What is krack Lack and fellow thermonuclear A Eppers. I am Dan Favalley coming
at you with a very special guest today, a timely guest and making his
second appearance on the podcast Noah Magaro George. He's the editor in chief of
aer Alamo and the host of Alamo City Limits. Be sure to follow him
on Twitter at N Underscore Magaro. That's at N Underscore. M A G.
A R Oh. So many questions to ask, you know, and
I will purpose this with this. We had this on the books like a
little bit over a week in advance, and apparently it didn't register with either
of us that we could be talking in the aftermath of the San Antonio Spurs
winning the draft lottery. So in case there any Spurs has to think we're
we're just doing this because of Wemby, I promise you were not. But
that's that's a nice little bonus for us to talk about. But first and
foremost, how are you doing? I'm great. I mean I think everybody
knows by now the Spurs won the lottery, so great for the organization,
great for the fans, great for the media who covers this team. And
I'm included kind of in you know, face somewhere between fandom and media.
So incredibly excited it is. That's a great. Oh. So, I
mean we have to start with Wemby Just how much does winning the Victor Wemban
Yama Sweepstakes alter the trajectory of this franchise? Like, are you able to
It's been less than twenty four hours, by the way, so I'm really
putting you on the spot here, but he's able to contextualize it in in
any way just how big this is in just both the short and long term
views. Short term, the best way that I can describe it is last
season they were near the bottom and attendance. They were like twenty eight twenty
seventh and attendance. And that was even with that you know huge Alamo Dome
game where they broke the single game record for attendance. Right, they were
super low in attendance. A lot of games were empty. They had the
most blowouts by thirty five points in NBA history. Nobody was going to games
yesterday after they won the lottery. Bars were full, they were going crazy.
People were honking downtown. You had, I believe as of this morning,
some people from the San Antonio Express News reported that they had already had
over two thousand a season ticket deposits down within the first twelve hours of the
Spurs winning the lottery, And it's just a different vibe now. Obviously,
you know, we see a lot of prospects from whether it's a Palo Bunko
or Zion Williamson or you know, in any of the big names of the
recent years. You know, people people want those guys, they're coveted.
But the word generational once in a lifetime, I think that really fits someone
like Wemby because we haven't seen someone like him, and for the Spurs to
get someone like him to add to their young core to build around, you
know, for a long time, add to the lineage of great big men
like Tim Duncan and David Robinson, that's really huge. And I think the
last thing that I'll say on that is Forbes reported that whatever team LANs Wemby
was going to add half a billion dollars to their value of their franchise.
Well, the Spurs won. You know, it's it's good for the team,
it's good for the city, it's good for the fans, it's good
for the media, it's good for everyone. Involved, So just a brighter
tomorrow promised to San Antonio and the Spurs organization. And I know everybody who's
you know, rooting for the team and covering this team couldn't be happier.
Yeah, I'm sure Peter Holt is thrilled right the franchise. I mentioned this
to you off air and I did a segment on this. I wanted him
to go or I was most interest to see him go to the Pacers as
my puppies in the background just get freaking out as hell. I was interested
to seem to go to Indian or San Antonio. And part of the reason
I want to seem go to San Antonio is one we'll get into the story
of the function stuff, but they're a franchise that I think you can entrust
with. Everyone's concerned about his body type, just because he's such a large
human. I think there's that inherent concern with everybody, and they're clearly taking
that espmps earlier this year. They're clearly taking his development very seriously, like
his people. When you look at the amount of sleep he's getting and what
he's eating and his type of training. And so I think that the Spurs
are just a great fit for that. And I'm curious as to you know,
how you what your thoughts are, and like the concerns that are already
coming in, I don't want we're not getting into injury prone. It's just
this is such a unique talent who's built, it's just such a this physical
specimen, who is so young and anomalous. Like what do you sort of
make of all of that coming in? Yeah, I mean you look at
when ban Yama seven five, reportedly with an eight foot wing span. He
brings a lot of skills table and we'll get into that in a second,
but I think, you know, the injury concerned thing, and I know
we're not going to spend a lot of time on this, but as you
mentioned, I mean his team has been working really hard with him. The
Spurs training staff is you know, regardless of what happened with the Kawhi thing,
they they've really had a good reputation of, you know, resting their
players, making sure their players are healthy, not forcing them to play when
they're not feeling like they are up to it. And you look at him
and you know he has missed games every season, a lot of games every
season. This season hasn't missed a single game. Granted they play like one
to two games a week max over in the French League, but I think
that's a really you know, promising thing. You know, he hasn't missed
a single game. He's leading the league and minutes played, points, rebounds,
blocks, Like, I don't have a lot of concerns there. And
I think you look at you know, he's coming to a coach like Pop
who's won five championships. He's had every player you could possibly think of,
from you know, loud personalities like Stephen Jackson to guys who are you know,
kind of quiet, unassuming like Kawhi Tim Duncan. And you know,
even though this roster, I think a lot of people think, oh,
well, you know, you win twenty games, twenty two games, you
must suck, you must be awful. But I think a lot of what
happened last year was babing injuries guys who are not necessarily playing in the right
roles. And you add a guy who can be that focal point on both
ends, and it changes the trajectory of the franchise pretty quickly. Not not
saying they're a playoff team or they're going to be you know, contending for
a title year one. But it certainly alleviates a lot of the concerns around
the roster by adding that Alpha uh, you know sort of player to the
roster. So I don't have concerns. I know some people do, but
I think this is almost a perfect situation for him, especially you know,
considering the Parker thing as well, the lineage there with French players Boors Diao,
their connections. Like, to me, it just was almost two perfect
teams in France, like he was on Yeah, he played on Tony Parker's
team and yeah, exactly exactly. So I don't want to force you to
boil this day. Well, although by the way you mentioned they're not going
to win a title immediately, wemby saying like I'm ready to win a championship
asapp which is very endearing. That's a great way to rally this in Sobio
Spurs fans. There's so much about his game. It's just anomaloust that we
could dig into. But there's supposed to be an offseason look ahead. So
I'm just curious though, if you had to pick one thing about his fit
or the way he plays and scallet forward to this team, Like, what
are you most intrigued by heading into his rookie season. I'm most intrigued on
the defensive end. This is a Spurs team that had the worst defense by
defensive rating in NBA history. They were atrocious on that end. They had
a lot of holes. They didn't really have a true rim protector once they
got rid of Yaka Purdle. They had guys who maybe aren't the best team
defenders, and guys like Kelvin Johnson. They had a lot of guys who
missed time who were good defenders like Jeremy Sohan and Romeo Lankford. And for
as good as Trey Jones is at the point of attack, right, he
just can't be that impactful, you know, six one, one hundred and
eighty pounds, Like, he's not gonna make the biggest impact. And I
think for the Spurs, adding someone like Wimby who's not just a generational rim
protector, but a guy who is, you know, prolific shot blocker,
can switch on to the perimeter, you know, can can stick to guards,
can use his length in the passing lanes, and it is a deterrent.
