Game Thread: Spurs (3-13) @ Nuggets (10-6) 7 PM (3 AM Riga time)

[baseline bum]

He might be assigned to Austin. Not with team.

Can we assign Pop to Austin?

[John B]

Bassey with his lazy passes.

[Barfunk]

Doesn't matter how many losing seasons we have that lead to high draft picks. We will continue to lose with this coaching staff.

[spursparker9]

Can we assign Pop to Austin?

Approved. Please proceed with this. :lol

[spursparker9]

Doesn't matter how many losing seasons we have that lead to high draft picks. We will continue to lose with this coaching staff.

Doc Rivers and Mike D'Antonio is available :lol

[Barfunk]

Doc Rivers and Mike D'Antonio is available :lol

On second thought, lol.

[Pauleta14]

All Denver's starters are playing but Pop prefers not to use that experience for Wemby...

[spursparker9]

lol Branham coming alive in trash time.

[baseline bum]

Branham is money in fucking garbage time when no one gives a shit

[Gibbz]

Bassey trying to guard Jokic :lol

[CorrectCrusader]

So how did Wemby play today I haven't had time to watch

[spursparker9]

All Denver's starters are playing but Pop prefers not to use that experience for Wemby...

:lol Is this in-season tournament games? Why are the starters there to pad stats?

[spursparker9]

So how did Wemby play today I haven't had time to watch

Career high in steals. 6 steals

[tbdog]

We could try the Ben Simmons experiment. I'm sure that Brooklyn would be happy to get rid of him and we know that he can pass, plus he is tall enough that he could throw a lob.

Then move Sochan to PF and we have great spacing :D.

Honestly, I still believe Ben Simmons can get back to playing well but the team makeup wouldn't be ideal with Sochan needing to be a starter for development. Getting Cam Johnson would help.

[Gibbz]

So how did Wemby play today I haven't had time to watch

He was great and the rest of the starters were absolute garbage.

[baseline bum]

So how did Wemby play today I haven't had time to watch

22pts/11reb/6stl/4blk

[CorrectCrusader]

He was great and the rest of the starters were absolute garbage.

figures

[CorrectCrusader]

22/11/6/4
holy crap future goat

[baseline bum]

holy crap future goat

Should have been 5 blocks. Blocked Jokic twice but the fucking scorekeeper credited Sochan with one. Victor also tied the Spurs rookie record for steals with 6.

[Gibbz]

figures

In 30 minutes of play Keldon was 1/3 and a -24.

[CorrectCrusader]

In 30 minutes of play Keldon was 1/3 and a -24.

The absolute worst part of this roster is that when they can't shoot, they're not good enough on defense to be worth playing which is a massive problem

[Pauleta14]

:lol Is this in-season tournament games? Why are the starters there to pad stats?

yes it is. The point differential is the only interesting thing of this tournament.
less garbage time. Except for Pop

[Gibbz]

Any time Vic sat the defense was ungodly bad.

[objective]

Ben Simmons just can't get healthy

He's been out with nerve issues I think, possibly related to his back surgery

[baseline bum]

The absolute worst part of this roster is that when they can't shoot, they're not good enough on defense to be worth playing which is a massive problem

At least it was cool seeing Victor pick off lob passes Jokic was trying to get over him :lol

[spursparker9]

yes it is. The point differential is the only interesting thing of this tournament.
less garbage time. Except for Pop

But the arena floor is not with the in-season tournament colorful floor.

[Thomas82]

Spurs down 20. They will lose by 12 and Pop will say "i like what I see"

This loss was by 12.....you called it!!

[baseline bum]

Any time Vic sat the defense was ungodly bad.

Offense too

[Pauleta14]

Can't wait for the best entertainment of the night (after Wemby), Pop's post game interview...

I need to know how well he's going to sleep tonight

[Barfunk]

Post 2019 Pop be like "I AM GOOD, YOU KNOW WHAT, YOU'RE A LOUSY KINDERGARTEN TEACHER, I'VE SEEN THOSE FINGER PAINTINGS YOU BRING HOME AND THEY SUCK!"

