Category: In the News

Witherspoon working to salvage an NBA career







<!– –>

His big night in Houston becoming a blurrier memory by the day, Wesley Witherspoon was back on the practice floor Wednesday, once again spilling sweat at the seemingly impossible task of making the Spurs’ roster.

“Stuff like that lasts until you leave the locker room,” Witherspoon said of Sunday’s breakout preseason performance. “Then it’s back to work.”

The 17 points he scored as the Spurs’ starting small forward against the Rockets aside, Witherspoon remains the longest of long shots still left in camp.

In all likelihood, the undrafted rookie will soon be looking for a new professional home before he ever unpacked at his first one.

This was decidedly not how the script was supposed to go.

At this time two years ago, heading into his junior season at the University of Memphis, Witherspoon was projected as an NBA first-round draft choice, guaranteed money and a guaranteed roster spot there for the taking.

Though not quite in the same talent bracket, Witherspoon was predicted to one day follow in the footsteps of Tyreke Evans, a fellow member of Memphis’ Class of 2008 and a Sacramento lottery pick in 2009.

“I felt like it was the best decision for me to stay,” said Witherspoon, 22. “You can’t listen to all the stuff you hear, about where you’re going to be drafted. I felt like I wasn’t ready to go. So I didn’t leave.”

In retrospect, the decision might have cost the 6-foot-8 forward millions.

His junior season was a disaster almost from the start. Witherspoon played poorly in front of NBA scouts — and a national television audience — in a loss to Kansas in December.

Then came arthroscopic knee surgery.

Six games after he returned, Witherspoon was suspended for mocking an assistant coach on the team bus after a loss to SMU.

By March, Witherspoon was back — but as a reserve. Between injury and suspension, he missed 12 games. His draft stock plunged.

Witherspoon came back as a senior, averaged a respectable 7.2 points and 3.7 rebounds, then was passed over by every team in the NBA draft.

Having never expected to be a four-year college player in the first place, Witherspoon now describes his downfall in Memphis in purely practical terms.

“My time in Memphis was well spent,” Witherspoon said. “It was a great four years. That’s the past. Right now, I’m focused on playing for the San Antonio Spurs.”

Sunday in Houston, Witherspoon was able to flash a bit of that long-ago potential.

Earning the start next to Tim Duncan and Tony Parker in a 117-106 win over the Rockets, Witherspoon knocked down 6 of 9 shots, including a pair of 3-pointers.

He led all players in scoring and showed an impressive burst and explosion in the halfcourt.

“Guys get pretty excited, trying to make a basketball team,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “If you have a bad night, it’s like the end of the world. If you have a good night, you’re feeling pretty good.”

In San Antonio, Witherspoon is tasked with making a roster already more or less set, at a wing position where the Spurs are overstocked.

In a sense, his NBA career is considered day-to-day.

“He probably came back down to Earth a little bit with today’s practice,” Popovich said Wednesday. “We all get back to normal after a while. But he showed he’s got some ability and some potential there.”

For an undrafted rookie trying to make possible the impossible, the highs and lows rarely last long.

His pro career nudged from the fast track and onto a path considerably more treacherous, the longest of long shots aims to make every chance count.

“I came here to get better, and I feel like I’m doing that,” Witherspoon said. “This is a great place to start your career.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

Things we’ve learned (or think we have) about Spurs

With four out of seven exhibition games in the books, the Spurs are a little more than halfway finished with their preseason. Though it’s difficult to draw too many conclusions from a set of games featuring more minutes from Cory Joseph, Nando De Colo and Eddy Curry than Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, Express-News beat writer Jeff McDonald gives it a stab:

De Colo is part Argentine

He’s French, and he plays a little point guard, but that’s about the only similarity rookie Nando De Colo bears to Tony Parker. Where Parker emerged from the womb a scoring guard, De Colo at times seems allergic to shooting. Oh, but can he pass. De Colo’s slick assists — he’s averaging a team-best 4.8 per game — remind many Spurs of a young Manu Ginobili. With the Spurs jam-packed at both guard positions, De Colo is likely to begin the season at the end of the bench. If he ever does crack the rotation, however, get your popcorn ready.

Eddy Curry is hungry

No, not that kind of hungry. Hungry for a job. At 7-foot, 295 pounds, Curry arrived at training camp as in shape as he can be. The former fourth overall NBA draft pick has been a model camper, clearly motivated to resuscitate his career after appearing in only 24 games the past three seasons. Curry can still score, having notched double-digit outings in two of the Spurs’ four preseason games, but won’t help much in the rebounding or defensive departments. If he doesn’t earn the Spurs’ 15th roster spot, he’s bound to help some team this season.

