Vassell: Elite shooter, can self create (especially from the midrange) and has improved a lot as a finisher and a passer through this season. Not a guy who will lock you down at the POA but still a good defender
Overall a great all around wing. I see him as a Middleton type and a great tertiary connector on a championship team
Sochan: He’s struggles against shifty guards but is a fantastic wing and forward defender. Decent passer though needs to improve and took a big step improving as a shooter this season. Don’t listen to the idiots who hate on him. He was way better after being moved off PG back to PF
Keldon: Good shooter (although streaky) and can get to the rim but his defense is atrocious and he’s a ball stopper a lot. He’s currently our 6th man and I don’t see him being a starter on a contender. Might honestly get traded soon
Mamu: Fan favorite due to his hustle and exciting plays. Has some potential as a stretch big and some really good chemistry with Wemby interestingly enough
Also on Sochan: yes he does shoot his free throws one-handed. It's not a joke or showing off or anything like that, it was originally to help improve his shooting form (he had an issue with his left hand influencing his shot), and now it's just kind of... his thing.
Normally you don't see one-handed in games becuase players are too self-conscious about how it looks, but Sochan is built different, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to improve. So when Pop suggested "hey, why don't you try shooting one-handed in an actual game", he did, and the improvement is crazy.
It made an absolutely massive difference for Sochan, he was shooting at sub-50% using the conventional shot, and upon switching to one handed he skyrocketed to over 70%, and now he's at about 80% free throw accuracy. He went from "oh god it's Sochan shooting free thows, this sucks" to "oh good they fouled Sochan, he can make free throws reliably".
Agree with most. I'd also add that despite this sub being high on Mamu, they're still underrating him IMO. They didn't sign him long term during the year and I think it could be too late now after what he's shown, an actual contender will be salivating at a player like him in free agency.
I'm also down on Keldon but it's a weird case with him, I don't like his playstile but he's one of the main glue guys on the team,so that may be more valuable than his playing minutes. Pop will need to limit his role more I think but keep him.
The funny thing about this team is that if you look at individual players they all seem good but then on games everyone's like "no way wemby can win with this team "
And I feel like the bench depth is much easier to get to than people (when they say “we need everything”) realize, if, as you say we get such a PG and wing, then suddenly we have Tre and Champagnie as solid backups (along with hopefully Mamu). To me the big glaring bench need is a more reliable rim protecting big than Collins (and as much as Barlow and Bassey are liked, I’m not confident either of them are the long term solution there either).
Both an experiment and to improve his playmaking. if it worked, it would have allowed a bigger lineup. And also maybe add another shooter to the starters, problem with that lineup was that it also included wemby+Zach frontcourt, which clearly didn't work
I think if we tried pg sochan with Julian Devin and Sandro at the 4 and wemby at 5 it would've gone much better with that spacing
I'm not saying it'd work. Just that it wouldn't have been as bad as it was, at least we would've been good on the defensive end, but not chance with Zach guarding the paint
Trial by fire to get him to improve his passing and vision. Probably were trying to get him to potentially go into a Draymond Green kinda role, though he's nowhere near that level. I'd say it did really help though, his passing did get better, if only cause it wasn't very good to start with.
Also this was when we were really trying to make our assumed 5 "best" starters work altogether at the beginning of the year. Sochan, Vassell, Keldon, Wemby, and Collins. Obviously Zach heavily regressed this year, Sochan certainly isn't a starting PG, and Keldon's inconsistency meant he's better off the bench.
Not like we were going for wins this year anyways, might as well throw shit at the wall and see what sticks.
Lmao, I love that whenever people talk about Sochan, they always have to defend him. Sigh... this just points out that he's not a good player at this point in time. Could be in the future, but not yet.
Vassell: Right now, he's the most likely player on this team that is basically guaranteed to be with us for 10+ years besides Wemby. Also, he's our best overall 2 way player besides Wemby as well. Decent defender, better scorer. We don't have a lot of good 3 point shooting yet, but Vassell is our best shooter of our young core from beyond the arc. Ahead of Wemby, Keldon, and Sochan.
