Enzo The Baker said:

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That was a foul on Sochan by Kleber at the rim. Before that Victor had an easy tip in to bring it to 5. Instead the flagrant foul happened and it ballooned to 11. Victor has got to wake up.

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There was a whole lot of bull**** calls/no calls in a row down low followed by a Luka or Klay Three. Turned it from an interesting game to 20+ lead

Ace Bailey drops 25 in the first Rutgers exhibition pic.twitter.com/sDw6LLJaDX

— Teg🚨 (@IQfor3) October 18, 2024

Only bright side of this game were the Castle minutes in the 4th

Oh no. https://t.co/9xB7dkTy1T

— Jeff McDonald (@JMcDonald_SAEN) October 25, 2024

Definitely not new information, but man do we need more shooting. Getting Vassell back will definitely help, not only for his own shot making but it will allow Champagnie to provide more spacing for the second unit. But man there's just no space in drives because we don't have enough guys that the other team is worried about from outside.

I thought we showed glimpses of improvement on the defensive end, but during the onslaught we were making some of the same mistakes from the last couple years. Poor communication leading to guys not being on the same page in their switches and coverages. Also, we have zero rim protection outside of Wemby.

Tonight's game ended in frustrating fashion, but it is refreshing to have some expectations again.

Julian keeps playing like this and we might see a lot of Wemby, Barnes, Julian, Devin, CP3.

I really liked what I saw from Julian and Sochan tonight. CP3 is fun. Some nice Castle segments on both ends. Turnovers killed us. This team only goes where Wemby takes us. Hopefully Devin is back next week.

Guitarsoup said:

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Julian keeps playing like this and we might see a lot of Wemby, Barnes, Julian, Devin, CP3.

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No one has benefited more from the addition of CP3 than Julian. All he has to do is spot up and let it fly. He shot it incredibly well during the preseason and it carried over to this first game.

He was taking it to the basket,too. He has some nice moves to baseline. Showing he can dribble battery than Bruce Bowen

Guitarsoup said:

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He was taking it to the basket,too. He has some nice moves to baseline. Showing he can dribble battery than Bruce Bowen

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He definitely is capable of attacking close outs and doing some nice things with it. His role overall has been simplified since we have multiple real PGs and initiators.

Really disappointed in the second unit tonight. Really need them to step up in future games. I thought the 3rd unit outplayed them at the end of the game.

We have to find a suitable backup 5. Collins just simply cannot play at the level required to reliably give Wemby a break

Enzo The Baker said:

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All I do is Nguyen said:

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We have to find a suitable backup 5. Collins just simply cannot play at the level required to reliably give Wemby a break

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Id rather have Bassey as our backup 5 than Collins at this point. A much better defender and rebounder.

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This is where I am too.

Zach is just so out of place out there, and contributes nothing. Other teams hammer him and he's just lost in space.

Went to the game last night, overall thoughts -

It's only one game, going to take the starting five time to gel completely but Paul and Barnes are massive upgrades. I assume the O will look better once we get Vassell back. If not, going to be a long season.

Champ looks different. If he can be a 3 and D guy for this team on a reliable level, that's a huge win for us (did anyone catch him with three blocks last night?).

The Dallas bigs really gave Wemby fits. But it's easy to do when help comes too and you aren't worried about him kicking it to someone outside for a three because we don't have shooters.

Castle is a baller. He needs more run. Pop's the only one who needs to get over themselves here, and stop with the classic rookie treatment. Kid's a player and he even spent time checking Luka well on the defensive end.

Did I mention Barnes? Guy was a stud and just so steady, good pickup!

It was garbage time but Bussey was really getting after it. They need to give him some more run and see if he can hang in non-garbage time.

This team flat out needs more shooters.

Finally, I know it's Dallas but man what a weak crowd. Late arriving on opening night when you're the defending Western Conference champs? Never was really into the game, though they finally woke up for the three point barrage in the third. Pretty meh crowd atmosphere though.

Was great seeing Wemby, he's so freakishly tall. Just towers over everyone out there. My son's first Spurs game. He had a blast even though they lost.

FTAG 2000 said:

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Castle is a baller. He needs more run. Pop's the only one who needs to get over themselves here, and stop with the classic rookie treatment. Kid's a player and he even spent time checking Luka well on the defensive end.

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I saw this in the preseason, he absolutely needs more minutes. I think Pop is limiting his time because an 82 game season is way longer than a college season and may want to keep him somewhat fresh when april, may and june roll around

Collins' best skill is his passing. But now that Castle has shown that he can be a good distributor off the bench, Collins' as a passing hub becomes less valuable and doesn't outweigh all of his other deficiencies, even at its best.

jteagle said:

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Really disappointed in the second unit tonight. Really need them to step up in future games. I thought the 3rd unit outplayed them at the end of the game.

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That's your takeaway from last night? Wemby was minus 20 himself. The reason they lost was because he had a bad shooting night, it wasn't because of the second team.

Big game between the hornets and the hawks tonight. Honestly, the hornets are really fun to watch. From Lamelo and Miller to Mann, they can be pretty exciting.

Ag Natural said:

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jteagle said:

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Really disappointed in the second unit tonight. Really need them to step up in future games. I thought the 3rd unit outplayed them at the end of the game.

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That's your takeaway from last night? Wemby was minus 20 himself. The reason they lost was because he had a bad shooting night, it wasn't because of the second team.

