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San Antonio Spurs '23-'24: Hoops, Hype, Hair Dye

ztejas

By ztejas
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RichUT
RichUT

This one is even better.

Mitch Cumsteen
Mitch Cumsteen

The December clouds were as grey as an extinguished fire. The cheers from earlier that night had long since faded as the Spurs completed a painful and unfathomable one win November.  The players and s

Radical Larry
Radical Larry

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BurdineBandit

BurdineBandit 815

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Booker talking all that shit with 6 minutes left. I knew the most demoralizing thing would be Wemby coming in and taking over. And I can't believe a 19 year old fucking kid did it. He's insane and already has ice in his veins. 3 minutes left and both Booker and KD blinked, and it was done before they could react. 

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angelfacedmongoloid

angelfacedmongoloid 80

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Vassell went out of the game after about 15 minutes played with groin tightness. If this is anything more than a cautious approach with him, we may see Wemby blow up a couple more times over the next week or 2. I think Vassell has moved past Keldon and will be the highest scorer, at least in PPG this year

 

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Mitch Cumsteen

Mitch Cumsteen 18550

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I don't think Booker scored again after that. Sochan had a really good night too. So did Jones other than that shoulder he took to the face from Eubanks. 

But Wemby... Maybe the most amazing thing about him is his sense for the moment. The guy seems so clutch. So on top of everything else, he's just going raise his game at winning time? Seriously?

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Hate

Hate 20108

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I like that our guys finally realized they should throw it to the really tall guy in the paint. He had so many “easy” baskets just because they finally threw it into him. This team could go on a run like the Robinson/Duncan teams did soon. And the best part is that he seems to really be happy to be in San Antonio. He doesn’t seem like the type to force his way to a big market.

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ztejas

ztejas 43464

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Rest of the league needs to hope he has major injury issues over his career. He is playing with a meh supporting cast (don't get me wrong - I like a lot of the pieces we have - but collectively they're meh) and it took them like 5 games to figure out how to make him almost unstoppable. 

These guys will win 30 games in their sleep and avoiding major injuries to key guys should contend for a play-in spot or the 6 seed if they want. 

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Mitch Cumsteen

Mitch Cumsteen 18550

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3 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Rest of the league needs to hope he has major injury issues over his career. He is playing with a meh supporting cast (don't get me wrong - I like a lot of the pieces we have - but collectively they're meh) and it took them like 5 games to figure out how to make him almost unstoppable. 

These guys will win 30 games in their sleep and avoiding major injuries to key guys should contend for a play-in spot or the 6 seed if they want. 

Yeah, I'm fairly convinced that as long as Wemby is healthy, this is a play-in/playoff team depending how the rest of the conference goes with injuries. That said, losing Vassell for any extended time hurts and hurts those chances. He's been tremendous.

Forget though for one minute how good VW already is, look at the trajectory and learning curve he's on from the French league playoffs to the summer league to now. I thought he would take off and elevate playing with real NBA players, but not at this rate. Crazy to imagine where he is by the end of the season and beyond.

Nobody really plays defense anymore in this league, but Phoenix is particularly bad on that end. And especially their bigs. They really had no answers for VW but they were horrific defending the three point line. They weren't much better in the first game, but the Spurs just missed a ton of open threes in that first half. Last night, they benched Nurkic (who was getting abused by anybody who bothered to penetrate) about halfway through the third quarter and he never came back in. Eubanks is playing crunch time minutes for you? Good luck with that. And having Collins in there as both a credible post player and an outside shooter really puts teams in a bind. Collins hit everything last night. 

Point being about all that drivel is:

1. I don't believe in Phoenix as a real contender. They are going to have to outscore teams to win, which they may be able to do when Beal gets back, but usually that isn't a recipe for championships. Especially when they have to go through Jokic and Denver who they have no prayer against defending; and

2. Victor (and the rest of the team) is going to have more difficult obstacles to overcome when they play better defensive teams.

