FanHouse BrentBarry

There's a loophole in the NBA's trading rules that goes something like this: one team will include a player in a deal -- usually a guy who's older, can still play a bit, but won't command a ton of attention on the open market -- only to see that player waived by his new team, and be signed a month later by the team that dealt him in the first place.

(Don't believe me? Just hop into your DeLorean and ask Brent Barry about it back in 2008.)

Many observers wondered if that's exactly what San Antonio was planning to do with Bruce Bowen, after he was included in the deal with Milwaukee that brought Richard Jefferson to town. But according to Gregg Popovich, it's not likely that Bowen will be back as a member of the Spurs next season.

No one can stop Kobe Bryant. The Laker is too talented, too aggressive and too focused to let any defender keep him under lock and key. Houston is a team predicated on tough defense, with arguably the conference's two best perimeter defenders in the line-up. One can imagine Kobe figured in Daryl Morey's decision to trade for Ron Artest in July.

But in Houston's Game 1 win over the Lakers, Shane Battier covered Kobe almost exclusively. As Matt Watson wrote, Battier did a fantastic job, hassling Kobe into an inefficient game. How did he do it? Or did Kobe do it to himself?

Via BallHype, SpursReport caught a great broadcasting moment during Friday's Houston-San Antonio match. Rockets analyst (and old gunner) Matt Bullard revealed what Brent Barry, a Spur teammate of Bruce Bowen for four years, thinks of The Rash.



There's not a player, coach or fan outside of San Antonio's sphere of connection who possibly thinks Bowen isn't a dirty player. Hearing it from someone who played a few hundred games alongside The Rash doesn't tell us anything new, but certainly defends the claims. We aren't all just bitter fans who refuse to recognize Bowen's supposed greatness. We're bitter fans who wish Bowen played for our team.

Soon after the news broke that Chauncey Billups, Antonio McDyess and Cheikh Samb were headed to Denver in exchange for Allen Iverson, word started to trickle out that McDyess might retire than report

I can't say I was surprised -- I was in the Pistons' locker room after they were eliminated from the Conference Finals last year, and I saw McDyess fight back the tears while admitting to reporters that he already asked himself, "Hey, should I just retire?"

He added, "I don't want to be no ring-chaser, I don't want to be moving team to team being a ring-chaser. I can't do that. If I have to do that, I would definitely give it up. I mean, if I stay on this team another couple of years, we still have a chance, we just got to put our heart into it and do it."

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This is not a division. It is a gauntlet. A spiked, imperial gauntlet inhabited by minotaurs, pterodactyls, stone giants, warrior pygmy tribes, and other things that go bump in the night. There is no sense of "If we can just make it to .500" in this division. .500 means nothing. .500 is for the Central division.

The Southwest Division hosts two former MVPs, the MVP runner-up from last season, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, the reigning Coach of the Year, a bazillion All-Stars, elite shooters, elite defenders, elite scorers, and Ron freaking Artest. Yeesh.

There are not headlines here. There are omens, prophecies, and obituaries.

The Arizona Daily Star reports Hawk bench buddy Salim Stoudamire has signed a deal to join the Spurs (via SLAM). I know, I know ... even Roger Mason is bored by this news. But hear me out: Salim can help the Spurs a ton.

The Spurs have been a team which relies on three things on offense: the post play of Tim Duncan, the slashing ability of Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, and potent three-point shooting from a cast of role players. Historically, two of the three most important of those three-bombing role players have been Robert Horry and Brent Barry. Horry retired (or "was forced to retire because no one wants to pay him," if you want to get semantic). Barry plays for the Rockets. Bruce Bowen and Michael Finley remain, but turn 57 and 55 respectively* this year. Ime Udoka and Matt Bonner sit in the sidecar, but Gregg Popovich showed only mild levels of faith in them last year.

The one constant with Stoudamire: dude can shoot. Let's ignore last season, when he only totaled 400 minutes. Look at all seasons, college and pro, when he actually got a shot. Here are his three-point shooting percentages: 45% as a college freshman, 44% as a sophomore, 42% as a junior, 50% as a senior, 38% as a rookie, 36% as a second-year player. The league average is 36%, and the Spurs are accustomed to shooting slightly higher. Salim helps that, yes?

