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Ford to sit out rest of season, considering retirement
After suffering a stinger in the San Antonio Spurs recent win over the New York Knicks, point guard T.J. Ford will sit out the rest of this season (indefinite leave of absence) and is considering retirement.
Ford has had an injury-plagued NBA career including spine and neck injuries.
"While this was a tough decision to make, it is what is best for me and my family at this time," said Ford. "I have been blessed to play alongside wonderful teammates for great coaches and organizations from high school, to college, to the NBA. Regardless of what the future holds, I will carry the experiences, the friendships and the memories with me forever. The support I've received from family, friends and the fans has been humbling and I am looking forward to evaluating my professional options following this season."
"The entire organization has enjoyed having T.J. Ford in San Antonio this season," said Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich. "I congratulate him on all that he has achieved as a player and fully support the difficult decision he was forced to make. T.J. has a bright future ahead of him and will always be a member of the Spurs family."
Ford signed with the Spurs this season and played back-up point guard to Tony Parker. He played in 14 games for San Antonio and averaged 3.6 points, 3.2 assists and 1.3 rebounds in 13.6 minutes per game. He provided a steady hand and a veteran presence with the Spurs' second unit.
With Ford sitting out the rest of the season, expect rookie point guard Cory Joseph, and Gary Neal play increased minutes at the back up point guard position. Also, with the trade deadline approaching, one has to wonder if San Antonio will make a move to sign or trade for a point guard.
This season has been hit hard by the injury bug for the Spurs. Manu Ginobili, and Tiago Splitter have sat out games due to injuries.
What do you have to say Spurs fans?
Update: Ford has officially retired.
"Official 'I Retire from the NBA' as of today," Ford posted on his Twitter page. "Thanks to all my fans who follow my career since a kid from all over the world. Basketball has been great to me & my family for 28yrs.
"Today will be a new beginning in life"
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Spurs could sign Anthony carter for a vet minimum. Don't they still have their mini mid level exception? Raptors released him to sign with a contender. I expect they start looking for a big after the deadline searching the waiver wire.
Anthony Carter is available, I think. The option of A Daniels, Blake Ahearn. Squeeky Johnson.... Manu at point and JA as one of G Neals backups with DG. We still need an active big for short minutes. Bring back M Thomas. More sad than problematic.
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With Mr. tj ford's retirement, who will take his place? So, the spurs is short of big men and now, with pg. The spurs doesn't have to look far for a replacement pg, sign nando decolo for the remainder of the season. I know, he hasn't played the system but a good player learns easily. Buyout his contract with the present euro team. But, as the trade deadline approaches the spurs MUST NOT forget they need another big man. As for Mr. Ford, good luck in all your endeavors!
So so sad.. I really thought Parker/T.J rotation was a dynamic duo.Can't exactly uproot the entire team to solve this problem that we've been dealing with for most of the year.Manu will have to come off the bench and do more minutes at Point. He's better than anyone else on the roster at making plays. One might feel he takes to many chances to run point efficiently but I think we're going to need a lot of luck and take alot of chances to win.
Keep focusing on finding a big man.
We all knew this was a possibility bringing in TJ... "injury prone" was an understatement.
As people have stated... trading for a PG would be silly unless we also got a big man in the trade. CJ has the tools but he plays too much like a rookie out there (so does JA for that matter). When they hit the court, they try to make something happen and over-think their play instead of letting the game come to them (i.e. Kawhi)
Considering our trade pieces, if we DO make a move... do not be surprised to see Gary Neal go.
So is it now a question of looking for a point guard or should the SAS still target a big man?
@JeffProjectSpurs Why not try for both? How about looking at Varejao and Sessions for RJ and Anderson? How about Okafor (or Kaman) and Vazquez for RJ and Anderson? I think both are possible, so why not?
As much as I like those scenarios I don't see either as a real possiblitiy. If the Spurs FO could trade RJ they would have already. And unfortunately I think Anderson has played his way out of any trade scenario. I could be wrong, I hope I'm wrong, but I think those two guys are with us for the rest of the season.
@Qwer12 I don't think the hornets would go for it. Vazques is actually producing and ja isn't, they're both young so its not like they'd be letting go of an old vet for a prospect, and on top of that vazquez is a 6'5-6'6 pg who could play sg. Ja just plays sg and maybe is big enough for sf. If I were the hornets I wouldn't go for it
@tdlane @spurs123 @JeffProjectSpurs I don't think the cleveland trade would work. Varajeao was playing like an all star before he got hurt and they don't really need more sf. I like the hornets trade, especially caue vasquez would loooove playing with manu. He's admitted to manu being his favorite player
Well that's a really sad thing. At the beginning of the season it looked like the Spurs had pulled a fast one with how well T.J. was playing with that second unit. Unfortunately now they have to look at other options because as other people have pointed out, Neal, Manu, and Joseph can't be expected to handle PG duties in the playoffs.
One option is promote from within. If memory serves, Justin Dentmon of the Toros was a D-League All-Star. They run the Spurs system in Austin so I don't see why they couldn't give him a shot to fill in. However, I don't think they should trade for a PG. If any trade occurs it should happen for a big man. At this point Pop is so set in his big man rotation that any big man you get doesn't necessarily have to be brought in for big minutes. If anything a 5th big would be for insurance purposes incase of injuries or fouls.
well this really sucks....we certainly need a legit back up pg now. dont get me wrong, neal is fairly solid...but come playoff time, we're going to need him at sg to be most effective.... maybe we should sign allen iverson and rasheed wallace BWAHAHAHA
I say that Aaron Brooks is looking better all the time. When is the Chinese season over?
@Dave_McNulla A. Brooks is awesome, that said, do some reserch into his contract demands. Good player but definetly not a spur. I just don't nando what we should do. Mabey if we colo around we can find a better replacement for next season.
@Dave_McNulla i like aaron brooks too, except he takes TERRIBLE shots and has a pour attitude.
we better start looking for a back up PG to go along with a big. no way joseph and neal can handle the PG duties, and while manu can, its going to put even more pressure on tony come playoff time.
ramon sessions?
how about sessions/caspi for bonner, ford, and anderson.
:(( nooooo!!! i know hes been out most of the year, but even playing minimal, just getting back on the court minutes for the past few games, he was doing pretty damn good. i hope he gets healthy again but if this is really what he wants then his health is more important but damn that sucks. theres two options here. i know neal has been improving as a pg and has been an alright pg so far, but come playoff time we're gona need more than just neal as our 2nd unit pg. theres two options. the obvious is a trade for a backup pg. something involving anderson cause apparently he wants out anyway, maybe joseph cause a team might want a pg in return for one they have even if it is an extra one they have, and maybe even neal or green (-_-). i would take the trade if we could get a servicable pg without adding neal/green in the trade but i doubt we'd get a good enough pg with just that trade. so the second option is just working with the rotation at hand. keep neal as the back up pg, and leave manu in the 2nd unit. parker mans the 1st unit floor general duties and maybe gives green some freedom there too, while neal gets a feel for it and has manu as the fall back if he cant produce in a certain game. honestly thats the only way i see it working.
