Friday: Expectations

Have the Spurs exceeded, met or fell below YOUR expectations so far?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Shane and I have the fort held down till six
o'clock tonight. Left off there in that last segment talking
about the Spurs matchup with the Warriors tonight.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Something else I should add.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
We saw Dearon Fox make his season debut last Saturday
against the Pelicans. Tonight he makes his NBA Cup debut
as a Spur, as a member of the Spurs, first
game he's gotten to play with them in one of
these NBA Cup matchups. And the only reason I mentioned
that little fun fact for you, I saw the NBA

(00:37):
pr account put this out earlier today, de Aaron Fox.
In the short history of the Emmirates NBA Cup, he
is the leading scorer per game in the history of
this event, coming in just a hair under thirty four
points a game thirty three point nine a game. So

(00:57):
hopefully we get a performance like that tonight as the
Spurs look to bounce back from the midweek loss to
the Warriors, the odd back to back both here in
San Antonio. Remember it is a late tip tonight and
it is on Amazon, So if you want any local coverage,
Dylan will have the local pregame show What's seven thirty?

(01:22):
If my math is correct here, I'm trying to work backwards,
and then.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Carl local pregame seven thirty, then Carl showing it takes
over at eight, and then the tip is eight forty.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, and Dan will have your only local voice calling
the game. As again it is an Amazon Prime Friday
Night game. I mentioned at the end of that segment,
wanted to talk here. Obviously, when you have Wimby on
the roster, the expectations are always going to be at
a certain height, so to speak ironically, like they're always

(01:54):
going to be high expectations when you have a guy
that's going to consistently get MVP votes every single year
of his career if he stays healthy for that season.
And that's where you know with the with the eight
and three start, now, usually you can tell what an
NBA team is after about twenty games, after about a

(02:16):
quarter of the season. We're gonna jump the gun a
little bit. Let's extrapolate the ten we've seen so far
into what twenty would be.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
So we'll call him eight and two through.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
The first ten, sixteen and four through the first twenty.
That's a team that has championship or at least deep
playoff run expectations on it just based on record alone.
So thinking about this team now potentially skipping a few
steps because you have such a top end transcendent talent

(02:49):
like Wimby, the question in my head immediately turns to
what is what is the best best pathway to getting
that championship as quick as possible because we've seen the
building blocks. Obviously everyone loves Area fifty one. It's now
spreading nationally. We got a big national ride up and

(03:09):
I will say, the the excitement of seeing Steph Castle
throw alley oops to to Wimby and more more frequently
Luke Cornett. Uh, the offensive playmaking and highlights.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
You know what they call it?

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Whenever a castle of those are the Cornett they call
it white Castle.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Okay, that's perfect.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah. I was about to say, there's there's so many
funny French Manila with Wimby and Cornett. Yeah, Like, there's
so many good nicknames with this team, which tells you
it's a it's a good group uh to root for
when you when you can come up with so many nicknames.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
But more importantly with the Wimby Castle duo is the
defensive numbers when those two guys are on the court.
They are a top three defensive pairing in terms of analytics,
in terms of metrics, how many points the team gives
up when those two are on the floor together, the
quality of shots the opposing team is getting when you

(04:05):
have Wimby controlling the paint and Steph Castle on the perimeter.
The Again, the offense is going to be what gets
the highlights, but the defense is what's going to carry
them on deep playoff runs and eventually lead to championship success.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Which is why again, you know, we've.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Talked about watch college football this year because the Spurs
still have the pick swap with Atlanta, although the Hawks have.
The Hawks might be they might be better with Trey
Young out of the lineup, or at least they figured
something out with him out of the lineup. And who
knows if he's even going to be a member of
the Hawks by draft night next April, but I guess

(04:45):
next June July whenever that is.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
I'm thinking NFL Draft.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
But I I as you look at the assets, the
future assets the Spurs have, the future first round picks,
the guys that are still on rookie deals that are
going to need extensions. So Han obviously Castle Castle showing
he's untouchable. You look at the you know, Vissel Keldon
that are on reasonable deals, that are at good numbers

(05:11):
that match pairwell with different trade scenarios. We heard the
flirtations this past summer with Yannis potentially unhappy in Milwaukee.
Well now he's got the Bucks back in the top
four in the East. It feels like that was just
more smoke than anything else, not really a whole lot
of fire or flames to that down.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
They're hurt, sure, and.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
They know, and that's where the Bucks know they have
a chance this year to make a run out.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
They also have a could you consider a top defensive
duel with Giannis and now Miles Turner.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, less of a perimeter influence thought, but it's nice
one to two on the inside for sure. Also the rumors,
of course, you know Kevin Durant ends up in Houston.
Spurs were smart not to mortgage any of their future
assets for uh the aging superstar, despite how good KD
still is. But my question becomes, at what point do

(06:07):
you decide this is now every single year is a
year to go for it, Because as you think about
that draft pick, we're still going to swap with the Hawks.
You think about the what seven future first round picks
the Spurs have over the next decade, over the next
half decade, actually over the next four or five years.

(06:27):
You get to a point where you have roster bloat
that you're not going.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
To be able to keep all of these guys.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
You're not going to be able to sign all of
these former first round picks that you took, and you're
going to have to choose who is a part of
this plan five years from now. And those decisions need
to start being made over the next few years as
these first round picks start being conveyed to them from
deals done over the past three years. This is where

(06:56):
I'm really curious to see what names. Obviously we know
jaw unhappy in Memphis. I don't think that's a fit,
not suggesting that Ad looks like he's now going to
be on the move as.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Dallas blows thing up. Probably Clay, Yeah, Clay too.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Again, those are neither two names that interest me, But
I will be curious to see who that next name
is that ends up getting floated, getting circulated, because I
think the Spurs might be in a position to pounce
on a big deal instead of remaining patient because it's
feeling like they're good enough to win now.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
So if you want it, if you wanted either of
these two players, I can think of two players right
now that I think sometime between now in the next
eighteen months would likely get moved based on where they are,
how much they cost, and where the direction the teams
are going. First off, can I interest you in Zion Williamson.
That's a name of his employer out there as well.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
It's intriguing.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
I mean, I didn't trust him to control his weight
in New Orleans. I'm not sure I could trust him
to control his weight in San Antonio. How much of
a struggle it is for me. I can't imagine how
much Zion would enjoy the local culinary options we have
here in our city.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
But intriguing if it was a buy low price.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Sure, and no, by the way, I'm not gonna say
Joel Embiid, like, there's no need to bring him here.
The other name I've thrown out there, just because this
team is very better and heavy. This one would be
a little more expensive, but it is one that you
would have that you'd have like a lot of points
score with him.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Could I insed you in, Paul George.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Yeah, see again, I think that's too much of a risk.
You would definitely be buying low hoping that you get
something out of him at a very low cost. But
I'm I'm looking more at that next young guy because
we've got to think about what this core is going
to be over the next five years, someone who is
on this same mid twenties timeline as this roster is.

(08:50):
Because again, as much as I want to be patient,
I want to win and I think this team can win.
Now coming up, we'll do a little touch and go
segment to close out the out