Author: katadmin

Report: Spurs sign Brown to non-guaranteed deal

The Spurs have signed journeyman forward to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract, according to .

Brown (6-foot-8, 235 pounds) was originally drafted in the second round by Charlotte in 2009. He was picked up by the Knicks after the Bobcats waived him midway through his second season. Brown, 25, returned to Charlotte last season, averaging 8.1 points (51.8 percent shooting) and 3.6 rebounds in 22.2 minutes per game. His 14.7 PER was just a hair under the weighted league average. The bad news — it came while playing for one of the worst teams in history.

Writer’s note: I consider myself a pretty educated NBA fan, but I literally cannot tell you a single thing about Brown other than his stats look fairly decent for a castoff type. His (admittedly dated) scouting report at  describes an athletic, undersized tweener who lacks polish. Here’s a more recent assessment from something called .

At any rate, I certainly like this pickup better than the corpse of Tracy McGrady, who reportedly worked out with the Spurs earlier this week. Maybe he’ll thrive in a winning atmosphere — provided he makes it through training camp, of course.

T-Mac gets a tryout

Nearly eight years after Tracy McGrady beat the Spurs with this legendary , the former NBA scoring champ is now auditioning to join them.

The seven-time All-Star, still in search of a contract less than a month away from the start of training camps, worked out for team officials in San Antonio this week, .

McGrady, 33, is still looking for work after averaging a career-low 5.2 points in his lone season with Atlanta. As the Yahoo! report indicates, McGrady might soon have to decide whether to accept a make-good offer to join an NBA training camp this fall — the New York Knicks could be another option — or finish his career overseas.

It is not exactly clear how McGrady might fit into the Spurs plans. Though renowned earlier in his career as an elite scoring guard, the 6-foot-8 McGrady has found new life the past two seasons in Atlanta and Detroit filling the “savvy back-up point guard” role.

With the Spurs’ depth chart behind Tony Parker largely unsettled — Patrick Mills, Gary Neal and rookie Nando de Colo will all battle for time there — the notion of them taking a flier on someone such as McGrady isn’t totally out of the question.

He’d also likely fit into the payroll plans of the budget-conscious Spurs, having played last season with the Hawks for the veteran’s minimum of $854,398.

Supporting cast provided Spurs with huge value

With a shallow-pocketed owner and limited revenue steams, the Spurs have few peers when it comes to stretching dollars.

Combine that with their savvy front office, and it comes as no surprise that the team got massive value last season from their supporting cast — defined as everyone not named Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. Indeed, not only were those players generally productive, in most cases they vastly outperformed their contracts.

Just look at the numbers dug up in this , using a formula involving win shares and individual salaries. (Follow the link for more details, and the complete table.)

Tiago Splitter and Matt Bonner outperformed their contracts by nearly double. Guys like Kawhi Leonard, Danny Green and DeJuan Blair were even better, playing as much as EIGHT TIMES better than their deals would suggest.

On the flip side, Duncan is suggested to have been overpaid by almost $12 million, but that’s what happens with aging superstars. And he still didn’t even , as compiled by CNBC.