[NASpurs]

22pts/11reb/6stl/4blk

6 steals and 4 blocks is fucking crazy :lol

[Pauleta14]

But the arena floor is not with the in-season tournament colorful floor.

well it looked ugly. So might be

+ the jerseys were not the classics

[timtonymanu]

Garbage head coach: we competed tonight. What’s for dinner?

[Pauleta14]

6 steals and 4 blocks is fucking crazy :lol

the whole stat line is … in 25min only + should’ve 1 more block and 2-3 more asst

Now imagine with a proper PG…

[thiste]

We could try the Ben Simmons experiment. I'm sure that Brooklyn would be happy to get rid of him and we know that he can pass, plus he is tall enough that he could throw a lob.

We could try the Bronny James experiment. LeBron's a willing passer and he'd get Wemby the ball for lobs all day.

[Barfunk]

What a bummer ass of a season...

[Thomas82]

the whole stat line is … in 25min only + should’ve 1 more block and 2-3 more asst

Now imagine with a proper PG…

Yeah, it irked me that he couldn't add to it.

[baseline bum]

What a bummer ass of a season...

I would say things could look up with Pop forced to not start Sochan at PG if he's hurt for next game but we all know he'll just start Branham there and Champ at the SG

[objective]

Pop should bench Collins too. Bassey is definitely not playing well, Mamu is even worse on defense than Collins. Might as well try Barlow. Who cares, it's all about experimenting, experiencing, and observing anyway

[Barfunk]

I would say things could look up with Pop forced to not start Sochan at PG if he's hurt for next game but we all know he'll just start Branham there and Champ at the SG

Yupp he just can't help himself to find the worst lineups to play.

[NASpurs]

I can't wait for the Spurs to pick the wrong guy in next year's draft.

[tmtcsc]

Ok, where would they get these magic vets? No vet's coming here if they're chasing a ring, and any trade, the Spurs would be fleeced.

They didnt have to be free agents, we have draft picks we could use for a trade. Make this team more attractive for free agents.

[sananspursfan21]

Pop and Co have an affinity for players who don't have as much talent, but there's a problem, they can't do shit with them.

I still don’t get this. In the Big 3 era, this sorta made sense. They didn’t need redundancy, they needed a player that brought nuance. This roster is now currently made up of players not named Wemby and Vassell that might bring interesting things to the end of the bench on a contender….but can’t do basic things like shoot, finish, pass, dribble, make reads. Half of them aren’t even athletic. This is so hard to watch. I’m seriously just in this season for Wemby and Devin

[Splits]

will we have 5 wins by 2024? @CHI, vs UTA, @POR, @POR seem like the only winnable games unless we somehow beat the Hawks Friday

[Pauleta14]

PATFO didn't want vets for 2 reasons imo

- Their obsession for players dev that would take playing time off of our average players

- Their lack of humility thinking they could bring the same thing with their coaching staff

[Arcadian]

yes it is. The point differential is the only interesting thing of this tournament.
less garbage time. Except for Pop

No, tournament games are on Tuesdays and Fridays.

[Pauleta14]

Why the tournament jerseys then?

Why all the Denver starters late into the 4th with +20? Stats padding?

[The Truth #6]

Malaki is not exactly making the most of his opportunity. Does not have the dog in him. He was way more promising last year. What a weird year so far.

[kxs783kms]

Why the tournament jerseys then?

Why all the Denver starters late into the 4th with +20? Stats padding?

Yes, Jokic was trying everything he could to get that last assist for the triple-double. Malone eventually had to pull him because everyone knew why he was in the game that late.

[Seventyniner]

Been telling folks for a while that Pop's not committed to Devin being a starter. Benching him is like the only arrow in his quiver

But if Pop is forcing Sochan to be a PG so that he can start his 5 best players, why is he bringing his 2nd best player off the bench? Makes no damn sense.

