From the Draft Combine: Spurs show interest in Drummond
The San Antonio Spurs' season wasn't even finished for 24 hours and already there are rumors left and right about what could be a busy offseason. First came reports that the Spurs have taken interest in former Syracuse guard Antonio "Scoop" Jardine (great name). Now comes something juicier. According to a tweet from Yahoo!'s Marc Spears, the Spurs are taking a look at former UConn Center Andre Drummond.
"When asked what teams off the Top 5 radar want to meet with him, former UConn center Andre Drummond said the Celtics and Spurs."
This isn't the first time the Spurs have done something like this. Two years ago, they interviewed Derrick Favors. Ultimately nothing materialized. Teams talk with all sorts of different players all the time. It's part of the process. In case you're unfamiliar with Drummond, he's a 6'11" physical freak who was briefly in the discussion for the first pick in the draft this season, but an underwhelming Freshman year ended that talk pretty quickly. Having said that, he could still be the second pick in the draft and most likely won't drop past the sixth pick in the draft.
Drummond has every physical tool you look for in a franchise big man. He's incredibly fast and agile, a great leaper, already a very good defender, especially in the pick and roll. But make no mistake about it, Drummond is a project even more than Derrick Favors was when the Spurs interviewed him. So you might be asking yourself why would the Spurs be interested in a guy like that? Despite all his warts, the offensive rawness, the lack of aggression on offense, this guy has the potential to be Dwight Howard 2.0 (or the rawest version of David Robinson). That's his 10 foot high ceiling. Draft Express list his best case comparison as Serge Ibaka and his worst as DeAndre Jordan. That's not bad.
Still we're talking about a guy who is likely a top five pick, which means if the Spurs want to get a hold of him they're probably trading Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili or Kawhi Leonard and those are three guys most Spurs fans (and I'd assume the front office) deem as untouchable guys unless they're trading for the number one pick in the draft. It also seem counter-intuitive that the Spurs would take on such a raw project when they were close to the Finals. Trading up to draft polished guys like Thomas Robinson or Jared Sullinger would be one thing, but a guy like Drummond is probably two to three years away from starting to reach his potential.
Charlotte wants to unload T Thomas. Perhaps Blair and draft picks would make this work if we take Thomas. He's a little bit of a head case, but a great shot blocker and fair mid range shooter. I'd even think Holt might throw in a few million in the deal or JA or Neal or... They want to unload the pick for financial reasons and wanted Davis and don't need a project like Drummond and with Biambo and others. The do need some successful low cost players. Who knows after last years success with Kawhi.
well you can't teach size! I'm not too sure if we have the pieces to make this work. We are not going to trade our big 3 and Kawhi looks like our future franchise player. I say we sign a guy like Okafor if we're trying to compete for a championship (which we should).
i still feel like we're fine with the current roster, we don't need to start changes just because our shooters went cold for a series.
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Drummond will be drafted in the upper 10. The spurs must be dreaming or in psy-war. They are out of the ist round, and stingy spenders. They must be eyeing somebody else. Speaking of lineup, the team has several NPAs, Non-Performing Assets, lemons and crunch time disappearance actors - bonner, blair, anderson, GREEN, mills and SPLITTER. They don't deserve to be wearing the black and silver uniform. Mgnt should let them go and retain only TD, TP, Manu, Diaw,Leonard, Jackson and maybe Neal. The best way for the Spurs is find a trade partner in the ist round and snare 1 or 2 of the big players or, Look at the free agency, consider guys like Kaman, Okafor, Illyasova, Humphries, etc. Add the Eurpeans they stash away like Bertans, deColo. Find add'l sg, 2 or 3 at least with imposing height of 6'7" or longer, 2 or 3 pf/c who are long, big and aggressive and 2 add'l pg with a height of 6'3" or taller, fast and quick with court vision. It s tall order but if the Spurs want to contend they MUST do it. Basketball is a game where height is might!
@rtesoro440 Again with the NPAs... Kaman is slow footed, injury prone, defensive liability and produces a slightly better rate than Splitter. Okafor is better offensively but still a liability defensively. Illyasova would be great but we already have 2 starting quality SF, and Humphries is one guy I would hate to cheer for. Dumb as rocks and produces only when things are run for him.
I would agree trading Splitter for a 1st and using on a better asset. Or Blair. Green could be gone, since other teams do realize how valuable a defensive guard capable of playing 2-3 and guarding 1-3 with long range and a team concept.
