2012 Spurs Summer League Preview

[tesseractive]

Incredible work. Thanks, LJ.

I'm on the Ryan Richards bandwagon. Yeah, there's something wrong with his brain, but his physical tools are impressive (per hoopsfix: I think he's close to 7'1" in shoes now) and his shooting stroke is very technical and fluid. He can shoot from anywhere. I'm hoping he can catch fire, a la Gary Neal, and earn a contract.

All of that's great, but so far, there doesn't seem to be much evidence that he can, you know, play basketball.

[tesseractive]

JaMychal Green, I've heard about this guy before... because of suspensions. Mature or get out tbh.

Definitely.

But that's the advantage of bringing him in without a draft pick or guaranteed contract. If he doesn't pan out, we haven't lost anything except for wasting a spot on our summer league team, which is about as cheap as it gets.

If he realizes he has to mature to have a career, we've found an athletic prospect at the 4 for nothing. If he screws it up, we haven't lost anything.

Perfect scenario, really.

[SenorSpur]

Eric Dawson

Could Eric Dawson be a capable NBA player hiding in plain sight? That might actually be the case. While he's been around the Toros for nearly five years, Dawson got healthy and got in the best shape of his life last season -- and the results were impressive. To say he dominated on the D-League level would be an understatement. Dawson's 28.2 PER not only led the league, it was the highest PER in the history of the D-League. On top of that, his win shares per 48 minutes of .297 was also the highest mark ever in the league. Looking at his stats, his domination was evident. In 29 minutes per game, he averaged 17.2 points, 10.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.6 blocks while shooting 55.7% from the field and 78.2% from the line. While it's true the D-League was even weaker than usual last season, it's difficult to ignore what Dawson did. His time in the NBA did nothing to end the dream. In his 39 minutes with the Spurs last year, he continued to produce, tallying 15 points, ten rebounds and two blocks on 7-for-12 shooting from the floor. Dawson's main drawbacks are his age (28) and the fact that his athleticism is average at best. But if he goes out and crushes the summer league, can the Spurs and the rest of the NBA continue to overlook him? I'm not so sure. I could imagine Dawson carving out a role as a strong post defender who can block a few shots while using his reliable mid-range jumper to score most of his points. His absolute ceiling is probably what Kurt Thomas brought the Spurs in 2009, which -- while not exciting -- is a strong option as a fifth bigman.

Okay. I'll come clean. I've been sleeping on this guy. I thought he was a marginal NBA-level player, at best. And he may still be. I wrote off the less-publicized double-double that he put up as the 15th man on the Spurs roster last season. However after seeing Summer League Game 1, I have to admit, I like this guy's heart and desire. Doesn't matter to me that he's 28 years old. How does a guy hang around the Toros for almost five years? With a monstrous level of heart and desire - combined with whatever talent he may have.

This guy looks to have a lion's heart and a nasty streak. He's beasting the amateur compe ion at a pace that I would've hoped Blair was capable of keeping up at the NBA level. The question is can Dawson do the same with the big boys? It certainly appears that Dawson is as a man on a mission.

That said, I'll finally admit it - I'm rooting for Dawson to make some NBA club. If he continues to play at this pace, he will end up on someone's roster. I hope it's the Spurs.