About to fall out of the bottom three really fast.

Still have five games on 4th place Charlotte and only one game back in the win column from Detroit and the LottoRockets.

Enzo The Baker said:

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About to fall out of the bottom three really fast.

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You obviously haven't been paying attention. Both Houston and Detroit had nice wins this week.

BTW, Sochan is already my favorite player since the big 3. That guy is a cross between Manu and Dennis Rodman. There have a been a few games where I turn it on to see who's playing and if he's in street clothes I tune out.

Nice to see Blake Wesley come in and have 7 assists off the bench. 8 points 7 assists and 2 turnovers. Not gonna have to pay to keep Tre Jones.

Ag Natural said:

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BTW, Sochan is already my favorite player since the big 3. That guy is a cross between Manu and Dennis Rodman. There have a been a few games where I turn it on to see who's playing and if he's in street clothes I tune out.

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I was in San Antonio for the state tournament and saw him at Chris Madrid's this past weekend. Shamelessly took the creeper picture.

Spurs asked me in my meeting with them… what if we pick you and you go back to Detroit and you get shot? Lol spurs ain’t picking him https://t.co/OJa14Chw9y

— Jordan Crawford (@jcraw55) March 14, 2023

Spurs now within four wins of Charlotte.

Need to get back to load management.

FTAG 2000 said:

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Spurs now within four wins of Charlotte.

Need to get back to load management.

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Ask and you shall receive.

Extensive injury report for the Spurs tonight:

OUT
- Devin Vassell (injury management)
- Jeremy Sochan (injury management)
- Zach Collins (injury management)
- Julian Champagnie (Two-Way)

QUESTIONABLE
- Malaki Branham (shoulder impingement)

*Keldon Johnson will be available.

— Matthew Tynan (@Matthew_Tynan) March 15, 2023

Lost in OT after leading by 29. That's some mighty fine tankin'.

LawHall88 said:

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Lost in OT after leading by 29. That's some mighty fine tankin'.

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Scary. Memphis had to hit two threes in the last ten seconds of the fourth to get there.

More load management please. Four ahead of charlotte with 12 to play.

Two wins behind Detroit, but Rockets won three straight to tie us for 2/3.

Guitarsoup said:

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Two wins behind Detroit, but Rockets won three straight to tie us for 2/3.

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Houston as the tie breaker with us with a better division record. Not sure if that matters for a tied record for lottery position though. If it does, we would be 2.

Edit: Come to think of it I think they do a coin flip.

Wouldn't matter for lotto drawing as long as we are both top 3.

Enzo The Baker said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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Two wins behind Detroit, but Rockets won three straight to tie us for 2/3.

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Houston as the tie breaker with us with a better division record. Not sure if that matters for a tied record for lottery position though. If it does, we would be 2.

Edit: Come to think of it I think they do a coin flip.

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Coin flip for 2/3rd position, and the loser gets the better 2nd round pick. But the lottery balls will be equal for 1-3.

FTAG 2000 said:

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Wouldn't matter for lotto drawing as long as we are both top 3.

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Not exactly. Odds are the same for the bottom 3 teams for 1-4 but if the Spurs were to have the 2nd worst record, they would have better odds at getting 5th pick and couldnt slip to 7th if they strike out on the top 4.

https://www.tankathon.com/pick_odds

Enzo The Baker said:

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FTAG 2000 said:

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Wouldn't matter for lotto drawing as long as we are both top 3.

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Not exactly. Odds are the same for the bottom 3 teams for 1-4 but if the Spurs were to have the 2nd worst record, they would have better odds at getting 5th pick and couldnt slip to 7th if they strike out on the top 4.

https://www.tankathon.com/pick_odds

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The first four picks are decided by the lottery. The top three teams have the same chance at each one. After the first 4 spots, all spots are decided by record.

After the first 4 spots, there would be a coin flip for who is 2nd and who is 3rd. The team that gets 3rd will get 2nd in the 2nd round.

Two OT losses in a row. This team plays hard and is still pulling off the tank.

