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San Antonio Spurs 2024 Offseason Thread - Edging and Unleashing Wemby's Jumbo Package


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Posted (edited)

Honestly love the off-season.  We've shored up some deficiencies, drafted the guy I think most likely to make an all star team in castle, picked up draft capital, and supplemented with low cost backups.  Let's see what next year holds and obviously setting expectations low but I could see us approaching 40 wins with some luck.  

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18 hours ago, Radical Larry said:

Yeah Ingram will get one. You can have three, and I think Cissoko is currently on one of them. 

Cissoko has a real contract and counts against the 15. Notwithstanding the two-ways guys or an unexpected trade, this looks like what they're taking into the season:

CP3, Jones, Castle, Wesley
Vassell, Branham
Keldon, Champagnie, Cissoko
Sochan, Barnes, Mamu
Wemby, Collins, Bassey

Here's what I wrote at the beginning of the offseason:

On 4/16/2024 at 1:51 PM, Mitch Cumsteen said:

Team Needs: They have to get more outside shooting. They have to reduce their turnovers (much of that is on Victor, btw). They have to get better defensively overall. They could definitely upgrade point guard (as well as just about every other non-Victor position, if we're being honest). I think they need another bruising big. Mostly, they need some vets who know how to win. They check all those boxes combined with internal growth and barring injury, they are vying for the play-in even in this brutal conference just because Wembanyama is that fucking good. And getting better at a frighteningly rapid pace.

 

I think they addressed most of this stuff.

  • They should be better off from the outside adding Paul and Barnes. It's still an area that needs addressing long term, but it should be improved at least.
  • I don't know about the defense being better, though. Barnes seems to have taken a step back defensively, CP3 ain't getting any younger, and we will have to see how much of an impact Castle has. He could definitely change the calculus there.
  • Having Paul should also help reduce their turnovers, but again, a lot of the turnover stuff will fall on Wemby's personal development. I saw him have a couple of really bad ones for France the other day that gave me some pause.
  • They for sure upgraded the point guard position.
  • They didn't add another bruiser -- hopefully Bassey can stay healthy and provide some bulk.
  • And they 100% added winning vets. 

I don't know how much this is going to really impact the bottom line. The Vegas o/u is 35 and it doesn't seem far off to me. The conference is brutal. If they played in the east, it's a different story but there aren't going to be many off nights in the west. Depending on what Utah does, Portland is the only tanker right now. Forget about good teams missing the playoffs, there are going to be good teams missing the play-in. 

I'm looking at this season as a bridge. Unless Wemby does some superhero shit, which isn't out of the question, I think best outcome for this team is that they play some meaningful games down the stretch vying for the play-in, but ultimately fall short and collect one more round of ping pong balls before unleashing hell on the league.

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28 minutes ago, ztejas said:

 

That winning isn’t for everyone bit might be taken the wrong way featuring a guy on a 22 win team.

I’m not sure Nike thought that through. If the lakers don’t make the playoffs, how many Lebron winning isn’t for everyone memes are we going to see?

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5 hours ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

That winning isn’t for everyone bit might be taken the wrong way featuring a guy on a 22 win team.

Fair - but I think he won like 19 of those games by himself. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
17 hours ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

Pretty cool that they stuck the Austin games in during rodeo and even cooler that they scheduled the Suns and KD as one of them. Imagine that will be a hotter ticket than the one against the pistons. 

I think so, i just got tickets for the suns game. Seeing KD back in Austin will be great. Also the first time seeing Wemby live

Hopefully they both play, i guess that’s the gamble of a NBA ticket. 

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On 8/16/2024 at 11:58 AM, hornbri said:

I think so, i just got tickets for the suns game. Seeing KD back in Austin will be great. Also the first time seeing Wemby live

Hopefully they both play, i guess that’s the gamble of a NBA ticket. 

Tickets are pricey for that game but I'm going to bite the bullet and get some too. Went to both games last year and the one vs the Blazers 2 years ago.

