There has been so much focus on the big names in free agency that sometimes the complementary players are overlooked. Here’s a rundown of some of the mid-level names that have changed teams this summer:
Raymond Felton signs with the Knicks. (2/$15 M) When life gives you lemons… Donnie Walsh managed to sign Amare Stoudemire, but struck out on LeBron, Wade and Bosh. So instead of overpaying for another big-name free agent, or even re-signing David Lee, Walsh signed a capable point guard in Felton to run Mike D’Antoni’s up-tempo system. Most importantly, he negotiated a short, two-year contract (with a possible third season as a team option) to allow the pursuit of Chris Paul if/when he becomes a free agent in two years. Felton averaged 12-4-6 and shot 46% from the field for the Bobcats last season. His numbers are sure to rise in New York assuming he gets the same run (33 mpg).
Jermaine O’Neal signs with the Celtics. (2/$12 M)
Rasheed Wallace is retiring, so the C’s needed to shore up its front line in order to contend with Dwight Howard, Carlos Boozer and Chris Bosh in the playoffs. O’Neal isn’t the player he used to be, but he averaged 14-7 and shot a career high (53%) for the Heat last season. He’s a big body and decent defender and he’s capable of hitting a face up jumper when given the opportunity. As long as he holds up, this is a nice signing by Boston.
Kyle Korver signs with the Bulls. (3/$15 M)
Chicago lacked three-point shooting last season and Korver fills that need. He hit almost 54% from deep last season and is a career 41% shooter. He should be a nice fit as a spot up shooter with Derrick Rose and Carlos Boozer, but needs to shoot 40%+ from 3PT to justify a starting spot. He’s better defensively as a small forward than as a shooting guard, so it’s not clear how he and Luol Deng will play together. I expected Korver to get a full mid-level deal in this market so the Bulls got him for a relatively good price.
Tiago Splitter signs with the Spurs. (3/$11 M)
This deal happened rather quietly, but San Antonio finally has its 2007 first round draft pick under contract… at a bargain. Splitter is a 25-year-old, 6-11 center who was named the MVP of the Spanish League last season. He averaged 16-7 and shot 58% from the field in 28 minutes a game. While he’s not a great rebounder, he’s good defensively and can take some of the scoring load off of Tim Duncan. At under $4 million a season, he’s a steal.
Al Harrington signs with the Nuggets. (5/$34 M)
Harrington’s 18-6 line from last season needs to be taken with a grain of salt since he was playing for a pretty bad Knicks team that played at a very high pace. The Nuggets outbid the Mavs for Harrington’s services and Denver had to overpay to lock him up. The Nuggets will be without Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen to start the season and Nene is always a threat to miss time with injury, so Harrington gives the team a big body who can score when called upon. He’s 30, so this contract is not going to look very good in 2-3 years, but such is the market for big men.
Tony Parker is rumored to be available for trade, but that has more to do with the presence of George Hill than anything the Spurs have done since their season ended. The Knicks are in dire need of a good point guard, so of course there have been some Parker-to-New York rumors as well.
The Spurs and Thunder also are in the hunt for a big and have targeted a number of teams in the lottery to move up a few spots. The Thunder have multiple picks to offer. The Spurs have Tony Parker or George Hill. While the Spurs aren’t necessarily shopping either player, they’re not untouchable, either. If the Spurs can get another big man to help prolong Tim Duncan’s career, they’ll do it.
But looking ahead — if the Knicks strike out on their plan to get one of their LeBron/Bosh, Wade/Bosh or LeBron/Wade dream combos, maybe a Lee-for-Parker deal would make some sense.
Let’s say the Knicks strike out on LeBron, Wade and Bosh, but manage to sign a couple of second-tier free agents (Joe Johnson, Carlos Boozer, etc.) starting at $14 million per season, that would leave them about $9.5-$10 million to re-sign Lee and then move him for another asset like Parker. That would give the Knicks a core of Parker, Johnson and Boozer moving forward, and give the Spurs a quality power forward to play alongside Duncan. (Remember, Antonio McDyess is still under contract for another season and the Spurs have DeJuan Blair as well.)
