what did y'all want or expect from CP3? He's old, and he is there to run the offense, I thought he did a great job.
He isn't going to take over the game, ever. He's 39 ing years old. His presence and awareness seem to help more than I thought they would.
One more year of development/maturation and I think we'll be in position to be a 4-6 seed. After that, contention.
I’m still waiting on that development part people keep talking about. Every player looks the same as last year. The only way you can tell time has passed is that some have longer hair than last year. This team lacks talent and the hope for potential growth from most players.
I absolutely hear you on this but Sochan looked comfortable in his more defined role and Champ looks like he may thrive this season. Low hanging fruit, I know but we have become a factory for developing role players for championship squads (not our chips) just need to get back to actually winning games while developing some diamonds in the rough.
Yep. Except for Champ tho, he's a steal at his cost now
I liked Sochan defensive game and overall activity, but it was aleady the case last season and even his rookie season.
I want to see improvements in decision making, poise, not being all over the place unnecessarily etc He still looks the same on offense
sochan looks the same bro.
Blow the team up. Install Branham as the tank commander, lets get this rebuild started.
play the pick and roll tbh
What I'm watching for in these games is the development of Wemby, Sochan, and Castle.
Devin's development will also be key when he returns.
I expect us to be in the lottery again and hopefully get lucky with that again, so development is key.
We should be trying to win btw, as part of our development, but I don't think we will win very much in a stacked West.
Wemby -
The question remains whether he can be a primary playmaker or if we can get someone else to do that job and have Wemby focus on being an elite finisher instead.
So far we've basically let him do whatever in hopes that he can develop as a primary playmaker, but that has meant a lot of turnovers and inefficiency.
We saw tons of that last night and my concern is that I don't see a lot of development year over year so far.
His Olympic le game performance was great, but he was actually very inconsistent in the Olympics.
We won't win consistently until he either cleans up his game or switches his focus.
At some point he either becomes that primary guy or we need to reign him in and have him become an elite and efficient finisher.
Either way he'll be the lead scorer and superstar on this team, it's just a question of whether he's in a Jokic type of role as a primary playmaker or a KD type of role as an elite finisher.
Sochan -
I liked what I saw!
He's only a decent 3pt shot away from being an elite role player.
People think defense translates immediately out of college but for most players it takes some time to develop just like offense does.
Late last season Sochan started showing signs of being the elite defender we expected out of college and he had more good moments last night.
His offensive game remains a work in progress but I see signs there too.
With time and experience the out of control stuff will hopefully be controlled.
Castle -
It's very tempting to play him more because he does so many things so well!
He looked good out there. The passing is real and he's a PG in my book.
I've generally felt that Castle is a boom / bust prospect based on his shooting, but he is so good at so many things that maybe he can be useful without it? I dunno
But with the 4th overall pick you expect a lot more than "useful."
I like that we're bringing him along slowly so that he doesn't have some awful 0-6 3pt shooting nights out there that ruin his confidence.
Let him adapt his overall game in spurts and let his shooting develop over time. He's probably 2 years away from being special if he can learn to shoot.
Final thoughts:
The biggest problem with our best developmental prospects is that none of them have proven to be good shooters.
Even Wemby is inconsistent there.
Just watch our luck that we'll get the #1 pick next year and end up with non-shooter Cooper Flagg!
I guess that would be a good problem to have but a roster construction problem nonetheless
Honestly dude this is likely what he is. Don’t over pay him on an extension and put him on a winning team and I think those intangibles are going to be very valuable.
I'd be more worried if he made a lot of them (1-8 so there's hope).
I think adding Vassell + just making cleaner reads/decisions will make things look much better IMO
We need a second better big after wemby.Obviously not collins,But not sure if bassey can rebound and defend better.
I really doubt Spurs will be able to take advantage of this.He would be handy for teams like Phoenix, like another 2030+ 1st round pick if Vassell and Castle can coexist
the shooting in that second unit with castle will improve when vassell comes back, as will push julian into the reserve unit. with mamu not getting any real backup PF minutes, looks like the rotational reserves right now are Collins (though I'd like to see more Bassey here), Keldon, Champagnie, Castle, Tre. if Tre's minutes are cut some and Castle gets some point guard minutes, you could have him running point along with a unit with Champagnie, one of Vassell/Barnes out there, Keldon, Collins. thats not the worst shooting lineup around
it did catch my eye just how much more quickness jones brought to the table than paul, but if he's not going to be assertive and productive, then im not sure why we'd want him to share the floor with paul or take minutes from castle
Last edited by spurraider21; 10-25-2024 at 11:03 AM.
