https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/43510253/how-spurs-paved-way-victor-wembanyama-nba-career

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Diaw recalled that while he hadn't yet become an NBA player, Parker -- the then-19-year-old Spurs rookie -- invited him to coach Gregg Popovich's home for Christmas dinner.

Diaw found it odd, he said, that a coach of Popovich's stature would ask his first-year guard over for a meal on Christmas, and odder still that the rookie could invite his own guests. During that dinner, the story went, somewhere in between the main course and dessert, Parker and Popovich disappeared.

"I go look around the house," Diaw said. "Then I see Pop doing film with Tony about the game the night before. Pop was yelling at Tony.

"And I'm like, 'Wow.' So, in the same night, you could have the family setting, all the loving and care, and at the same time caring about making Tony a better player on Christmas night. That's when I knew Tony was in good hands and that his career was going to be great."

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We were expected by pretty much everyone to be a 32 win team. Halfway through the season, we are a few games below .500 and we have missed Sochan for half our games and Vassell has missed or been minute restricted for half our games. Plus, we've played a pretty rough schedule and over half our wins are against teams at or above .500 including the 1 and 2 seeds in the West.

The last 7 games have sucked, but this team is overachieving and we knew it was a development year that we weren't going to be a real contender in.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6057514/2025/01/23/nba-trade-rumors-jimmy-butler-heat-suns-bulls-lakers/

The Athletic has their trade page updated. They don't have us as buyers or sellers. Only player they listed on the trade block that they said is a fit for us is Brandon Ingram, but they aren't very high on him, anyway.

https://sports.yahoo.com/the-rookie-scale-hack-why-the-spurs-should-get-steph-curry-172742545.html

Saying we should take advantage of Wemby's rookie contract and add an aging veteran similar to what Pat Riley did to get Shaq to pair with Wade, which led to the 06 Title.

His suggestion is Castle+Keldon+Barnes+PIcks for Steph Curry.

I don't think GSW does it without Curry demanding it.

Guitarsoup said:

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https://sports.yahoo.com/the-rookie-scale-hack-why-the-spurs-should-get-steph-curry-172742545.html

Saying we should take advantage of Wemby's rookie contract and add an aging veteran similar to what Pat Riley did to get Shaq to pair with Wade, which led to the 06 Title.

His suggestion is Castle+Keldon+Barnes+PIcks for Steph Curry.

I don't think GSW does it without Curry demanding it.

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That's interesting. I don't think I trade Castle for that. As good as Curry is, he's older and doesn't make this team a contender imo.

Beautiful performance today

Cidy Sissoko sighting!

The team plays better with Sochan. I really like him coming off the bench.

Ag Natural said:

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The team plays better with Sochan. I really like him coming off the bench.

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If they keep him in the bench big role like today, I like it.

If they cram him back into the lineup at the expense of Castle, that's dumb.

FTAG 2000 said:

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Ag Natural said:

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The team plays better with Sochan. I really like him coming off the bench.

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If they keep him in the bench big role like today, I like it.

If they cram him back into the lineup at the expense of Castle, that's dumb.

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Im sure the whole organization realizes that Wemby, Castle, and Sochan are by far the best defensive players on the team. Those 3 need to play together a lot.

The Athletic story on trade deadline

https://theringer.com/2025/01/23/nba/victor-wembanyana-san-antonio-spurs-stats-height-all-star

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At just 21 years old, Wembanyama is by far the youngest player in the top 10. Luka Doncic, the next youngest, is 25 and has logged 472 NBA games. Wemby? Just 107. He won't be Doncic's current age until 2029, and he likely won't be sixth at that point, either. If current trends continue, the most ascendant star in the sport may not even reach his prime until the 2030s.

