Tag: San Antonio Spurs

Younger Spurs planning organized workouts during lockout

Several of the younger Spurs have met and plan to start organized workouts soon.

Spurs guard Danny Green told Jeff Garcia of Project Spurs.com that he has been in contact with several of his teammates . Several of them recently returned to San Antonio to map plans during the workout.

“I saw them actually about a week or two ago,” Green told Garcia. ” We all went back. We talked about dates we want to go back and work out with each other.”

The organized work could be a boon for Green, a former North Carolina standout who appeared in eight game during two stints with the Spurs last season after spending most of the season with the Reno Bighorns in the NBA’s Developmental League. Green scored a season-high 13 points against Phoenix in the regular-season finale on April 13 and averaged 8.7 points in his final four games with San Antonio. He also made the Spurs’ playoff roster, averaging 1.3 points in seven minutes of playoff action over four playoff games.

“The main guys we worked out with at the end of the summer were mostly the young guys,” Green said. “James Anderson, Da’Sean Butler, Gary Neal was there for a little bit, George Hill before he got traded. I’ve seen him (Hill) about two weeks to when I was in San Antonio for the WNBA All-Star game was there. We saw that game.

“Cory Joseph, I’ve kept in touch with him. Hopefully we will go back again, I think in about a week or two, to go workout again with each other. Me, Cory, Da;Sean Butler, James Anderson mostly the young guys. We keep in contact with each other, stay in shape, and we’ll see what happens from there on.”

The organized work will be critical for the young players, who will miss an opportunity to work with Spurs coaches and trainers during the lockout.

Green’s late-season spurt could help him challenge for a roster spot at either shooting guard or small forward if he keeps improving.

That’s why his summer work with other Spurs players will be so critical for him.

Moot point? NBA plans to unveil full 2011-12 schedule

It could just be an exercise in futility, but the NBA — still in the throes of a contentious labor impasse —

When will the Spurs face the defending champion Dallas Mavericks? When will LeBron James and the Miami Heat come to town? When will the Spurs get their first crack at Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers? Who will they face in the season opener, and when and where?

We’ll know the answers soon. But only in theory.

Obviously, the league has to prepare for a full season, which means releasing a full schedule in timely fashion. Still, chances are good most of what is unveiled on Tuesday will be erased by work stoppage.

It’s all tentative at this point.

In a way, the planned nationally televised schedule announcement could be considered cruel and unusual punishment for NBA die-hards: Hey fans, here’s the fun you would have been in for, if only owners and players could get their stuff together.

It’s sort of like showing a kid a picture of Disneyland, then refusing to take him there.

For the Spurs, games against the Eastern Conference might as well come written in pencil. Should the lockout shorten the schedule, which seems to be the consensus expectation, games against the opposite conference will be the first to go.

When the last lockout truncated the 1998-99 season to 50 games, the Spurs only played six against Eastern opponents.

Considering it’s three weeks into the current work stoppage, and the sides have not yet scheduled a formal next meeting, it appears we could be heading that way again this season.

In the meantime, enjoy a 2011-12 schedule that, for now, will exist only in theory.

Back from vacation and ready to crank up the blog again

I’m back.

After 3,745 miles, nine states and 127 gallons of gasoline spread over the last two weeks our family vacation finally is over.

The Griswolds only thought they had all the fun.

But after introducing my 6-year-old to a little American culture with a trip to Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills, I’m ready for work again.

The NFL apparently has shown their NBA brethren that settling lockouts isn’t exactly impossible.

We can only hope their athletic camrades in sneakers learned something watching this play out.

The world of the Spurs and the NBA hasn’t been silent since I’ve  been gone. And there’s a lot to catch up with.

Thanks again to Jeff McDonald and Mike Monroe for picking up the slack while I was gone. I owe you guys one.

And thanks to the management at the Express-News, who unlike my bosses at jobs in the recent past realize that vacations are healthy and even productive for their workers.

Now where do I start?