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He sounds like Pop... a year ago!So yeah they're gonna be compe ve in the first to middle games of the season then tank to the end lol
I was hoping Castle would start and get a chance at ROY. But I think Sheppard will be tough to beat. I could see Sheppard scoring 30-40 pts when he gets real hot. ESPN loves that.
He sounds like Pop... a year ago!
I don't trust a word coming from PATFO
However, it's interesting to see Vic and Devin being quite ferm in telling the goal is the POs
My guess is PATFO don't share their strategy with the players, CIA style
May not be to all players, but for sure to your franchise player Wemby, veteran CP3, maybe Vassell and Keldon. Still, players are prepped what to say to the media, what fans want to hear and the league.
I expect the Spurs to try to be compe ive but still bring in the young players a lot of runs to develop, and see who will stick. They have tons of picks the following years. Some players will have to go. It’s going to be a grueling process for the players if they’re still going to be in black and grey jersey for long.
There’s no possible way they can tank this year. To even get into the bottom 8 or so teams, you’d have to tank out of the gate. They finished 6-2 last year with Devin, Keldon,and Sochan on the shelf, and the last quarter of the season, they were 10-12. If the plan was to tank, they never would have signed CP3, although it could be argued that they might have done the a Barnes trade for the swap, anyway. Nothing they’ve done this offseason says tank.
yeah, i really don't know where this tank narrative is coming from. posters just making up their own crap and throwing it at the wall, i guess.
Why does it seem like you've said this before and they ended up tanking.
I see another season of Pop not doing so hot on the sidelines and people around the league calling it another 'soft tank.' Especially guys like Magic who basically guaranteed Wemby would be in the playin this season.
I’ve said it without attribution. There are pretty clear signs this year, though.
These preseason talks doesn't hype me at all.
To put it bluntly, last season Spurs were Wemby, an injury prone Vassell and nothing else good. Tre Jones was Spurs' third best player. To have a limited role player like him as your third best player highlights how weak Spurs were. On a good team, a player like Tre is about the 8th best player.
For this season, I don't care at all Spurs wining 35 or 40 games if it's because Paul and Barnes have been very good. The only thing that matter to me is the level of 5 players: Wemby, Vassell, Castle, Sochan and Johnson. These player might potentially become building blocks of a good team. The rest of the roster is composed of players that are too old, too limited or marginal prospects
There’s this myth among fans who think that a team having prospects from 1 to 15 is a normal thing around the league. It isn’t. Only team you can probably say that is the Thunder, but maybe not even then. After the top five players, those guys typically don’t have high ceilings. This isn’t NBA 2K, I’m sorry.
The Rockets? Let’s name their top 5 (after their first two vets, Dillon and FVV, since that’s what you did for the Spurs): Reed, Jalen Green, Jalen Smith, Sengun, Amen
who are the guys after those five? Cam Whitmore? Who looked like a selfish scrub summer league. Tari? Flash in a pan guy who is losing steam with Rockets fans…
that’s it. That’s the list. And that’s a team with a lot of young guys. There aren’t a lot of teams like the Rockets.
^ Im very eager to see what Jeremy does this season. I think he and Keldon are on a path to be duplicative on the roster long term, so it will be interesting to see how they handle. That and Keldon's deal looks like great trade bait.
I found it interesting that Pop has been trying to get HB to the spurs since the last Olympics. He'll be here a while, meanwhile I think CP3 is here for a cup of coffee.
Im irrationally pumped for Castle.
You've omitted Jabari Smith Jr., which is s sign of how much young talent they have over there. That guy is simply buried on that team, which has to be frustrating to him.
I'd love to get him on the Spurs. He'd be the PERFECT 4 next to Wemby.
It's not science, it's sport. No one is ever safe from seeing one of these prospects significantly improve an area of his game and sure values do not put one foot in front of the other.
If the Spurs have what it takes to develop their roster in the future, it's good to put pressure on these prospects, but it's natural to have confidence in them. Because we are always surprised. This is the Spurs. Who was waiting for Parker and Ginobili? No one. It happens. The role of a coach is also to listen to these opportunities. Pop proved he knew what he was doing. If these opportunities come true, it will give these players the opportunity to stand out, this time with the pressure of results.
