Though he has not participated in any pre-draft workouts for the San Antonio Spurs, there is quite a bit of Internet chatter about the possibility of Texas Longhorn star forward Damion James becoming a Spur on Thursday.

In their mock draft, The Sporting News says this:

20. San Antonio. Damion James, SF, Texas. The Spurs would like to move up to get a solid wing player like Paul George or Xavier Henry but, failing that, James would help fill their small-forward need.

For those of you that don't bleed burnt orange, James has been a four year starter for The University of Texas at Austin. He is 6'7" 225 lbs. with an athletic, muscular frame. Though he was a very successful small to power-forward for the Longhorns, he will be a little undersized in the NBA and doesn't come in with a real position niche. That being said, James has made a real statement at Texas and was a genuine leader on a very good basketball team.

He has also left his mark for posterity, becoming the Big XII all-time leader in rebounding in 2010. A conference with the nation's highest RPI last season. Not an easy feat. Last season he averaged a double-double for Texas with 18 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. In his four years for the Longhorns he has never averaged less than 25 minutes per game, so he is battle tested and has proven consistency. He has even showed a lot of success from the three-point line, shooting over 38% in the 2009-2010 season. He was the guy you want to have the ball with the game on the line if you were a Longhorn fan.

Draft Express has said this about the Texas star:

James has the personality that Spurs fans have come to expect from its stars. He has no penchant for the spotlight, bypassing the NBA Draft as a junior to return to the 'Horns for a chance to improve his game and take one more shot at the NCAA Final Four. He doesn't pound his chest, get in fights, talk back to coaches, or make controversial comments to the media. He just plays basketball and lets his performance speak for itself.

For a fan base that has come to value personalities such as David Robinson, Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginobili I think Damion James will fit right in.

The 2010 NBA Draft is this Thursday and San Antonio Spurs' guard, Manu Ginobili, weighed in on the Spurs and the draft and feels the team made a good choice in 1999 with the 57th pick.

To sign or not to sign? That is the question. At least for the San Antonio Spurs' front office in regards to the "Red Rocket" Matt Bonner.

Bonner, who made a reported $3.3 million dollars last season and finished his third year with the Silver and Black averaging seven points and three rebounds in 18 minutes per contest.

Bonner is a part of the larger-than-life free-agent class of 2010, and with a fairly large amount of forwards and centers available, the Spurs could choose not to sign him and pick up a faster, bigger low-post player. The Spurs can offer Bonner the mid-level exception (MLE) which this season would be $5.8 million dollars, but that seems very unlikely. R.C. Buford plans to use the MLE to sign Brazilian power-forward/center Tiago Splitter. That is of course if Splitter wants to join the Spurs.

However, because Bonner has played for the Spurs for three seasons now, the Spurs could resign Bonner using their "Birds Rights" which allows NBA teams to resign any player that has been with the team for three years or more without changing teams and not be penilized for going over the luxary tax. According to "Birds Rights", the most the Spurs can offer Bonner is the MLE.

Still, if the Spurs are unable to sign Splitter, the question remains, "Should the Spurs resign Bonner?" 

His numbers were down this season after having a good second year with the Spurs in which he shot 44 percent from behind the three-point arch. This year, the "Red Rocket" made 90 of the 231 three pointers he attempted, lowering his three-point field goal percentage to 39 percent. Not to shabby considering Boston Celtics' Ray Allen's field-goal percentage from behind the arch was 36 percent this past season, while three-point shooting champ Paul Pierce shot only 41 percent. Even with a fairly impressive three-point shooting percentage, many Spurs fans have become impatient with his progress and have had enough of his inconsistencies.

I was able to speak with a few friends who are also die-hard Spurs fans. Here is what they had to say on Bonner:

"I just want to rip out my hair sometimes when he wont stop missing!" says die-hard Spurs fan Robin Sunsong. "Sometimes he'll miss five or six in a row and just keep shooting. After the sixth miss I wonder why Pop still has him in the game."

Yet there are some Spurs fans who love Bonner and hope the Spurs resign him not only for his on court capabilities, but for his off the court commitments to the community says Spurs fan Janna Joseph. 

"I love Matt Bonner," says Spurs purist Janna Joseph. "His three point shooting helps spread the floor. And he looks really cute in all those commercials you see on T.V."