I think that's first and foremost the most important thing is he is an
at salute rim deterrent, so guys don't want to challenge him at the rim,
and when they do, he's not afraid to, you know, meet
them at the rim. He's not afraid to get posterized or anything like that.
So I think it automatically just changes the dynamic of the defense. Mistakes
are gonna happen, but he's going to be a guy who can erase those
mistakes, and I think that's really huge and it really alleviates a lot of
the pressure on guys like Devin Vassell and Jeremy Sohan to take on, you
know, the best matchups and have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders.
They can not necessarily take it easy, but they don't have to worry as
much knowing they have that safety net of wimben Yama. They can and the
roster might change, but like the core of it, the youngsters won't.
They can run out just some really interesting liners now like ending Meldon Johnson and
Jeremy Sown and Devin Vassell, like just those four and then it's like pick
do you need like a big in there? Do you want a guard?
And they could just run so many different things. So I'm very ecstatic to
see, like what type of arrangements Pop comes up with with his advance is
largely the same. Yeah, that is there are possibilities upon possibilities upon possibilities.
So yeah, that's definitely an interesting thing that we could get into something
that I didn't register with me until right now. Does this like we know
Pop is back next season, but like, does this extend his career even
longer now by having Wemby or is it just like he was always just going
to be maybe viewed as like the chaperone for the next couple of years.
As to this inbound you know, they were going to get a high pick
regardless no matter what, because they're like there has to be at least some
questions of a like Pop might want to stick around longer than a year or
two or three at this point. If Wemban Yama is who we all think
who he's going to be, Yeah, I mean I think that's the age
old question for like the last like half decade is you know when's Pop going
to retire and who's going to replace him? And I think a lot of
people thought he was going to be gone after LaMarcus and damarrow because his promise
to them was, you know, I'm going to stick it out as long
as you're here. Then they were gone and he was still here. You
know, he hung around and then it was like, oh, well,
could this be the swan song for pop? You know. He he,
you know, tries to guide these young guys and it's a real big losing
season, but he sets them up for the future with the high lottery pick
and he's out the door. I don't think that's the case either. I
think he's gonna be here for a few more years now. Obviously I don't
have any intel like on that. They're very you know, close to the
vest, very secretive in the sports organization, but it feels like he'll be
here for a while, just the way that he spoke about coaching young guys,
and there's just a different dynamic between you know, being in charge of
a team that has Tim Duncan and Manu and Tony and Bruce Bowens and Robert
ORI's and like a lot of veterans and older guys who who they know the
routine, they know the details, they don't really need to be reminded of
things, whereas he's getting to coach these young guys and in still fundamentals and
help them grow their game and turn them into you know, these rough edged
prospects into you know, real basketball players gonna be impactful. And he seemed
to really love that and enjoy that, and he spoke about that several times
throughout the year. So it wouldn't surprise me if he sticks around, especially
now that you've got when Bin Yama to add to the vassels and the Johnson's
and the hands. So it'll be exciting to see what happens. I will
say if he was looking for like an opportunity time to leave this poor guy,
it's like now you just like you can't, like you can't. You
have all these excuses to stay rather than looking for looking for the exit.
Do you expect and I don't mean in terms of minutes, but like,
do you expect them to turn Wemby loose? And I would say mostly on
offense, that he's going to be given the runway to explore from day one
in San Antonio. If I had to guess, I would say yes,
I look at like this season in particular, where they you know, they
didn't have anything to lose except for a ton of games, which was obviously
to their benefit. They just had guys out there, you know, experimenting
with their games, right, Like Kelton Johnson at the beginning of the year,
he was able to run a ton of pick and rolls, and he
was able to kind of experiment in the mid range with his in between game,
pulling up off the dribble, throwing in floaters, trying to snake pick
and rolls. And they did the same thing for Devin Vassell, like a
guy who probably wouldn't have had a ton of touches or on ball reps with
another team. Maybe they let these guys go, you know, they said,
you know, there's no leash here. You do what you want for
the most part. Obviously, you know, Pop holds guys accountable, and
there's certain things you can't get away with, and he's gonna pull you aside
and you know, yell at you if you do something too crazy. But
I would fully expect him to let you know, when bin Yama come in
here and just kind of test the limits of what he's able to do.
