Sometimes in the NBA players just need a change. Boris Diaw needs one about once a year, apparently.
In Charlotte Diaw was fat and too comfortable. Literally fat. He came back from the lockout probably 50 pounds heavier than last season and that combined with a mercurial personality and sharply declining performance was more than Paul Silas would put up with.
The question with Diaw was never talent — big man with court vision skills as a passer and midrange shooter who can run the floor and get you offense in the paint, too. It was the commitment to working on the talent, to bringing it nightly, to avoiding the buffet tables that was always the concern. Especially in Charlotte. Diaw as a Bobcat was a starting center scoring 7.4 points on 41 percent shooting and loafing around this season.
So the Bobcats just waive him in March. Dump him. He signs a deal with San Antonio… and he fits right in, giving them a post player who blends well with what they want to do on the court. Of course he does, because that’s how things go with the Spurs.
“I think adding Boris Diaw has been huge for them,” said Clipper coach Vinny Del Negro. “Everyone talks about Stephen Jackson, and that was a great pickup for them in terms of depth, but Boris gives them another facilitator out there, a guy who shoots it, can guard, a guy who can take some pressure off Tim (Duncan). At the elbow he’s a pass-first guy then they spread you out with their shooters.”
This is not the first time we have seen a Diaw renaissance. He was wasting his time in Atlanta then got to Phoenix and running the floor with Steve Nash put up 13.3 points per game of 52.6 shooting his first year. Then he faded. He got sent to Charlotte midseason and averaged more than 15 points a game for the Bobcats for 59 games. Then he faded. Badly. Got sent to San Antonio. And here we are.
Diaw is a free agent at the end of this season, but don’t expect the Spurs to overpay to keep him. He fits, but GM R.C. Buford is smart and knows the pattern.
But for right now, for this playoff run, the energized and slimmed-down Diaw is another weapon that just works for the Spurs.