Bonner's three-point range might help the Spurs spread out the opposing defense, but by stepping out and shooting threes, Bonner has left all the rebounding up to Tim Duncan or any of the other Spurs bigs. This season the Spurs weren't able to crash the boards like they use to, and their inability to collect rebounds was exploited in round two of the playoffs against the Phoenix Suns.

Bonner attempted 231 three pointers this season. No Spurs big man has shot anywhere near that amount of threes except for former Spur, Robert Horry. But the most Horry ever attempted in a single season for the Spurs was 149 in the 2007 championship season.

David Robinson, Rasho Nesterovic and Nazr Mohammed, the last three true Spurs center, have only shot a total of 117 threes combined. Needless to say they were some of our better rebounders.

There are many problems the Spurs need to address this off season. What is going to happen with Splitter? Are the Spurs going to move up in this summers draft and are the Spurs really going to shop Tony Parker? While Bonner might be the least of the Spurs' concerns, the outcome of his free-agency will have a huge effect on how the Spurs handle all three of those questions and more.

On this episode of the Spurscast, Mike and I were joined by Matt Hubert from Blog Talk BayHawk to discuss the Austin Toros and the players from the NBDL who were with the San Antonio Spurs last season.

We review the play of Curtis Jerrells, Garrett Temple, and Cedric Jackson from this past season, discuss whether Ian Mahinmi has been an NBA bust, which players may be back with the Spurs for the 2010-2011 season and much more.

Thanks to Matt for joining us and don't forgot to check out his site, Blog Talk BayHawk, for everything about the NBDL's Erie Bayhawks and the NBDL.

The Spurscast! The first and original Spurs podcast.

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During the 2009 San Antonio Spurs' off-season, the team tried to sign then free-agent Rasheed Wallace to address the need for a center. In the end, Wallace chose to sign with the Boston Celtics and the Spurs went on to sign Antonio McDyess.

One reason Wallace decided to sign with the Celtics, according to him, was he did not like the Spurs off-season moves. Spurs fans may have laughed in his face then but looking back, was he right?

Check out the video of Wallace and his remarks about the Spurs during a press-conference when he was introduced to the Boston media.  You decide.

With every NBA fan and San Antonio Spurs fan trying to figure out who the Spurs will select in the upcoming 2010 NBA Draft, why not ask Spurs' guard Manu Ginobili his thoughts on the Spurs and the draft.

The San Antonio Spurs will work out Josh Lomers from Baylor University as the 2010 NBA Draft nears:

Lomers has been in the San Francisco/Oakland area for a few weeks training with Entersport and will stay there through the end of the week before he comes back to Texas. He'll go to Waco for a short stay before heading to San Antonio where he’s going to attend a Spurs mini-camp in hopes of impressing a few people.

Lomers said he would love to play with the Spurs or any other NBA team for that matter...

Lomers is 7"0', 280 lbs., who averaged 6.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks with Baylor University in the 2009-2010 season.  He is also from Boerne, Texas.

With former Spurs guard Steve Kerr recently resigning from his post as Phoenix Suns General Manager, there has been a lot of speculation over who will replace him.

Spurs assistant general manager, Dennis Lindsey, has been brought up as a likely replacement.

Lindsey was Minnesota's top GM candidate last year before he pulled himself out of contention.

It wouldn't be the first time the Suns hired a former Spurs player or front office executive. Kerr, Terry Porter, Mike D'Antoni and Alvin Gentry all have ties with the Spurs.

Recently, I was able to participate in a Q&A with San Antonio Spurs' guard Manu Ginobili at Spurs.com.

Here was my question for Ginobili:

Jeff
NYC
My question for you is after the Spurs season was over, you said, "Everybody could tell it wasn't enough, that we were not ever, probably, a championship-caliber team. We were close. But we never made it to that level." What was missing from the team to push it to that level this past season?

MG : We started playing well as a team too late in the season. That put us on the 7th spot and to win it in that situation is really hard. A few teams played better than us and they beat us fair and square. We'll be better next season, for sure.

Got to appreciate the honesty from Ginobili. It was too little, too late for the Spurs this past season.

To read the complete Q&A, visit Spurs.com.