[onechance87]

PATFO didn't want vets for 2 reasons imo

- Their obsession for players dev that would take playing time off of our average players

- Their lack of humility thinking they could bring the same thing with their coaching staff

alot of us fans didnt want vets either....Alot of us thought they would take playing time from our young
guys and stun there growth...And we wanted to see what we got....Now 10 games in,Now we know what
we got...And it aint pretty

[NASpurs]

alot of us fans didnt want vets either....Alot of us thought they would take playing time from our young
guys and stun there growth...And we wanted to see what we got....Now 10 games in,Now we know what
we got...And it aint pretty

Probably because the young guys they drafted fucking suck with little or to no upside. Not only that, some are being used incorrectly even messing whatever little promise they have.

[z0sa]

I know I'm just shitposting, but for stretches there, you could ALMOST see the future matchup between Wemby and Jokic for the WCF. Almost. But the Spurs have so much work to do to build that type of team around him ... hoping they do, even though there doesn't seem like a light at the end of the tunnel right now, tbh.

[MI21]

That was such an amazing defensive performance from Wemby, a fucking 19 year old, playing in his first game in the Denver altitude against a team featuring one of the 5 best offensive players in the history of basketball.

[z0sa]

By the way, more intense game than the scoreboard suggests. I enjoyed it a lot more than most of the losing streak. Still disappointed though.

[Pauleta14]

I kinda like Vassel coming off the bench tbh

It makes sense with Pop's present rotation, taking Wemby out half way in the 1st qtr every time

[Chinook]

But if Pop is forcing Sochan to be a PG so that he can start his 5 best players, why is he bringing his 2nd best player off the bench? Makes no damn sense.

It's never been the "best five". If it were, there would be more competition to determine who that is rather than trying to anoint them in the summer. It's been that certain guys are non-negotiable starters, and Vassell isn't one. You can ask SR21. I looked it up, and Vassell's started a much lower percentage of his games than Keldon and Sochan have.

I hope Sochan's okay in a human sense, but I would be happy if he sat the B2B coming up next week. The team badly needs an excuse to play Jones and Graham (who continues to look solid at the position in garbage time). Start Graham, and bring Vassell back into the starting unit. If Vassell has to go back to the bench, start Graham and Sochan. This should be really easy. Maybe SAG is right and Pop is tanking. He can't be making every wrong decision here. That's not incompetence. That's a statistical anamoly.

Of course, watch him fuck around and start Cissoko or Mamu at PG if Sochan sits.

[buttsR4rebounding]

I had posted during the preseason about Graham saying he had worked hard this off-season on his defense and was in the best shape of his life because he wanted to compete for the starting PG position. Obviously there was no competition. I’d love to see him get some run as the starter.

[playbonner15]

yeah get Branham outta there and start Graham

[Brazil]

This game is a great reminder of the potential of dat kid Victor tbh...

At this point I honestly don't care about our record, most important is that Victor is healthy, he played all games, had his ups and downs but he is confirming his amazing potential. The rest does not matter that much tbh

[TimDunkem]

It literally doesn't matter if your natural position is PG or not.

You shouldn't be a professional NBA player with vision this terrible.

https://twitter.com/nikotaughtyou/status/1728962637797761332

I've seen better decision making in pee wee basketball. How the fuck do you miss the 7-4 guy wide open next to you? And this clown does shit like this multiple times a game...

[Chomag]

I'm only now in it to watch Wemby highlights at this point now. Pop has completely sucked the fan excitement for this season out of me.

I never expected them to be contenders but I wasn't expecting the worst coached team in the NBA.

[slick'81]

It literally doesn't matter if your natural position is PG or not.

You shouldn't be a professional NBA player with vision this terrible.

https://twitter.com/nikotaughtyou/status/1728962637797761332

I've seen better decision making in pee wee basketball. How the fuck do you miss the 7-4 guy wide open next to you? And this clown does shit like this multiple times a game...


yea, its like blinders on when wembys on the court with sochan

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

It literally doesn't matter if your natural position is PG or not.

You shouldn't be a professional NBA player with vision this terrible.

https://twitter.com/nikotaughtyou/status/1728962637797761332

I've seen better decision making in pee wee basketball. How the fuck do you miss the 7-4 guy wide open next to you? And this clown does shit like this multiple times a game...

I was thinking the same thing. I coached basketball for years and I wouldn't have a 12 year old running the point who has Sochan's lack of court management skills. Guy is way out of position. I feel sorry for him, tbh, because he's looking the fool out there.

And that's something that's innate. You can hone the skill, but not create it. He's not a natural PG and I'm not convinced he ever will be serviceable at the position.

[Sugus]

even though there doesn't seem like a light at the end of the tunnel right now, tbh.

Comments like this would have you believing the Spurs picked 6th last draft and didn't have Wemby on the roster... How narrow minded are we getting? Missing the forest for the trees has been the tale here since the season started, did preseason really set that high of a bar?

We literally have already checked by far the biggest question mark in any rebuild -- getting the True Alpha, unquestionable superstar potential, game-changing player. If you don't see light at the end of this tunnel... Dude, get them eyes checked :lol

[Sugus]

I was thinking the same thing. I coached basketball for years and I wouldn't have a 12 year old running the point who has Sochan's lack of court management skills. Guy is way out of position. I feel sorry for him, tbh, because he's looking the fool out there.

And that's something that's innate. You can hone the skill, but not create it. He's not a natural PG and I'm not convinced he ever will be serviceable at the position.

To be fair, tanking probably wasn't on your coaching resumé, so it makes sense that you didn't pick up on these strats.

Only half joking ;)

[Seventyniner]

It's never been the "best five". If it were, there would be more competition to determine who that is rather than trying to anoint them in the summer. It's been that certain guys are non-negotiable starters, and Vassell isn't one. You can ask SR21. I looked it up, and Vassell's started a much lower percentage of his games than Keldon and Sochan have.

I hope Sochan's okay in a human sense, but I would be happy if he sat the B2B coming up next week. The team badly needs an excuse to play Jones and Graham (who continues to look solid at the position in garbage time). Start Graham, and bring Vassell back into the starting unit. If Vassell has to go back to the bench, start Graham and Sochan. This should be really easy. Maybe SAG is right and Pop is tanking. He can't be making every wrong decision here. That's not incompetence. That's a statistical anamoly.

Of course, watch him fuck around and start Cissoko or Mamu at PG if Sochan sits.

There was tons of talk around here over the summer about how the 5 best players on the team (Wemby/Vassell/Keldon/Sochan/Collins) wouldn't make a functional lineup. Then Pop said "fuk yo functional lineup clown". Vassell was just about universally seen as the second least benchable player on the team behind Wemby. There were good arguments for having any of Keldon/Sochan/Collins be left out of the starting lineup, but not the best perimeter volume scorer on the team, no matter how low a bar that is to clear. On top of that Vassell just got a big contract extension and will (probably) be the highest paid player on the team for the next few seasons.

Perhaps Pop's offseason comment that nobody should complain about coming off the bench because Manu did was actually directed at Vassell? Just about all of us assumed it was aimed at Keldon, or maybe Sochan.

[Chinook]

There was tons of talk around here over the summer about how the 5 best players on the team (Wemby/Vassell/Keldon/Sochan/Collins) wouldn't make a functional lineup. Then Pop said "fuk yo functional lineup clown". Vassell was just about universally seen as the second least benchable player on the team behind Wemby. There were good arguments for having any of Keldon/Sochan/Collins be left out of the starting lineup, but not the best perimeter volume scorer on the team, no matter how low a bar that is to clear. On top of that Vassell just got a big contract extension and will (probably) be the highest paid player on the team for the next few seasons.

Perhaps Pop's offseason comment that nobody should complain about coming off the bench because Manu did was actually directed at Vassell? Just about all of us assumed it was aimed at Keldon, or maybe Sochan.

