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Castle suddenly getting good at shooting bodes well for us.
Now if only Mitch starts him and plays him 30 minutes ...
Fox > Parker
Castle > Manu
Wemby > Duncan
Now just to assemble the supporting cast. And we are perfectly positioned to navigate the complicated salary cap rules and penalties.
(if I am to be assailed feel free to subs ute the > with = signs and I won't argue. I was basing those mostly on potential, not career achievements obviously.)
Castle suddenly getting good at shooting bodes well for us.
Now if only Mitch starts him and plays him 30 minutes ...
To rhyme it:
The key will be . . .
Can Castle play the 3 . . .
they don't mesh.
still need another piece to build a big 4 so we can really dominate
Rather have 2 s tier stars, and 4 solid pieces ala boston, than a big 3. Think we’re on the right track though.
Yeah no, Wemby is an unbelievable prospect but Tim was dominating playoff games at 21.
I'm clearly subbing in a < for Wemby vs Tim right now and it's no diss to Victor because Tim is arguably a top 5 player who was also better at the same age.
Wemby is more gifted defensively but offensively, he's not in the same realm as Tim (yet, I hope). Tim also had a 4 year college degree and that stuff clearly matters. Wemby is highly intelligent but there's just no subs ute for four years of college when it comes to critically thinking and self-reflection, the most important mental attributes for improvement.
Yeah Victor is already better than Tim defensively IMO, which is saying a lot since Tim should have won a couple of DPOY. But offensively he's nowhere close when Tim was an automatic bucket on the left block from Day 1.
Fahrenheit 451
Ya’ll not factoring Wemby on a much worse team that he’s carried most his young career or his 3 PT range that Duncan NEVER had.
Wemby is no TD now and I doubt he ever will be even close in the long run. Folks forget how big and strong TD was under the hoop.
Fox/Castle/Wemby are def the next Big 3 for the Spurs, but let's not start sucking each other's s just yet. Comparing them to the Best Trio in NBA history is a LONG WAY AWAY
I'm loving what I'm seeing from Castle from these cross-court, whipped skip passes to find guys open for 3. Fox does the same thing and Wemby does to at times (though his are a little out of control at times but he such a unique angle for these passes that once he just settles down a little bit they'll be just as deadly). The meta roster build with these 3 seems pretty clear to me... we need to pair them with two 6'8"+ true 3&D wings who can rebound. Sorry to everyone who loves Sochan and Devin... but they don't fit that. Now, they can be excellent bench pieces (though Vassell is overpaid to be a bench piece), but they simply don't fit the ideal build with our Big 3.
So who does fit? (All the percentiles below are from CraftedNBA.com.
Ferraris (will be costly to get, maybe even impossible, so maybe you just keep dreaming)
- Trey Murphy III - 6'8" with a 7' wingspan. 83rd percentile TS%, 95th percentile SQ Index, 69th percentile DRB, 78th percentile Rim Frequency defender, 84th percentile defensive versatility, but only 35th percentile in Crafted DPM.
- OG Anunoby - 6'7" with a 7'3" wingspan. 72nd percentile TS%, 65th percentile SQ Index, 71st percentile DRB, 69th percentile BLKpct, 91st percentile defensive versatility, 91st percentile Crafted DPM
- Toumani Camara - 6'7" with a 7'1" wingspan. 43rd percentile TS%, 46th percentile SQ Index, 67th percentile DRB, 94th percentile raDTOV, 99th percentile defensive versatility, 87th percentile Crafted DPM. Only a 35.6% 3P shooter this year, but still young which is why I have listed in the Ferrari category. Basically, I don't think POR is letting this guy go.
- Pascal Siakam - 6'8" with a 7'3" wingspan. 82nd percentile TS%, 90th percentile DRB, 51st percentile ORB, 94th percentile CraftedOPM, 64th percentile CraftedDPM. We don't need someone of his stature in this role, but he'd fit
BMWs (very nice, and probably attainable if you want to pay the price)
- Herb Jones - 6'6" with 7'0" wingspan. 73rd percentile TS%, 76th percentile SQ Index, 98th percentile offensive portability, 93rd percentile deflection rate, 96th percentile raDTOV, 59th percentile DRB, 98th percentile defensive versatility, 97th percentile Crafted DPM. Kind of the flip side of the coin from Trey Murphy who is the elite offensive 3&D, Herb is the elite defensive 3&D
- Jaden McDaniels - 6'9" with a 6'11" wingspan. 49th percentile TS%, 51st percentile SQ index. 78th percentile in deflections and raDTOV, only 35th percentile DRB, but 78th percentile Rim Defense and 90th percentile defensive versatility. 88th percentile CraftedDPM. Not as good of a shooter... kind of a worse version of Herb in my opinion. Also kind of overpaid IMO
- PJ Washington - 6'7" with a 7'3" wingspan. Subpar offensive metrics but very good defensively and on the boards. Has mostly shot well from 3 in his career but up and downs
Toyotas (dependable, probably gettable without too much pain?)
