Tag Archives: San Antonio Spurs

Barbosa Agrees to One-Year, $2.5 Million Deal with the Golden State Warriors

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It’ll be another golden season for Leandro Barbosa…

The 32-year-old Brazilian professional basketball player and veteran guard has agreed to a one-year, $2.5 million contract to stay with the NBA champion Golden State Warriors, according to ESPN.com.

Leandro Barbosa

Barbosa has bounced all over the league and played for six different teams in his 12 seasons. He was taken 28th overall by the San Antonio Spurs in 2003, then was traded to the Phoenix Suns, where he played his first seven seasons.

After stops with the Toronto Raptors, Indiana Pacers, Boston Celtics and Suns again, Barbosa signed a one-year deal with the Warriors in 2014.

The 6-foot-3 combo guard appeared in 66 games (one start) for the 67-win Warriors this past season, primarily backing up league MVP Stephen Curry. Barbosa averaged 7.1 points and 1.5 assists in 14.9 minutes per game.

Barbosa, an unrestricted free agent, made several key contributions in the playoffs, including 13 points in a Game 5 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.

In 2007, Barbosa won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award after averaging 18.1 points per game.

He holds career averages of 11.4 points and 2.3 assists in 22.9 minutes per game.

Ginobili Returning for 14th Season with the San Antonio Spurs

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The Spurs the limit for Manu Ginobili…

The 37-year-old Argentine player will return another season with the San Antonio Spurs, announcing his decision in a tweet Monday.

Manu Ginobili

“Happy to announce that I’m coming back next season. #gospursgo #TDwouldvemissedmetoomuch,” tweeted Ginobili, considered one of the finest international players to grace the NBA.

Ginobili had said Tim Duncan‘s decision would affect whether he returned for the upcoming season. Duncan announced Thursday that he would return for his 19th season.

The Spurs were determined to convince Ginobili to play one more season after agreeing to terms with LaMarcus Aldridge, sources told ESPN.com. The Spurs remained quietly optimistic that Ginobili would ultimately opt to come back.

While Ginobili appears to be on the decline statistically, coach Gregg Popovich still wanted to bring him back for a 14th season with the Spurs, as Ginobili’s experience and intangibles make him an important piece as the club tries to make a run at a second championship in three years.

Ginobili, a two-time NBA All-Star and Sixth Man of the Year, had pondered retirement since San Antonio’s season ended with a heartbreaking loss to the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 7 of the Western Conference first round.

In 2014-15, Ginobili turned over the ball five times per 100 possessions, which registered as a career high. In the postseason series against Los Angeles, Ginobili connected on just 34.9 percent of his shots, the worst playoff field goal percentage of his career.

Ginobili has averaged 14.3 points throughout his career in the regular season and 15.2 points per game in the postseason.

Gasol Reportedly Inching Closer to Deal with the Chicago Bulls

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Pau Gasol may be dealing with plenty of bull in the near future…

The 34-year-old Spanish professional basketball player is reportedly thisclose to joining the Chicago Bulls, according to the Spanish newspaper Marca and other media reports.

Pau Gasol

The paper first reported late Friday that the Bulls are closing in on a deal with Gasol despite the absence of a sign-and-trade agreement with his most recent team, the Los Angeles Lakers.

Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com late Friday that a sign-and-trade arrangement had not been struck, with the Lakers still looking for draft compensation — as they received in Friday’s earlier trade with the Houston Rockets to take back the contract of Jeremy Lin — as the primary return for Gasol.

ESPN.com reported earlier Friday that the Bulls and San Antonio Spurs had emerged as the two leading candidates to land Gasol, with San Antonio poised to land the Spaniard if the Bulls and Lakers could not finalize a sign-and-trade deal.

Sources told ESPN.com late Friday that the Bulls were prioritizing their pursuit of Gasol even ahead of their long-running efforts to sign Carmelo Anthony, fearing that Anthony remains likely to stay with the New York Knicks.

The Lakers appear resigned to seeing Gasol exit after a successful six seasons together. Prior to Friday, the Lakers offered Gasol two deals: two years worth $23 million, and three years worth $29 million, a National Basketball League source told ESPNLosAngeles.com. Gasol turned down both offers, according to the source.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have been pursuing Gasol as hard as anyone, but sources indicated Friday that the Spurs have joined the Bulls ahead of the Thunder in Gasol’s pecking order.

