Spurs make offer to Greek center Bouroussis
Ever since David Robinson retired, the Spurs have been trying to find a post partner for Tim Duncan. Rasho Nesterovic, Nazr Mohammed, Fabricio Oberto, Kurt Thomas, Matt Bonner, Tiago Splitter — the list goes on and on. Their latest attempt is a rumored offer to Yiannis Bouroussis, who plays for the Greek team Olympiakos.
According to reports out of Greece, the Spurs have offered Bouroussis a 3 year contract worth between 10.5 and 12 million. We’ve not received confirmation from anyone within the Spurs organization, so proceed with caution.
If true, this means the Spurs have offered him a significant share of their MLE. According to the reports, the Spurs made their offer during their recent trip to the Euroleague Final Four.
Bouroussis signing with the Spurs makes sense on several levels. He’s tremendous in the pick and roll and has three point range. His per minute stats are off the charts. The Spurs are making a calculated gamble, and the potential payoff is huge. When John Hollinger begins to translate his stats from Europe to the NBA, he’ll need to unbutton his collar and wipe the steam off his glasses. Bouroussis is all kinds of productive.
For more on the 6′ 11″ Bouroussis, check out his DraftExpress profile. He looks like an interesting prospect. There are concerns about his foot speed and lateral quickness, but he’s highly productive and is known to be a bruiser.
As a Spurs fan, reading that list of names you have in the first paragraph is enough to make me throw up in my trash can.
I’ll never forget the offseason in which I thought the Spurs had a chance for Jermaine O’Neal and wound up with Rasho Nesterovic…….where’s my trash can?
I have not followed this guy at all, but his YouTube clips look impressive enough.
The Spurs scout international talent as well as any pro team, but since the Parker and Ginobili signings, they have yet to land a rotation player.
Who knows if Tiago Splitter will ever show up? Will Ian Mahinmi live up to the All-Star or at least impact player potential some scouts said he possessed in 2005?
I would love to know the source of this rumor, considering that nothing has been posted on San Antonio Express-News Web site.
Frontline help for Tim Duncan is the obvious priority, but the player I want the Spurs to pursue first is the one they tried to draft last year.
Would Portland part with Nicolas Batum for several expiring deals and maybe a draft pick?
If the Spurs could somehow get him, he would solve the who-will-replace-Bruce-Bowen riddle.
Hell, Batum is more athletic and offensively gifted than Bowen ever was.
Then, if they have some money left, why not try to finnagle Andres Nocioni from miserable Sacramento.
I know that Nocioni to the Spurs is a lot more far fetched than a trade involving Batum, but hey, fans can dream, right?
Robert — If you follow the links, it takes you to a Greek report which Google with roughly translate for you. (And when I say rough, I mean rough…the word “sperm” is in the title of the article.)
The Express-News Spurs beat reporter authored a blog post on the topic and linked to the Greek report, so I saw it there. Thanks.
Translation = ouch.
As he said, though, sometimes agents of Euroleague stars will use false reports of offers from NBA teams as leverage in contract negotiations.
Since nothing has proved easy since Parker and Ginobili arrived, I don’t see how this will.
This guy started playing basketbal at like 20. He has been improving every single year since then, actually I think he has been the most improved player in europe for 2 consecutive years. He won’t be an NBA all star or anything but I can see him being productive especially in teams that need a power forward tha can shoot for 3 (why would the spurs sign bouroussis when they have a player like tim duncan playing the position though). He is some kind of mix of marc and pau gasol, tougher but less athletic than pau and he can shoot as good as uhm, turkoglu. He can sometimes make his own plays but he is not as good at it as Nowitzki. I think the team that would benefit the most from signing bouroussis is the cavalliers, he is a much better player than varejao imo