JULY 13TH: The Spurs announced via press release that the deal has been finalized.
JULY 2ND, 3:49pm: The Spurs and Splitter have reached an agreement in principle, according to ESPN.com's Marc Stein.
3:06pm: There won't be a fifth year in the Spurs' deal with Splitter, tweets Wojnarowski. However, the average annual salary will stay the same, meaning the agreement figures to be for four years and $36MM+.
2:44pm: The Spurs are putting the finishing touches on an agreement that will keep Tiago Splitter under contract for five more years, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). The deal will be worth about $45MM, according to Wojnarowski. ESPN.com's Marc Stein first reported that the two sides had "ramped up" negotiations and were expecting to reach an agreement soon, with other potential suitors falling off.
According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), the Trail Blazers figured to be one of those rival suitors for Splitter. With the threat of a significant offer sheet from Portland looming, the Spurs decided to make a preemptive strike, working out an agreement with Splitter before he had the opportunity to sign a lucrative offer from the Blazers.
As I noted in that earlier post, an agreement with Splitter may signal that the Spurs don't expect to use room under the cap this summer. With close to $42MM in salary commitments heading into July, a new deal for Splitter and a new contract for Manu Ginobili would use up a good chunk of San Antonio's potential space, even assuming Ginobili takes a significant pay cut. At that point, the team would likely just have the mid-level exception to spend on other free agents.
Splitter, 28, has improved his production in each of his three NBA seasons, playing a career-high 24.7 minutes per contest in 81 games in 2012/13. The Arn Tellem client averaged 10.3 PPG and 6.4 RPG while shooting 56.0% from the field as a frequent starter in the Spurs' frontcourt.
Damn what a waste of cap room.
9mil/year… are you kidding me?!
Splitter had over 8 win shares last year. A win is
worth at least $1.5m so if he keeps up his production, the Spurs would
have him on a very reasonable contract.
Duncan isn’t going to be
around forever and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Splitter increase his
minutes and along with that, his production. Could be a sneaky all-star
pick next season.
All star? did you watch the finals? The 8 win shares is an interesting stat. But realistically I see him worth 8mil to SA. 9 or more is overpaying/ fair. I look at SA to be a place where FA’s go to win a ring, not to get paid. Splitter needs to develop more and at his age I don’t see it. Don’t be surprised if he’s traded in a year. Personally I’d rather get a guy who’ll take 6-7 mil annually who can defend, rebound, and make chippies. I like Timothy Mozgov more. Ryan hollins of the clippers would be a nice backup. Deandre Jordan makes around 11 mil and he has way more upside than splitter getting 9mil. even earl clark would be a better find
or go get earl clark ,that’d be solid
So you’re going to use the small sample size of the finals to judge Splitter? I’d rather use the entire regular season where he was one of the most efficient big men in the league.
I’m not saying he’s gonna make the all-star team but it’s not crazy to think he could. If he gets 30 minutes a game, he could easily replace guys like Zach Randolph or Alridge on the west squad.
my theory is that the heat did not have good low post defenders against PF and C’s. Therefore Splitter should have been more successful. Granted his repertoire isn’t to the degree of Duncan, David West, or Hibbert, but he just looked very inferior. I want a big guy who’s aggressive and not afraid to battle down low. I’d rather have Carl Landry.