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This list makes me want to vomit
Players to choose from: Blake Wesley, Malaki Branham, David Duke Jr., Sidy Cissoko, Harrison Ingram, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Riley Minix, Charles Bassey
Go ahead and rank them from most likely to least likely, too.
My rankings:
1. Sidy Cissoko - I know I’m alone on this island but I see special talent there that admittedly has a long shot of it happening, but if it does, he will be in the NBA for a long time.
2. David Duke Jr. - Another hot take. A lot of what I’ve seen from Duke checks a lot of boxes. If his potential is realized, he will have a long NBA career.
3. Charles Bassey - Spurs bigs who move on have historically stuck around— see Landale and Eubanks.
4. Sandro Mamukelashvili - Could have a Kyle Anderson type career post-Spurs. Meaning he’ll hop around different teams then find one where he sticks for a couple years. An NBA journeyman.
5. Blake Wesley - Number 5 and onwards have a small chance to make it, IMO. I see Wesley being an NBA journeyman similar to Pat Beverley and having that type of career.
6. Malaki Branham - I think his career will mirror Lonnie Walker’s.
7. Riley Minix - Obviously it’s too soon to say anything, so this ranking is premature but this is where I have him. Not a fan of his foot speed on defense.
8. Harrison Ingram - I’m just not a big believer. He looks too heavy out there and not skilled enough.
This list makes me want to vomit
OP needs help for his updated namesake/moniker/profile-pic
somebody tag timvp
Nobody cares
Looking at the options just makes me depressed.
The options weren’t intended to be world-beaters, tbh. The highest draft selection is Malaki and he was the 20th pick. After that, it’s the 29th pick (Wesley). And everyone else is either second round or undrafted. If I took the bottom half of the Celtics roster, either 1) no one would know most of the players or 2) think any would have much of an NBA future. Nearly 90% of the league is like that.
NBA teams are top half heavy. Rosters with top to bottom talent is unusual to non-existent.
Sandro Mamukelashvili - his ceiling isn't that high due to his bad defense, but he's got the highest floor. And idk if a 25 year old can be called young. Hopefully he becomes a good bench forward, perfect connective piece that does a bit of everything on offense.
Charles Bassey - if he can stay healthy, will be a solid backup. Too bad about those knee injuries, would've surely been a high-end backup for Wemby.
Sidy Cissoko - Due to his physical talents, he's got a way higher ceiling than Wesley or Branham. His shot is still really bad, but at least he's making some improvements. I don't think he'll make it as anything more than a 10th man in the rotation, but good defensive wings can always get some minutes.
Blake Wesley - just too many variables that need to allign for him to succeed. Offense is still non-existant and while the defense looks good, we're kind of grasping for straws since we've been horrible for so many years. He wouldn't feature on any good roster.
Malaki Branham - off-ball guard that doesn't excel at anything. The easiest archetype to find in the league. Will be lucky if he even gets a contract anywhere after his rookie deal.
David Duke Jr - he's a guard that's way behind Branham in the pecking order and he's 25. Enough said.
Harrison Ingram - too early to say. He looks too slow footed, I don't think he'll be more useful than Cissoko long-term.
Riley Minix - much like Ingram and Mamu, another big negative on defense. But he could be the best offensive player on this list. I guess we'll have to wait a year to see how it goes. But he's already 24, time isn't working in his favor.
My theory is that Branham has a much bigger season that you guys expect. The problem comes is if for some reason we are in the playoffs, he would have a horrid series.
I'm just here to watch the usual suicide cases and whine.
Cissoko is the lone mildly interesting prospect but Mamu is actually useful right now so I'll go with him.
Voted for Minix solely based on the fact we have a good sample size already to judge the ceiling for most of the other players. Minix is more of an unknown, therefore is my wildcard.
Sidy definitely has the highest ceiling due to his athleticism, passing vision and overall smarts, it his shot is so broken that it will be a multi year project. I don’t think I exaggerating when I say I’ve played with people with a better shot than him, and I don’t play with high end players either.
Wesley has similar strengths and issues, but his strengths are not as pronounced as sidy nor are his weaknesses. He can be a guard version. Hope and pray he could be a modern day Lindsey hunter or a Brandon knight.
Mamu has a role somewhere but you just can’t train footspeed. The effort is there, but you can’t train a poodle to run like a greyhound.
Braham looks to be a poor man’s LW4
The others are all too early to tell. I know people love minix, but he’s like a homeless man’s version of McBuckets.
One guy on this list grades out as an elite shot blocker and defensive rebounder in a sampling of real NBA games, so I'm gonna go with him.
Maybe when one of these other guys can at least start with dominating the G-League, my opinion will change.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=405817920791350
I think Greg Pop is going to become a player - coach and surprise us all.
That’s the major issue I have with Sidy. He’s been in the gleague for two seasons, one with the Ignite, and one with the Spurs, and he’s not been even good, let alone dominant. I’m also getting that strong Scoot vibe,where his second year was worse than his first.
My JJ Spur rankings:
1. Sidy Cissoko - Sure he's very athletic and can play some defense, but not a whole lot else. Athleticism only gets you so far, you actually need more than running and jumping talent to stick in the NBA. One more development year and he's likely gone.
2. David Duke Jr. - He is a good G-league player but only good enough to be a 13th,14th, 15th guy on the right team. He makes sense on the spurs on a two way.
3. Charles Bassey - Spurs big who often gets injured. Pretty much a 3rd string center if he can stay healthy. Can get exposed by better backup centers but at least he has a cheap contract.
4. Sandro Mamukelashvili - If he gets his minutes and produces, he could have a Matt Bonner like career. Spursy kind of player who Pop likes because he plays the right way. Plays well with Wemby also which helps. **
5. Blake Wesley - Can play defense and run fast but not a whole lot else. We will have a number of draft picks next year. Do you keep one of them or someone who has a hard time making a lay up ? Not that tough of a call.
6. Malaki Branham - When the spurs cut him next year (with pay of course), he'll get a minimum deal somewhere, get cut again and then its off to China or Australia where his defense won't be a priority. Better players than him have moved overseas.
7. Riley Minix - Its really really early, but he can shoot, another Matt Bonner type maybe ?
8. Harrison Ingram - He's a bit slow and a tweener which may make it difficult for him. Was probably well coached at NC so that helps. He's on a two way so lets see what he can do in Austin, he may surprise us. Smart choice for where he was drafted.
** Best future
Last edited by jjspur; 10-21-2024 at 12:01 PM.
Bassey is the only guy who qualifies if he can stay healthy.
He probably can’t though.
Wesley is next, as a strong defender who has a nice Assist/TO ratio.
If he can add anything at all on offense he’s a serviceable backup PG who can play a while in the league.
Branham has skills on offense but his mentality sucks. I truly believe his problems are more mental than anything else.
Get him a psych and see if they can re-wire him.
No one else on this list gives me any reason to believe they can become significantly more than they are.
Minix is almost a total unknown so I’ll wait and see there
Bassey is a legit NBA player, just has a lot of injury concerns. Mamu has a nice skillet as a big so he will always have a bench role in the NBA somewhere imo. Minix is hard to gauge because we haven't seen a lot but a stretch big with a sweet three pointer is always going to have a place in the NBA if he isn't a complete negative on defense.
The other guys are all scrubs and too one dimensional. In all likelihood none of these guys will see regular minutes in the future
you'd thing i hate him based on my comments but i'd agree that that Cissoko is the most intriguing of the group because his athletic profile is pretty absurd and lets him impact the game quite a bit if he knows what he's doing. while the ballhandling stuff is cute, i think he just needs to patter his game after people like aaron gordon and shawn marion. obviously he wont be as prolific a scorer as marion... but i think thats his path to sticking around.
with that said, i think Mamu is a pretty safe bet to hang around because he is obviously quite skilled. i do think his future is as a 4 alongside a legit rim protecting 5, but he has primarily just been deployed at C thus far with the spurs (i think he and bassey would pair together in concept... obviously he showed some chemistry next to Vic late last year as well)
it wouldnt surprise me if wesley/branham were essentially out of the league after their rookie contracts expire. wesley has actually shown some growth over the last year, whereas branham seems stuck in mud as an ineffective "scoring specialist." what's odd is early last season, he actually had some really strong moments as a point of attack defender. but that didnt last long at all, and his team defense has always been some combination of confused and disinterested.
i think ingram has the most obscure path to rotation play because im not quite sure exactly what strengths he should be leaning into. i could see a path with Minix, though i have no idea what position he defends and for what position he can adequately rebound.
david duke jr is actually pretty interesting all around as far as his skillset, but he's already turned 25. but he defends well, passes well, and the shot has improved.
Last edited by spurraider21; 10-21-2024 at 01:02 PM.
I think Sidy would fail if having to play in lineups where he has to do a lot on offense, but playing along with VW he could do ok and contribute to the style of play Pop seems to want. Last ten games of last season was a small example of that. Same with Mamu, generally speaking.
As for players who could do well when playing with end of bench scrubs, I think Bassey and Riley would get decent stats.
Didn't say they were. But several of these players will be expected to make contributions off the bench, and none of them are particularly good. It's a crapshoot and it's strongly possible none of them make it past next year.
Gun to my head, I'd say Branham because his type of game and likely cost after his contract will be good for cellar-dwellers looking for any chance at a cheap bench scorer. Wesley has the most potential, though, out of all of these and he's who I'd personally go with it (no gun to the head).
The archetype that Sidy reminds me of is early career LeBron. Obviously he’s only 1% of that, but I think that’s who he should model his game after. I think Sidy’s body is imposing enough to where defenders will get out of his way when he’s barreling towards the rim. I don’t think it’s like Keldon where it will result in a turnover if defenders are getting out of the way.
Paul
Vassell
Champagne
Sochan
Wemby
Keldon
Tre Jones
Barnes
Collins (barf)
^those are your top 9 players who are obvious locks to have regular minutes in the rotation. I don’t think Pop will play beyond a 9 man rotation. Sure, someone might get injured and someone from the group will play. But those are minutes that are cir stantial. And let’s say they do play over someone who’s not from the top 9… that’s one guy and they probably earned it anyways.
I think it’s off base to say that they’ll have any major impact on the rotation. I think your worries are misplaced, tbh.
The context of this thread is to assess the players who have an outside chance of making the regular rotation on this team by next year (on this team or a different one) and if the expectations were set properly, there’s not a good reason to be depressed about it.
Seems to me like the spurs championship runs are over. They will draft some good players and develop them for other teams or draft ty players that will eventually be part of the coaching staff in about 15 years. Spurs, the AAA of the NBA.
strong athlete barreling toward the rim could also just be like, larry nance, josh smith, etc. lebron is a wild one to bring up lol
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