let’s win now

[Sugus]

i was right about the spurs having the worst future in the conference. they were #1 in the division when i posted that thread, ended that season last in the division if iirc, and were terrible for years.

No you weren't, as I told you then (before we drafted Wemby!) and remains true now, the Spurs have a great future. That season was the present, in any case... How can you have so much repeated trouble with something as simple as the present & future concepts, tbh?

stop acting like i said the spurs have the worst future in the conference forever

Well, you did say they had the worst future due to their roster composition and lack of stars, as opposed to the Rocket's Mighty Sengun and... Some other you were saying, I don't even remember. But it was just as laughable then, as it is now.

In any case, of course the future remains to be seen, at least until one of the division's teams wins a ring or two. This is as expected when you make predictions about the future, y'know?

[KobesAchilles]

For the millionth time, we can't actually tank with Wemby, especially not with so many terrible teams that are going to blatantly tank from the opening night.
At that point, having 7th or 10th best odds doesn't make much of a difference.

If you want Spurs to get top5 odds, for all intents and purposes you want Wemby to get injured.

We totally can tank this year. It’s actually a very real scenario. CP3 gets hurt at the age of 40. And I know an injury prone player getting hurt would be a shock to you. We bring in Tre as our starter and again we have a ty PG starter. Bottom 5 in the league.

Next Vassell continues to be a ball hog shooter who doesn’t play in the flow of the offense. He also gets hurt and misses time (that’s just going to happen regardless) and he never really fits in with Wemby.

Sochan never learns how to shoot the ball. He clogs the lane for Wemby and never learns how to play with him offensively still missing easy passes to Wemby. He also loses focus on defense and goes into a rut of 10 games where he scores 0 points, 2 points, 5 points etc

Wemby is placed on minutes restriction. Any time we bench him, the team gives up the lead and we lose games we should have won. Wemby averaged 28 minutes a game as a sop re and puts up basically identical numbers from last year. He goes hero mode in the middle of the season bc his teammates fail him again and he just forces things and we lose close games bc we don’t know how to win. He doesn’t even need to get injured but any sprain will have him sidelined and put on minute restriction.

Speaking of not knowing how to win. None of the players Pop drafted and developed still know how to win or to play defense during key stretches and they continue to lose sight of their man, make dumb turnovers, and take dumb shots. Spurs are a bottom 5 team offensively during crunch time.

I mean this team could easily be the second worst team in the West. And tbh we could tie with Portland again if Pop sees fit to it and they make the call. 10 games out of the play in but 2 out of 5th from the bottom. We would go the Dallas route and lose purposefully again

[exstatic]

We totally can tank this year. It’s actually a very real scenario. CP3 gets hurt at the age of 40. And I know an injury prone player getting hurt would be a shock to you. We bring in Tre as our starter and again we have a ty PG starter. Bottom 5 in the league.

Next Vassell continues to be a ball hog shooter who doesn’t play in the flow of the offense. He also gets hurt and misses time (that’s just going to happen regardless) and he never really fits in with Wemby.

Sochan never learns how to shoot the ball. He clogs the lane for Wemby and never learns how to play with him offensively still missing easy passes to Wemby. He also loses focus on defense and goes into a rut of 10 games where he scores 0 points, 2 points, 5 points etc

Wemby is placed on minutes restriction. Any time we bench him, the team gives up the lead and we lose games we should have won. Wemby averaged 28 minutes a game as a sop re and puts up basically identical numbers from last year. He goes hero mode in the middle of the season bc his teammates fail him again and he just forces things and we lose close games bc we don’t know how to win. He doesn’t even need to get injured but any sprain will have him sidelined and put on minute restriction.

Speaking of not knowing how to win. None of the players Pop drafted and developed still know how to win or to play defense during key stretches and they continue to lose sight of their man, make dumb turnovers, and take dumb shots. Spurs are a bottom 5 team offensively during crunch time.

I mean this team could easily be the second worst team in the West. And tbh we could tie with Portland again if Pop sees fit to it and they make the call. 10 games out of the play in but 2 out of 5th from the bottom. We would go the Dallas route and lose purposefully again

The Spurs shut down Keldon, vassell, and Sochan last year late, and finished 6-2. Short of Wemby getting hurt, there’s no realistic tank scenario.

