Nice article on Parker. Also mentions the two 3x3s that they won....

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When Parker came to San Antonio as a 19-year-old from Paris, the lengthy and often painful process of earning his hard-nosed coach's trust began immediately. As Popovich reminisced in a colorful and candid pregame media session on Wednesday, Parker's path to being taken 28th in the 2001 draft included the day he was shown the Spurs' door.

"I was a [jerk] in the beginning," Popovich admitted. "The first time we worked him out, we didn't want him. We sent him away. We just said we weren't interested. I just thought he was unfocused. I just thought he was too cool. I thought he was soft.

"He wanted a second chance, so we brought in some free agents -- frankly, with the idea to beat him up, and we did a workout. The whole workout was on the post. We never put him out on the floor. We did post defense and post offense, and he impressed the hell out of me. He was focused, tough. That was my first indication that he could be coached -- he can learn, he understands, he can take criticism, he's willing to improve and listen. So we drafted him."

But tough love was brutal in those early years.

:)

Nice article, and of course two of your Spurs guards are in there...

Just a little blur (worth the full read though).
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Without further ado, here’s the hockey assist leaderboard, with total games tracked in parentheses:

Good news: 10 NBA teams have purchased a super-sophisticated camera system from STATS LLC that tracks every movement on an NBA court to a precise degree. These are the same cameras, you’ll recall, that told us Tony Parker is the fastest point guard in the NBA. These cameras can track and sort everything, and the STATS folks decided to track hockey assists using a specific definition: A hockey assist, for STATS, occurs when Player X passes to Player Y, and Player Y then records an assist after holding the ball for two or fewer seconds and taking zero dribbles. The goal of the two seconds/no dribbles criteria is to isolate situations in which the initial pass — the hockey assist — has compromised the defense to the degree that the player who then records the "real" assist has little work left to do other than make a relatively simple pass.

1. Derrick Rose, 1.9 per game (10 games)
2. Steve Nash, 1.6 per game (8 games)
2. Raymond Felton, 1.6 per game (11 games)
4. Mike Conley, 1.4 per game (8 games)
4. Tony Parker, 1.4 per game (31 games)
6. Brandon Jennings, 1.3 per game (29 games)
6. Rajon Rondo, 1.3 per game (26 games)

All tied at 1.1 per game: Russell Westbrook (35 games), Darren Collison (12 games), Manu Ginobili (15 games) and Jose Calderon (29 games).

just kidding....but still cool

Indiana center Roy Hibbert:

"He’s a great friend and I text him all the time. I ask him for scouting reports and I texted him yesterday asking him how I can guard him. He said go for the pump fake. I try to learn from him and he tries to teach me how to work outside of the box, face up and use some stuff that’s out of my comfort zone. He’s a good informant and I want to continue to work with him and talk once every week or two. Tim took time out of his day to invite me to San Antonio to work out with him. I had dinner with him and his family and he treated me like one of his own teammates during the summer. I’m going to continue to talk to him and learn from him."

Some interesting stuff on the road (Not including the Phoenix game)..

Last 13 games:
Record: 11-2
Points per game: 100.7
Opp Points per game: 97.8
FG%: 45.8%
Opp FG%: 45.1%
3pt%: 40.3%
Reb per game: 41.6

First 10 road games:
Record: 2-8
Points per game: 94.8
Opp Points per game: 102.3
FG%: 45.2%
Opp FG%: 49.3
3pt%: 35.3%
Reb per game: 38.6

T.J. Ford retired earlier this month after nine injury-hampered years in the NBA. But he's not quite done with basketball.

The former point guard for the San Antonio Spurs and consensus player of the year at Texas will be announced today as a volunteer coach for the Austin Toros.

"I'll look at it from another perspective," said Ford, 28. "I'm really starting at the bottom. I'm not sure where I'm headed. But I'm headed in the right direction."

The Toros, who play home games at the Cedar Park Center, are the NBA Development League team tied to the Spurs.

Ford said he plans to use his time as a Toros coach — a position he compared to "an internship" that could lead to a second profession — to plan the rest of his career.

"I retired prematurely," he said Thursday night. "I've been around basketball my entire life. I feel I can do something. I feel I can give back to the game."

"The Spurs organization was great to me," Ford said. "I have a lot of knowledge that I want to share, hopefully to help someone live their dream and make it to the NBA."

Really interesting article. There are some stats and scary numbers, but Aaron breaks it down well.

