Spurs an Interesting Mix With Tarkanian at Helm

The San Antonio Spurs’ starting point guard’s best single-season assist average was 3.3. The Spurs’ coach does not see that as a problem.

Of more concern to Jerry Tarkanian is keeping his backup point guard from getting stabbed.

We all have our goals.

In the offseason, the Spurs pursued weirdness. And its current state is best symbolized by the point guard position.

The starter is Vinny Del Negro, who earned a $1.5-million-a-year contract by averaging 25.8 points in the Italian league during the last two years. The results were slightly different when Del Negro played for Sacramento. In 1989-90, his second season, he averaged 9.7 points and 3.3 assists. The Spurs found the Italian points alluring, but the questions are: Can Del Negro get the ball to David Robinson? And does he want to?

The backup point guard is Lloyd Daniels. His is a familiar and fascinating story--so enthralling that two weeks ago, NBC flew Daniels to New York to take him on a tour of his old neighborhood of East New York, Brooklyn, where Daniels first experienced drug problems that led to his being shot three times in an altercation in May, 1989. The segment will be shown on NBC Nightly News Nov. 6, the first day of the NBA season. And Tarkanian says it will be an appropriate night to show the Daniels piece because he already has earned a place on the team.

“Oh, yeah,” Tarkanian said by phone. “He’s really playing well. He’s going to play a lot. He’s not going to start, but he will play.”

Tarkanian said he is happy that Daniels’ debut, in Friday night’s exhibition against the Knicks, will be in Albany, in upstate New York, and not at Madison Square Garden.

“I’d hate to have him in the city,” Tarkanian said. “If he’s in the city, I’ve got to room with him then. When we go to the city, all the knife-fighters in Brooklyn will be there. All the street gangs. We’ve got to keep him away from that, that’s all.”

Tarkanian said later he was joking, which seems to fit in with the Spurs’ approach to winning a championship. They’ve got Robinson, who should be the foundation of a title contender. But any title aspirant needs a strong presence at point guard. Privately, Spurs veterans say they do not have one. Del Negro is slow and Daniels is inexperienced. Rod Strickland, whom the Spurs released after last season, sometimes was a distraction. But even if he did have problems getting to practices and games, he could at least get into the lane.

Tarkanian, however, is excited about his point guards.

“Everybody thinks we’re really weak at the point,” Tarkanian said. “I’m hoping we’re not, but I can’t relate it to anything. I get excited about Lloyd and Vinny and (Spurs assistants) say, ‘Wait ‘til Derek Harper gets after them.’ But I haven’t seen Derek play, so I don’t have anything to relate to.”

That statement reveals another curious aspect of the current Spurs. Tarkanian was a junior college and college coach for 36 years. But he claims a total lack of familiarity with the NBA. Never seen Derek Harper play? How can someone who has never seen Harper play prepare his team to defense the Mavericks’ nine-year veteran? The Spurs have got to be kidding. Such inexperience at head coach and point guard might be all right for an expansion team. But a contender?

The Spurs also have significant injury problems. Terry Cummings is out for the season because of a major knee injury. And Willie Anderson has stress fractures in each leg. He hopes to be back soon, but his injuries are the type that can linger.

In quest of a title, however, Tarkanian supporters, including the players, say there is a wild card--at least in the coaching equation. Tarkanian generates loyalty among players because he is loyal and supportive. Daniels is a great example. The recruiting mess at UNLV prevented Daniels from playing for Tarkanian in college. But Tarkanian never forgot him.

So far, the Spurs are impressed with Tarkanian.

“He encourages us to be enthusiastic about the game,” Robinson said. “But he expects a lot from us. He keeps pushing, pushing, pushing.”

And some Tarkanian supporters warn against being fooled by Tarkanian’s professed lack of NBA knowledge. One San Antonio reporter compared Tarkanian to the Peter Falk TV character Columbo--a guy who acts dumb but always solves the mystery.

Still, you have to wonder how Tarkanian will fare against someone such as Pat Riley, who is the essence of preparation--or even against Los Angeles Clippers Coach Larry Brown, who directed the Spurs to seasons of 56 and 55 victories before being fired last season.

Perhaps Tarkanian is playing a big joke on the NBA and knows far more than he cares to admit. But considering the Spurs’ deficiencies, it will be difficult for Tarkanian and the Spurs--who seemed so close to title contention when Brown was the head coach--to have the last laugh this season.