Tag: Spurs guard

Don’t tell rookie Denmon the odds

LAS VEGAS — Even before he arrived at Summer League, Spurs guard Marcus Denmon knew what he was up against.

The team already has 14 players under contract for the 2012-13 season. The league maximum is 15.

A general studies major at Missouri, Denmon is a good enough mathematician to realize the odds of making the Spurs’ final roster are not in his favor.

“Every time you go out and compete, you’re playing for a job,” said Denmon, the lone member of the Spurs’ 2012 draft class, selected 59th overall.

A scoring star at Missouri, where his 17.7 points per game as a senior ranked second in the Big 12, Denmon hasn’t had much of a chance to make an impression so far in Las Vegas.

In three games, he has averaged 5.7 points and 2.3 assists while shooting 37.5 percent, including 1 of 6 from 3-point range.

Seeing time at his college position (shooting guard) and the position most 6-foot-3 players occupy in the NBA (point guard), Denmon’s focus has been on absorbing the reams of new information coming at him in waves.

It’s a learning process he hopes to continue when the Spurs resume Summer League play tonight against Miami.

“I’m a pretty quick learner,” Denmon said. “I think as you continue to play and learn under a system, your play will continue to elevate.”

Backing up Cory Joseph and James Anderson, two players the Spurs want to force-feed minutes while in Vegas, has limited both Denmon’s time and touches.

Spurs assistant Jacque Vaughn, coach of the summer league squad, has been impressed by Denmon’s willingness to fit into a smaller role than he had in college.

“He hasn’t tried to do too much, but has done enough,” Vaughn said. “Which is a lot harder for guys to understand, especially when you’re fighting for a job.

“The best part is he competes,” Vaughn added. “That’s what I want to see in an individual.”

Based on sheer numbers, the most likely destination for Denmon is overseas, or the Development League.

Holding fast to his NBA dream, however, Denmon refuses to be deterred by math.

“The Spurs drafted me because of the talent they feel I have,” Denmon said. “My job is to hold up my end and just come out and play hard.”

Switch for Green: For the first time in his career, Danny Green came to Summer League as a spectator, and not a player.

Still, even after signing a three-year, $12 million contract to return to the Spurs last week, Green could recall his days as a fledgling Cleveland Cavaliers summer-leaguer hoping to play well enough to impress the right people.

“I know what it’s like to be in these guys’ positions, trying to get a job and make a team,” Green said while watching the Spurs’ loss to the Los Angeles Clippers late Wednesday night. “It’s a lot more comfortable, a lot less stressful, being a spectator.”

Green called his contract, the first guaranteed deal of his NBA career, “a stress-reliever.”

Green is one of three starters the Spurs re-signed in hopes of keeping together a roster that advanced to the Western Conference finals before losing to Oklahoma City.

Power forward Tim Duncan and center Boris Diaw are the others. The Spurs also re-upped with backup point guard Patrick Mills.

“It shows the organization had a great deal of confidence in us,” Green said. “We had a really good team.”

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

Spurs’ summer schedule

The Spurs’ summer league team has two games remaining in Las Vegas:

Today: vs. Heat, Cox Pavilion, 7 p.m.

Saturday: vs. Mavericks, Cox Pavilion, 5 p.m.

Ginobili rounding into shape slowly

Even after three days without games, Spurs guard Manu Ginobili isn’t certain he is ready yet for back-to-back outings.

“The rest was good, considering the games we’re having,” Ginobili said Tuesday. “(Playing back-to-back) would be a day-to-day thing. After tomorrow’s game, I’ll see. I don’t think I’m going to play that much, but Pop (coach Gregg Popovich) is still concerned, and it’s good that it’s like that.

“I’m feeling a little bit better than last week, so hopefully, I’ll start increasing to a point where I can go with everybody else.”

Ginobili has missed 28 games with a series of ailments: A fractured fifth metacarpal on his left hand; a strained left oblique; and, most recently, tightness in his right hip flexor. He sat out the front end of the back-to-back set Friday and Saturday in Oklahoma City and Dallas but has an eye on the back-to-back-to-back games on the schedule this weekend, beginning Friday against the Mavericks.

“The hip is much better,” he said. “Legs overall, and all around not the best I’ve ever felt, but much better than last week. So that’s what’s having me optimistic and ready.”

The Spurs are one of several teams using a cryosauna treatment in which players’ bodies are cooled below minus-200 degrees Fahrenheit, a process believed to optimize the healing process and promote general health.

“It’s really hard to figure it out if it makes you better or not,” Ginobili said. “It’s not going to hurt you, so we do it, to recover and stuff like that.”

It is not difficult to know one thing about the treatments.

“It is cold,” Ginobili said. “That’s for sure.”

Joseph back to Austin: Rookie point guard Cory Joseph was assigned to the Austin Toros, the Spurs’ NBA D-League team, for the third time this season.

Joseph has appeared in 27 of 43 Spurs games but has played only 204 minutes all season. Popovich has stressed that the greatest need for the team’s youngest player is to get playing time, which he is assured with the Toros.

Joseph’s Austin assignment heightened speculation the Spurs may be nearing a deal with point guard Patty Mills, a former Portland Trail Blazers player recently returned from playing in the Chinese Basketball Association.

Yahoo! Sports.com on Tuesday reported that a deal the Spurs have offered Mills, an Australian national, is awaiting resolution of visa issues.

Easy adjustment: After starting 16 games at shooting guard, rookie Kawhi Leonard was shifted to the starting small forward spot after the trade that sent Richard Jefferson to the Golden State Warriors for Stephen Jackson.

The adjustment, Leonard said, was relatively simple.

“They’re very interchangeable (positions),” he said. “We pretty much do the same thing on the court. It just depends on what number they call to run the play for.”

mikemonroe@express-news.net

Despite denials, Eva picked up Matt Barnes at airport

Remember Eva Longoria’s heated denials that with Los Angeles Lakers forward Matt Barnes?

That may be true. Longoria and Barnes have been involved in several charity projects for Padres and Athletes vs. Cancer.

But it does take a special friend to pick up another friend at an airport — particularly in Los Angeles in the middle of the day. 

And that’s what TMZ.com has reported that Longoria did earlier this week, with the .

Of course, Longoria could be telling us the truth. But it also takes someone special to play the role of chauffeur — even if it is in a custom BMW.

Barnes reportedly tried to make it to the car incognito, but it’s a little hard to hide when you are 6-foot-7.

Longoria has been involved in a relationship with Eddie Cruz, the younger brother of actress Penelope Cruz, since her breakup last year with Spurs guard Tony Parker.