Spurs’ Buford off to the side, always looking ahead

Ettore Messina once saw R.C. Buford as few within the Spurs franchise ever have. Messina once saw him from the other side.

The Spurs assistant coach worked in Italy 15 years ago, and Buford would travel overseas to scout the talent on Messina’s team. Buford was particularly interested in one of Messina’s players then, Emanuel David Ginobili.

Messina and Buford often talked, but Messina says the two didn’t interact much in those days. Messina noticed something else then. Buford didn’t interact much with the other NBA scouts, either.

“Everybody was friendly, and he was, too,” Messina said. “But the others were all open, enjoying their time there. R.C. was discreet.”

Now Messina sees Buford from this side, and it all fits.

This is how the Spurs do business.

They were at it again last week. Every year around Christmas, the Spurs gather together their scouts from all points, from the United States to Europe to South America.

They often meet in other cities. This time, because of the schedule, they came to San Antonio, and Messina loved this detail about the latest convention: Buford helped out by driving to the San Antonio airport to offer rides.

The plan, as it is every year, is to meet for two or three days and compare notes and share in professional development. There are usually about 20 in the group, and sometimes Buford invites those from a different sport or even a different industry.

The question they search to answer: Is there another way we could do our jobs better?

The Spurs’ scouts aren’t much different than the scouts of other NBA teams. They search for the same mix of ability and attitude. But the Spurs go at it in a specific way, and this gets back to Buford.

For years he was overlooked within a franchise dominated by Gregg Popovich. Buford provided the research, but wasn’t Popovich the one in charge?

He was, yet he wasn’t. Buford was instrumental, and his peers finally recognized this in 2014. Buford won the NBA’s executive of the year award then.

The compliments have continued since. Last season a panel of more than 200 ESPN staffers selected the Spurs as the best front office in the NBA for the second straight season, and before this season began a similar panel predicted Buford would win the executive of the year award again.

When questioned about it, Buford pushed away the attention by saying this is common practice. Those general managers who land that year’s prized free agent are often the ones recognized. LaMarcus Aldridge was such a free agent last summer.

But this went beyond Buford having a good July day. Peter Holt said as much recently.

“Give R.C. Buford credit,” Holt said. “Pop is a great coach, but R.C. came to us with this plan three years ago, four years ago — seriously. And we’ve worked at it ever since. He, by far, was the general. We wouldn’t be where we are, in this position, if it hadn’t have been for R.C. Buford.”

Maybe that’s why Brett Brown said something earlier this season that once seemed unattainable. Brown said he believed Buford would someday join Popovich in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Buford pushed that away last week, too, and with a joke. He can be funny, as well as cutting, but it’s a personality he rarely shows in public.

What has never changed with Buford, public or private, is his approach. According to Messina, Buford was the same years ago.

“Respectful, low key, accessible,” said Messina, listing various traits. “It’s also part of the established culture here. All business, don’t get distracted, try to gather as much information as possible.”

Messina then identified the key phrase in the Buford model: Develop your own opinion.

That’s where the discreet part comes in. According to Messina, Buford didn’t hang around much with the scouts of other teams because he didn’t want to get caught up in group thought.

A lot of scouts compare notes. According to one longtime league official, sometimes they go so far as to compare mock drafts with each other.

“Maybe it’s about not wanting to be alone,” he said. “Maybe it’s insecurity. They kind of protect each other, and we call that the herd mentality. From what I can tell, R.C. is particularly outside the herd.”

Buford encouraged the same from the group that got together last week, and for good reason. If all of them are away from the pack, and all of them are trying to see through their own eyes, then maybe they find what others missed.

How else can you spot a Ginobili or a Tony Parker low in the draft? How else can you accurately weigh the risk/reward in a trade for Kawhi Leonard?

Messina thinks Boban Marjanovic is the latest example. Everyone knew who he was, after all. A 7-foot-3 man is hard to miss.

But Messina guesses too many NBA teams thought they would have had to adjust to Marjanovic. That’s the way his European team played.

The Spurs found, however, Marjanovic could adjust to them. With that, Messina says, Marjanovic has proven to be more skilled and more versatile than he appeared to be in Europe.

Buford travels to see a lot of this firsthand. He went to Serbia this fall, for example.

Others might use the trip to enjoy a few fun days in Europe. If Buford takes a sightseeing tour, according to someone who once worked for him, it’s to see an athletic complex in England or a sports science center in Germany.

He said this is Buford’s overlooked strength: his curiosity.

All of this culminated last summer, when the three-year plan fell into place. Now, with Buford still off to the side, fresh off a retreat with his staff last week, Messina knows what comes next.

“They are already thinking,” Messina said, “what will happen in two years.”