There doesn’t seem to be anything too special about Beno Udrih that the San Antonio Spurs don’t already have in one of their backup point guards, but in any case, despite their interest, the only chance of him leaving the New York Knicks and joining his former team seems to be a buyout and release, because he has a close to zero trade value.
Not that Udrih is a bad player, but making $1.2 million this season, it’s impossible to think the Spurs are going to give up any player for him (the only contracts that match are the other backup point guards who are just as good), and it will be crazier to think that a draft pick is something worth giving up for the 31 year old who is averaging 5.6 points per game this season.
So what is it about Udrih that the Spurs are so interested in? Is it his experience with the team? Udrih played for the Spurs for his first three seasons in the league, being a part of two NBA championships. Popovich loves him some European players, but is Udrih really the piece the Spurs need in order to win an NBA championship or at least give it one final go before it really is too late with this core group?
According to Marc Berman of the New York Post, the Spurs might be a candidate for the Slovenian point guard … Former Knicks general manager Scott Layden, now in the front office of San Antonio, was at Wednesday’s game scouting the Knicks.
The Knicks wouldn’t mind letting go of Udrih via trade if it somehow made them better towards a final push at making the playoffs in their horrible season, but it seems highly unlikely they’ll be offered anything they’ll approve of, which means that Udrih’s best chance of moving to the Spurs is some sort of buyout being sorted out in the next couple of weeks.
He’s averaging 5.6 points and 3.5 assists in 31 games this season, playing 19 minutes a night.