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First of all, everybody saw that Victor had a bad night. Didn't feel like that needed to be restated.
2nd, I stand by my assessment. The 3 main players off the bench combines for 15 pts, 10 rebounds and 6 assists. Lively did that by himself. Hardy added 11 more points. Johnson is supposed to be a catalyst off the bench. Last night he was anything but that.
Lastly, I never said they were the reason we lost. However, they didn't really contribute anything toward a win either.

jteagle said:

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Ag Natural said:

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jteagle said:

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Really disappointed in the second unit tonight. Really need them to step up in future games. I thought the 3rd unit outplayed them at the end of the game.

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That's your takeaway from last night? Wemby was minus 20 himself. The reason they lost was because he had a bad shooting night, it wasn't because of the second team.

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First of all, everybody saw that Victor had a bad night. Didn't feel like that needed to be restated.
2nd, I stand by my assessment. The 3 main players off the bench combines for 15 pts, 10 rebounds and 6 assists. Lively did that by himself. Hardy added 11 more points. Johnson is supposed to be a catalyst off the bench. Last night he was anything but that.
Lastly, I never said they were the reason we lost. However, they didn't really contribute anything toward a win either.

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I do agree that some of the "3rd teamers" looked better. But that was such garbage time it's hard to judge.

jteagle said:

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Ag Natural said:

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jteagle said:

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Really disappointed in the second unit tonight. Really need them to step up in future games. I thought the 3rd unit outplayed them at the end of the game.

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That's your takeaway from last night? Wemby was minus 20 himself. The reason they lost was because he had a bad shooting night, it wasn't because of the second team.

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First of all, everybody saw that Victor had a bad night. Didn't feel like that needed to be restated.
2nd, I stand by my assessment. The 3 main players off the bench combines for 15 pts, 10 rebounds and 6 assists. Lively did that by himself. Hardy added 11 more points. Johnson is supposed to be a catalyst off the bench. Last night he was anything but that.
Lastly, I never said they were the reason we lost. However, they didn't really contribute anything toward a win either.

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Johnson's still an enigma to me.

He could be a great bench guy, but so much of the time, he's a black hole on offense and just trying to bull his way to the rim.

He thinks he's still on the Spurs of two years ago where he can shoot all he wants and everyone else on the floor with him sucks.

Enzo The Baker said:

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I'll stand by my take on Keldon last season. This is year 6. As much as he has changed his body and tries to be committed to the defensive end, I don't think he has it between the ears to be part of the team long term which crushes me because I love his attitude and locker room presence. Unless he can have a limited role where he doesn't need the ball in his hands, as a spot up shooter and cutter, I just don't see where he fits. He just isn't a good decision maker and that's not going to change.

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Yeah I agree with you.

There were several plays last night by him that ended in a bad shot or a turnover. If you're looking at two defenders between you and the basket and you end up throwing up off balance garbage as you fall under the basket, you chose poorly.

Enzo The Baker said:

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I'll stand by my take on Keldon last season. This is year 6. As much as he has changed his body and tries to be committed to the defensive end, I don't think he has it between the ears to be part of the team long term which crushes me because I love his attitude and locker room presence. Unless he can have a limited role where he doesn't need the ball in his hands, as a spot up shooter and cutter, I just don't see where he fits. He just isn't a good decision maker and that's not going to change.

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Yeah, I know what you mean. I like the kid but it just seems like he's never going to get where he needs to be.
It would be nice if he could bounce back after a bad game one but I'm not holding my breath.

Had to watch late due to some prior commitments. Takeaways:
-Vic probably won't have many games that poor the rest of the year and it was still a dogfight until late in the 3rd, liked how we clawed back from the initial 3Q onslaught before their second run put us away
-I'm begging Pop to have Bassey take all of Zach's minutes asap; Charles actually provides the defense and rebounding required from the position and I bet would be at least as effective of a jump shooter as current Zach if given the chance; Bassey also provides the kind of rim protection that makes Mamu a playable PF and I would love to get that guy on the court some more
-I continue to believe that Tre Jones is an awkward fit with this iteration of the squad
-My Julian Champagnie stock is providing early dividends
-Both new vets had some moments where they calmed us down
-Castle needs to be playing at least 25 MPG
-Sochan as the dirty work warrior where he belongs but I'm certainly concerned at how far everyone sags off of him

Not too bad of a showing given our best player sucked and our second best player is out.

Play Houston on a B2B tomorrow at home. Good opportunity for our first win.

That Vic to Steph connection.

STEPH. CASTLE. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/CNSvmwIKz4

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) October 27, 2024

The stats won't show it but Steph was EVERYWHERE in that first half. He had a couple bad calls not go his way but he is messing stuff up out there.

Spurs scored 38 pts in the first qtr. Rockets scored 10 pts in the 2nd.

Sengun is 1-7 against Victor tonight. Sochan looking like MIP candidate so far this season. Really settling into his natural role.

Enzo The Baker said:

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The stats won't show it but Steph was EVERYWHERE in that first half. He had a couple bad calls not go his way but he is messing stuff up out there.

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Sochan is also being disruptive.

This looks like a much more fun use of my time than watching Conner pee his pants

Not a great 4th quarter, but held on for the win. If we can cut down on the turnovers, we're gonna be a pretty good team. We're all aware of the flaws in our roster, but they will give teams problems with their ability to fly around and cause problems on D.