Author: katadmin

Free agency: What to expect from the Spurs

As you are standing around your computer today, Spurs fans, frantically refreshing Twitter and breathlessly awaiting news of what your favorite team is doing in the nascent stages of Free Agency 2012, here is a table you might find handy.

It is a look at the Spurs’ major free agency-related related moves since winning their most recent NBA championship in 2007:

Summer 2007: Sign Ime Udoka and Ian Mahinmi

2008: Sign Roger Mason Jr., re-sign Kurt Thomas.

2009: Trade for Richard Jefferson, sign Antonio McDyess and Keith Bogans

2010: Sign Tiago Splitter, re-sign Matt Bonner

2011: Sign T.J. Ford

When considering the question of how active the Spurs might or might not be in free agency, it is instructive to look back how they’ve spent previous summers.

With the exception of 2009, when the Spurs traded for Jefferson and signed McDyess, summertime for the Spurs has not been about making a marquee splash. It has been about cherry-picking value to fill a specific need, often late in the summer after the big names have already committed elsewhere.

That approach is by necessity. With a trio of All-Stars (see: Duncan, Parker, Ginobili) eating up cap space for the better part of a decade, the Spurs simply haven’t had room on the payroll to take on other high-dollar additions.

Even with free agent Tim Duncan set to perhaps take a 50-percent pay cut from the $21.2 million he was on the books for last season, this summer promises to be quiet as well. Last year’s salary cap was $57 million; before Duncan makes another cent, the Spurs are already on the hook for nearly $50 million in salaries for 2012-13.

Once Duncan signs, the Spurs are all but certain to be over the salary cap again, leaving them with only the mid-level exception, biannual exception and veteran minimum contracts with which to lure other free agents.

That’s not going to get you, say, Roy Hibbert. The Indiana All-Star center is poised to sign a maximum offer sheet with Portland. Or even Nicolas Batum, who could be looking at a $50 million pay day in Minnesota or elsewhere. Spurs fans pining for either player were dreaming anyway.

Expect a free agency period much like last December for the Spurs, when they looked into MLE-type wing players (Caron Butler and Josh Howard), before ultimately signing just one veteran free agent: backup point guard T.J. Ford, for the league minimum.

A reasonable expectation for the Spurs’ offseason is this: Re-sign Duncan to a deal that is substantially less than what he made last season, but still starts in the $10 million range; re-sign Danny Green and (perhaps) Patrick Mills; use the mid-level exception to re-sign Boris Diaw and perhaps bring Erazem Lorbek over from Spain or Nando de Colo from France.

As for outside free agents, expect the Spurs to bring in a veteran minimum guy or two as we get closer to training camp.

Expect the team that takes the court opening night in October to look almost identical to the one bounced from the Western Conference finals last month.

Of course, all of this is just a guess. But based on the Spurs’ past history and cap situation this summer, a reasonable one.

James’ incandescent efforts a bright contrast from 2011

MIAMI — LeBron James arrived for practice Monday wearing lime-green sneakers, a highly fluorescent shade.

It was the fashion statement du jour for the league’s three-time MVP, much like the eyeglass frames he’s been sporting after games throughout this postseason. But those sneakers probably would have remained tucked away in the drawer beneath his locker during last year’s NBA Finals, since very little about James’ game would be considered glowing or luminous during those two weeks.

Different year, different story.

For the second straight season, the Miami Heat hold a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals. There’s a glaring difference this time around — that being James is playing at the top of his game. And he’ll try to help the Heat move within one win of a championship tonight when Miami plays host to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 4 of this title series.

“We’re a totally different team than we was last year when we was up 2-1,” James said Monday. “… We understand what it takes to win, we’ve used that motivation, and we will continue to use that motivation. But last year is last year, and we’re not going into a Game 4 on someone else’s floor. We’re going into a Game 4 on our floor with a lot of experience in this type of situation. We’ll be ready. We love the challenge.”

Miami lost Game 4 in Dallas last year, the start of a three-game slide that ended with the Mavericks winning the title.

So the Thunder know a 2-1 deficit in a series is hardly insurmountable, even though the home-court roles are reversed this time around. And if Oklahoma City needed more proof, all the Thunder need to do is remember the Western Conference finals when they lost the first two games to San Antonio, becoming the 19th and 20th entries on the Spurs’ incredible winning streak. The Spurs didn’t win another game the rest of the way.

“We were down 2-0 against San Antonio, and everybody thought the series was over,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “But I know our guys, they’re very competitive, they’re very resilient. They’ve always showed that type of effort every game, and we’ve always been a great bounce-back team. I thought last night was a great bounce-back. It’s unfortunate we didn’t make a couple plays, and uncharacteristic, also.”

Uncharacteristic. That would also be a fine word to describe how James played in the Finals last season.

He freely acknowledges that he “didn’t make enough plays” against the Mavericks a year ago, and the numbers — 17.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game — back that up, as do his well-chronicled fourth quarter struggles in that series. So far in this year’s Finals, James is averaging 30.3 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists, and in the final minutes of Miami’s two wins in the series, he’s done his part to slam the door on the Thunder.

