Brian Keeps Getting It Wright

[exstatic]

Possible that the Spurs become the 1st team in league history with 3 consecutive ROYs.

We are poised to have a great summer, unless those meddling friendship coalition kids spoil it for us.

Two things work against that.
1, Cooper Flagg
2. Wemby/Fox/Castle. He’ll be fighting for touches. It helped Castle’s campaign a LOT when Wemby and Fox went down.

[Holt's Cat]

Definitely feels like on an even better trajectory with Castle, Fox, and presumably Harper added in last 12 months.

Pick 14 offers much promise as well.

[spursistan]

#2 was a stroke of luck, but this an incredible work by Brian Wright. He's amassed better future FRPs than elite assets hoarder like Ainge and Presti..That Boston swap has suddenly shot up in value after the Tatum Achilles injury.

[scott]

OKC and HOU’s war chests are still better, but the Spurs have (by far) the single best asset of the bunch right now in the #2 pick of this draft. Of course, that expires on draft day.

What the Spurs don’t have that OKC and HOU do is excess draft capital. Right now the Spurs only excess is this year’s #14. That limits how much we can and should be willing to add into a trade.

[RedAzSa]

What we lack in quan y, we make up for in quality. I love how the FO has cast a wide net with our future capital. In addition to having a ton of exciting talent now, we own a draft asset with high upside from FIVE other teams. The past 12 months has shown how quickly teams can rise and fall. I think at least one of these swaps pays off big down the line.

[Atl Spur]

Draft Harper….

[Atl Spur]

Definitely feels like on an even better trajectory with Castle, Fox, and presumably Harper added in last 12 months.

Pick 14 offers much promise as well.

Our projected three guard lineup will terrorize the league! All offering different skill sets but initiator qualities

[RC_Drunkford]

#2 was a stroke of luck, but this an incredible work by Brian Wright. He's amassed better future FRPs than elite assets hoarder like Ainge and Presti..That Boston swap has suddenly shot up in value after the Tatum Achilles injury.

yes those swaps are gold with how teams jump up in the lottery. Being able to add lottery talent once Wemby is on a max will be crucial. I wouldn't even try to package those picks, except Spurs 29. Other than that we still have a gang of 2nds that we can use for trades or maybe trade for a late 1st/more swaps.

[mudd]

Our projected three guard lineup will terrorize the league! All offering different skill sets but initiator qualities

[mudd]

three elite guards and wemby, whats there to think about!!!

[LeBowen]

the thing is the team didn't even get worse by much. There's not that much of a gap between White and Richardson when it comes to production

I'm sorry, but I had to bump this one.

[spurraider21]

OKC and HOU’s war chests are still better, but the Spurs have (by far) the single best asset of the bunch right now in the #2 pick of this draft. Of course, that expires on draft day.

What the Spurs don’t have that OKC and HOU do is excess draft capital. Right now the Spurs only excess is this year’s #14. That limits how much we can and should be willing to add into a trade.

i think Amen is in the conversation unless you consider him completely off the table for these purposes

[baseline bum]

OKC and HOU’s war chests are still better, but the Spurs have (by far) the single best asset of the bunch right now in the #2 pick of this draft. Of course, that expires on draft day.

What the Spurs don’t have that OKC and HOU do is excess draft capital. Right now the Spurs only excess is this year’s #14. That limits how much we can and should be willing to add into a trade.

If Harper ends up who he is projected to be the Spurs don't need to make big trades any more and all those swaps mean they're still be going to be able to add some decent talent with their own picks over the next six years so I'm good with not having the excess draft capital right now.

[baseline bum]

i think Amen is in the conversation unless you consider him completely off the table for these purposes

I'd be floored if the Rockets make him available. But if they do they're getting Giannis, no question.

[scott]

i think Amen is in the conversation unless you consider him completely off the table for these purposes

I'm only talking about picks. If we want to include players (who may or may not be on the table), the Spurs still obviously have the most valuable asset in the entire league (Wemby)

[scott]

If Harper ends up who he is projected to be the Spurs don't need to make big trades any more and all those swaps mean they're still be going to be able to add some decent talent with their own picks over the next six years so I'm good with not having the excess draft capital right now.

I agree. We're sitting pretty so long as Brian keeps doing a good job.

[RC_Drunkford]

I'm sorry, but I had to bump this one.

I wasn't wrong though. We had DJ handling the ball and needed an offball shooter. White wasn't shooting 3s like he did in Boston back then and our team didn't lose anything that year by swapping him out for J-Rich. That doesn't mean I thought J-Rich was the better player.

[Atl Spur]

Cook

[heyheymymy]

��������

[Mnky]

Brian is filling roster spots with real NBA players instead of possible players one day. I like what they've been doing. Olynyk is a good rental and great trade bait for a big move if one comes open.

If we move on from vassell or Keldon, Jmac fits very nicely contract wise and ability. He's a good player for a reserve spot.

I honestly feel like Spurs are actually looking to make a real move for once. They have all the pieces to go out and be maintainable after.