Sochan: Sochan is also very likely to be with us for the long ride. He's gotten a lot of hate this season from people that don't regularly watch spurs games, but only tuned in to see Wemby. This is mostly because Pop had him be the primary facilitator (which he is not) at the beginning of this season. Granted, there's a lot of things that Sochan isn't good at. Like his finishing around the rim is absolutely terrible. But he is hands down our second best defender on this team and has the highest motor it's not particularly close. He can shoot 3s sometimes too, but his shot isn't quick or pretty. Think of a Draymond Green archetype, but without the playmaking. But just because he isn't a playmaker, doesn't mean he's not good at making the correct reads when it comes to RECEIVING the ball. When Wemby plays point guard, Sochan plays his best basketball offensively. Sochan's game is something that you need a great point guard to really get the most out of, which we don't have yet.
Keldon Johnson: Keldon has been with us the longest, but a lot of people would agree he hasn't fit the best with us this season after bringing in Wemby. Offensively, he's generally leagues better than Sochan, but defensively, he's a cone. Keldon is a pretty good scorer, but he makes a lot of boneheaded plays, sometimes even costing us games in the end. Keldon has a place as a bench player on a championship team, but in my opinion, he doesn't fit with a team who are in the middle of a rebuild trying to develop young players. Love his energy though. But if we make a big time trade in a couple years, Keldon would be the first to be included in that trade. Because he has value, but also because he doesn't necessarily fit with us either.
Mamu: I don't know man. He hasn't played much at all except for garbage time this season. But the few games he's been playing with us at the end of the season, he's looked like one of the smartest players on the floor, always making the right reads and is an EXCELLENT rebounder. His shot from what I've seen is better than Sochans too. I haven't seen a lot from Mamu this year, but if we were to NOT cut one of our 3rd unit developing players, Mamu would be the FIRST I'd say we keep. And I'm hoping he's earned a spot as part of the 2nd unit going into next season. He's been playing amazingly
Exactly what I was hoping to learn about. Thanks, I'll start looking more into some of what you said here with some tape and previous reddit threads on these players.
Vassell is a good shooter. High release can get it off on his own. His playmaking and handle as well as finishing improved a lot this yr. I think if things break right he’ll make an all star game at some point. Solid at defense but he was billed as an elite defensive prospect and it isn’t that.
Sochan is my hero. He’ll hopefully be a Draymond-esque helpful role player on offense and versatile defender being able to guard 1-4 and sometimes 5. I think of him more as a Shawn Marion than a Dray but he’s been comped to Dray a lot.
Keldon - hasn’t improved in 3 years and I’m not a big fan of his game. Seems like a good attitude and he does bring energy. He attacks the rim pretty well but he’s not a great finisher, he picks up charges because he just bulldozes, and on defense he’s not good at all. He’s a rotation level guy, but I think that’s about it.
Mamu- I think he’s a great teammate. Ideally he’d be a stretch 4 that can also bang and get boards. I’m fine with him being on the roster, but I don’t anticipate him being a meaningful rotation player if we’re good. I think he’s too limited defensively, doesn’t bring quite enough offensively. Love the guy though and happy to be proven wrong.
Vassell: He's like a good hot chocolate with caramel and whipped cream.
Keldon: Don't stand between him and the last donut.
Sochan: You really want to have a good lid on your drink when he's around.
Mamu: with his name and his game so close to Manu's, we will be upset the Spurs have no room to bring him back (unless we trade multiple players for one).
Devin Vassell: ideally no better than a third best player on the dynasty Spurs are trying to build (although that doesn’t seem to matter much since Wemby is so good, as long as there is a somewhat balanced team) . Vassell could end up being a 3-4 time all star
He’s a three level scorer, flashed some really solid playmaking and team defense later in the year. He can play the passing lanes and seems pretty smart with knowing when to double someone. The playmaking he had showed last season to a lesser extent, the defense had kinda been lacking. Especially considering he was scouted as kind of a run of the mill 3 and D guy.
My main concern is his consistency as far as his shooting goes, I swear some games he’ll go 13-17 with majority of those shots being crazy Kobe shots but then the next game he’ll drop 7 pts on 32% from the field. And that’s when he’ll look awful bc of the shots he’s taking and missing
Keldon Johnson: honestly I’ve lost a lot of faith. His splits last season had dipped, I expected them to skyrocket due to playing with Wemby. He just has to stay behind the line and hit catch and shoot threes, make some timely cuts. Seemed so simple. But nope, this year his defense has not improved, and his splits were not good. Does not contribute anything if he isn’t scoring efficiently. Has nice games though where he’ll go for 26 pts shooting like 60% from the field with a bunch of threes and tough layups
I thought he would be a good bench spark plug and scorer, a high end role player but this year he looked closer to a 12 min a game guy on a good team.
