To get us through the late-Summer doldrums of the NBA, we’re reviewing teams from around the league and how their offseasons went.
San Antonio Spurs
Key Additions:
Chris Paul
Harrison Barnes
Stephon Castle
Key Losses:
Cedi Osman
Charles Bassey
Offseason Review and 2024-25 Season Outlook:
The San Antonio Spurs entered this offseason with a very clear and obvious goal: improve the talent around Victor Wembanyama. Wemby is everything that was expected, and should be a dominating force in the league for years to come. The Spurs haven’t rushed to be too good too fast, allowing Wemby time to acclimate the the NBA last season. They still aren’t pushing all their chips in, continuing to slow-play their ascension, but steady improvement is important. With that goal in mind, I think the Spurs had a marvelous offseason.
Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes are exactly the type of veterans you want around your young star. Both will impart their wisdom of the game, how to prepare, how to take care of your body, all the little things to help Wemby take the next steps. Chris Paul in particular is a great addition for the Spurs, who spent most of last season with an offense that lacked direction. A team in desperate need of a point guard has one. The other thing about those two signings, Wemby can more than cover for CP3 and Barnes’ lack of defensive ability.
The Spurs also managed to maintain their core of young guys around Wemby, with Jeremy Sochan, Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Julian Chmpagnie, and Sidy Cissoko all in the fold. The Spurs also added Stephon Castle in the draft, who will also benefit from learning under Paul.
The future is bright for the Spurs, but it probably will still be an up and down season. The Spurs aren’t chasing an 8 seed, they are building for future title runs. They’ll keep their powder dry a little longer, but should still be good enough to be somewhere around the play-in.
Why We Hate Them:
Because it is simply not fair that the Spurs win the lotto every time a generational big man happens to be available.
Everything being so nicely put together in San Antonio right now makes me wish Pop was twenty years younger to see if he could collect another five titles as a head coach.
Or ten.
The Spurs nailed their rebuild like OKC did and HoU currently is. Something we couldn’t do for 2 decades.
It helps when you land generational big men with the #1 pick in 3 out of the last 5 decades.
Gotta get to the first Spurs game at G1C for that HB ovation.
Lol
probably hear it from home
Not only should one not overlook the Spurs, with Wemby on the court, you can’t look over them either.
Taking a look at how the 2023 draft turned out, it was fortunate for the Spurs getting the number one pick, and fortunate for Victor Wembanyama but IMO, also fortunate for The Association;
The draft order was
SpursHornetsBlazersRocketsPistonsBlazers and Rockets we can argue over – I think Houston would have been nicer (Sengun AND Wemby – oy vay!), the Blazers in their current state, not so great. Had it been Charlotte or Detroit – I think we’d have a very different assessment of The Extraterrestrial.
Didn’t happen so I why bring it up? Just what if-fing in this the time of the year to what if, is all.
Certainly, being older and adding CP3 and the Black Falcon (and a 2031 protected pick!! – I jest) will work nicely from an avuncular standpoint. Games-wise – meh. Depends if Cliff Paul or Silent HB show up or their more impressive former selves.
Pop is a system’s guy and his system works. It’s hard to tell if he has enough talent around Wemby, developing talent that is, just yet, to see a Champion starting to emerge. Having said that, I was most impressed with Stephon Castle at Vegas Summer League. It’s just Summer League, but I really liked what I saw. Maybe he is an important piece to the puzzle. I know I’ll be watching. I like Keldon, and Vassel, and Sochan and Champagnie but I can’t yet picture any of them as All-Star caliber players. The journey continues…(aka Pound the Rock!)
SAS play hard and smart. In that way, always a threat. I hope they play that way against the rest of the West, Kings excluded.
an anxious by the way: is Monte done?
August 28th has come and gone with Jalen (not Jaden) McDaniels still an unintroduced but roster spotted King.
That seems to be more on the, done for the moment side of things, IMO.
Huerter states he is cleared for full practice on 5 September. Maybe he stays and they figure out how to use him that suits his skills and his value ($16M/season) but I can’t figure a scenario where he doesn’t come off the bench. Mike Brown is in charge, not me, I trust him to figure it out.
What constitutes being on the roster?
Listed on the website. A publicly announced trade, a contract, or a two minute introduction in front of four reporters?
I understand he might be traded but he is realistically and very simply a person on this roster. Hopefully Monte can do better but I think the rest of the NBA sees the same thing we do with him. Not bad, not good, but on a roster.
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