Windhorst: Wembanyama Not Thrilled With Where Spurs Are; Doesn't Think Spurs Can Get Away With Slow Build

[RC_Drunkford]

Not necesarily. Manu helped right away when he came in.

yeah right, there will be this 25 year old Euroleague MVP in the draft in 2027

Manu averaged 8 points in his rookie year. I bet Wemby would be thrilled to have a sidekick like that.

[DAF86]

They don't necessarily have to do that, but even the half measures (say Murray) would cost considerable draft capital anyway.

Being ultra conservative to the point of being scared to make a mistake could end up costing up Wembanyama in the long run, too. At the very least, even if Young blows up in their face, they'll have shown him they're committed to winning sooner than later and not wasting his time hoping to get lucky with a co-star who checks virtually ever box.

It doesn't have to be Young, the point is that this is not a regular re-build and it needs to be treated as such.

I'm not asking to be conservative, I'm just saying that I wouldn't do the Trae trade. I would be all-in for a guy like Mitc or someone of that level that doesn't have as clear a flaw as Young.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

who guarantees that those Hawks picks will be top 5 picks? The chances are rather slim

The Hawks. That is kinda the point of trading away your best players. Now if you want to say the one we keep 3 years out if that was the case, let's just say I would take my chances with how that turned out.

[baseline bum]

It is not only about the picks, you would also be giving up max cap space to a player that is severely flawed. Pretty much giving up on pairing Wemby with any guy better than Young.

That doesn't make any sense. Victor can't get paid big money until 27-28 so that's plenty of flexibility to get another max level player. If they luck into drafting another SGA it's a five year countdown until he can get paid too. At which time fine, you say goodbye to Trae if you have gotten so lucky. How about the scenario they say they're too good for a Trae Young level allstar but don't draft the next SGA? Then you have rebuilt the 90s Spurs or 00s Timberwolves around Wemby.

[DAF86]

Ha! When I made my last post, I didn’t see this. My last post was spot on. You’re living in the past.

I'm living in the present too. Just watch how well teams like the Bucks and Mavs are doing after making moves like the one yall suggesting.

[Splits]

Draft with the likely chance of hitting on at least one that ends up better than Young, or wait for midseason to see if a better player becomes available.

You understand 1st round picks require a roster spot, right? And those are not unlimited? You can't just say "nah, we didn't like what we saw in summer camp, good luck". We have potentially 5 firsts in 2025, lmao run out a team where a third of them are 19yo in VWs 3rd year

[baseline bum]

I'm not asking to be conservative, I'm just saying that I wouldn't do the Trae trade. I would be all-in for a guy like Mitc or someone of that level that doesn't have as clear a flaw as Young.

Mitc has a flaw of wanting to play in New York. Trae actually wants to come here.

[mo7888]

so let me get this straight: People don't want Trae Young because he's a liability on defense and is a heliocentric guard who needs the ball in his hands. But people want Harden who's a liability on defense and is a heliocentric guard who needs the ball in his hands, while also being on the wrong side of 30 and a known choker. You can't make this up

No... people would just prefer getting the guy that lets us keep our draft capital if they're the same heliocentric player etc etc

[baseline bum]

I doubt that the odds of him upsetting Wemby are greater than the odds that Trae would upset Wemby, but if it does, you trade him... and you've got assets to include to go after someone better...

Gotta disagree. Clearly seems like Victor and Trae want to play together. Trae's not an unprofessional loser like Harden, he's someone who would likely get Victor easier shots and someone who grew up wanting to sport Spurs colors just like Victor did.

[DAF86]

Here’s another scenario. Wright has no idea how to draft. The Spurs make the wrong picks. We are still the youngest team in the NBA since we didn’t trade any of our picks. The roster finishes in the 7-8 seed at best and we lose a lot. And on top of all that we still don’t get a second star even with our picks. None of our guards are as good as Young. And the Spurs wasted an opportunity to get a bonafide all star player. Plus in the mean time we are stuck with middling guys eating up our cap space and have no real shot at improving.

