Spurs patient with youngsters

NEW ORLEANS — Nearly a month into this stranger-than-fiction post-lockout season, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has come to appreciate the upside of guiding the youngest team he’s ever had.

“We’ve actually got a guy who can dunk now,” Popovich joked after a recent shootaround. “He did it today in practice, and three of us just about fell over.”

In the four-plus years since their last NBA championship, the Spurs have evolved from old, veteran and savvy to young, nimble and callow. Once playfully derided by their coach as “older than dirt,” the Spurs start a 20-year-rookie at shooting guard (Kawhi Leonard) and a 22-year-old at center (DeJuan Blair).

The bench rotation includes another 20-year-old rookie in point guard Cory Joseph, 24-year-old swingman Danny Green, and a pair of older second-year players in 27-year-old center Tiago Splitter and 26-year-old guard Gary Neal.

Take away 34-year-old Manu Ginobili, out with a broken hand, and 35-year-old Tim Duncan — who sat out Saturday night’s loss in Houston for rest reasons — and it’s been like a flashback to Popovich’s days as a college coach at Pomona-Pitzer.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Popovich said. “They’re good kids. It’s great to be able to teach and see them want to learn as much as they do.”

Five of the Spurs’ top nine scorers have less than three NBA seasons on their résumé, but there is a downside for relying on youth and inexperience.

Typical for a younger team, the Spurs have struggled on the road (they are 1-6). Closing tight games can be an adventure (they are 1-2 in the past three games, all decided by three points or fewer).

Tonight in New Orleans, the 10-7 Spurs look to avoid their first three-game losing streak of the season. At 3-13, the Hornets own the worst record in the Western Conference, and should be easy pickings.

With a young team, however, you never know. It’s why Popovich stuck with “older than dirt” for so long.

For Duncan, who woke up one day as the Spurs’ oldest player, working alongside such youth has been both an education and an adventure. Leonard and Joseph, the two rookies, were in first grade when Duncan made his NBA debut in 1997.

“It takes time,” Duncan said. “It’s about us being used to them, them being used to us, being used to being in tough situations in hostile territory. They’re coming along.”

So far, Popovich has handled the unpredictability of youth with as much patience as he can muster.

When Leonard had a typical rookie moment late in the fourth quarter at Houston — passing up an open jumper, turning the ball over in traffic, then committing a loose-ball foul against Kevin Martin — Popovich didn’t explode.

“He just told me to be confident and take the wide-open shot,” said

Leonard, a fill-in starter while Ginobili is out. “Things happen. I’m still a rookie.”

The infusion of youth has invigorated Popovich, stirring his instincts as a teacher. Yet with the lockout-compressed schedule eliminating almost all practice time, he has often been like a professor without a classroom.

“Shootaround days become even more important,” Popovich said. “They’re sort of like mini practices now, since you don’t have a real practice. You actually have an opportunity to maybe repeat some things so the young guys start to pick things up.”

When Popovich does get a chance to stage a practice, the gym can look like a three-ring circus.

“Logistically, it’s different,” Popovich said. “I’m sure some drills and basketball things a coach would do for young guys, Duncan doesn’t want to see it anymore. These young guys, you’ve got to go back to the basics. You have different people doing different things.”

Leonard, the 15th pick out of San Diego State, didn’t know what to expect when the Spurs traded for him on draft night. He had heard stories of his soon-to-be new coach, some good, some horrifying.

Leonard’s first meeting with Popovich calmed his nerves.

“He sat me down and told me exactly what they expected of me,” Leonard said.

There is no truth to the rumor Popovich asked for more dunks, but it has been a notable side effect.

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Leonard conjures echoes of Bowen

By Mike Monroe
mikemonroe@express-news.net

On the bench at the ATT Center for the first time in his young life, Malcolm Thomas watched intently as fellow rookie Kawhi Leonard rendered helpless a serial Spurs tormenter during the critical minutes of an overtime victory against the Rockets.

Rockets guard Kevin Martin has tortured the Spurs a few times in the past, whether in Sacramento or Houston. Most recently, he made 10 of 17 shots and scored 25 points in Houston’s 105-85 win over the Spurs on Dec. 29.

But when Martin re-entered Wednesday’s airtight game with 7:29 left in the fourth quarter, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich countered immediately by getting Leonard back in the game with instructions to prevent Martin from another opportunity to dominate.

More than anyone in the arena, Thomas knew what to expect — a rough time for Martin.

Sure enough, barely able to get open long enough to get the ball, Martin didn’t score in either the fourth period or OT, going 0 for 3.

“I’d seen it all before, in college, too,” said Thomas, Leonard’s teammate for two seasons at San Diego State. “I was sitting there thinking, ‘It’s crunch time, and he’s going to get down and play defense really hard.’ He does it all game long, but when it matters most, he’s really going to make it count. In my opinion, he’s a monster.”

A monster?

