No team, especially the frugal Spurs, would give a bench player 8.7 m/ year. Gino is a star. He's the 3rd most important member of a title contender.
Next year's Stars according to your criteria: Latrell Sprewell Mike Bibby Stackhouse Rip Hamilton Eddie Jones Johnathan Bender ehhh, I guess it's a pretty appropriate group for Gino. Just my preference is that a Star would be the number 2 or 1 man on most good teams, with Superstar being the number 1 player and sometimes the number 2 player on great teams.
The frugal Spurs are paying Malik Rose $5mil to be their 3rd string PF. Couple years ago Steve Smith was their 3rd string SG making $9mil. The fact that anyone would pay Danny Ferry near-MLE money is mindboggling. The idea of the Spurs being a frugal organization is a myth. They just got lucky with Parker and Ginobili being on rookie contracts and Bowen and Stephen Jackson being unknowns when they signed them.
Are you kidding me??? I take manu over francis and mobley in a heartbeat 24/7. He may have his lapses during the game but at least he can make up with it with his defense and some great passing. Yes, i have seen him do things that francis and mobley can just dream of. Plus, he is a great teammate and coachable as well.
Spurs are something like 23rd in the league in salary; Smith & Ferry were both picked up BECAUSE of their contracts - everything ended at the same time. Spurs aren't cheap - but they generally don't overpay (at least as much as other organizations).
