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What?? No, I hope a team that sucks at 3’s like we do actually use someone who can but 3’s. Minx absolutely deserves a chance considering how woeful we are from downtown.
I didn’t mean minx instead of using the 8th pick.
You hope an undrafted guy from Morehead State cracks the rotation because there is no role available for a lottery pick with NBA range. Makes perfect sense.
What?? No, I hope a team that sucks at 3’s like we do actually use someone who can but 3’s. Minx absolutely deserves a chance considering how woeful we are from downtown.
I didn’t mean minx instead of using the 8th pick.
We didn't have to draft Dillingham necessarily. But I think recognizing that the team is going to get better and this might be the last top eight pick we're going to get for a long ass time, and we're still sort of rebuilding, so that part just seemed idiotic. Sure, Atlanta. But a team trying to win, especially in the East, isn't as guaranteed as, you know, an 8th pick.
Luckily, we got Barnes and CP.
Taking a pick just to take a pick doesn't make sense. You'd have to select a player from last draft instead of "wouldn't it be great to have taken a #8 pick?" Like, who is that player? Right now we seem to think the team should have taken Knecht or McCain, but they may not have been fits, have defensive issues, and there's no indication the team would have taken them.
So we're getting upset about a game of pretend.
The Spurs may very well have moved out of the era of high lottery picks. They got a #1 and a #4 and... that's it. The game of watching high end draft picks throughout the season and wondering who we might get could be done. But this is precisely why they picked up some swaps and an unprotected lottery pick in the future, although it steamed up a lot of people.
Many teams missed out on certain players, it is easy to say that in hindsight. Easier also to point out missed opportunities and overlook the positives.
Wasn’t there a previous discussion about the limitations of smaller but defensively-challenged players especially in the playoffs? That includes shooters without decent defense.
Wemby, Castle, and to some extent Sochan, are the core pieces. Spurs have more opportunities to decide what to do with the picks as they come in while they are on the rebuild. I liked the #8 trade.
it was a great choice to give up the pick. There was no room on the roster.
True in a way. Problem is that Mamu was probably the fifteenth man even though he's far from the worst player. Guess there are salary implications if you plead the roster is full and then draft two more guys though.
Sorry. My bad. Please disregard. I think I didn't check the name before replying.
All good man, I actually should have typed my initial response more clearly. Cheers
Last edited by Amuseddaysleeper; 12-02-2024 at 11:21 PM.
counterpoint, cidy cissoko exists.
i would say branham but we guaranteed his contract for next season too
It's a guaranteed lottery pick in the future? Didn't know that.
To me, it's not that they didn't see some amazing player, it's that they like the end of bench players perhaps more than picking someone new at 8. That very well may be because they value continuity and a family approach, which often is cool, but in this situation I'm hesitant to say it was a great approach.
I like to think that if we kept Dilly, we wouldn’t get Barnes and CP3. And Barnes and CP3 are the big reasons the Spurs are winning right now. With Dilly, the Spurs would be the same as last year, and ST would be in that the Spurs has the worst future in the league.
Wright already shut that down on the post draft presser as well as free agency angle. He insist it is all about their valuation of the 8th pick in the draft.
MIN stopped their losing streak by not playing him.
I do appreciate CP and Barnes.
But value is slippery. An overvalued #8 last year might still be more meaningful than a possible better #8 pick in 2031. There's a lot of uncertainties and an assessment of our window is open to debate.
Anyway, just speculating.
I actually think the FO is thinking of replenishing future pipeline when the picks are likely to be in the mid to high 20s (or so the hope) by replacing the important role players.
The core is yet to set, wemby is obviously the one, we will see who else would make it. Is if vassell? Sochan? Castle? This years pick? But most of the time there are three of the core guys, everyone else is replaceable by the picks. By that logic, whoever is good but not good enough to make it to the core will naturally turn into future picks. The cycle continues until wemby retires.
I feel like our Big 3 is going to Wemby + one of Vassell or Castle + a current NBA player not yet on the team (#LauriThread2025). Someone like Sochan will be a key role player, maybe even a career Spur, but not quite "Big 3" worth. I feel like our pick warchest will eventually be cashed in for that third player... but who knows, maybe we'll get lucky with Wemby + Dev + Castle and not have to make that big trade.
I hope so. I’m counting on the picks prolonging the wemby championship window.
OKC seems to be the only team who really nailed it. The rockets are on the cusp if they can get their true franchise player. Nets are trying to go that route.
OKC was fortunate that they got their Acquired-Core-Piece (meaning, the member of their core they got via trade, and not the draft) up front - so they didn't have to use any of that draft capital for it. The Spurs are in reverse order, and that's assuming that one of Devin or Steph rises to the level we hope. I feel like we're going to have to make some kind of big splash via trade, because there is not likely to be any more Top 5 picks coming our way and frankly I think Wemby has shifted the timeline too much to have to wait for a Kawhi-like rookie to come in and blossom into a star. Lots of roads Wright can take, which is exciting, but there is also a ton of pressure to get it right here.
