Lottery May 17th.

How long till Dejounte posts a long worded post on how he's sorry and they'll be back better than ever... it's a tradition

This was a successful season. Its the youngest team in the Pop era. They showed massive growth throughout the season. Young guys Murray, Johnson, Poeltl, Primo and Vassell showed a lot of potential.

It will be interesting to see what direction they go. Adding vets is the quickest way to win. But Memphis has shown that you can be a young winner if you hit a few picks.

Ag Natural said:

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This was a successful season. Its the youngest team in the Pop era. They showed massive growth throughout the season. Young guys Murray, Johnson, Poeltl, Primo and Vassell showed a lot of potential.

It will be interesting to see what direction they go. Adding vets is the quickest way to win. But Memphis has shown that you can be a young winner if you hit a few picks.

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I want to live in a world where 15 games under .500 is success

MookieBlaylock said:

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Ag Natural said:

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This was a successful season. Its the youngest team in the Pop era. They showed massive growth throughout the season. Young guys Murray, Johnson, Poeltl, Primo and Vassell showed a lot of potential.

It will be interesting to see what direction they go. Adding vets is the quickest way to win. But Memphis has shown that you can be a young winner if you hit a few picks.

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I want to live in a world where 15 games under .500 is success

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The Spurs had the lowest record with a positive +/- in NBA history. They were competitive and were in the majority of the games they played. But like most young teams (grizzlies an outlier) they just couldn't close.

What would you define as success for this team, realistically?

MookieBlaylock said:

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Ag Natural said:

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This was a successful season. Its the youngest team in the Pop era. They showed massive growth throughout the season. Young guys Murray, Johnson, Poeltl, Primo and Vassell showed a lot of potential.

It will be interesting to see what direction they go. Adding vets is the quickest way to win. But Memphis has shown that you can be a young winner if you hit a few picks.

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I want to live in a world where 15 games under .500 is success

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Well a very large camp thinks it was a disaster to win more than 20 games.

I think for the Spurs, this was a good development year. Its the first complete season by several young guys.

- Murray showed more growth toward being a top tier PG. He should be a borderline all star for several years.
- Johnson turned his 3 ball into a real asset. He brings so much else to the table this was nice to see. He's an emotional leader.
- Poeltl advanced his offensive game. We have him at a bargain price for one more year.
- Vassel showed steady growth. It's still unclear to me where his ceiling is but it was nice to see a full season of being a main cog in the lineup. He's at worst a high end three and d player.
- Primo shows A LOT of potential. I think if he stayed in school another year he would have easily been a top 10 pick. The Spurs got roasted for "taking him too high". But maybe they just got him early. He surprised me with his overall game. High IQ, very good vision and passing, surprisingly good defender, nice stroke. He could develop into something special.
- Collins showed that signing wasn't dumb. He's a high caliber big as a pretty cheap price for a few years.
- We got to see a lot of Walker, which is what I was hoping for. I think he proved that he's a capable 6th man scorer but not much more. It will be interesting to see who pursues him. I think he's probably worth a $10m/year type deal so if somebody offers more then the Spurs say bye-bye.

As these guys grow and develop they will get better. There's a reason older teams generally win more. Now the FO needs to decide whether to stack more young guys or to take a swing at a vet or two to boost the win total sooner.

The problem is the spurs are constructed to be a lovable loser. They play hard, play defense, all that good stuff, but they don't have a bonafide number one for a contender.

Gotta parlay all these draft picks and pieces into a star.

Ulrich said:

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The problem is the spurs are constructed to be a lovable loser. They play hard, play defense, all that good stuff, but they don't have a bonafide number one for a contender.

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I think that's pretty obvious. I'll go ahead and assume the front office realizes we need to upgrade.

So what are the options?
a) lure a guy in free agency. This year maybe we could get Lavine, but is he a cornerstone star? I'm not 100% on that.
b) trade for a guy.. good luck with that. Jimmy Butler possibly, but he's another borderline guy in my opinion. I also don't see a team trading a star of a package of good players. They'll want picks and the Spurs simply can't afford to give up a bunch of future picks.
c) Keep drafting guys with potential and hope to find the next Kawhi, Jokic, Giannis, etc.

I just think option "c" is going to be the preferred option by the Spurs. Having some luck in the lottery can accelerate the process for sure but if they don't have any luck then its going to be a patient incremental improvement. I bet they spend at least 2 of this year's picks on international "draft and stash" type guys.

If they go into next season with a late first-rounder and a couple draft and stash guys, that'll be a pretty weak outcome for the asset-rich position they are in today.

Ulrich said:

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If they go into next season with a late first-rounder and a couple draft and stash guys, that'll be a pretty weak outcome for the asset-rich position they are in today.

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I don't think their lottery pick will be a draft and stash…

Spurs have 12 guaranteed contracts already for next season. And that doesn't include 3 restricted free agents. There's going to have to be some combination of player movement/pick packaging/pick stashing. That doesn't even take into account potential free agents.

I don't think we will but for the perfect pick/package (Jaden Ivey), I could see the Spurs trading Murray. His value is at an all time high.

