That's great, surely Dellavedova would be on their radar too after the way they combined at the Olympics. Their connection was almost as potent as Pero and Daly. Almost.

great news.

Brett must really rate him!
Scary to think so many aussies could end up Spurs thanks to brett Brown. If Delly is on the radar it might mean Mills loses his spot! I hope they all get signed & the Spurs remain a winning franchise. well done coach Brown - i'm actually happy with you for the first time ever!!

The Spurs have been at the forefront of recruiting foreign players for some time but Browns opinion would have helped influence Pops decision no doubt.

Aron needs to do the smart thing now and buddy up with Tim Duncan and learn as much as he can.

Not everyday you can a chance to practice with one of the best PF's of all time, free of charge.

Number 16, thats such a Euro number. Go big dude.

Congrats Baynes'y and to think when he finished college i hoped he had gone to play for NZ as i thought we had enough good big guys. all credit goes to him, he has improved his game year after year after year. WELL BLOODY DONE MATE!

San Antonio Olympians

Love to be mentored by the best PF ever. If anything will be a great opportunity for him

Great news!

I think everyone linking Delly with the Spurs is just hopeful speculation myself as nothing has ever been mentioned. But who knows???

Good luck to Baynes!

lol at the Pero/Daly comparison.

It cost the Spurs around $400k for the buyout (reportedly) and the contract is $750k for the rest of this season and then the Spurs have the option for $2 million each season for the next 2 season (reportedly).

No confirmation of when he'll suit up for the Spurs, or if he'll first go to their D League team, the Austin Toros.

I wonder if, with the NBA draft deadline approaching, and with Dejuan Blair having 1 year left on his rookie contract, this spells the end of Blair with the Spurs?

@Beekayz Blairs time in S.A is finished, he will be out of there very soon, Why would they start him in D-leauge? The dudes been averaging 13.8 points and 9.8 rebounds in Euro league!! Putting him in D-league would be pretty stupid, i would say his first game would be this saturday.

Congrats Aron! Doing Aussies proud!

@anon its not like Delly has a choice of what team he will end up at haha

The Admiral David Robinson seems pleased with the move and welcomed Aron via twitter, which Aron acknowledged. Patty Mills was included in all of this too.

Don't forget Eddie palubinskas Atlanta hawks 1974

Check out this scan of an article from the Herald-Sun. Says so much about the state of basketball in this country SMH

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=208496&page=6&p=6317823&viewfull=1#post6317823

aussieboomers4eva, unfortunate photo choice, but doesn't necessarily say that much. If the photo was picked by an editor from a stock library, and that library incorrectly had the player identified as Baynes, then it'd be easy for the mistake to begin there. Ideally every person in media would recognise all basketballers, but they won't. Many sports have high profiles and I couldn't name every athlete by sight.

Facial recognition of the player/s in question by the journalist/editor is unnecessary. A minimum amount of checking would reveal that Baynes wore number 12 at the Olympics and that number 11 on Worthington's chest is far from obscured.

The fact that a less than 60 second Google search could have prevented this error, to me speaks volumes for the regard in which this sport is considered in this country, at least in traditional media circles.

If there was a mistake in the photo library tagging and they didn't realise, why would they double-check his playing number?

Yes, basketball is often barely tolerated by most media, but many aspects are also pretty lazy or assume that colleagues and suppliers are providing decent information.

IMHO, a more likely scenario is this:

Journalist/editor thought bubble;
"This nobody, Baynes, has been signed in the NBA. He's a Boomer, isn't he?. Hmm, so he would have played against Team USA. Search photo archive:Aron Baynes, LeBron James. First photo that comes up, click. That was exhausting, I need a cup of tea."

Even if that one photo was mislabeled, it is unlikely that all such photos in their archive were and a cursory glance at these would have revealed a problem. But even this effort was evidently too much. However it happened, it is unprofessional, pure and simple.

In an effort to come up with a photo that includes LeBron James, a name that Ma and Pa Jones has half a chance to recognise, they have failed to picture the actual subject of the article, Baynes.

I'm well aware that one such example does not create a Prima Facie case against Australian Sports Media. But you Isaac, as much as anyone would be aware that this is just one of many such gaffes over the years.

Perhaps you feel obligated to be more even handed given your own place in the media, but I'm just a passionate basketball fan and am not hamstrung by any such scruples. I can call a spade a spade, and the bottom line is this is terrible journalism and should never have happened.

I just don't think it reflects on the state of basketball as much as it does on the media. This is a media error and it's worse than you imagined. Maybe it wouldn't have happened if basketball had a huge profile and all of our Olympic players were household names, but that isn't true of any Olympic sports team from Australia - not soccer, not the swim team, not the track team, etc. This looks like lazy work at the paper.

That image comes up on Getty Images for a search of "aron baynes". They have a great selection - Boomers dunks, college photos, even stuff from his Euro teams. The photo's title is obvious:

"Australian forward Mark Worthington"

The description however is slightly misleading in a way and incorrect in another in that it appears to describe the action rather than what the photo actually captured:

"Australian forward Mark Worthington (R) challenges US forward LeBron James goes for a dunk over Australian centre Aron Baynes during their London 2012 Olympic Games men's quarterfinal basketball match in London on August 8, 2012. AFP PHOTO /MARK RALSTON (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/GettyImages)"

The source photo does not have Aron Baynes in picture at all; David Barlow appears however.

Unless BA pushed this story and supplied the photo (doubt it), this is on whichever person at the paper rushed through and screwed up.

Benno: never said he definitely would start in D League, just said it was a possibility.

It's not like better players than him haven't played in D League (or are playing in D League right now).

Spurs 113 Mavs 107
Not as close as the score would suggest as Mavs outscored Spurs 39-25 in 4th q to almost make a game of it, but it took until there were only 21 seconds left in the game for them to get to within 10 points.

Baynes only played 1 minute and his only stat was 1 turnover with a +/- of -8 (worst +/- in NBA history for a rookies 1st minute? Either way, quite an achievement!)

At least he had 1 more stat than Patty Mills who scored a big 'DNP COACH'S DECISION'.

Blair played like a baller with something to prove, arguably having his best game of the season, going 10 for 13 with 22 points, 4 rebounds and 1 steal in 19 minutes.

Game 2 of the Baynes & Mills Show

Spurs 108 Suns 99
Close game for the most part. Sun's were actually ahead 88-86 with 8 minutes left, then Parker scored 7 unanswered points and had an assist to Leonard to put the Spurs up 96-88 and it was game over.

Parker scored 11 of his 31 points and dished out 5 of his 7 assists in the last quarter.

Mills had 2 points (missed 1 FG and a FT) in 4 minutes.

Baynes DNP - Coaches Decision.

Duncan sat out for the 2nd game in a row, and his minutes were reasonably evenly divided between Diaw, Splitter, Bonner and Blair, none of whom played spectacularly, but all made serviceable use of their minutes.

Spurs 102 Bobcats 78

Baynes - 18 minutes, 7 points (3-7) 9 boards (3 O & 6 D) 7 1 Block. 3 Turnovers 7 4 Fouls.

Mills - 2 minutes, 3 points, 1 steal, 1 assist