Spurs were compe ive early, then Josh Primo happened, some injuries, and suddenly things changed. I still believe devaluing defense was a conscious choice.
This team will suffer from inexperience but they're going to overwhelm teams. I see them listed in practically no playoff expectations but I wouldn't be surprised at all to have a 40 win season. Probably less, but maybe not. Wemby-Sochan-Keldon-Vassell is a legit starting lineup, or more likely Collins instead of Sochan. And depending on how players progress, their bench can be a handful.
If Pop is coaching the team, he will. No way Pop lets him develop outside only, when Pop’s schemes should get him 10 easy points per game in the paint and contribute the easiest buckets he can. Establish a reputation inside then, given his range, he becomes unguardable.
The roster actually worries me bc of how devoid of talent it actually is. The great thing about tanking is that we got Vic. The not so great thing is outside of Vic, our team still sucks
Tre Jones is a back up. If he is going to be our starter next year then you are already doing Vic a disservice. He is a bottom 5 pg if he is a starter and that’s just a fact no matter how much spurs fans “sleep on Tre” or “disrespect” him. The guy is a fine bench player and one I want on the team. But not if he is going to start.
Im worried about Sochan. He is exactly who I wanted us to draft last year. I really wanted him. I love everything about his game. But he can’t shoot. And you can’t start a nonshooting point guard AND a non shooting PF. The didn’t work for DRob and it won’t work for Wemby. Sochan is all heart and hustle and toughness. But he is undersized at guarding prominent big men (AD and Jok) and really I don’t know if you can start him next to Wemby if he can’t shoot OR guard opposing C’s. One of these things we need from him if he’s gonna be a starter. But he could also be a key bench guy going forward
KJ is undersized. He has zero clue how to play defense/ it looks like he doesn’t even try on that end bc he’s so stupid as a defender. Watching him “play defense” hurts my eyes and just makes me wonder how he could be so out of position or why is picking up non shooters at the 3 and leaving shooters open. It baffles me how little he knows still about that side of the ball. Offensively he needs to improve his dribbling, his passing, his footwork, his tunnel vision, and his shot selection. But that comes with reps… hopefully. I actually expect him to reign in his offense a bit bc last year was a lot of ok I’m going to drive the ball with zero plan except try to bully my defender.
Vassell has the tools to be a CJ McCollum. He will never be an all star but he will be a damn good player. He has so many tools in his bag. He can finish with either hand, drive left or right, fade and create from any part of the floor, and his 3 looks effortless. I’m very excited about him. I would like for him to come off a lot more screens and run him like the Warriors do Klay bc he takes so many damn tough shots and basically nothing is created for him. That’s a design flaw on Pop
Collins is a decent big man but we need to go hard after Lopez. Sign Lopez and have Collins as the back up big and you really have a team. Heck a CP3, Vassell, Sochan, Wemby, Lopez starting line up with Tre Jones, Blake. KJ, filler or trade with Dallas for that one PF from the Cougars, and Collins is a playoff team.
Everybody else on the roster will need to go and be replaced with vets
I'm with you on this, i don't see a point in running it back with a team we know isn't going to cut it so why waste a season? Still waiting for Wright to do something other than tank and trade away players.
Clearly we need to shoot all the players and collect their insurance payouts.
We’ll undoubtedly get a boatload of picks in return for these players who so obviously suck ass. Trade ‘em! ST is a wild place sometimes
1) Start the current best five combination of players. Too early to surrender future 1sts and key players just yet.
My hope is our Opening Night starters are Sochan, Vassell, Keldon, Wembanyama, and Collins. That said, I'm not sure if that's currently our *best five combination*, but I don't think our best five includes a guard that's 6'1". Much more intrigued with Mamu's skillset starting next to Wembanyama, in place of Collins. But unless Collins gets injured, that's not happening. Moving on….
2) Start the season with Sochan and Vassell as tandem 'point forwards'. Build offensive sets with those two high-IQ guys initiating. Why? Because the league is moving toward tall, switchable lineups where elite rosters are able to cut, pass, create, and shoot threes. In the coming years -- short, traditional point guards won't be able to stay on the floor because they'll be defensive liabilities, even if they're great shooters. There will be plenty of those guys in the league. They're not going away. They just won't be starting on contenders. Size is gonna matter more and more to win les. Denver and OKC are leading the way building rosters toward this evolution. Spurs have an excellent chance to match and surpass, but it means biting the bullet and and stop thinking 6'5" and below.
Sochan was already initiating offense as a rookie. Vassell is even better suited to do it. If the tandem works, it creates mismatch opportunities every night. And that's without even talking about the mismatches that Wembanyama creates. Try it. If the team is .500 at the All-Star break, stay with it. Keys will be Sochan's FG% improvement and Vassell staying healthy.
3) Weak link in the lineup is Keldon. I love him. But he's such a deficient defender, and at 6'5", teams will continue to prey upon him. For now, I say stay with him. Maybe he evolves with VW alongside him. Let it play out.
4) Who goes? If Tre gets a massive deal from another team looking to give him a starting job, shake his hand and let him go. Otherwise, he's a solid backup. I'm fine with KBD, Birch, Dieng, McDermott (nice shooter, horrible defender even for a bench guy) and Langford moving on. No need to chase a free agent that steals development time from the young core.
PREDICTIONS:
If the Spurs go with VW plus the current roster AND stay reasonably healthy --
.500 record at the All-Star Break
.700 record thereafter
Spurs finish as top-6 Seed in the West.
VW finishes top-3 in both Steals and Blocks. Wins Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
This is why I am really interested to see this team run it back (obviously with the awesome addition of Wemby)
Yes, the Spurs only won 22 games last season...but I do feel like that was by design, not just because they sucked. Pop was pulling wires and picking holes at every turn to turn winnable games into losses...mixing and matching weird lineups, taking out hot players, sitting guys randomly. Trading guys like Murray and Poeltl.
