The Spurs have decided to take a smart, calculated risk on Da’Sean Butler, and have signed the free agent forward, reports Hoopsworld’s Alex Kennedy on twitter.
Just a year ago Butler was leading West Virginia into the NCAA Final Four — where he blew out his ACL against Duke. Teams are leery of guys coming off surgery so the certain first-round pick fell to second round where the Miami drafted him No. 42 overall. They gave him guaranteed money.
But in October, as he was slow to bounce back from the surgery and the Heat were looking to add depth to their roster they waived him. Butler continued his rehab on his own.
Just days ago he was cleared for on-court workouts.
Now the Spurs have picked him up. Teams make this move at this time of year, grab a prospect to fill out the roster spot, use him as an extra body in practice and see how well he fits in with the team. Basically, it’s a baseball-style call up and the Spurs can decide after that if they want to keep him around or not.
We likely will not see Butler in any Spurs games, he was placed on the inactive list by the Spurs as he continues his recovery. But the Spurs will be evaluating and they have a track record of finding guys like this that fit what they want to do and it working out very well for them.
