Boris Diaw was on his way out of the NBA when he arrived in San Antonio, where the Spurs were trying to breathe new life into a core that had not won a championship in five years. Ottawa Senators Jerseys . They proved to be a perfect match, and after playing a key role in the Spurs latest championship, Diaw found no reason to continue his career renaissance elsewhere. Diaw tweeted Sunday night that he agreed to terms on a new contract with the Spurs and a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press that its a three-year contract worth $22 million. The person requested anonymity because the contract cannot be signed until the leagues moratorium ends Thursday. "Hey spurs fans, Good news," the French-born Diaw tweeted, "i stay in san antonio for a few more years. Lets win it again." For the 32-year-old Diaw, it was a chance to get one last big payday that he earned by providing some essential versatility on both ends of the court for the Spurs. He averaged 9.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists and shot over 52 per cent in 25 minutes per game last season. For the Spurs, it was the chance to keep together a team that posted the best record in the NBA last season and dominated the two-time defending champion Miami Heat in the finals. They have already learned this summer that Tim Duncan is returning next season and backup point guard Patty Mills will be back as well after a long rehabilitation of a shoulder injury. The Spurs decided to give Diaw a hearty raise after watching him blossom in a system Gregg Popovich designed to keep the ball moving at all costs. But they also protected themselves by only partially guaranteeing the third year of the deal, which was first reported by Yahoo! Sports. He will be guaranteed $15.5 million over the first two seasons of the contract, a big boost from the $4.7 million he made last year. "Hes perfect for them," former Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman said about Diaw and the Spurs during the season. Diaw was considered a rising star in the early portion of his career in Phoenix, a lithe, athletic, big man with the vision of a point guard that flourished with the run-and-gun Suns. But his career nose-dived soon after when he was traded to the Charlotte Bobcats in 2008. He put on weight and didnt appear interested in playing for a team with no hope of contending. The Bobcats waived Diaw near the end of the 2012 season, and the Spurs brought him in to see if he could rediscover his game while playing alongside close friend and countryman Tony Parker. Thats exactly what happened. It didnt take long for Diaw to make a good impression with Popovich, and he signed a two-year deal to stay with the Spurs that summer. He still carries a few extra pounds, but the deft passing, precise defensive positioning and floor-stretching shooting all have reappeared and been vital to San Antonios two straight finals appearances and its run this spring to a fifth championship. ___ Follow Jon Krawczynski on Twitter: http://twitter.com/APKrawczynski Dylan DeMelo Jersey . PAUL, Minn. Mark Borowiecki Jersey . Mired in an offensive slump, Lowry - the NBAs leader in taking charges this season - did what he has learned to do best, standing his ground and drawing a crucial offensive foul on the Cavaliers all-star point guard. Fast forward 30 seconds to the Cavs next possession, with the home team still trailing by three, Spencer Hawes - one of the leagues best passing big men - threw an interception, intended for Tyler Zeller and picked off by DeMar DeRozan. http://www.senatorssale.com/authentic-brady-tkachuk-senators-jersey/ .S.-Cuba relations means baseball prospects get off the island and into the major leagues without payoffs to smugglers and threats from kidnappers, its hard to see the downside.Theres been exhaustive talk about the inevitable regression facing the Colorado Avalanche - a team that more or less rode the percentages to an improbable playoff berth last season. We no longer approach teams like last years Avalanche club with questions about whether their strategy at even strength - which at least last year, was get out-shot and win regularly - is sustainable for the long-term. The real question is whether teams in these precarious situations can do enough with their current roster to improve on last years performances and hope to mitigate the expected drop-off in point production. Colorados a particularly interesting case for this. The Avalanche may have been treated as a paper tiger all through last year despite their winning ways, but there are legitimate questions about whether player development can stave off some of the expected regression. Optimists point to the collection of young, near-prime talent on the roster which includes Gabriel Landeskog, Matt Duchene and Ryan OReilly. They are three of the leagues better forwards and the team has certainly found their starting