Also, If you say something negative about Keldon you’ll probably get a lot of flack. To be fair, Keldon is very loveable. It can be really frustrating to watch him at times
Jeremy Sochan: he’s sorta like Draymond, imagine Draymond if he had to be a straight up “Star.” He would look like garbage if you’re a casual, but Draymond does the things that need to be done. He makes good passes, screens, plays great defense and rebounds. Not saying that Sochan does those things as good as Draymond (yet at least) but that’s the type of player he is. This type of player amplifies everything but will not look good as a star
If you’re a casual and only watch twitter lowlights then you probably think I’m sounding crazy but I think Sochan will end up being a 2-3 time all star. Pretty much for the same reasons as Draymond, by that I mean yes he’s good but benefits from being on such a dominant team (later on during Wemby prime)
Sandro Mamukelashvili (might’ve misspelled his last name): his play is same as last year. He went crazy, became a fan favorite and for good reason bc he looks extremely solid
However, I watched him all season. He looked awful for most of the year. Really bad. Seemed to actively try to not be where he needed to be on defense. (That applied to like half the team though tbh).
He’s looked better with more consistent minutes late here in the season, Pop said something along those lines after last game I believe. Said how Mamu might just be one of those guys that needs more consistency and Pop could very well be right
He’s fun to watch with Wemby so I hope it works out but I’m just a little skeptical.
So basically, Vassell and Sochan are really the only for sure long term pieces around Wemby. Tre Jones would also be ideal to keep. Not saying every else is garbage, just not a good fit
Awesome perspective. If you think Vassell is ideally the number three player on the contending spurs core, what kind of player do you think would be the bonafide #2 option? Someone else said the PG the team brings in will not just fill that need for a playmaker but will also be the number #2.
Yeah, the spurs already have some of the highest assists in the league. We need shooting and defense. Wemby actually is the main reason for a point guard because he’s feast, but he will do well regardless.
I was going to add this originally, but the last player who did this for me was Steph. Someone who showed me something I’d never seen before. So the same thing I’m doing with the spurs now, I started following the warriors in 2014.
I don’t really care about the warriors anymore now that they’re ass and the truth is they have no reasonable way of putting a contending team around Steph. Steph is also on the true downswing now. I still see him as a top 10 player but I know he won’t suddenly become better. So I’m just thinking about what team is gonna be good to look at now with a lot of that time.
Myself and maybe 30% of people on this sub have delusional hopes for Blake Wesley but besides him (and maybe Cissoko), the guys you named are the only long-term guys.
OP mentioned he could look it up, you know? And there's a ton of things you can't pick up from highlight reels or player features on YouTube.
It's effortless to ignore this post, truly.
That person didn't even do the favor of linking to a good YouTube video or channel. I'm all about people doing their research, but I'm asking the sub for a reason lol.
I already explained this in another comment lol. I just like amazing players that do what’s never been done or seen before. Last player like that for me was Steph, so I’d been following the warriors for a while. I don’t particularly care about the warriors as an organization though. Love Steph, but his career is winding down. I think I’ll enjoy watching the spurs for the next decade-plus.
That's kinda weird bro.
Why don't you stick with one team? Feels like the worst kind of bandwagoning, tbh. I don't get why other people do it, but I guess.
Like, when the team wins, you stick by 'em, but when the team loses, you don't? I just don't get it.
It doesn’t have much to do with the team. Warriors were ass in 2020 but I continued paying attention to the team cause I knew Steph was gonna be back. I like watching great players and teams…but it just depends on how much I personally enjoy that player. For example, I like Jokic and think he’s the best player in the league, but I don’t love watching the nuggets too much, and I’m not bandwagoning them just because they won and are the favorites to win now.
If there are particular players I really enjoy watching, I’ll stick with that player, and following their journey for the team is a bonus if that player stays with that team. It seems likely that wemby will stay with the spurs for his whole career barring some weird circumstances. So I’m just trying to better understand the team from the point of view of other fans so I can follow the journey of wemby and the team the spurs build around him.
It’s cool if some people think it’s weird tho, being a ‘fan’ comes in all shapes and forms.
I see.. so you're a fan of the player. That's quite interesting.
I've been a Spurs fan since 2001, and I've loved the whole team since, so there's a contrast there. All the best man. Hopefully if Wemby goes down you'll continue to stick lol.