At the same time, I don't necessarily think he'll be a guy who's taking
you know, twenty shots per game and averaging twenty four. Like, I
don't think that's the case. I think he's probably looked at as you know,
the focal point of the offense, but not to the extent where it's
like he's clearly, you know, head and shoulders above everybody else in the
pecking order. I think it'll probably be a sort of one A one B
thing with him and Kelton Johnson, depending if he's still in the starting lineup,
and Devin Vassell as well, who was really fantastic last year, like
he was a legit, you know, most Improved Player of the Year candidate
for most of the year until you know, the the knee soreness and the
arthroscopic knee procedure that cleaned up some things. So it'll be interesting to kind
of see how that shakes out. But I think they'll give him the freedom
to kind of you know, stretch the floor, you know, dribble,
take the ball up, sometimes go to work in the post. Like,
I think he'll have the freedom to do quite a bit of things. I
think the way they used and part of this I'm sure was because of injuries
and the roster construction, but like the freedom that Sowen had this season is
super encouraging if you want to trust that the Spurs are going to give Wemby
full rain. But I think it's also a sort of reality check where youeah,
like there are a ton of Knights where Sowen logged like thirty plus minutes,
but they're also knights where like he logged a lot less than that,
And so I think it's sort of like keeping your expectations rained in a little
bit. But I'm fully confident that, like based off really these past two
years. But when looking at so and specifically under the circumstances, like you
have to believe that if you're gonna get a generational prospect like women Yama in
there, you're going to give him some just serious wiggle room to to like
explore and fail, because that's part of all this is like there's gonna be
expectations immediately because of all this type surrounding him, but you need to give
him the freedom to fail. And that's why they were among my favorite landing
spots for him, is that I thought they had the timeline and the stomach
to allow that to happen. Yeah, no, I'm right there with you.
I think that is something that we're gonna see and I mean we talked
about it, right, Pop is holding guys accountable. But at the end
of the day, like Sohan came into the league as a non shooter and
he shot like twenty four percent from three as a rookie, and Pops still
let him shoot those threes like he encouraged it. If you're open, let
it fly, like you're not going to get better if you're not going to
practice it in a game. And if they expect women Yama to also be
this transcendent offensive talent to match his you know, defensive prowess, then they're
gonna let him experiment and like you said, you know, try and fail
and learn from that. So I fully expect him to have that sort of
freedom. I want to ask you before I get some offseason questions about some
of your impressions of the players that intreague me the most on this roster.
Chief among them remains Devin Vassell. I asked you many questions about him.
I think last year he you mentioned he would have been a most improved player.
Accoundidate he would have had it would have been pretty tough to beat out,
you know, in lowry marketing or even an SGA, but he probably
would have finished in the top three had he played in more games not for
that left knee injury. He just don't I don't think anyone build him is
what he was able to do on offense this year when he came into the
league, Like just better decision making off ball screens, which you hinted at,
his weaponize pull up in between game mixing in step backs and faderways and
runners. What stood out most to you about his season and what are you
most either watching closely or looking forward to or concerned about heading into year four
for him? Yeah, with Devin Vassell, I really appreciated how aggressive he
was, Like he could have just kind of taken a back seat to Kelden
and been like, you do your thing and I'll get my offense within the
flow of things. But you know, when pob gave him the opportunity to
have on ball reps, he really took advantage of them. And I think
there was a clear difference from like a year ago, so not last season,
but the previous season where Devin Vassell was often okay to just defer and
be this three and D guy and he didn't really experiment too much. You
know whether that's a little bit of the you know, team and the coaching
staff telling him, you know, know your role. This year, he
fully you know, took advantage of all those touches, and he showed that
he can play with pace in the pick and roll. You know, he's
not a guy who's like an incredible athlete with like a tremendous first step,
who can you know, finish above the rim. But I noticed as the
year went on he was looking to become a little more crafty, like find
his way to the rim. He was finishing well at the rim, he
was pulling up off the dribble, and I think all of those things were
really impressive. And also, as you mentioned, like the the experimenting as
far as you know, step backs, pull ups from three, like that's
not really something that I expected to see too much of, But as the
year went on and he got more comfortable, he let it fly. And
you know, unfortunately it's just that knee injury that really just kind of made
him taper off at the end. Like one of the things that I thought
was really really impressive was up into the knee procedure. So if you erase
all the games after the knee procedure. He was third in the NBA in
terms of pull up two point percentage, after Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal,
and he was eighth in terms of volume, Like he was taking about eight
a game. So I'm not saying that that's who he is all the time
because it was a smaller sample size. It was through like thirty five games,
but he certainly showed flashes of being a guy who can be like your
second third option. And I don't like, as you said, I don't
know that a lot of people saw that. Like I was optimistic for him
to be a good player and maybe have some of that in his game,
but he really took a tremendously huge step in his development this season, especially
on ball. Yeah, and it was you saw like hints of it after
the Derek White trade like the season before, but it was just even by
that measure, and you had mentioned him getting to the basket. I think
that's going to be like the biggest if you want him to be like this
three level score who also kind of dips his tone and startom, I think
that's kind of the next frontier for him. But what he has shown now
on ball if he gets the ability to meld that with everything we know he
can do off the ball when they have a proper either number one option or
a top to your advantage creator. This is just someone who is going to
impact winning at the at the highest level. I feel more confident, aside
from Wemby and saying that about him than anyone else on the roster right now,
which leads me to this question, how aggressive would you expect this?
