My pal, and the wiser half of the Berlin Spurs Fan Club posed a question on Twitter this week, asking if we learned anything valuable about the members of the San Antonio Spurs this season.
My first instinct was to think about every player and pin down something important I learned or hoped to learn and eventually did not. Instead, my mind fixated on Jakob Poeltl. (Dejounte Murray becoming an All-Star seemed like cherry picking)
Poeltl is better than I thought. Or, he’s become better than I thought he would become is perhaps a better way of saying it. His defensive stats pretty much in line with where he was last year, but he’s scoring more. Is he a better scorer than he was last year?
I’d argue no.
His shooting percentage is pretty much the same (62.2% this season, 61.6% last season), so I think we can chalk that up to him taking more shots at the same clip. Which… could be good or bad. The Spurs are definitely worse this year, as several players have tried to fill the scoring void DeMar DeRozan left behind. As luck would have it, DeRozan’s points last year didn’t help the Spurs win enough games, either, now the pointhole is deeper, and well this is my long-winded way of telling you that Poeltl’s uptick in scoring (+5.1 ppg over last year!) is the result of several unfortunate things, not necessarily him getting better.
A positive thing would be that Poeltl’s shooting percentage didn’t decrease with expanded opportunity. We can live with that.
I’ve meandered further than I wanted, but here’s where I’ve landed: With the right player in the 2/3/4, the Spurs would be a playoff team today. Not a play-in team. I think Murray and Poeltl are good enough to build around. You may disagree with that premise, but I’m going to stick to it.
The question is, who is the right player? There are a few places that player could be found.
The NBA Draft
San Antonio’s on the outside of the playoff picture right now, and though they’re flirting with the play-in game, it’s likely that they’ll be watching lottery balls at the end of the regular season.
This draft class is supposedly loaded with talent but, but, but! Unless the Spurs draft the kind of talent that becomes prime LeBron James in year two, will the timeline ever match up with Murray and Poeltl?
Feels like a weird argument to make against a couple guys who are 25 and 26, respectively, but I think it’s a perfectly acceptable thing to wonder if it would make more sense to pair these two with a proven talent. Even if San Antonio got the top pick, it’s not like they already have David Robinson and Sean Elliot waiting for the next Tim Duncan to join the team.
Easier said than done, I know. But the Spurs have a lot of draft capital all of sudden, would they use it to get a known commodity instead of a few rookies?1
But like, who would they even want to trade for?
Great question! I honestly have no idea, man. But if you catch wind of any disgruntled 26-year-old superstars wanting out of their current situation, please refer them my way. Maybe a sign-and-trade with an upcoming free agent, if they can’t reach a deal with their current team? Let’s look at those free agents, then!
Free Agents
Erm, this is a little bit bleak… Here are some players who have player options they can choose to exercise at season’s end, and could, in some way, disregarding any existing contracts on the books with San Antonio, become a Spur next year:
Kyrie Irving (okay, interesting, but I just don’t see how this could work if the premise is that we’re building around Dejounte Murray here)
Bradley Beal (also interesting but I feel like this would just end in more points and the same amount of losses)
James Harden, Russell Westbrook, John Wall (lmao there is no way in hell)
What about the unrestricted free agent crowd, anything fun in that aisle? Well, there are a couple notable names:
Zach LaVine (alright, I could get into that)
Gary Harris (idk man I don’t think so, not for $20MM/year anyway)
…You can look through a big list of dudes who are going to be free agents after this season and get depressed if you want. It’s not a great time, there’s probably something better.
So, gameplan. If you believe in what LaVine is cooking this year, feel free to pin your dreams on Brian Wright signing him this offseason, and drafting someone who can contribute enough in 2-3 years to make some noise.
Any chance of that happening? Well, LaVine is on his way to max contract (or better) eligibility with Chicago so I wouldn’t count on it. Then again, the Bulls traded away Jimmy Butler not so long ago specifically because they didn’t want to Supermax him. Hard to say what’s going on there in Bullsland.
Alright then, sorry this was kind of a weird one. Thanks for reading anyway! Please be kind to each other out there.
No probably not man, probably not.