Ryan Richard: The Next Big Man to Shine for the Spurs

As of writing, the NBA off season has been quite busy with the Spurs re-signing starting center Tiago Splitter   for 4 years and  star guard Manu Ginobili for 2 more years. Spurs has added another perimeter shooter in the person of Marco Bellineli from the Chicago Bulls for 2 years. The recent NBA draft didn't generate much fan fair as the Spurs selected the 6'9" Small Forward Livio Jean-Charles from France in the first round and 6' 7" Deshaun Thomas another Small Forward from Ohio State. Jean-Charles will remain in Europe to hone his skills more since he is just 19 years old.  Thomas will most likely join the Las Vegas Summer League. 

But one player I am most excited about is Ryan Richards from Great Britain. Richard was drafted in the 2nd round by the Spurs in the 2010. He checks in at 6'11" 229 lbs. yet he is fast and explosive to the paint. Here's a video of this play with the  BC Vienna team in the Austrian League (on which they recently won a championship).

As you can see on this video. Richards reminds me of Blake Griffin but less flashy. He has the potential to be Tim Duncan's heir apparent. With Duncan's mentoring and Coach Pop coaching, the sky is the limit for him.

All of this will be realized when we see him play in the upcoming Las Vegas Summer League. I would hope that he will show improvements because of his two years of playing in Euro leagues.

Welcome to Spurs Watch

I have been following the San Antonio Spurs since 1999 and never rooted any other team even though the most famous player was drafted by a team from the state of Ohio and later took his talent to the south beaches of a Florida city (I think you know who I am referring) and the other has been with a California team since the day he was drafted and was able to take his team to several championships. 

A true fan never leaves his favorite team even though the team has suffered some ups and down every season. I was actually proud that last season's Spurs squad was seconds away from winning a 5th title but fell short because of the heroics of the league MVP (yet some would say otherwise but I won't go there since I though they desired the championship anyway).

Starting this off season I will be posting some new about the latest updates about my favorite San Antonio team which includes some personal insights on some of the players (and prospects).