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Last year, the Spurs won 26.8 percent of their games. This year, they've hovered around 50 percent. That uptick in winning percentage is one of the biggest in the league; it's also a sign that the team's high-stakes rebuild is working. And while San Antonio's key indicatorsan 18th-ranked offense and a 17th-ranked defensesuggest that this year's squad isn't great at much, a closer look reveals something else: Wembanyama is already one of the most impactful players in the NBA.

When Wemby's on the court, the Spurs resemble a playoff team. He's logged 60.3 percent of the team's total minutes this season, and in these possessions, San Antonio boasts a slightly above-average offense, anchored by a downright elite defense.

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With Wemby on, we have the 8th best net rating in the league. With him off, 29th.

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This season, an average restricted area shot goes in 67.8 percent of the time. If there's one single stat that defines Wembanyama's impact right now, it might be this one: When he's the contesting defender, shots in the restricted area go in only 46.9 percent of the time!

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What those numbers don't capture is all of the shots opponents don't take because of Wembanyama's presence. Call it the fear factor, but opponents are less active in the paint when he's on the floor. Offensive players attempt only 45.6 shots per 100 possessions in the paint when Wemby plays, compared to 52.0 when he doesn't.

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There are some cool graphics and videos in the article I can't post here.

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Of 92 players that have tried at least 200 shots in the paint this season, he ranks fourth in efficiency, averaging 1.46 points per shot. That's incredible for a player who just turned 21, but still, it seems strange that Wembanyama currently ranks 41st in points in the paint per game, trailing players like Scottie Barnes, Deandre Ayton, and Mark Williams.

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The more I watch, the less I'm concerned about Wemby and his shooting/shot choices. I'm fully leaned in to the let it fly mentality this season. This offense sucks anyways.

I'm a nobody on the internet, but Victor needs to find a shot he can build on the rest of his career. He doesn't NEED to work on post moves right now. If he's going to be The Unicorn, he has to be a danger from anywhere on the floor. What's he going to learn in the post right now? He's TINY thin. He's just going to get injured with little annoying injuries and miss games in a losing season. Keep shooting. It will pay off later.

Once he has fully warped every defense in the NBA, I'm sure he's going to start working the paint, and he's not going to need a bunch of moves developed. He won't be banging with bigs in the paint when he does, either. They are going to run whatever action they need to in order to get a mismatch, and then it just takes him a second to go up and over.

Obi Wan Ginobili said:

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The more I watch, the less I'm concerned about Wemby and his shooting/shot choices. I'm fully leaned in to the let it fly mentality this season. This offense sucks anyways.

I'm a nobody on the internet, but Victor needs to find a shot he can build on the rest of his career. He doesn't NEED to work on post moves right now. If he's going to be The Unicorn, he has to be a danger from anywhere on the floor. What's he going to learn in the post right now? He's TINY thin. He's just going to get injured with little annoying injuries and miss games in a losing season. Keep shooting. It will pay off later.

Once he has fully warped every defense in the NBA, I'm sure he's going to start working the paint, and he's not going to need a bunch of moves developed. He won't be banging with bigs in the paint when he does, either. They are going to run whatever action they need to in order to get a mismatch, and then it just takes him a second to go up and over.

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Yeah every time I hear a pundit say he needs to work down low more I cringe. You are looking at nothing but wear and tear banging down there. And right now the refs don't give him any calls. So in the spirit of staying on the floor I'm good with 3 balls, pump and drive, and free throw line catches.

Yeah, those that say he needs to put on weight and play more down low really don't know what they are talking about.

However, the Spurs and Wemby need to do a better job of finding easier ways to get him open and get the ball in his spots. There are also so many opportunities they are missing it's like they aren't even watching film sometimes. KD would come off pin downs and shoot the ball immediately 10x a game. Wemby has many opportunities to come off a pin down or a screen into a wide open shot but never takes or looks for it. There's easier shots to be had for him but they are not incorporating them into the offense yet.

Obi Wan Ginobili said:

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The more I watch, the less I'm concerned about Wemby and his shooting/shot choices. I'm fully leaned in to the let it fly mentality this season. This offense sucks anyways.

