Grades: Spurs @ Timberwolves - Oct. 24, 2022

[CGD]

The standard here is no one person is bigger than the team….. it reminds me of the military in that way! Respect your peers and opponents. Pop created and upholds that standard organization wide!! There’s nothing wrong with structure in any era.

The CREAM team, as it were

[objective]

Spurs are so much easier to watch without burning minutes on guys like Forbes and Mills. Plus having Keldon at his natural position instead of having to make room for McDermott makes them even more watchable

[emanueldavidginobili]

Sochan was awesome last night. His ability to run the floor and finish was huge. Who’s the last player on the Spurs to have 3 alley oops in a game? LA? Dedmon?

Vassell ability to create for himself is huge.

Tre Jones is a 2nd round pick, he’s exceeding expectations for where he was picked beyond belief.

Jakob is so much better than on paper.

Primo needs to be more aggressive. He also knows the right passes and moves to do but he’s not fully up to NBA speed yet at all.

I trust Keldon to be bring it all 82 games this season.

Roby’s effort is evident.

[venitian navigator]

After the first game I really thought that in players mind the team goal was to lose as many games as possible. But something must have changed their minds... It's been Pop telling them to play up to their strengths, maybe after Silver's private advice? Who knows... But one thing is for sure: playing well could not give you more draft chances, but for sure increase young players confidence and enhance veteran's market value. That said, I'm not that sure that our actual veterans are not in our team's future. I read talking about the the fact they are out of our time line, but if you consider that the only one barely over 30 (apart Dieng) is Mc Dermott I don't see this as a big problem... Expecially considering both him and Richardson (the other "old one", plus Dieng) give our team the outside shooting specialist actually so valuable for any nba team (whatever their age could be).
If I have to take an idea after this few games is that all players on our roster (included the two way players after the recent Bassey acquisition) are in line, for character, skills, mentality, to be a good part of our future... Maybe we still just need a solid first or second playmaker (but Tre Jones is playing very very well and looks completely confident and comfortable in the starting line up). But that's all that is in our control... Because the often mentioned big star you have to absolutely take via draft to build your team around is simply a pipe dream in the sense that actual chances to take him are so small, also in case you finish with the worst nba record, that can't be the season's goal from the starting.