Are these the same San Antonio Spurs? Along with the news of Richard Jefferson’s new contract, the Spurs quietly signed Gary Neal off their summer roster to a 3 year deal. This is highly unusual for the Spurs as unprovens usually don’t yield such a long term contract with the Spurs. Spurstalk.com (best source of insider Spurs info) did not say whether the contract was partially guaranteed.
Gary Neal has a quick release shot and played nicely in a few Summer League games including one game with 20 points in the first half.
I’ve never watched Neal play outside of his highlights so no commentary from your 19th favorite San Antonio Blogger.
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And so the San Antonio match made in hell will continue. The Spurs signed Richard Jefferson to a 4 year, $40 million contract as first reported by Spurstalk.com. The new contract has a strong feeling of blah to it.
Yes, Jefferson was probably the best available now, but will this money give the Spurs much ROI? Neither the Spurs nor Richard seemed comfortable with each other. Will the Summer months change things all that much? Not likely.
Spurs reupped Matt Bonner (another below pedestrian signing of a guy that moonlights as a sandwich blogger) and finally brought over Tiago Splitter. Splitter now carries a lot of hope on his shoulders but whether or not he will be the super glue the Spurs need to bring it all together is a question no one wants to face. The answer is no.
Unfortunately the San Antonio Spurs are caught in NBA purgatory with a good team that isn’t good enough. As it stands, the Heat and the Lakers are both too talented for the Spurs to even win 2 games in a playoff series. Let us not forget, the Spurs were ousted by the Phoenix Suns via a good old fashion brooming. With Amare Staudemire in New York, the Suns have been devenomized but the Lakers loom large in any Western Conference playoff picture.
Tiago Splitter marks an upgrade, but well short of what is needed to thrust into contender status.
I can’t read the Spurs front office minds but I can tell you that Richard Jefferson contract is going to look mighty bad really soon.
With the offseason basically complete, this blogger predicts another 50+ wins and a second round exit. Spurs are a good team, but the league is top heavy right now. Richard Jefferson for $40m over 4 years is a really poor contract. I hope they at least get Adam Morrison so I can have something to watch the games for. Yeah, maybe he sucks but he is a former lotto pick that can fill it up. Maybe he would thrive with the Spurs. Wouldn’t hurt to take a flyer on him, not anymore than locking up Richard Jefferson and Matt Bonner to $56 million over 4 years.
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