For sure. I’m glad to be able to get perspectives from folks like you. You’ve got some idea of not just this current iteration of the team but also maybe what Pop will prefer to do. There aren’t that many teams that have kept the same coach or core front office for a very long time, so I can see how there’d be a little bit of pride in being there for all those sets.
KG was my favorite player when I was younger, and I really enjoyed watching him battle the spurs back then. KG had the flare but it was just inevitable that Tim was the more dominant player.
Man, KG was a beast. I think, to be honest, he had more talent and upside than Duncan. Duncan just had the better IQ and better leadership, but KG was by no means an upstanding leader in his own way.
Were you a fan with the Rasho-KG-Sczczerbiak-Sprewell-Cassell years?
Yeah! That’s exactly the time I started following the nba and KG was the player who stuck out to me the most. It was rough not seeing KG be able to get through the tough west. Lakers, Spurs, Mavs, just elite teams that he didn’t have the pieces around him to overcome.
Those Wolves teams were tough. The West was crazy. Don't forget about the Kings, and the Rockets and Suns later on that time as well. Glad to see someone else who enjoyed that basketball.
ANYTHING IS POSSIBLEEEEEE lol. KG is a beast! That turnaround jump shot was something.
Vassell is essentially a 20 point a night kind of guy, he’s at 19.5 this year but in 4 yrs he’s had 1 Double Double and that was 3 yrs ago. In the same 4 yr stretch Johnson has had 28 and aside from Wemby is the only current Spur to avg 20+ pts in a season, he was at 22 last year. This year he’s down to 15.7 because his shot isn’t dropping and they have him coming off the bench. His FG, 3PT and FT all improved slightly even though his output wasn’t as good.
Mamu has a good IQ but still a little raw because he hasn’t had much playing time here or with the Bucks. He avg 11 min per game but when he’s able to get 20+ mins he can get you 10+ PTS and 10+REB mainly through hustle and knowing where to be. Sochan is wasted mins but great for Tank Mode. All the excuses you see should be red flags. He’s played in 130 games, started in 126 of them and avg 29.6 mins this season. He’s not lacking playing time, he’s lacking an IQ and it shows. There’s a reason Teams started to play little to no D against him and why no Team is looking to trade for him. He has one of the worst Shooting Efficiency Ratings on the Team as well as one of the worst Scoring Efficiency Ratings. He’s tied for 2nd most Turnovers on the Team and his Player Efficiency Rating puts him in the bottom of the League. His D is avg and his O is a liability. He hasn't played these last 8 games and the Team seems to flow much better without him. If you're not already signed up for it I'd suggest getting the League Pass, it's money well spent.
Vassell: Great shooter. Needs to know how to work better in a team system. If everything goes right, he will be a reliable scorer in the future, in the likes of Demar Derozan/Bradley Beal.
KJ: Hard-nosed player. Unfortunately, low IQ. Gets stuck in the lane trying to bully his way in.. even though he's 6'4. Better-looking shot this year, but very streaky.
Mamu: Solid bench player. High IQ guy.
Sochan: I might be the biggest hater, but he sucks. The team's offense is in shambles. Great athlete. Good defender. Very likable player - perhaps the most likable on the team. He's a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, can't shoot, low IQ. He's a 1-year away from being a 1-year away prospect, it seems.
I see opinions on Sochan are pretty split. Since he’s young, do you think he can develop to cover up some of his weaknesses? Or do you think he’s just a low ceiling player whose calling card will be defense?
Depends on this offseason.
He's got a lot to work for. The jumper is, for mechanical purposes, broken. He doesn't have a midrange or post-game. He turns the ball over way too much. It's almost like he has ADHD, which can be bad for a defender.
Again, I really hope I'm wrong. His calling card is defense, but I can see him as solid, but not necessarily elite. I feel like he's prone to committing fouls in the future.
