Author: katadmin

Draft prospect: Bojan Bogdanovic

The Spurs own the 29th pick in the June 23 draft, one of the lowest slots of the Tim Duncan era. This year’s draft pool is considered to be uncommonly shallow, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Spurs either deal the pick or select a future prospect to stash overseas. Over the next few weeks, the Courtside blog will profile selected players who could be wearing silver and black, should the Spurs elect to keep their pick.

The Spurs have famously had some luck with drafting foreign players at the back half of drafts. Tony Parker was selected 28th overall in 2001, two years after Manu Ginobili went 57th. Both became All-Stars.

While it is too early — far too early — to project Croatian prospect Bojan Bogdanovic into the same stratosphere, he does make for an intriguing prospect in the upcoming draft.

At 6-foot-7 and 22 years old, Bogdanovic probably possesses more upside than the collegians in the draft pool. Playing for Cibona Zagreb last season, Bogdanovic averaged nearly 19 points per game in Adriatic League play. A lethal scorer, some have compared Bogdanovic’s shot-making ability to that of the late Drazen Petrovic, generally regarded as the greatest Croatian basketball player of all time.

That too is probably a stretch, but Bogdanovic could project as a rotation-ready NBA small forward, a spot where the Spurs have an obvious need for depth.

The biggest drag on Bogdanovic’s stock in the draft is his obligation in Europe. Bogdanovic is expected to sign with the Turkish team Fenerbahce, if he hasn’t already, basically ruling him out for NBA competition in 2011-12. Any team that drafts him must be willing to wait on him.

If the Spurs wind up targeting Bogdanovic, however, his uncertain availability could wind up working in their favor.

Currently, Bogdanovic is being projected as an early second-round pick. The Spurs would have to reach to take him at No. 29. There’s a chance Bogdanovic’s contract situation could push him to the bottom of the second round, where the Spurs could be poised to make another European steal.

Mike Monroe: NBA just posturing at this point

It’s Wednesday morning, and the owners and players are still talking to one another. Apparently, Tuesday was a very important day in the NBA’s collective bargaining process, but Friday is very, very important.

David Stern often resorts to hyperbole, so the massive magnitude the NBA commissioner had ascribed to Tuesday’s meeting caused some of us veteran reporters to roll our eyes.

Stern emerged on Tuesday to announce another negotiating session for Friday because the owners had made a new proposal that reflected their desire “to go as far as we can to avoid a lockout,” according to the Associated Press.

Perhaps his real goal was to make certain he can preside over the first round of Thursday’s draft without being booed off the stage or pelted with rotten tomatoes.

Thursday’s draftees may have to wait until 2012 to prove worthy of their spot in the annual selection, for there is little to suggest a collective bargaining breakthrough is imminent.

Negotiators don’t get more down-to-earth than Matt Bonner, the Spurs forward who is one of nine players on the union’s negotiating committee. But even the ever-upbeat Bonner is hard-pressed to see a way out of a process that has been complicated by major changes in the makeup of the league’s owners and a global recession that has affected nearly every business on the planet.

You can tell Bonner is discouraged when he fails to offer anything quirky or humorous in any conversation, and he was all business during a phone chat on Tuesday.

The problem with the owners’ negotiating position, Bonner said, is its very premise.

“There was movement,” he said of Tuesday’s meeting, “but the key to understanding it is that their starting position is based on the really extreme offer they made last year.

“They’re not starting from the current deal, which is our starting point, obviously. They’re starting from Candyland.”

The owners’ “Candyland” includes a hard salary cap, and Bonner and the other members of the union’s negotiating committee — president Derek Fisher and Bonner, Roger Mason Jr., Theo Ratliff, Mo Evans, Keyon Dooling, James Jones, Etan Thomas and Chris Paul — weren’t buying the latest iteration of that position, something Stern called a “flex cap.”

According to the Associated Press, Stern said the flex cap would ensure the players’ total compensation never would fall below $2 billion per year in a 10-year contract, a figure close to what the players’ total compensation was last season.

The tweak, according to Bonner, is just repackaging an old proposal in new language.

“It’s their attempt to spin something that is still essentially a hard cap,” he said.