And by the way, this kind of snuck up on me. I was
doing prep for this. I was like, fuck, I forgot Devin Missell
was extensional. He's been the league three years already. How aggressive would you
expect the Spurs to be to sign him to an extension? Knowing that,
I think they're gonna be people, especially with the Wemben Yama, with Weben
Yama coming, that might want them to preserve their flexibility for twenty twenty four
free agency a little bit more. Would you expect them though, to be
more hype like they did the same with Kelton Johnson, but they got even
after and we'll talk about him in a second. He didn't have like the
best clothes to this season. That's extension still looks like a bargain Knowing the
archetype of player that Devin Missel is, I don't think they're getting any discounts
in potential negotiations with him, would be my official stand. So I'm just
curious what your thoughts are leading into these extension negotiations this summer. I think
the Spurs are gonna want to wrap him up, like make sure that he
is on the roster, especial with the new CBA roles, and they're going
to be able to lock him down for five years instead of four, Like
I fully expect them to go for the full five years. Now. The
money is interesting because I do think he is a guy who is worth,
you know, probably a little above twenty million a year. With that said,
I kind of wonder if the Spurs are able to leverage the durability from
this season, like his lack of durability from this season to go, well,
you kind of proved it, but it was on a small sample size.
You were hurt for most of the year. We lost a ton of
games. Like, I wonder if that factors into how much he actually ends
up getting and if it's kind of a bargain bin deal like they got with
Keldon, But like you mentioned, he is a really interesting archetype of player.
And I don't want to throw out necessarily one for one comparisons because I
think every player is unique. But I think there is very much a trajectory
for him to become a sort of like Chris Milton esque player where he you
know, obviously not the best advantage creator, but a guy who can go
get his own bucket, can play make a little bit, not a tremendous
athlete, but very crafty, super high release point on the jumper. And
then obviously I think there's some some plus you know, upside on the defensive
end. But that's tough because I'm not exactly sure how much he's gonna get
or you know, what the range is for him. So I regardless,
I still want to see them bring him back, and I think they will,
Like I think they're gonna go for the full five year extension. I
would say, if you can get him for twenty five million a year or
less, that you do it absolutely now, and then maybe it becomes a
because that and we have to start evaluating these in the new cap climate where
it's like twenty five million dollars in the first year of his extension is like
seventeen or eighteen percent of the cap, which is just her player, that's
Devin Theseuth. That's really not that much, and so you could be if
they went higher, wouldn't shock me. But like, if that's the number
you can get him at now, like I just I absolutely pounce And it's
restricted free agencies, restricted free agencies, so they could let it go into
there and they don't have to worry about anything. But if you can keep
him off the open market, where like if he has another year like this
but plays in the vast majority of games, someone's gonna throw him like he's
gonna get paid. Yeah, yeah, explably want to ask you about was
Keldon Johnson You already talked about him a little bit. How do you feel
about what I'm supposed to be now offensively after watching him this year because there
was it felt like there might have been like three or five Keldon Johnson seasons
mixed into this one season, and I feel pretty comfortable saying like no,
like okay, like this is probably someone was better off as like a number
three at this point. It's just my overarch arching sentiments on that. Where
do you sort of land with him after watching Was it more function of Okay,
these were his limitations, or if he was in a situation that had
more space or maybe a little bit more talent around him, available talent around
him anyway, that we'd be talking about, you know, a different trend
line for his regular season. That's yeah, that's a really good question.
It's also tough to answer. I know, personally, I'm fairly low on
Keldon versus the consensus among like Spurs fans and even some of the media members
who cover this team. Like, I don't think Keldon is a guy who,
for all of his offensive limitations, should probably have the ball in his
hand that much. Like he misses a lot of passing reads, like fairly
simple passing reads, trying to force things at the rim. He's not super
efficient at the rim. He has basically no in between game to speak of.
Right, He's shot like high twenty percent from mid range, you know,
high mid the low thirties on floaters. He was terrible off the case
this year on threes. Yeah, I was awful from there. I mean,
like, and he's also a guy who's kind of a methodical shooter,
Like he needs time, he needs the space to shoot, and like he
doesn't have a lot of versatility. He's not coming off of screens, he's
not shooting in transition, he's not shooting off the move, he's not shooting
off the dribble. Like, I just don't really know what he does for
you that you can't find somewhere else, probably cheaper and defensively. I know
some Spurs fans probably are going to come from me for this, but he's
a terrible defender, like super unaware off ball, too small to guard forwards,
too heavy footed to guard you know, guards, He's always going to
be a post mismatch if he's mismatched in the post, Like, I just
don't know that if you have a guy who's so limited and flawed on one
end and pretty much like a huge liability on the other, that you can
have him as a starter long term. Wimby kind of changes that. But
I'm also just a little out on Kelden as like a major building block for
the future. But with that said, he ended the season not shooting well,
but his playmaking kind of stood out towards the end of the year,
and I think he averaged almost five assists per game over his last twelve games.
So he was making some strides there. Having said that, you know,
they force fed him a bunch of touches to read into it. But
I you know, still wish him the best. But it's just a tough
situation with Keldon. They're gonna have to figure that out because depending on that
roster or the lineup construction for the starting rotation, it could be awkward.