19 TO’s didn’t help. That could be unfamiliarity with each other. Pop’s decision to used the final 2 games of the Pre-season still playing the scrubs for minutes didn’t help the starters getting more playing time together. But it was warranted to get people chances to make the team, while giving players who played the Olympics more time to recuperate, especially Wemby who obviously was working on his physique. But it was commendable that the Spurs competed and even rallied back when down. But again, they were playing against the Western Conference champs, who added another lethal shooter in Klay. It was too much to ask. Doncic was too good finding people. And the Mavs simply moved great getting open and distributing the ball. Their bigs were hassling and making plays. If the Mavs continue playing like last night, they could find themselves in the Finals again.
The much anticipated CP3/Wemby combination has not happened yet, except for one lob pass. Some due to CP3 slowing down. There was a shot of him gasping for air. But he was still finding people, but just not in his prime rate. Wemby needed to cut more, more purposefully to the basket. Likewise his teammates need to make decisive cuts, get themselves open. Champ was doing great. Likewise Barnes shooting well. Sochan and CP3 shooting should open up Wemby more. Again, just need to play more together. Instead we saw turnover after turnover.
There is an argument for Castle to start. He looks poised and brings additional firepower. Likewise, he could help point guard duties with CP3 and give much needed break. I would move Sochan to the bench and allow him to help punish the 2nd squad, along with Tre, Keldon, Mamu and Collins. Vassell will be back and should give more options and allow Wemby to roam around and CP3 to find him off cuts, and multiple pick and roll.
Spurs still in preseason mode while other teams seem to be in a season at least what I saw in other games at the glance.
Chaos, and not really much structure developed when it comes to offense in a system that is based on structure more then anything.
Mavs are better and they woke up in 2nd half and did what they had to do cause they are aiming at championship.
Spurs are aiming at the playoffs.
Some things I think should be addressed going forward, but I'm not going to talk about Wemby because there's no doubt about his future with the team.
1. I don't like seeing Paul and Tre Jones playing together. Just seems a pointless waste of time, Jones isn't turning into prime Patty Mills, don't play him like a 2 guard.
2. Castle needs to play 28+ minutes. I was not pro-Castle, but he is much more deserving of development minutes than making sure Tre Jones eats for instance. It's kind of sad that he played 18 minutes last night but 6 of those were in garbage time. 12 minutes of compe ive action is not enough. Cut Jones minutes, it's Castle time. Even Paul played 28 minutes. If that had been a compe ive game down the stretch it would have been over 30 minutes for an elderly man
3. Bassey is probably better than Zollins.
4. I wonder if this was just a Barnes revenge game and a blip on the radar
5. Happy that Pop benched Branham and most of Wesley ... But it does raise the question, if Branham is out of the rotation without Vassell soaking up 30 minutes, why was his option picked up?
Because it’s an 82 games season. Anything can happen. I think it was 2021 when players were getting injured left and right. And Malaki is a streaky scorer, just needs a lot of prodding.
Julian is a scrub who is just shooting well right now. 10 games from now he'll be back to shooting 31% on wide open 3's while doing nothing else. Did have a good game last night and was mostly good in the preseason though.
Your only other option is Wesley and/or Branhim getting minutes. You want that? I don't.
Logicaly what should be happening is any of those Tre and CP minutes should be going to Castle but Pop is always slow to figure out even the most logical lineups. Devin will be back by the time he figures this out and by then it won't matter.
I guess players like FVV, Danny Green don’t belong in the league? Champ worked hard with his shots. He got quick release and was not hesitant. He took it to the rim when his defender got took close, played great defense. It’s next-man-up, and would be great for our bench players to take advantage of every opportunity like Champ is doing.
Champ shot 36.5% of his 3s last season and has shown regular signs of improvements.
At 3M he's a steal and the last of our worries rn
This loss was on Victor in my opinion. Dude had a horrible game last night. Hopefully the coaching staff helps him clean up his shot selection. They gotta draw up some plays that put him in better situations and he obviously has to make better decisions.
castle is gonna eventually get a ton of minutes because it’s obvious the young man can play. Proud of Julian and I hope he plays well all or most of the season.
its one game and it was against a pretty good team. I think we will improve and maybe win 30 games this season. More than that is a huge plus in my book.
Yeah, I would rather Castle start if CP3 isn't going to be a scoring threat. CP3 would probably do a lot better vs benches anyway, but he's making $10mil, so hard to justify that to ownership I guess.
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