Thats more likely to happen. Plus it won’t take all of our picks to get Young anyways. Toronto pick, Hawks pick, and a FRP from us ought to do it. Heck we can even throw in the pick swap back. That still leaves us with one Hawks pick, and all of our own FRPs except next years. Or 2026 if we think next years draft is really strong. Plus we will still be able to draft Risacher with our own pick. Get rid of Collins and have cap space to get actual help for Wemby. None of our future is wasted

Well, that's when you can start making those panicky moves.

[DAF86]

Mitc has a flaw of wanting to play in New York. Trae actually wants to come here.

That will still not be enough when he gets targeted on defense in the WCF possession after possession.

[mo7888]

Gotta disagree. Clearly seems like Victor and Trae want to play together. Trae's not an unprofessional loser like Harden, he's someone who would likely get Victor easier shots and someone who grew up wanting to sport Spurs colors just like Victor did.

Trae has a rep for not being liked by his team mates. Still, I can't know if he wants to come here or of he and Wemby has something going on behind the scenes where they are trying to orchestrate a trade. If that's there then it's going to happen no matter how bad we get raped in the trade. I'm just not sure thsts happening..

[FuzzyLumpkins]

This trade is far from a pipe dream. All 3 parties are motivated and the Spurs are in an advantageous position as we hold all the cards.

I think we are going to be pleasantly surprised with how little it ends up costing us.

[baseline bum]

Here’s another scenario. Wright has no idea how to draft. The Spurs make the wrong picks. We are still the youngest team in the NBA since we didn’t trade any of our picks. The roster finishes in the 7-8 seed at best and we lose a lot. And on top of all that we still don’t get a second star even with our picks. None of our guards are as good as Young. And the Spurs wasted an opportunity to get a bonafide all star player. Plus in the mean time we are stuck with middling guys eating up our cap space and have no real shot at improving.

Thats more likely to happen. Plus it won’t take all of our picks to get Young anyways. Toronto pick, Hawks pick, and a FRP from us ought to do it. Heck we can even throw in the pick swap back. That still leaves us with one Hawks pick, and all of our own FRPs except next years. Or 2026 if we think next years draft is really strong. Plus we will still be able to draft Risacher with our own pick. Get rid of Collins and have cap space to get actual help for Wemby. None of our future is wasted

I hate this idea that there is only risk in trading the picks vs the risk in making them instead. Trae Young isn't a home run like lucking into Cooper Flagg might be if say Young blows out his knee next season or a tape measure grand slam like getting SGA at #11 which is about where we could expect those Atlanta picks to convey. But it's a pretty solid double to the gap while one of those picks will probably be a strikeout (say Primo), maybe another will be a single (say Vassell), and the third who knows.

[baseline bum]

Trae has a rep for not being liked by his team mates. Still, I can't know if he wants to come here or of he and Wemby has something going on behind the scenes where they are trying to orchestrate a trade. If that's there then it's going to happen no matter how bad we get raped in the trade. I'm just not sure thsts happening..

When he's telling the media he grew up a Spurs fan I think that's a pretty clear indication he'd like being here.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

When he's telling the media he grew up a Spurs fan I think that's a pretty clear indication he'd like being here.

During the time period that either his agent or the hawks were leaking about the negotiation and it was all over the news beat.

[Dejounte]

During the time period that either his agent or the hawks were leaking about the negotiation and it was all over the news beat.

Ugh this reeks of Trumpism and how every word anyone says should be questioned and conspiracies on top of conspiracies for everything

[mo7888]

When he's telling the media he grew up a Spurs fan I think that's a pretty clear indication he'd like being here.

I can't disagree with that...

[baseline bum]

That will still not be enough when he gets targeted on defense in the WCF possession after possession.

There is no doubt Young is a bad defensive player (50.9% DFG). But Mitc (49% DFG) and Brunson (49.1% DFG) get targeted too and are also bad defensively. Both right on par with Keldon's DFG (49.1%). Young would open up a lot more easy baskets for Victor, space the floor better for him, and give a second scorer while actually being attainable unlike the other two you want.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Ugh this reeks of Trumpism and how every word anyone says should be questioned and conspiracies on top of conspiracies for everything

Your post reeks of a harebrained attempt to discredit by association.