It could get real awkward real quick. Yeah, I mean someone's gonna have
to come off the bench unless you really want to view wemen Yamas. You're
a day facto five and that's not everyone's that's basically in universal agreement that that's
not what he should, yeah do, And so it's is it? I
think you would pick between. I would guess it's either gonna be Johnson or
so and that's the player would be coming off the bench in that scenario.
And so, yeah, you're right, you've extended Johnson. But he's also
making when you look at his number, like there's kind of bench player money
at this point down every year two. Right, it's not too bad.
I still really like him as a player. I just think like if you
can hone in, I'm like, Okay, he's gonna hit his corner threes
and if he can attack the close outs or just open space if there's not
you know, defense is packing the paint. I think that's the perfect offensive
role from I don't know what you do with him defensively, because this is
me at least, I kind of forget how small he is all the time.
Yeah, it's like he's six five or six six. I'm like,
in my head, I'm like, oh, he's like six s eight six
and nine. It's like no, every time he seems like, oh no,
wait, no, he's not that big. Should do there? I'm
sorry, what'd you say? Oh? Sorry? Did I cut out my
bat? I was saying, I'm not really sure what you do with him
long term defensively, But like as you mentioned, with with the contract,
it goes down in value, like it is a bargain. They'll figure it
out. So Jeremy so In is like my siren song. I tried when
we were doing our mock all rookie bouts. I tried so fucking hard to
put on my first team. He made a second team. He ended up
making the real second team. He was just so good. I think most
of the focus was on Okay, well, look what he shot after he
switched to one handed free throws, which was like it's like seventy plus percent
or whatever. Okay, and that's I mean great. But what aside from
that kind of stood out most or most impressed you with his rookie campaign Just
his activity level, his aggression. He was fearless, right, Like,
he's a guy who gets his offense mostly within the flow of the offense,
like attacking clothes outs or cleaning up the offensive boards or you know, even
cutting to the basket. And like even in transition, he's a guy who
can rebound and run. Like he's not a super dynamic handler, but he's
got a good enough handle where he can just grab a rebound, go to
the length of the floor, attack the basket. Like those are things we
didn't necessarily see all the time at Baylor. There were certainly hints of it,
but just his aggression and then his fearlessness. Right, he was like
getting into scrums guys, like he was like an old school kind of enforcer
in terms of his you know, just ability to get under guy's skin.
He was trying to bother you know, Luca don Chich and Steven Adams and
the Morse Twins and like he was not afraid of anyone. And then defensively,
you saw him out there, you know, man to man, he's
guarding Steph, He's guarding Dame, He's guarding the Montes Sabonis, he's guarding
Paul George, he's guarding Jason Tatum. Like he's taking on the hardest assignment
every night. And you know it wasn't always successful, but he always gave
them a hard time, Like at the very least, he made their life
a little bit harder. So I'm super high on him. I don't think
he'll necessarily be a star, but I think he can be that sort of
glue guy who you know, without him, you're not winning a championship,
Like he is absolutely integral to that. Yeah, his floor navigation just on
the ball, off the ball, both ends of the floor was would impressed
me most, like the way he was sort of moving. And then obviously
his hair. I was in love with us is Harodus as well, So
I thought he was one of the rook He's a probably and again circumstances perhaps
thrust him into a larger role than I think most will expect him. But
now you just have all this information, especially about him on offense and when
he's being hyper aggressive and attacking the basket, he can really do some damage.
That becomes super valuable to the Spurs moving forward, just having that information
to base more decisions off of. Did you have any you know, Blake
Wesley, Malachi Branham, or anyone else on us, any impressions from this
year that are sticking with you as we lead into the off season. I
really really like Malachi Brandham. Last year he was fifteenth on my big board
and I was like, wow, they let him drop to twenty, Like
you gotta snag him. They did. He's a guy who wasn't necessarily the
most efficient, but he had stretches in there, especially from about February to
early March. Maybe he was averaging close to twenty points per game, like
fifty forty eighty shooting. Can you know, create his own off the dribble.
Not a super dynamic playmaker, not necessarily like the best athlete either,
but really patient navigating screens, knows how it gets to his spots. Really
good spot up shooter, although the percentages didn't really show that. This season,
I'm pretty high on him, Like I think I don't know if he's
a starter, but I could definitely see him being a guy who's like,
you know, you're an off bench, like he's the guy who keeps,
you know, the engine running for the second unit. I really like him
in that role. I kind of think that's the role he's gonna play for
the Spurs this year. It's just you know, what strides did he make
during the offseason, because, as we mentioned, just not the most efficient
guy you're but I think there's a lot of promise there. I wanted to
dislike brandam shot selection as a rookie, and it's just like, no,
I mean he was. He shot like sixty percent on floaters this year,
and it was just like he he kind of has a great feel when he's
in between, at least when he's looking for his scoring. So I am
kind of really curious to see how his career arc pans out and what is
fit on this team looks like long term, because that's not someone I had
really had my eye on leading into last regular season, and he definitely had
caught my attention by by year's end with his abilities there. So, oh,
go ahead, we're you gonna say something. Sorry, No, I
was, I was just gonna add like for Blake Wesley, I think he's
got a long way to go. I think I'll leave it at that because
I don't want I don't want to waste your time, you know, talking
too much about Blake Wesley. But he's got a long way to go.