Spurs owner Peter Holt, considered a moderate, is chairman of the owners’ labor relations committee, but it includes some relatively new owners who weren’t around when previous CBAs dictated the split of league revenues. The league insists 22 of 30 teams lost money last season and calls it proof the business model is broken and can be fixed only by the enormous changes they seek.

Frankly, some of the new owners paid too much for their teams — Phoenix’s Robert Sarver ($400 million in 2005) and Golden State’s Joe Lacob and Dan Gruber ($400 million in 2010) for example. Now they seek big givebacks from the union to prop up their bottom lines.

The players are disinclined to give up what took 40 years to gain.

This is Bonner’s first experience with collective bargaining, but he already understands the imperative that guides a negotiating committee that includes only one superstar.

“It’s humbling to be in a position where you can have an influence on a deal that’s going to affect the game that is so much bigger than you,” he said. “It will affect all the players in the game now and all the players that come in the league after you. It’s a big responsibility to do what’s right and fight for what’s right.”

The bell will ring on the next round on Friday — a very, very important day.

mikemonroe@express-news.net

Nowitzki impresses with drive to succeed

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
jonathan.feigen@chron.com

Before Dirk Nowitzki demolished the Thunder, before he drove by Chris Bosh to win one Finals game and rose above illness and Udonis Haslem to win another, there was still reason to marvel.

At an age when athletes usually are in decline, Nowitzki has continued to grow and improve in remarkable ways. He has become stronger in the low post, tougher off the dribble, unstoppable with a high-kick fadeaway jumper.

He has spoken of the late-night workouts and how they have expanded his array of offensive options. Teammates speak of his growth as a leader. Even Haslem rolled his eyes and grumbled for the “99,000th time” about how much more difficult Nowitzki has become to defend since their meeting in the 2006 Finals.

But Nowitzki — who turns 33 this month — has enjoyed a change even rarer than the late-career improvement of his game.

He has altered his image, erased old and inaccurate labels. Five seasons after he was a runaway Most Valuable Player, he has become appreciated as he never was.

“It’s like where have you been,” Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson said of the new perception. “We’re spoiled in Dallas to have a guy like that, to see him develop and get to the point he is today. It’s really, really cool to be a part of. This is Dirk. We’ve been spoiled rotten.”

To the Mavericks, Nowitzki is not answering critics as much as cashing in on dues paid.

“That guy has been through the stinking ringer,” Nelson said. “It’s been tough. This is the same Dirk we’ve seen for 11 years. He’s hungry. He senses an opportunity. He’s absolutely put this team on his back. But he’s done it before.”

The failure to fully appreciate Nowitzki was not difficult to understand. The Mavericks lost four consecutive games in the 2006 Finals against the Heat and were eliminated in the first round in two of the next four seasons.

Though he is one of the league’s great shooters, a 7-footer that more often operated on the perimeter than inside, he was even labeled “soft” as if he scored outside the paint as a matter of preference, rather than excellence.

Nowitzki has become increasingly tough inside, negating the option of defending him with quicker perimeter players. In this season’s playoffs, he has become especially effective putting the ball on the floor and driving to the rim.

This season, Nowitzki has averaged 28 points per game in the playoffs, making 49.6 percent of his shots, 50 percent of his 3-pointers and 93.7 percent of his free throws.

“He’s more physical,” Haslem said. “He plays through contact. He’s putting it on the floor going either way. Obviously, he already had a lethal jumper. He’s just a great player. He can do it all.”

Most of all, with the game on the line, no one has been more effective. Averaging 11 points per game in the fourth quarter of the Finals, he has scored more fourth quarter points than Miami’s LeBron James and Dwyane Wade combined.

He scored the Mavericks’ last nine points in their Game 2 win, including the game-winning drive. He also tallied their final 12 points in Game 3, missing a jumper that would have forced overtime, and notched 10 fourth-quarter points while struggling with a high fever in Game 4.

“That was our version of Willis Reed,” Nelson said. “If he doesn’t tough it out and he doesn’t come back, there is no way. I don’t even know how he was standing that fourth quarter.”

When he stood tallest, he had not only beaten the Heat and fever, but added another retort to the old doubts and labels, as if they too were something to overcome.

“He gets beat down so much,” Dallas guard Jason Terry said. “It’s a big burden, a responsibility. But he welcomes the challenge.

“He’s going to be a Hall of Famer. Dirk is his own unique individual, and he’s carving out a niche for himself in history.”