Yep, every year there will be changes until the right mix is found. Too many in here talking like this is the team that will turn into a contender as is and just needs player development.
In the big picture, this pg experience will add to Sochan's development. One day we might find ourselves with a real pg that is better than Tre Jones.
Sochan will slide back to forward and be a much improved facilitator.
KJ, Sochan and Collins might be our bench in 3 yrs.
This is a development year, get used to it!
Finally something I can agree with you on rascal. The only certainty on the roster right now is Wemby. All other players are subject to being upgraded if the opportunity exists. Outside of Wemby, the “Core” is only the Core until someone better comes along to replace them as part of the Core.
Vassell may be the #2 right now, but he is by no means locked into that. His contract, like Johnsons, make them easily tradable if necessary.
Vassell has a nice start to the season but I'm not sold on him being an alpha go to number 2 option on a contender.
I believe Devin is here to stay and I'll go as far as saying Keldon too. Continuity is still important at the end of the day and you won't find available stars who could fit both on and off the court under a horse's hoof. Vassel and Johnson are still very young but already perennial 20+ scorers. Give them a couple of years with Wemby and that could be very interesting, with no ego or personality issues...I'm not totally sure about Keldon (although I have the felling he could be a long time spur) but you can stll bring some nice players through the draft or trades with your pick chest.
They might be… they may not be. But they aren’t good enough to say they are locked in one way or another. Sean Elliott was our clear #2 guy behind DRob before he was traded for Dennis Rodman, who (right or wrong) was perceived as an upgrade at the time. Likewise, a lot of folks might have thought Derrick and DJM were our “core” to build around, and they’re both gone as well. We build around our stars, not our role players.
Dejounte and White were not on the timeline. We sure as could use them right now, they'd be perfect. I mean, this team with those as a backcourt would be playoff bound without doubt. Even one of them would help.
But we wouldn't be here with Wemby if we hadn't cut bait and moved them on.
It's way too early to say anything about Vassell. Last year was his 'leap' year but he got hurt. He certainly looks like a guy who's ready to take on a load. Let's not make this Spurs Talk mistake of thinking these players are close to their final form. He just turned 23 for God's sake and his improvement year-over-year is excellent. Sean Elliott wa only solidifying himself as Sean Elliott at 23, his third year, and a case can be made there's not a significant statistical difference between them at that age. Sean wasn't even a three point shooter for another three seasons and Devin is more productive scoringwise.
if you ask me Vassell is a legit #2 and I been saying this for a while. His weakness was mainly that he didn't attempt a lot of shots at the rim and wasn't drawing enough fouls. You can clearly see that he has worked on that. Iceman told him "you gotta get to the line more often, that's an easy extra 5 points". The main questionmarks for this team are starting C and PG, but that's what this year is for. To figure out what type of players you need at these positions.
Yeah,teally the only knock on Vassell was his low FT att rate, but he went to the line 11 times last night.
Tre Jones is better for developing players like Wemby faster because he is an actual PG that can run an offense and give the ball to Wemby in the right spots... Sohan at this point simply don't have the instincts... It's like those Jones brothers were born to play PG... both are always at the top in ast/to ratio...
I know ppl are intrigued with Sohan's size, but he constantly gets beat by PGs on defense, and doesn't have great instincts as a PG... so why slow down Wembys development in order to experiment with Sohan playing out of position? I like Sohan, but at this point it may be better if he plays PG off the bench... if Manu can come off the bench for the betterment of the team, so can he
What if it's actually the other way around? What if Wemby is already really good and doesn't need Tre Jones on the court for him to be a good player? Maybe Sochan (and Keldon) will improve by playing next to Wemby and that's why they should play together? And sticking Sochan and/or Keldon on the bench will only slow down their needed growth as players. Lots of ways to spin this. For example, Tre Jones perhaps is playing better because he's stuck behind Sochan and is working harder to prove himself.
I like Sochan I hope that him playing PG will help his game in the long run but I just can't see him playing PG when we contending? I will be very happy if I have to eat some Crow but it's just hard for me to see him running a team full time. As far as the future well one thing is no short players we need guys who can get us some rebounds because this team is not good so far in that area.
So for sure we need a PG in this case I don't mind getting a two guard PG/SG someone who has good handles and likes to dish can play defense and as I said can rebound and the 3 ball is always needed. One thing for me is that would give us a legit backup to Vassell if he was ever injured we could just move him over and Sochan can take over as needed. The second thing is we need a bigger big I like Collins I just think he is more of a traditional PF vs. C
I agree we got two players who are legit we definitely need a starting PG and a starting C and I am pretty confident we can get one in the next draft. If you look at last years draft they had Duren go at 13 and Mark Williams go at 15 so with either our pick or hopefully the Raptors pick we can get at least one more stud in the rotation.
Either way Rome was created in a day and this team is not going to go from 1st pick to playing in the finals this year we still need more talent and that is just the truth. So as I always say enjoy watching Wemby play and grow every season people don't realize how lucky we are.