I mean he's like fast and can get to the rim. And that's basically
like my impressions of his game so far as like I don't have I didn't
see you still way more of him than I did, and he didn't even
play that much to begin with, so I would fight. But those are
my cursory thoughts on on Blake Wesley at the moment. Yeah, those are
pretty accurate. Like he just he got to the rim at will, but
shot like forty percent at the rim. He wasn't good on floaters. He
wasn't He was pretty good at catch and shoot from three, but his pull
up numbers were really bad. His defense was pretty like shoddy. He was
a little lost, Like his decision making was a little off. I think
he's he's still got a lot of a long way to go if he really
wants to play point guard. Now that's something he told me at Summer League.
Was like, I am a point guard. I'm going to be a
point guard in the NBA, and that's not what he was in college.
So I think it's just gonna be a longer adjustment period. But thankfully,
and he's like twenty and it's not like he's twenty four twenty five. He's
he's got time. So how does bringing this to the actual offseason? Does
the addition of or knowing they're going to get wemban Yama, does it alter
their off season approach at all? Aside from oh, we have like two
million dollars less in cap space to work with. That is also a really
great question because I to make of that, You've got pop. So when
you've got pop, your goal is always to try to win as many games
as possible. So perhaps they go after, you know, some free agents.
They've got what is it, like, a close to thirty million dollars
in cap space this offseason, so maybe they chase after someone like a Grant
Williams or a Cameron Johnson or Austin Reeves. Even I'm not, you know,
not in love necessarily with all those guys, but you know, just
names out there, or you could just kind of let it grow organically because
you've got a ton of assets, you've got a lot of young guys,
you don't really have a ton of roster openings. Like that's a tough question.
Also with Wemby saying he's trying to win a championship or ring asap that
you know, how much does that play into it? Do they want to
satisfy hey yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't even know how like it
alters their ops you approach because when you look at the roster, I think
before the draft lottery it was okay if they ended up with Scoot or someone,
maybe you don't need an advantage creator as much. But now you can
look at the roster and say, oh, do they still need that or
is it between Wemby and v Sells development and even having so in and then
we could bring back to Tray Jones? Is that is that not the priority?
And I do think one of the other interesting elements is, like,
you know, one, I want to know what you think their biggest roster
needs with Wemby included right now? Is then two it's also what type of
big Zach Collins might be a big that you really want to play alongside Wemby,
But even trying to scale beyond that, Like, it does feel like
they need a certain type of big to compliment him properly as well. That
might that well, I won't say might most definitely isn't on the roster right
now because they're basically bereft of like centers at this point. Yeah, that's
tough one. I really do like the combination of Wimby and Colins is a
really awesome you know, high post, top of the key, you know,
playmaking hub. He's really great there. He also had pretty good numbers
at least defending near the rim, so I think he could bang with bigger
bodies like your Yokich and Valancunises and Anthony davis Is and those sort of guys.
So like, I like the fit there. In terms of what they
need, they kind of I mean, for me, it's it's you need
better defenders, you need longer defenders, you need guys who can shoot the
three, and I think, as you mentioned, they need an advantage creator.
Like you know, Wemby can has scoring gravity for sure, but he's
not the most efficient guy, or hasn't been this season. Eat something off
the dribble. I like Trey Jones. I don't know if he's your long
term answer at starting point guard. But I'm not sure where you find that
this offseason, Like is it Fred van Vleet, do you do you?
I mean, I don't know. I'm not really sure where you get that
from this offseason. And then you're saying, well, yeah, we're accelerating
the timeline here too. It's like you can find if you even could get
Fred van Fleet that does he's not ancient, but that does say a lot
about and he's not going to infringe upon anyone's development, but that does say
a lot about Okay, we're not really trying to let this marinate at all,
and there's I think there's a there's a cost benefit analysis to be had
there. I would just be I'd be surprised if they went that direction.
Do you expect Trey Jones to be back? It might just be pretty cut
and dry because he's restricted free agent. I don't know who's gonna pay him.
But I'm just curious where you land there. Yeah, I would expect
him to be back. Like I think when he wasn't on the court,
they were pretty awful, Like their offense was just a mess. It's not
like they were elite when he was there, But he was the kind of
guy who if you were like training wheels for a young team, like,
you know, he's he's got a really good first step. He was able
to get to the rim pretty much like whenever he wanted, he could collapse
the defense a little bit, kick it out, you know. He doesn't
ever turn the ball over. He's I mean this season he kind of dropped
off in terms of his like mid range efficiency and floator efficiency. I think
that had a little bit to do with the spacing. But I think if
you don't bring him back, like who's running the offense, you know,
who's taking the ball up the court, who's getting you into your sets?
Like, it's not Blake Wesley, He's not ready for that. I think
that would be a detriment to everyone else's development, including his own. And
it's not so Hand like I love Sohand, but he's not a primary ball
handler. He's more of like a rebound and run or connective tissue guy.
Like he's not your you know, initiators. So I just don't know what
they do if they don't bring Trey Jones back, And for that reason,
I think they have to. I think they almost kind of have to bring
Tray Jones back. I didn't mention this in the outline, but you are
they gonna look at seriously, I assume they're gonna renounce his cap hold just
to maximize their cap space. But do you expect Romeo Langford to be back?