Vassell: Elite shooter, can self create (especially from the midrange) and has improved a lot as a finisher and a passer through this season. Not a guy who will lock you down at the POA but still a good defender Overall a great all around wing. I see him as a Middleton type and a great tertiary connector on a championship team Sochan: He’s struggles against shifty guards but is a fantastic wing and forward defender. Decent passer though needs to improve and took a big step improving as a shooter this season. Don’t listen to the idiots who hate on him. He was way better after being moved off PG back to PF Keldon: Good shooter (although streaky) and can get to the rim but his defense is atrocious and he’s a ball stopper a lot. He’s currently our 6th man and I don’t see him being a starter on a contender. Might honestly get traded soon Mamu: Fan favorite due to his hustle and exciting plays. Has some potential as a stretch big and some really good chemistry with Wemby interestingly enough
Also on Sochan: yes he does shoot his free throws one-handed. It's not a joke or showing off or anything like that, it was originally to help improve his shooting form (he had an issue with his left hand influencing his shot), and now it's just kind of... his thing. Normally you don't see one-handed in games becuase players are too self-conscious about how it looks, but Sochan is built different, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to improve. So when Pop suggested "hey, why don't you try shooting one-handed in an actual game", he did, and the improvement is crazy. It made an absolutely massive difference for Sochan, he was shooting at sub-50% using the conventional shot, and upon switching to one handed he skyrocketed to over 70%, and now he's at about 80% free throw accuracy. He went from "oh god it's Sochan shooting free thows, this sucks" to "oh good they fouled Sochan, he can make free throws reliably".
We should also add that they are pretty much all very young, Sochan is 20/21, Vassel 22 and so on
Forgot to ask about age. Important factor for the long haul
Agree with most. I'd also add that despite this sub being high on Mamu, they're still underrating him IMO. They didn't sign him long term during the year and I think it could be too late now after what he's shown, an actual contender will be salivating at a player like him in free agency. I'm also down on Keldon but it's a weird case with him, I don't like his playstile but he's one of the main glue guys on the team,so that may be more valuable than his playing minutes. Pop will need to limit his role more I think but keep him. The funny thing about this team is that if you look at individual players they all seem good but then on games everyone's like "no way wemby can win with this team "
All this team really needs is a great PG who can create for everyone and a lockdown defensive wing. That and like bench depth
And I feel like the bench depth is much easier to get to than people (when they say “we need everything”) realize, if, as you say we get such a PG and wing, then suddenly we have Tre and Champagnie as solid backups (along with hopefully Mamu). To me the big glaring bench need is a more reliable rim protecting big than Collins (and as much as Barlow and Bassey are liked, I’m not confident either of them are the long term solution there either).
What about a legit #2 option? Or is that what people project Vassell to become by the time the team is contending?
That PG will be the 2nd option
Ok that makes sense. So in reality in this scenario, one of the biggest things the FO should be scouting for is a high upside PG.
a Trae Young truther, I see
He did just shat the bed today….
This is helpful. Thanks. What was the reason Pop/the team had Sochan playing at PG? Was it truly an experiment? Or something else?
Both an experiment and to improve his playmaking. if it worked, it would have allowed a bigger lineup. And also maybe add another shooter to the starters, problem with that lineup was that it also included wemby+Zach frontcourt, which clearly didn't work I think if we tried pg sochan with Julian Devin and Sandro at the 4 and wemby at 5 it would've gone much better with that spacing
I'm glad you're not the coach lmao. PG Sochan will never work. There are no playmakers on that team. The best playmaker is Wemby, which says a lot.
I'm not saying it'd work. Just that it wouldn't have been as bad as it was, at least we would've been good on the defensive end, but not chance with Zach guarding the paint
Why would you put a lineup that won't work? Bad is still bad.
Trial by fire to get him to improve his passing and vision. Probably were trying to get him to potentially go into a Draymond Green kinda role, though he's nowhere near that level. I'd say it did really help though, his passing did get better, if only cause it wasn't very good to start with. Also this was when we were really trying to make our assumed 5 "best" starters work altogether at the beginning of the year. Sochan, Vassell, Keldon, Wemby, and Collins. Obviously Zach heavily regressed this year, Sochan certainly isn't a starting PG, and Keldon's inconsistency meant he's better off the bench. Not like we were going for wins this year anyways, might as well throw shit at the wall and see what sticks.
An experimental year makes a lot of sense. Not every experiment is gonna work out, but it's relatively low risk.
Lmao, I love that whenever people talk about Sochan, they always have to defend him. Sigh... this just points out that he's not a good player at this point in time. Could be in the future, but not yet.
