One week after being waived by the Memphis Grizzlies, guard Damon Stoudamire finally signed as a free agent with the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.  The 13-year veteran has not played since December 30, and will come in to fill in for the injured Tony Parker.

The Grizzlies have completely gutted their roster releasing Stoudamire, and trading away Pau Gasol and Stromile Swift in separate deals on Friday.  The Spurs meanwhile are trying to stay afloat while Parker recovers from a heel injury.  He has already missed two games, and could be out for another three weeks.  Adding Stoudamire was key to give the team a veteran presence at the point guard position besides the limited Jacque Vaughn.

With Parker possibly out until March, San Antonio will have several key games against quality teams in order to keep pace in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.  AccuScore simulated how this move will affect the Spurs in their key upcoming games.  In order to measure Stoudamire’s impact, the games were simulated in three different scenarios: 1) the current roster with Vaughn as the primary point guard, 2) with Stoudamire becoming the starter with Vaughn as the back-up, 3) with a completely healthy roster with Parker staring, and Stoudamire as the primary back-up.  The simulations also assumed that Manu Ginobili would take on more of the ball-handling duties in order to relive Vaughn, and to allow Stoudamire to become more acclimated to the team and free to be more of a shooter and scorer.

San Antonio is currently third in the Southwest Division, 2.5 games behinds New Orleans.  The team has not played exceptionally well recently, outside of a road victory at Phoenix.  The poor recent performance is keeping the Spurs’ winning percentage down in these simulations at just 50% overall even with Parker healthy.

Stoudamire is a former Rookie of the Year, and has career averages of 13.8 points and 6.3 assists.  He has also shot 36% from three-point range in his NBA career.  While he is not the same player as he once was signing Stoudamire looks to be another excellent move by the Spurs.

With Parker injured, the Spurs would have been forced to play Vaughn heavy minutes negatively affecting both their offense and defense.  With Vaughn as the primary point guard, the Spurs’ winning percentage dropped by 7% overall.  Stoudamire’s presence greatly mitigates the loss of Parker with San Antonio’s projected winning percentage declining just over 2% overall.  Stoudamire is a capable scorer and playmaker, and he is a much better shooter from distance than Vaughn, a key skill in the Spurs’ offense.  Interestingly, Stoudamire actually improves the team’s winning percentage at home against Dallas over Parker.

The Spurs are in the midst of a nine-game road trip, and will close out February with seven games against current playoff teams.  A cold-streak could them in a major hole heading into the playoffs, and the signing of Stoudamire looks to be a great move to help this veteran team make another late season push.  A side bonus of the signing is that he did not go to another contender as Phoenix, Boston, and Toronto were all looking to sign Stoudamire.