[LeBowen]

The Spurs shut down Keldon, vassell, and Sochan last year late, and finished 6-2. Short of Wemby getting hurt, there’s no realistic tank scenario.

My favorite part is about Wemby accepting minutes restriction just like that and not even improving.

In those 7 games after second, third and fourth best player on the roster got shut down, Wemby averaged 28.1/13.3/6.6 with 4.3 blocks.

He'll be a top10 player in the league and the best defender by far. If anyone else on the roster is competent, we're already better than 8 teams that will blatantly tank.

We have 1st, 4th, 9th and 11th pick on the roster, all selected within the past 4 years. Add a couple more mid/late lottery picks in '25 draft, find a suitable all-star to trade for with some of those dozen FRPs and we're good to go.

[KobesAchilles]

The Spurs shut down Keldon, vassell, and Sochan last year late, and finished 6-2. Short of Wemby getting hurt, there’s no realistic tank scenario.

Which Western Conference teams do you realistically think we will wind up better than this season? I’ve got 2 in Utah and Portland. So by my estimate that would put us 3rd worse in the West. Washington, Brooklyn Toronto, and Detroit will be worse than us in the East. That puts us 7th. Do you really think there’s no way we could tank when we will be the 7th worst team in the league? Like the Spurs wouldn’t calculate in March hey we are 4 games outta 5th and 12 outta 10th for the play in. Time to pull the plug again.

Btw I totally expect Pop to put Wemby on less than 30 minutes a game. Idgaf is Wemby complains or not he’s gonna be on restricted minutes. I don’t see how that’s even debatable

[gambit1990]

For the millionth time, we can't actually tank with Wemby, especially not with so many terrible teams that are going to blatantly tank from the opening night.
At that point, having 7th or 10th best odds doesn't make much of a difference.

If you want Spurs to get top5 odds, for all intents and purposes you want Wemby to get injured.

exactly !! like i said, the spurs are currently the #6 seed in the 2025 playoffs.

[gambit1990]

That season was the present, in any case... How can you have so much repeated trouble with something as simple as the present & future concepts, tbh?

spurs were trash for what, three years after i posted my thread? that's called the future.

[gambit1990]

mavs -> nba finals
pels -> didn't have zion for the playoffs
rockets -> twice as many wins as the spurs
grizzlies -> didn't have morant

FYI

[gambit1990]

anyways, back to the original post, the spurs cannot tank unless wemby goes down. you go all in now and then build on that.

i can't believe how low ST's faith is on wemby. shame on all y'all.

[LeBowen]

Which Western Conference teams do you realistically think we will wind up better than this season? I’ve got 2 in Utah and Portland. So by my estimate that would put us 3rd worse in the West. Washington, Brooklyn Toronto, and Detroit will be worse than us in the East.

Jazz, Blazers will definitely be worse. That's more or less guaranteed.
We could be better than a couple more teams. Obviously not all of them.
Rockets probably won't take another leap and they don't have a legit option.
Pelicans did get Dejounte, but their center rotation is significantly worse and they're one Zion injury away from being in the lottery.
Clippers have nothing to tank for because they don't own their pick, but they're past their expiry date and I can't see them being a legit playoff threat. If nephw gets injured again, it's over.

East is just awful.
Nets, Wizards, Bulls and Detroit will probably be the worst teams in the league.
Hornets are kind of putting it together, but there are too many idiots on that roster. We can only hope they click since their pick is top14 protected.
Raptors will probably be around .500 because the East is so bad and then pull the plug and hope to get into top5.
Hawks have way too many uncertainties and their record will be better than ours only because of weaker conference and no incentive to tank.

That's 7th-13th best odds range. Can't see us getting better than 7th because we certainly won't tank from the opening night and those 6 teams I mentioned surely will.
I expect those 6 to be under 25 wins.

That puts us 7th. Do you really think there’s no way we could tank when we will be the 7th worst team in the league? Like the Spurs wouldn’t calculate in March hey we are 4 games outta 5th and 12 outta 10th for the play in. Time to pull the plug again.

We can't get into top5 best odds. After that chances of moving into top4 drop off rapidly, no point in pulling the plug.
Especially since many teams will do it before us.

Our best and most realistic situation would be Hawks also being subpar and having two picks in 8-12 range. Then maybe we could trade up to #5 pick or something. Can't see us moving up higher than that.