No, that's a tough one too, because I really like Romeo Langford,
Like I think he could be a really, really solid role player,
but he's never healthy. Like he's a dude who's missed like two hundred and
thirty of a possible like three hundred or four hundred games at this point in
his career. So love him. But yeah, for cap space reasons,
I don't think he's going to be back. You had already mentioned some names
here, but I'm just assuming that they'll carry Tray Jones' cap hold. They'll
have around thirty three plus million in space now when factoring in Wemba Yama's number
one pick holed. Are there any free agents that you thought about or if
you're you're in charge of the front office that you would be kind of you
know, circling in, uh, sharpie at this point, I mentioned Grant
Williams earlier. I do like Grant Williams for the Spurs, but you know,
with the reports that like he's looking for like twenty million a year,
I don't I don't know if I want to pay that to Grant Williams,
Like he may have to kind of come back down to earth and realize that's
probably not his market. But I like him just because he is such a
versatile defender. He can knock down the stand still three. You know,
he's he's he's pretty uh, you know, has a lot of positional flexibility.
Like he's a guy I like. But just looking at this roster,
if I were the Spurs, I would kind of just you know, play
it by ear and just take things slow because I think often, you know,
where we're looking for that immediate gratification of you know, we're going back
to the playoffs, we're gonna you know, compete. But I just don't
think there's any real need to rush the timeline. Like you have your franchise
player. Now, let's kind of figure out what else we have and let's
see what it looks like, like what he looks like with the players who
are already on the roster, because it's not like he's coming in like Lebron
did. Where Lebron's coming into like a completely blank canvas, right, Like
the Spurs have players who, in theory could help you win games, they
just weren't playing the right role. So let's see if you know, readjusting
roles and adding Whimby kind of changes anything. So I would evaluate before I,
you know, immediately go all in on, you know, trying to
build a contender from day one. I would be right there with you.
And I'm just curious if they should be looking at adding probably guys who aren't
going to crack there what would be their preferred closing five, But can they
open up the floor for everyone in the half court where it's maybe they're not
super young, like like a Max Strus or something like someone's gonna come in
and get up threes, get up threes on volume, and maybe not be
like I mean, he's not He's gonna be a pretty big defensive liability,
but he's not gonna be you know, and he's not gonna cost as huge
a money of you know, if we went the other way and said,
well, Gary Trent Junior would be kind of interesting for this team, Like
that's someone who's gonna cost he fits the timeline. He's super young, but
that's someone who's gonna cost a boatload. And so I'm just wondering if I'm
a big believer in like, if you can open up the half court,
that streamsline, streamlines development offensively for a lot of your players, and I
think I would like to see them do something along those lines with their cap
space where it's no, it don't go and over pay him all everyone out
of the water, and it doesn't. And look, if you told me
they signed Gary Trent Junior, I'd be like, yeah, sure, that's
I like that, But I'd like to see him make a move along or
an addition along those lines. Yeah, for sure, I'm right there with
you. I would add here that you know, Doug McDermott, I think
is super undervalued. For if we're looking at like a guy who can shoot
threes and a high volume, constantly on the move, like doesn't need the
ball to score, provides a lot of spacing like he has pretty i mean
immense gravity as a shooter. You can't leave him open, you can't go
under screens, you know, And because he's so good off the move,
you've got to have guys who are able at least on the other team.
You know theory you have to have guys who are able to chase him around
screens and follow him around the court. So I think he adds a lot
of value. I like kb d as well. I know, like he's
not the sexiest name, but I think Kada Bates Diop has really established himself
as just, you know, the solid role player. And then mom college
VILLI probably not another name that we were maybe you weren't thinking we would talk
about too much, but I really like him off the bench, Like I
think he is a guy who spaces the floor really good playmaker can handle him
the open floor court like he is a defensive liability, so is you know,
Doug McDermott. But I think if we're looking to open the floor for
guys and you know, take some playmaking pressure off of others, Like those
are two names that I think one of them they can bring back. In
the other one they're already responsible for paying him next season. He And that's
a great point on McDermott, by the way. The other kind of I
guess positional need that I thought about. Zach Collins had a fantastic season,
By the way, He's like, that's someone I like that fit with Wemby.
But it does feel like they need more big man depth on here,
and I'd looked at like a nas read for them. I just don't know
if is he going to be big enough And I don't really think that offsets
enough of the Wemby responsibilities at center, and you already have Za Zach Collins,
so it felt like a little too much overlapping. Zach Collins is just
better as a rim protector there. But I am curious to see because I
do think they'll add another big man type. I'm just curious to see.
You know, the center market's not super robust, especially for maybe ones that
you would want. I mean, like Brook Lopez on this team as a
veteran theader would be absolutely fantastic, but he's not Milwaukee. I'm curious to
see what they kind of do with the big man position. Yeah, you
know that is that's that's gonna be something they definitely need to address. I
know last season it was either a four year or five year. I think
it was a four year contract that they offered Charles Bassi, and like he
showed some stuff. You know, you can protect the rim just kind of
a more traditional rim runner, you know, run and catch, you know,
catch and finish kind of guy. I kind of think they'll give him
an opportunity. And I also think, you know, they have two second
round picks that if I were the Spurs, I think they're probably at least
from my you know, research on the draft this year, I'm watching film.
I think there's about thirty ish guys in this class who like could have
real impact, like from day one, or at least have long term value.
And I think it would kind of behoove them to package those second rounders
and go and get a first round contract that's guaranteed that they can control for
four years. Like, there are some guys that I think would fit for
them that are bigger, some of them are projects, some of them could
probably play right away, but I think they could also go that route as
well. Uh. I guess if if you had to boil it down,
would you expect them more to hold their flexibility or do you think that they'll
be looking at their cap flexibility whether you're gonna use it in trades or an
actual free agents. So do you expect them to actually use it or do
you think that They're gonna conserve it and be like, hey, we need
to see what we have in this core, especially now that when ban Yama's
coming and will make decisions in the middle of the season if need be.
