And then, Tim Duncan stood up, walked toward the door and into the most uncertain offseason of his life.

On his way to the bus, the Spurs forward recognized a familiar face and paused with one more thought.
“Looks like we got an offensive tackle,” Duncan said, referring to the NFL draft and his beloved Chicago Bears. “We needed two.”
With the season finished more quickly than anyone could have
surmised, and the possibility of a lockout postponing the start of his
14th season, Duncan will have plenty of time to ponder both the future
and football.
By becoming the second No. 8 seed in the best-of-7 era to topple a
No. 1, the Memphis Grizzlies spoiled what was supposed to be Duncan’s
last, best run to a fifth NBA championship.
“With the seeding and the situation, I think we’re a better team than
we showed,” said Duncan, who turned 35 this month. “I thought we could
have put together a much better series.”
In a brutally effective six-game march, capped with a 99-91 victory
in Game 6, Memphis brought an unceremonious end to a season in which the
Spurs defied expectations, for better and worse.http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursnation/2011/04/30/spurs%E2%80%99-%E2%80%98wonderful-season%E2%80%99-leads-to-summer-uncertainty/

“We’re playing like a bunch of wussies,” McDyess said.

That analysis didn’t meet with much disagreement, not after the
Grizzlies pummeled the Spurs 56-36 in the second half to assume a 3-1
series lead.

In the third quarter, during which the Spurs committed seven
turnovers and managed just 15 points, the Grizzlies — energized by Tony
Allen and Mike Conley — did everything but mug them in a Memphis back
alley.

“They put their foot on our throat and never let up,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

For the first time this postseason, the game did not go down to the final possession. Memphis would not let it.

Appearing to take their first halftime deficit of the series as a
personal affront, the Grizzlies scored the first 14 points of the second
half to grab the ?? series by the jugular.

Only one top seed in NBA history has lost a best-of-7 series in the
first round. That was the 2007 Dallas Mavericks, who at least made it to
Game 6 before falling to Golden State.
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursnation/2011/04/25/spurs-mauled-in-memphis/

But the finality of Parker’s statement this week says something else. If
Parker thinks this is it, then Parker likely thinks this is it for him,
too.

Which could help the Spurs this season.

Parker is among the few Spurs not in San Antonio already, but that’s not a sign of anything. He usually comes into town just before training camp starts and, besides, he put in his time this summer.

He’s been traveling to various functions with his wife, and he’s often been in Los Angeles. But he worked out in L.A. with devotion, usually with a Spurs assistant, and some in management think it’s been among the most productive offseasons of his career. Not getting hurt with his French national team standing nearby was an additional plus.

This should be clear: He’s not Carmelo Anthony, another entering the final season of his contract. Parker wants to be here this season, and he wants to win.

And if Parker resumes his All-Star status while the Spurs win? There might be the same franchise urgency to find a contractual compromise as there was with Ginobili late last season.

Ginobili, too, went into the season on the last year of his contract. Ginobili, too, didn’t know if he would be back. The Spurs say everything is as fluid with Parker and that an extension is possible.

But everything else is also possible. If the Spurs don’t begin their season well, they will look to deal their most tradeable asset. And, when the season is over, they could lose Parker to free agency, no matter how well he plays.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/parkersanxietya_spursadvantage_103593224.html?showFullArticle=y

Team officials have reached out to Danny Ferry to gauge his interest in
returning to the organization he left in 2005 to become the general
manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Ferry, who played the final three seasons of his career with the Spurs
and still maintains a house in San Antonio, retired after the 2002-03
campaign to join the team’s front office. He spent two seasons in middle
management under general manager R.C. Buford and president of
basketball operations Gregg Popovich before leaving in June 2005 to take
the Cleveland job.

A position in the Spurs’ chain of command came open last month, when vice president of basketball operations Dell Demps accepted the GM job in New Orleans.

The 43-year-old Ferry, meanwhile, has been unemployed since June 4, when he resigned his post in Cleveland in a move viewed as part the Cavs’ unsuccessful effort to re-sign LeBron James. Since departing Cleveland, Ferry had been linked to general manger vacancies in Portland and New Jersey that eventually went to others.

It is unclear whether the Spurs are looking for someone to fill Demps’ role directly, or whether there might be a reshuffling of duties among front-office personnel. It is also unclear whether the new front-office candidate would take on Demps’ title as general manager of the Austin Toros, the Spurs’ affiliate in the Development League.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/spurs_reach_out_to_ferry_100595169.html

The Spurs, according to sources with knowledge of the team’s plans, are
lobbying Danny Ferry to come back to the organization where he began his
front-office career and hope to convince him to commit to rejoining the
organization in the coming days or weeks.

I was fully expecting Ferry to opt for a break from the game after he left the Cavs in early June following years of what proved to be justifiably stressful fretting about Cleveland’s ability to re-sign LeBron James.

Ferry instead wound up contending for the recent front-office openings in Portland and New Jersey, despite the fact that more than one of his peers A) struggled to see him working for Paul Allen’s meddlesome Blazers lieutenants after Dan Gilbert’s determination to reclaim more of a hands-on role contributed to his Cleveland departure and B) struggled even more to imagine him co-existing with Nets coach Avery Johnson after their frosty days together as teammates in San Antonio.

New Jersey eventually opted for the low-key move by hiring Billy King instead of Ferry to replace Rod Thorn, combined with an overdue promotion for unheralded Nets lifer Bobby Marks to assist King. But that move — along with New Orleans’ hiring of Dell Demps away from the Spurs to run the Hornets’ front office — has given San Antonio license to urge Ferry to return.

