Look back through the draft for all the good PF/Cs drafted outside of the lottery. 2008 was a great year with Hibbert (17), Pekovic, DeAndre, and Ibaka (24), but it's a wasteland since then. There's too much attention on international ball now.

Gasol would have to take the MLE to come here. That's all the spurs have to offer. He will probably get offers double that in Free Agency. Not happening unless the Spurs guarantee him some sort of big contract after duncan retires and the spurs don't do those sort of things.

[This message has been edited by Sher Thing (edited 6/24/2014 6:05p).]

I fully expect the Spurs to draft and stash a euro player, but there are some collegiate guys that are intriguing that could possibly be available at the end of the first/early second (if the Spurs trade down). Just for fun, here's some guys that could be available.

Mitch McGary is a name that has been rumored to have some serious interest from San Antonio. He appears to be built like Baynes, 6'10" and strong. He's got good effort, runs the floor well, and is a very good rebounder. Offensively it seems like he's decent running the pick and roll. He seems pretty limited defensively though, as his blocked shot numbers aren't very impressive for a college big; I'm fully aware that you can be an excellent defender and not put up big block numbers, see Splitter. However, I've watched very little of this guy, so I can't speak much to his defense other than his stat line. He wouldn't be a bad pick, and with the pick and roll heavy offense we run, we can afford to have a big that can do that well but is other wise limited offensively.

Glen Robinson could very likely be gone before pick 30, but I've seen some projections where he falls after 30 as well. He's got good athleticism, can finish at the rim, and is a pretty good defender. His biggest knocks are his ball handling and shooting, but with Chip Engelland and his body of work (Tony Parker and Kawhi, namely), I'm pretty confident we could make his jumper more than serviceable. IMO, he'd be an excellent pick for a 3 and D guy that could spell Kawhi, with the potential to develop into more than just a role player.

Another guy I like is Spencer Dinwiddie from Colorado. He's 6'6" and did most of the ball handling for the Buffs. He shot over 40% from 3 and average almost 4 assists per game. Some scouting reports I've read say he has enough quickness to be an average defender. However, he tore his acl this year so his athleticism might not recover. He'd certainly be worth a shot if we could get him in the second round.

Don't like McGary.

Robinson is interesting and the mocks have him right around our area. He is very athletic and has potential. If the spurs feel confident they can improve his game a Robinson/Leonard backcourt is pretty scary athleticism and length wise.

Don't know much about dinwiddle but he's been getting some good feedback.

Some other "play now" guys that I like a lot our Elfrid Payton and Kyle Anderson. I don't expect either to make it to 30 though. Some realistic guys that intrigue me are Jordan Adams and Clint Capela.

Spurs have worked out a bunch of guys though. Florida's Patric Young is also a guy I would like to see the Spurs pick up but I'm not sure I would spend a first rounder on him. Hopefully if he falls to one of our two second round picks.


I also agree the Spurs will go the draft and stash or trade route though. If they go draft and stash my guess is either Vasilje Micic or Bogdan Bogdonavich

I'm certainly no NBA draft expert and trying to identify foreign prospects is a fools errand, given the question in the competition they face. However, Clint Capela is at the top of my foreign wish list. Extremely athletic and a ton of upside. He'll probably be gone before the Spurs pick, but he's got as much potential for a foreign big as anyone in this draft. Bogdanovich is a popular name for San Antonio; he's teammates with Spurs prospect Davis Bertans.

Some quick numbers for the Tim Duncan era:
If the Spurs had won the title every year, they would have won 267 games. They have won 149, or 55.8% of the maximum possible.

The Spurs have 15.2% of all NBA playoff wins since the 1997-1998 season. They make up 3.3% of the league, so they have won about 5 times as many playoff games as the average franchise.

Don't forget Timmy is on Letterman tonight!

Short clip up already.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsi7ublQfXY&sns=fb

Spurs up for 3 ESPYs: Best Team, Best Coach, and Best Championship Performance (Kawhi).

http://espn.go.com/espys/2014/

If they don't win Best Team, they should just stop giving the award.

What do y'all think of Channing Frye? He is only 31 and provides another stretch four.

As a comparison, Bonner made almost 4m last year and Frye made 5.8m. He would probably want at least 5-6m since he opted out of a 6.8m option. No income tax in TX may help here, especially since the Clips will probably want him. His defense isn't terrible and he has some athleticism, especially for a stretch four.

I actually like the idea of starting Frye against most teams and have Splitter be Duncan's backup as we saw in the playoffs. The 1st unit would be Duncan, Frye, Leonard, Parker and Green and then you have a really good passing and pick and roll second unit of Mills, Manu, Diaw, Splitter and Belinelli. Or you can let Diaw start and have Frye off the bench. You have a ton of flexibility in lineups that would be solid in finishing the games.

Have Baynes as another big body and Joseph as the 3rd PG and round out with maybe bonner for the vet min and maybe try to find an athletic back up small forward with some length that can at least play defense to complete the roster. That's a really strong 10 deep squad to defend the title. If Gasol is out of reach, which he probably is, I think I like Frye next out of the realistic free agents.

Are there any other players out there that you like that may get overlooked as teams focus on Anthony and James?

Frye is not a bad idea. Do you think he opted out to sign for similar money or significantly more?

Would Frye want to go from being a starter to our 4th big? We saw the value of having bigs that can stretch the floor, so if be fine with Sean Elliot's doppelgänger.

Probably comes down to if Frye will take a little less money with a great chance to win or if he wants to maximize his income. He's made $35 mill so far which is a lot but not overwhelming and this will be his last chance at a large contract in all likelihood. He hasn't ever played on a real contending team though.

I've seen worse ideas but I doubt the Spurs shell out any kind of real money for him.

