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.
Lang Whitaker for SLAM, who kind of, sort of knows these things, is reporting the Hawks will match the $58 million offer sheet tendered by the Memphis Grizzlies for forward Josh Smith. The team is "happy to have Josh return as a member of the Hawks." So there goes the Conley-Mayo-Gay-Smith-Gasol dream. Thanks for nothing, Atlanta. See you in two years when Smith demands a trade after the rest of the roster follows Josh Childress' lead and abandons ship.
Just kidding.
For Hawks fans, this is a reason to get off the bridge railing. The Grizzlies actually did them a favor, once they recovered from the mild heart attack, by giving the Hawks an offer sheet they could afford, significantly less than other free agents have signed this summer who are arguably inferior to Smith. So make sure to thank the next Grizzlies fan you meet, Atlantans. Without them, someone may have been able to reach the comparatively low threshold necessary to pry Smith away from the dysfunctional front office in the ATL. So the Hawks are .500, losing Childress to Greece, keeping Smith on the relative cheap. The Hawks needed this one, badly, and they got it.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled late summer boredom and Olympic coverage.
Well, now. And we thought things were going to quiet down here in the NBA stateside with the Olympics. I guess we thought wrong.
The Commercial Appeal is reporting that the Memphis Grizzlies have extended a $58 million offer to Atlanta Hawks stat-stuffing forward Josh Smith. The length of the contract is not available at this time, but when we have it, you'll have it. The consensus is that it's a 5 year deal for $11.6 a year, average. Some think it's a bit low.
The Hawks have seven days to match the offer.
This puts quite an interesting cap on the end of an already wild free agency. There's been a lot of speculation about Smith this offseason, from Philadelphia's courting of him before signing Elton Brand, to reports that he's unwilling to return to the Hawks as long as Mike Woodson is head coach, to why no one had even taken a shot at him in restricted free agency. We're about to find out just how committed Josh Smith is to Atlanta, and how committed Atlanta is to Josh Smith.
The conceptual lineup of Mike Conley Jr., O.J. Mayo, Rudy Gay, Josh Smith, and either Marc Gasol or Darko Milicic is enough to send fans of athletic squads into epilepsy. It might not be a playoff squad, but it's entertaining as all get out. With Javaris Crittenton, Kyle Lowry, Hakim Warrick, and Darrell Arthur, if Memphis pulls this off, they're going to have done exactly what they needed to with their rebuilding project.
The Warriors shored up their remaining free agent quandary today, according to the infinitely reliable Marc Stein over at the WWL. Stein says the Dubs have given Biedrins a 6 year, $63 million contract, with a player option for the fifth year. Tim Kawakami respectfully disagrees with Stein's report on the amount, putting the number at $54 million. Six years, $54 million seems a little more reasonable for the top big man on a team that was, you know, kind of terrible at both defense and rebounding. Still, Don Nelson is big on Biedrins, and after Baron Davis absconded to LA, the Warriors needed to shore up their roster in-house.
It's unknown at this point what effect Biedrins' position on the NBA Overseas Defection Watch had on the urgency for the Warriors to get the deal done, if any, but anyway, go ahead and cross him off the list. And, barring injury or a team losing their mind in a trade (we're looking at you, Atlanta), this should pretty much lock up the Warriors roster next year, with both Anthony Randolph and Richard Hendrix signed. So for better or worse, it's Monta Ellis, Kelenna Azubuike, and Andris Biedrins resigned, Mickael Pietrus and Baron Davis gone with the wind, and Corey Maggette and Ronny Turiaf newly acquired. Your guess is as good as ours as far as next season goes.
"Oh, wow, Josh Childress jumped to Greece. That's wild. What a kooky thing to see. Man, what if this were to become a trend in a couple of years? How weird would that be? I mean, clearly it won't happen for a whi ... "
For those of you playing our home game, that brings the list of players to have signed or be considering a jump overseas to: Josh Childress, Primoz Brezec, Carlos Delfino, Jorge Garbajosa, Carl Landry, Delonte West, and Sasha Vujacic. That's in the last week. Now clearly, it's not like there's going to be a mass exodus, this is still the NBA. Plus, as Al Horfordasked Team USA about today, none of the megastars are going anywhere. But whereas after the Childress signing we asked, "could this be a trend over the next few years?", we now have to ask, "Is this a trend that's taking place now?"
