Q12543 wrote:bleedspeed177 wrote:Not a FA but would be a good bench/journeymen guy. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/2579466/jonathon-simmons
How much of his effectiveness is due to the Spurs magic fairy dust? I could envision him joining the Wolves and being a total non-factor.
For some reason it seems that players with couple of years experience with Spurs find the way to contribute also for other teams.
Some recent players that started their career in Spurs and are currently playing for other teams:
Cory Joseph in Spurs 2014-15 15.5 PER, 56.4 TS%, +0.0 on/off and 18.3 min/gm
Cory Joseph in Toronto 2015-16 13.2 PER, 53.7 TS%, +6.8 on/off and 25.7 min/gm
Tiago Splitter is having career worst year in Atlanta after playing several decent years in San Antonio and he is struggling to get minutes but even his on/off numbers suggest that he should play more.
Tiago Splitter in Spurs 2010-15 18.3 PER, 60.1 TS%, +4.1 on/off and 19.8 min/gm
Tiago Splitter in Atlanta 2015-16 14.0 PER, 57.1 TS%, +9.2 on/off and 16.1 min/gm
Aron Baynes in Spurs 2014-15 15.9 PER, 61.8 TS%, +0.2 on/off and 16.0 min/gm
Aron Baynes in Detroit 2015-16 17.2 PER, 55.2 TS%, -9.9 on/off and 14.3 min/gm
- Baynes seems to be exception to rule in that sense that he does have clearly negative on/off numbers but I guess that most of other back-up centers would have similar or even worse on/off numbers if they would be backing up Drummond.
George Hill in Spurs 2010-11 14.6 PER, 58.8 TS%, +2.8 on/off and 28.3 min/gm
George Hill in Indiana 2011-16 15.7 PER, 56.3 TS%, +6.1 on/off and 31.6 min/gm
Only players that could be labeled busts after starting their career in Spurs with decent amount of minutes are Gary Neal and DeJuan Blair. Blair had one decent year in Dallas but after that he has not got much minutes in Washington. I don't know if there has been some injury issues or if he has been just out of shape. Neal was in pretty awful environments in Milwaukee, Charlotte and Minnesota and didn't contribute much but he has made nice recovery for his career in Washington this season.
I agree that it is probable that ex-Spurs players are not scoring as efficiently in other teams but I think it is very probable that they will be still positive contributors for their new teams. Especially if player has been able to stick in Spurs rotation at least couple of years and even more promising is if players minutes and contribution has been increasing during their Spurs years. It seems that couple of years in Spurs do wonders players understanding of game. This is main reason why I also proposed going after Simmons in summer 2017.