With so much attention on whether Tiago Splitter will come to the NBA and play for the San Antonio Spurs or not, seems everyone has their say on the situation including NBA Commissioner David Stern.

In a press conference today, when Stern was asked about possible changes to the rules on NBA teams acquiring foreign players, he had this to say and mentioned Splitter:

So we're experienced with players going back and playing, and I know there's some talk about the Brazilian (Tiago) Splitter whose contract is up, and there's all kinds of interesting conversations. But eventually the players will either come or they won't come. And if they have good careers in Europe and they choose that route, I think that's terrific.

Pretty much summed it up. Either Splitter will come or he won't. And with all that money being talked about from Real Madrid to sign him, it comes down to either passing up a pay-day or realizing an NBA dream.

The San Antonio Spurs continue to work out players before the 2010 NBA Draft. This time they worked out Lazar Hayward from Marquette.

Hayward's next workout is scheduled for Sunday for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Next week, he'll take part in the NBA pre-draft camp in Chicago and then a regional workout hosted by the Minnesota Timberwolves. He said he also has workouts scheduled with the San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons and Los Angeles Clippers ...

Hayward is a 6'6", 225 lbs., small-forward.  He averaged 18.1 points, shot 43.2% from the field, 34.9% from the three-point line and 7.5 rebounds last year with Marquette.

No not that kind of video!

Seems a family friend of San Antonio Spurs' guard Tony Parker took video of him as a kid shooting hoops but the same video was turned over to French TV without her consent by her father which is now in dispute.

Now she is suing Parker for 800, 000 euros ($1, 000, 000.00) and the court will render a decision today.

The following is from the AP:

Christiane Debieuvre, a family friend, shot the scenes in 1994 at her home in France's northern Normandy region and claims her father handed over the footage to a television station without her consent.

The candid footage of the young Parker showing off his hoop dreams in northern France has since turned up in reports on several French television news and sports channels.

"I have given this family a lot," Debieuvre told a Paris court.

"At first, I was surprised that they were using this footage without asking me," she testified.

Debieuvre said she wrote to Parker but that he never responded to her complaint.

Parker's lawyer Alexis Gramblat said the plaintiff was simply trying to cash in on the wealthy San Antonio Spurs guard.

"This is simply a racket targeting someone who is from a modest milieu and who became successful," said Gramblat.

The video shows young Tony pretending even at age 12 to play for the Spurs.

Some family friend! Though I would love to see the footage of a 12 year old Parker pretending to play for the Spurs.

Seems the city of Dallas, Texas is having a coyote problem. Whether it be on the golf course or while jogging, residents of the area are having to trap or even shoot them as did Gov. of Texas Rick Perry when one threatened his dog.  Yes it appears the coyote population is not welcomed in Dallas.

Well in a effort to make peace with coyotes, especially after he shot one, Perry signed a treaty with the San Antonio Spurs Coyote.

In light of the February shooting, Perry signed a peace treaty with the San Antonio Spurs mascot -- the coyote -- on Thursday.

Up next in the parade of players the San Antonio Spurs have worked out before the 2010 NBA Draft is Syracuse Orangeman shooting-guard, Andy Rautins.

According to Oregonlive.com, Rautins worked out with the Spurs:

Rautins is making the rounds, attempting to improve his draft stock and hearing positive feedback along the way. In addition to today's workout for the Blazers, Rautins has already worked out for the Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks.

Rautins averaged 8.9 points, 2.7 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.4 steals in four-year career at Syracuse. He lead Syracuse in assists and three-point shooting last year.

Starting to see a pattern here Spurs fans? Seems the team has been really looking at shooting-guards in the days leading up to the NBA Draft.

Another month which means another edition of The 8th Seed podcast where eight of the very best in world of NBA blogs get together once a month to discuss everything that is going on in the NBA.

So with the 2010 NBA Finals about to begin tonight, why not listen to this episode where we talk NBA Conference Finals, LeBron James' future, and much more. We also got to talk with Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports. 

