Back on draft day, we heard that the Spurs were shopping DeJuan Blair, in hopes of clearing space on their roster. While it appears San Antonio has yet to find an acceptable trade for the big man, Blair is prepared not to return to the Spurs next season, as he tells Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News.
"I love the Spurs, but they’ve got a lot of 'bigs,' and they're bringing somebody else from overseas, so where am I going to fall at?" Blair said. "I was out of the rotation at the end of the season, so imagine next year…. That's something I really don't want to go through again, because it tore me down."
After averaging 21.3 minutes per game during the regular season, Blair barely averaged a third of that total in the playoffs, at just 7.6 MPG. With Slovanian center Erazem Lorbek rumored to be making the leap to the Spurs, and Boris Diaw potentially interested in re-signing as well, there doesn't seem to be much room for the 23-year-old Blair, who Adrian Wojnarowski reported would be open to a trade (Twitter link).
Blair is on a non-guaranteed contract for the coming season, so the Spurs could simply release him and avoid the cap hit if he's not in their plans. But at just $1.05MM, the power forward is a young, affordable asset, and it'd be very surprising if San Antonio is unable to find a trade partner this summer.
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blair is a pretty good eigth man in any rotation ..