[SpursBills]

So far Wright's proven himself to be good at:

- flipping assets for draft picks (Dejounte, Derozan, etc.)
- getting free assets by playing facilitator (Barnes)
- not overpaying in trades for star players (Fox)
- winning the margins by signing FAs/trades for cheap that fit within the overall vision (Kornet, Olynyk)
- recruiting solid coaches to support the team (Sweeney, Williamson)

Looking at the above, if you just look at his moves in the last calendar year, this is a very good GM who's at minimum above average, probably top 10 which may be enough with the Spurs' ridiculous lottery luck

Two major things that he has to really prove himself on:
- Non-top 4 pick drafting - high level GMs like Presti and Kleiman all have at least 1 elite mid-round draft pull (J-Dub) or a string of second round / undrafted hits (basically half the Grizzlies/Thunder roster). They've missed plenty, but these guys all have multiple hits playing crucial roles for their existing teams

- managing extensions for his own players - how Wright manages Sochan's contract and whether he's able to accurate gauge / predict his present and future value will be a huge test to see if he can make it into the next tier of GMs. In the future, whether he has the stones to trade his own high draft picks early (including Castle or Harper if the situation calls for it) if they don't deliver anticipated surplus value on their contracts.

[scott]

So far Wright's proven himself to be good at:

- flipping assets for draft picks (Dejounte, Derozan, etc.)
- getting free assets by playing facilitator (Barnes)
- not overpaying in trades for star players (Fox)
- winning the margins by signing FAs/trades for cheap that fit within the overall vision (Kornet, Olynyk)
- recruiting solid coaches to support the team (Sweeney, Williamson)

Looking at the above, if you just look at his moves in the last calendar year, this is a very good GM who's at minimum above average, probably top 10 which may be enough with the Spurs' ridiculous lottery luck

Two major things that he has to really prove himself on:
- Non-top 4 pick drafting - high level GMs like Presti and Kleiman all have at least 1 elite mid-round draft pull (J-Dub) or a string of second round / undrafted hits (basically half the Grizzlies/Thunder roster). They've missed plenty, but these guys all have multiple hits playing crucial roles for their existing teams

- managing extensions for his own players - how Wright manages Sochan's contract and whether he's able to accurate gauge / predict his present and future value will be a huge test to see if he can make it into the next tier of GMs. In the future, whether he has the stones to trade his own high draft picks early (including Castle or Harper if the situation calls for it) if they don't deliver anticipated surplus value on their contracts.

I'm pleased with Wright and approve of the high marks you give him, but I think you've left of the first major thing he has yet to really prove himself on: assembling a winning roster

[SpursFan86]

I'm pleased with Wright and approve of the high marks you give him, but I think you've left of the first major thing he has yet to really prove himself on: assembling a winning roster

This is kind of where I am. Yes, he’s made plenty of solid moves over the past several years…but the fact of the matter is that we still haven’t had a winning team in years. Maybe more importantly, the outlook of this team looks entirely different if the Spurs don’t luck into getting the #1 pick in 2023…not to mention the subsequent amazing luck to get #4 and #2 in 2024/2025.

I know luck always plays a part in team-building, but it’s just hard to shake the fact that it’s a massive part of our current outlook Maybe Wright would’ve made different moves had things gone differently, and maybe they would’ve worked out great. But I personally can’t say I’m super confident that we’d be in a great spot had we not had such insanely good luck.

tl;dr: Wright has definitely proven himself as a “solid” GM, but I’m not ready to crown him one of the best in the league at this point.

[Ariel]

So far Wright's proven himself to be good at:

- flipping assets for draft picks (Dejounte, Derozan, etc.)
- getting free assets by playing facilitator (Barnes)
- not overpaying in trades for star players (Fox)
- winning the margins by signing FAs/trades for cheap that fit within the overall vision (Kornet, Olynyk)
- recruiting solid coaches to support the team (Sweeney, Williamson)

Looking at the above, if you just look at his moves in the last calendar year, this is a very good GM who's at minimum above average, probably top 10 which may be enough with the Spurs' ridiculous lottery luck

Two major things that he has to really prove himself on:
- Non-top 4 pick drafting - high level GMs like Presti and Kleiman all have at least 1 elite mid-round draft pull (J-Dub) or a string of second round / undrafted hits (basically half the Grizzlies/Thunder roster). They've missed plenty, but these guys all have multiple hits playing crucial roles for their existing teams

- managing extensions for his own players - how Wright manages Sochan's contract and whether he's able to accurate gauge / predict his present and future value will be a huge test to see if he can make it into the next tier of GMs. In the future, whether he has the stones to trade his own high draft picks early (including Castle or Harper if the situation calls for it) if they don't deliver anticipated surplus value on their contracts.

I overall have liked most of the moves since they made the decision to tank, but one other area where they have underwhelmed is finding talent under the radar, like other franchises have done (Indiana, Boston, etc). You could lump this together with the second round drafting issue, in a more general scouting issue. And you can also mention player development, though where one begins and the other ends isn't always so cut and dry. I think Brian Wright definitely gets a passing mark, but he's been helped tremendously by luck and some of the hardest tests remain. So far so good, but this season is an important one. We shall see.

[scottspurs]

The Spurs biggest issue coming into this offseason was by far rebounding. On paper that is now fixed. They added Luke Kornet, Kelly Olynyk, Sean Sweeney and Corliss Williamson. Victor Wembanyama will be a little stronger and better able to hold up in the paint. They drafted Dylan Harper who rebounded his position well in College. They drafted Carter Bryant who in theory could bolster the front court down the line.

Brian Wright made some mistakes early on as a GM with some of his draft picks but otherwise has done a great job. Seems like he gets better as a GM every season. The Mitch Johnson hiring was handpicked by Pop in my opinion so I’m not going to put that on Wright either way. Patience has been his calling card and it appears to be paying off. If the Spurs miss the playoffs next season we will see if that patience remains.