Tag: Gregg Popovich

Pop unsure if McDyess will be back

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is unsure if veteran power forward Antonio McDyess will return for a 16th season in the NBA.

Popovich offered few hints of what players his team could be interested in picking up in free agency, or even if McDyess would return.

“I don’t know,” Popovich said when asked about McDyess during a press conference Friday afternoon at the team’s training facility. ”I don’t know the status of a lot of guys.”

McDyess, who turned 37 in September, hinted at retirement after the Spurs’ first-round playoff loss to Memphis last season. He averaged a career-low 5.3 points per game and 5.4 rebounds  in 73 games for the Spurs last season and 5.7 points and 5.0 rebounds in the playoffs against Memphis.

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 flirting with free-agent small forwards

At some point today, Richard Jefferson is expected to report to the Spurs’ practice facility for a pre-training camp physical exam. If he times his visit just right, he might bump into a couple of players auditioning to replace him.

According to multiple reports, free-agent small forwards Caron Butler and Josh Howard are scheduled to be in town today to hear recruiting pitches from Spurs general manager R.C. Buford and other team officials.

For Jefferson, for now still the Spurs’ starting small forward, it could mean a change of address is imminent. Or it could mean nothing at all.

Butler, 31, averaged 15 points in 29 games for Dallas last season, which ended prematurely when he ruptured his right patella tendon on New Year’s Day in Milwaukee.

Howard, like Butler, is 31 with a recent history of knee problems. He averaged a career-low 8.4 points in 18 games with Washington while recovering from an ACL tear sustained the year before.

The Spurs’ apparent fascination with free-agent small forwards — the team is also believed to be interested in Washington’s Maurice Evans, former New Jersey swingman Bostjan Nachbar and Phoenix’s Vince Carter, should the Suns waive him — gives rise to natural speculation about Jefferson’s future in San Antonio.

To get either Butler or Howard, the Spurs would likely need to clear enough payroll to trigger full use of the $5 million mid-level exception. The most obvious way to get there would be to waive Jefferson under the NBA’s forthcoming amnesty provision, wiping his nearly $9.3 million off the rolls.

His pay having outstripped production since a ballyhooed arrival in the summer of 2009, Jefferson would seem a prime candidate for amnesty.

He has averaged 11.6 points in two seasons, and though he did shoot a career-best 44 percent from beyond the 3-point arc in 2010-11, he was benched for the entire second half of the Spurs’ Game 6 ouster in Memphis.

Yet it is far from certain the Spurs will opt for amnesty with Jefferson. It might make more sense for them to wait until the summer to waive Jefferson, when Tim Duncan’s nearly $21.2 million will also come off the books, giving the Spurs a deeper war chest with which to chase a more bountiful 2012 free-agent crop.

The Spurs could also look to find a trade partner for Jefferson, though they might have to search far and wide to find a willing taker for the three years and nearly $30.5 million left on his deal.

It is also possible, and perhaps probable, Jefferson opens this season in the same place he began the last two — as the Spurs’ starting small forward.

Whatever the Spurs’ intentions are, they should become clearer in the coming days.

Teams cannot begin signing free agents until Friday. With training camps across the league allowed to open the same day, there will be urgency to fill out the roster.

“(We’re) trying to decide who we want to sign and what free agents to go after, and do we want to make any trades?” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “That’s the emphasis between now and training camp opening. For all teams, really, because everybody’s got to put their team together.”

If the Spurs aim to land either Butler or Howard, they will face competition.

Butler met with representatives from Chicago and the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday, and will head to New Jersey and possibly Detroit after departing San Antonio. Disinclined to offer more than a one-year deal, Dallas remains a longshot to retain Butler.

In addition to the Spurs, Howard is also scheduled to meet with Chicago, New Jersey and Washington, which still harbors hope of bringing him back.