[exstatic]

Jazz, Blazers will definitely be worse. That's more or less guaranteed.
We could be better than a couple more teams. Obviously not all of them.
Rockets probably won't take another leap and they don't have a legit option.
Pelicans did get Dejounte, but their center rotation is significantly worse and they're one Zion injury away from being in the lottery.
Clippers have nothing to tank for because they don't own their pick, but they're past their expiry date and I can't see them being a legit playoff threat. If nephw gets injured again, it's over.

East is just awful.
Nets, Wizards, Bulls and Detroit will probably be the worst teams in the league.
Hornets are kind of putting it together, but there are too many idiots on that roster. We can only hope they click since their pick is top14 protected.
Raptors will probably be around .500 because the East is so bad and then pull the plug and hope to get into top5.
Hawks have way too many uncertainties and their record will be better than ours only because of weaker conference and no incentive to tank.

That's 7th-13th best odds range. Can't see us getting better than 7th because we certainly won't tank from the opening night and those 6 teams I mentioned surely will.
I expect those 6 to be under 25 wins.



We can't get into top5 best odds. After that chances of moving into top4 drop off rapidly, no point in pulling the plug.
Especially since many teams will do it before us.

Our best and most realistic situation would be Hawks also being subpar and having two picks in 8-12 range. Then maybe we could trade up to #5 pick or something. Can't see us moving up higher than that.

The most common position to jump into the top 4 IS #7. It’s happened 4 times in 7 drafts with the current flattened odds. In fact, every position 11 and lower has jumped in at least once, except strangely, #6.

[LeBowen]

The most common position to jump into the top 4 IS #7. It’s happened 4 times in 7 drafts with the current flattened odds. In fact, every position 11 and lower has jumped in at least once, except strangely, #6.

Someone has to jump, but you don't base your entire season on fairly low odds when you already have your franchise player and a couple more young players that need development.
Tankathon has Spurs at #9 and Hawks at #10, that would be good enough. Iirc, 32% chance to jump into top4.

I see Wemby as a sure thing. The most important thing for this season will be the evaluation of everyone else.
Devin's contract will be great even if he keeps this level, but we need to see if he can take the next step and be a legit second option.
Jeremy made no improvements to his offense whatsoever other than his FT form. If he keeps stagnating, there will be serious discussions about his future because he'll be up for an extension next summer.
Castle's development is probably the most important thing. If we can develop him into a two-way point guard, we struck gold. If not, it's going to be another disappointing pick because the value of a non-shooting off guard is severely limited.
Branham, Wesley, Cissoko and Mamu have one more season to show us something, but they're most likely gone.

I'm a firm believer that winning is the best thing for development. We obviously won't win 45-50 games with this roster, but trying to actually win every game would be an improvement.

[exstatic]

Someone has to jump, but you don't base your entire season on fairly low odds when you already have your franchise player and a couple more young players that need development.
Tankathon has Spurs at #9 and Hawks at #10, that would be good enough. Iirc, 32% chance to jump into top4.

I see Wemby as a sure thing. The most important thing for this season will be the evaluation of everyone else.
Devin's contract will be great even if he keeps this level, but we need to see if he can take the next step and be a legit second option.
Jeremy made no improvements to his offense whatsoever other than his FT form. If he keeps stagnating, there will be serious discussions about his future because he'll be up for an extension next summer.
Castle's development is probably the most important thing. If we can develop him into a two-way point guard, we struck gold. If not, it's going to be another disappointing pick because the value of a non-shooting off guard is severely limited.
Branham, Wesley, Cissoko and Mamu have one more season to show us something, but they're most likely gone.

I'm a firm believer that winning is the best thing for development. We obviously won't win 45-50 games with this roster, but trying to actually win every game would be an improvement.

I agree. You just seemed a bit more pessimistic than warranted based on our finishing position. 9,10 and 11 have all jumped in only once, but 7, one of the positions you picked us to finish, has been top 4 four times, pretty close to the 6 times the worst overall team has. While I would like us to win the next lottery, we really just need to finish top four to get a very likely awesome player.

[MultiTroll]

In those 7 games after second, third and fourth best player on the roster got shut down, Wemby averaged 28.1/13.3/6.6 with 4.3 blocks.

