Obviously Gooden didn't impress in his short run with the Spurs. They never seemed interested in bringing him back and once they drafted Blair & signed McDyess I knew he was gone.
Though it still is an active and young body in the paint that the squad lost. Gooden's numbers were not stellar with the Spurs but do you honestly think Blair can make up for it?
I think Blair can pull down more than 4 boards in 17 minutes (Gooden's actual perofrmance)...possibly even with 1 hand tied behind his back. Also there were some small rumblings that Gooden couldn't stay focused on defense (d'oh!) or run the offensive sets. Losing focus on defense is the quickest way out of a Spurs uni.
I felt like the McDyess signing was to replace Kurt Thomas's minutes?
Thomas and Gooden both averaged around 15-17 minutes. Blair, Mahinmi and McDyess should easily cover those minutes. And now Ratliff was added as insurance.
I think the Spurs were hoping that Gooden would prove to be worth re-signing. He basically was given a 2 month tryout to earn a new contract. That the Spurs decided to use their MLE on McDyess instead of Gooden says everything in my book.
