He has looked pretty good in the Olympics.  I am pretty skeptical about Mahinmi becoming a regular contributer this season.  He will have a tough time staying out of foul trouble and just adjusting to playing against the elite athletes in the NBA.

Javtokas is ready to go.  Averaging just about 20 minutes per night in the Olympics he has been a solid contributer.  He is hitting 70% of his buckets and pulling down 5 boards.  He has also averaged just under 1 block per game.  He would be nice to have on the team for insurance in case the geriatric KT comes up gimpy and/or Ian shows that he needs another year of D-league.  He is 28 years old and he has pretty decent size at 6'11" 250.

Oh wait.  He has a 1 more year left on a contract with Dynamo Moscow.  The chances of the cheapass (and to be fair near the cap) Spurs buying out his contract and paying him more than he could make in Europe are about zero.  He'll probably end up a Spur when he is 35.

My god this looks like the summer league.  Spain is really a contender?  Maybe it's just opening day jitters, but neither of these teams look like they would win 10 games in an NBA season.

 Anyone else watching this?

Bla blao bla blah Bla BLA Bla bla bla bla Bla BLA

Bla blao bla blah Bla BLA Bla bla bla bla Bla BLA

Bla blao bla blah Bla BLA Bla bla bla bla Bla BLA

Bla blao bla blah Bla BLA Bla bla bla bla Bla BLA

Bla blao bla blah Bla BLA Bla bla bla bla Bla BLA

Bla blao bla blah Bla BLA Bla bla bla bla Bla BLA

Bla blao bla blah Bla BLA Bla bla bla bla Bla BLA

Bla blao bla blah Bla BLA Bla bla bla bla Bla BLA

Bla blao bla blah Bla BLA Bla bla bla bla Bla BLA

I hadn't noticed this talked about yet, but the Spurs have apparently signed Tolliver to a non-guaranteed contract.  I liked his offense in the summer league, but you have to wonder if the Spurs saw a need for a 6'8"+ guy who can shoot from outside, but is not a great defender, why didn't they draft Donte Greene?  Oh yeah, so we could get the highly coveted George Hill.  Greene is definitely more athletic than Tolliver, and has the potential to become a defensive force, and more than just a spot up shooter on offense.

Greene averaged 22.6 points 1 block 1.6 steals, but a paltry 3.6 rebounds in summer league play (in 34 minutes).

Tolliver averaged 12.3 points 0 blocks 0 steals and 5 rebounds in summer league play (in 23 minutes).

Tolliver clearly has the edge in rebounding. 

The Spurs are expected to talk with Michael Finley, Kurt Thomas and Robert Horry about returning to the team next season, according to The San Antonio Express-News.

They are all unrestricted free agents this summer.

"The question is, can we find something both sides can live with?" said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. "In the end, it comes down to years and money."

However, there are rumors that the team is looking to get younger through free agency.

"The ‘getting younger’ thing is overblown," Popovich added. "If we knew Manu would stay healthy, Timmy (Duncan) would stay healthy and Tony (Parker) would stay healthy, we’d bring back the same doggone team. And if any of those guys are not healthy, we’re not going to win a championship anyway."

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/53322/20080701/spurs_to_talk_with_finley_thomas_and_horry/

It appears that our worst fears are being realized.  It looks like Pop thinks that the same team plus another year of mileage and George Hill will be enough.

The Hawks plan to match any offers Josh Smith and Josh Childress receive this month, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Smith and Childress are restricted free agents, but the team claims that they want to retain both players.

 

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/53311/20080701/hawks_plan_to_match_offers_for_smith_childress/

This is not good news.  I think the Spurs should offer the full MLE (~5.8 million per year) anyway to force them to back up their words.  How many athletic and long small forwards does one team need?  They have 4 of them.  Throw the Spurs a fricken bone.

Childress would bring much more than J.R. Smith, who would likely spend most of his time in Pop's doghouse.  If we can't get Childress, then I hope we look to Azubuike or Pietrus (on the cheap).  If we can't get a decent wing in free agency it will make the Hill acquisition all the more puzzling.  There were at least 3 guys still on the board (Greene, Giddens, and CDR) who could have helped the Spurs on the wing.

Yes, he just let Fisher sodomize Barry in front of God and everyone.  Barry obviously deserved a minimum of 2 freethrows.  Some refs might have even given him 3 shots.  I am sure he is chuckling right now as he heads back to the airport Hilton.  Incredibly though, he hadn't been too egregious before that.  Sure, he blew some other really obvious calls, mostly that pertained to Duncan, but he was fairly liberal on calling the Lakers' blatent hacks, blocks, and reaches.  That was OK.  It was just too bad the Spurs sucked ass (Manu esp.) so badly that they could not grab this winnable game.

