Vegas Babies

This week in Las Vegas, Nevada, a bunch of NBA teams will suit up their youngest, least proven players--along with a lot of players who may or may not ever make a roster spot on any NBA squad--in very plain versions of their team's uniform to compete in something called the NBA Summer League. Last week some teams met in Orlando to do the same thing, but the Spurs weren't there. We played our first game of the Summer League yesterday against the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Spurs won 78-76 (recap here). Ian Mahinmi scored 18 and pulled down 8 rebounds; George Hill debuted as a Spur with 17 points, 8 rebounds.

At the end of the first quarter, O.J. Mayo, the high school sensation and rookie guard out of USC, hit a last second 69-foot two-handed heave to score 13 of the Grizzlies 17 first-quarter points.

Darrell Arthur, whom I talked about getting the draft day shaft and falling all the way to the Hornet's 27th pick (before being traded to Memphis), made me look even smarter, and led all scorers with 23 points in this game.

These games don't mean anything. It's just a good chance to see some of these lesser known players get some burn against each other. Sometimes players will rule the Summer League, and fall completely flat in the NBA (Marco Belinelli was a perfect example last year--37 points in his Summer League debut, breathless comparisons to Larry Bird by respectable NBA journalists...then a total flame out in the regular season [source: True Hoop]). The same goes for a team's record; the Knicks went undefeated last Summer, but were one of the worst teams in the league this year [from same article].

In less interesting news, the Spurs have evidientally done some realligning of their front office. A guy named Rick Pych has been promoted to "President of Business Operations," while Greg Popovich will take over as "President of Spurs Basketball," while, of course, remaining the head coach. R.C. Buford will likewise remain the General Manager, but will also take on the role of "President of Sports Franchises." This means he'll be in charge of the WNBA Silver Stars, the American Hockey League San Antonio Rampage, and Austin's own Toros of the NDBL.

Like I said, not all that titilating, but if you consider how many guys in other front offices and head coaching positions around the league came from the current Spurs system (Danny Ferry in Cleveland, Steve Kerr in Phoenix, PJ Carlisimo in...Oklahoma, and Avery Johnson...well, nowhere at the moment, to name a few), it's a name worth taking note of. Pych will probably be a GM for some other team in a few years. Which will also barely be blog-worthy. But give me a break, it's the Summer.

Oh and now Manu says he thinks he'll be able to play in the Olympics. I'd be surprised if he didn't to be honest. I mean, it's Manu. Come on.

Toros on the Clock

There's plenty of drama at the top of this year's NBA draft. Michael Beasley, a player recently expected to be a lock for the first (Chicago Bulls) or second (Miami Heat) pick, seems to be in danger of goofying himself down a few spots. The kid is a joker, and to me that's great. But evidently Heat Honcho Pat Riley is squeamish about drafting the next Agent Zero or Jerry Sienfeld. David Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinal thinks that's all a smoke screen:

Theory I: Beasley is Riley’s hands-down choice. The Heat keeps throwing off the scent by suggesting through back channels (never on the record) they have issues with him. That’s why they brought in Mayo on Tuesday. Everything supports Chicago’s decision for Rose with the first pick, thus leaving Beasley.

Theory II: It really doesn’t like Beasley’s game (no chance). It really thinks Mayo can play point guard (who cares when Wade’s in the same backcourt?) It even thinks Jerryd Bayless could be The One (come on.).

As you can see, Theory I sounds smarter to me.

I'm not sure if I agree. I could see them taking Mayo, or, more likely, trading the pick. How is he going to draft Beasley now after making such a big deal out of disliking his personality?

Anyway it will be interesting to see what happens.

A little further down the draft board, things get much less interesting.

Today's ESPN Mock Draft 7.0 has Ryan Anderson's stock rising a few places to be picked by the Nets at 21, and claims the Spurs may have focused in on one of Tony Parker's countrymen, 6-8 French small forward, Nicolas Batum. But it's also been reported that there may be cause for concern over Batum's heart health after stress echo test returned in the "borderline" area.

Either way, it's almost impossible to know what's going to happen that late in the draft. And, more to the point, it's sort of hard to get too excited about it. The Spurs stole Manu with the 28th pick in the second round in 1999 and Tony Parker 28th in 2001. But those two, along with Tim Duncan, are the only players in the Spurs active rotation this season who were actually drafted by the Spurs. It's not that the Spurs have drafted poorly: other picks such as Luis Scola (2002), John Salmons (2002), Leandro Barbosa (2003), and Beno Udrih (2004) are all playing well for other teams right now. It just seems like it's hard for a young player to break into the Spurs system.

It also seems like the Spurs foreign farm system is running into more problems than it did when they let Manu develop overseas before bringing him in. The Spurs 2007 draft pick, Tiago Splitter, looked like a steal. But it was announced earlier this month that the promising 6-11 power forward from Brazil is signing an extension with his Spanish League Team, Tau Ceramica, that will keep him overseas possibly until the 2011-2012 season. In an article from yesterday's S.A. Express-News, Jeff McDonald includes a great quote from Pop about why the Spurs have continued to work this way:

High-profile struggles in getting draft picks Luis Scola and, more recently, Tiago Splitter into a Spurs jersey apparently have not made the team skittish about going that route again.

“It’s better to have someone baking in the oven than to take somebody who you know can’t play,” Popovich said.

But, to me, it looks like more and more players drafted by the Spurs will do their baking right here in Austin, with the Toros, the Spurs' NDBL franchise.

Spurs 2005 draft selection, Ian Mahimni, led the Toros to the NBDL Championship this year. He was injured and the Toros lost to the Idaho Stampede. But it looks like he'll be able to contribute to the Spurs this season. And there won't be any hang-ups in getting him to San Antonio.

For this reason, I think the NBDL is a far better system than drafting players who then become pros in Europe. Because the Toros are a direct Spurs affiliate, players can be called up and sent back by the Spurs on nearly a daily basis. Toros players also work in the same coaching system as the Spurs (you were wondering why they went to the Championship this year?); plus they don't get a chance to find out how much stronger the Euro is than the dollar.

So whomever the Spurs pick tonight, my only hope is that they'll either use them in San Antonio right away, or that they send them to Austin to laze around at Barton Springs until they figure out how to play basketball.

I'll find some info on whoever we do select either tonight or tomorrow.