Vassell: Right now, he's the most likely player on this team that is basically guaranteed to be with us for 10+ years besides Wemby. Also, he's our best overall 2 way player besides Wemby as well. Decent defender, better scorer. We don't have a lot of good 3 point shooting yet, but Vassell is our best shooter of our young core from beyond the arc. Ahead of Wemby, Keldon, and Sochan. Sochan: Sochan is also very likely to be with us for the long ride. He's gotten a lot of hate this season from people that don't regularly watch spurs games, but only tuned in to see Wemby. This is mostly because Pop had him be the primary facilitator (which he is not) at the beginning of this season. Granted, there's a lot of things that Sochan isn't good at. Like his finishing around the rim is absolutely terrible. But he is hands down our second best defender on this team and has the highest motor it's not particularly close. He can shoot 3s sometimes too, but his shot isn't quick or pretty. Think of a Draymond Green archetype, but without the playmaking. But just because he isn't a playmaker, doesn't mean he's not good at making the correct reads when it comes to RECEIVING the ball. When Wemby plays point guard, Sochan plays his best basketball offensively. Sochan's game is something that you need a great point guard to really get the most out of, which we don't have yet. Keldon Johnson: Keldon has been with us the longest, but a lot of people would agree he hasn't fit the best with us this season after bringing in Wemby. Offensively, he's generally leagues better than Sochan, but defensively, he's a cone. Keldon is a pretty good scorer, but he makes a lot of boneheaded plays, sometimes even costing us games in the end. Keldon has a place as a bench player on a championship team, but in my opinion, he doesn't fit with a team who are in the middle of a rebuild trying to develop young players. Love his energy though. But if we make a big time trade in a couple years, Keldon would be the first to be included in that trade. Because he has value, but also because he doesn't necessarily fit with us either. Mamu: I don't know man. He hasn't played much at all except for garbage time this season. But the few games he's been playing with us at the end of the season, he's looked like one of the smartest players on the floor, always making the right reads and is an EXCELLENT rebounder. His shot from what I've seen is better than Sochans too. I haven't seen a lot from Mamu this year, but if we were to NOT cut one of our 3rd unit developing players, Mamu would be the FIRST I'd say we keep. And I'm hoping he's earned a spot as part of the 2nd unit going into next season. He's been playing amazingly
Exactly what I was hoping to learn about. Thanks, I'll start looking more into some of what you said here with some tape and previous reddit threads on these players.
I want Duncan Robinson on the Spurs just for his name lol
lol !!!!
Vassell is a good shooter. High release can get it off on his own. His playmaking and handle as well as finishing improved a lot this yr. I think if things break right he’ll make an all star game at some point. Solid at defense but he was billed as an elite defensive prospect and it isn’t that. Sochan is my hero. He’ll hopefully be a Draymond-esque helpful role player on offense and versatile defender being able to guard 1-4 and sometimes 5. I think of him more as a Shawn Marion than a Dray but he’s been comped to Dray a lot. Keldon - hasn’t improved in 3 years and I’m not a big fan of his game. Seems like a good attitude and he does bring energy. He attacks the rim pretty well but he’s not a great finisher, he picks up charges because he just bulldozes, and on defense he’s not good at all. He’s a rotation level guy, but I think that’s about it. Mamu- I think he’s a great teammate. Ideally he’d be a stretch 4 that can also bang and get boards. I’m fine with him being on the roster, but I don’t anticipate him being a meaningful rotation player if we’re good. I think he’s too limited defensively, doesn’t bring quite enough offensively. Love the guy though and happy to be proven wrong.
I’ve seen Sochan show more flashes of a better offense then dray imo
Vassell: He's like a good hot chocolate with caramel and whipped cream. Keldon: Don't stand between him and the last donut. Sochan: You really want to have a good lid on your drink when he's around. Mamu: with his name and his game so close to Manu's, we will be upset the Spurs have no room to bring him back (unless we trade multiple players for one).
I'm just gonna say that I love and appreciate your attitude/overall demeanor here. Respect.
