Spurs sign Van Exel without cutting into Finley of

[SPURSX3]

westkoast,

I call Devin Brown "a waste of a roster spot."  And I call a talented young point guard - Udrih - that is going to have his minutes cut a guy who needs to go elsewhere.

If you've got a young point guard on your roster, and you're not developing him, you've got a real problem.  Point is the toughest position to play, and it pretty much takes EVERYONE time to settle in to it.  It's one of the most coveted positions, and the talent pool here is more shallow than at the 2-3-4 spots.

Therefore, if you've GOT one of these guys, you want to feed the guy minutes.

I'd be less worried if this were a 2-guard or a 3 or a 4.  And centers are in such short demand that you pretty much grab up all of them that you can.  But bringing in Van Exel while trying to develop a young point guard sounds like an extremely bad idea.

"a waste of a roster spot"??

Joe, for once - and this doesnt happen to often with you, but you have no clue what you are talking about.  D Brown, is not a fan favorite just because he is a local kid, he has heart and has upped his style of play each season, he is not going to be a great NBA player or anything like that, but he has got the guts to be a decent player in this league.  the only knock on him this season is the fact that he had a disc injury.  I see him being resigned by SA if we dont get finley.  he is a good kid, who can follow what Pop asks him to do, that's not an easy thing to do at times - hell you see him yell at tony.  Brown goes out and delivers for Pop when needed, which is pretty good considering he was an nbdl player at one point.

[westkoast]

westkoast,

I call Devin Brown "a waste of a roster spot."  And I call a talented young point guard - Udrih - that is going to have his minutes cut a guy who needs to go elsewhere.

If you've got a young point guard on your roster, and you're not developing him, you've got a real problem.  Point is the toughest position to play, and it pretty much takes EVERYONE time to settle in to it.  It's one of the most coveted positions, and the talent pool here is more shallow than at the 2-3-4 spots.

Therefore, if you've GOT one of these guys, you want to feed the guy minutes.

I'd be less worried if this were a 2-guard or a 3 or a 4.  And centers are in such short demand that you pretty much grab up all of them that you can.  But bringing in Van Exel while trying to develop a young point guard sounds like an extremely bad idea.

I have to disagree because Brown is actually a very promising player.  His rookie year in the playoffs he played his role very well.  He didnt seem to crack under pressure which is impressive for a young player.  Maybe you saw a different Brown than I did but I saw a player who can score well and still plays good team defense.

Why is NVE the reason why he wont develop?  Nick can play both guard positions.  I would imagine he will split his minutes between the 1 and 2.  So I highly doubt Beno will get 0 minutes because of Nick.  He (Nick)  also can help him develop in practice and by just pointing things out to him on the bench.  IMO NVE would be a better person to do this than a Tony Parker would.  Tony may know the Spurs offense better but NVE has more expierence being a PG in the league.

Pop knows what hes doing.  I think we can safely move, for now, away from the doubting of Popavich's personel decisions.  Hes been making good decisions for the Spurs for a very long time now.  If you guys can see how talented Beno is then I am sure Pop is very aware.  I dont think he would let this kid suffer learning wise by taking all his minutes away.

[Lurker]

I guessed many of you missed Beno's crumbling in the playoffs against the Piston's pressure.  Pop lost all confidence in the guy....part of the reason Barry saw increased minutes at pg in the final 3-4 games of that series.  Whenever Pop put Beno on the floor Larry Brown would immediately call for Hunter to turn up the pressure.  Just a small part of the excellent coaching chess match that went on in this year's finals.

NVE will have his minutes carefully monitered during the reg seasson just like Horry.  Beno will get plenty of time & chances to develop.  But make no mistake when it comes down to the REAL season there will be little question as to who is the backup pg.  And the signing of vets to supplement your core players has worked for many years in the NBA.  The Celtics did it, the Lakers, the Bulls, the Rockets, etc.  

Devin Brown is a restricted FA....the Spurs have been very open with him.  Shop around and get an offer then we will decide whether to match it.  Unfortunately for Devin he had the back injury right at the end of the season and wasn't fully recovered enough to show anything in the playoffs.  When he went down with the injury he was starting to take minutes away from Barry as the first swingman off the bench.  The only two things that will keep Devin out of a SA uniform is the signing of Finley or an outrageous contract offer by another team.  IMO he will get an offer sheet from the teams that lose out in the Finley sweepstakes as most of the other equivalent (to Brown not Fiinley) swing men have been signed.

[Joe Vancil]

Wow.  A rookie point guard crumbles under pressure.  Haven't heard of that before.

Come on, Lurker - that's what I'd *EXPECT* to happen.  Now, keep the kid in the pressure cooker.  In four years, you're going to need him to be able to handle that pressure.  And in this year, you're going to need to see if he can handle it, so that if you determine he can't, you can pawn him off on another team NOW in favor of someone who *CAN*.

 

[Lurker]

It wasn't just that he crumbled...it was how badly  he crumbled.  I beleive it was near the end of the first quarter of game 3.  Parker was pulled with about 2 minutes to go.  3 or 4 straight possessions with bad ball handling, bad decisions and 8 straight Piston points in less than 30 seconds was all Pop could take.  After that all he got was garbage time minutes in both blowouts.  Saw 1 minute of floor time in games 5-7.

He will get time to develop.....in the regular season.....but will have to do some fantatic impressing of the coaches to see floor time in next year's playoffs.  Maybe in 2 years if he still develops but not next year.

[westkoast]

Wow.  A rookie point guard crumbles under pressure.  Haven't heard of that before.

Come on, Lurker - that's what I'd *EXPECT* to happen.  Now, keep the kid in the pressure cooker.  In four years, you're going to need him to be able to handle that pressure.  And in this year, you're going to need to see if he can handle it, so that if you determine he can't, you can pawn him off on another team NOW in favor of someone who *CAN*.

Joe I agree with you on that point.  He has to actually be in a tight situation to learn how to play with that kind of pressure.  However!!!  Can the Spurs really afford to let him learn in playoff games?  They are not exactly the Dallas Mavs when it comes to scoring.   A 6 point switch can make a huge difference.

These guys are out to win and anything less than a ring at this point is going to be a let down because they are the best team in the league.  Everyone is out to win obviously but when you are the best team in the league you are expected to get it done.

One thing about Nick is that his herky jerky offensive style really kills the person who is guarding him.  He is one hard mofo to guard.  Very few PGs in this league can defend well and have the energy to score on the other end...in fact I can think of only a few, Jkidd/Lebron/Payton (which is shotty at times lol).  Want to stop pesky penetration from point guards?  Have them guard Nick for a little bit.