Grades: Spurs @ Wizards - Jan. 20, 2024

[timvp]

https://www.spurstalk.com/2024-spurs-wizards-grades-42/

[z0sa]

Wemby's got a conditioning problem, but he's so smart, he saves the best for last.

I honestly don't think the holding out B2Bs has helped that at all. While he's one of the most efficient players in the league per minute right now, efficiency in 25 minutes won't win you a le. He needs to get his legs under him. Let's hope the minutes restriction truly is over soon, and Pop actually unleashes him a bit and forces him to play tired. People will be like "huh but our franchise might get injured!" and I hear that, 100%. But if he can't play 35 minutes a night at 20 years old, there's a problem that needs to be recognized and quickly. We aren't going all the way with him playing 28-30 minutes a night (early-mid career wise), and he's not going to be anywhere near the GOAT conversation either.

[Millennial_Messiah]

Ping pong ball game i.e. Tank Bowl and Poop couldn't even get that right.

Senile.

Wemby's got a conditioning problem, but he's so smart, he saves the best for last.

I honestly don't think the holding out B2Bs has helped that at all. While he's one of the most efficient players in the league per minute right now, efficiency in 25 minutes won't win you a le. He needs to get his legs under him. Let's hope the minutes restriction truly is over soon, and Pop actually unleashes him a bit and forces him to play tired. People will be like "huh but our franchise might get injured!" and I hear that, 100%. But if he can't play 35 minutes a night at 20 years old, there's a problem that needs to be recognized and quickly. We aren't going all the way with him playing 28-30 minutes a night (early-mid career wise), and he's not going to be anywhere near the GOAT conversation either.

I do believe, considering the frenetic run-and-chuck pace of today's NBA, where all 30 of today's NBA teams emulate the 2005 Phoenix Suns, that it's time for Adam Silver to "adjust" by changing the quarters down from 12 minutes to 10 minutes each, resulting in a total of 40 minutes instead of 48 which is a win-win for everyone and reduces wear and tear on all, less injuries and aging, as well as reducing fan fatigue especially over an 82 game season.

[sananspursfan21]

Don’t look now, but Sochan is trying to get that “untouchable” status. If he keeps playing like he has the last few games, he’s suddenly Wemby’s long term front court running mate

[Dex]

Spurs are finally playing up to what I figured this team would be capable of.

Wemby is figuring things out, and the team around him is learning how to get him into his spots. If he is in the game, it seems likely nearly every set play is designed for him and he usually delivers.

The rotation is finally making sense (Tre starting and Keldon off the bench, gee I wonder who suggested that at the beginning of the season), Sochan seems to have his confidence back, and the Spurs aren't piling up wins but they have some to feel good about and are at least making games compe ive.

I wasnt expecting to make the play-offs or even play-in this year, but it's exciting to watch games and see steps being made in the right direction. And also, Wemby alone makes watching worth it.

[baseline bum]

Wemby's got a conditioning problem, but he's so smart, he saves the best for last.

I honestly don't think the holding out B2Bs has helped that at all. While he's one of the most efficient players in the league per minute right now, efficiency in 25 minutes won't win you a le. He needs to get his legs under him. Let's hope the minutes restriction truly is over soon, and Pop actually unleashes him a bit and forces him to play tired. People will be like "huh but our franchise might get injured!" and I hear that, 100%. But if he can't play 35 minutes a night at 20 years old, there's a problem that needs to be recognized and quickly. We aren't going all the way with him playing 28-30 minutes a night (early-mid career wise), and he's not going to be anywhere near the GOAT conversation either.

I'm good with Wemby playing ~30 minutes a game as a rookie. ~35 minutes a night is for when you're say SGA or Jayson Tatum in their primes. Jokic has never even crossed the 35 minutes a night line over a season. This isn't 2001 when you're running Michael Finley into the ground for 42 minutes a night.

[Mr. Body]

Don’t look now, but Sochan is trying to get that “untouchable” status. If he keeps playing like he has the last few games, he’s suddenly Wemby’s long term front court running mate

Sochan never was touchable.

