Tag: Gregg Popovich

Blog brother thinks Nash for Tiago, TP is workable deal

Even with the lockout, there’s still a few interesting stories found on the internet if you look hard enough.

ESPN.com “insider” Tom Haberstroh spells out a variety of scenarios that might be available for the Phoenix Suns if they .

Among the possible trades that Haberstroh considers is one where Nash would be dealt traded to the Spurs for a package including  Tony Parker and Tiago Splitter.

Haberstroh also mentions Oklahoma City and New York as possible locations for Nash.

Here’s what he had to say about a Nash-to-the-Spurs scenario on his password-protected report.

“Who else should the Suns call? The San Antonio  have a shutting title window, but it’s still open as long as Tim Duncan’s around. The Spurs might feel pressure to shake things up after their core was blindsided by the Grizzlies last season. The money works for a Nash-for-Tony Parker deal, but the Suns may be reluctant to absorb Parker’s long-term deal unless they receive Tiago Splitter in there, too.

One problem with Haberstroh’s analysis. Even with Parker’s iffy contract status, I can’t see Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford willingly trading him and Splitter for Nash. Parker is more than 8 years younger than Nash. While Nash ranks among the greatest point guards in NBA history, I think that age difference effectively kills any interest the Spurs might have.

Here are a few other Spurs-related stories from across the web. Enjoy them. 

  • Oregonian columnist John Canzano says that Spurs assistant general manager Dennis Lindseyfor the vacant Portland general manager position.   
  • Project Spurs.com’s Michael De Leon liked what he saw when by scoring 24 points and grabbing 10 rebounds to help beat the former BYU All-American’s team.
  • Andrew McNeill of 48 Minutes of Hell.com describes how a the Spurs annual Rodeo Road Trip. And McNeill isn’t excited about Duncan , despite new Spurs strength coach Matt Herring’s aim to preserve his career for a few more years.
  • Humberto Cervera of Project Spurs.com writes that  for the NBA season to start.
  • Associated Press Indianapolis-based reporter Cliff  Brunt when the lockout ends.
  • The Sacramento Bee’s Ailene Voisin notes that the Kings’ home exhibition opener against the Spurs is among the .
  • an interview with Toronto radio station CJCL.
  • Among current and former Spurs, Duncan ranks as the  on the Bleacher Report.com’s Kelly Scaletta’s list of top players in NBA history. , , and . Michael Jordan is the.
  • CBS Sports.com’s Jeff Goodman describes the to former Oklahoma coach and current Houston top assistant Kelvin Sampson.
  • KXAN television in Austin notes that the Spurs and Rockets are the only professional teams to have .
  • Parker’s wedding band tattoo when he married Eva Longoria is ranked as one of the by Miss Abigail’s Guide.com.

ESPN.com predicts challenging future for Spurs

The state of Texas has accounted for seven NBA titles since 1994, with the Spurs claiming four, Houston two and Dallas notching the most recent championship. 

The “Texas Triangle” has traditional been a source of power teams. It might not be quite as rosy in the future.

Chris Palmer of ESPN.com has an interesting breakdown of all three teams in a recent Insider post. Of them, San Antonio might be facing the biggest test to return to elite status.

Here’s what Palmer had to say about the Spurs’ current outlook:

The Spurs’ 61-win regular season had head coach Gregg Popovich’s name in the Coach of the Year conversation all season long. As surprising as their Western Conference-best win total was, the manner in which they were bounced from the playoffs was even more stunning and exposed serious flaws in the Spurs’ game plan. They simply matched up poorly with an upstart Memphis Grizzlies team that became just the second No. 8 seed to topple a No. 1 seed since the NBA expanded the first round to best-of-seven. While age and injuries are probably their biggest concerns, Tim Duncan (34 years old), Manu Ginobili (33) and Tony Parker (28) missed only a combined 12 games last season. But there are a handful of other players on the roster over 30 who simply can’t match the speed or intensity of young teams such as the Grizzlies and Thunder. The Spurs were still highly effective on defense last season, but there’s no getting around the fact that this bunch is nearing the end of its run and is about to enter a major rebuilding phase.”

Here’s what Palmer had to say about the Spurs’ leadership with R.C. Buford and Popovich running the franchise.