While Mason shot beautifully last season in D.C., his record indicates middling success from long range. Stoudamire shot poorly last season, but his record indicates strong aptitude for the longball. S.A. has made a brilliant hedge here: if Mason can't shoot appropriately well, and Pop needs some bench firepower for the guard position -- Bonner and Udoka aren't guards -- there is an option. He may not quite become Barry for a New Age, but there's an opportunity to hit some big, big shots here. Great move for everyone involved.


* On further review, Bowen actually only turns 37. Finley turns 35.

Though members of the fanbase may think drastic upgrades are needed, it would seem that the Spurs are prepared to primarily hold the course going into next season. The Spurs re-signed veteran guard Michael Finley on Friday, according to MySA.com. Terms of the deal were not available, but his agentreported tht the deal was for more than the league minimum. Considering that Finely is 35, I wouldn't imagine it's a very long deal, either.

Finley rejected offers from the Celtics and from overseas to take another year with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and the rest of Greg Popovich's crew. The signing is another indication that the Spurs are more willing to go with an aging version of their championship squads than to pursue what they see as more risky options (*cough* Jannero Pargo).

Finley played sparingly last season, getting his usual share of big shots in the playoffs, but it's clear that the dropoff is increasing. The Spurs lost Brent Barry, who was the most productive of the older crew, while re-signing Kurt Thomas and taking their sweet time with Robert Horry. They did add Roger Mason earlier in the offseason, but one man does not a youth upgrade make. The key to the 2008-2009 season for the Spurs will not only be the health of the big three (Duncan, Parker, and Manu Ginobili), but the ability of the bench's remarkably ancient contingent to provide meaningful minutes.

It's been rumored that Brent Barry wants to go elsewhere, and that seems to be just fine with the San Antonio Spurs. Barry has seen some interest from the Suns and the Rockets, with Houston being the leading candidate to sign the aging sharpshooter. Before Barry has been able to reach a deal elsewhere though, the Spurs have already replaced him with a version who happens to be about nine years younger.

The Spurs signed free agent guard Roger Mason to a two-year deal worth $7.3M, and theoretically should be able to step right in and contribute, Brent Barry-style. Barry shot almost 43% from three-point land last season on 112 attempts, while Mason hit on almost 40% from downtown, over a whopping 327 attempts -- statistics certainly skewed by the Wizards' run-and-gun (read: no conscience) style.

It's not that the Wizards didn't want to retain Mason's services ... well, that's what they said, but their actions of not actually extending him an offer kind of speak louder than their alleged wishes, right? Anyway, Mason is likely to see more playing time and lots of open threes from the corner playing for the Spurs, both of which are things that he thinks will increase his value for his next contract negotiation two years down the road.

It's entirely possible that your last enduring memory of Brent Barry as a Spur will be that last shot where he tried to actually hit the shot instead of flopping. Not the way you want to be remembered in a championship city like San Antonio, but that might just be the way it is. Because Barry very quietly opted out of his contract last week .

That means that Brent Barry, Michael Finley, Robert Horry, and Kurt Thomas could all be somewhere besides San Antonio next season. Barry is particularly interesting, though. He's got better legs than the others, and showed in the playoffs that not only can he still create his own shot, which the others cannot, but he also can still play some defense and work within an offensive system. With veterans such a big part of Boston's championship run, it would make sense that a player like Barry can still get top dollar.

Of course, this could be another Brent Barry swerve job by the Spurs. The Spurs traded Barry last year to Seattle to get Kurt Thomas, only to resign him when Barry opted out. Could this be a similar deal in order for San Antonio to put a more competitive offer for Corey Maggette?

The Spurs may be boring to watch (With Leather signs on that theory, it would seem), but they're actually a funny bunch in front of reporters. Exhibit G: Brent Barry's reaction to the NBA's decision to publicly acknowledge Joey Crawford made the wrong call at the end of Game 4, as captured by ESPN.com's J.A. Adande:

"That's awesome," Barry said, "because Doc Brown is waiting for me outside, and we're going to get in the DeLorean and fire up the flux capacitor and we're going to go back and shoot a couple of free throws."

As B. Edwards eloquently asserted Thursday afternoon, no one wins with this NBA policy of admitting mistakes. Maybe it helps the league's reputation a bit, but it sure as Hesiod isn't any consolation for the victims. (Though, while we're here, could the league comment on Kings-Lakers Game 6 in 2002? We'll accept Dick Bavetta broken on the wheel as reparations.)

Previously on FanHouse:
NBA Sets a Bad Precedent By Issuing Statement on Officiating
Lakers Take 3-1 Series Lead on the Spurs, and There Was No Foul on That Last Play