And that is not too bad.  You know why?  Because if the Spurs had won this game, then they would have mailed in game 5.  The only way they would have won that won in that case, would have been if the Lakers had also mailed it in, and then it would have been a tossup.  Instead, the Spurs are going to claw tooth and nail to get game 5.  I would put their chances at better than 50% for that game.  Had they won, I would have put their chances at about 10%.  If the Spurs end up after Thursday down 3-2, will it really make any difference that they lost the home game and won on the road?  I don't think so.  Go get 'em Spurs.  These Lakers are ripe for the picking.  They are overconfident right now and about to experience their first home playoffs loss.

Who is the guy who sits next to Jack Nicholson?  He looks like either an out of work circus clown or Donald Sutherland.  I used to think he was the latter, but surely they would have announced his name by now.  I mean, it has been a while since old Donald has done work as fine as the Puppet Masters or Virus, but surely he would deserve a little love as the camera pans by him.  They give Diane Cannon some sugar, and nobody is still alive who remembers her on film or non-Lakers related TV.

So who is this chap and how did he get to be Jack's best buddy?  Does he keep him stocked up with weed and hookers?

I know it is the Chuckster, but he seemed particularly obtuse during last night's broadcast.

He started out by saying that Horry's back screen was definitely a dirty play, and that there was no way that he would be setting that screen for any other reason than to hurt West.  Kenny pointed out that Manu could have easily driven in for a layup instead of passing, which would have made the screen serve a purpose.  C-Webb argued back that he had played against Horry many times and that he knew he wasn't dirty.  Charles persisted though, failing to see reason.  Though idiotic, his stance was understandable enough.  Being that Chuck is a "war eagle" chanting  Auburn Tiger, and Horry is a member of the Alabama Crimson Tide, I figured that his irrational stance could just be chalked up to that intense hatred that is reserved for an in-state collegiate rival.

The lunacy continued in a half-time segment where Ernie Johnson gave Barkley a softball interview about his much publicized financial and legal problems associated with gambling.  In this interview Barkley vowed to never gamble again.  Then he said that he wouldn't gamble for at least the next year or two, and that he wasn't sure he was giving it up for life.  Finally, he closed be saying that he would never gamble again.  Huh?  Why even make a public announcement that you are giving up gambling, when you sneak in the fact that it will just be for a year or two.  He really sounded like a junkie talking about that sweet black tar.  He's in total control.  Sure he is.

Finally, and this was the whopper, he said that he thought that the current Laker team was more talented than any other Kobe Laker team.  Wow!  OK, did he forget about Shaquille O'Neal in his hey day?  Shaq was an unstoppable force of nature back then.  O'Neal was the 2000 MVP and has 3 finals MVPs to his credit.  Everbody in the western conference was trying to gear their teams to slow him down.  7 footers who weighed over 260, made millions more just because GMs hoped that that they had a guy who might be able to stand in front of Shaq.  Gasol is good but Shaq in his prime is worth five Gasols. 

Fisher was on the old teams as well, so there is not much point in comparing him (though he is now somewhat over the hill at 33). 

Looking at the rest of the role players, I find it hard to see how: Odom, Walton, Radmanovic, Vujacic, Farmar, and Turiaf; are a much better crew than: Ron Harper, Rick Fox, Eddie Jones, Devean George, Glen Rice, Elden Campbell, and Nick Van Exel.  Of course not all of those guys were there for the same years, and there were other role players who ranged from mediocre to horrible (Medvedenko anyone?), but the point is there is no way that the role players today are so superior to previous ones (if they even are superior) that they could make up for the difference in talent and game impact between Shaq in his prime and Gasol in his prime.  No way.  It is just idiotic to claim otherwise, and it makes me question Barkley's mental state.

His team has just been blistered by an average of 15.5 points.  Duncan is now healthy and Manu is starting (and his ankle is showing signs of improvement.  What adjustments does he make going into game 5?

I am thinking his best bet will be to start Bonzi.  Peterson is garbage.  When Bonzi is defended by Manu, he can punish him in the post and tire him out.  The drawback to that is that I don't think Bonzi is in good enough shape to play 35 minutes plus.  However, he still might do it just to get Bonzi 20 minutes or so against Manu, instead of 20 minutes against Ime.  That could potentially give them the third scoring option that they have been missing since Peja came down with that intense rash.