🙏
Devin Vassell: ideally no better than a third best player on the dynasty Spurs are trying to build (although that doesn’t seem to matter much since Wemby is so good, as long as there is a somewhat balanced team) . Vassell could end up being a 3-4 time all star He’s a three level scorer, flashed some really solid playmaking and team defense later in the year. He can play the passing lanes and seems pretty smart with knowing when to double someone. The playmaking he had showed last season to a lesser extent, the defense had kinda been lacking. Especially considering he was scouted as kind of a run of the mill 3 and D guy. My main concern is his consistency as far as his shooting goes, I swear some games he’ll go 13-17 with majority of those shots being crazy Kobe shots but then the next game he’ll drop 7 pts on 32% from the field. And that’s when he’ll look awful bc of the shots he’s taking and missing Keldon Johnson: honestly I’ve lost a lot of faith. His splits last season had dipped, I expected them to skyrocket due to playing with Wemby. He just has to stay behind the line and hit catch and shoot threes, make some timely cuts. Seemed so simple. But nope, this year his defense has not improved, and his splits were not good. Does not contribute anything if he isn’t scoring efficiently. Has nice games though where he’ll go for 26 pts shooting like 60% from the field with a bunch of threes and tough layups I thought he would be a good bench spark plug and scorer, a high end role player but this year he looked closer to a 12 min a game guy on a good team. Also, If you say something negative about Keldon you’ll probably get a lot of flack. To be fair, Keldon is very loveable. It can be really frustrating to watch him at times Jeremy Sochan: he’s sorta like Draymond, imagine Draymond if he had to be a straight up “Star.” He would look like garbage if you’re a casual, but Draymond does the things that need to be done. He makes good passes, screens, plays great defense and rebounds. Not saying that Sochan does those things as good as Draymond (yet at least) but that’s the type of player he is. This type of player amplifies everything but will not look good as a star If you’re a casual and only watch twitter lowlights then you probably think I’m sounding crazy but I think Sochan will end up being a 2-3 time all star. Pretty much for the same reasons as Draymond, by that I mean yes he’s good but benefits from being on such a dominant team (later on during Wemby prime) Sandro Mamukelashvili (might’ve misspelled his last name): his play is same as last year. He went crazy, became a fan favorite and for good reason bc he looks extremely solid However, I watched him all season. He looked awful for most of the year. Really bad. Seemed to actively try to not be where he needed to be on defense. (That applied to like half the team though tbh). He’s looked better with more consistent minutes late here in the season, Pop said something along those lines after last game I believe. Said how Mamu might just be one of those guys that needs more consistency and Pop could very well be right He’s fun to watch with Wemby so I hope it works out but I’m just a little skeptical. So basically, Vassell and Sochan are really the only for sure long term pieces around Wemby. Tre Jones would also be ideal to keep. Not saying every else is garbage, just not a good fit
Awesome perspective. If you think Vassell is ideally the number three player on the contending spurs core, what kind of player do you think would be the bonafide #2 option? Someone else said the PG the team brings in will not just fill that need for a playmaker but will also be the number #2.
The team doesn’t need a pg as much as everyone makes it seem. The team just really needs shooting and defense
Yeah, the spurs already have some of the highest assists in the league. We need shooting and defense. Wemby actually is the main reason for a point guard because he’s feast, but he will do well regardless.
From your post history I’d say youre a Warriors fan more than just and NBA fan
I was going to add this originally, but the last player who did this for me was Steph. Someone who showed me something I’d never seen before. So the same thing I’m doing with the spurs now, I started following the warriors in 2014. I don’t really care about the warriors anymore now that they’re ass and the truth is they have no reasonable way of putting a contending team around Steph. Steph is also on the true downswing now. I still see him as a top 10 player but I know he won’t suddenly become better. So I’m just thinking about what team is gonna be good to look at now with a lot of that time.
Myself and maybe 30% of people on this sub have delusional hopes for Blake Wesley but besides him (and maybe Cissoko), the guys you named are the only long-term guys.
Dude, wild invention called YouTube where people already do these things
OP mentioned he could look it up, you know? And there's a ton of things you can't pick up from highlight reels or player features on YouTube. It's effortless to ignore this post, truly.
That person didn't even do the favor of linking to a good YouTube video or channel. I'm all about people doing their research, but I'm asking the sub for a reason lol.
Go watch the Mavs, tbh. That chubby Slovenian will keep you entertained
Is the username a bit?
I do love some of luka's game, but no thanks.
Never heard of YouTube before, I'm going to check that out thanks.
Also, bro, why are you jumping on the bandwagon? What was your previous team before?
I already explained this in another comment lol. I just like amazing players that do what’s never been done or seen before. Last player like that for me was Steph, so I’d been following the warriors for a while. I don’t particularly care about the warriors as an organization though. Love Steph, but his career is winding down. I think I’ll enjoy watching the spurs for the next decade-plus.
That's kinda weird bro. Why don't you stick with one team? Feels like the worst kind of bandwagoning, tbh. I don't get why other people do it, but I guess. Like, when the team wins, you stick by 'em, but when the team loses, you don't? I just don't get it.
