July 13, 2010

Bryan Davis

I have written before about the Spurs's constant attempts to keep young players that they are interested in around their roster, if not strictly on it. By doing things such as owning their own D-League affiliate (thereby ensuring generous assignments) giving Curtis Jerrells $75,000 to attend training camp even when he has absolutely no chance of making the team (and subsequently having him assigned to the Toros for that reason), signing Marcus E. Williams at every possible opportunity, and using part of their MLE on signing Alonzo Gee and Garrett Temple when there's a matter of days left in the season, the Spurs bypass the maximum roster size while keeping an assortment of young players on the fringes. It's not illicit, but shrewd. And I'm willing to bet that Bryan Davis is the next recipient of this juggling act.

Were he more athletic, Davis would be a surefire NBA player. He is a very skilled post player, with hook shots, up-and-unders and touch around the basket, a good rebounding rate and mistake-free defense. But he's only 6'8, and definitely an out-and-out post player; Davis doesn't handle the ball, drive, shoot from the outside or defend the perimeter. He's also really rather unathletic and slow, which hurts his NBA chances on both ends. If he's going to be part of the Spurs/Toros shuffle, fair enough, but he could do pretty bloody well in Europe if he wanted to. (And bear in mind that I base my initial assumption on absolutely nothing.)

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