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.
No comments:
Post a Comment