[JeffDuncan]

As far as Victor’s conditioning, I’d double check his diet. Maybe he needs more breakfast tacos as fuel for the long haul. Lol

Some specifics on game time played:

Jokic for the last six seasons has typically played 33 and a tad minutes on per game average during the regular season.

Embiid about the same, he’s just over 34 this season so far.

Adebayo, 33 to 34, currently right at 35.

Anthony Davis, just slightly higher, by maybe one minute. He tends towards 35, up to 36.

Porzingis, maybe the best comparison for physique, has been playing 29 to 31 minutes for the last seven seasons, typically.

Holmgren is playing 30.1 as his current avg.

So for Victor now, by the longer term pattern of other bigs, aim for 30 minutes I suppose, shaded a little toward the low side on avg. Again, I’d look especially at how much Zinger plays.

[polandprzem]

Wemby's got a conditioning problem...

No way. He was so prepared for this season, so so so great training regiments and so so so innovative he will never have that problem. Same with ankles ... he trained them so he won't have issue with them and soon everybody I mean EVERYBODY will copy what he is doing ....

[The Truth #6]

Pop is super cautious and doesn't want him to get injured on a rebuilding year. They strongly hinted at the minutes restrictions in preseason. The MRI excuses are just politics. Avoiding a rookie wall isn't bad per se, but things are improving and even if certain games he's still held out, moving towards 28 then 30 mpg seems reasonable.

[Spurs Homer]

Wemby's got a conditioning problem, but he's so smart, he saves the best for last.

I honestly don't think the holding out B2Bs has helped that at all. While he's one of the most efficient players in the league per minute right now, efficiency in 25 minutes won't win you a le. He needs to get his legs under him. Let's hope the minutes restriction truly is over soon, and Pop actually unleashes him a bit and forces him to play tired. People will be like "huh but our franchise might get injured!" and I hear that, 100%. But if he can't play 35 minutes a night at 20 years old, there's a problem that needs to be recognized and quickly. We aren't going all the way with him playing 28-30 minutes a night (early-mid career wise), and he's not going to be anywhere near the GOAT conversation either.

I'll repeat my complaint I have ed about all season:

the answer is short spurts...

1st qtr - 5-6 minutes - (6-7 min mark 1st qtr)
REENTER GAME AT (3:00 mark 1st qtr - finish out qtr)

2nd qtr - rest during tv timeout - until - (9:00 mark - )
RE-ENTER at (7 min mark- and USE TIMEOUTS to keep him on court til the half)

(18-19 minutes out of 24 on the floor- burn timeouts if necessary)

Repeat in 3rd/4th qtr

[spurraider21]

my thoughts at the game

Wemby - you have to see his size in person, its quite funny. you can tell he's just going to smother shots even without having to move much, and you can see many of the blocks coming a mile away.

with that said, my impression of him for a majority of the game was he was sloppy. he didnt look like he was efforting all that much on D. offensively he kept trying to do too much, and looked for calls after almost every miss (he does get hacked a lot). sloppy turnovers. one pass that looked like a baseball wild pitch. he looked sluggish when trying to make moves in the perimeter on offense. but nevertheless he was able to make himself an easy lob target and generated a lot of easy buckets that way

obviously, he ramped it up in his last 5 minute stretch. but with that said, its kinda nuts that watching him play, it seemed like a subpar performance and he still filled up the statsheet to the tune of 24 points and 6 blocks (i think the impact of those blocks wasnt felt because the wizards scored putbacks on at least three of them). his ballhandling was by far the most useful when he would push the break himself and stress the defense. he was able to get a couple of lob passes to sochan by pressuring the defense in that manner. its way more useful to have him do that than try to cross up a guy by stringing 2-3 consecutive moves


vassell - looked like that star second option in the first half, and was the spurs best player on the floor during that period of time. then just disappeared for a vast majority of the second half, hit a big 3 off balance late to salvage it


sochan - tbh, he was probably overall the most consistent performer of the game for the spurs, making a positive impact throughout, or at least thats how it felt. his first half wasnt as good as vassell. his 4th quarter was good, obviously hit the big 3, but not as dominant as victor in that stretch. but from whistle to whistle, he was the one guy who was consistently a net positive. his shot still looks ugly, but he has maintained his improved shooting % for over half the season now... he still needs more space than most to get it off, but thats fine given everything else he brings to the table.