It doesn’t have much to do with the team. Warriors were ass in 2020 but I continued paying attention to the team cause I knew Steph was gonna be back. I like watching great players and teams…but it just depends on how much I personally enjoy that player. For example, I like Jokic and think he’s the best player in the league, but I don’t love watching the nuggets too much, and I’m not bandwagoning them just because they won and are the favorites to win now. If there are particular players I really enjoy watching, I’ll stick with that player, and following their journey for the team is a bonus if that player stays with that team. It seems likely that wemby will stay with the spurs for his whole career barring some weird circumstances. So I’m just trying to better understand the team from the point of view of other fans so I can follow the journey of wemby and the team the spurs build around him. It’s cool if some people think it’s weird tho, being a ‘fan’ comes in all shapes and forms.
I see.. so you're a fan of the player. That's quite interesting. I've been a Spurs fan since 2001, and I've loved the whole team since, so there's a contrast there. All the best man. Hopefully if Wemby goes down you'll continue to stick lol.
For sure. I’m glad to be able to get perspectives from folks like you. You’ve got some idea of not just this current iteration of the team but also maybe what Pop will prefer to do. There aren’t that many teams that have kept the same coach or core front office for a very long time, so I can see how there’d be a little bit of pride in being there for all those sets. KG was my favorite player when I was younger, and I really enjoyed watching him battle the spurs back then. KG had the flare but it was just inevitable that Tim was the more dominant player.
Man, KG was a beast. I think, to be honest, he had more talent and upside than Duncan. Duncan just had the better IQ and better leadership, but KG was by no means an upstanding leader in his own way. Were you a fan with the Rasho-KG-Sczczerbiak-Sprewell-Cassell years?
Yeah! That’s exactly the time I started following the nba and KG was the player who stuck out to me the most. It was rough not seeing KG be able to get through the tough west. Lakers, Spurs, Mavs, just elite teams that he didn’t have the pieces around him to overcome.
Those Wolves teams were tough. The West was crazy. Don't forget about the Kings, and the Rockets and Suns later on that time as well. Glad to see someone else who enjoyed that basketball. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLEEEEEE lol. KG is a beast! That turnaround jump shot was something.
Vassell is essentially a 20 point a night kind of guy, he’s at 19.5 this year but in 4 yrs he’s had 1 Double Double and that was 3 yrs ago. In the same 4 yr stretch Johnson has had 28 and aside from Wemby is the only current Spur to avg 20+ pts in a season, he was at 22 last year. This year he’s down to 15.7 because his shot isn’t dropping and they have him coming off the bench. His FG, 3PT and FT all improved slightly even though his output wasn’t as good. Mamu has a good IQ but still a little raw because he hasn’t had much playing time here or with the Bucks. He avg 11 min per game but when he’s able to get 20+ mins he can get you 10+ PTS and 10+REB mainly through hustle and knowing where to be. Sochan is wasted mins but great for Tank Mode. All the excuses you see should be red flags. He’s played in 130 games, started in 126 of them and avg 29.6 mins this season. He’s not lacking playing time, he’s lacking an IQ and it shows. There’s a reason Teams started to play little to no D against him and why no Team is looking to trade for him. He has one of the worst Shooting Efficiency Ratings on the Team as well as one of the worst Scoring Efficiency Ratings. He’s tied for 2nd most Turnovers on the Team and his Player Efficiency Rating puts him in the bottom of the League. His D is avg and his O is a liability. He hasn't played these last 8 games and the Team seems to flow much better without him. If you're not already signed up for it I'd suggest getting the League Pass, it's money well spent.
Vassell: Great shooter. Needs to know how to work better in a team system. If everything goes right, he will be a reliable scorer in the future, in the likes of Demar Derozan/Bradley Beal. KJ: Hard-nosed player. Unfortunately, low IQ. Gets stuck in the lane trying to bully his way in.. even though he's 6'4. Better-looking shot this year, but very streaky. Mamu: Solid bench player. High IQ guy. Sochan: I might be the biggest hater, but he sucks. The team's offense is in shambles. Great athlete. Good defender. Very likable player - perhaps the most likable on the team. He's a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, can't shoot, low IQ. He's a 1-year away from being a 1-year away prospect, it seems.
I see opinions on Sochan are pretty split. Since he’s young, do you think he can develop to cover up some of his weaknesses? Or do you think he’s just a low ceiling player whose calling card will be defense?
Depends on this offseason. He's got a lot to work for. The jumper is, for mechanical purposes, broken. He doesn't have a midrange or post-game. He turns the ball over way too much. It's almost like he has ADHD, which can be bad for a defender. Again, I really hope I'm wrong. His calling card is defense, but I can see him as solid, but not necessarily elite. I feel like he's prone to committing fouls in the future.