Spurs Sign Oberto

[Bricklayer]

Another player that we were rumored to be interested in gets sucked up by a rival:


Oberto captained Argentine team that beat Team USA

By Chad Ford
ESPN Insider


The San Antonio Spurs have made yet another international coup, it appears.

The Spurs have come to an agreement in principle with Argentinean center Fabrico Oberto, according to his agent, Herb Rudoy.

Oberto, who averaged 14.2 ppg and 7.3 rpg for Parmesa in Spain this season, is widely regarded as one of the top five players in Europe.

He was the team captain of the Argentina team that defeated Team USA at the 2002 World Championships. He dropped 28 points on Yugoslavia's Vlade Divac in the finale of that tournament.

Oberto is a warrior in the paint with polished moves around the post. He's a good scorer, rebounder and defender who has the toughness and aggressiveness to be an excellent role player in the league. He's also a great passer in the post and frequently draws comparisons to Divac on that skill. Don't be surprised if he is the Spurs starting center on opening night.

Oberto has been hotly pursued by NBA teams for years but has never shown much interest in the past. He's one of the highest paid players in Europe and has been content to be a star over there.

The fact that he turns thirty this year, is considered a little undersized to play center in the NBA (he's barely 6-10 in shoes) and has the free throw touch of Shaq (45 percent from the line) has hurt his free agent stock in the past two years.

The move by the Spurs means that it's unlikely they will bring over their other Argentinean big man, Luis Scola, this season. The Spurs drafted Scola in the second round of the 2002 NBA Draft, but have been unable to bring him over because of an enormous buyout provision with his team Tau Ceramica. Chad Ford covers the NBA for ESPN Insider.

 

[G_M]

That whole championship aura is over rated!


Apparently, the babes along the American River and Folsom Lake were not enough to cloe the deal.

 

[VF21]

I sure hope Petrie has something up his sleeve because it's beginning to get very frustrating to see all these good players going to other teams in the West...

 

[sloter]

VF21, yeah I agree it's frustrating...

 

[Yoda]

Somebody needs to wake Petrie up from his nap.

 

[Bricklayer]

Look at the positive side Yoda -- it could all be part of the master plan....let all these silly teams spend all their money now on all of these in demand players, and then by the end of the summer we should have the unchallenged pick of the litter of all the Tractor Traylors, Vitaly Potapenkos, and Dion Glover's we could ever want.

 

[sloter]

Yeah, Brick, but don't we know better than to pick up Clippers' leftovers ?

 

[captain bill]

This is sad. I was really hoping we could get this guy, and now the Spurs are going to get even better. Oberto could turn out to be Robinson's replacement, and now there's a new "twin towers" to go along with Parker, Ginobli and Bowen. We now officially have no chance of winning the west.

 

[starks]

grhhhhh..this is just bad....my favorite player....smart with good passing skills will be td's backup and grab/hold defender

 

[piksi]

Spurs just got better.

Oberto is a great player

Bye Rasho !!!

 

[Dave McNulla]

spurs sign oberto, scola status uncertain

[size=+2] Spurs reach agreement with Oberto, not Scola [/size] [size=-1] Web Posted: 07/15/2005 12:00 AM CDT [/size]

[size=-1] Johnny Ludden
Express-News Staff Writer [/size]

Unwilling to wait any longer for Argentine forward Luis Scola to arrange a buyout agreement with his Spanish team, the Spurs have decided to sign one of his countrymen instead.

Fabricio Oberto, the starting center on Argentina's national team and one of Manu Ginobili's best friends, has reached an agreement in principle with the Spurs on a three-year contract worth about $7.5 million.

Players can't officially sign contracts until the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement is completed. The league has set July22 as a target date for lifting its signing moratorium.

Oberto, 30, averaged 14.2 points and 7.3 rebounds last season for Pamesa Valencia in Spain's top league. He stands 6-foot-10 and is a good passer and solid low-post scorer whose selflessness, toughness and basketball IQ have long attracted the Spurs.

Oberto teamed with Ginobili, Scola and Chicago's Andres Nocioni when Argentina upset the United States in the 2002 World Championships. The team beat Team USA again last summer on the way to the gold medal in Athens.

Having established himself as one of the best big men in Europe, Oberto had hoped in recent years to join Ginobili in making the jump to the NBA. The Spurs, whose center and power forward positions are basically interchangeable, think he will fit nicely into their rotation. He also is a poor free-throw shooter, so he should feel comfortable among his new teammates.

"He's really wanted this for a long time," said Oberto's agent, Herb Rudoy, who also represents Ginobili. "When I told him we had reached agreement, he said, 'I can't talk, I can only tell you same thing Manu said: My body is too small for my heart. I'm so happy; that's how I feel.'"

Scola likely didn't express the same sentiments when told of the Spurs' decision.