Spurs biggest needs heading into the offseason (imo):

-a legit scorer to go with Dejounte. Murray emerged as a legit option to build around, but we need someone who can carry the load more consistently. We've got 3 first rounders, so we have options to try and achieve this. Could be the draft, trades, or free agency.
-we have to add more length. We've got several guys that are very solid guards, but our lack of overall size was really exposed in the play in game. Specifically, we need a true 4 man that can add a little rim protection and rebounding instead of playing Keldon as a very undersized forward.

It should be a fun offseason. I love the draft and will be watching prospects leading up to the draft. Here's hoping we have some lottery luck!

Ulrich said:

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If they go into next season with a late first-rounder and a couple draft and stash guys, that'll be a pretty weak outcome for the asset-rich position they are in today.

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Lets say they end up picking 9th. I'm sure they'll try to grab a contributor there. But these late first rounders are tricky "assets". The aren't worth crap in a trade so you have to just pick guys. I think they'll look for draft and stash because there aren't enough roster spots to take on 3 or 4 rookies.

Last year I it was OKC who was trying to move up just a couple of spots (from 7 to 5) or something like that. They were offering multiple later 1st round picks... and nope. Nobody wants those picks. Its a crap shoot and you have to allocate a roster spot to develop them.

Agree that the later picks won't let us get a better pick in the top 10. If we want to move up higher than 9th, we are going to have to move Jak or DeJounte IMO.

Lebron is garbage

Guitarsoup said:

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MookieBlaylock said:

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Lebron is garbage

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Nothing without Caruso.

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Or former Spur Danny Green!

4 ties were broken today that will impact the 1st rd.

18. Chicago
19. Minnesota

20. San Antonio (via TOR)
21. Denver

23. Brooklyn (via PHI)
24. Milwaukee
25. San Antonio (via BOS)

27. Miami
28. GSW

— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) April 18, 2022

At least we got the best pick.

I imagine the Spurs thought both would be better though.

Enzo The Baker said:

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I imagine the Spurs thought both would be better though.

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The run that Boston went on after the all star break was insane. I definitely thought that pick would be better.

Hopefully that pick swap ends up being useful. Otherwise, in hindsight, this trade was 'meh', a push at best.

Maybe the Spurs will package these picks to get into the teens, post lottery.

Enzo The Baker said:

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Hopefully that pick swap ends up being useful. Otherwise, in hindsight, this trade was 'meh', a push at best.

Maybe the Spurs will package these picks to get into the teens, post lottery.

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Richardson played well for us and could potentially be moved to a contender for a pick next year like we did with Thad Young. 25 isn't a great pick, but we've found plenty of useful players at that point in the draft and later.

We also drafted Samanic at 19.

I think if we eye a player we don't think we can get at 20 as the draft moves along, we will move up.

Enzo The Baker said:

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Hopefully that pick swap ends up being useful. Otherwise, in hindsight, this trade was 'meh', a push at best.

Maybe the Spurs will package these picks to get into the teens, post lottery.

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I think it was a good trade. I like White but he had clearly shown a ceiling that he is going to struggle to get over. He's basically a high end backup PG. Making the trade we get his contract off the books, add this late 1st pick and the pick swap. It's easy to forget that White, Murray and Johnson were all picked later than 25. Not to mention George Hill and Tony Parker. Hell, I think Jones looks like a legit backup PG and he was a second rounder. Add in the biggest surprise to be and that's Richardson. If he can consistently shoot like he did this season then he's probably more valuable than White on this team.

So they get a better fit player at a cheaper price plus the 1st rounder and the pick swap. Not bad at all. I also like that after the trade we got to see A LOT more Vassell and Primo.

Enzo The Baker said:

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We also drafted Samanic at 19.

I think if we eye a player we don't think we can get at 20 as the draft moves along, we will move up.

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I'd bet our success rate with late first rounders is better than most teams. Obviously hind sight is 20/20, but with Samanic we took a gamble on a 6'10" kid that had a lot of skills most guys his size didn't. It didn't work out, but it's not like we blew a top 4 pick.

We have 4 picks in the top 40, there's no way we keep all of them. I could definitely see us moving up or moving for future picks.

West Texan said:

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Enzo The Baker said:

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We also drafted Samanic at 19.

I think if we eye a player we don't think we can get at 20 as the draft moves along, we will move up.

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I'd bet our success rate with late first rounders is better than most teams. Obviously hind sight is 20/20, but with Samanic we took a gamble on a 6'10" kid that had a lot of skills most guys his size didn't. It didn't work out, but it's not like we blew a top 4 pick.

We have 4 picks in the top 40, there's no way we keep all of them. I could definitely see us moving up or moving for future picks.

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Moving up or draft and stash. The problem with moving up is finding a trade partner.

Looking at the Spurs recent draft history they really have been good. Just a long string of solid to good players. What is missing is the star. Even there they did get Kawhi at 15.

Yeah you can find the Semenic and James Andersons. But there aren't many. Considering where the Spurs have been picking thats pretty good. Memphis, Toronto and Miami are the other franchises who always seem to find solid players late. I feel confident that if the lottery gods shine on San Antonio this year then this rebuild will be a wrap. It does take that one high pick to put you over the top.

Of course you could get lucky and find a Mitchel or Giannis.

Brunson and Poole are free agents. I honestly would love either guy over Walker.

Poole is a restricted free agent next summer. Warriors will for sure extend him before then.