Spurs Set to Acquire a Solid Big Man in Aron Baynes
By Rafael Uehara
Talkbasket.net first reported on Wednesday – January, the 9th – the San Antonio Spurs are set to sign Australian big man Aron Baynes, after paying the $400-thousand buyout amount in his contract with Union Olimpija Ljubljana. According to Draft Express’s Jonathan Givony, the terms of the deal would include fours years of length, $3.5 million in compensation and multiple team options. Baynes is 26 years-old and stands at six-foot-10, distributed around a 260-pound frame. Baynes signed with Union Olimpija in the summer after stops in Lithuania, Germany and Greece out of Washington State in 2009.
In a team that lost seven of its 10 games in the Euroleague and has gone .500 over 16 games in the Adriatic league, Baynes’ performance built around solid fundamentals stood out. Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv was reportedly interested in adding him in the window for transfers between the end of the group stages and the start of the top 16 but could not agree with Union Olimpija on the fee, even as Baynes was willing to put up half-the-money out of his own pocket, according to Sportando’s David Pick.
Baynes has caught people’s attention due to his volume rebounding. He led the Euroleague in rebounding per 36 minutes in the first 10 games, averaging 13.5, and ranks sixth in the Adriatic league, picking up almost seven a game. Baynes shows extreme attention to detail in box-out assignments, rarely losing track of his man or simply forgetting to body him up. He is not particularly lengthy but presents a good motor going after loose balls. In Euroleague play, he was rather affective generating second chances, grabbing 5.4 offensive rebounds per 36 minutes (ranking second in the league) but only averaged 1.5 offensive rebounds per game in the Adriatic league.
Baynes possesses above average athleticism, capable of sprinting down the court on fast-breaks. Though of average height for his position, he has good size due to noticeable lower-body strength, which permits him to set good position on offense and defend his ground on defense. Whether he is capable of making good use out of post-up attempts is unclear because Union Olimpija ran a pick-and-roll heavy offense and he rarely got opportunities down low (though he did show an intriguing left-handed, leaning hook and some flashes of skilled passing in those few post feeds).
Baynes was a good fit for that offense and it’s likely why the Spurs, which also run an attack heavily based on playmaking off the high screen, are set to sign him. Because he is well built, Baynes set some very good hard screens that provided ball-handlers good leverage. Whenever he rolled to the rim, Baynes showed nice tough to finish around the rim. He led the Euroleague in scoring inside the lane, averaging almost eight points in the paint a game, according to gigabasket.org. He shot 57.4% on two-pointers in the Adriatic league. Something noteworthy, I think, is that Baynes rolled to the rim with more explosion when he slip-screened, rather than hard-screened. In fact, he seemed slower and a little less clear reading the rotations of the defense when hard-screening.
Baynes shot 14-34 from mid-range in the Euroleague, a respectable 41%, but his jumpers are only mostly in order to keep the defense honest. He has been a 66.8% free-throw shooter this season.
Pick-and-roll defense projects to be his biggest issue transitioning to the NBA. Baynes is willing and smart; he knows where to be and when to be there but will likely struggle badly on switches. He is not a constant shot blocking threat (20 blocks in 26 games) and he backpedals a lot in attempt to overcompensate protecting the rim, which just permits too much leverage to the opposing ball-handler. Bo McCallebb was able to finish around him, while Sergio Llull had plenty of space to pull up. With him on the floor, Union Olimpija defended four points per 100 possession worse, according to gigabasket.org, though to be fair, his teammates also had saying on the team ranking second-worst in the Euroleague in defensive efficiency.
Baynes had been the quintessential journeyman prior to the season, so the news of the Spurs pulling the trigger on him was quite stunning, though he did draw some attention with his performance in these 10 Euroleague games. It’s still confusing how he fits into the plans for the Spurs, however. San Antonio’s main problem over the last season-and-a-half is the balance upfront in lineups that do not feature Tim Duncan. Duncan, despite his advanced age, remains the team’s most important player because of his versatility. He provides paint protection playing alongside DeJuan Blair, floor spacing (sort of) when paired with Tiago Splitter, an interior scoring threat in a duo with Matt Bonner and rebounding when doubling up with Boris Diaw. All sorts of combinations between the other four big-men lack something and Baynes does not project to be a solution in any scenario as he is actually a very similar player to Blair.
Maybe they do see him as a project, like Givony argued, but he’s 26. I guess there is no downside to it considering they supposedly have very little money invested in him and a lot of flexibility in the contract. Or maybe they are just speeding up the process of replacing Blair, who has been on the trading block for a while now and isn’t likely to retained when his contract expires at season’s end. Regardless of whether or not what the plan for him is clear, the Spurs are set to acquire a very solid big man and I guess you can never have too many of those.