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ztejas

ztejas 43464

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3 minutes ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

Yeah, I'm fairly convinced that as long as Wemby is healthy, this is a play-in/playoff team depending how the rest of the conference goes with injuries. That said, losing Vassell for any extended time hurts and hurts those chances. He's been tremendous.

Forget though for one minute how good VW already is, look at the trajectory and learning curve he's on from the French league playoffs to the summer league to now. I thought he would take off and elevate playing with real NBA players, but not at this rate. Crazy to imagine where he is by the end of the season and beyond.

Nobody really plays defense anymore in this league, but Phoenix is particularly bad on that end. And especially their bigs. They really had no answers for VW but they were horrific defending the three point line. They weren't much better in the first game, but the Spurs just missed a ton of open threes in that first half. Last night, they benched Nurkic (who was getting abused by anybody who bothered to penetrate) about halfway through the third quarter and he never came back in. Eubanks is playing crunch time minutes for you? Good luck with that. And having Collins in there as both a credible post player and an outside shooter really puts teams in a bind. Collins hit everything last night. 

Point being about all that drivel is:

1. I don't believe in Phoenix as a real contender. They are going to have to outscore teams to win, which they may be able to do when Beal gets back, but usually that isn't a recipe for championships. Especially when they have to go through Jokic and Denver who they have no prayer against defending; and

2. Victor (and the rest of the team) is going to have more difficult obstacles to overcome when they play better defensive teams.

No I agree that Phoenix has major issues so far and Wemby is a bad matchup for them. But taking both in Phoenix is still impressive. 

I was texting with my dad and brothers this morning and said "we're still going to get our ass kicked a bunch" and we will. But I don't see us losing 6 or 7 games in a row or having those stretches of 2-11, 4-15 etc. that we have the past few seasons. 

On Sochan - he is such a perfect shithouse guy that every good playoff team needs. He's cut from that Rodman, Bowen, Artest, Draymond cloth where he does not give two fucking shits who you are or what you've done he's going to be in your ass for 4Qs (KJ has a little bit of that too but he's kind of a headcase sometimes - Sochan is a better defender and a smarter player). Wemby is Wemby but I remain really excited about Sochan's potential. I remember us talking about where he could wind up as a shooter last season and if he can be a 75/35 guy he legitimately has all-star potential. He could wind up slashing something like 14/7/7/1/1.5.

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chainsaw

chainsaw 9869

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27 minutes ago, ztejas said:

No I agree that Phoenix has major issues so far and Wemby is a bad matchup for them. But taking both in Phoenix is still impressive. 

I was texting with my dad and brothers this morning and said "we're still going to get our ass kicked a bunch" and we will. But I don't see us losing 6 or 7 games in a row or having those stretches of 2-11, 4-15 etc. that we have the past few seasons. 

On Sochan - he is such a perfect shithouse guy that every good playoff team needs. He's cut from that Rodman, Bowen, Artest, Draymond cloth where he does not give two fucking shits who you are or what you've done he's going to be in your ass for 4Qs (KJ has a little bit of that too but he's kind of a headcase sometimes - Sochan is a better defender and a smarter player). Wemby is Wemby but I remain really excited about Sochan's potential. I remember us talking about where he could wind up as a shooter last season and if he can be a 75/35 guy he legitimately has all-star potential. He could wind up slashing something like 14/7/7/1/1.5.

I was very excited about Cissoko. Should I not have been? I feel like he has the potential to bring a lot of playmaking and scoring off the bench like Osman has been able to do.

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TexEx15

TexEx15 17538

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Assuming Wemby stays healthy what do y’all think the chances are he brings another championship(s) to San Antonio? Obviously the big 3 were “homegrown” Spurs. Will the Spurs be able to recreate that type of success? If they try to rely on free agents I’m curious as to what that looks like. Is Wemby enough to bring stars to SA to play with him?

