Manu Ginobili‘s announcement on whether he plans to play another season could come this week, according to Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. Speaking at a basketball clinic, Ginobili’s older brother, Sepo, suggested the veteran Spurs guard is nearing a decision, tweets Spanish-language broadcaster Carlos Altamirano.
The 41-year-old is entering the second season of a two-year contract he signed with the Spurs last summer. He will make $2.5MM if he decides to play in the upcoming season, which would be his 17th in San Antonio.
There’s more NBA news out of Texas:
- DeMar DeRozan feels like he has something to prove after being traded from the Raptors to the Spurs this summer, and Jakob Poeltl thinks that should be frightening for opponents, Orsborn relays in a separate piece. Poeltl came to San Antonio with DeRozan in the Kawhi Leonard deal and knows what his teammate is capable of. DeRozan is a four-time All-Star and may push his game to greater heights in response to the trade. “It’s a little bit scary, to be honest,” Poeltl said, “because I know what he can do when he has a chip on his shoulder, when he gets that extra motivation. Yeah, I think he’s going to be ready.”
- The Rockets are running into dead ends in their quest to trade Ryan Anderson, according to Ashith Mathur of AmicoHoops. Teams are reluctant to take on Anderson’s contract, which pays him more than $20.4MM this season and nearly $21.3MM in 2019/20. “They’ve done everything short of posting an ad on Craigslist,” a rival executive said. Anderson slipped out of Houston’s rotation late last season and saw his scoring average fall below 10 points per game for the first time in eight years.
- The addition of free agent center DeAndre Jordan solves two glaring problems for the Mavericks, notes Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News in his latest player profile. Jordan should help with rebounding and offensive efficiency as he has led the NBA in effective field-goal percentage in five of the past six seasons.
The Spurs will win 54 games.
56 …
Idk about 56 they lost Kyle Anderson who was a key piece of their defense.
If he starts chucking more 3s they wont win 54… has young Rondos shooting touch from 3
I think people are seriously underrating the Spurs this year. Some pundits have them missing the playoffs entirely which to me is insane. The addition by subtraction of no longer having Kawhi who didn’t want to be there and who wasn’t even on the court plus adding a motivated Derozan and a solid backup big like Poeltl plus another season of LMA back playing at his peak could be awesome for them this year.
Agree, and I’m looking for a comeback year from Dante Cunningham. He turned out to be not a fit for neither the Rondo-led Pels nor the development-oriented Nets.
Spurs are just right, and they only have at the 3, Rudy Gay and two questionmarks, Ginoboly and rooki Walker.
Poetl and Derozan will make big differences… at least as much as a daft Kawhi. Good thing for TOR they got Green too.
The Spurs still post up well unlike me today.
*Poeltl, *Ginobili, *rookie. I’ll stick with questionmark as one word because it should be. Also the adverbial form of development looks too long and developmentally disabled.
Sorry I do agree with the pundits, cannot see San Antonio in the playoffs, but hey that’s good for them will give them a head start on their rebuilt.
Made the playoffs last year without Leonard and added a regular All-Star in DeRo. How they aren’t better I don’t understand.
Losing Slow Mo hurts a bit, but Poeltl was a bigger need for a team that did not have much front court depth.
52-54 wins and a top 4-5 seed.