Scola, a 2002 second-round pick of the Spurs, is five years younger than Oberto and considered a more-skilled player. The Spurs had hoped to sign Scola this summer but became fearful of losing Oberto and other free agents if they waited any longer for Scola to reach an agreement on a buyout with his Spanish team, Tau Ceramica.

The NBA buyout in Scola's initial contract with Tau was a staggering 12 million euros or $14.5million. The team later revised the contract to give Scola a much more affordable buyout based on where he was drafted in the first round. Yet because the deal never specified anything about being selected in the second round, Tau officials claim Scola must pay the original buyout if he wants to leave for the NBA or wait until his contract expires in three years when the buyout is reduced to $1 million.

The Spurs, who are limited by NBA rules to contributing no more than $350,000 to the buyout, have spent more than two years trying to resolve the matter. While Scola's agents tried to convince the Spurs they eventually will strike a deal with Tau — the issue could end up in the hands of an arbitrator — team officials decided they couldn't risk waiting.

Tau already has lost its head coach this summer, and two of the team's top players, Jose Calderon and Arvydas Macijauskas, could depart. As a result, Tau's owners might be hesitant about letting Scola also leave.

The Spurs have discussed trading Scola's rights, but any team interested in him is likely going to want assurances he will be able to free himself from his Spanish contract.

After Oberto's signing, the Spurs will have about half of their $4.9 million midlevel exception remaining, in addition to their $1.6 million exception. They would like to add an athletic wing player, a third point guard (re-signing Mike Wilks remains a possibility) and another reserve big man to occupy the role Tony Massenburg and Kevin Willis held previously.

Though the Spurs could re-sign Devin Brown without using either exception, they so far appear hesitant about giving him a significant raise because of health concerns. Doctors have assured team officials Brown's back eventually will heal. They just can't tell them when.

Sacramento's Maurice Evans and Indiana's James Jones are other options, though both are restricted free agents, giving the Kings and Pacers the right to match offers they receive from other teams.

The Spurs also might wait to see how much the free-agent pool deepens after the NBA's new amnesty rule goes into effect, allowing teams the right to waive one player and avoid his luxury-tax penalty. Dallas is expected to cut Michael Finley if it can't first find another team willing to trade for him. New York also figures to part with guard Allan Houston.

Center Rasho Nesterovic has generated some trade interest among other teams, though the Spurs have yet to find a deal they like.

 

[thesanityannex]

Anyone know if Katelynas has been picked up by a team yet? He is the only one left I was hoping we could acquire.

 

[AriesMar27]

can we trade corliss or thomas for rasho? i dont care if we are the slowest team in the league.... at least we wont be the shortest....

 

[captain bill]

Rasho for Corliss or Thomas straight up would work. I don't like the Corliss trade, only because Corliss is in the last year of his contract and Rasho has three. KT has 4, so the trade makes sense from that view, except Rasho averages .1 more rebounds than KT, and KT is better across the board everywhere else. A more likely scenario for us to benefit from this is if the Spurs decide not to resign Mohammed and then we pick him up. I imagine we could sign Nazr for close to the MLE, or give the Spurs something in a s&t, which means we can have Nazr starting at C and move Brad over to PF.

 

[DocHolliday]

How is it that teams like the spurs who have to be paying the luxury tax can keep going out and getting really good players. Yet we can't?? That's what's frustrating.

 

[Kev.in]

How is it that teams like the spurs who have to be paying the luxury tax can keep going out and getting really good players. Yet we can't?? That's what's frustrating.

Actually, the Spurs have been pretty conservative and shrewd in assembling their roster and securing their core players. I would estimate that their payroll was probably $5 or 6 million less than us last season.

Oberto is a great pickup and it works because the Spurs already have their lineup set for years and a great defensive team. Oberto is a guy we could really use, but considering the type of bigs we already have, he doesn't address any weaknesses. For the Spurs they plug him in and because they play great help defense and follow the gameplan, it doesn't matter if Oberto comes off the bench and is physically overmatched by some freak like Stromile Swift or Tyson Chandler.

 

[NoBonus]

All I have to say is "Oh, boy! Oberto!" Maybe whenever the Spurs come to town we should get all of the fans to eat some jerky.

 

[captain bill]

Maybe we could have celebrated when we got him, but now it would just be too sad.

 

[NoBonus]

I guess we could take a page out of the ol' playbook and fling the jerky at Oberto as he runs to the locker room.... nah, we are past that phase. If Oberto is any good, he should get a sponsorship with Oberto Jerky.

 

[LPKingsFan]

I was hoping the Kings could snag this guy, but of course he goes to the defending champions. Buford is the best GM in the biz right now, hands down. Geoff has his work cut out for him...

 

[Gargamel]

Someone at LG said this is another example of the Spurs not giving American players a chance to compete by outsourcing to Argentina.

 

[Gargamel]

I was hoping the Kings could snag this guy,

Dude makes great beef jerkey. Teriyaki and hot peppered are best.