Although Mike did not make the show, I did get to ask Spears his thoughts on the San Antonio Spurs being swept by the Phoenix Suns and whether he feels Tiago Splitter is coming to the Spurs.

This episode was hosted by Glenn Moore of The Dugout Sports Show.  Click HERE to listen.

Roster For This Month:
Jared Wade of Both Teams Played Hard and eightpointsnineseconds.com
John Karalis of Reds Army
Glenn Moore of The Dug Out Sports Show
Zach Harper of Cowbell Kingdom and Talk Hoops
Rey Moralde of The No Look Pass
Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports: NBA
Brendan Bowers (guest) from StepienRules

With the San Antonio Spurs selecting at number 20 in the first-round of the 2010 NBA Draft, and unless they move up in the draft, the Spurs could be leaning towards selecting Kansas shooting-guard Xavier Henry according to Sean Deveney of the Sporting News:

Kansas SG Xavier Henry expects to be a workout warrior in the coming weeks. He has workouts lined up with teams as high as the Pistons at No. 7, all the way down to the Spurs—who are rumored to be very interested in Henry—at No. 20, unless San Antonio trades up.

“It is going to be busy, but I am getting myself in shape for that,” Henry said. “I had a workout at Chicago. I’ve got Houston, the Spurs, and beginning in June, I will have the Clippers, Utah, Toronto, Detroit. Maybe Memphis. It is going to be a busy time.”  

Henry worked out with the Spurs last month with Paul George from Fresno State.

Interesting to me is based on the type of players the Spurs have been working out is most have been guards and not what the team really needs -- a legit big-man for the center position.

Today's Project Spurs fan mail comes from Brian Storey from down-under in Australia.

He has a stream-of-conscious on various players and I try to tackle them one at a time.

"With the season gone now I thought I’d get back in touch with a couple of brief thoughts. I'm sure there will be thousands of season reviews and all will be along similar lines. Key notes are, positives: Hill and Blair (although a suitable front court mate for Blair is needed); negatives: definitely the regression of Mason who looked a player in his first Spurs season, and the very disappointing RJ.

I thought rather than looking back, I’ll look forward instead. There will be a lot of Parker trade talk, and while I don’t want to see him traded, I thought I’d entertain the possibility. A scenario I almost like involves the Griz. It centres around TP for Rudy Gay (sign and trade) and Mike Conley. There are a couple other pieces in it I would look at as well, but that’s the core. Gay fills the need on the wing and makes RJ very tradeable at the deadline where he ceases to be known as RJ the player and becomes known as RJ’s expiring contract. Conley takes TP’s place in a decent rotation with Hill and Manu. The Grizz cannot hold onto Gay anyway and have looked to trade Conley previously.

From that, you also hope that Splitter comes over and while he is unlikely to be the saviour, he gives additional depth in the front court. We would not have been killed by the Suns pick and roll with Splitter defending it (side note – why did Pop not even try Mahinmi who is excellent defending the pick and roll? Even for 5 minutes).

Regardless, with RJ’s expiring contract to work with, they’ll have one of the better assets come the mid-season trade deadline anyway and could pull off a decent deal with a cap cleaner.

The biggest thing that needs addressing is reliable outside shooting. Bonner will be back. He is the best shooter on the roster and while he is often the subject of Spurs fans ire, he has a skill set that is in demand.

A wing who can hit the open shot... maybe a Korver, Rasual Butler, Eddie House, or Kapono? All available and might look at the Spurs... would help as well.

I also like the thought of signing Sean Livingston. If TP gets traded, he could be had cheap and would be a low risk, (potentially) high reward guy. At worst, he’d be a very solid backup.

Just a couple of thoughts, and probably quite scrambled."

-- Brian Storey

Hi Brian,

Thanks for making my first fan email so hard – just kidding. I’ve gone through your “scrambled” thoughts and made the best of it by offering my own opinion.