tre - i thought he was too trigger-happy on his 3 point shot, at least one of the attempts felt completely unnecessary, and his lack of outside shot making is noticeable. but he's getting better at mitigating that weakness by attacking the space the defense gives him. defensively, i didnt necessary see great things man to man, but he was still kind of all over the place by positioning himself well, challenging passes, got a nice steal and chased down some impressive rebounds.


keldon - when things were going very poorly for the spurs, he was the one guy putting up a fight to keep things interesting. his bully-ball was effective and he just looked physically superior to whoever the wizards were defending him with.


champagnie - he hit some shots, but i was kinda disappointed. he didnt seem very impressive from an athletic standpoint at any time, really. im not sure how high his ceiling is. i dont think he's a natural sharpshooter who is going to regularly hit the tough, on the move, off balance shots.


collins - offensively, i thought he looked fine. showed good enough scoring touch when he got the ball down low. had some nice passes, including a great give and go to vassell for a dunk. defensively, i dont think i could have foreseen a worse game. mentioned it elsewhere, but it reminded me of Bryn Forbes, in that sometimes he would try to move his feet and get himself in a good position but then was just physically unable to impact the shot attempt. really disappointing that we didnt get barlow action


blake wesley - he's quickly becoming one of my favorite players. in summer league, he looked like exactly the same player as last year. but in his recent stretch getting real backup minutes, he's continued to impress with defensive intensity. the results arent always great. the spurs had a couple of times where they tried full court presses and traps and it led to really unnecessarily easy buckets the other way. but other time she was suffocating. we havent had a defender this adept at fighting through screens since derrick white. and offensively, he is starting to ramp the aggression while maintaining control. his presence was very noticeable.


mcdermott just looks cooked. unless he's having a 3 point barrage, hitting 3 or so in a quarter, its really hard to justify having him on the floor. it's really that bad. it doesnt look like he belongs on the same court as nba players from a purely athletic standpoint. he was getting dominated by Kispert


branham... gleague pls and thank you


osman was also a disaster defensively

aside from the random full court press/trap attempts the backfired, the other annoyance was the trend of guys gambling, whether it be gambling way too often to try and intercept passes, or flying in for offensive rebound attempts leading to easy buckets the other way. we give up a lot of uncontested gimme looks because of gaffes like this

[DAF86]

If Wesley keeps this upwards trajectory, is it too crazy to think he could be placed as the starting PG to see if we have something more there?

[Dejounte]

If Wesley keeps this upwards trajectory, is it too crazy to think he could be placed as the starting PG to see if we have something more there?

Need Tre Jones To Get Injured Again Then I’m Sure Wesley Gets His Shot

[spurraider21]

If Wesley keeps this upwards trajectory, is it too crazy to think he could be placed as the starting PG to see if we have something more there?

havent really seen him orchestrate an offense for any extended period of time

[Mugen]

If Wesley keeps this upwards trajectory, is it too crazy to think he could be placed as the starting PG to see if we have something more there?

After basically every other starter on the team praised Tre for finally get a crack at starting, I doubt it for this season at least tbh.

[DAF86]

After basically every other starter on the team praised Tre for finally get a crack at starting, I doubt it for this season at least tbh.

The thing is, we already know what we have with Tre. What we see is what we'll get. With Wesley there might be some upside, although I understand it wouldn't be the fairest of moves to send Tre back to the bench. I hope that at least when Tre has to sit for a game or two, Wesley takes his place, like Dejounte said.

[Mr. Body]

If Wesley keeps this upwards trajectory, is it too crazy to think he could be placed as the starting PG to see if we have something more there?

Imo he's more of a SG than a guy who can lead an offense.

[emanueldavidginobili]

[spurraider21]

tbh it was evident that he wasnt moving as well as he usually does. reading this on the way home from the game made a lot of sense

[MannyIsGod]

Sochan never was touchable.

The idea that anyone on this team not named Victor is untouchable is laughable.