It's clear that free agents, especially restricted free agents, are evaluating their options, and coming to the conclusion that Europe offers them a lot more opportunities than the NBA under the current CBA. The question now becomes how does the NBA respond? Increased agreements with international leagues for great fluidity back and forth? Higher reliance on the pitifully resourced D-League? Or the customary Stern brand of ignoring the problem until it's on fire in your yard? Is this a problem? This is a situation that's evolving faster than we can understand it, at least from where we're at right now.
Apparently Chris Mullin enjoyed his time in Vegas, got some time in by the pool, then came home and decided to clean the slate on his offseason To-Do list all in a matter of days. Here's a little sneak peak at that list.
Well, you can scratch out #2, as today the Warriors agreed to just such a contract with Ellis. Which is good, because as Tim Kawakami put it tonight, if they hadn't, they wouldn't be "a real franchise, anymore." After Baron Davis skipped town (sorry Warriors fans, I'm not trying to keep bringing it up, but it kind of caused a ripple effect), the Warriors needed to batten down the hatches and take care of their roster. And while the biggest acquisition they got was Corey Maggette, they did lock up a young scorer with incredible speed and considerable upside for six years, along with Ronny Turiaf and securing Azabuike.
The question now becomes if they overspent on Ellis, which is something only Ellis can decide. Have I mentioned this kid needs a nickname?
The Warriors today matched the Los Angeles' Clippers 3 year, $9 million offer for Azubuike, staving off the raiding forces from LA seeking to poach another of their free agents.
Azubuike was brilliant in short bursts but seemed to fade down the stretch last season. With Baron Davis off to Lala Land, it's likely that "Buike" will get more playing time.
It's not a monster signing to quell the masses of Warrior fans nervous about the future of the franchise, even after signing Corey Maggette, but at least it stops the bleeding that seemed to be occuring with the Clippers gouging their Bay rivals. It also signals a commitment to young talent that both Mullin and Nelson have alluded to. Monta Ellis, Azubuike, Ronny Turiaf, Brandan Wright and Anthony Randolph. Yup, that's youth. Corey Maggette and Al Harrington? Not so much, but it could be worse. That might be the theme for the Warriors this season. "Not so much, but it could be worse."
Yes, that's right, the Suns have signed unrestricted free agent Matt Barnes, who you may remember from such hits as "that 2006-2007 season where he was good for about thirteen seconds" and ... um ... yeah. Barnes is long, reasonably athletic, and a great glue guy. He also was hardly used by the Warriors at all last season, despite their desperate need for a deeper rotation and his status as a team captain.
Still, this kind of conservative approach may be what's needed for the Suns, given that some of their bigger moves (so to speak) have not worked out well. This signing speaks of defense and a willingness to bring in guys that want to work. You have to be concerned with how quickly he fell from team captain to expendable, but for the league minimum, this is a value pick up, and a good one at that.
Today while doing my usual trek through Forum Blue and Gold's comment threads, I noticed an excellent point brought up by one of the readers there. The reader basically stated that after next season the Spurs will only have four players signed. Those four players are Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Jackie Butler. That means that the Spurs will have the cap space (at least $10M and likely more depending on where the salary cap is before the start of the 08-09 season) to add one or more good to great players to their roster.
If not moved to a contender prior to the end of next season, Garnett is the most likely to end up on the Spurs, as he's already made TONS of money, and would be more inclined to leave the team that could pay him the most than some of the other guys that are still looking to collect as much money as they can. Garnett wants a championship badly, and pairing him with Parker, Duncan, and Ginobli would almost certainly make that dream a reality. With those four guys, they could pretty much fill the rest of the team with bargain basement vets, rookies, and D-Leaguers and still run over the entire league. No wonder so many people praise R.C. Buford.
For the sake of the rest of the league, I hope Kevin McHale trades Garnett to a location where he'll be happy so that we don't have to deal with the possibility of him opting out and going to the Spurs.
Either way, the Spurs will be in a position to sign someone big.
The number one lesson to be learned from this: Cap management is important. I guess that's why teams were clamoring to sign these front office wiz kids.
Over the next two seasons, a ton of all-stars around the league have the option to terminate their contracts early and become free agents. For some players, the benefit of such an option is the opportunity to lock their self into another long term deal. While for others, it's all about leverage to force movement from an unhappy situation. On the team side, if you have a player that is happy with his current situation, opt outs aren't much to worry about, as it gives you an opportunity to re-sign a star player for a long period of time. However, if the player is unhappy or if you're not willing to sign a player to the type of deal they think they are worth, it could force you to trade them before you lose them for nothing.
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. 
Sigh. The trainwreck is narrowly avoided. 
Well, now. And we thought things were going to quiet down here in the NBA stateside with the Olympics. I guess we thought wrong. 
No, silly Europeans, 
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