Yeah, I think they're gonna hold it. And like last year, I
know that there was a lot at least around the Spurs fan base made about
oh, are they going to reach that salary you know, like floor or
they even going to meet that, and people are like, isn't that concerning?
I don't think the Spurs cared at all. They were happy to take
that, you know, extra money that they were not able to pay out
to players and just distribute it to the rest of the roster. Is basically
like a bonus. And like, having seen them do that, I think
they'd be fine to just hold onto their flexibility and go, yeah, I
mean it is what it is. Let's see what we got back with Wimby,
With whoever they draft, maybe one or two free agent additions. I
just don't know that they should go out and look to add guys who would
potentially take minutes from from young guys on the roster who you know, they've
invested first round picks lottery picks in. Yeah, I would probably agree with
you there. I'm interested to see how the new CBA. I know that
they are. It's actually more punitive to not hit the floor, though I
don't know if they're in danger of not hitting the floor next year. I
didn't actually look that up, but I'm just interested to see if that forces
teams to spend or act with their flexibility more over the summer. But then
they have the rules now where you can use your exception is trade exceptions.
It's a it's a it's a freaking mess. Is there any one or anything
that I didn't ask you about with this roster, this team, in this
future that you think needs to be discussed? No? Not really. The
only thing I could even think of is, you know, some Spurs fans
were really worried, you know, the team is moving to Austin. You
know, rest assured that I don't think that's happening. You know, between
Wimby coming here, they just uh, they're they're gonna break or open not
just break ground. They already broke ground, but they're gonna open up there.
You know, multi hundred million dollar training facility and medical center like the
Spurs are here to stay in San Antonio. They're not going anywhere. So
if there are any Spurs fans listening, you know they're not They're not leaving
San Antonio. That's that's where they're gonna be. That's their home. You
know, they're they're synonymous with the city. I am very interested to see
the one thing I mentioned how many national TV games they get next year,
because the league was very invested in Wemban Yama before he was even a part
of it. Yeah, and they made it a point to make his games
a lot of his games excess at least. And now I'm just curious as
to he's here, and like we saw it, we saw like the Zion
effect in New Orleans that first year. I'm just curiously what it's gonna be
like with women Yama, who feels like, I don't want to get into
the all time best prospects stuff, but it does feel like he ended up
being hyped up more than Zion even was, who was super accessible because he
played at Duke And I guess maybe it's it felt like the league it maybe
it felt like he was more hyped up because the league had to go out
of their way to feature him because he was playing abroad, so I might
just be sort of misinterpreting things there. But I'm you know, if i'd
just set the over under it, like I don't know, I don't even
know, like seven or nine, Like even that feels too low with just
how much they were trying to push beyond fans this year, Yeah, I
would expect him to him And this may sound crazy, but I kind of
think anywhere between ten to fifteen would not be out of the realm of possibility.
And I think the Spurs will have a Christmas game for the first time,
and like I don't know, probably a decade. Like like I I
don't know how much people really care about the Christmas games, but I know
some fans really do. And I think he'll be featured in that game or
the Spurs will be you know, he is going to be synonymous with the
team now, so I think they'll get quite a few games. And as
far as like the Zion when I do think Wemby is like once in a
generation like Alteimer Prospect, like he's up there with you know, the Lebron
James Is. He's up there with like the you know, Sidney Crosby's and
the Bryce Harpers, who are like talked about when they're teenagers as like franchise
saviors before they're even professionals. So I think he'll have a ton of games.
What would be the broke the TV ratings? Christmas matchup? Wemby versus
Is it Wemby versus Oh an old head like Lebron or Steph or is it
Wenby versus like Luca or Wemby versus Zion. I wouldn't go to the ladder
routs because you can't count on Zion being healthy for Christmas game. Yeah,
I think I don't even have like is it is it Wemby versus? I
mean, like Wemby versus Lebron just because of the Lakers might make the most
just sort of passing up the torch and they could have their debates about who
was the more hyped up prospect. But I didn't even give thought to the
Christmas game, but only the national TV stuff. I'm gonna go with double
digit national TV games for the Spurs, though maybe that's overly ambitious, but
given the again, given how much the league wanted to make him accessible before
he was in the league, I'm going to think that they really are going
to push him well now that he's here. Now I'm right there with you.
I think there's gonna be a ton of games, and I think I'm
with you on the Lakers Spurs game too, Like there is also kind of
a low key historic rivalry there. You've got a lot of things going for
you in that matchup, so I could see it for the Christmas Day matchup
for sure. Noah, this was fantastic. Is always thank you so much
for your time, you're able to tell our listeners where they can find you
and all the fantastic work that you do. Yeah, first and foremost,
thank you so much for having me. I always have a blast talking Spurs
basketball, especially with you, so really happy to do that. But they
can find me all on Twitter at n Underscore, Magaro, m A G
A r Oh. You can find my writing at Air Alamo. You can
listen to our podcast Alamos City Limits wherever you get your podcasts, and you
can also check out my YouTube channel. We're gonna go, you know,
get back into that. We're gonna be doing film breakdowns. It's just my
name, Norma guard George. So again, just thank you so much.
I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you and talk about the Spurs.
Yeah, and again, thank you for your time and if you again,
I would appreciate. If you're not following him, now would be a great
time to start at end Underscore. Margaro Wemby is in San Antonio. It's
gonna be one hell of a ride.