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That last two minutes were just hard to watch. If I were Kidd I'd be more worried about the Mavs who barely scrapped by. Their defense ain't gonna cut it. Mavs are lucky they won.
Williams locked up Wemby because Pop let it happen. Wemby is too tall to be a low post player. He probably won't ever be particularly good at it. Once he filled out in seven years and plays more center, he'll have success. But his game should basically be for him to shoot from wherever he gets the ball. He had a lot of success in the fourth doing that. Williams cannot guard Victor if he just shoots over him. If he doesn't have an immediate turnaround jumper or pop shot in his game, he needs to get one. As he gets more comfortable and improves, he'll be able to get positioning facing guys up and driving to his spot. That isn't going to work if his defenders don't have to worry about him trying to score immediately. Until then, it's possible the Spurs will have to do interior screens to get him positioning. Those screens are much harder to mess up, and it should allow for some big-to-big passes that will help add rim pressure. Grant Williams is a good defender, but there are many ways Victor and the Spurs can avoid playing into his strengths.
The Irving shot felt like game, but I'm not sure a Luka and-1 would've felt like it either. Wemby's foul trouble basically took him out of any Doncic drive. Ideally, Vic should be able to provide some help while still staying near his man. He sort of messed that up in the first quarter by overcommitting without help being there. But a more patient Wemby could've trusted his length, agility and timing to get him back to the play while not giving Dallas such an opening.
That last two minutes were just hard to watch. If I were Kidd I'd be more worried about the Mavs who barely scrapped by. Their defense ain't gonna cut it. Mavs are lucky they won.
This was a game where playing Wemby at the 5 on defense made the most sense. The Mavs scored at will at the rim, you could easily stop that with Wemby there. That‘s when we made the run in the 4th
Are we having this much criticism had they won? Geez, they lost by 7 points to Luka beasting a triple-double. That and despite Wemby in foul trouble, understandable in his first NBA game. Pop will seat and show him films. He will adjust. The underlining is the 33 assists that means they are sharing. They committed 19 turnovers, but it’s a young team, youngest in the NBA. They will settle down and should be better next game. Moving on.
Geez, people writing a book after one game??
Rookie tracker
Wembanyama: 15/5/2/2/1
Miller: 13/3/2/0/0
Henderson: 11/3/4/0/0
Holmgren: 11/4/3/1/0
Last edited by Arcadian; 10-26-2023 at 02:46 PM.
Hero-ball is part of it. But I think it also has to do with Pop not really coaching offense over the past six years. Basically the whole DeRozan era was a slow decline in Pop's offensive involvement. Maybe it was Murray getting hurt sort of borking the whole plan he had going into that season or DeRozan and LMA not wanting to do any of that "system" stuff. But basically the Spurs' offense has built more on ideas and players rather than Xs and O's. Older heads will remember me ing about the "amoeba" philosophy and Pop's push for multiple PGs that really started with Kidd or at least Ford but only really bloomed with DeRozan, White and Murray. Post LMA we saw it dubbed a "hydra" offense with guys like Johnson lighting it up in the bubble playing in a smaller-ball unit. They ran that the next year and sort of pushed Aldridge out to run with a guy like Poeltl who could run with the guys and clean up after them on both ends. Then as that next season went on they started getting rid of their guards and replacing them with wings while maintaining their four-out positionless play-style. Eventually the fact that no one really learned to shoot meant Poeltl wasn't versatile enough for the offense, so they moved onto Collins.
By the time they drafted Wemby they ended up with a hodgepodge of guys who cut their teeth just sort of flailing on the court and opportunistic but not sound; willing passers, but underdeveloped play-makers; versatile, but without skills to truly hang their hats on. Through cir stance, yes, but also through deliberate decisions by PATFO, the Spurs find themselves trying to create order out of chaos. They're trying to make a serious system with guys who've never had to have that level of accountability. We'll see how that process plays out. Step one of the whole thing is Pop intervening, and I don't know that he has any intention to do so, whether this year or ever again.
Look like Wemby still in the lead for ROY
Pretty great first half. The Spurs kept it tight in the second and got less than 25 mins with VW due to Wemby fouling. For being a team that just won the lottery when Wembayama sits, wasn’t a horrible start. The last few possessions were trash though. They’ll clean it up.
Man I really have to give credit to Devin working on his body in the off season. He looks so much stronger, plays with a lot of confidence ready to take the team on his back, posting 23 points in his 1st game. I think we will see the same numbers from him, and even more once Wemby really gets more touches and openning the lanes for Devin. From 18 pts last season, I expect him at nearly 25 points a night. I hope he still gets considered for MIP if he continues, but likely an AS with that kind of number. Good stuff.
Lively 16/10/1/1/1
I stopped watching the game at the end of the third, it was 5:30 am in France, I needed to sleep a bit more and for me the fourth would have been the same disappointment. I just watched it in replay, what an end of game !
Without the foul trouble he could have had a monster game. With the win it would have been the perfect story for a debut. So encouraging !
Silver needs to fire these refs after getting one of the most anticipated rookies debut into foul trouble.
Wemby committed dumb fouls. It’s on him
Lively ROY
The first one wasn't a foul. It was on Pop to challenge it. With that foul rescinded, the rest of the game is different.
Going one-on-one I could live with. He went one-on-three.
Meanwhile, Dejounte Murray (-15) and Demar Derozan (-29) led their teams in minus/plus in losses.
Be grateful.
Damn it’s so annoying reading idiots complaining about guys who play for the team they support, some of them were only posting to about that. Just go away and support the Warriors like all bandwagonners.It’s gonna be a season of ups and downs. The only ones ing are the ones that thought this was an automatic 50 win playoff team.
He’s from Slovenia…
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