San Antonio Spurs Go All In On Youth Movement
With the almost-sure odds of Matt Bonner not returning to the San Antonio Spurs, the team has doubled down on its commitment to a youth-oriented future.
Go young or go home.
This seems to be the new, unofficial motto of the San Antonio Spurs as reports surface that fan favorite and sandwich hunter Matt Bonner (the “Red Mamba” or “Red Rocket”) might be the next to clear out his locker in the AT&T Center.
As soon as Tim Duncan said adíos and Boris Diaw was traded, it was speculated that Bonner, a holdover from the older iteration of the Spurs, wouldn’t be on the roster come October.
In a recent interview with Concord News, Bonner stated that after 10 seasons with the Spurs, he didn’t expect to suit up in the Silver and Black this upcoming season, but hopes to land on an NBA roster somewhere.
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A member of the championship 2007 and 2014 Spurs teams, Bonner was more of a three-point specialist and, though he was mainly getting garbage time this past season, still provided needed veteran presence (and those clutch three-pointers).
Though we knew this was probably going to happen, it still stings. The Spurs, long disparaged for their bland team personality, are in the process of getting rid of all the colorful personalities that helped debunk that myth.
In exchange, they are bolstering a roster for yet another playoffs run and a continuation of a hoops dynasty that has consistently ranked among the league’s elite for the past two decades.
Fans and pundits alike have been saying for the past two seasons that the aging team core (the former “Big Three” of Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker) needed to be upgraded in order to compete with the younger, faster NBA of today (read: the Golden State Warriors).
The Spurs have been listening, choosing DeJounte Murray in the first round of the 2016 NBA draft, plus signing partially guaranteed deals with college standouts Ryan Arcidiacono and Bryn Forbes.
The Spurs have also brought over Livio Jean-Charles, a draft-and-stash player from 2013, and signed Patricio Garino.
The above join the new and much younger face of the Spurs franchise, Kawhi Leonard, alongside three-and-D man Danny Green and LaMarcus Aldridge.
Kyle Anderson and Jonathon Simmons return and are expected to build upon their stellar showing in this year’s Summer League in the regular season.
The Spurs haven’t completely thrown Benjamin Button out with the bathwater.
Two-thirds of the original Big Three (Parker, 34 and Ginobili, 39) remain, though their roles may be more fluid (and reduced) going forward.
Andre Miller (40) and Kevin Martin (33) are still on the roster, though they have not given any public indication about playing (either for the Spurs, or in the league) this season.
The Spurs are stacking the roster with young guns in the hopes of staving off further embarrassment, like the one they suffered in the first regular-season game against the Warriors last January.
As much as the team needed to get younger, though, swinging the pendulum so far in that direction can be just as dangerous.
Let’s keep it real: Parker and Ginobili are not the leaders that Duncan was.
Leonard, for all of his increased performance and media availability, has not yet taken a more assertive leadership role for the team, and may not do so until Parker and Ginobili are gone–in which case, it may be too late.
No one else on the roster seems to have the fortitude (or even the desire) to step up and be head coach Gregg Popovich’s unofficial second-in-command, the ghost coach that keeps the team in line and on mission.
The value of the veterans, aging though they were, was in was showing the tricks of the trade that could only be learned through years of experience.
It was providing a touchstone for younger players who have not yet learned to harness their emotions, or think beyond immediate gratification in the face of almost instantaneous riches and fame.
(A moment of silence for one of the best sports bromances ever.)
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Now, the Spurs must rely on untested and burgeoning leadership from a team that, for the most part, is within the same age cohort. And a team that will be struggling to find its identity after such a roster shake-up.
This may turn out to be a risky gamble for the Silver and Black. Depending so much on players that are relatively untested at the level of pressure–and in this professional league–that will be coming in the upcoming season, is an iffy proposition. But what other choice do the Spurs have?
Parker and Ginobili are both representing their countries (France and Argentina, respectively) in the 2016 Olympics. They will arrive to training camp next month, to paraphrase an airport saying, with one engine and no landing gear.
They will be extra tired and their aging bodies will try to recover in an effort to provide some semblance of a proper measuring stick for the new jacks in the building.
(Patrick Mills and Garino are also playing in the Olympics, but they are younger and recover faster.)
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Here’s hoping that Leonard, Aldridge, Anderson, and Simmons have shoulders strong enough to bear the necessary load, so that the team can find sure footing in the post-Duncan era. At this point the Spurs have pushed all their chips to the center of the table; let’s hope they don’t go bust.