Tag: Boris Diaw

Spurs notebook: Popovich keeps playbook abridged

Faced with the prospect of little practice time during last season’s NBA lockout-condensed schedule, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich approached the installation of his offensive and defensive playbooks with one acronym in mind.

KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Though blessed with ample time to tinker this preseason — the Spurs are in the midst of a stretch of five consecutive days without a game — Popovich’s theme for this year’s camp might well be KISS II.

“No, it’s not even a goal,” Popovich said Wednesday, when asked if he’s had time to open up the playbook in practice. “We’re trying to be real basic and simple all the way through camp and make sure whatever we’re doing is done well.”

Offensively, at least, it is a question of not fixing what wasn’t broken.

The Spurs were a well-oiled juggernaut in 2011-12, ranking first in the NBA in offensive efficiency and second in points per game.

Defensively, the Spurs were “a middle-of-the-road team,” according to Popovich and the numbers, and their personnel hasn’t changed much since June.

Instead of using new gimmicks to improve on that end of the floor this season, Popovich prefers his team be more disciplined with the same philosophies that were in place last season.

For players such as center Boris Diaw, forward Stephen Jackson and guard Patty Mills — who all arrived after the trade deadline last season — the decision to keep the playbook uncomplicated had led to an increased comfort level.

For now.

“So far, we’re sticking with simple, what we were doing last year,” Diaw said. “But I’m sure as the days go by, we’re going to put more things in.”

Pasteurized, posterized: Power forward Tim Duncan returned to the practice court after missing Monday’s workout with an undisclosed illness.

Reserve guard Gary Neal was not as lucky, calling in sick for the team’s two-hour practice session.

Asked if perhaps there was a bug going around the locker room, Popovich reminded that he is only a basketball coach.

“What am I, Louis Pasteur?” he said.

Mills, who is recovering from a right ankle sprain, was limited to non-contact work.

But he’s no De Niro: Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili worked overtime, filming another installment of their celebrated H-E-B commercials after practice.

Diaw was quick with the quip when asked to critique the acting chops of Parker, his friend and fellow Frenchman.

“Best French actor since — who do you guys know? — since Gérard Depardieu,” Diaw said. “And the guy who got the Oscar for ‘The Artist.’ Dujardin. Jean Dujardin.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net

New Spurs guard faces big learning curve

By Jeff McDonald

Nando de Colo, the Spurs’ latest international import, is fluent in three languages: his native French, Spanish and English.

He fully admits there are still gaps in his grasp of the last of these.

For instance, when Gregg Popovich compliments de Colo as “a poor man’s Danny Ainge,” the 25-year-old guard’s new coach might as well be speaking Swahili.

“In France, it’s difficult to follow the NBA,” de Colo said with a shrug. “So I didn’t see a lot of games growing up.”

For de Colo, the crash course in NBA 101 starts now.

When the Spurs open training camp Tuesday, de Colo will be the new kid on the block, the most notable addition on a team otherwise content to double down on last season’s Western Conference finals appearance.

Selected with the 53rd overall pick in 2009, de Colo — who at 6-foot-5 can man either guard spot — spent the past three seasons honing his craft for ? Spanish League power Valencia.

He made the jump to the Spurs in July, signing a two-year deal totaling a little more than $2.8 million.

“I think I’m ready,” de Colo said.

The Spurs are not expecting de Colo to come in and be a star. He might not even be a rotation fixture at first. Like their most recent overseas arrival, Brazilian center Tiago Splitter, de Colo has been a described as a high-IQ role player.

He averaged 12.5 points, 2.5 assists and 1.2 steals in three seasons with Valencia and is eager to throw himself into the competition for minutes backing up All-Star point guard and fellow Frenchman Tony Parker.

Though Spurs management insists it is far too early to tell what they have in de Colo, those who have watched him in recent pickup games have marveled at his passing skills.

“He’s just a basketball player,” Popovich said. “He’s got good size. Not a great athlete, but a good enough athlete. He really understands the game.”

Hence, the comparison to Ainge, a heady combo guard who won a pair of championships with the Boston Celtics in the 1980s.

“Danny was a better athlete than this kid is, and a little bigger, but he really understands how to play the game,” Popovich said. “He fits in well with the group, makes good decisions, finishes on the break. He’s going to be fun to watch.”

Like most European boys, de Colo was raised with a soccer ball at his feet. Like many of his American counterparts, he also grew up with a basketball in his hands.

Both his parents played professionally in France, as did two of his sisters.

Growing up in Arras, France, a town of about 42,000 near the Belgian border, de Colo’s basketball idol was not Parker, widely regarded as the greatest player in the country’s history.

It was his older sister Leila, 10 years his senior, who played in France’s top women’s league.

“When I was young, I didn’t watch guys,” de Colo said. “It was only girls, because I watched my sister play.”

