich said.

SI predicts strong season but no title for Spurs

Back in the day, it was one of the two most eagerly anticipated sports journalism moments at my house each week.

In that halycon area before 24-hour sports networks and message boards, a young reader was happy to get any kind of information apart from the daily sports page. In those days, we got one college football game on television each Saturday, two NFL games on Sunday and no televised NBA games at all until Christmas Day.

So it was always a big event each Friday when the Sports Illustrated arrived with the glossy pictures and flowery writing. On Saturday, the notes and boxscores that arrived each week with the Sporting News were just as keenly awaited.

But both publications still have a special meaning for me and I typically drop what I am doing to at least glance through each publication upon arrival these days. Old habits die hard for  me, even after more than 40 years.

So it was understandable Wednesday that when the Sports Illustrated arrived with its NBA previews, it would be appointment reading.

I was amazed they were able to , which leads me to believe they were ready for a long time and just awaiting the end of the lockout for release.

But whatever. It was still interesting to read what old buddy Sam Amick had to say about the Spurs heading into the season.

Here is the Sports Illustrated preview:

SAN ANTONIO SPURS:

What they’ve got: San Antonio is hoping to get one more ring out of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. While they looked like eventual world champs during a 57-13 start last season, their six-game upset at the hands of the Grizzlies in the first round might have marked the end of an era.

What they need: The Spurs need to figure out the fate of small forward Richard Jefferson and power forward Antonio McDyess. Even if they don’t use the amnesty provision on Jefferson (three years and $30.5 million remaining), the clause makes it easier to move him; his contract would be seen as an expiring one. McDyess hinted at retirement at the end of last season, but has not said definitely what he will do. Rookie forward Kawhi Leonard, out of San Diego State, will help but not enough to offset the loss of guard George Hill, who was traded to the Pacers in June.

Bottom line: The Spurs will win on most nights, but they won’t win it all.

Amick’s observations are cogent and his bottom line is kind of a barometer about what the national media is thinking about the Spurs.

Namely, expect a strong winning season, but don’t be surprised if we see the same kind of ending for the Spurs in the playoffs that has resulted in first-round ousters in two of the last three seasons.

Nuclear fallout for Spurs?

The entire NBA season hasn’t been canceled yet. But given the glacier-like pace of the U.S. legal system and the fact that commissioner David Stern is throwing around doomsday phrases such as “nuclear winter,” that outcome seems more probability than possibility at this point.

If the 2011-12 season does wind up being scuttled because of the labor dispute, what happens to the Spurs’ roster going forward? Express-News staff writer Jeff McDonald takes a look at the Spurs’ hypothetical 2012-13 team, which could be rendered near unrecognizable by the year off:

No Duncan?

It’s difficult to imagine the Spurs without Tim Duncan, but the possibility exists the future Hall of Famer and bedrock of four championship teams already has played his final game.

Duncan’s contract is up in July, whether there’s a season or not. In order to play in 2012-13, he’ll have to sign a new one — with the Spurs or (unthinkably) some other team.

Those close to the two-time MVP say he has been keeping himself in fighting shape for a truncated 2011-12 campaign should the lockout end soon. Beyond that, only Duncan knows whether he wants to play next season or hang up his high-tops and await the call from the Hall of Fame.

What we do know: Duncan will be 36 when the mythical 2012-13 season begins and 37 when it ends. He will hypothetically have had a year off to spend at home with his two young children. It could be awfully tempting for him to stay there.

An old Manu

Unlike Duncan, Manu Ginobili already is under contract for 2012-13. But it is difficult to predict exactly how effective the Argentine All-Star might be by then.

Ginobili will be 35 when that season begins, an age in which the decline already has set in for most NBA guards, and he’ll be coming off an Olympics appearance to boot.

At 33, Ginobili was still good enough to carry a team last season, averaging 17.4 points and earning his second career All-Star bid. By this time next year, it will be hard to imagine him as much more than a glorified role player.

Along the same lines: Tony Parker will be 30 before the 2012-13 season tips off, an age at which his production could be expected to begin to fall off. The real tragedy of the lockout for Spurs fans? It already has abridged what might have been the Big Three’s final season of elite productivity and could be poised to erase it completely.

No Dice, R.J.

If the next collective bargaining agreement includes an amnesty provision allowing teams to waive one player without incurring a salary-cap hit, you can bet Richard Jefferson probably won’t be around to start the 2012-13 season. The Spurs could jettison the underachieving small forward and slice the $10.1 million he’s owed that season from their cap number. No harm, no foul.

Though Antonio McDyess was strongly hinting at retirement at the end of last season, Spurs brass was quietly hopeful they could talk the 37-year-old center into returning for a shortened 2011-12 campaign. If this season is wiped out, forget it. McDyess remains retired.

Rookies galore

As of now, the Spurs only have eight players under contract for the 2012-13 season: Ginobili, Parker, Jefferson, Tiago Splitter, Gary Neal, Matt Bonner, DeJuan Blair and James Anderson. The rest of the roster would be rounded out predominantly with two draft classes of rookies.

The Spurs already have two first-rounders from June’s draft — forward Kawhi Leonard and point guard Cory Joseph — in lockout limbo still awaiting their NBA debut. Add to that one or two new draftees from next June’s draft, which takes place with or without a new CBA, and the Spurs will be up to Gregg Popovich’s eyeballs in rookies.

That doesn’t even take into account French point guard Nando de Colo or any of the Spurs’ other overseas projects who might be ready to jump to the NBA next summer.

No Pop?

The running joke around Spurs headquarters is that Popovich will tender his resignation papers about 30 seconds after Duncan. In recent years, however, Popovich has privately considered sticking around longer for the franchise’s transition out of the Duncan era.

It’s a noble idea, but given an entire year off, would Popovich really want to re-start his engines for another season-long grind at age 64? Maybe not, especially if Duncan is gone and Popovich is forced to rebuild around the aforementioned roster of rookies.

It isn’t difficult to envision the longest-tenured active coach in major American sports shuffling off to a vineyard somewhere — and leaving the Spurs in search of a new bench leader for the first time since 1996. Popovich, like Duncan, could simply sit back and wait for his engraved Hall of Fame invitation.