Stoked: D-League MVP Jarnell Stokes will play for the Spurs in the Summer League

[GSH]

Gasol is going to lead this team in assists next season. You know that, right?

I don't know about for the whole season, but I bet he's the assist leader in a lot of games.

One of my favorite "did you know?" facts is that the Spurs' assist leader in the '14 Finals was Boris Diaw. He had 29, Parker 23, and Manu 22. Not that Boris and Manu were important pieces or anything. Just saying.

[spurtech09]

any vids on stokes....

[therealtruth]

I don't know about for the whole season, but I bet he's the assist leader in a lot of games.

One of my favorite "did you know?" facts is that the Spurs' assist leader in the '14 Finals was Boris Diaw. He had 29, Parker 23, and Manu 22. Not that Boris and Manu were important pieces or anything. Just saying.

That's why I've never understood Pop's reluctance to play him.

[GSH]

any vids on stokes....

26 minutes worth, if you can dig up his entire NBA career. Or save some time and just watch his highlight.

That's not fair, and I don't want to just bag on the kid. Here's a fun one of him while playing for the Iowa Energy.
https://vine.co/v/OTPxzA5waId

That was during a timeout, and yes that's a teammate. Maybe he has a place as an enforcer-type? Or to thump the out of Tony and Patty when they start to lose focus?

[Kawhitstorm]

any vids on stokes....

[Kawhitstorm]

That's not fair, and I don't want to just bag on the kid. Here's a fun one of him while playing for the Iowa Energy.
https://vine.co/v/OTPxzA5waId

That was during a timeout, and yes that's a teammate. Maybe he has a place as an enforcer-type? Or to thump the out of Tony and Patty when they start to lose focus?

He's everything D-Worst was talked about to be except he ACTUALLY walks the walk.

[Dro210]

Spurs Organization about to lose their B2B virginity.

Yep.

Tbh, are the 2016 Vegas SL Spurs more stacked than the 2016-2017 warriors? Relatively speaking, of course.

[TheGoldStandard]

Pop always needs to have undersized bigs on his roster to put out there when the actual big players are in danger of becoming too dominant.

Appropriate fear and all that.. Can't be dominant

[SAGirl]

[MaNu4Tres]

No thanks.

[Chinook]

Trying to stoke the fire again, I see.

[SAGirl]

Trying to stoke the fire again, I see.

lol
nah I just saw it and it caught my attention. Too bad for him... guy is simply undersized. He's more skilled than many legit bigs but he's 6'6" or so and not an incredible athlete either.
I remember seeing during the offseason that he had refused lucrative offers in other leagues bc he still wanted to try to make the NBA... so it's tough. I wish him the best, don't have anything against him, but he's not an NBA big. Nuggets have a lot of talent too, unless they had injuries I couldn't tell why they had signed him in the first place.

[wildbill2u]

Yeah, it's just a personal thing. I got totally burned out on tweeners, after pulling for them for so long. I always dreamed of the 6'6" PG who could defend three positions. The problem is, they always turned out to be ty PG's. But when it came time to play defense, they were all too slow to keep in front of the small players, and too light to be physical with the bigger ones. But every time one showed up, I kept thinking this would be the one. That's just one example, but you must know what I'm talking about. I know, guys like Draymond are exceptions. Brandon Bass has done pretty well for an under-sized 4-5. But the fact that you have to go looking for those kinds of exceptions tells you that they aren't the norm.

If we're going to have an iffy guy on the bench, I'd much rather it be someone they are committed to developing. You just can't teach tall. The best they get out of Stokes this year is likely the best they ever get out of Stokes. And not because he won't try. I'm always thinking in terms of building championship teams. If you're just looking for a guy to be a fifth big, for blowout games? He's fine.

Pop has drafted and tried his share of tweeners. If they are shorter than the norm for the position, the talk is all about their wingspread. I remember there was one guy (Roman somebody?) who was about 6'6" in high heels and he was drafted as a SF. They touted his wingspan which was over 7'. Wingspread is important or airplanes, but this knuckledragger couldn't play at NBA level and didn't last. Magic started the fad for looking at long PGs as the new in-thing in the NBA, but as great as he was on offense, he never was a super defender for the reasons you point out. We haven't seen another Magic since.

[ribcage6foot6]

Trying to stoke the fire again, I see.

I see what you did there.