From today through the start of the free agent signing period on
Wednesday, Project Spurs will profile free agents on our wishlists.
Ryan Hollins is a guy that I love to hate. It isn’t because he’s bad, quite the opposite. It’s just that he wears a Mavericks jersey.
If you remember back to the playoffs, I know it hurts, but just bear with me, there was this young guy that kept coming off the bench. Relatively unknown to most, but with a UCLA pedigree, standing 7′ tall, and possessing seemingly boundless energy, he had this nasty tendency to energize a listless Mavericks squad right as the Spurs would try to start a run.
Hollins has only been in the league for 2 years, and reports range from terrible defense to outstanding defense, depending on whose point of view it is. I don’t think his D is spectacular, but it’s adequate enough. What I know for sure is he has energy, can get up and down the floor, and can be described as a pogo stick. He isn’t going to hold down star post players on his own, but Pop can figure that out.
San Antonio needs a shot blocking presence down low, and Hollins is that. We don’t need a prolific scorer, we need someone who can rebound and give us some energy. Per 48, Hollins puts up 11 boards and nearly 3 blocks. Just imagine when Duncan is on the bench, we funnel a guard to the middle for a Hollins block, watch Blair suck in the rebound, feeding it to our one man fast break, Parker.
Also of importance, it may be possible to sign him for half of the mid level exception, which is more important now that we have that pesky luxury tax to deal with. He could be the best shot blocking presence beside Duncan since Robinson retired. He’s still very young, only 24 years old, with lots of potential.
The problem is, how much does Cuban like him? We may have to give him a little more than we’d like to get him, but removing him from the Dallas roster is worth something too.
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