| Mohammed Is The X-Factor For The Spurs Authored by Aaron Bronsteter - June 2, 2005 - 2:08 am
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After a heartbreaking loss to the Lakers that hinged on Derek Fisher’s four millisecond shot heard ‘round the world, earning him an overzealous roughly six million dollar a year contract from the Golden State Warriors, the Spurs needed a player to help them make that extra push for the championship. Well, it’s June, Kobe’s been chilling at home for over a month, the Spurs are in the finals for the third time in seven years and very little of this accomplishment can be attributed to Brent Barry.
I cannot say that Barry’s contribution to the Spurs franchise this past season have not played a role in their success, however, he has been far from instrumental and hardly the X-factor that the Spurs have needed to get them over the top.
Barry is currently having his worst ever NBA season statistically in nearly every category. One must take into account that he is on the strongest NBA team of his career and that he is playing fewer minutes-per-game than he usually does, but he has not been considered an impact player by any stretch of the imagination. Despite Barry starting most games, Ginobili has been insane off the bench (a situation that he embraces) and continues to take his game to the next level, easily outdoing many of his previous career highs, namely scoring where his average has increased by over three points-per-game in roughly the same amount of minutes-per-game as last season.
The true X-Factor for the Spurs has been their trade deadline acquisition, Nazr Mohammed. Mohammed was acquired from the Knicks on February 24th for a very healthy bounty of fan and city favorite Malik Rose and two future 1st round draft picks (likely to be anywhere between 25-30). The price may not seem considerable, but based on the fact that the Spurs’ previous late first round picks have been Beno Udrih (a Western Conference Rookie of the Month winner), Leandrinho Barbosa (traded for a future Suns pick, which was one of the picks dealt in this trade) and starting point guard Tony Parker, it proves that the Spurs have quite a team of International scouts who excel at finding diamonds in the rough.
The trade for Mohammed has proven advantageous for just about everyone aside from former starting center Rasho Nesterovic, who has been riding the pine for much of the playoffs. Since being traded to the Spurs, Nazr made the most of his limited minutes during the regular season (18 mpg) and stole Nesterovic’s starting center role in time for the playoffs. He averaged 6.2 points-per-game, 6.4 rebounds-per-game and a career high 1.4 blocks-per-game, all in the aforementioned underwhelming 18 minutes-per-game.
Nesterovic has been a huge disappointment to the Spurs since they signed him after their 2002-2003 NBA Championship victory and the retirement of future hall-of-fame center David Robinson. Nesterovic, earning roughly 7 million dollars per season, averaged under 6 points-per-game and just over 6 rebounds-per-game as the starting center for the Spurs alongside Tim Duncan; averages that were matched by Mohammed in significantly less minutes. After losing his starting role on the team, he has averaged a meagre 8 minutes-per-game in the playoffs, averaging less than 1 point-per-game. A simply horrible regression from what was expected of him at the time of his signing.
Mohammed, however, has shown intensity, urgency and energy on the court with the Spurs during their playoff run. Averaging 23.5 minutes-per-game, he is scoring over 8 points-per-game on 56.5 percent shooting and averaging 7.3 rebounds-per-game and over 1 block-per-game in helping lead the Spurs to the finals. While Barry has chipped in a significant 7 points-per-game off the bench and more than 2 assists-per-game, his performance has been highly overshadowed by the nearly 20 points-per-game performance of Tony Parker and the over 20 points-per-game performance of Ginobili, who has electrified NBA viewers with his devastating cuts to the basket and dramatic flops on the both ends of the court. Ginobili makes the Spurs a more interesting and intensifying team to watch, despite their reputation of producing tedious, fundamental basketball.
Mohammed has proven to be exactly the type of basketball player the Spurs have sought; a three inch taller version of Rose; a banger with intimidating size who is a threat to block shots and grab offensive rebounds, neither of which are really Nesterovic’s forte. His emergence allows Duncan to play his natural position at power forward and not have to worry about fulfilling the duties of a center, a role that he had to play with Rose and in most situations, Nesterovic on the floor. Mohammed can take Duncan back to the days of having The Admiral (Robinson) at his side. Like Robinson, Mohammed has no intentions of making the Spurs his team and would prefer winning a game on any given day.
Going into the finals, Mohammed will match up against either Ben Wallace or Shaquille O’Neal, neither of which are pushovers, but given his previous assignments of Shawn Marion or Amare Stoudemire when facing the Suns, he likely knows what to expect. In his last meeting with O’Neal as a Knick, he held O’Neal to 16 points on 5-16 shooting, which shows that he is able to slow down The Diesel with his defensive prowess if he is taken to task.
Based on his playoff performance thus far and his emergence into the starting lineup of what is considered the best team in the NBA, playing for Gregg Popovich, one of the league’s most demanding and respected coaches, Mohammed, not Barry, is the true X-Factor for the Spurs. |