The Thunder had a $6.5 million trade exception that expired Friday night at 11:59 p.m. ET that they had hoped to use in their own sign-and-trade with L.A.

Making hard runs at free agents is not something seen often from the Thunder, but Gasol had been lobbied face to face by OKC stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as well as coach Scott Brooks and general manager Sam Presti since free agency began.

The Knicks, meanwhile, had been trying to trade Amar’e Stoudemire or Andrea Bargnani in hopes of clearing sufficient salary-cap space to convince Gasol to come to New York to play alongside a re-signed Anthony. But sources said Friday night that the Knicks, like the Lakers and Thunder, appeared to be out of contention.

Ginobili Propels the San Antonio Spurs to Victory in Game Five of the NBA Finals

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Manu Ginobili is back… in a big way… to help propel the San Antonio Spurs to victory.

The 35-year-old Argentinian professional basketball player broke out of a recent slump with a whopping 24 points and 10 assists in his first start of the season, leading the Spurs past the Miami Heat 114-104 to take a 3-2 lead in the NBA Finals.

Manu Ginobili

Ginobili had his highest-scoring game of the season as the Spurs became the first team to shoot 60 percent in a finals game in four years.

“He’s such a huge part of what we do and how far we’ve come. You can see it tonight in how we played and the results of the game,” said teammate Tim Duncan, who added 17 points and 12 rebounds to the team’s tally. “We’re always confident in him. … We know he has it in him. We hope he can bring it forward for one more win.”

The stage was set from the get-go when Ginobili ran out with Duncan, Tony Parker and the rest of the Spurs’ starters.

One more victory and the Spurs’ Big Three, not Miami’s, will be the team that takes home the championship trophy.

Manu Ginobili

And a big reason was the exceptional play by Ginobili, following what had been a miserable series for the former Sixth Man of the Year.

“I was angry, disappointed,” Ginobili said.

“We are playing in the NBA Finals, we were 2-2, and I felt I still wasn’t really helping the team that much,” Ginobili said. “And that was the frustrating part.”

Ginobili had been averaging just 7.5 points on 34.5 percent shooting in the series, making only three of his 16 3-point attempts. But Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich made the Finals’ second lineup change in two games, after the Heat inserted Mike Miller to start Game 4.

Ginobili didn’t make a start this season and certainly hadn’t been playing like someone who belonged with the first five. But in the Spurs’ biggest game of the season, they remained confident he would break out, and they were right.

“I knew that I was not scoring much and I felt it in the air. But I tried not to care about it. I know I’m critical enough of myself to be worrying about what other people say,” Ginobili said.

It was the first time he scored 24 or more points since having 34 on June 4, 2012, against Oklahoma City, according to STATS.

Ginobili and his Spurs teammates now need only one win to clinch San Antonio’s fifth NBA championship.

Four More Years for the Grizzlies’ Gasol…

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NBA star Marc Gasol has no plans to leave his Memphis home in the near future…

The 26-year-old Spanish ‘baller has signed a new $58 million contract with the Memphis Grizzlies to stay with the team for the next four years.

Marc Gasol

“I didn’t see myself other than with this team, whether it was going to be for the long term or one year,” said the the 7-foot-1 center after signing his contract extension. “I definitely thought I would be here this year.”

There was a lot on speculation that Gasol would play out the final year of his Grizzlies contract and become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. And, team officials had vowed all along to match any contract offer from another team.

Now that Gasol is staying put, the Grizzlies will keep the core of the team that made the Western Conference semifinals last season intact.

Gasol helped lead the Grizzlies to their best season in franchise history. Memphis, which had never even won a playoff game before last season, defeated the Western Conference’s top-seeded San Antonio Spurs in the opening round, then went to a deciding seventh game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“In the short three years here, Marc has advanced through the ranks and become one of the top centers, not just the top young centers, but the top centers overall in the NBA,” says Memphi general manager Chris Wallace.

Last season, Gasol averaged 11.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and a career-high 2.5 assists and 1.68 blocks in the regular season. But he averaged 15.0 points and 11.2 rebounds in the postseason.