Last year Pop was exploring and asking players to "be themselves" like he always asked, this year it's a safe bet he's asking them to "be themselves, but to do everything to win.” That's what veterans are for. Not to be compe ive immediately, but to seek to understand what it means to seek to win. You don't learn that when you lose by 20 points in every game. And as in major events, it is in these moments that great personalities are revealed. By definition, it's not until the season that Pop will be able to find out.
The NBA is about lotteries. Choosing good picks is not enough. You also have to have a lot of luck and see prospects reveal themselves where you didn't expect them. Because there will also be as many or even more disappointments. And in a small market, find these players who reveal themselves, often great role players (a la Bowen/Diaw) is essential. Small contracts that raise pretty banners to the ceiling.
I'm excited for the season. Either certain guys show marked improvement with CP3 and Barnes adding a veteran presence, or they don't at which point the front office should be looking to move them out. Lots of questions should be immediately answered.
It just takes time to assess talent/fit properly; I trust the FO decisions be it cutting the cord or giving more rope to some players. However I will say, there are a lot of redundancy on our current roster and fat will be trimmed.
You can remove Keldon from the equation tbh. He's firmly in the Tre Jones tier.
As long Vic continues his trajectory and two out of Castle/Vassell/Sochan show that they're above average players, I'd consider that a pretty massive W for the season.
Jeremy in particular is due for a very telling season. Zero excuse for him to not break out IMO unless he's just not that good which could very well be the case.
That's not what I'm saying.
What I'm saying is:
Spurs have right now only 2 players to build around with Wembanyama and Vassell.
What is the really important this year is to have 1 or 2 more players in that category at the end of the season.
Castle, Sochan and Johnson are the most likely candidates to do that.
I didn’t omit him. I just said his name wrong. There isn’t any Jalen Smith on that team, Jabari is what I meant. Haha
Barnes' comments on Wesley really pop out to me. I would think his pathway to success was rather narrow, at least sticking with his current team. But his pathway was becoming a pesky defender. I know people were poor on him last year, but he really cleaned up his biggest problem. He no longer was driving into trees and getting swatted. His finishing still wasn't great, but he clearly was using the floor better.
One of the biggest problems with this board is a lack of patience. I'm not sure how many players the Spurs have to develop over multiple years before fans learn how to be patient and wait. Statements like "There are only two good players on this team" are really silly and run against what we've seen happen multiple times.
With Pop's continued comments on Cissoko and the shedding of even the idea of a player like Dillingham, it seems clear the team is going first for a defensive iden y. I think that's going to annoy some people, but in the end will be the foundation that gets us forward.
Defensive iden y is the right way to go, but in 2024 we can't really afford to have complete non-factors on offense.
We just drafted a player who's obviously a better version of Wesley, but even he's limited offensively.
Since we got CP3 and Tre is still here, how can we incorporate Wesley and his non-existant range into any kind of sensible lineup?
He just needs too many variables to go his way to succeed here and odds of that happening aren't high.
Same goes for Cissoko. He can get minutes when Jeremy isn't on the floor, but we need better spacing and he's got three guaranteed rotation members ahead of him and Champagnie/Mamu fighting for remaining minutes.
The problem is that we have way too many players to develop and not all of them will be able to reach their maximum potential.
Castle, Branham, Wesley, Jeremy, Cissoko are all a long way from where they need to be and it's not like Tre/Devin are finished products, either.
Wesley's best chance will be the start of the season while Devin is out. If he doesn't seize the opportunity, he won't get another one until CP3 has some DNP/rest nights.
I think that’s a bit overblown on Keldon. Last time he played with a PG he put up a 17/6/2 line, shooting 40% from 3. That’s not Tre level.
That's the Styx still running through your mind! Haha
Your comment made me google him, as I haven't heard anything about him in a hot minute, and..... WTF happened to this guy?? I could not believe the first picture that appeared of him was actually the guy. That neck looks "San Antonio thick" and not in a good way...
His stats don't look too good either, but I haven't really seen him play in Indy. He looked like a nice prospect, and more of a SF-PF type, I'm surprised to see him having played center the last two seasons too.
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