With Donnie Walsh in the market for a point guard, there are reports that San Antonio would consider trading Tony Parker, who lost his starting job to Hill and has told close friends he and his actress wife, Eva Longoria, would love to relocate to New York.
Parker read the report and called it “even worse than the paparazzi”. He also reiterated for the second time that he wants to stay with the Spurs long-term.
“Again, I want to make it clear: I want to stay in San Antonio,” Parker told the San Antonio Express-News. “My heart is in San Antonio. But it doesn’t seem to matter what I say. The rumors get worse and worse, and as I go through my free-agent year, I know there will be even more.”
“I’m happy in San Antonio,” Parker added. “My wife and I are very happy. I built my home base here, so why wouldn’t I want to be here?”
Four things are fueling this speculation right now: 1) the Knicks desperately need a point guard, 2) Spurs didn’t play well against the Suns, 3) Parker had an up and down year, due to injury, and 4) George Hill is a very capable guard that could step in if Parker were moved.
In the end, I don’t think Parker will be traded. If he doesn’t sign an extension, the Spurs can keep him until February of 2011 before they have to move him to get something for him in return.
Goran Dragic had 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting in the final 14 minutes of Game 3. He was the difference for the Suns. Check out this mash-up of all (or at least most) of his buckets.
San Antonio played pretty well down the stretch this season, winning 17 of its last 25 games in March and April. (That’s a 56-win pace, by the way.) The Spurs looked sharp in their first round series against the Mavs, but looked old and slow as they were swept by the Suns.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the Spurs approach this offseason. They just signed Manu Ginobili to an extension, and Tim Duncan is signed for two more seasons, so Tony Parker may be the player most likely to be moved. He has one more year on his contract at the tune of $13.7 million and at just 27, he’s in the prime of his career. George Hill could take over the full-time point guard duties, if necessary.
Trading Parker would be a big shift in direction from a personnel standpoint. San Antonio’s Big Three — Ginobili, Parker and Duncan — have been together for eight seasons and three titles, but they haven’t reached the Finals in the last three tries and haven’t made it out of the semis in the last two years. This begs the question — how big of a change are the Spurs willing to make?
Well, I’ll be honest — I didn’t see this one coming. I thought the Spurs would win this series in six or seven games. I knew the Suns were good, but I had no idea that they were this good.
Amare Stoudemire had 29-5, Steve Nash posted 20-5-9 and Jared Dudley added 16-6-4 off the bench to lead the Suns over the Spurs in Game 4, 107-101. It was tight down the stretch, but Stoudemire hit a couple of long jumpers off of Phoenix’s screen-and-roll to keep the Spurs at bay. The Suns almost let the Spurs climb back into it with a Dudley turnover (leading to a bucket) and a Stoudemire foul on a George Hill three-pointer, but Phoenix played a clean final minute and closed out the series in style.
I figured after winning Game 3, the Suns would relax (not unlike the Cavs in Game 4) and the Spurs’ pride would be enough to avoid the sweep at home, but this win in San Antonio shows what these Suns are made of. They have great chemistry, two stars (Nash and Stoudemire) and a number of talented role players (Jason Richardson, Grant Hill, Channing Frye, Goran Dragic, Jared Dudley and Leandro Barbosa), who all made news at one point or another in this series. They should also be getting Robin Lopez back for the Conference Finals, which should help the Suns match up with the Lakers’ long and lean front line.
Who would have thought a few months ago, with Stoudemire very much on the trade block, that the Suns would be the first team to clinch a spot in the Conference Finals?
This is a nice collection of clips from Game 2 of the Spurs/Suns series showing Tim Duncan guarding the pick-and-roll with Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire.
I don’t think the Suns are running the pick-and-roll so much because they want to attack Duncan. I think they run it because they’re really, really good at it. Nash is one of the best ball handlers and decision makers in the league, and Stoudemire is one of the best finishers in all of basketball. It makes sense that they’d run this over and over because everyone has trouble defending it, not just the Spurs.
That said, Duncan (34) is not quite the defender he once was, which is why I was so surprised when he made the All-Defensive Team over Andrew Bogut, who was terrific on that end of the floor this season.