Editor's Note: Rafael Uehara is the managing editor of 'The Basketball Post'. More of his work can be found here and he can be followed on twitter @rafael_uehara or reached via e-mail at rafael_uehara@live.com
Talkbasket.net first reported on Wednesday – January, the 9th – the San Antonio Spurs are set to sign Australian big man Aron Baynes, after paying the $400-thousand buyout amount in his contract with Union Olimpija Ljubljana. According to Draft Express’s Jonathan Givony, the terms of the deal would include fours years of length, $3.5 million in compensation and multiple team options. Baynes is 26 years-old and stands at six-foot-10, distributed around a 260-pound frame. Baynes signed with Union Olimpija in the summer after stops in Lithuania, Germany and Greece out of Washington State in 2009.
In a team that lost seven of its 10 games in the Euroleague and has gone .500 over 16 games in the Adriatic league, Baynes’ performance built around solid fundamentals stood out. Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv was reportedly interested in adding him in the window for transfers between the end of the group stages and the start of the top 16 but could not agree with Union Olimpija on the fee, even as Baynes was willing to put up half-the-money out of his own pocket, according to Sportando’s David Pick.
Baynes has caught people’s attention due to his volume rebounding. He led the Euroleague in rebounding per 36 minutes in the first 10 games, averaging 13.5, and ranks sixth in the Adriatic league, picking up almost seven a game. Baynes shows extreme attention to detail in box-out assignments, rarely losing track of his man or simply forgetting to body him up. He is not particularly lengthy but presents a good motor going after loose balls. In Euroleague play, he was rather affective generating second chances, grabbing 5.4 offensive rebounds per 36 minutes (ranking second in the league) but only averaged 1.5 offensive rebounds per game in the Adriatic league.
Baynes possesses above average athleticism, capable of sprinting down the court on fast-breaks. Though of average height for his position, he has good size due to noticeable lower-body strength, which permits him to set good position on offense and defend his ground on defense. Whether he is capable of making good use out of post-up attempts is unclear because Union Olimpija ran a pick-and-roll heavy offense and he rarely got opportunities down low (though he did show an intriguing left-handed, leaning hook and some flashes of skilled passing in those few post feeds).
Baynes was a good fit for that offense and it’s likely why the Spurs, which also run an attack heavily based on playmaking off the high screen, are set to sign him. Because he is well built, Baynes set some very good hard screens that provided ball-handlers good leverage. Whenever he rolled to the rim, Baynes showed nice tough to finish around the rim. He led the Euroleague in scoring inside the lane, averaging almost eight points in the paint a game, according to gigabasket.org. He shot 57.4% on two-pointers in the Adriatic league. Something noteworthy, I think, is that Baynes rolled to the rim with more explosion when he slip-screened, rather than hard-screened. In fact, he seemed slower and a little less clear reading the rotations of the defense when hard-screening.
Baynes shot 14-34 from mid-range in the Euroleague, a respectable 41%, but his jumpers are only mostly in order to keep the defense honest. He has been a 66.8% free-throw shooter this season.
Pick-and-roll defense projects to be his biggest issue transitioning to the NBA. Baynes is willing and smart; he knows where to be and when to be there but will likely struggle badly on switches. He is not a constant shot blocking threat (20 blocks in 26 games) and he backpedals a lot in attempt to overcompensate protecting the rim, which just permits too much leverage to the opposing ball-handler. Bo McCallebb was able to finish around him, while Sergio Llull had plenty of space to pull up. With him on the floor, Union Olimpija defended four points per 100 possession worse, according to gigabasket.org, though to be fair, his teammates also had saying on the team ranking second-worst in the Euroleague in defensive efficiency.
Baynes had been the quintessential journeyman prior to the season, so the news of the Spurs pulling the trigger on him was quite stunning, though he did draw some attention with his performance in these 10 Euroleague games. It’s still confusing how he fits into the plans for the Spurs, however. San Antonio’s main problem over the last season-and-a-half is the balance upfront in lineups that do not feature Tim Duncan. Duncan, despite his advanced age, remains the team’s most important player because of his versatility. He provides paint protection playing alongside DeJuan Blair, floor spacing (sort of) when paired with Tiago Splitter, an interior scoring threat in a duo with Matt Bonner and rebounding when doubling up with Boris Diaw. All sorts of combinations between the other four big-men lack something and Baynes does not project to be a solution in any scenario as he is actually a very similar player to Blair.
Maybe they do see him as a project, like Givony argued, but he’s 26. I guess there is no downside to it considering they supposedly have very little money invested in him and a lot of flexibility in the contract. Or maybe they are just speeding up the process of replacing Blair, who has been on the trading block for a while now and isn’t likely to retained when his contract expires at season’s end. Regardless of whether or not what the plan for him is clear, the Spurs are set to acquire a very solid big man and I guess you can never have too many of those.
Editor's Note: Rafael Uehara is the managing editor of 'The Basketball Post'. More of his work can be found here and he can be followed on twitter @rafael_uehara or reached via e-mail at rafael_uehara@live.com
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