Mavs are on the verge of a big trade for Tyson chandler.

As a Spurs fan I am on board. Calderon killed us and their bigs including dalembert gave ours more trouble than anyone not named ibaka. Hopefully this also means one less team in the race for gasol.

Anyone hearing any Spurs draft, trade or free agent rumors?

I love the mavs trade as a spurs fan. I don't see that much of an improvement going to chandler from dalembert and Id take Calderon over Felton any day

Think the Spurs are just trying to keep the band together for two more seasons. Upgrade if a mle candidate shows up and makes sense.

I agree, Calderon was one of the biggest reasons Dallas gave us so much trouble a couple months ago. Every time we'd either start catching up or start to pull away with the lead, this guy would start knocking down threes or make a nice pass that lead to Dallas points. The proposed trade sounds good to me.

At this point, I think we all saw the result once the Spurs started clicking as a team... since the All Star break this team was virtually unstoppable. The only team that came close was the Mavs and they literally had to make ridiculous shot after ridiculous shot (Vince Carter ) to take us to game 7... once they came back down to earth the result was the same a$$ whoopin' we put on everybody else. If the core of this Spurs team (which includes Mills & Diaw) can stay together for 1-2 more years it might not matter what other teams do. Any team that isn't OKC or doesn't have LeBron may not have much of a chance.

It's pretty funny seeing Dallas bring Chandler back. Couple years to late for that to have any real impact. They should have kept the squad together after that impressive 2011 run.

I don't do a good job of keeping up with who is expected to go where, but these are my top choices:


1. Damian Inglis. This guy is a freak. He always seems to draw comparisons to Lebron and Kawhi athletically. 19 years old, 6-9 240. There are some questions about his focus and attitude, but if the Spurs draft him I will tend to assume that has been overstated. If you want a shot at a future superstar late in the first, this is probably the guy. He shoots 38% from three, is a slasher, has potential to be a ferocious defender which he shows at times, and can dribble and pass extremely well although his BBIQ is not quite there yet.

Dwight Powell (well rounded, high character, hard working PF out of Stanford)
Clint Capela (athletic monster, maybe not great at basketball though)
Bogdan Bogdanovich (6-6 slasher with high BBIQ and strong defense who can play 1-3)
Adrien Payne if he slides (versatile PF/C who can stretch the defense)
Alec Brown (soft stretch 4)
Markel Brown (hyper-athletic guard)
Cam Bairstow (C)

There are some guys late this year that I think will be players. Actually kind of excited about the draft. Most years I'm just hoping they get lucky on a big, athletic PF who pans out when he's not supposed to, but they have a lot of options this year.

As I mentioned earlier, I fully expect the Spurs to draft and stash. However I really hope we pick Glen Robinson. I think he has a chance to really stick around in this league. Guys that athletic don't normally fall that far, and he's a good defender. IMO 3 and D backup for Kawhi in the next few years with some potential to expand his game even more.

West - I would by no means call GR3 a good defender. He's crazy athletic but doesn't have much else going for him. He's not a great shooter and doesn't have a great basketball IQ. I don't see him being a great fit for the Spurs. If at all possible, I'd much rather see the Spurs grab McGary

Yeah GR3 is extremely athletic but he's got a long way to go. It's about whether or not the Spurs think they can develop him. I doubt they take him though.

Inglis isn't on my top 3 of international players. Saying that, I wouldn't be surprised if he was taken by the Spurs with the french connection here.

I would prefer 1. Capela, 2. Micic 3.Bogdanovic over Inglis. Might even prefer Jokic.

Walter Tavares is another foreigner the spurs have worked out twice. I am not huge on this prospect though (no pun intended).

American I still like are Elfrid Payton who has seem to go from late first to projected top 10 in the last month. Kyle Anderson - not super athletic but can do all the things necessary to be great in the Spurs system. Jordan Adams - lights out shooter.

KJ Mcdaniels is also someone the Spurs have been linked to recently. As well as Clearanthony Early. I don't know much about these two guys I just know Mcdaniels is being tagged as a big time defender but very mediocre offensively.

I'm not interested at all in McGary either.

For second round picks I would like to see Khem Birch and Patric Young fall late to the Spurs.

It looks like Toronto is targeting Capela.

With him likely to not make it to 30 I am hoping Jordan Adams some how falls to the Spurs.

Other than him, KJ Mcdaniels seems the most intriguing to me out of the realistic american prospects.

Like mentioned above though, I fully expect us to take a foreigner or trade out of the 1st.

I do not want McGary. I won't be horribly upset if that's who they take, but I'd prefer they don't. Plus, there are a ton of players I'd rather have projected both above and below him.

[This message has been edited by Ulrich (edited 6/26/2014 2:01p).]

pop really needs some anger management classes...

Picking last in the draft, every player available has major flaws. Big Dog jr is at least and super athletic wing that isn't normally available most years.

Coming off of a championship, it's not like we need help from a rookie. I'm not going to be upset regardless of who is picked.

I rather have KJ Mcdaniels over GR3 but like you said, I trust the Spurs judgement with whatever they pick. At that point, there isn't much.


This draft is going to be one of the crazier ones though IMO. There is going to be a lot of trades and movement throughout the night. It should be pretty fun. Maybe the Spurs find a way to move up and grab someone they really like. You never know!

Everyone officially call their shot on the Spurs first pick.

I'm going with Bogdan Bogdanovic.

Vasilije Micic

http://www.48minutesofhell.com/nba-draft-who-spurs-fans-should-be-aware-of

Here's a breakdown of some of the guys that should be in the Spurs range. Most of the names have been mentioned on here, but it's still a pretty good primer for those that aren't on the up and up of fringe first rounders and foreign talent.

Kyle Anderson. What's the word on this guy?