Longtime Spurs power forward Matt Bonner has no plans to retire after this season as long as there is still interest in him, Jabari Young of the San Antonio News-Express relays. Bonner is 35 and re-signed with the Spurs in July for one year at the veteran’s minimum. Bonner was reportedly thinking about retirement last spring, though he said last year that he wanted to play for several more seasons. Bonner told Young that he would like to retire as a member of the Spurs, however.
“The Spurs are my first option every summer, which is terrible business on my end to put that out there,” Bonner said. “I’m not negotiating for max deals. I’m basically a vet minimum guy, unless someone out there wants to pay me a lot more money.”
Here’s more out of the Western Conference:
- Ed Davis, who signed a three-year, $20MM deal with the Blazers in July after spending last season with the Lakers, told Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders that the biggest difference between the two franchises is Portland operates with more stability and with more of a long-term plan (Twitter link).
- Lakers coach Byron Scott believes the development and performance of some of the Lakers’ core young players such as D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson will help lure free agents to the team in the future, Bill Oram of the Orange County Register relays. “They’ll see that we have three young guys that, from day one to game 82, have shown big-time improvement,” Scott said. “And if they can continue to improve that way, then the future’s pretty bright.”
- Marc Gasol told Zach Lowe of ESPN.com in a wide-ranging and entertaining Q&A that he didn’t know he would ink the new five-year max deal with the Grizzlies that he signed in July until last season was completed. “Just because I didn’t put that much time into it,” Gasol said. “You have to look at things from afar and get perspective on things. That’s when you know. So that’s what we did. We flew back, we went away from basketball for a little bit, and it just kind of happened.”