Spurs Sign the Other Stoudamire

The Spurs have signed combo guard Salim Stoudamire, formerly of the Atlanta Hawks (where he averaged close to 6 points per game in a little over 11 minutes this past season), and I must say as an outsider that I am a bit puzzled regarding this signing for San Antonio.

Stoudamire is an undersized combo guard who's biggest asset is probably his 3pt. range (which didn't look as good last year as in years past). If you are a team like San Antonio you can never have enough shooters to knock down shots when the opponent is double-teaming Tim Duncan, but what else does Salim Stoudamire bring to the table?

He's not a good defender mostly because of his size and lack of physical tools to be of much help defensively and he's yet another player in the NBA that has been tagged as a malcontent during his stint with the Hawks.

Grant it, it would be frustrating to most any athlete to be associated with that Hawks organization the past few seasons but nonetheless, he acquired that label.

And if you are the Spurs, didn't you sign Roger Mason in the offseason to take the place of one aged and departing Stoudamire (Damon) already?

I hailed this signing when I first read about it.

I thought he was a perfect fit for San Antonio.

He is a combo guard capable of pointing points on the board and has already proven to be a capable runner of a team from the PG position. Much more so than Salim ever has. At 6'5" he has the ideal size you would want from a combo guard. Mason also is a great shooter from downtown making almost 40% of his attempts last season. That's significantly better than Stoudamire last season.

The Spurs currently have a backcourt that includes your starter Tony Parker, a quality backup Jacque Vaughn, and a 1st round draft pick in George Hill at the PG spot in addition to Mason.

Now they add Stoudamire to the mix when their frontcourt is what seemingly needed more attention as Tim Duncan is on the decline, you have a dinosaur in Kurt Thomas playing next to him, and you lost another dinosaur at the 4 in Robert Horry. Oberto's a very solid player but he's not going to step up his game enough to make a significant impact. Tiago Splitter's not coming over. Mahinmi's not ready.

In my opinion the Spurs need more frontcourt help than guard help and should be looking to fill that need as opposed to one on the perimeter.

Even more specific, they need youth at the 4/5 slot. An energy guy that can put up some points off the bench would be ideal for San Antonio.

Stoudamire would seem to be slotted somewhere behind Manu Ginobili and Michael Finley (and possibly even Mason) at the SG spot but if they were deadset on signing a perimeter player I would think that they could have found a better player out there that would have more to offer in addition to some shooting (perhaps some defense as well as Finley is old and Ginobili is taking a toll with injuries) and also one that would come without the label of 'malcontent'.

Juan Dixon is still out there to be had. Not the best defender but better than Stoudamire.

Fred Jones. Although he's not a 'shooter' he can make shots and has good all-around game.

They both also bring more experience to the table.

Perhaps this is just a move to fill out the roster.

Or perhaps George Hill not being signed this late into the offseason is not a good indicator of San Antonio expecting to have him signed by the start of the season and Stoudamire is the beneficiary.

Finally, San Antonio could be setting themselves up to make a minor trade to help out in the frontcourt between now and the start of the season.

Not likely but RC Buford has earned the benefit of the doubt over his tenure so I will give him that and wait and see how this latest move pans out for San Antonio.