Jones was the best defensive player on the team last year as the unambiguous starter (which is why it's weird that people keep calling him a defensive liability or assuming starting Sochan and Johnson improves the defense). I totally believe Wemby makes his life easier, but it's also pretty clear that Wemby isn't "already good" in the sense that he doesn't need to develop in a system that helps him get the ball and has things he needs to learn to be more consistently effective. By far the most important thing for Wemby is getting the ball in advantage situations where he doesn't have to fight to score against too stiff of a defense. If Jones does that then he's better for Wemby. Maybe eventually Wemby will be developed to the point where he can focus on making everyone better. But at this point, Pop should be focusing on functional units where guys can play to their strengths. Sochan and/or Johnson should still get plenty of time playing with Wemby considering how Vic has to sub out early and play half his minutes with the second unit.
I'm not married to the idea of Pop changing his starting lineup. As I've said, there are clever ways to use Sochan at PG that Jones can't replicate. But it's on Pop to actually employ those ways, and I doubt he's going to. He seems much more keen of the idea of multiple mediocre ball-handlers taking turns cutting off drives and hoping someone hits a three than having a rigid structure to make the team has the basics down. It'll be interesting to see if the Spurs play a different kind of offense when Jones if playing than Sochan. So far we've seen that Jones does different things, but I'm talking in terms of what sort of plays they call. We won't know that until we get more data.
this is what's mind boggling to me. It's like "hey figure it out" type of offense instead of actual plays drawn up
Pop is normally stifling in his control over the team, so it seems he's trying a different approach so as not to alienate his new star. The irony may be that VW wants to be told what do, having heard stories from Parker, and how it made him a better player. But just speculating.
Maybe in a relative sense, but as a small guard, Jones will always be a physical liability.
That's why on the Mavericks leaked scouting report it said "go at him", code for whoever he's guarding to screen for Doncic until they get the switch.
I can see Tre being with the Spurs for a long time-- he fits the role of back up PG really well, being steady with a great assist to turnover ratio, and being in that sweet spot where he's good enough to provide some quality minutes but not good enough to demand a giant salary. Every team needs a few of those guys. Osman is another one that fits that bill. He can be the 8th man on a championship team.
Yes, "old-school" coaches tend to think that way, and it doesn't work. That's part of the reason why the Spurs were more successful on defense with Jones in there. His defensive a en is far beyond the other players on the team, which means he can use positioning to cover up his size. Teams starting smaller guards win les all the time. Clearly, it's not actually a liability. It's like how Parker wasn't actually a liability on defense, but coaches kept tricking themselves into going at him without success. Having a bunch of mid-sized players has never been the key to success on defense. Having one of two guys who can cross guard for you? Sure. But it's important to have guys who can guard at all three levels, rim protection and a coaching scheme that gets guys to work together to force the offense into bad shots and secure the board.
If Pop looked at last season's abysmal performance and thought, "Tre starting is the problem", he's completely lost the plot. The problem has been he and his staff have develop guys to be offense-first players at the expense of learning defense while also not emphasizing shooting to the point where he always wants at least one bad-defense shooter in the rotation. It's the same reason why Sochan, instead of focusing on improving a defensive game that showed potential last year but wasn't yet up to snuff, is playing a new position where he's dribble around the court. It's why he's trying to slip more small-shooters on the fringes of the roster. He won't play Jones but he would play Forbes. There's not a consistent thought process to justify that.
Tony has been quite vocal indeed about the fact that Victor is very coachable, he receives ver well feedbacks and is eager to be challenged.
Actually, it's very new school and it's become increasingly difficult to play small guards in the playoffs unless they're superstars or stars offensively.
Obviously, this team is nowhere near the point of having to concern themselves with that though, but "positioning" can't always cover up for size. If Jones gets switched onto a Doncic, for example, the Spurs defense will be compromised.
Parker always had arguably the GOAT anchor/team defender behind him in Duncan, an underrated team defender in Ginobili and other all time - very good defenders like Robinson, Bowen, S bag, Green and Splitter at various points.
Vassell is really our hope to be the second star. KJ I don’t think has a role as a starter. He should be a bench player. Sochan needs to develop a corner 3 to remain a starter with Wemby. I’m really impressed with Vassell though in his ability to create his own shots and make tough shots. If he attacks the paint like he has been this year then the sky is the limit for him as a 2 guy. I guess his next development would be creating for others but I would like seeing that in about 2 years when he has his go tos down
Don’t sleep on Malaki. He was at second year Vassell level of finding holes in the defense to shoot from last year as a rookie. His FTs and college numbers say he’s going to be a 40% 3pt shooter in the NBA eventually.
He needs smarts more than anything. Sometimes he does things where I wonder if he has every played basketball before
but his shooting like you said should round into form. I hope he turns into a gunner
Branham will turn it on after 25-30 games. It was like that in college, last season and I assume he'll make the leap this season as well once he's comfortable.
Branham just needs the greenlight to shoot without looking over his shoulder if he has a 3/10 night.
Shooters have to be given room to shoot and dude is a natural scorer despite the lack of athleticism.
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