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Keldon's mistimed oop to Champ on the Champagnie Night was such a damn disgrace to me. That guy's MOMMA was watching in the stands dude
Didn't see any game grades, so I thought I'd put up a post-game chatter thread.
Game ball: Vic. He dominated on both ends. He was absolutely gassed at the end of the game because he played the entire 4th, but he still put up effort and made some huge defensive plays late including a couple of blocks. His effort was admirable, which is more than I can say for the other guys.
Great: Fox. Defensively, he actually moved his feet well and kept his hips in front of the ball carriers, he was putting in a good effort on that end of things and it'll pay off if he keeps it up. He is a lightning bolt on offense and is a serious threat even when he doesn't know our plays. What an asset. 30 points on 14 shots is also ludicrously efficient.
Great: Sochan. Probably had the best hustle of anyone in the game tonight. He's a defensive beast and seems to be guarding 1-5 with alacrity these days. I love watching his on-ball defense against guards. He's starting to peek into a window of being just good enough of a ranged shooter to draw the defense's respect which is a fantastic development.
Great: Castle. Despite only getting 19 minutes, Castle was fantastic on both ends of the court. I'm ready to say he's part of our big 3 even though he's still in his rookie campaign. Fox Castle Wemby should be locked in for the foreseeable future. For some abhorrent reason Mitch decided our team didn't need to play defense this game and sat Castle for most of the 2nd half. If Castle plays 30-34 minutes this game is never in doubt.
Decent: CP3. I don't know what you can expect out of the 39 year old but he put effort out there and finished with a team high 10 assists. His defense is clearly lacking but he is at least active with his hands. Mitch played him far too much against an energetic young team and he was clearly wore down as the game progressed and lost his ability to stay in front of his man.
Decent: Barnes. I would like to see more hustle from him but he hit shots tonight and got some boards. 12 and 5 is basically what I expect out of him these days.
Meh: Julian. Didn't get very involved in the action tonight. I feel like the honeymoon period with what we saw from Julian is over a bit. What I don't understand is that he at least brings 3 point shooting and spacing to the court. If our other guys aren't going to play defense and explicitly cannot shoot well from 3, why not keep him in and at least take some pressure off our guys who are drawing doubles? I feel better with Julian camped out at the 3 point line at least drawing a man out there than with a lot of our other guys right now.
Awful: Vassell. He looks uncomfortable, out of rhythm, his defense has regressed, and his shot looks terrible. I really hope he's still injured or has something bothering him because the alternative is highly concerning.
Trash can full of trash under a garbage pile: Keldon. He played the worst basketball I think I've seen any Spur play this year tonight against the worst team in the league. 2-8 from the field 3 TOs in 11 minutes of action. And he's a lazy sieve on defense that has no interest in hustling. He doesn't help on a 1v1 transition on the other team where he could have doubled, instead he just floated to under the hoop. Great job being in position so you can stat pad a rebound Keld.... oh the Wizards hit the shot. Guess you were just standing there for nothing, then. And he threw the ball away on a 2v1 fast break for our team. If I'm a coach and I see you sag off the ONLY PLAYER WHO CAN SHOOT to get a rebound and he makes it, you're riding the pine for a month. Appalling effort from Johnson tonight, you'd think dude would be happy that he wasn't traded to a tanking franchise, but if he keeps this kind of "effort" up I'll be happy if we can a solitary 2nd round pick for him.
Time to go: Mitch. I've been more lenient than most here and I accept that dude is thrust into a relatively uncomfortable environment having to suddenly be head coach of the most hyped player in NBA history, but if anything I've seen this team backslide on defensive discipline and decision making. We're still helping Wemby when he's got a 1v1 in the post leaving shooters on that side of the court wide open. We're still gambling entirely too much on defense and then not even trying to go for rebounds. There's just not a lot of effort from our role players. And last night he chose to play 11 minutes of Keldon Johnson and 30+ minutes of Chris Paul when Castle was the best wing defender on the court and having a productive, efficient offensive outing. I have no idea what he's doing at this point unless we got Fox and decided to try to lose every game for the rest of the season, but if that's the case why play Wemby the entire 4th and gas him? He still clearly hasn't recovered from the flu. None of these decisions seem cohesive with each other. I don't think Mitch has any sort of gameplan at this juncture.
Edit: Castle and Sochan had 3 steals each in a combined 41 minutes of play, on top of their elite defense. I'm just completely at a loss as to what the rotational decision making is for our team. They both deserve to start going forward regardless of shooting concerns.
Last edited by Cry Havoc; 02-11-2025 at 03:05 PM.
Keldon's mistimed oop to Champ on the Champagnie Night was such a damn disgrace to me. That guy's MOMMA was watching in the stands dude
Thanks for the thoughts Cry Havoc, and I like your grading system! I disagree that with the conclusion that both Castle and Sochan should start going forward, shooting be damned, but I am very much aligned with your perspective on everything else. I'm hoping Devin can show some consistent improvement now that he'll have Fox caving in the defense and giving him some open looks. If he can hit those looks, and improve his defensive intensity, he might have a place here after all... but if not, then it might be time to shop him in addition to Keldon.
I think our 5 best players are Fox, Castle, Devin, Jeremy, and Wemby. Barnes sneaks in there some nights but we're not winning the le this year so I'm fine letting those young guns share the court together and learn to gel even if it isn't ideal from a spacing perspective. Castle and Sochan have both shown improvement in their shooting so it might only be a matter of time before they are respectable from deep.
Sheesh. So that was YOU. Saw your post on Reddit lmao
Nice write up. Agree with everything except starting Castle and Sochan. Those guys need to be staggered together until at least one becomes consistent in shooting. Castle is showing a great sign. I like that Sochan finally look for his shots last night. I’ve been very critical of him passing shots lately. All in all, a terrific win despite against a mediocre team, but I’m not picky.
Great write-up!
I think Sochan is being mis-played as a backup Center when he is our next best defender after Wemby and Castle deserves to start over Paul. Now that we have Biyombo the first issue should be addressed sooner rather than later. Apropos the second thing, if Castle and Sochan hit their open threes, it will make Mitch's job easier with Castle starting over Paul and Sochan playing more minutes. Hope this happens earlier ...It should against the Boston game in particular where Brown, Tatum, White and Holiday could roast Fox, CP3, Vassell and Barnes.
this will happen as soon as next season
Thanks for the grades! Good read!
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