The focus is around Diaw, but it also shows that Bonner isn't that bad on defense (actually pretty damn good in some areas). Also shows that Duncan is not done as most outside the Spurs.
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In sum? The Spurs got an interesting player in Boris Diaw, to say the least. He’s not the missing piece. He’s not really better than any of the big men we currently run with, although his isolation defense is worth keeping an eye on. As most Spurs fans noticed during the recent Mavs game, when Diaw really puts an effort into shutting down a sweet-shooting forward like Dirk, he has a lot more success than most Spurs players have had over the last few seasons. On the other hand, fans watching the Sixers game may have also noticed the dark side of Diaw’s play — his difficulty recovering on spot-up shooters and putting requisite pressure on their post-up players, namely. They may also have noticed his abhorrent rebounding fundamentals, and his curious lack of talent for a man so large at boxing out and protecting the paint. Diaw isn’t going to solve all the Spurs’ ills, but the main point of this post isn’t really that. It’s that none of the players available were going to.

Read more: http://www.48minutesofhell.com/boris-diaw-and-the-big-man-market-part-2#ixzz1qFzdlhFv

Free agent Boris Diaw has reached agreement on a deal with the San Antonio Spurs, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Diaw agreed to a buyout with the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday, and cleared waivers Friday afternoon. The Spurs will sign Diaw for the remainder of the season.

"That’s where the scoresheet comes in and an interesting listing among the inactives buried deeply on the box score.

Two names were listed: Bonner and Mills. Matt Bonner was out for the night with back spasms.

Considering they don’t have a Mills on their roster, could it be an indication of an upcoming roster move?

Or one that was already made?"

Small excerpt, but worth a read...

"As the Thunder play one nail-biter after another, more executives around the Western Conference are beginning to sense a vulnerability that didn’t exist on Christmas. Every scrap of evidence we have suggests that the Spurs are best positioned to topple that allegedly vulnerable conference favorite in June."

Ford coming along: Backup point guard T.J. Ford, sidelined since suffering a torn left hamstring Jan. 10 at Milwaukee, has begun light on-court conditioning work during the Spurs’ time on the road.

Ford is progressing in his rehabilitation but isn’t expected back until after the All-Star break.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that athletic small forward Darrell Arthur left practice Sunday morning with what is feared to be a torn right Achilles. Team sources tell the newspaper that Arthur may miss the entire 2011-12 season.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — On its surface, the story does not make sense.

Kawhi Leonard needed someone to drive him? Leonard, a 6-foot-7, do-everything talent for San Diego State whom his coaching staff and teammates hail as the Aztecs’ most tireless worker and the man behind the wheel of their historic N.C.A.A. tournament journey, could not drive himself?

Not exactly. But in what has become a comical subplot to the tale of a player who is one of the top N.B.A. prospects in the tournament, Leonard’s basketball career was once threatened by an inability to secure transportation.

Blair averaged 8.8 points and 7.3 rebounds as an unorthodox starting center. In mid-March, he was benched in favor of McDyess, whose defensive chops the coaching staff deemed more valuable in the postseason.

After Blair ballooned to nearly 300 pounds late in the season, Popovich challenged him to shed excess weight. In response, Blair dropped 20 pounds by cutting fast food out of his diet.

Heading into the summer, Popovich has challenged Blair again.

Blair’s future with the Spurs, the coach said, is not aligned with "working on his jumper or developing a jump hook. It’s not defense."

"It’s personal discipline, responsibility and maturity," Popovich said. "That will get him to the next level. Short of that, he’ll have a hard time."

Just Splitter’s luck: Rookie center Tiago Splitter tested his strained left hamstring before Saturday’s game and came back with a two-word assessment.

"Not good," he said.

Splitter missed his second game with the injury in Washington. He is considered day-to-day going forward.

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Dice all right: Veteran forward Antonio McDyess played 16:57 with his sprained right thumb wrapped. He finished with two points and three rebounds and made one of his two field-goal attempts.

So good was Hill — and the rest of his teammates — that Ginobili was allowed to rest for all but 8 minutes, 11 seconds of the blowout. Popovich has assured Ginobili the lineup will return to normal by the time the team tips off in New Jersey on Monday.

At that point, Hill said he won’t mind returning to the bench.

"At the end of the day, it’s basketball," Hill said. "No matter if you start or come off the bench, you just try to help your team win games."
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As much as I like the see Manu start, every other thing points to Hill starting so that Manu can play the backup PG duties (since Hill is no backup PG) and have that energy to close out games thus reducing his minutes...

INJURY UPDATES: Rookie center Tiago Splitter is questionable for tonight’s game after suffering a strained left hamstring Wednesday in Toronto.

Rookie guard Gary Neal’s sore left groin responded well to rest and treatment Thursday. His availability will be determined after this morning’s shootaround.

TRAINING ROOM FULL: The Spurs’ training staff will have a busy day off. Tiago Splitter (strained left hamstring) and Gary Neal (tweaked right groin) left in the second half.

Neither injury was immediately considered serious, though the pair will be re-evaluated today to determine their status for Friday at Philadelphia.

The medical staff will also take a precautionary look at Matt Bonner’s right knee. After missing 10 games with a marrow edema, he played in both ends of the back-to-back.