Lorbek to re-sign with Barcelona (Update: Now a done deal)

[racm]

It did, yeah. Pop panicked by putting Manu in as a starter when he clearly did better marshaling the second unit.

Miami always has at least one of its Big 3 on the court at any time. Same with OKC. Manu as a starter means he rests when Tony and Tim do, so you end up with a WORSE second unit than the oft-touted one seen through the late part of the season.

[K-State Spur]

If that's true, that's very bad news for the Spurs...as it is the signing of Sanikidze in italy with Siena.

Lorbek may be bad news, the second part is non-news.

[racm]

I have my doubts Lorbek was the Spurs' first option to look into, tbh...

They wanted to bring him over in case someone wooed Diaw, because the likely aim was to bring the gang back together. A rotation that got to the WCF even if two of those guys were added mid-season doesn't come along easily, and OKC has the advantage of having its young core having played multiple series together.

The Spurs starting five apart from Parker and Duncan were a guy who got cut by Cleveland and was in the D-League a few times, a rookie, and a guy who wasted years playing for the Bobcats.

[SenorSpur]

This is great news. The Spurs didn't need another un-athletic, non-rebounding, non-shotblocking power forward who doesn't like to draw contact and hasn't even proven he can play in the nba.

I tend to agree with this. If Pop was -bent on keeping Bonner on this roster - and I still don't know why - adding Lorbek would be a case of having a pair of bigs with redundant deficiencies. It would've made no sense at all.

Still, I wonder who this supposed physical center is the Spurs are going to get? Amazing that this need has gone public, when privately it's been a need for about 3 seasons now.

[Russo21]

have to start up the yiannas brontosaurus rumours again

[pad300]

P.S.

I have a looooooooong Lorbek preview written up that includes quotes from a Spurs scout that I was told couldn't be published until July 11 for "compe ive reasons". Guess that's worthless now

Post the sucker anyways; it'd be interesting to see what the Spurs scouting department was looking for (and saw/didn't see). It'd make a nice cross check on the quality of some of our European posters...

[Cant_Be_Faded]

This is amazingly bad news.
seeing Bonner go at it again is going to suck

[DesignatedT]

Bonner will be moved still.

[timtonymanu]

Tbh, the worst part about Lorbek not coming over is that means Bonner is very much still a part of the team

[TimDunkem]

Bonner will be moved still.

[kaji157]

This is not a done Deal, i read a lot of Spanish nespapers and the situation is as this.
Eur teams know thatLorbek won´t decide his future untill after the July 11 date. Given that NBA teams are alloed to sign players at that date.
As of now Lorbek has an offer from Barcelona, a bigger offer from CSKA Moscu, and is awaiting to see what the Spurs are going to offer.

[ChumpDumper]

Going on this way looks like the "draft and stash" strategy is never gonna work... didn't work for Scola, nor for Javtokas, nor for Sanikidze and now for Lorbeck... and all of them were prospects with nba skills more than a lot of supposedly "nba proven" players... The only positive example could be Splitter, but it's becoming clearer and clearer that, despite the numbers, Pop has some problems in developing his talents...

You forgot about Ginobili.

[MultiTroll]

You forgot about Ginobili.
I'm still in 2007.

[Knoxxx]

This is not a done Deal, i read a lot of Spanish nespapers and the situation is as this.
Eur teams know thatLorbek won´t decide his future untill after the July 11 date. Given that NBA teams are alloed to sign players at that date.
As of now Lorbek has an offer from Barcelona, a bigger offer from CSKA Moscu, and is awaiting to see what the Spurs are going to offer.

Thanks. The article said "tentative" right at the beginning. I guess the person changing the thread le and average Spurs poster does not know what a complex word like that means.

Hint: translate with Google Chrome

[Budkin]

Someone change the thread le back.

[timvp]

I changed the le. Unless Bruno wants me to change it back or someone can find a conflicting report, we'll keep the thread le as is. I know European sports reporting is more like tabloid journalism but having two different sources makes it sound pretty damn legit.