There’s talent at the bottom

The Spurs don’t always carry a full 15-man roster into the regular season. But with NBA-experienced big men Curry, Josh Powell and Derrick Brown all providing positive moments, this is a year the Spurs might wish they could keep 17. Curry has size and offensive skill, Powell is averaging seven points on 9-of-10 shooting, and Brown has showcased his athleticism and enough versatility to defend small and power forwards. At this rate, cut day could come down to a high-stakes game of “eeny, meeny, miney, moe.”

Neal gets the point

In the race to become Parker’s primary backup, the incumbent holds a narrow lead. Gary Neal has been the first point guard off the bench in each preseason game, averaging a team-best 13 points while also contributing 2.5 assists and keeping his turnovers in check. More important, Neal — a shooting guard by trade — has done a credible job of running the second unit. Patty Mills, Joseph and De Colo can be expected to keep pushing Neal. If the season began today, however, he’s the backup point.

Size matters (maybe)

It hasn’t happened often. If you blinked, you probably missed it. But twice in the past two games, coach Gregg Popovich has deployed a lineup using 6-11 Tiago Splitter alongside 6-11 Tim Duncan. It is a Twin Towers look the Spurs largely avoided the past two seasons but one that could come in handy against, say, the Dwight Howard-Pau Gasol Lakers in the regular season. Stay tuned.

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

London might be Mills’ launching pad














<!– –>

By Jeff McDonald

The high-scoring point guard enjoyed a breakthrough summer running his national team, using it as a springboard toward the best year of his NBA life.

That, in a nutshell, described Tony Parker last season.

The Spurs are hoping it might also describe Patty Mills this season.

The engine behind Australia’s surprising run to the Olympic quarterfinals in August, Mills is hoping the show-running skills he displayed in London will carry over to his first full campaign with the Spurs.

“The leadership I took upon myself, and was given from (Aussie coach) Brett Brown, is something I’ve been working on over the years,” Mills said. “It’s natural for a point guard to have those characteristics.”

Mills’ bid to become Parker’s primary backup hit a snag when a sprained right ankle landed him on the shelf for nearly two weeks.

He returned Sunday in Orlando after missing four exhibition games and scored six points on 3-of-9 shooting and missed all four of his 3-point tries.

Once Mills regains his footing, and recaptures the scoring panache he showed at the end of last season and later in the ? Olympics, he could emerge as a serious threat for playing time.

Mills, a 6-foot guard, emerged as something of a Spurs cult hero upon his March arrival as a free agent, pouring in 61 points in the team’s final two regular-season games. His performance for the Australian national team at the London Olympics, where he led all scorers in the tournament at 21.1 points per game, did little to dampen expectations.

Mills likely will begin the season as the Spurs’ third point guard behind Parker and Gary Neal. That won’t immediately lead to much playing time, but Mills could see an expanded role as the schedule moves along.

“Patty’s always been a fiery kind of player,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of the former Portland guard. “He plays on juice and adrenaline. I expect him to have a really good year for us.”

It’s easy to look at Mills’ prodigious bursts of point-production and pigeonhole him as simply a scoring guard.

Including games of 27 and 34 points against Phoenix and Golden State at the end of the season, Mills averaged 10.3 points and shot 42.9 percent from 3-point range in 16 appearances with the Spurs last season.

Per 36 minutes, he averaged a healthy 22.8 points.

With a career still looking for traction entering his fourth NBA season, Mills — who possesses elite with-the-ball speed — hopes to showcase himself as more than just a scoring fiend.

London, he believes, was an important stepping stone in that pursuit.

“Attacking has always got to be your mind frame,” Mills said. “But understanding the game — when to hit the open guy, when to set up and run a play — that’s what I learned most with the national team.”

In many ways, they were the same lessons Parker honed the offseason before in leading his French team to an Olympic invitation.

Parker’s summer abroad paved the way for an All-NBA campaign in 2011-12. He can envision a similar experience for Mills in the season to come.

“He played great for Australia in the summer, and he can be great for us,” Parker said. “He’s a great shooter. You can’t leave him open.”

In order to be the same lethal weapon for the Spurs that he was for Australia, Mills first must get on the floor.

That could be easier said than done.

Heading into the season, Mills seems to be behind Neal, whose experience Popovich values, in the pecking order for time behind Parker.

All Mills can do is keep working, and hope eventually the lessons of London begin to pay dividends.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN