Game Thread: Spurs @ Wizards - Sat. 2/10/2025 -- 6:00 PM CST

[Pauleta14]

Look, Wemby is still young and yada yada yada, but at this age Tim Duncan was taking the league by storm. Wemby is All-Star caliber and will eventually be All-NBA, but he’s not him.

Yeah, TD didn't have a team of veterans around him that made things a lot easier as well as his development, compared to being surrounded by a low IQ roster...

Great comp

[spurraider21]

Look, Wemby is still young and yada yada yada, but at this age Tim Duncan was taking the league by storm. Wemby is All-Star caliber and will eventually be All-NBA, but he’s not him.

doesnt have the same discipline and resolve (yet), but he's more talented so he gets way with it. still doesnt feel like he was playing with anything resembling full effort, but still ended up with 31 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks, 2 steals on 12-21 shooting.

the scoring didnt feel as good as it looks, as a ton of it came in a brief 1st quarter barrage which saw that lead get erased anyway

[baseline bum]

The worse thing is that Vassell is so bad in defense.

He ain't a prize offensively either. For a supposedly good shooter you'd think he'd shoot good, but he's only league average from the three point line. Spurs need to move his ass in the offseason while he has trade value.

[Pauleta14]

Mitch is horrible, but as someone wrote, he's a company man and has no authority.

CP0 is the real reason for a lot of our rotation issues.
Came here because noone else would take him as a starter and refuses to sit even though he obviously knows the team would function way better with him as Fox's backup.
But his ego won't let him do that, therefore he puts his own needs in front of the team's.
Doesn't even want to rest for a couple of games despite being obviously exhausted, he's even playing with an injured hand. Just so he can claim he played 82 games at 39.
Egomaniac who doesn't care about the team, but his own reputation.

I said it a few days ago in CP0 thread, it's the elephant in the room

Imo it's over for this season, he probably has a gentleman agreement with Pop to start, but I pray he's not kept beyond this season

[Frenchfred]

Control for pace in 1998 versus 2025. In the era of 90-85 games Tim was an absolute monster. This 130-120 is hardly even basketball.

I wish that Wemby had a Robinson who can score 20+, rebounds 10+ and block 2+ and some shooters around him. I agree that Tim was better offensively, except that he didn't shoot threes.

[Extra Stout]

Yeah, TD didn't have a team of veterans around him that made things a lot easier as well as his development, compared to being surrounded by a low IQ roster...

Great comp

Way I see it, Duncan’s stats if anything were depressed by playing on such a deep team. On a garbage team like this Duncan would be putting up 30/15.

[Pauleta14]

Way I see it, Duncan’s stats if anything were depressed by playing on such a deep team. On a garbage team like this Duncan would be putting up 30/15.

I don't even want to compare both tbh, they're so different, but just their context.

My point is that you underestimate the handicaps Wemby has to deal with, TD had players doing the dirty work, high IQ that could teach him since day 1 when Wemby had Gleaguers and had to wait his 2nd season to have 2 vets.

TD had David who, even not in his prime still had the fear factor and still efficient, Wemby is alone having to go up and down the 3pts line when TD could stay in the post.

Can't you see the massive differences in terms of energy expenditure and help?

Imo Wemby is just in a huge slump physically and the staff want him to force and go through it to make his body used to. It's frustrating but it's far from being the reason our team suck, it's just part of the process for this singular morphotype to get the stamina of an elite player.

Then if u ant to compare the personalities, I agree, Wemby is more immature than TD at the same stage. A bit too candid

[ismael-robert]

Weren't yall just saying last game how tim wasn't in league till after 4 years of college while wemby still be a junior

[ismael-robert]

Are we getting wizards Vukcevic yet

[Dex]

I like how the Spurs win and the Game Thread is still full of people complaining. We are almost back to our peak!

[Extra Stout]

I agree, Wemby is not the reason the team sucks. The big reason the team sucks is because it has zero players that are starting-caliber NBA forwards. And it has a huge cultural problem where low-IQ, zero-defense chuckers are regarded as key members of the “young core.”

I’m just comparing the hype of what Wemby was supposed to be, you know, the second coming of Kareem, to what Duncan actually was at that same age. As others have mentioned, Wemby doesn’t yet have that “dog in him,” and doesn’t yet seem to understand how deep he has to dig to win at a higher level.

[Spurminator]

For me it's just common sense.
He's the person with highest basketball IQ on the team, including the coaching staff.
Current starting lineup is obviously hurting the team and he knows it. He's not the future and he's not getting anywhere if we're talking this season.
Spurs were probably the only team that offered him a starting role and it was a mutually beneficial deal.
But that's over now, we have Fox and Castle has been amazing as of late.
It's a crime against basketball that Castle didn't even play 20 minutes tonight and that he had to share most of his playing time with Keldon and Jeremy.