The stretch run when all teams are tanking to allow LeFtaud into the playoffs has begun

Wtf do they play 82 games if they are going to a stupid play in?

Bad tanking - the Spurs trailed Atlanta by 22 at half and now lead by 10 with 2 minutes left.

Also, the NBA is weird. Lose after leading by 29 one night, win after trailing by 22 the next.

This is one of the most wide open years in recent memory. Particularly in the West.

LawHall88 said:

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Bad tanking - the Spurs trailed Atlanta by 22 at half and now lead by 10 with 2 minutes left.

Also, the NBA is weird. Lose after leading by 29 one night, win after trailing by 22 the next.

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How do you run Keldon and Vassell that many minutes when you were down at half?

They are going to **** up the tank.

FTAG 2000 said:

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LawHall88 said:

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Bad tanking - the Spurs trailed Atlanta by 22 at half and now lead by 10 with 2 minutes left.

Also, the NBA is weird. Lose after leading by 29 one night, win after trailing by 22 the next.

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How do you run Keldon and Vassell that many minutes when you were down at half?

They are going to **** up the tank.

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Players and coaches don't tank. Front offices do. They've been resting guys with so much as a hang nail. Today both Sochan and Graham weren't available. And they still beat a team trying to make the playoffs. Go figure. There was a guy playing today I've never seen and he was hitting shots.

Players don't have to tank if their coach sits them.

Spurs have a lot of tough road games left. However, I still think we finish 4th for the season.

Nah theyll finish bottom 3.

FTAG 2000 said:

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Players don't have to tank if their coach sits them.

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And players don't develop if they don't play.

Sher Thing said:

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Nah theyll finish bottom 3.

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It's not trending that way. I think Charlotte has less to play for. Spurs will rest guys but they are still going to try and develop the team and compete. We just beat Atlanta and Denver in the last week. Most would have chalked those up for automatic losses, not to mention a game we've should have won against Memphis. I hope we are bottom three but will be pleasantly surprised if we are.

Hornets beat the Pacers.

Ag Natural said:

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FTAG 2000 said:

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Players don't have to tank if their coach sits them.

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And players don't develop if they don't play.

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If they need to play these last twelve games and miss out on Wemby to develop, this team has bigger problems.

FTAG 2000 said:

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Ag Natural said:

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FTAG 2000 said:

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Players don't have to tank if their coach sits them.

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And players don't develop if they don't play.

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If they need to play these last twelve games and miss out on Wemby to develop, this team has bigger problems.

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So a team who doesn't openly lose game has problems? Statistically, there is a 14% chance of getting Wemby if you are bottom 3. It drops to 10% at 4. So there's really no tangible reason to encourage losing every game. Meanwhile, you have all these teenagers already on the team. If you don't teach them how to play now they may all be lost.

I disagree. They've played 71 games at this point. These last 11 are inconsequential in their development.

Plenty of examples of tanking squads over the last ten years where the young pups turned out just fine.

It’s gonna be a skeleton crew for the Spurs tonight.

Tre Jones and Doug McDermott have been upgraded to available, but four of the five projected starters — Vassell, Johnson, Sochan and Collins — are going to be OUT. Devonte’ Graham remains questionable.

— Matthew Tynan (@Matthew_Tynan) March 21, 2023

Charlotte has 4 more wins than SA and won both head to head with the Spurs. Spurs have 1 more win than Houston for #2 in Lottery.

Spurs remaining schedule:

@NOLA (trying to make Playoffs, 1 game out of play-in)
@MIL (second night of back to back, #1 team in East by 2 games)
night off
@ Washington (2 games out of play-in)
night off
@ Boston (#2 team in East, 2 games from 1 seed)
two nights off
Utah at home (1/2 game up on Lakers for play-in)
night off
@GSW (1/2 game up on Dallas for 6th seed, 2 games back from PHX for 4th seed)
night off
@ Sacramento (1 game back from 2 seed)
night off
@ Phoenix (1/2 game up for 4 seed on Clippers, 2 games up on GSW, 2.5 on Dallas)
night off
Portland (4 games back from play-in, probably nothing to play for. 2 games behind of Orlando for 5th worst, 1/2 game up on Indy for 6th worse)
night off
Minnesota (Currently 8th seed with 36 wins, 4th seed Phoenix has 38 wins, 2nd team out have 34 wins. Dogfight for 4th-10th.)
@ Dallas - Same position as Minnesota. 36 wins and 4 wins separate the 4th seed and the 2nd team out (12th best) in the west

Other than Portland and maybe Washington, every team we play has something meaningful to play for.

