San Antonio Spurs: NBA Draft

Cheerleader of the Day: San Antonio Spurs

Shawn Siegel — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:01:59 -0700

Cheerleader of the Day

Thanks to our friends over at Icon
Sports Media, we have access to thousands of great college & NBA basketball photos
to use on the site. Each day, along with our

Picture of the Day, we'll be featuring a Cheerleader of the Day. In honor of
the upcoming NBA Draft, we'll be focusing on NBA dancers until the end of June!

San Antonio Spurs

- Check out past

Cheerleaders of the Day!

- Also check out the

Picture of the Day!

1st Round Picks vs Playoff Success

Jon Teitel — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:04:55 -0700

FACT #1: Most homegrown 1^st round picks since 2000: Celtics, Hawks, and Supersonics with 5 each (but these 3 teams have combined for only 7 playoff appearances in 8 years)

CONCLUSION #1: Drafting a lot of players in the 1^st round and keeping them on your team will not necessarily lead to success, as each of these teams have a top-5 lottery pick this year.

FACT #2: Most acquired 1^st round picks since 2000: Trailblazers with 9 (but only 4 playoff appearances in 8 years)

CONCLUSION #2: Portland has been busy signing/trading for former 1^st round picks for much of the decade, but it has not helped a lot so far, although I have a feeling that their newest homegrown addition (Oden) might turn them from losers into winners.

FACT #3: Most homegrown/acquired 1^st round picks since 2000: Trailblazers with 12 (but only 4 playoff appearances in 8 years)

CONCLUSION #3: Portland can bring five former 1^st round picks off of their bench, but apparently potential will only get you so far, as they had one of the worst teams in the league last year.

FACT #4: Least homegrown 1^st round picks since 2000: Bucks, Nuggets, Suns, Timberwolves, and Wizards with 1 each (these 5 teams have combined for 23 playoff appearances in 8 years)

CONCLUSION #4: Despite the fact that 2 of these 5 teams missed out on the playoffs this year, and the Suns were the only team to win a single playoff series, these teams have shown that you can get to the playoffs year after year without developing your own 1^st round picks.

FACT #5: Least acquired 1^st round picks since 2000: Clippers with 0 (and only 1 playoff appearance in 8 years)

CONCLUSION #5: I suppose that Clippers owner Donald Sterling might be the X-factor in this one, but the fact remains that one reason the Clippers keep ending up in the lottery is because they rarely trade for/sign players who are recent 1^st round picks.

FACT #6: Least homegrown/acquired 1^st round picks since 2000: Bucks, Clippers, Jazz, Spurs, Timberwolves with 3 (these 5 teams have combined for 24 playoff appearances in 8 years)

CONCLUSION #6: Sterling’s distaste for re-signing his 1^st round picks has cost him in the past, but the other 4 teams have consistently made the playoffs with a combination of players who are either older, not former 1^st round picks, or both.

FACT #7: Most playoff appearances since 2000: Spurs with 8 (despite only having 2 homegrown and 1 acquired 1^st round pick in 8 years)

CONCLUSION #7: The NBA’s defending champion has proven that the addition of recent 1^st round picks is completely irrelevant to success, although this year’s NBA Finals MVP is one of their 2 homegrown 1^st round picks.

8 playoff appearances in past 8 years

Spurs: 2 homegrown (Parker, Udrih)

1 acquired (Ely)

7 playoff appearances in past 8 years

Kings: 3 homegrown (Douby, Garcia, Martin)

1 acquired (Salmons)

Lakers: 4 homegrown (Bynum, Cook, Farmar, Vujacic)

3 acquired (Brown, Mihm, Radmanovic)

Mavericks: 2 homegrown (Ager, Howard)

2 acquired (Diop, Harris)

Pacers: 3 homegrown (Granger, Harrison, Williams)

4 acquired (Diogu, Dunleavy, Murphy, Tinsley)

6 playoff appearances in past 8 years

Nets: 4 homegrown (Boone, Krstic, Williams, Wright)

3 acquired (Collins, Jefferson, Nachbar)

Suns: 1 homegrown (Stoudemire)

3 acquired (Banks, Barbosa, Diaw)

5 playoff appearances in past 8 years

Bucks: 1 homegrown (Bogut)

2 acquired (Hodge, Villanueva)

Hornets: 4 homegrown (Armstrong, Paul, Simmons, West)

2 acquired (Chandler, Mason)

Jazz: 2 homegrown (Brewer, Williams)

1 acquired (Araujo)

Sixers: 2 homegrown (Dalembert, Iguodala)

