The San Antonio Spurs had an extremely productive offseason in which they enhanced their roster in a major way. With the rotation and final roster pretty much all set their doesn't figure to be too much competition in training camp but one place where it will come is for that 15th spot where Jimmer Fredette and Reggie Williams will reportedly be fighting for the final place on the Spurs roster, according to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News.
McDonald went as far as to call the competition between Williams and Fredette a "battle royale" but that may not even be the case. Fredette has $507K of his deal guaranteed heading into training camp which gives him a distinct advantage over Williams as the Spurs would still have to pay Fredette should they cut him. In order for Williams to make the team over Fredette he will have to outplay him by a wide margin in training camp to show that he is worth the money they are spending on a player they are going to waive. One thing Williams has going for him is that he was with the Spurs last season although he didn't play much.
Whichever of these two players makes the team it seems unlikely that they would have a big role on a regular basis. Having said that though the Spurs do like to rest players from time to time and that could mean that Williams or Fredette could see some time in those games.
Fredette was the tenth overall pick back in 2011 but has been unable to make much of an impact in the NBA so far. In his four seasons, played with three different teams, Fredette has averaged 6.1 points per game while shooting 41 percent from the field and 38 percent from three. The 6 foot-2 guard is a marksmen and someone the Spurs would love to have to knock down shots on occasion but he struggles on the defensive side of the ball as he can't really guard opposing shooting guards.
Williams is a six year veteran that went undrafted back in 2010. The 29 year old forward has played with four different teams in his career and spent last year in San Antonio. In 20 games for the Spurs last year Williams got just 5.3 minutes per game but for his career he has averaged 7.9 points and 2.4 rebounds in 18.3 minutes per game while his shooting percentages are very respectable at 46 percent from the field and 36 percent from three.
The battle between Williams and Fredette should be an interesting one as they are both hanging on to their NBA careers by a thread. At this point it would be a surprise for Fredette to not win the battle but he has been a huge disappointment so far in his NBA career so you never know.