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On 8/15/2024 at 6:01 PM, Mitch Cumsteen said:

Pretty cool that they stuck the Austin games in during rodeo and even cooler that they scheduled the Suns and KD as one of them. Imagine that will be a hotter ticket than the one against the pistons. 

A full two weeks earlier than last year? I like it. Hopefully we have something to play for. I went last year and didn't realize it was one of the last 2-3 games of the season. It was cool seeing Ant Edwards, but I could tell Pop was ready for his vacation because he had very little give a shit to the proceedings on the court. Everybody was ready to get back to SA. Much different than the game I went to in San Antonio, where Pop got on the mic and told me and everyone to stop booing Kawhi.

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15 hours ago, ztejas said:

Like 80% of the issues with his game are BBIQ related.

Not sure what slimming down is going to do. 

For sure on the BBIQ, with the other 20% being that he's a tweener -- not really big or long enough to play inside and not really skilled or quick enough to get shit done on the perimeter on either end. He came into camp either last year or the year before a lot slimmer too, and seemed to gain weight as the season went on. 

He needs to focus on being a 3 and D guy, but because the team was so shitty and directionless in his first couple of years, he's had to play a bigger role and initiate offense when he really had no business doing so. I think it fucked up his development. I'm rooting for him because he's great in the room and in the community, but this is a make or break season  to see if he's part of the core going forward.

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15 hours ago, ztejas said:

Like 80% of the issues with his game are BBIQ related.

Not sure what slimming down is going to do. 

Well sometimes when you get gassed cause your too fat, it impairs your thinking.  At least that's what happens to me in pickleball.  Same same right?

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2 hours ago, EvilCaseMcCoy said:

Well sometimes when you get gassed cause your too fat, it impairs your thinking.  At least that's what happens to me in pickleball.  Same same right?

True. I've always imagined you and Keldon Johnson as comparable athletes. 

Does a cold beverage get your mental game back on track in that situation?

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On 8/20/2024 at 6:43 PM, ztejas said:

Officer I had to speed to get more air flow through the windows because it's too fucking hot.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/jeremy-sochan-spurs-crash-19730926.php

When I was his age my piece-of-shit car AC was broken, so I had to drive with the windows down. He probably doesn't have that issue.

The good news is he's apparently unhurt. The bad news is he may miss the first month anyway because Pop sits him.

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So, what are folk's expectations for record this year?  40 wins?  35?  How are we thinking about what steps to take to get better?  Any in-season trades you'd like to see or just try and get our core -- Vassell, Wemby, and Castle (maybe Sochan) minutes, experience and to improve?

I'm sure we want Atlanta to burst at the seams a lose 70 games..... probably not.

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1 hour ago, Patrick Bateman said:

So, what are folk's expectations for record this year?  40 wins?  35?  How are we thinking about what steps to take to get better?  Any in-season trades you'd like to see or just try and get our core -- Vassell, Wemby, and Castle (maybe Sochan) minutes, experience and to improve?

I'm sure we want Atlanta to burst at the seams a lose 70 games..... probably not.

Vegas has them at 35 or 36, depending on where you look. That probably seems about right.

I have no idea what to expect. If they played in the east, I'd predict a .500 record and playoff appearance but the west is too deep. Only Portland will be outright tanking from day 1. 

Obviously if Victor misses any significant time, they jump with both feet into the tank. And he's been playing essentially non-stop for almost two years running, so even if he's healthy I can see them load managing him and erring on the side of caution with even the most minor bump or bruise. But if he's healthy and continues on his trajectory, and they get 65-ish games of Chris Paul actually playing worth a shit? Then I think a playoff/play-in berth is on the table.

I would be completely and utterly stunned if they made any significant trades to immediately improve the team. Anything they do will have the long game in mind. Along those lines and I hate to say it, but probably the best thing for them to do this year is another tank. Or even better, strike gold on the Atlanta pick. There looks to be potentially 5 franchise players in this draft. You put Flagg, Traore, Edgecombe, Harper or Bailey next to the young pieces they already have and you're set up for a dominating 10 year run. 

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