This one was pure desperation and it hurt. The cost, the age and the lack of game. A shot in the kidneys.

 A down grade from Kurt Thomas. Has no transition game or transition defense which means we better get used to going a man down on all fast breaks and ball pushes. If he is the cosmetic starter at center, this means we will start off games with a horrible disadvantage and at best tread water, at worst, get housed up and down the court and be blown out in the first 8 minutes of the game. If he backs up Bonner at center, oh sweet mother, it will be feast of fastbreaks for opposing big men. I can only begin to imagine the myrid of strange combinations that Pop will throw together to cover the whole in the middle. It makes me shudder.

Is slow of foot, which in this conference of young big men, spells Godzilla sized trouble.

Health issues (especially to his knees) have robbed a lot of his once-trademark explosive leaping ability. There is a strong possibility he gets injured for a large amount of time and the signing is an absolute complete bust. At the least, his minutes will have to be severely managed.

What we needed was a true center, a young big guy, a banger, a space eater, somebody that could keep the opposing big man off the offensive boards. Instead we got a broken down big forward, who can't keep up with younger guys, that will have real limited minutes, who can't keep any of the big men in the west off the boards and is a substantial injury risk. In other words, the exact opposite of what we needed.

Would have played a great 11th man role similar to Glen "Big Dog" Williams on some of early 2000 teams. Problem is, this isn't one of our 2000 teams, this is the Golden State Warriors of the 1990s, only without some of the young talent and two of the three big guys injury riddled.

All the hope from the draft and Jefferson trade just went up in smoke. Unless there is a surprise move still left in the Spurs rabbit hole, this is a sickening last attempt to win a championship with Duncan. I would have much prefered to pick up some tall Euro guy or NBL center who had no offfensive game, but who could play D, rebound and at least contest shots.

For all the money spent and all the moves made, we still can't block shots, play D in the paint and defensive rebound effectively.

I think I am going to be sick.

"If you can accept losing, you can't win. "
Vince Lombardi

[Note from ATS:  I wanted to put this on the front page a couple days ago, but thought I would do some formatting to make it more readable.  I agree with about 50% of it which is a 500% increase in how much of CC's posts I normally agree with.]

OK, here is  my attempt to analyze what went wrong with the Spurs and how to get better.

Continue reading this post »

For our #1  pick in the entire draft due in 2009.

http://www.nbadraft.net/rankings/2009_positional.html

Here are the qualifications

1. Tall, athletic, rebounding and shot blocking

2. Not a gangster with personal issues and multiple illegitimate children

3. Not a soft Euro center

4. Avoid anyone with a scouting report that reads.."a year away from.." or "needs to be more focused" or "injury problems"

So with that said, here is the watch list...............

Blake Griffin from OU...not a true 7 footer, but great strength and fundamentals

Hasheem Thabeet...A solid 7-3, thin and weak, improving fundamentals and getting stronger