The second year guard from Slovenia absolutely destroyed the Spurs in the second half of Game 3. He scored 26 points in 17 minutes, hitting 10-of-13 shots from the field, including 5-for-5 from long range. He entered the game with 2:02 remaining in the third quarter with the Suns trailing by three. Check out his work in the final two periods:
1:05 Goran Dragic makes 25-foot three point jumper
END OF THIRD QUARTER
11:21 Goran Dragic makes layup
10:40 Goran Dragic makes 6-foot jumper
8:37 Goran Dragic makes layup
8:04 Goran Dragic makes 24-foot three point jumper
6:56 Goran Dragic makes 24-foot three point jumper
6:56 Goran Dragic makes free throw 1 of 1
6:16 Goran Dragic makes layup
4:33 Goran Dragic makes 25-foot three point jumper
4:07 Goran Dragic makes layup
0:05 Goran Dragic makes 26-foot three point jumper
During that 14-minute span, the Suns went from trailing by three to winning 110-96. It was an incredible performance that was clearly the difference in the game.
It’s funny — Channing Frye and Jared Dudley keyed the Suns’ win in Game 2, and it was Dragic, along with Leandro Barbosa (7 points in the 4th quarter) that keyed Phoenix’s win in Game 3. Moreover, the Suns trailed by 18 early in the game, so in total, this was a 32-point turnaround.
What has to kill the Spurs is that they actually owned Dragic’s draft rights, and traded him on draft night to the Suns for Malik Hairston, a future second round pick and cash. I wonder if they want a do-over on that one.
But back to the Suns — they are for real. Grant Hill said that this team has the best chemistry of any team he’s ever played on and they were able to win Game 3 in San Antonio playing mostly reserves during the turning point in the game.
No team has ever come back to win a series after trailing 0-3 and I don’t expect the Spurs to do it this year. It would take a major implosion for the Suns to lose this series, and they’re looking like a very live dog in a potential Conference Finals matchup with the Lakers.
There is no blowup here. Just a coach who’s obviously pissed off about losing Game 2 and has to go talk to the media for a few minutes after the game. He gets progressively annoyed by the questions and then settles down toward the end. It is a lesson in composure.
Part of the problem is that half of the reporters that cover the games never played competitive basketball in their lives. Popovich’s response to the “energy” question was a little perplexing. One team can certainly play with more energy than another, but I think his point was that his Spurs were playing hard and the ball just didn’t bounce their way.
When starters Amare Stoudemire (23 points), Jason Richardson (19), Steve Nash (19) and Grant Hill (18) combine for 79 points, it may seem odd to give props to the Suns bench, but without Channing Frye’s 15 points (5-of-6 from 3PT) and Jared Dudley’s all-around game, Phoenix would have been in trouble.
Tim Duncan posted 29-10 for the Spurs, but was having a tough time matching up with the Suns on the defensive end. (By the way, Andrew Bogut got screwed out of 2nd Team All-Defensive honors. I realize that Duncan plays a lot of center, but he’s listed as a forward. Anderson Varejao made the 2nd Team at forward. Are they really serious that Varejao had a better defensive year than Bogut, who had the second most combined blocks, steals and charges in the league? They should have listed Duncan as a forward and given Varejao’s spot to Bogut.) Duncan was forced to guard Frye out on the perimeter, so at one point he switched over to Hill for a couple of possessions and Hill just dribbled into his range and knocked down a pair of key jumpers.
With this win in Game 2, the Suns own all the momentum in the series. Their mission now is to win one game in San Antonio, while the Spurs desperately need to win both Game 3 and Game 4 if they hope to come back and win this series.
It’s funny — for years, I’d always root for the Suns in their playoff matchups with the Spurs, but now I find myself rooting for San Antonio. Maybe they’re a bit of an underdog, or maybe they’re the team that could seriously challenge the Lakers in the Conference Finals. Or maybe it’s a combination of the two.
Anyway, they’re in big trouble, so there’s a great chance we’re going to see a Lakers/Suns matchup in the next round.