I am taking Young at his word here and I can explain the deduction that starts with the Spurs don't leak if you would like.

[TD 21]

I'm not asking to be conservative, I'm just saying that I wouldn't do the Trae trade. I would be all-in for a guy like Mitc or someone of that level that doesn't have as clear a flaw as Young.

Of course Mitc would be preferable (though he's not the play maker Young is), but he's also far more unlikely.

That's my point. Come up with something better that has as good a likelihood.

[The Truth #6]

Coby White would be a Spurs type move. Less splashy. Has some logic to it. If we're aiming lower, I would consider him. Playing well this year from when I last looked, which was a while ago. Just throwing out random ideas.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

There is no doubt Young is a bad defensive player (50.9% DFG). But Mitc (49% DFG) and Brunson (49.1% DFG) get targeted too and are also bad defensively. Both right on par with Keldon's DFG (49.1%). Young would open up a lot more easy baskets for Victor, space the floor better for him, and give a second scorer while actually being attainable unlike the other two you want.

You would have to surround him with defenders like the Warriors and Curry and we would have to figure out Vassell but Wemby is a great start and Sochan has a shot to be one of those defenders. We have such a long ing way to go but Young would be about as good of a start as we could get.

Either way it will be cheaper to buy from the Hawks than anyone else because our picks are worth more to them. Their mediocre 10t picks or worse to everyone else including ourselves.

This trade almost has to happen.

[Chinook]

Coby White would be a Spurs type move. Less splashy. Has some logic to it. If we're aiming lower, I would consider him. Playing well this year from when I last looked, which was a while ago. Just throwing out random ideas.

I'd only consider White if the cost is basically just the Chicago pick. He's still a temporary solution and is more of a facilitator than a play-maker

[SpursBills]

Dallas is the best-case scenario for a team that lets their panic over a young star leaving dominate their front-office decisions. After spending basically every asset they could, they have a decent roster. But that roster is not so good that people would blame Luka for wanting to walk away even though his team gave him what he wanted and let him do whatever he wanted to do on the court. That's the best case. The worst is being like the Cavs during Lebron's first stint and basically have a -tier roster around their GOAT candidate which immediately went to after he left despite the owner's vow to win now.

People never seem to look at what's worked historically and what hasn't worked. The Spurs are not the first team in this position, and how things tend to go from here is pretty straight-forward.

I sort of see what you're saying, but I think there are a couple of distinctions that make a potential Trae Young or any such win-now trade different from both Dallas (your best case) and Cleveland (worst case scenario). The most obvious one is that the Spurs would only be trading away only Hawks picks and swaps +/- other acquired picks, and would be keeping all of their own. The second is that the Spurs have 2 bites at the apple in 2024, the year after superstar's rookie year. In both Dallas and Cleveland, the team whiffed on the pick the next year. Cleveland famously selected Luke Jackson instead of Iguodala one pick earlier while the Mavs had no pick the following year due to their trade with Atlanta, and their superstars developed so well that they didn't have any decent picks after that. So I think even the worst case scenario of a "panic move" here is far better than the best case that you've outlined in Dallas. However, that does mean that we have to nail our picks this year.

That being said, I do agree with you about Wemby not being quite ready for le contention. I'm in favor of a Trae Young trade for the right price (Hawks picks back +/- filler and Keldon), but that's more an indictment on my feelings toward our front office's ability to evaluate talent. If had had more confidence in our scouts and the front office's abilities to draft, and they were still able to pull rabbits out of the draft hat, I'd favor a slow approach, and look at a 4 year timetable. If Wemby isn't happy and complains, I'd tell him to get ed and dare him to take the qualifying offer in year 4 when he's got a 55 win team stocked full of young up and coming talent. But the fact is, after the Primo draft and with the uncertainty of some of our draft prospects, I'm just not sure enough to definitively take that approach over a flawed star that still fits a significant position of need and synergizes well with Wemby.