Tag: the NBA

Spurs know where they will start, finish season

The NBA will release its regular-season schedules in a made-for-television extravaganza at 5 p.m. Tuesday on NBA-TV.

But we already know where the Spurs will start and finish the season.

The Memphis Commerical Appeal reported that an advance draft of the schedule indicated that the for the first game for both teams. It will be a rematch of last season’s stunning  upset by Memphis in the first round of the playoffs.

And the Arizona Republic reported Tuesday that the Spurs will visit the Suns on April 25 . It will be the same place the Spurs finished last season in the game where Manu Ginobili sustained his broken arm heading into the playoffs.

It means that San Antonio will be facing an unprecedented grind with 62 games during a period of only 122 days.

That grueling schedule will be an arduous test of the mettle of NBA teams. Spurs forward Matt Bonner joked Tuesday that he hasn’t faced as rigorous a schedule since his AAU basketball days.

“I think teams with depth are going to have an advtange during those types of stretches,” Bonner said. “Coaches are going to have to manage  minutes. You can’t play a guy 44 minutes five out of six nights in a row.”

But Bonner said the Spurs depth and continuity should help them play through the schedule more than teams that are facing change coming into the season.

“It will be exciting for a team like us,” Bonner said. “This is a team I think that has great depth, to go out and utilize everybody to try and be successful during those kind of stretches.”

Pop unsure if McDyess will be back

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is unsure if veteran power forward Antonio McDyess will return for a 16th season in the NBA.

Popovich offered few hints of what players his team could be interested in picking up in free agency, or even if McDyess would return.

“I don’t know,” Popovich said when asked about McDyess during a press conference Friday afternoon at the team’s training facility. ”I don’t know the status of a lot of guys.”

McDyess, who turned 37 in September, hinted at retirement after the Spurs’ first-round playoff loss to Memphis last season. He averaged a career-low 5.3 points per game and 5.4 rebounds  in 73 games for the Spurs last season and 5.7 points and 5.0 rebounds in the playoffs against Memphis.

Checking out the Spurs: Physicals first, workouts later

According to someone in the know, Spurs players who showed up Thursday at the team’s practice facility were there to get the physical exams always required before the start of training camp. They won’t begin working out at the site until Saturday or Sunday.

The NBA this week allowed team facilities to be opened to players who literally had been locked out since July 1.

Among the players reportedly receiving a physical Thursday morning: Team captain and two-time NBA MVP  Tim Duncan, looking fit and ready to begin his 15th season in silver and black. Duncan has been diligent in his conditioning regimen through the summer and fall. He organized workouts at a private gym that until recently included teammates Manu Ginobili, Tiago Splitter, James Anderson and Da’Sean Butler, as well as players from some other NBA teams.

Matt Bonner, the Spurs union player representative, said most players were expected to have completed physicals by the end of the weekend and would be at the site every day next week working out in preparation for the planned start of training camp on Dec. 9.