Speaks volumes imo.

If Grandpa would surround him with team players and strategy I'd be hopeful.
Not holding my breath.

[LeBowen]

I agree. You just seemed a bit more pessimistic than warranted based on our finishing position. 9,10 and 11 have all jumped in only once, but 7, one of the positions you picked us to finish, has been top 4 four times, pretty close to the 6 times the worst overall team has. While I would like us to win the next lottery, we really just need to finish top four to get a very likely awesome player.

My logic is that I shouldn't be optimistic about anything with odds under 50%.

We got lucky three times in the past two drafts, it won't last forever.

[MannyIsGod]

This dude from Spurs have worst future in the division to LETS win now of a team he's not even a fan of. What?

[gambit1990]

cp3 won’t just help wemby get good looks, but he’ll get some for castle too. and castle will get some for wemby, he’s a good passer.

add an all-star to the roster.

[Sugus]

spurs were trash for what, three years after i posted my thread? that's called the future.

Oh, so the goalpost has been moved now to 3 years, where none of the conference teams had true success, equals "the future"? Good to know...

At least we're not in the goldfish memory "the future was that next season!!" stage anymore.

mavs -> nba finals
pels -> didn't have zion for the playoffs
rockets -> twice as many wins as the spurs
grizzlies -> didn't have morant

FYI

Lol, why do you cap teams' measure of success on what players they have available or not? You're either successful or you aren't - the specifics come after, to explain the why you were un/successful. Secondly, only the Mavs there had anywhere close to a successful season... But okay

[Sugus]

This dude from Spurs have worst future in the division to LETS win now of a team he's not even a fan of. What?

I'm just as confused as you, but really enjoying the whiplash, goldfish memory takes

[scott]

gambit getting a lot of flack here, and probably rightfully so, but if you remove the lotto luck for Wemby from the equation, and the Spurs would be one of the worst teams in the NBA. When the lotto gods favored us, everything changed, but other than that... hard to say he was wrong.

[exstatic]

gambit getting a lock of flack here, and probably rightfully so, but if you remove the lotto luck for Wemby from the equation, and the Spurs would be one of the worst teams in the NBA. When the lotto gods favored us, everything changed, but other than that... hard to say he was wrong.

That’s actually true of our entire 20+year run if that’s your standard. I don’t care if you put the entire rest of the team together, 2003-2015, without Tims lottery luck we’re not winning anything. Second round out, at best.

[scott]

That’s actually true of our entire 20+year run if that’s your standard. I don’t care if you put the entire rest of the team together, 2003-2015, without Tims lottery luck we’re not winning anything. Second round out, at best.

Not seeing how that's relevant, since gambit didn't make his post in 1996.

[exstatic]

Not seeing how that's relevant, since gambit didn't make his post in 1996.

The point being let’s see how they draft around Wemby going forward, since post David/Sean/Avery brief burst, that is what propelled us to 20+ years and the bulk of our championships, the drafts to fit around Tim. There’s the luck, and then what you do with it. I actually don’t care about misses in the 9-12 range, looking for a franchise guy in non franchise slots.

[ambchang]

gambit getting a lot of flack here, and probably rightfully so, but if you remove the lotto luck for Wemby from the equation, and the Spurs would be one of the worst teams in the NBA. When the lotto gods favored us, everything changed, but other than that... hard to say he was wrong.

If you discount everything the front office did right and all the things they did wrong they would be the worst FO in the history of the league. But if you decide to overlook all of their mistakes and only look at the things they did right, they’d look like geniuses. Sage advice mate.

[scott]

The point being let’s see how they draft around Wemby going forward, since post David/Sean/Avery brief burst, that is what propelled us to 20+ years and the bulk of our championships, the drafts to fit around Tim. There’s the luck, and then what you do with it. I actually don’t care about misses in the 9-12 range, looking for a franchise guy in non franchise slots.

Well, of course - but gambit is getting roasted for saying the Spurs had the worst future in their division several years before we drafted Wemby, a time period during which they proceeded to be terrible. Once the ping balls gave us Wemby, that all changed. It's not all that inconsistent to say "we have a terrible future" and then when cir stances change say "the future is bright". Just like it's not inconsistent for me to currently be optimistic for the future but change my tune if Wemby were to be called back to his home planet.