Ferry remains close with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and team president R.C. Buford and would work primarily with Buford and highly respected aide Dennis Lindsey if he does give into the lobbying.

You’ll recall that the steady stream of Popovich/Buford protégés to land GM jobs in recent years — which includes Oklahoma City’s Sam Presti, former Suns president Steve Kerr, ex-Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard, Demps and the Suns’ freshly hired Lance Blanks — began with Ferry and Blanks going to Cleveland in the summer of 2005.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/18892/spurs-want-danny-ferry-back

With Tony Parker having been out for a while now as well, the return of Ginobili from his injury troubles has been a blessing. Amid all the concerns about Ginobili’s health issues and speculation that he may never return to form from the Spurs championship runs, Manu has been steadily improving to the point the coaching staff thinks he is playing every bit as good as he did when they were champions.

So with Manu Ginobili’s upcoming free agency looming at the end of the 2010 season, the Spurs didn’t waste much time after seeing his recent stellar play in signing Ginobili to a three-year contract extension:

The San Antonio Spurs and guard Manu Ginobili have agreed to a three-year extension worth $38.9 million, a league source confirmed Wednesday.

The deal is the maximum the Spurs were allowed to offer Ginobili under the current collective bargaining agreement, based on Ginobili’s current salary and age (32).

“He’s playing [like] he did when we won championships,” Popovich said. “He had a tough first half of the year for a variety of reasons, but he’s been an All-Star player the last month or month and a half. That’s really helped our team come together, especially with [Tony] Parker being down.”

http://thehoopdoctors.com/online2/2010/04/spurs-sign-ginobili-to-contract-extension/

Like an actor who yearns to be a rock star, the greatest power forward
in NBA history has always dreamed of making his living another way.

“I’ve been wanting to play point guard for about 12 years now,” Duncan said.

“I might finally get my chance.”

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich isn’t quite that desperate. Not yet, anyway. A couple more ill-timed injuries though, and Popovich might have no choice but to unleash Duncan’s inner Magic Johnson.

All-NBA point guard Tony Parker has been on the injured list since fracturing his right hand on March 6. Second-year combo guard George Hill thrived as Parker’s replacement for 16 games before injuring his right ankle in Sunday’s otherwise celebratory win over the Lakers.

An MRI taken Monday in San Antonio revealed Hill’s injury to be a strained right peroneal tendon, casting the rest of his regular season in doubt. Though the team has not announced a timetable for Hill’s return, he has been ruled out of games tonight at Sacramento and Wednesday at Phoenix.

That leaves the Spurs devoid of a true point guard, now and for the immediate future. It is a disheartening turn of events for a team that has won 15 of its past 20 games and appeared to be jelling just in time for the playoffs.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Spurs_suddenly_very_thin_at_point.html

When the Hornets made a fourth-quarter run at the Spurs in Friday’s
game at the AT&T Center, slicing a double-digit lead to five
points, Manu Ginobili decided it was time to put away a team whose
collective resolve has been membrane-thin for weeks.

When he came free off a screen on the Spurs’ next possession, Ginobili fired in a long 3-point shot that made the Hornets’ shoulders sag.

It was the sort of play that wins games, and it’s what Ginobili, more than any Spurs player, has done in eight seasons in silver and black.

When any game is on the line, it is Ginobili who most often is asked to produce victory. On a team with a two-time NBA MVP and certain first-ballot Hall of Fame big man, it seems lunacy to say it, but Ginobili is the Spurs’ MVP.

Can anyone in South Texas see him in another uniform?

Two summers ago, the Spurs couldn’t. There were talks aimed at extending the contract he signed in the summer of 2004, when he was a restricted free agent and Denver made a hard sell the Spurs trumped.

Then Ginobili returned to Argentina to practice for the national team’s defense of its 2004 Olympic gold medal. The Spurs held their collective breath all summer, and when Ginobili went down with an ankle injury in a semifinal game in Beijing, the extension talks were put on ice, right alongside his ankle.

The Spurs wanted to see how Ginobili recovered, and when his season ended last April because of a stress fracture in his right ankle, the waiting game went overtime.

The Spurs began this season needing to see what a 32-year-old had left. What they’ve witnessed over the last three weeks should be evidence enough. Ginobili is himself again, finishing at the rim and running down the league’s best athletes to block dunks and change games.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/mike_monroe/Spurs_Ginobili_will_be_in_demand.html

Free-agent swingman Keith Bogans will sign a one-year contract with the San Antonio Spurs, sources confirmed Monday to FanHouse.

Bogans, a solid defensive player, is being looked at as an heir apparent to Bruce Bowen, who retired recently after being San Antonio’s perimeter defensive stopper throughout much of the decade. The Spurs had been grooming Ime Udoka for that role, but they are electing not to bring him back as a free agent after he played two seasons with the team.

Bogans, who will sign a guaranteed deal worth the minimum of $1.03 million, last season averaged 5.6 points for Orlando and Milwaukee. He has a 7.5 average over six seasons.

Bogans also had been looked at by the Denver Nuggets. However, the Nuggets have had a contract offer out the past few weeks on guard Flip Murray and are continuing to wait on him.

Sources have told FanHouse that Murray has been offered the minimum of $1.1 million by the Nuggets. He is hoping to get the biannual exception of $1.99 million, but indications are the Nuggets, who are over the luxury-tax threshold, are unwilling to spend that much.

http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/09/21/keith-bogans-will-sign-with-spurs/