The Spurs are praying that Richard Jefferson will opt out of his contract but that just isn’t going to happen. The only free agent the Spurs would like to bring back is Matt Bonner but he might get an offer they wouldn’t want to match. Despite DeJaun Blair playing so well as a rookie I don’t think the Spurs are ready to start him alongside Tim Duncan quite yet. That means the Spurs will comb the second tier of free agents with Al Harrington, Drew Gooden, Udonis Haslem, Craig Smith, Amir Johnson, Anthony Tolliver and Alex Barron all getting consideration. Don’t expect the Spurs making any big trades unless they are willing to move Tony Parker.

The Spurs have selected 19-year old power forward Ryan Richards with the 49th overall pick of the NBA Draft. Richards played in 9 games (0 starts) in Spain last season and he averaged 12.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 0.3 assists per game. He played in 12 games (0 starts) in his two years in Spain and he averaged 10.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 0.3 assists per game. Richards looks like a developmental project but one with a nice upside.

The Spurs have selected 21-year old shooting guard James Anderson with the 20th overall pick of the NBA Draft. Anderson played in 33 games (all starts) for Oklahoma State last season and he averaged 22.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.4 steals per game. He played in 101 games (99 starts) in his three years with the Cowboys and he averaged 17.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.1 steals per game. This was an outstanding pick for the Spurs as Anderson will give the offense a boost when he’s on the floor in 2010-11 and beyond.

The Spurs have the #20 and #49 overall picks in tomorrow’s NBA Draft. The Spurs will likely be targeting small forwards and big men with their picks. The Spurs could also dangle George Hill or Tony Parker tomorrow might to see if they could get a huge return for one of them. The Spurs need to start getting younger if nothing else on the bench so they don’t get too old too quick.

The Spurs drafted 25-year old power forward Tiago Splitter in 2007 with the 28th overall pick (first round) of the NBA Draft. He has been overseas playing for a few years but now he wants to come to the states to play. The Spurs will likely have to pony up a deal like 5 years for $25-$30 million bucks to have him cross the pond and head south. Splitter played in 16 games (14 starts) in the Euroleague last season and he averaged 26.4 minutes, 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. Hopefully Splitter will play good enough for the Spurs to be worth the wait.

UPDATE: (7/13/2010) - The Spurs have signed Tiago Splitter to a 3-year, $10.9 million dollar deal.

34-year old PF/C Tim Duncan is showing no signs of slowing down yet. He played in 78 games (77 starts) for the Spurs last season and he averaged 31.3 minutes, 17.9 points, 10.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.5 blocked shots per game. Duncan has now played in 977 games in his 13 years with the Spurs (975 starts) and he is averaging 36.4 minutes, 21.1 points, 11.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.3 blocked shots per game. Duncan has played the second most games in Spurs’ history with 977. He is also the all-time leader in rebounds for the Spurs with 11,335 and he is #4 in assists (3,093), #7 in steals (734), #2 in blocked shots (2,235) and he is #3 in points scored (20,641). Hopefully Duncan will retire with the Spurs and keep moving up in the record books.