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It’s the second day of games in this year’s Las Vegas Summer League, but San Antonio’s first. The Spurs have a few changes in the roster since their last game in the California Classic, an 89-67 blowout of the China National Team. The most important addition is probably Ibrahama Diallo, a 7’ center that gives them enough height to match up better in the paint against some of the bigger Summer League teams. The only players on the Summer League squad that are expected to make the regular season roster are the same as in Sacramento, second-year wing Sidy Cissoko, first round pick Stephon Castle, and possible 2-way project Harrison Ingram. The rest of the players on the squad are going to be working hard to earn a spot somewhere on a professional basketball team, but it’s not going to be the Spurs unless something unexpected happens.
Tonight will be another chance to see how Castle’s game is progressing and to see if Ingram continues to adapt to the pro game and Spurs system. It would be nice for Sidy to show some ability to dominate at this level, but the Spurs brass has shown a lot of patience with him, and with him coming off of knee surgery, there’s really no feeling of urgency. Yet.
The player to watch on Portland is going to be Donovan Clingan, Castle’s former teammate at UCONN, who is expected to be a dominant NBA center sooner, rather than later.
Let’s spend part of our Saturday night watching some extraordinary athletes play a practice game in the city that never sleeps, and try to have some fun, no matter the score. After tonight, they play again tomorrow against the Atlanta Hawks, at 7:00 PM, which will also be on ESPN2.
Castle will announce that the ‘T’ is his name is no longer silent, which will result in some hilarious moments as announcers try to figure out how to pronounce his name.
One final word:
Go Spurs GOOOOOO!!
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