goaltender in Semyon Varlamov. Perhaps the most intriguing name on the roster is wunderkind Nathan MacKinnon, who is coming off a brilliant rookie year. The 2013 No. 1 overall pick is an unbelievable combination of speed and versatility and scored at a comparable rate to that of Chicagos Marian Hossa and Philadelphias Claude Giroux last season. Colorado will only rely on him more and his average ice time - which was 17:21 last year - should go up this season. And MacKinnons underlying numbers from his Calder Trophy-winning campaign are fascinating. A good chunk of statistical oddity is tied up in his home and road splits, which were night and day. Like most other players (and teams) around the league, MacKinnon saw a drop-off in his performance on the road. But MacKinnons slide was particularly steep - enough that it should warrant investigation by a team looking to immediately improve their 5-on-5 play next season. To quickly capture MacKinnons drop-off, consider this - no skater that logged more than 500 minutes over the last two seasons saw road depreciation quite like his: MacKinnons Corsi percentage was 18 per cent worse on the road. That was well above the league average, which was about four per cent worse for the same collection of regular skaters. So yes, that drop is a bit out of the norm. Now lets look at a table of some of the other pertinent underlying data for MacKinnon from last season: Im going to touch on most of these metrics individually, but the numbers that should immediately stand out are his team-relative numbers: Relative Corsi Percentage (or the difference in Corsi Percentage a team experiences when a player is on the ice versus off) and Relative Goal Percentage (or the difference in Goal Percentage a team experiences when a player is on the ice versus off). At home, MacKinnon was a positive possession player (3.0 per ceent) and significant plus-goal player relative to teammates (9. Custom Ottawa Senators Jerseys. 4 per cent). On the road, MacKinnon was a negative possession player (-3.3 per cent) and floated around the team average in the goal department (0.5 per cent). The raw Corsi For and Corsi Against totals show what kind of trouble MacKinnon ran into on the road. The reality is that MacKinnon and his linemates spent way too much time defending the play. At home, Colorado was +10.8 shot attempts per 60 minutes with MacKinnon on the ice. On the road, that number spiraled to -10.4. The main reason for this insane shot-differential swing is tied up in MacKinnons road Corsi Against per 60 – a number so high, only three forwards (Torontos James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak, and Buffalos Tyler Ennis) finished worse. Those ugly road shot differentials led to even uglier goal differentials, as noted in the Goals For/Goals Against rows. For every 60 minutes played at home with MacKinnon on the ice, Colorado was +0.7 in the goal column. For every 60 minutes played on the road with MacKinnon on the ice, Colorado was -0.6 in the goal column. Its for those reasons that I found MacKinnons zone start numbers in the initial table interesting. While MacKinnon enjoyed some favorable zone start situations on home ice, he was in more of a defensive role on the road. His raw offensive zone start percentages dropped 5.52 per cent and the percentage of offensive-zone draws he took relative to his teammates actually swung into the negatives. The drop in offensive zone starts meant less offensive opportunity immediately following the restart of play for MacKinnon. I was curious about whether MacKinnon was getting burned by a particular aspect of the zone starts beyond just opening more in the defensive zone last year. So I decided to pull out his Corsi Percentage data in the 30-second window following every draw he was on the ice for last year, then splitting by the outcome of that draw (i.e. win/loss) and venue (i.e. home/road). Was it possible that MacKinnons underlying numbers were getting dinged by something immediately off of the draw? Theres not much difference there. I think its safe to say that MacKinnons raw drop in zone starts – combined with a slight uptick in competition, team effects, and the assortment of subtleties that make road hockey difficult for all (e.g. long change, general risk aversion) – were the contributors behind his slide, as opposed to a singular aspect of the game where MacKinnon really deteriorated. The mere fact MacKinnon was able to have such an explosive season as an 18-year-old is enormously impressive; most players his age are shielded altogether from NHL competition and the few who do get minutes generally sink before they swim. MacKinnon may have looked like a boy amongst men at times on the road last season, but the opposite was true at the Pepsi Center. That part shouldnt be ignored. But for now, the MacKinnon question is an avenue worthy of further investigation. ' ' '