The Rockets I think are interesting... they actually have just a really good, solid team without a true Superstar. It's almost like a Celtics model, with even less top-end star power. I'd say Tatum and Brown are "low end superstars", if there is such a thing, but the are still stars. Houston doesn't even have that, but they still have a solid squad without a lot of holes. I think they are wise to see what this team accomplishes this year and determine whether they can run a no-star model, or make a big consolidation trade for their star.
Always enjoy reading your takes. Whether I agree or not you always have your back up and rationale and have well thought out responses.
Agreed on the OKC front. Like I’ve always said, we didn’t start off having the westbrook Durant harden ibaka assets to tear down, and the only reason they tore it down is because they couldn’t get it done in the first place. If the thunder won it all back in 2012 to 2015, they may choose to keep it together (well specifically 2012) despite the tax, and who knows what happens? Durant may not pull a coward move, players may drop in trade value and SGA may end up with the pacers instead.
The spurs have some decent players as core but other than wemby all are a rung below all star levels now. Castle has some potential, I don’t really know about Vassell. In terms of type I think sochan is a tougher find than Vassell and Vassell is of higher demand so will have more value in the trade market if the hand is forced. I want to continue building through the draft which is why I’m still pro tank for one more year but perhaps that just tempting the basketball gods too much.
Rockets will be good, but I don’t see them developing into a championship team with this core. Perhaps they are trying to go the 2004 pistons route but I just don’t trust sengun at all as their best player. I’d trade him for some good picks and/or a young promising player.
I think the nets will be good in a few years.
Detroit, despite historically bad lottery luck the last few years, does have a little something to build on.
Orlando I feel isn’t going anywhere. They may end up as a high seed in the dreadful east or maybe even win a few rounds but I cannot see them challenging for a ring at all. Pablo isn’t someone I’d really build on (honestly I can’t say why but I don’t see him as a #1 or even #2 on a contender.
The spurs future looks bright now but so much of that is based on luck still. The spurs will need another high level star, who will step in that role is tbd of course. I hope it will be castle, but failing that I hope the spurs get space-time collapsing level of lottery luck this year and land us Harper.
i mean we got ours in Wemby. sure he wasnt directly from a trade, but it didnt take some scouting luck or bizarre unexpected player development like nephew
they used the draft goet J-Dub, Chet, Wallace
My main point was that in a model where you have two homegrown players as part of your big 3, and you have to acquire the third via trade - OKC was lucky in that they already had the guy acquired via trade (SGA) AND THEN had a bunch of draft capital, so they could just sit back and pick. The Spurs on the other hand (hopefully) have their homegrown parts of the big 3 (Wemby and hopefully one of Devin or Castle, but maybe both) and might have to dip into that trade capital to get the third guy. Spurs may not have the luxury of just sitting back and using all of these picks to continuously reload the roster (like OKC is doing).
With that said, our FO has decided they'd rather punt picks into the future while OKC is using them on guys like Topic, Ajay Mitc and Dillon Jones... so it appears that our philosophy is to be more direct with picks as opposed to just the constant reloading and offloading that OKC seems to be going with (which will work for them, and be what allows them to fairly easily keep their big 3, despite the wishcasting of ST.com members).
Thanks for the complement, first of all, I appreciate it. I really like it when we can all just settle into some good, rational debate on our opinions of things that at the end of the day are all unknowns and none of us have a crystal ball on.
I agree with all your takes here - I think you, myself, spurraider (IIRC) and KobesAchilles (again IIRC) are among the few who are still on the fence on Devin. Everyone else seems fully ready to anoint him as part of our future Big3, but I'm not completely sure how he fits. If he plays like he did the other night against SAC... then yeah, for sure. But that was kind of the ideal, 99th percentile outcome version of Devin. Is that sustainable? If it is, then we're cooking. I'm really optimistic on Castle, but he's not quite as apparent for s om as a rookie as someone like Jalen Williams, but Castle is looking as good as we could have hoped at this point and I think he'll be a star.
The only take I disagree with is on Orlando. I think Paolo is the real deal, and I like the team they've built. Franz has taken a big leap this year as well. Anthony Black has made a decent year 2 jump, then just need to get something out of Jett Howard. I like the ensemble of bigs the have in Carter Jr (when healthy)-Goga-Mo Wagner. I don't see any major holes in their team, and they are fun to watch. They play great defense, and they'll get a big boost when Paolo returns.
Wemby and Castle are just 20 years old, so the Big 3 configuration will likely change over the course of their careers, with those two as the mainstays. I'm fine with Wemby, Vassell, and Castle being the first iteration, with Castle eventually taking over the number 2 spot once his jumper is legit. We may end up having to make a big trade at some point, but I think giving those three time to develop together, while strengthening the bench/rotation will be the path forward.
I think a lot more aren't sold on Vassell than you think. He may be a simple, existing solution for the next couple of years, but the fit and other available options down the line is what will determine the le-contending sidekicks for Wemby in SA.
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