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Then you want one of the kentucky guards.
Draft to surround Wemby as Denver has shooters around Jokic. Since Wemby will be better than Jokic in most aspects, success will follow. This is the way.
Then you want one of the kentucky guards.
Out of the lotto? lmao not a chance he makes it past 10
Jokic has one non-shooter in the line-up in Gordon. And Wemby will be shooting way more threes than Jokic in his career, so the line-up should be functional with two non-shooters in the line-up (one preferably the PF to crash the boards on offense). If Wemby can get his version of Gordon, that would be ideal. PF, SG, SF: two of three should be high volume shooters (MPJ, Jamal Murray) while the third should be an opportunity scorer (KCP).
Risacher will still go top-10, but any GM that takes him #1 overall at this point is begging to be fired tbh.
This is what I was thinking which is why I'm against midget guards like Trae Young.
C —> Superstar (Jokic) —> Wembanyama
PF —> Versatile Defender (Gordon) —> Sochan (we know he’s not there yet)
Wing —> Opportunity scorer (KCP) —> Champagnie
Wing —> High volume shooter (MPJ) —> Vassell
Guard —> High volume shooter (Jamal Murray) —> Tre Jones
Vassell is probably locked to the line-up for the foreseeable future, and so the Spurs need to fill the other three positions. There’s still time for Sochan to see how close he can get to Gordon’s level. Champagnie doesn’t really have to improve all that much to reach KCP’s level. The guard spot is the most urgent one to fill based on this. Tre’s a solid player but having only one high volume shooter/ scorer next to Wemby is a recipe for failure.
If we’re building this way, then Reed Sheppard makes the most perfect sense.
Any more than one non-shooter in a lineup in today's NBA is untenable.
Champagnie isn't close to Caldwell-Pope, who is basically this generation's Danny Green, as an elite 3 and D wing, who can guard 1-3.
The gap between Champagnie and KCP is smaller than Tre and Jamal Murray. Upgrading from Tre would improve the team more overall because of the huge shift in play. The point of my post was less about talent and more about the role they serve in line-ups. Going from a non scorer to a high volume scorer is a big difference. The Spurs need to find a player in the draft who will score a lot from the guard spot.
Hey this is a little off topic, but don’t teams have to do exit interviews after the season or is that wrong? I could have sworn there use to be. Not like anything was given away but at times they may share some details and give some insight on what the team will be looking to improve in.
Maybe any GM who "wins" the #1 pick in this draft is begging to be fired.
Everyone in the top 10 has huge red flags. This draft is a craps game.
More thoughts:
on this team, with the assumption that Vassell is here for awhile, it makes sense for the third high volume scorer to be the point guard vs the wing starting next to Vassell. Another way to look at this is which position would we rather have a 3 and D guy? A 3 and D point guard or a 3 and D wing? A 3 and D wing gives the lineups more versatility, obviously. There’s only one ball to go around. The point guard is typically the primary initiator, meaning he has the ball a lot and it’s a more unpredictable offense when that point guard can score. All that aside, there are hardly any wing/ forwards in this draft who could be dynamic enough to score in enough ways to warrant the high volume touches. Zaccharie can’t dribble. Matas has some semblance of it, but still enough questions there. Ron Holland’s impressive going left or right but his in between game seems nonexistent and so forth…
I'd rather have a Derrick White type of PG considering Wemby's game IF Vassell is to be the 2nd highest scorer rather than a high volume shooting PG
Edit / I believe however that Trae is capable of modifying his game into a pass first PG. I've read recent quotes from him that make be optimistic
I really have no supporting evidence of this assertion and it's just a gut feeling, but I think that 3+D players may be de-emphasized in the future as defenses try and catch up and player skill levels improve. I don't know if OKC/Boston's 5 man dribble-pass-shoot offense/switchable defense is just a passing fad or maybe I'm a prisoner of the moment, but it really does seem like that's the way offenses and defenses are evolving in the future.
A 3 and D guard may not even exist, since it takes so much energy to either guard the opponents' best guards OR initiate and score a great deal. I think you can find good defensive guards who can score, like Gary Payton, or good scoring guards who can at least be pretty good at defense, like Tony Parker. Finding a player who is great at both seems nearly impossible. I guess basically you're not looking for 3 and D, you're looking for 3 and initiation and D and that's a lot. A reason why wings tend to sit in corners for kickouts and the archtype of 3 and D is clearer for them.
A very heavy offensive-load guard, a FVV or Trae Young or others, has to take it easy on defense almost by default.
Dort is the poster boy of 3 and D. Giddey might as well be 3 and D (without the 3) because his scoring ability is near non existent.
You are absolutely right about Dort so maybe it's just Boston - I just assumed 3+D is a spot up guy who can't really playmake against a scrambling defense or has difficulty attacking closeouts, but maybe your view of such a player is different from mine.
I don't think anyone int he top 10 in this so so draft will be a day 1 starter or lift the spurs record by 12-20 games. Wemby couldn't even do that. What we can realistically get is a solid bench player, maybe, just maybe a sometime starter. If we get 2 picks, I'd trade 1 for a player with some experience already, preferably from a playoff team. They may not have the slots or be above the salary cap and may value a cheaper draft pick rather than a player while talented may not get much burn due to being on a mostly veteran team. Besides how many teams with a bunch of really really young players make a deep run in the playoffs ?
We also got a taste of what going from a non-scorer point guard to a scorer point guard looks like at the end of season with Graham. Graham being a threat from deep kept the defense honest. Everybody noted it looked like a different team and I think a huge credit to that was the fact that we had a point guard who could shoot. More and more I’m on the bandwagon that the Spurs draft a PG this summer.
DEN has 3 bad shooters in their final 7 man rotation in that championship run.
IMO, players by themselves don’t increase win totals. Structure does. The Rockets increased their win totals because of the classic synergy of having a point guard that can pass and shoot without being turnover prone and a 3 and D wing. Having players know their role in the system and fitting in with others is the reason why teams win games. This season showed us a lot of things of what works with Wemby. IMO, the Spurs now have an idea of what roles players should have around Wemby. Even players themselves learned a bit to play more within themselves… an example of this was how Sochan called his own number much less as the season went on. His rebounding numbers grew as the season ended, embracing the Rodman comparisons early on in his career. The more that we have guys figure themselves as to what role they play, the better it is in the long run.
The problem with the Denver model is that the starting line up is full of unicorns. We have one unicorn. Dejounte tried to do a Spurs Denver comparison and this is no shot at him but it showed how unique Denver is and how far apart we are from them.
The athleticism of Gordon is waaay above anyone on our team. In fact, I don’t think there’s a more athletic forward in the West than Gordon. Also his finishes are way beyond anything Sochan could ever hope to learn. That’s just God given talent.
MPJ is huge for his position. And he’s a sniper. And he’s a solid defender/rebounder. There’s nobody in the draft that has his size, his shooting, and his skill set. We aren’t going to get a guy like that in the draft. Another unicorn
Jamal Murray is a big guard who can run pic n roll, shoot off the dribble, get to the rim, score with either hand, and post up. Oh and he steps up in the playoffs like nobody’s business. There’s zero people in the league like him never mind the draft. Another unicorn.
The only non-unicorn is KPC and he is a sniper 3/D player that every team wants and does all the dirty stuff and doesn’t care about his shots but will hit big shots if needed. So he’s basically the opposite of Vassell.
Im beginning to like the idea of tanking next year lol. Just draft Sheppard and Dilly. One of them will hit.
Which one?
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