It’s what a lot of Spurs foes called Bruce Bowen when the perennial all-defensive team forward was irritating the league’s most gifted scorers so often that some called him the NBA’s dirtiest player during his eight seasons in silver and black.

Now Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has referenced Bowen while discussing Leonard’s defensive versatility on the occasion of his performance in the first starting assignment of his career. Leonard’s second start is expected tonight against the Portland Trail Blazers at the ATT Center.

“It’s huge for us to have a guy on this team that can do similar things to what Bruce did in the past,” Popovich said after the forward’s defensive opus in crunch time Wednesday.

Popovich isn’t ready to declare Leonard his new Bowen, but it is clear he believes he has the potential to make a similar defensive impact.

“This young man’s got a lot to learn,” Popovich said. “But as I’ve said a lot of times, he’s very willing, he’s very versatile and I think he’s got the ability to be one heck of a player, and he wants to be. We’re very excited about him.”

Popovich didn’t give Leonard a chance to get overly excited about his first starting assignment. Not until he heard his named called out by PA announcer Kevin Brock did Leonard know he would be on the court for the opening tip.

Leonard doesn’t seem to get excited about much, and it’s not clear he understands the significance of Popovich’s implication he can be the defensive stopper Bowen once was.

“It just gives me a little more confidence to just go out there and do my job even better,” Leonard said.

Ask him what he knows about Bowen, and Leonard recalls 3-pointers from the corners, mentioning his defensive play as an afterthought.

When training camp opened, Leonard fell into the trap most often tripped by rookies — belief they must impress the coaching staff by scoring.

“He was trying to justify himself by shooting shots, taking threes, making an impact that way,” said Richard Jefferson, who knows how hard it is to adapt to Popovich’s approach to the game. “He didn’t understand exactly what Pop wanted from him. Now he knows that if he just goes and plays defense consistently, he’s going to get those minutes and those, in turn, are going to lead to some offense.”

Indeed, with his defensive work earning 34, 33 and 38 minutes in his past three games, Leonard has scored 13, 19 and 11 points.

Thursday: Spurs (2-0) at Rockets (0-1)

Time: 7 p.m.
TV: FSNSW
Radio: WOAI-AM 1200, KCOR-AM 1350

STARTING LINEUPS

Point guard
Spurs: 9 Tony Parker (6-2, 11th yr)
Rockets: 7 Kyle Lowry (6-0, 6th yr)
Lowry opened season with 20-12 double-double vs. Magic

Shooting guard
Spurs: 20 Manu Ginobili (6-6, 10th yr)
Rockets: 12 Kevin Martin (6-7, 8th yr)
Martin made only 1 of 10 shots, went 0 for 6 on 3-pointers in opener.

Small forward
Spurs: 24 Richard Jefferson (6-7, 11th yr)
Rockets: 10 Chase Budinger (6-7, 3rd yr)
Jefferson made 3 of 7 on 3-pointers in season-opening victory Monday

Power forward
Spurs: 21 Tim Duncan (6-11, 15th yr)
Rockets: 4 Luis Scola (6-9, 5th yr)
Scola scored 19, grabbed 7 rebounds in season opener.

Center
Spurs: 45 DeJuan Blair (6-7, 3rd yr)
Rockets: 27 Jordan HIll (7-1, 3rd yr)
Hill went 3 for 3 on FG but split time with Sam Dalembert in opener.

SPURS RESERVES
25 James Anderson, G, 6-6, 2nd yr
15 Matt Bonner, C/F, 6-10, 8th yr
11 T.J. Ford, G, 6-0, 8th yr
4 Danny Green, G/F, 6-6, 3rd yr
5 Cory Joseph, G, 6-3, 1st yr
2 Kawhi Leonard, F, 6-7, 1st yr
14 Gary Neal, G, 6-4, 2nd yr
22 Tiago Splitter, C, 6-11, 2nd

ROCKETS RESERVES
8 Jeff Adrien, F, 6-7, 1st yr
21 S. Dalembert, C, 6-11, 10th yr
9 Johnny Flynn, G, 6-3, 3rd yr
5 Courtney Lee, G/F, 6-5, 4th yr
3 Marcus Morris, F, 6-9, 1st yr
54 Patrick Patterson, F, 6-9, 2nd yr
32 Hasheem Thabeet, C, 7-3, 3rd yr
1 T. Williams, F-G, 6-6, 3rd yr

COACHES
Spurs: Gregg Popovich
Rockets: Kevin McHale

INJURIES
Spurs: Gary Neal (appendectomy) is out.
Rockets: Patrick Patterson (right ankle) is questionable.

PROJECTED INACTIVE PLAYERS
Spurs: Neal
Rockets: Patterson, Jeff Adrien

NOTABLE
Spurs and Rockets split a pair of preseason games, each team winning on its home court. … Spurs won 2010-11 season series 3-1. … Rockets signed Dalembert to a contract Tuesday. … Neal, who underwent an appendectomy Dec. 12, has been cleared to begin some contact work in practices after the team returns to San Antonio after this game.

– Mike Monroe