2 acquired (Carney, Hunter)

Timberwolves: 1 homegrown (McCants)

2 acquired (Griffin, Madsen)

4 playoff appearances in past 8 years

Celtics: 5 homegrown (Allen, Foye, Green, Jefferson, West)

3 acquired (Perkins, Rondo, Telfair)

Magic: 2 homegrown (Howard, Redick)

3 acquired (Dooling, Nelson, Turkoglu)

Nuggets: 1 homegrown (Anthony)

5 acquired (Hilario, Johnson, Kleiza, Martin, Smith)

Raptors: 4 homegrown (Bargnani, Bosh, Graham, Peterson)

4 acquired (Dixon, Ford, Humphries, Jackson)

Trailblazers: 3 homegrown (Outlaw, Randolph, Webster)

9 acquired (Aldridge, Dickau, Jack, Jones, Magloire, Miles, Przybilla, Rodriguez, Roy)

3 playoff appearances in past 8 years

Bulls: 2 homegrown (Gordon, Hinrich)

5 acquired (Deng, Khryapa, Sefolosha, Sweetney, Thomas)

Grizzlies: 3 homegrown (Lowry, Swift, Warrick)

4 acquired (Gasol, Gay, Jones, Miller)

Knicks: 4 homegrown (Balkman, Collins, Frye, Lee)

5 acquired (Crawford, Curry, Jeffries, Richardson, Robinson)

Rockets: 2 homegrown (Head, Ming)

3 acquired (Battier, Snyder, Tsakalidis)

Supersonics: 5 homegrown (Collison, Petro, Ridnour, Sene, Swift)

1 acquired (Wilcox)

Wizards: 3 acquired (Haywood, Stevenson, Thomas)

1 homegrown (Hayes)

2 playoff appearances in past 8 years

Cavaliers: 2 homegrown (Brown, James)

2 acquired (Gooden, Pavlovic)

1 playoff appearance in past 8 years

Clippers: 3 homegrown (Kaman, Korolev, Livingston)

0 acquired

Warriors: 4 homegrown (Biedrins, O’Bryant, Pietrus, Richardson)

2 acquired (Cabarkapa, Wagner)

0 playoff appearances in past 8 years

*Bobcats: 4 homegrown (Felton, May, Morrison, Okafor)

2 acquired (Brezec, Wallace)

Hawks: 5 homegrown (Childress, Johnson, Smith, M. Wiliams, S. Williams)

1 acquired (Claxton)

*only in existence since 2004

Do Lottery Players Equal NBA Success?

Jeff Fox — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 12:40:49 -0700

The title of the article pretty much sums it up – do the number of lottery drafted players on a NBA team’s roster affect the team’s outcome on the court? At first blush the obvious answer would be yes – more often than not talent wins out on the court, so more talent on a roster should equal more wins. On the other side of the coin, normally the worst teams in the league are the ones drafting in the lottery, so therefore crummy teams should have their rosters saturated with lottery picks.

Your trusty writer went about trying to answer this question by perusing all 30 NBA team’s rosters from the 2006/07 season. Any player who appeared in at least one game for a team qualified to be counted towards that team’s lottery player total, so lottery players who were traded during the season counted on multiple team’s totals. After all the number crunching, NBA teams had on an average about five players on their roster who were selected in the lottery. Here are the teams that disobeyed the average and were at the far ends of the spectrum:

Top of the heap:

Golden State – 9 players (Davis, Richardson, Biedrins, Dunleavy, Diogu, Foyle, O’Bryant, Pietrus, Wagner)

Denver – 8 players (Anthony, Iverson, Camby, Hilario, Miller, Smith, Martin, Johnson)

Miami – 8 players (Wade, O’Neal, Williams, Mourning, Walker, Payton, Jones, Doleac)

All three teams made the playoffs, so talent does get you that far. Miami’s stockpiling of veteran lottery picks (and some kid named Wade) got them the title in 2006. It’s hard to say if the Nuggets’ motley crew of lottery picks will ever be able to play together as a team and really make some noise in the playoffs. Golden State’s big mid-season trade took away some of the lottery talent, but they had enough left over to shock Dallas in the first round of the playoffs.

Bottom feeders:

Indiana – 2 players (Dunleavy, Diogu)

Milwaukee – 2 players (Bogut, Villanueva)

San Antonio – 3 players (Duncan, Horry, Ely)

Utah – 3 players (Williams, Harpring, Brewer)

Until their mid-season trade with Golden State, Indiana didn’t have any lottery picks on their team – and they suffered through a horrible season. Milwaukee also had a horrible year but at least their lottery talent is young still. The real interesting two are the Spurs and the Jazz, who battled in the Western Conference Finals this past season. These two teams proved it doesn’t matter what spot you draft a player at, rather it is more important to draft and/or trade smart. While having lottery picks Tim Duncan and Deron Williams on their rosters definitely help, it is the later picks that really make the difference for both teams – Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur.

