Article: How are the Spurs trying to maximize Victor Wembanyama? By supersizing things

[PhantomDashCam]

https://sports.yahoo.com/how-are-the...160316232.html

Some great details in this one on a running theme.

...The eye test and the numbers both bear out that the Spurs’ offense has functioned better with Jones on the floor than when Sochan has the keys.
This is unsurprising, considering the former hails from a family of table-setters and finished in the top 15 in assist-to-turnover ratio last season, while the latter — again, as he is happy to tell you — has never played point guard before these last few months.
(It also might explain why Jones is averaging more fourth-quarter and “clutch” minutes per game than Sochan; steadier hands for winning time, and all that.)
But while the Spurs already know that Jones can get them into sets and spoon-feed Wembanyama buckets, this season is primarily about exploring what they don’t know yet, and whether there might be greater gains to realize by exploring that uncertainty.
That’s one reason why Popovich hasn’t wavered in continuing to throw Sochan out there and let him play through his mistakes; it’s the essence of experimentation.

[Phenomanul]

Good read…

[ginobilized]

Great article, thanks!

[KingKev]

Balancing act. Coach Pop is the ultimate puppeteer. Sochan’s career is on the outside for the greater good.

[DAF86]

I get the experimenting but this was suppossed to be a fun season. Outside from a couple Wemby highlights this has been not fun at all.

Also, there's this belief that after experimenting, everything will go back to normal, but whose to say that after all this experimenting things don't get contaminated? Players lose confidence, gain bad habits, get numb to losing, etc.

I really don't understand the point of experimenting with things that everybody knows will not stick in the long run. Or is anyone seriously expecting Sochan to become Magic Johnson overnight and become the starting PG of the franchise for the next decade and a half?

They are just wasting time and risking long term damage, that's all they're doing here.