Couch: Spurs make Bryn Forbes a priority; now he has to make shots
Spurs like the former MSU and Sexton standout well enough to give him a guaranteed contract beyond NBA summer league
Bryn Forbes has only briefly spoken to San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich since signing with the team.
Pop’s advice to his undrafted rookie entering NBA summer league play: “He just told me to shoot it,” Forbes said Thursday.
There is no ambiguity as why NBA teams like Forbes or why the Spurs gave the former Michigan State and Lansing Sexton standout a guaranteed contract to choose them.
Forbes made 77 of 100 3-pointers at one of his pre-draft workouts for NBA teams — the most by any player this year, Forbes was told. And while his 6-foot-3 frame and questions about his ball-handling kept him from being selected on draft night, his deft shooting was worth more than an NBA summer league invite.
So some teams also offered money. The Spurs went a bit further, giving Forbes a one-year contract. If he makes their roster in training camp, he’ll earn the rookie minimum salary, around $543,000. If he doesn’t, he’ll still be under contract with the Spurs, paid enough to agree to stay with the organization for one year — even if it’s spent in the D-League — instead of going overseas and perhaps making six-figures there.
Forbes and the Spurs summer league squad begin play in Utah on Monday evening. After three games in Salt Lake City, they’ll move to the Las Vegas Summer League, which runs July 8 through 18.
Also on the Spurs summer league roster is former Spartan Erazem Lorbek. The Slovenian big man, now 32, has made a fortune playing overseas (as much as $8 million a couple years ago).
There are several other players with MSU and local ties in the three NBA summer leagues (Orlando, Utah and Las Vegas): Chicago Bulls’ first-round draft pick Denzel Valentine (Las Vegas); second-round pick Deyonta Davis (Grizzlies, Las Vegas); Matt Costello (Hawks, Las Vegas); Branden Dawson (Clippers, Orlando); Travis Trice (Bucks, Las Vegas) and Derrick Nix (Pistons, Orlando). Iowa’s Anthony Clemmons, who played at Sexton with Valentine and Forbes, is hoping to be on a roster in Las Vegas, too. Sexton and Okemos alum Jasper Bibbs has been brought on by the Utah Jazz as part of their strength and conditioning and sports science staff and will be with the Jazz in both Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.
“It’s just exciting to all be going through the same thing pretty much right now,” Forbes said of Valentine, Costello and Clemmons (he also has trained with Bibbs). “I don’t think a lot of people get a chance to do that with their friends.”
Forbes is an intriguing pro prospect. He has coveted skill. He made better than 48 percent of his 3-pointers as a senior at MSU, second-best in college basketball, tops among major conference players by a ways. Not every NBA roster has shooter like him. Boston, Memphis and Minnesota are among the competitive teams that lost games last year because they lacked players who can shoot from distance.
The Spurs ranked second in the NBA last season in 3-point percentage, seemingly making them an odd choice for Forbes. But in the Popovich era, San Antonio has always been a proactive franchise. And as Forbes said, you can never have too much shooting. Given the Spurs’ track record of finding, signing and developing unheralded players, Forbes saw a fit.
“It was Philly and the Spurs I was trying to decide between,” Forbes said of two franchises on opposite ends of the spectrum these days. “I had been talking to the Spurs for a while and I really like how they do things. Finding your fit is a big thing, too — the way they do things, how they play.”
Forbes has been told not to get caught up trying to do too much. “They just told me, ‘Do what you do. That’s what got you here. Do what you’re really good at.’”
It’s not quite that simple. Because doing what he’s really good at still left him on the outside of the NBA Draft. Almost every team could have had him if they wanted to invest a second-round pick. None did.
To stick in the NBA, or to eventually find his way in, he’ll have to prove he can handle the basketball well enough to survive at 6-3 — handling the ball wasn’t something he did much of at MSU.
“I’m going to play more combo (guard),” Forbes said. “That’s something else I’ve got to work on a little bit, playing the point guard position.”
That’s not his ticket, though.
He knows it. Pop knows it.
“I don’t think there’s any anxiety,” Forbes said. “This is what I’ve been doing my whole life. I know what I can do.”
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham Couch.
Local players in NBA summer leagues
Matt Costello (MSU): Atlanta Hawks; Las Vegas Summer League
Deyonta Davis (MSU): Memphis Grizzlies; Las Vegas Summer League
Branden Dawson (MSU): Los Angeles Clippers; Orlando Summer League
Bryn Forbes (MSU, Sexton): San Antonio Spurs; Utah and Las Vegas summer leagues
Erazem Lorbek (MSU): San Antonio Spurs; Utah and Las Vegas summer leagues
Derrick Nix (MSU): Detroit Pistons; Orlando Summer League
Travis Trice (MSU): Milwaukee Bucks; Las Vegas Summer League
Denzel Valentine (MSU, Sexton): Chicago Bulls; Las Vegas Summer League
Anthony Clemmons (Iowa, Sexton): Possibly Las Vegas Summer League
NBA summer league schedule: Orlando, July 2-8; Utah July 4-7; Las Vegas July 8-18; games on NBA TV