To be honest, I really don’t see Parker going anywhere nor do I see Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley cutting either player loose… but I’ll play along with this little scenario just for kicks and giggles. Say Parker heads to Memphis, bringing Gay and Conley to San Antonio.

You make an excellent point – the addition of a young athletic player like Gay would make Jefferson look like old news. If Gay is desperate to move to a team with serious potential for postseason playing time, then San Antonio would be a good fit. Gay could bring better shooting percentage – compare his 19.6 ppg average to RJ’s rather measly 9.4 this past season – as well as the youth that Jefferson has been lacking in his game as he approaches 30 next month.

If he doesn’t opt out of the contract, Jefferson stands to make $15 million this season with no guarantee of a contract extension – one that I can’t really say he would deserve after this season’s struggles. He showed some life in the playoffs, but gave San Antonio little to cheer about in regular season. I’d rather pay some of that to Gay, seeing as he stands to make $10 million or so per year should Memphis successfully offer him a contract extension.

On the other hand, tossing Mike Conley in the mix to replace to the aforementioned departed Parker (remember, this is strictly "what if") doesn’t have me convinced. You could make an argument for Conley’s lack of experience to explain his lower averages against Parker’s veteran status, but only an explosive player could truly replace Parker on this Spurs squad. Sure Conley could be developed, but I’m still not sure that he could fill the void potentially left by Parker.

On the other hand, I am all for bringing Tiago Splitter into San Antonio this season. He’s played excellent ball in the Euroleague, giving him experience that he most likely would not have earned as a rookie playing in the NBA.  As Project Spurs’ Robby Lim noted in his article, Splitter would most likely pair well with Duncan to give the front court a much-needed boost and plenty of help in the paint.

In regards to Mahinmi’s court-side accommodations for the playoffs, let’s get real. Pop hardly plays rookies in playoff games unless a) there’s nothing they could do to ruin a potential win or b) he’s desperate. While most fans would say being on the losing end of a game should require desperate measures, we all know that Pop is not the desperate kind. Besides, Mahinmi needs a good off-season (see George Hill as to the improvement I’m referring to) to seriously prove he’s worth keeping on the roster.

As for Matt Bonner… I should admit here that I’m a bit of a "Red Rocket" fan. I’d love to see him get a little extra playing time and possibly improve those shooting stats – which are already pretty good. Jason Kapono would be an interesting fit, but I’m not sure I’m for the Eddie House idea.

That’s just my two cents… for what it’s worth.

The San Antonio Spurs will continue to workout players as the 2010 NBA Draft nears.

The Spurs will workout Ryan Thompson from Rider on Thursday, June 3, 2010. The Spurs worked out Thompson earlier this month and this will be his second workout with the team. Thompson confirmed his second workout with the Spurs with Project Spurs today.

This week, he was interviewed by us here at Project Spurs to talk about his first workout with the Spurs.  To listen to the interview click HERE. Good luck Ryan!

Also, the Spurs will workout former Memphis Tiger, Antonio Anderson.

Anderson, who signed two 10 day contracts with the Oklahoma City Thunder this past season, is getting set to audition for several NBA clubs including the San Antonio Spurs.

With all eyes on Tiago Splitter and his decision to play in the NBA with the San Antonio Spurs or not, one other foreign talent Spurs fans may have forgotten about is Nando De Colo.

In an interview with French newspaper L’Equipe (via Hoopsnotes.com) Spurs' G.M., R.C. Buford, had a few thoughts on De Colo and whether he is ready to make the leap into the NBA and the Spurs.

“Nando has made significant progress this year. He’s perhaps the best French point guard today,” jokes R.C. Buford, Spurs general manager, winking at Tony Parker. “Will he come here? We haven’t yet spoken with him about that. We’re talking about what could help him to develop his game. We will evaluate the situation at the end of the season.”

De Colo was drafted by the Spurs in the 2009 NBA draft.  It's highly doubtful De Colo is ready come to the Spurs in the eyes of the coaching staff but it's good to hear he is making progress. Hopefully the Spurs pulled another "rabbit out of the hat" late in the NBA Draft.