“He’s been aggressive. He’s an aggressive player,” Thunder guard James Harden said. “He’s been aggressive all year, all postseason. He’s tall, strong, and physical. He’s a tough matchup. It takes five guys to really lock down on their offense because they’re a very offensive team especially with LeBron and (Dwyane) Wade.”

James is shooting 46 percent in the series, not even close to the 57 percent clip Kevin Durant is putting up for Oklahoma City. But here’s maybe one piece of proof to support that aggression notion Harden was speaking of — James is 25 for 29 from the foul line in the three games, while Durant is just 14 for 19.

James has done much of his work near the rim in these Finals. But while it wasn’t his most memorable shot, perhaps the biggest one he hit all night in Miami’s Game 3 victory was a 3-pointer late in the third quarter, one of just five shots the Heat made from outside the paint in that game. That shot put Miami up entering the fourth and seemed to extend the Thunder defense just enough to allow James, Wade and Chris Bosh to create more in the lane late.

“The biggest evolution of great players is they always stay in constant state of being uncomfortable,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They don’t stay satisfied. And LeBron every summer has added something to his game. … I think that’s a sign of greatness.”

Spurs’ Duncan on the market, but likely not for long

The last the public saw of Tim Duncan, he was standing in a doorway just outside the locker room shower at Chesapeake Energy Arena, trying hard to avoid talking about his basketball future.

The Spurs had just been bounced from the Western Conference finals in Oklahoma City, leaving Duncan in no mood to discuss his impending free agency.

“I haven’t even thought about it, and I really don’t care,” Duncan said June 6. “I’ll figure it out when it happens, just like everything else.”

That time has come.

Duncan’s contract expired at 11 p.m. Saturday, making the 36-year-old franchise icon a free agent for just the third time in his 15-year NBA career.

Much like the last time, in 2003 when Duncan opted out of his deal with the intention of signing a new one with the Spurs, he doesn’t plan to shop around.

In an interview with Yahoo! Sports during the playoffs, Duncan memorably declared himself “a Spur for life.”

“I don’t see him not having a future with the franchise,” coach Gregg Popovich said of the two-time league MVP.

So the question now at the dawn of Duncan’s latest foray into free agency is not whether he’ll re-sign with the Spurs, who drafted him first overall in 1997. It’s at what price tag.

The market for a 36-year-old power forward with Hall of Fame credentials and a championship ring might have been set Saturday, as multiple reports indicated Kevin Garnett was planning to sign a three-year, $34 million deal to remain with the Boston Celtics.

Statistically, the two big men were remarkably similar last season.

Garnett averaged 15.8 points and 8.2 rebounds in a little more than 30 minutes per game. Duncan posted 15.4 points and nine rebounds in 28 minutes.

Both players earned around $21.2 million last season, pro-rated for the lockout-shortened schedule. Both were left off the All-Star team for the first time in their decorated careers.

Spurs general manager R.C. Buford declined to publicly discuss negotiations with his star power forward.

“That’s not something we would comment on,” Buford said.

By NBA rule, Duncan is the only free agent with whom Spurs management had been allowed to negotiate before Saturday night.

Given that head start, it is not difficult to imagine an agreement with Duncan in place by July 11, the first day players are permitted to sign new contracts.

Re-inking Duncan to a Garnett-like deal, with the 2012-13 season starting somewhere in the $10 million range, would not get the Spurs under the salary cap.

But it would help accomplish the more feasible goal of moving them below the luxury tax threshold, set at $70 million last season and expected to increase marginally for next season.

That is significant for reasons that go beyond owner Peter Holt’s pocketbook.

Only teams below the luxury tax have access to the full mid-level exception — expected to be worth a shade more than $5 million — with which to lure other free agents.

That won’t be enough for the Spurs to conjure a radical summertime makeover, but it might be enough to keep together the bulk of a team that finished 50-16 last season and made the conference finals.

Other in-house free agents for the Spurs include forward Boris Diaw, who at age 30 could be chasing his last significant NBA payday, as well as restricted free agents Danny Green and Patrick Mills.

The Spurs have already extended qualifying offers to both guards — $2.7 million for Green, $885,120 for Mills — giving the team the right to match other offers.

“This is my first time to be pursued,” Green, a 25-year-old set to enter his fourth NBA season, said Saturday. “It’s an exciting time, and hopefully a fun time. I’m hoping there’s a good amount of teams who like what I can do.”

The Spurs could also choose to fortify their roster with players from overseas, including Slovenian big man Erazem Lorbek and French guard Nando de Colo.

Though the Spurs own draft rights for both players, money to sign either would come from their free-agent budget.

Buford said the team would continue to monitor all its European projects — de Colo is set to play for the French team in the London Olympics later this month — but added “we’re not going to try to rush the timeline.”

“When it’s right for them, hopefully we’ll be able to work out an arrangement that fits for them and fits for us,” Buford said.

Those discussions, of course, are secondary on the Spurs’ offseason to-do list. This has always been the summer of Duncan, and it officially began Saturday night.

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN