Duncan, Manu and Parker
Hoping the Sours have a look at Kai Sotto....
The Sours should absolutely knock themselves out doing so. The Spurs should pass however.
You crazy? How do you pass up 9 points & 6 boards on the Japanese League. Next Jokic IMO.
My impression is that the Spurs are always waiting for the homerun that isn't coming. Last season they held open a bunch of cap space hoping to get some first round picks for teams looking to shed salary. They were really only able to get 2nd round picks for doing that. I think they are waiting for the obvious moves, but at some point, they need to start taking chances. I like the current roster, but they aren't making the playoffs in a Western Conference that just keeps getting more stacked.
I think it’s possible the Spurs have a different (lower) cap they are operating with the last few years (and this one) that we don’t know about.
The Western Conference is a basket case.
There hasn't been a single FA they'll regret missing. They can live without Cody Zeller.
They are looking for the right pitch.
They really don't need to swing. The notion this board has that some super jumbo magic FA acquisition was going to put them in the playoffs is rather weird. They just got what's going to put them in the playoffs. If not this year, then next.
Yup. It’s an asset that can be used in many ways. *Feels* like they just lack creativity of vision since trading has not traditionally been a big part of their repertoire. Now, they have done a lot of great trades last few years so Im really excited to see that aspect be utilized, but they really struggle with things like cap space and end up just sort of wasting opportunities for whatever reason (vision? Mandate? To risk adverse? Not sure)
Still happy with where they are at and at least they don’t blow cap space and ruin opportunities so that’s good.
That wouldn't be surprising considering how poor attendance has been the last few seasons. Is team revenue something we can know? I bet it's down quite a bit lately.
Wemby simply existing means the Spurs can refill the financial coffers this season, "see what we have" from Wemby and the supporting cast, and THEN make decisions about investing in talent to match Wemby's expected timeline once we have a clearer picture of that timeline.
I think cap hasn't been used well by any team. Jazz probably got the best use by taking Collins, who is at least a good basketball player. Thunder didn't do much. Pacers actually probably did the best. Rockets just blew their load.
Ironically enough, inertia is on the Spurs side.
I kind of like Tyler Herro because (1) he's 23 (great) and (2) he a very good player (fantastic).
But (3) he has a bad contract (four years worth) and (4) he could be a problem personality.
It's hard to say that a team that went 22-60 should play it safe, but in this crazy situation I think they should.
Avoid the "big mistake" (or the big bang). Just trust inertia, no need to be an Einstein.
Guess this is it, right? No more foreseeable moves to be made? “We like what we have”?
Yeah, pretty much what they said a month ago.
They already liked what they had. There's still a major transaction on the horizon that's not the Lillard/Miami situation and that's Harden and the Clippers. It'll probably take ages, though, same as the Ben Simmons situation, although it probably has to be resolved before the season starts. The Spurs may be seeing what shakes loose from LAC, or... maybe not.
id be grabbing him even with Graham on the roster, just to be a proper vet presence in the locker room and to be in the HEB ads.
He is such a great Spur, he needs to end his career as a Spur, not like this.
Last edited by benfti; 07-02-2023 at 10:59 PM.
Considering they had a very young roster I imagine they’d want to evaluate them and see how they’ll do when they now have an actual franchise player and players can just play and not have to be “the man”. STILL, I expected them to sign someone who can 1.) help them win 2.) be a veteran presence on the team and 3.) who can help them meet the salary floor.
In any case, while I wasn’t necessarily “happy”, I’m not disappointed either.
Would be nice though if we can find out which FAs they kicked the tires on, be it due diligence or serious interest.
Absolutely. When they say they want to see what they have, it's not only Wembanyama. There are like seven different first or second year players on the roster who are only starting out -- we don't know what they can do.
Sochan
Branham
Wesley
Bassey
Champagnie
Barlow
Cissoko
And Mamukelashvili is a third year player who only got his first real playing time late this year. We really don't know where these players are going to be in November, January, or next April.
I kind of wanted them to grab Patty even before he was traded. I want another big. But if this is what we have, that's totally cool. The most fun I've had in a while as a Spurs fan was watching the new guys at the end of the season. If the team plays hard and loose, this could be a great season.
I'm not sure the Spurs would've done anything differently had they not won the lottery. I think "wanting to see how guys play with Victor" is the rationalization for being passive. Had they drafted Thompson, I think the rationalization would've been "not wanting to rush the rebuild and needing to see what Amen's ceiling is." I think the anxiety folks are seeing is coming from the Spurs NOT doing things different despite having a franchise player on their roster. Personally, I am okay with the Spurs taking the year to figure out if Wemby is legit before committing. But how much confidence do people have that after this year of evaluation the team is going to make strong moves? I think it's possible that even after next year, they continue to try to build slowly and organically. They might have to figure out what to do with three first-round picks next year (2024-2025). Are they going to sell them for pennies on the dollar because they waited until the draft to actually try to get value for them?
We don't know. But the Spurs didn't do the hard part yet. Winning the lottery and then taking the franchise player isn't hard. It's not a foolproof plan, and of course tanking is painful. But they got lucky and made the obvious choice so far. Actually turning that blue chip into a le team is going to define Wright's career with the team. Despite the initial assumptions fans might make, I don't know that the Spurs execs have much experience with that. They inherited a le contender and drafted a ready-made superstar. They know about maintaining a dynasty, but building that early development core and transitioning that core into a contender -- that remains to be seen. It's very possible the team continues to take a passive approach and that that doesn't end up being the ideal solution. I think there's plenty of room for nuanced discussion around the balance between building sustainably and capitalizing on the assets the team has.
You might be right about this, but to be fair, every other player in this draft not named Victor Wembanyama comes with significant question marks about their game. How the do you know what to add to a 22-win team that just added Amen Thompson who can't ing shoot? I think there's a shot for the Spurs to be pretty good with Victor, but I wouldn't feel the same if they had gotten anyone else from this draft class. The most complete player in the top five is the one guy most people thought the Spurs wouldn't draft under any cir stances. It's entirely possible that if the Spurs didn't win the lottery that we're still going back and forth about why they traded down.
Yeah, like I absolutely don't mean the Spurs would be the same after drafting Thompson or trading down. The result of switching them out for Wemby is huge. But I think it's quite likely that the Spurs would've still opted for the slow deliberate plan in free agency with only tiny trades to get over the cap floor and avoiding dealing any of their major guys. That team would've likely been worse than this one. But the FO would've taken that worse result still anticipating needing another high draft pick versus this one likely being okay with a pick in the middle of the draft. And I think that a lot of fans would've accepted that reasoning. , I remember many of us anticipating a much longer tank before the lottery broke the way it did. I just think that while the framing would be very different, the result would've been the same.
That's probably correct. I think, no matter who they got, I'd still think there were too many question marks to this team to make any big commitments to this lame free-agent class. I'd definitely want to see how the youngsters look in summer league.
Great post
Do people really believe next year after the Spurs "See what they have" the spurs are suddenly going to go all in making trades and being aggressive to get the best team they can get.
Most likely the patient approach will still apply. It will be more of the same, conservative moves, with little to no risk and maintain a slow but still uncertain build of the team.
I think by next year they'll have a better understanding of the 6-7 project players the Spurs have ac ulated. That alone will clear a lot of things up and create a better understanding of what the team needs.
I think in 2024 they’ll know which players they will be willing to put on the trading block. Whether those players will have much value is a different question.
The 2024 free agent class appears underwhelming.
They seem to be on course for two lottery picks in 2024, with which to draft a point guard and another BPA. While there is no generational talent available, there could be second-star caliber guys available. If they are afraid their guy will go higher than their first pick, they’ve got the assets to move up to go get him.
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