Tag: Gary Neal

Uncertainty reigns as Spurs’ camp begins

By Jeff McDonald
jmcdonald@express-news.net

When the Spurs take to the practice floor today for the start of a shortened training camp prelude to a shortened season, they could be without a starting small forward and a starting center.

There will be a scant 17 days to fill out the roster, integrate new players, re-install the playbook and generally approach some semblance of playing shape before the 66-game regular-season opens Dec. 26 against Memphis.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, despite his reputation as something of a control freak, swears he is cool with all of this.

“I’m not uncomfortable about anything,” Popovich said. “We’re going to camp like we would any other year, and you go do your job.”

At the dawn of this strangest of training camps, with free agency opening the same day as practice, uncertainty reigns supreme across the NBA.

Outside of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, it’s hard to say who exactly will be present on the Spurs’ post-lockout practice court when the doors swing wide this afternoon.

The Spurs are strongly considering waiving small forward Richard Jefferson under the NBA’s new amnesty clause, though the leading candidate to replace him — former Dallas swingman Caron Butler — agreed to a three-year, $24 million deal with the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday.

And Antonio McDyess, the Spurs’ playoff starter at center, is thought to be leaning toward retirement, but hasn’t informed anybody of anything.

“I wish I had an answer for you,” McDyess’ agent, Andy Miller, said Thursday. “But I don’t.”

Answers for the Spurs’ dilemma at small forward have proven just as elusive.

Though Jefferson has informed multiple teammates of the Spurs’ intention to waive him, the team could rethink that plan if no better option presents itself.

With Butler off the table, the Spurs remain in the hunt for Washington’s Josh Howard, who had a positive visit with Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford earlier this week, while also clinging to the fading hope they can sway 39-year-old Grant Hill away from Phoenix with the promise of a two-year deal.

“I always trust (the front office) and trust their judgment to improve our team,” said Parker, who will definitely be getting a new backup at point guard in Indiana expatriate T.J. Ford. “Knowing Pop, we want to try and win it, so I know they’re going to bring in guys who are competitive.”

McDyess, 37, was a recluse in Houston for most of the lockout as he contemplates whether to return for a 16th season he never intended on playing in the first place.

The three-year contract he signed with the Spurs in the summer of 2009 included a nice retirement bonus: $2.64 million guaranteed in 2011-12, whether he suits up or not.

The Spurs have until today to waive McDyess and cut him a check for that $2.64 million. If they don’t, the entirety of his $5.22 million pact becomes guaranteed.

Buford calls McDyess’ status for the start of camp “unclear.” One potential reason for the ambiguity: McDyess’ contract is constructed in such a manner as to make him an enticing trade chip to a team in search of salary cap relief.

After last season, Spurs officials were hopeful McDyess — who averaged 5.6 points and 5.7 rebounds over the past two seasons — could be persuaded to return for an abbreviated campaign.

For now, signs seem to point to McDyess being absent at least for the start of camp.

“I’m his agent and his friend,” Miller said. “The one thing I’m not is his therapist. He’s got to make the decision that’s in his best interest.”

Perhaps McDyess can afford to sit tight. For the rest of the Spurs, whoever they might be, training camp is here.

Ready or not.

2011-12 ROSTER

The Spurs open training camp today with many famil- iar faces, a couple who arrived midseason and are in their first Spurs camp, and some brand new faces.

Old guys
SG James Anderson, 22
C DeJuan Blair, 22
F-C Matt Bonner, 31
PF Tim Duncan, 35
SG Manu Ginobili, 34
SG Gary Neal, 27
PG Tony Parker, 29
PF Tiago Splitter, 26

Rookie guys
PG Cory Joseph, 20
SF Kawhi Leonard, 20
PG Devin Gibson, 22

First-time guys
SF Da’Sean Butler, 23
G-F Danny Green, 24
PG T.J. Ford, 28

Maybe guys
SF Grant Hill, 39
F-G Josh Howard, 31
SF Richard Jefferson, 31

Long-gone guys?
PF Antonio McDyess, 37
PF Steve Novak, 28
PG Chris Quinn, 28

Source: Express-News research

Spurs notebook: Players arrive in ship shape

For the first time in nearly six months, Spurs forward Matt Bonner stood before a bank of television cameras Tuesday wearing sweat-stained workout gear, not a sport coat.

A leading voice for the National Basketball Players Association during the NBA lockout, Bonner was happy to be back inside the Spurs’ practice facility, even if it meant passing a grueling fitness test administered by new strength and conditioning coach Matt Herring.

“It was not tougher than running up the mountains in New Hampshire,” said Bonner, referring to his usual lockout workout. “But it was not easy, regardless.”

By lunchtime Tuesday, 10 Spurs players had graced the door of the practice gym: Bonner, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Gary Neal, Richard Jefferson, James Anderson, Da’Sean Butler, Danny Green and rookies Kawhi Leonard and Cory Joseph.

Manu Ginobili was expected to arrive late Tuesday, with DeJuan Blair also en route.

Until the league’s new collective bargaining agreement is ratified, coaches are not allowed to supervise on-court workouts. Though facilities across the league have been unlocked since Thursday, players’ activities have been limited to physical exams, conditioning work and light shooting drills.

“Everybody seems in pretty good shape,” said Bonner, who was headed to New York for a final round of collective bargaining meetings this afternoon. “The person I worried about most was myself. I passed the fitness test this morning, so I was pretty excited.”

One player who arrived in peak physical condition was Parker. The 29-year-old point guard began his offseason leading the French national team to its first Olympic berth since 2000. Since early October, Parker had been playing with ASVEL Villeurbanne, the French League team he co-owns.

He played his final game with ASVEL last week.

“I’m just happy to be home and happy to be back to my normal life,” Parker said. “It was fun in France, but definitely better here.”

FREE AGENTS IN TOWN: Free-agent small forward Caron Butler made his visit to Spurs headquarters Tuesday as scheduled, his agent, Raymond Brothers confirmed via text message.

Butler, 31, has averaged 16.6 points in a nine-season career. He had last season cut short in Dallas after tearing his right patella tendon in a game on New Year’s Day.

Also scheduled for a Tuesday visit to San Antonio was Washington swingman Josh Howard, who has averaged 15.1 points over eight seasons, most of them spent in Dallas.

BRING ‘EM ON: Parker said he was looking forward to opening the season Dec. 26 at home against Memphis, the team that bounced the Spurs from the first round of the postseason last April.

The Grizzlies defeated the top-seeded Spurs in six games, becoming just the second No. 8 seed in the best-of-7 era to advance past the first round.

“There’s definitely a lot of motivation there,” Parker said. “I want to play them in the playoffs, but I’ll start with the first game of the season.”

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.