I'm a nobody on the internet, but Victor needs to find a shot he can build on the rest of his career. He doesn't NEED to work on post moves right now. If he's going to be The Unicorn, he has to be a danger from anywhere on the floor. What's he going to learn in the post right now? He's TINY thin. He's just going to get injured with little annoying injuries and miss games in a losing season. Keep shooting. It will pay off later.

Once he has fully warped every defense in the NBA, I'm sure he's going to start working the paint, and he's not going to need a bunch of moves developed. He won't be banging with bigs in the paint when he does, either. They are going to run whatever action they need to in order to get a mismatch, and then it just takes him a second to go up and over.

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Great post. It drives me crazy when people complain about the lack of Wemby banging in the paint. Look at him, he's a baby Giraffe and you want him to try to muscle around with guys that are 50-75lbs heavier with a significantly lower center of gravity? The reason we had some success with guys like Malik Rose and DeJuan Blair was because they were strong and knew how to use their lower center of gravity to push on defenses. Literally everyone can do that against Wemby.

Plus Wemby has already shown that he has incredible touch and movement around the rim. Let him get game reps handling the ball. When we beat Denver, he was doing a lot of posting up at the FT line and directing the offense that way, and it looked really good. If he could develop that shot well, having a great jumper from all the places he posts up and orchastrates the offense like Jokic is just a back breaker on defenses.

Something else to note: In the NBA this year, of everyone that is the roll man for at least 1 possession per game, Jeremy Sochan has the highest points per possession at 1.5

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/roll-man?CF=POSS*G*1&dir=D&sort=PPP

Jokic is #2 at 1.36. KAT is #5 at 1.31. Sabonis is #6.

Sochan also has the 2nd highest FT frequency at 27%, just behind Paolo Banchero.

Sochan has the highest AND1 frequency in the league and the highest shooting foul drawn frequency in the league.


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Keldon and Devin are our only players that score in isolation.

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Last year, Devin was top 10 in FG% on drives at 56% but this year he is at 46%. Castle drives as much as Devin, but his FG% on drives is just 41%. However, he draws fouls on drives at a much higher rate.

For players that drive at least 4x/game, Wemby is 16th in FG%, right above DeAaron Fox. But he also has the 3rd highest TO%. Wemby's TO% is super high in the post, too. I believe both of these are because teams collapse on him constantly because of our lack of shooting.

Spurs need to rebound. Pacers keep getting second chances.

Mamu playing early and gave the team a spark with Wemby. Hey Mitch, play Mamu more. Mamu always looks to pass to Wemby.

Pacers playing very inspired ball after getting embarrassed last game. A split in Paris was always likely.

Saying that, Paul and Vassell want no part of this style of ball. Soft as hell. Well one guy is like 40 so can't blame that.

Sher Thing said:

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Pacers playing very inspired ball after getting embarrassed last game. A split in Paris was always likely.

Saying that, Paul and Vassell want no part of this style of ball. Soft as hell. Well one guy is like 40 so can't blame that.

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This is what I've been saying about Devin the entire time. Incredibly soft. This is why I don't think he's on the team in the long term. If his offense was consistent it would be one thing. But it's not. He's not a winner imo.

Well there's some truth to that but I think Castle didn't play soft at all. Thought Barnes and Wemby played through it also despite the officials really letting them maul Victor all game. Everyone else was garbage.

For the love please never play Sochan at the 5 again. We don't have the shooters to go small ball and just get abused defensively.

Jalen Johnson is out indefinitely for the Hawks. They have lost 4 straight including twice to Toronto and once to Detroit.

We are the worst team they play in their next 7 games, which include Houston, Cleveland, and Milwaukee.

2008and1 said:

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For the love please never play Sochan at the 5 again. We don't have the shooters to go small ball and just get abused defensively.

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never play him again is also an acceptable amswer