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chainsaw

chainsaw 9869

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12 minutes ago, TexEx15 said:

Assuming Wemby stays healthy what do y’all think the chances are he brings another championship(s) to San Antonio? Obviously the big 3 were “homegrown” Spurs. Will the Spurs be able to recreate that type of success? If they try to rely on free agents I’m curious as to what that looks like. Is Wemby enough to bring stars to SA to play with him?

I think Keldon, Vassell, Sochan are a solid core. At least one of them is capable of elevating to the caliber of a "star." Would that be enough to reach the finals in the era of superteams? I really couldn't say. Even the "Big 3" era had guys coming off the bench like Boris Diaw, TMac, Antonio McDyess, Michael Finley, Richard Jefferson, and eventually Pau Gasol, LaMarcus Aldridge, David West.

A get or two like that could be what it takes for the solid core to transition from a playoff team to a title contender. At that point, it will come down to coaching, luck, and staying healthy. How many more years does Pop realistically have left in him? I don't believe he will be coaching Wemby for Wemby's entire career. There's just no way he's got 20 more years left in him (as a coach, that is).

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TexasEd

TexasEd 8067

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13 hours ago, C-Man said:

Rangers are done. Time to turn attention to Stars and Spurs. This one is on NBA TV up here. See we were up big early and trying to hang on now.

Go Spurs Go!

Same here, long suffering Ranges Fan and started following the Spurs back in the Hemisfair arena days.  Remember walking to the games from the dicey corner we always parked in and the Spurs were still in the East.

I've been checked out on them a while but so excited.  Last night was the 4th game I've watched (1 preseason and 2 regular) but the first one the team won.  Big step from the opener against Dallas last night.

 

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BurdineBandit

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4 hours ago, Hate said:

I like that our guys finally realized they should throw it to the really tall guy in the paint. He had so many “easy” baskets just because they finally threw it into him. This team could go on a run like the Robinson/Duncan teams did soon. And the best part is that he seems to really be happy to be in San Antonio. He doesn’t seem like the type to force his way to a big market.

I'm wondering if the market is changing. Vassell just extended, Collins just extended. Sochan and Johnson seem happy. It's a team of young guys of value, that generally seem to enjoy the process..... in San Antonio. It feels different from the 2010s. 

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F250

F250 28777

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3 hours ago, Pam Cummings said:

https://streamable.com/ckyfbu

 

I love how at the end of this play, Keldon Johnson can be seen shrugging and telling the bench something to the effect of, "that motherfucker is just too tall".

This is like watching a youth basketball game where that one team has a 5'11 10 year old and they just pass the ball to that kid.

Basketball2.gif

 

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Irieguy

Irieguy 1059

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7 hours ago, TexEx15 said:

Assuming Wemby stays healthy what do y’all think the chances are he brings another championship(s) to San Antonio? Obviously the big 3 were “homegrown” Spurs. Will the Spurs be able to recreate that type of success? If they try to rely on free agents I’m curious as to what that looks like. Is Wemby enough to bring stars to SA to play with him?

If he stays 99% healthy I put the over/under at 4 championships. But even if he’s 80% healthy he could be injured at playoff time a couple times. But remember the Spurs have a stockpile of picks. We have the Raptors 2024(top 6 protected) and they look awful early on. And then the Hawks picks and swaps starting in 2025(all unprotected!!)

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F250

F250 28777

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3 hours ago, Irieguy said:

If he stays 99% healthy I put the over/under at 4 championships. But even if he’s 80% healthy he could be injured at playoff time a couple times. But remember the Spurs have a stockpile of picks. We have the Raptors 2024(top 6 protected) and they look awful early on. And then the Hawks picks and swaps starting in 2025(all unprotected!!)

im horny GIF

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RichUT

RichUT 1832

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I’m on the totally opposite end of the spectrum. I think it’s a really interesting idea and I’m glad to see them trying something to make the regular season a little more relevant. 82 games is a slog and we’ve seen so many teams and players coast for long portions of it.

It may not end up working but just the act of trying it signals a form of progress.

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