“You don’t win four championships without an unseen mastermind behind the scenes. R.C. Buford, arguably the best GM in the NBA, has been the architect of the past three Spurs title runs and one of the most successful executives in American pro sports. The master of the Euro draft-and-stash, he convinced Popovich to go for Parker (three All-Star appearances, 2007 Finals MVP), had a hand in snagging Ginobili 57th overall in 1999 and has seen his gamble on DeJuan Blair pay off. ”He’s proved he can build and maintain a dynasty. Now he’s got to prove he can rebuild one. Buford won’t likely have the good fortune of rebuilding around an all-time great at his position as the Spurs did in 1997, when Duncan became the cornerstone of their brilliant 15-year run. Those rebuilding efforts also might include finding a new coach, as it’s hard to imagine Popovich, owner of four championship rings, slogging through the basement of the Southwest Division while Buford mines distant lands for the next Ginobili.

 ”But even dicier for Buford is what to do with soon-to-be free agent Duncan. Buford must balance the needs of the team with showing the utmost respect for a Spurs legend who made the success of the past 15 years possible.”

And here’s are Palmer’s comments on the team’s key needs heading into the upcoming season.

“Of all the Texas teams, the Spurs have the most work to do at the bargaining table since their key needs likely won’t come through the draft lottery. San Antonio needs an injection of youth, and needs it fast. The Spurs are in desperate need of athletes who can keep up with the speedy teams and sustain an up-tempo brand of basketball over long stretches of minutes. This could be the year the Spurs really start acting their age. During the playoffs, the Spurs simply couldn’t keep up with the spry legs and speed of the Grizzlies. Teams saw that and will surely try to exploit it. What was an ugly exit from the postseason could turn into an ugly demise of San Antonio’s “Big Three.”

It’s a dire prognosis for a team that has made the playoffs every year during Duncan’s tenure with the team and claimed  four NBA titles.

What about it Spurs Nation? Do you think the upcoming future appears to be as bleak as Palmer predicts?

And if not, why do you have faith the Spurs still have another title challenge left  in them?

 

 

 

Lockout cutting it close

NEW YORK — David Stern insisted Saturday the media takes him more seriously than he takes himself, but this was just one of the semantic tricks he uses to avoid easy answers to hard questions.

The NBA commissioner wanted to avoid specifics when asked if progress in lengthy collective bargaining talks had been significant enough to know if the regular season might begin on time.

“If we didn’t think there was any hope,” he said, “we wouldn’t be scheduling the meetings, but that is the best I would say right now.”

You have to be close enough to see the pained look on Stern’s face to know the real answer isn’t between the lines, but right there in his eyes.

Here’s the truth from a weekend of talks Stern said would carry enormous consequences: There is a better chance the entire 2011-12 season will be canceled than there is that anyone will see a regular season game on Nov. 1.

The league seems to be edging closer to the most inept moment in its history, which is what canceling the entire season would represent.

If the owners who are OK with losing the season — Phoenix’s Robert Sarver, Cleveland’s Dan Gilbert and Boston’s Wyc Grousbeck among them — believe fans deprived of games they love will forgive a lost year, you have to wonder how they ever managed to make enough money to buy their teams.

In a rocky economy, alienating customers by withholding a product they love would be lunacy.

Eventually, fans would return in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and probably in San Antonio. In other markets, generally smaller and middle ones — places such as Sacramento, Indiana, Charlotte, New Orleans, Utah, Detroit, Milwaukee and Memphis — it would be years before there would be forgiveness in the form of robust attendance.

The real issue for small- and middle-market owners is competitiveness. They don’t believe they can compete for a championship with the Jerry Busses unless the salary cap system allows them a chance to keep their stars. There are ways to accomplish this while retaining a soft enough cap to satisfy the union.

The players’ No. 1 concern is guaranteed contracts. A true hard cap would put 75 to 80 percent of players on yearly deals, which is why union executive director Billy Hunter calls a hard cap a “blood issue.”

Meanwhile, Sarver, who once spent the bulk of a Spurs-Suns game imitating a chicken from his courtside seat to mock Gregg Popovich’s decision to sit a sore-legged Manu Ginobili, has emerged as the hardest of the hard-liners on the labor relations committee. The players over the weekend reportedly were dumbfounded when he described how his wife had begged him to bring home the mid-level salary cap exception in a designer bag.

It’s going to take an owner with a boatload of courage to stand up to shut-it-down hawks such as Sarver and remind what is at stake, which is the very popularity of the league.

Spurs owner Peter Holt, who chairs the owners’ labor relations committee, is no chicken. Awarded a Silver Star for valor in the Vietnam War, it may be time for Holt to take control of the committee and demand its members recognize the tens of millions in givebacks the players already have put on the table.

After all, Holt’s team has remained competitive in a small market because it has been one of the league’s smartest in managing the soft cap.

Also, the fact the Spurs paid no luxury tax but still lost several million dollars in a 2010-11 season in which they won 61 games gives Holt a platform to demonstrate to the players that the plea for some form of systemic change is no semantic trick from Stern.

mikemonroe@express-news.net