That said, I won't say it's 100% until we see an actual quote from Lorbek or the team.

[dunkman]

With 28, tbh he should have signed for 2-3 seasons at slightly lower rate, with the perspective of getting paid big-time in the next contract.

[dunkman]

If that's true, that's very bad news for the Spurs...as it is the signing of Sanikidze in italy with Siena.
Lorbek was the only addition to last years team able to give us a real chance of improving, considering his skill set...and Diaw with the MLE if far above is actual market price.
I always thought that the way to sign them both was to split the MLE between them...but probably everything's been spoiled by the fact that the actual MLE is for a less amount of $ than last year.

I understand the Spurs choice to try to sign some already nba proven player, but this way we're gonna give up on the only way we always had to really improve : I mean signing foreign players with no nba experience but extremely valuable for their skills (a la Manu, Parker atc atc.).

Going on this way looks like the "draft and stash" strategy is never gonna work... didn't work for Scola, nor for Javtokas, nor for Sanikidze and now for Lorbeck... and all of them were prospects with nba skills more than a lot of supposedly "nba proven" players... The only positive example could be Splitter, but it's becoming clearer and clearer that, despite the numbers, Pop has some problems in developing his talents...

Scola worked fine for the Rockets for many seasons. Javtokas had an ugly injury, he got offered a contract if I recall right but he preferred to stay in Europe, Lorbek didn't want to take a pay cut. It's complicated.

[Knoxxx]

I changed the le. Unless Bruno wants me to change it back or someone can find a conflicting report, we'll keep the thread le as is. I know European sports reporting is more like tabloid journalism but having two different sources makes it sound pretty damn legit.

That said, I won't say it's 100% until we see an actual quote from Lorbek or the team.

Fair enough and I was just ribbing anyway. I don't see where either article says this is a done deal though.

[ElNono]

This is great news. The Spurs didn't need another un-athletic, non-rebounding, non-shotblocking power forward who doesn't like to draw contact and hasn't even proven he can play in the nba.

I'm in this camp, tbh... although I'd like to lose Bonner and possibly Blair too if possible.

[therealtruth]

It did, yeah. Pop panicked by putting Manu in as a starter when he clearly did better marshaling the second unit.

Miami always has at least one of its Big 3 on the court at any time. Same with OKC. Manu as a starter means he rests when Tony and Tim do, so you end up with a WORSE second unit than the oft-touted one seen through the late part of the season.

Pop's subs ution patterns killed us against OKC. Especially in those second quarters when he was resting guys. Then later he tried overplaying guys.

[Wild Cobra Kai]

Pop's subs ution patterns killed us against OKC. Especially in those second quarters when he was resting guys. Then later he tried overplaying guys.

If resting guys is wrong and overplaying them is wrong, you put Pop into a no win scenario. Everything he does is wrong.

[Spursfanfromafar]

Diario Sport has a more detailed report -

http://www.sport.es/es/noticias/acb/...domino-2050144

From the looks of it, a final contract has not yet been etched between Lorbek and Barca. It seems that Lorbek is predisposed to join the club (pending something that is not said) and they seem to have had "initial discussions about contract" and some kind of agreement about fees etc.

My gut feeling is that Lorbek is waiting to hear from the Spurs till July 11 and will then take a final call on what he needs to do. He must have told Barca that he is keen on coming back as things stand, but will have to take the final plunge after hearing the Spurs offer. And I think the Spurs must have told him to kindly hold till July 11th as they sort their other free agent options out.

From what we know - the Danny Green signing and other optimistic measures regarding Diaw and Mills - that seems the most likely scenario as of now.

[KaiRMD1]

Unless he's a physical, tough playing center, meh

[therealtruth]

If resting guys is wrong and overplaying them is wrong, you put Pop into a no win scenario. Everything he does is wrong.

There's a balance between the two that results in success like they showed during that winning streak.