In those 22 wins, the team showed some really nice flashes when Pop allowed them to run free. It will be interesting to see how much the Spurs actually try to contend this season, but I'd like to see what this group can do when they are actually trying to win games instead of intentionally scheming to lose them.
Spurs easily win 30+ games if they don't sit 2-3 starters in every game
I didn’t trade anybody! I just signed better players and moved the worse ones to the bench. We won 22 games last year. Let’s run it back with the same damn team. That’s what is wild. This isn’t 1998 where we had Elliot and Robinson coming back. We made moves for DRob when he was a rookie. We got TC and Rod. Adding talent to our team isn’t a bad thing
Pop stopped playing Tre and Sochan together to end the year, 3 straight games that they are both available. They also alternate rest days. I think Pop intention is to play Sochan at the point and Tre as backup next season, I don't know if this is still the case after Wemby. There was 1 game where we were fully healthy , the lineup is Zollins, Sochan, KJ, Devin and Branham with Tre off the bench. We won that game against DEN.
Pop likely saw Tre as the next Patty someone you can build the bench unit around. Tre + roll big and shooters.
I am so down for point forward Sochan
I think you're undervaluing our current players and I think you're also discounting that there is going to be substantial improvement from 1) time and 2) playing with Wemby.
Wemby has the potential to have an impact similar to what Shaq did in his first year. I don't think anyone is claiming that this team is a contender in year 1 without substantial changes but I don't think they'll look anything like they did last year.
I think any player whose ceiling is below star level is obviously expendable.
If the Spurs are comfortable with what they have and are just running it back except with Wemby, to me that means they intend to continue building through the draft and covet another lottery pick.
Undervaluing how? Victor or no Victor, Tre is a bottom 5 PG. why would start a subpar player when you have a franchise player (in a completely different position). Do you remember how teams beat DRob led teams? They just triple teamed him and AJ couldn’t hit a shot. Or Vinny or Strickland against GSt. Tre is a very good back up. That’s not me undervaluing him that’s me being realistic.
KJ sucks really really bad on defense. That’s just a fact. His positioning on that end of the floor is atrocious. And he still needs all those things to work on offensively. I’m not saying he can’t improve. But he should be a bench player regardless. Otherwise who is on the bench? Vassell is better. Sochan is higher drafted. Tre is our only PG. Collins plays a role Wemby will not. He has to be a bench player. Brooke Lopez is a better center than Collins. That’s not undervaluing. And CP3 is better than Tre.
Undervalue would be me saying to get rid of all the bums
he was
a couple of years ago
he still is by orders of magnitude
it's enough to watch 5-7 Suns games, so as not to write such nonsense in the future.
Paul can't consistently drive to the basket and play defense.
also he gets injured at least every season.
Good post, KobesAchilles, but I disagree on Sochan.
Obviously as you said Tre will be backup once Spurs get back into the playoff picture, so he won't be starting with Jeremy.
Yeah, Jeremy can't shoot, but that doesn't mean he won't improve.
Before he changed to one-handed FTs, he shot 43% from the line and 18% from deep on 2 attempts.
After the switch, he had 78% from the line and 28% from deep on 2.8 attempts.
Still a horrible percentage from deep, but how many other players don't care about the potential embarrassment of one-handed FTs? We're talking about a guy who's willing to do absolutely anything to improve and I've got no doubts that he will become a servicable shooter in a few years. He just turned 20, give him some time.
And even in worst case scenario, he will be one of the best defenders in the league and a solid playmaking wing. You're talking about him guarding Cs when paired with Wemby, but there won't be many Cs that will be able to stay on the floor against Wemby if he develops as projected.
I agree on KJ, he's a horrible defender which is concerning, because he's athletic enough to at least not be a liability.
I wouldn't say that Vassell will be a McCollum. He's way closer to Middleton for me. A bit shorter, but will still have more than enough size to be a problem for most shooting guards in the league.
This roster needs a star point guard and if we get one, Vassell becomes an even bigger issue because most teams have defensively awful point guards. And then they'll have to match up with Devin.
I'd also love Lopez, too bad he's already 35 so it doesn't really matter if we get him.
I'd wait another year before replacing everyone. Give them all a chance in a season with no blatant tanking or dozens of DNPs.
I think it could easily be a play-in team with a point guard upgrade and Wemby living up to the expectations.
i agree that it is very difficult as of now to start sochan alongside another non-shooter. i dont think Tre Jones is really starting caliber anyway, but especially so on a team with sochan. if we move up for bufkin/wallace/hood-schifino, any of those guys are better shooters than Tre, and all of them have defensive upside as they aren't undersized. wallace i could see being an all-defensive team talent pretty early in his career.
i also have really warmed up to the idea of spending that FA money on Reaves
Nobody has a clue. They'll do something Nobody predicted
This. Easily
I'm all for riding into the season with whoever the Spurs nab in the draft and minimal roster changes aside from cutting the fat and seeing how things go. as others have said this team needs to actually get some time on the court together and see how they gel. i would guess we barely had our full team available much at all last season, so this season should give us a more realistic idea of what we have and what we need. Keldon sliding back into not being the focal point of the offense will do him wonders and Vassell looks ready to take the next step, health permitting. Along with Sochan, we could already have the core we need, we just need to actually see them play and figure out their roles around Wemby
My bad, I wasn’t really referring to you.
You aren’t wrong - but I don’t think you can do it in a day. I think the best way of thinking about it - for me - is that the current core is the core until someone better comes along. That could be in FA, trade, or draft. But certainly some of these guys will cycle out, maybe one or two step up to stay in the core, and new faces will emerge.
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