While it is hard to draw a definitive conclusion from all of this, the main point that these numbers illustrates is that a pick in the lottery isn’t a guaranteed ticket to a championship. Unless that pick is named Duncan or O’Neal or probably Oden and/or Durant. So draft wisely NBA GMs, even those of you who aren’t in the lottery this year.

All-Time Draft Studs & Duds: Part Two

Jeff Fox — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 06:19:25 -0700

Part One of All-Time NBA Draft Studs & Duds contains Atlanta through Miami.

Milwaukee Bucks

Stud:

1969-#1- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Dud:

1988-#13- Jeff Grayer

Could have had: Dan Majerle, Rod Strickland, Anthony Mason

Minnesota Timberwolves

Stud:

1995-#5- Kevin Garnett

Dud:

1999-#6- Wally Szczerbiak

Could have had: Richard Hamilton, Shawn Marion, Ron Artest

New Jersey Nets

Stud:

1977-#7- Bernard King

Dud:

1987-#3- Dennis Hopson

Could have had: Scottie Pippen, Reggie Miller

New Orleans Hornets

Stud:

1996-#13- Kobe Bryant

Dud:

1989-#5- J.R. Reid

Could have had: Tim Hardaway, Shawn Kemp

New York Knicks

Stud:

1964- 2^nd round - #10 overall - Willis Reed

Dud:

1962-#2- Duke Hogue

Could have had: Dave deBusschere, Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek

Orlando Magic

Stud:

1992-#1- Shaquille O’Neal

Dud:

2003-#13- Reece Gaines

Could have had: Josh Howard

Philadelphia 76ers

Stud:

1984-#5- Charles Barkley

Dud:

1997-#2- Keith Van Horn

Could have had: Tracy McGrady, Chauncey Billups

Phoenix Suns

Stud:

1996-#15- Steve Nash

Dud:

1987-#2- Armon Gilliam

Could have had: Scottie Pippen, Reggie Miller

Portland Trailblazers

Stud:

1983-#14- Clyde Drexler

Dud:

1984-#2- Sam Bowie

Could have had: Michael Jordan, John Stockton, Charles Barkley

Sacramento Kings

Stud:

1970-#19- Tiny Archibald

Dud:

1956-#1- Si Green

Could have had: Bill Russell

San Antonio

Stud:

1999- 2^nd round - #57 overall – Manu Ginobli

Dud:

1984-#7- Alvin Robertson

Could have had: John Stockton

Seattle Sonics

Stud:

1987-#5- Scottie Pippen

Dud:

2001-#2- Vlad Radmanovic

Could have had: Richard Hamilton, Shawn Marion, Ron Artest

Toronto Raptors

Stud:

1997-#9- Tracy McGrady

Dud:

1999-#5- Jonathan Bender

Could have had: Richard Hamilton, Shawn Marion, Ron Artest

Utah Jazz

Stud:

1985-#13- Karl Malone

Dud:

1980-#2- Darrell Griffith

Could have had: Kevin McHale

Washington Wizards

Stud:

1968-#2- Wes Unseld

Dud:

1984-#6- Melvin Turpin

Could have had: John Stockton

Return to Part One of All-Time NBA Draft Studs & Duds

San Antonio Spurs: NBA Draft Team Needs

Raphielle Johnson — Sun, 27 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700

NBA Draft: San Antonio Spurs

Record: 58-24, 2^nd Southwest

Draft Picks: 28, 33, 58

Team Needs: The Spurs could use some depth for their bench, preferably on the perimeter with guys like Robert Horry and Brent Barry in the twilight of their careers. Depending on how they feel about Jacque Vaughn and Beno Udrih, the Spurs could even look to shore up the backup point spot.

Who Should They Draft: G Rodney Stuckey (Eastern Washington)

Draft History Since 2000:

2006: Damir Markota (59)

2005 - Ian Mahinmi (28)

2004 - Beno Udrih (28), Romain Sato (52), Sergei Karaulov (57)

2003 - Leandro Barbosa (28)

2002 - John Salmons (26), Luis Scola (56), Randy Holcomb (57)

2001 - Tony Parker (28), Robertas Javtokas (56), Bryan Bracey (57)

2000 - Chris Carrawell (41)

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