Tag: Marc Stein

Spurs soaring in weekly rankings check

It’s funny how much national attention an eight-game winning streak can provide.

We’re seeing that in the comments about the Spurs in our weekly survey of the pundits who rank the NBA teams each week.

Here are their rankings about the surging Spurs this week. 

John Schuhmann,

Ranking: Fifth

Last week: Seventh

Teams ahead: Miami, Chicago,  Oklahoma City, L.A. Clippers.

What he said: San Antonio has won (eight) straight, the rodeo trip is off to a great start (including wins in Memphis and Philly) and Manu Ginobili is back. It may be time to include the Spurs among the Western Conference contenders again, especially considering their defense has been much improved during the streak.”

Marc Stein,

Ranking: Second

Last week: Fifth

Teams ahead: Miami.

What he said: “The annual Rodeo Road Trip is generally good to the Spurs, but this one looks like it’ll go down as an all-timer. The Spurs figure to be 5-0 before their next tough test Feb. 18 in Clipperland, Duncan has five straight double-doubles after just five in his first 23 games … and Manu just came back!”

John Hollinger,

Ranking: Fifth

Last week: Fifth.

Teams ahead: Chicago, Miami, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia.

Current seed: Second in Western Conference.

Chances of winning: Hollinger estimates the Spurs have a , a 79.2 percent chance of winning the Southwest Division, a 26.6 percent chance of earning the No. 1 seed in the West before the playoffs, a 25 percent chance of making the NBA Finals and a 9.5 percent chance of winning the NBA title.

Britt Robson,

Ranking: Fourth

Last week: Seventh

Teams in front: Miami, Chicago, Oklahoma City.

What he said: “There seems to be nothing but good news for the surging Spurs. They started (4-0) on their nine-game road trip, saw Tony Parker selected to the All-Star team and welcomed back Manu Ginobili for limited action on Saturday after he’d missed 22 games with a broken hand. Perhaps best of all, they have firmed up their defense, allowing less than the league-average field-goal percentage to seven of their last 10 opponents since New Orleans burned them for plus-50 percent shooting in all four quarters on Jan. 23. San Antonio is now a respectable 14th in defensive efficiency, after an opening month when it allowed more than 100 points eight times. By contrast, the only triple-digit point total against the Spurs in the last 10 games was the 101-100 loss to Dallas when Gregg Popovich played his bench the entire fourth quarter and overtime. Nine players averaged at least 20 minutes during that span — and now Ginobili’s back.

Kurt Helin,

Ranking: Fifth

Last week: Seventh

Teams ahead: Miami, Miami, Chicago, L.A. Clippers, Oklahoma City.

What he said: “Winners of eight in a row (including in Philly) and they get Manu Ginobili back on their Rodeo Road Trip. They are looking like a team that can make a run in the playoffs, but they looked like that last year so we’re hesitant.”

Is RJ fated to be a casualty of the amnesty clause?

Most observers are expecting that there will be some kind of “amnesty clause” as a result of the end of the lockout.

This, quite simply, will provide all teams with an out to get out from under one onerous contract.

ESPN.com reports that” is expected this year, according to sources close to the negotiations. Early reports are that teams will receive cap relief and tax relief: 75 percent of a player’s contract value will not count against the salary cap when it is shed via amnesty.

that San Antonio Spurs majority owner Peter Holt has been at the forefront of a successful push to allow teams to have at least two years to decide whether or not to release one player via amnesty, as opposed to the 2005 version that gave clubs two weeks in August to use or lose the amnesty option forever.

Holt strategy is an interesting one. It would effectively allow the Spurs  the chance to keep their current roster together for one more season — which also is likely to be Tim Duncan’s final season.

It would give the Spurs an opportunity to get some sizable cap relief in one more season.

Chad Ford and Marc Stein of ESPN.com have crafted a list of potential casualties that includes one per team. They have Richard Jefferson listed as the most likely player to be cut, although the Spurs are considered lukewarm at immediately using the provision.

Which helps explainwhy the Spurs can avoid casting Jefferson aside in spite of the $9.3 million, $10.2 million and $11 million that he is scheduled to earn over the next three seasons.

It makes sense that the Spurs want to keep fielding the strongest team possible before Duncan decides to retire. But the Spurs’ aims could be forced if the new luxury-tax scale is extremely punitive. That would be  financially crippling for a franchise that has lost money in each of the last  two seasons (according to Holt) and would still be above $65 million in 2011-12 even without him.

It’s also interesting to scan some of the names that are listed as potential amnesty candidates.

Considering the current weaknesses of the Spurs, players like Cleveland guard Baron Davis, Milwaukee guard Beno Udrih, Miami guard Mike Miller, Orlando forward Hedo Turkoglu and Philadelphia forward/center Elton Brand would help the team.

What about it Spurs Nation? Would you like to see Jefferson leave the franchise? And which of the potential amnesty candidates do you think would most help the team?

Or, would you prefer to use the amnesty clause next season?

Spurs were interested in Casspi until the lockout shut off transactions

The Spurs apparently were active right up until the cutoff point before the lockout as they attempted to swing a late trade.

ESPN.com’s Marc Stein tweets that , who eventually ended up in Cleveland in the J.J. Hickson trade.

Casspi remained with the Cavaliers and the Spurs couldn’t get the deal done before last Thursday’s shutoff point.  

Does that mean they may still try to trade for Casspi as an answer to their jumbled rotation at small forward?

We’ll have to wait until after the lockout to see about that. 

Until then, here are a few missives from my blog brothers and other conventional media sources as we head into the  NBA’s uncertain immediate future because of the cursed lockout.

  • Ken Rodriguez of Spurs.com has the story of from working for the Seattle SuperSonics in college to an assistant coaching position with the Spurs.
  • Kevin Callahan of the Cherry Hill, N.J., Courier-Post pens that.
  • Dave Mackall of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports thatduring games at the Greentree Sportsplex in Pittsburgh.
  • Brad Everett of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette relates how Blair at Pittsburgh Basketball Club Pro-Am League.
  • Trevor Zickgraf of Project Spurs.com has anfor Latvia  in Fiba’s current U-19 tournament.
  • Erick Dampier might not have been partying with the Dallas Mavericks after the NBA Finals, according to Ira Winderman of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel that was .
  • Tony Parker and George Hill apparently are headed to France , according to ouestfrance.fr.
  • The Big Lead.com hasduring the lockout.
  • The Austin American-Statesman’s always astute Kirk Bohls is the Spurs picked former University of Texas point guard Cory Joseph in the first round of the NBA Draft.  
  • B Diddy of Air Alamo.com has from both sides as they work to a settlement in the lockout.
  • Matt Bonner tells the Manchester Union-Leader at Rundlett Middle School back home in Concord, N.H.
  • Andrew McNeill of 48 Minutes of Hell.com writes about and how it might affect the Spurs’ deal with Jefferson.  McNeill also wonders if if they haven’t signed professional contracts during the lockout and expects because of the lockout.  
  • Hill tells Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star that the lockout will give him with his new teammates on the Indiana Pacers.  
  • Josh Guyer of Pounding the Rock.com has started a.
  •  and are among the Spurs-related choices on the Bleacher Report’s Colin Ward-Henninger’s list of the 101 most despised athletes in sports history.