Mitch is a placeholder and CP0 needs to be the better man and say he'll come off the bench.
Too bad that won't happen since he's an egomaniac.


Another big issue that we have is Champagnie being turned into a cardio player.
He's doing nothing out there. He's a subpar 3-D wing, but at least he was useful as a starter because shots were created for him.
Right now it's like everyone has just forgotten he exists.
Just 2 3pta in 16 minutes, one was off the dribble. If Mitch has no clue how to generate shots for him, then he shouldn't even play him because Champagnie doesn't do anything else.

So, not substantiated.

Sounds like a coaching/management issue to me. Even if you're right about CP "refusing", the solution is still to bring CP off the bench, and if he complains or becomes a sourpuss about it, you drop him because he's not part of the team's long term plan.

[murpjf88]

Tim Duncan came into the league with a still-spry David Robinson and a ready-built playoff team.

Wemby came into the league with an injured Vassell as his number 2, and is playing his 2nd year with the corpse of Chris Paul running the show.

Let's not act like we are talking apples to apples here.

You're right about apples to apples. Duncan averaged 39.1 minutes per game his rookie season while playing all 82 games, back in a day where b2bs and 3 or 4 games in 5 days were the norm. Wemby would need an oxygen mask at that pace of play.

[baseline bum]

Look, Wemby is still young and yada yada yada, but at this age Tim Duncan was taking the league by storm. Wemby is All-Star caliber and will eventually be All-NBA, but he’s not him.

I my heart I always think Tim went to college for four years and Wemby would only be a junior right now so it keeps ing with me that Tim was a 21 year old rookie dominating the Suns in the playoffs.

[Mugen]

You're right about apples to apples. Duncan averaged 39.1 minutes per game his rookie season while playing all 82 games, back in a day where b2bs and 3 or 4 games in 5 days were the norm. Wemby would need an oxygen mask at that pace of play.

[rankingtear]

I agree, Wemby is not the reason the team sucks. The big reason the team sucks is because it has zero players that are starting-caliber NBA forwards. And it has a huge cultural problem where low-IQ, zero-defense chuckers are regarded as key members of the “young core.”

I’m just comparing the hype of what Wemby was supposed to be, you know, the second coming of Kareem, to what Duncan actually was at that same age. As others have mentioned, Wemby doesn’t yet have that “dog in him,” and doesn’t yet seem to understand how deep he has to dig to win at a higher level.

It is easier to get a lead guard than a forward these days.

[100%duncan]

I like how the Spurs win and the Game Thread is still full of people complaining. We are almost back to our peak!

I mean nothing is really that special with winning against the Wizards. This should have been a 4-0 winning streak before going against the Celtics. I don't think expecting that from this team is asking too much.

[Extra Stout]

I my heart I always think Tim went to college for four years and Wemby would only be a junior right now so it keeps ing with me that Tim was a 21 year old rookie dominating the Suns in the playoffs.

Now if Wemby stays healthy and doesn’t blow out a knee like Tim did, and eventually matures, then maybe he could pass him up.

[chubbs]

Dude, you traded Luka for a civilian and the 30th pick in the draft. Shut your ass up.

"you"

[baseline bum]

Way I see it, Duncan’s stats if anything were depressed by playing on such a deep team. On a garbage team like this Duncan would be putting up 30/15.

An objection I'd bring up is that Victor is basically the entire team's defense while 21YO Tim had a legendary defensive center already there to take a lot of pressure off him on that side of the ball and cover more of the most fatiguing matchups in the post like Shaq, Olajuwon, Ewing, and Mourning. Can't remember if Tim or Dave matched up more on Warm Karl in the Utah games, but you got to rest a lot on defense in that slow paced era if you weren't the one guarding the post while now Wemby is constantly chasing guys off screens and always in motion.

[baseline bum]

Now if Wemby stays healthy and doesn’t blow out a knee like Tim did, and eventually matures, then maybe he could pass him up.

That's a major ask no matter how talented a guy is coming into this league considering you can make a really good case Tim is top 5 all time.

[gilmor2002]

I want to see it, too.
Too bad we'll enjoy watching CP0 guard Derrick and Devin guard Brown.

Derrick and Pritchard shot unbelievable 3; and there is Porzingis whom Wemby need to guard when he was launching the 3's.

[baseline bum]

No Chick Fil A for MannyIsGod

[Dex]

I mean nothing is really that special with winning against the Wizards. This should have been a 4-0 winning streak before going against the Celtics. I don't think expecting that from this team is asking too much.

The results speak for themselves. We ain't there yet.

[ismael-robert]

I keep in mind wemby hasn't had full summer yet. He lead France to silver to compare to tims playoff performance. I'm going to give an early watch out for year 3 wemby...