The San Antonio Spurs will not be bringing back Antonio McDyess this season.
According to the San Antonio Express-News, the Spurs have decided not to guarantee the other half of McDyess’ $5.2 million contract.
The teams acknowledged that McDyess won’t be back, and the club will get to remove $2.6 million, the non=guaranteed portion of his contract, off its player payroll for the 2011-12 season.
Antonio signed with the Spurs in 2009 and spent two seasons in black and silver. He was a solid veteran big man off the bench for the Spurs and even proved to still be a defensive presence for the team. Ask Dirk Nowitzki.
Though he never once was the player he was after his many knee injuries, he had fantastic seasons not only with San Antonio but with the Detroit Pistons where he averaged 9.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per 23.3 minutes in 2004.
So now that the Spurs will be without McDyess, this leaves Tiago Splitter, Tim Duncan, DeJuan Blair, and Matt Bonner as the crop of big men the team will likely take into the regular season. And just by looking at this, it is quite apparent the team needs help in the paint.
As far as McDyess’ immediate future, he will be retiring from the league but he left the NBA and the Spurs with some great memories. Especially this highlight from last season versus the Los Angeles Lakers.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCG4EiDgPwA&w=454&h=261]