- Derrick Jones Jr. Solid defender. Not a great rebounder. Decent shooter but not great
- Haywood Highsmith. A little small (6'5") but would be a sneaky get. Pretty good shooter, but limited offensively beyond that. Decent to good rebounder. Really good defender.
- Tobias Harris. Not the best shooter as of late, but good defender and really good on the defensive boards.
- Isaac Okoro. Undersized. Good shooter, good defender, okay on the glass. Plays smart.
- Jake LaRavia. My guy. Good shooter, okay defender, but 91st percentile in deflections, 75th percentile in Rim Defense Frequency and 74th percentile defensive versatility. Not a great DRB guy, but 94th percentile ORB. Maybe something to work with there.
- Dean Wade. Here is a sneaky one. Pretty decent shooter but 89th percentile DRB and 98th percentile CraftedDPM. Has a 99th percentile 3PAr, so he's used to the role of just standing around and waiting for the open 3.
lol
Never change ST
Who peed in your wheaties, sir?
All fair point but I don’t know that Wemby is more gifted technically on defense (yet) than Tim. He’s obviously got physical gifts that he uses well.
Man that video brought back good memories.
Is Wemby an automatic bucket at age 21? Was Tim? Sorry it's not close yet. The difference between how much better offensively 21YO Tim was than Victor is quite a bit bigger than the difference between how much better defensively Victor is than 21YO Duncan. David was amazing but rookie Tim also had AJ, Vinny Del Negro, and Jaren Jackson / Will Perdue starting next to him. Sean missed most of that season IIRC.
Right now Castle is Tiago Splitter, not Manu.
Victor I would say is on another level than Tim was when it comes to being a shot blocker, but I would say Duncan was just as good at switching and guarding screens as Victor, but Victor covers more length than Duncan did due to his height. One thing I would say Duncan was better than Victor at is guarding great post up players like Shaq. I don't think Victor will ever be as good at guarding physically strong post up players like Tim was due to him just having a weaker frame, but I don't think it will be too much of an issue for him since outside of Jokic there isn't any strong post up players in the current NBA.
Offensively Tim was more dominant than Victor simply because Tim had the great back to basket post-up game and great out of this world footwork. I think Victor can develop great footwork, but he will never be able to post up and muscle guys like Tim was able to for easy automatic buckets. Victor to me on the offensive end will end up more like Kevin Garnett and David Robinson since those guys were not great post players but were great athletes that relied on their jump shot and athletic ability to slash to the basket.
Tim was one of the few guys I ever saw hold his own physically against prime Shaq. I was always amazed at how he could box out Shaq underneath the basket for rebounds and also show great resistance to Shaq when Shaq tried to back him down in the post. Duncan didn't have the bulging muscles like David did, so people forget or don't realize how deceptively strong he was, but Duncan was ridiculously strong. He could easily move guys underneath the basket when he would post them up.
Ultimately, I think Victor will be some hybrid of Durant, David Robinson, Garnett when he reaches his full potential. I think his lack of post-game will hurt him in clutch situations, but this is where we have to hope Fox and eventually Castle can be good enough to be closers in those situations.
If Victor has no post game, then he can't be a hybrid of three good post players. Also, Victor's face-up game is terrible as well.
Durant, Robinson, Garnett were not good post up players in the sense they didn't have back to the basket game like Duncan, Jokic, Shaq, Hakeem. Victor is in the same mold of those 3 guys. I would say Victor's face up game can get better, and I think it will over time. That's something he can improve on.
I totally glossed over OP comparing Wemby/Fox/Castle to Timmy/Manu/Tony
Yeah, let's pump the brakes on that.
With that said, I'm just super pumped that we have an ACTUAL core to build around now... not some weakass FriendshipCore of Vassell/Sochan/Keldon to delude ourselves into thinking are going to lead us somewhere one day
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