Keldon and Vassell have only played together 30 games this year for just about 500 minutes.

Keldon+Vassell+Sochan have played together just under 300 minutes all season. Lets get those three minutes together if they are the future of our team. I'd give Bassey, Keldon, Vassell, Sochan, Wesley, and Branham as many minutes as they want. Maybe Graham, too. Graham is putting up 16/5 on 41/39/80 shooting. Maybe he can get us some trade value next year as a backup combo.

Charlotte has just 9 games left including the Rockets. Don't think they are going to catch up on a 4-win lead the Spurs have over those 9 games to tie for 3rd place.

Enzo The Baker said:

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Sher Thing said:

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Nah theyll finish bottom 3.

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It's not trending that way. I think Charlotte has less to play for. Spurs will rest guys but they are still going to try and develop the team and compete. We just beat Atlanta and Denver in the last week. Most would have chalked those up for automatic losses, not to mention a game we've should have won against Memphis. I hope we are bottom three but will be pleasantly surprised if we are.

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What is interesting in the draft is Charlotte's position. Victor is the given at 1. But after that?

Scoot/Amen/Ausar/Black are all pretty close position wise to what they have in LaMelo/Rozier.

Jarace Walker is the defensive leader PF, which is PJ Washington's role on their team (he's a RFA)

They are dealing with the legal troubles of idiot Miles Bridges. Do they want idiot Brandon Miller to come in and play a similar position?

Weird draft for them with so many talented players, but the guys at the top all seem like guys that they already have.

I assume they go Brandon Miller if they get the chance and hope that Washington/Miller/Bridges will somehow work and not be a major headache.


Bold starters
Italics Free Agents

Post: Mark Williams (15th pick last year, 11/9 in 25mpg post AS game)
Post: Nick Richards (RFA, 25YO) 8/7 in 21mpg post-AS game
PF: Kai Jones (22yo, most recent 1st round sip to disappoint)
PF: PJ Washington (RFA, 24YO, 15/5 defensive PF specialist)
PF: JT Thor (unguaranteed young guy)
SF: Miles Bridges (UFA - today's his 25th bday. Didn't play this year due to SA allegations, 20/7/4 last year)
SF: Kelly Oubre - (UFA, put him and Bridges as both starters at SF. Volume guy)
SF: Gordie Hayward- one more year on his stupid contract at 31mm. 14/4/4 with bad shooting numbers
SF: Cody Martin - they owe two more guaranteed years to this waste of space
SG: Terry Rozier - Combo guard putting up 21/5/5 on awful shooting splits
SG: James Bouknight - Lottery pick in 2011, somehow more disappointing than Kai Jones
SG: Bryce McGowens - Devante thinks he is an awful shooter with awful shot choice, but he's only 20 and practically free
PG: LaMelo - Hurt most of this year
PG: Dennis Smith, Jr. I thought he would be good when he showed up in Dallas. He put up better numbers than you would think as backup
PG: Theo Maledon - young, cheap guy

With how awful their 3pt shooting is and that guys like Rozier are volume guys, you need Miller's shooting. Try to get Bridges back and have Jordan put the fear of GOAT in them. Williams/Richards, PJ Washington, Miller, Bridges, LaMelo and Rozier as a 6th Man could be a really solid foundation. No one's taking Rozier's contract from you. Othewise, you have to go with a guy like Ausur to be SG. Gotta hope that the effeciency picks up with LaMelo playing again - for the Spurs sake since their 24/25 pick is lottery protected.