I'm not talking about what STers (myself included) thought. We all had different ideas for what should happen. Some folks correctly (to their dismay now I imagine) called that Sochan would play PG. I would've told you Jones was an obvious starter. Some thought Wemby would have to play center. Some people thought Sochan would play SF and Keldon would be benched. I thought Sochan would be benched.

I'm talking about what I think Pop thought, and I don't think it was "best five" as much as it was "Sochan, Keldon and Collins are starters" and Wemby and Vassell probably should also start. So Jones was never going to play well enough to PG to push Sochan would of the starting lineup. He would only be able to push Vassell out of the lineup. Vassell was awesome to start the season, so that didn't happen. Obviously Wemby was going to start, but I also think it was more likely that Wemby came off the bench than any of those three, as ridiculous as it sounds. It would've been the same bullshit reasoning too (Manu came off the bench, so Victor can too to start out).

There might be a huge disconnect between what Pop wants and what Wright wants. That might be because Pop doesn't want to stifle long-term roster moves for his short-term goals. So Wright gave Vassell a deal to stay around because he believes Devin deserves it, but Pop may not believe Devin's earned an unquestioned starting position. Remember, we're talking about a front office that went through so much effort to get DeMarre Carroll only for Pop to have zero-interest in playing him. It wouldn't be unprecedented, even though it's inexcusably dumb. Again, maybe Pop is making himself the lightning rod while the Spurs try to tank one last year. We can only hope this mania is temporary. I don't think the front office is at any risk of changing over -- if Wright survived that Primo shit, he's going to survive a bad season. But it really feels like if there are no shenanigans going on that the Spurs should have different players on their roster than they do now in order to do things Pop seems to want to do.

[JeffDuncan]

…
I'm talking about what I think Pop thought, …



What Pop thought was that putting Sochan in place of Tre would improve the defense.

People keep making the mistake of looking at the O when it’s about the D.


So Jones was never going to play well enough to PG to push Sochan would of the starting lineup. He would only be able to push Vassell out of the lineup. …



You think Pop thought Tre might play well enough to displace Vassell. At SG.

Perhaps you would rephrase your remarks. That can’t be what you really think.

Anyway, what’s happened so far, Pop put Sochan in place of Tre with the expectation it would improve the horrible D of last season. Theoretically, one would suppose it should. (We now know the D is still horrible, but this knowledge is after the fact of the change. It wasn’t predictable the D would still be so bad.)

It’s safe to assume Pop thought the team would still score enough points, with Sochan at PG. That has proven not to be the case, but again, this knowledge is after the fact.

People believe the Spurs are tanking - from the very first game!?! Absolute and utter nonsense. The Spurs look like they’re tanking because the FO has not provided nearly enough talent to overcome the excruciatingly incompetent coaching.

When Vassell got injured Pop put Branham in the starting lineup, and has since kept him there because Pop is trying to get Branham going. Pop has a history of this kind of thing. Recall when Pop was so pleased to get Belinelli, again. Pop gave Beli playing time, and ran plays for him, to try to get him going. Pop used that exact phrasing, get him going, in some remark he made at the time. It didn’t work, of course, because Beli was washed, and was never that good in the first place, but Pop tried.

For Vassell vs Branham, it isn’t about Pop viewing Vassell as a starter or not. It’s basically about giving Branham a chance to show that the Spurs haven’t wasted a draft pick. Starting is supposed to motivate Branham, to help develop him and “get him going.”

You’re looking for some kind of planning or deeper meaning where none exists. Pop is winging it, reacting to events.

[Tyronn Lue]

It's not really about bad coaching. It's about having too much freedom to experiment. Pop loves to experiment with the team, and the ownership and RC seem ok with it. From a coaching standpoint, Pop is probably a really good coach for player development. He's just too tinker happy and has carte blanche to Josef Mengele the roster.

[JeffDuncan]

It's not really about bad coaching. …



Like hell it isn’t.

[Tyronn Lue]

Like hell it isn’t.
ok. I don't see any argument there.