A basketball player all his life, de Colo realizes the NBA is a whole new ballgame.

“It’s a new experience for me,” said de Colo, who won a EuroCup title in 2010 with Valencia. “It’s different than in Europe. I must work every day and try to learn about the NBA game.”

Under different circumstances, the start of training camp might be a lonely time for de Colo.

With the Spurs’ lone 2011 draft choice, second-rounder Marcus Denmon, set to begin his pro career in Europe, de Colo is the only drafted rookie on the roster. (Denmon, incidentally, has signed with Cholet, the French team with which de Colo cut his teeth from 2006-09).

It helps de Colo’s transition that he is surrounded by fellow Frenchmen.

He is one of three on the Spurs’ roster, joining Parker and center Boris Diaw in reuniting the French national team in South Texas.

In August, the trio helped lead Les Bleus to the Olympic quarterfinals in London.

Since his arrival in San Antonio last week, de Colo has been living with Diaw at Parker’s estate outside of town while he hunts for a place of his own.

“It’s great to play with some other French guys,” de Colo said. “If you need something, if you don’t understand something, it’s easier to speak with them.”

Perhaps, if de Colo is lucky, one of them might even be able to explain how he reminds them of Danny Ainge.

THE NEW GUY

Nando de Colo, a 25-year-old rookie from France, was the lone addition to the Spurs’ guaranteed roster this offseason. Here is a glance at the new kid on the block:

Position: Guard

Height: 6-foot-5

Born: June 23, 1987, in Arras, France

How acquired: Drafted 53rd overall in 2009

Pro résumé: Three seasons with French club Cholet, then three-year stint with Spanish League power Valencia from 2009-10 to 2011-12

French connection: One of three members of French national team on Spurs that advanced to Olympic quarterfinals, joining Tony Parker and Boris Diaw

What they’re saying: “You never know how he fits until someone gets into your group, but he’s got good size for the position and can go back and forth between the 2 and the 1.” — Spurs general manager R.C. Buford

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

Olympic recap, quarterfinals

The Spurs’ Olympic contingent took a huge hit in Wednesday’s quarterfinals, with only Manu Ginobili advancing to the semifinals. (His “reward?” The opportunity to play, and possibly lose, to the United States for the third time in a month.) Patty Mills at least went down shooting, while Tony Parker and his French teammates simply went down in a meek loss to Spain.

Patty Mills: 26 points (9 for 20 shooting), 6 rebounds, 2 assists in to the United States. Mills did what he’s done for most of the Olympics – carry an Australian squad lacking its only elite international player. Against a different team, it might have made a difference. Against the U.S.A., all it did was delay the inevitable. It was impressive nonetheless, capping another strong Olympics for Mills and propelling him into his first full season in San Antonio with some momentum.

Manu Ginobili: 16 points (5 for 11 shooting), 8 rebounds, 3 assists in over Brazil. Ginobili has had better games in these Olympics. But he was still hugely impactful, doing a little bit of everything while playing 36 of a total 40 minutes. (His best play, a 360 spin move followed by a tomahawk dunk after being fouled on the floor, didn’t even count!) It’s entertaining in general to watch Manu hurtle across the court, but never more than when suiting up for his native land. The way he, Luis Scola, Carlos Delfino and Andres Nocioni play off of one another is a thing of beauty.

Tiago Splitter: 6 points (2 for 5 shooting), 4 rebounds, 4 assists in Brazil’s 82-77 loss to Argentina. Splitter had some nifty moments, most surprisingly with a series of deft passes. But he didn’t do nearly enough in a game Brazil was starving for anything of note to support Leandro Barbosa and Marcelinho, who combined for 22 points apiece.

Tony Parker: 15 points (6 for 20 shooting), 6 rebounds, 1 assist in to Spain. As Parker went, so did France, withering down the stretch in the face of Spain’s steady, methodical play. The beginning of the end came early in the fourth, when Parker blew a layup that would have given Les Bleus a five-point lead. They instead scored a paltry two points over the next seven minutes, a stretch in which Parker was powerless to avert another painful loss to Spain.

Boris Diaw: 15 points (6 for 11 shooting), 8 rebounds, 5 assists. The full Boris Diaw Experience in a single game. He was the best player on the court during the first half, at which point he was on pace for a triple double. But he went from homeless man’s Magic Johnson to regular homeless man in the second, registering five points, two rebounds and no assists over the final two quarters as France threw away a prime opportunity to avenge its loss to Spain in the 2011 EuroBasket final.

Nando De Colo: 2 points (0 for 3 shooting), 2 rebounds. De Colo has been inconsistent throughout the Olympics, but he still managed to show flashes of competence and potential in most of his games. Not so against Spain, amassing as many turnovers and personal fouls as points. France doesn’t expect or need him to be great, but even average would have been a huge help.