October 1, 2025 • 11 mins
The Radio Voice of the Spurs previews the upcoming season.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
We are waiting for a phone call coming from Dan
Weiss here shortly, and when we get connected with him,
we'll talk some Spurs basketball. So we'll talk some Spurs
basketball anyway before that happens. I think that depending on
who you ask, there are those who think the Spurs
are going to be at least ten games better than
(00:26):
they were last year, and that tends to be what
the boys in the desert are. All Right, we got Dan,
so let's just switch gears and go to Dan. Dan,
thanks for joining us, Welcome to the show. How excited
are you for your first NBA season, which, as far
as I'm concerned, starts Monday night when the Spurs take
on the team from China.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah, No, definitely very excited. It's amazing, how you know,
kind of quickly it just comes up, and you know,
you jump into media day, you jump into the first
couple of days of training camp, you turn around and
you got the scrimmage for thes on Saturday, and then
here we go Monday night and you're you're you're starting
off at your five game preseason plate. So it's it's
(01:07):
coming quick, coming quick for the players, coming quick for myself.
But a lot of optimism here as we're going into
into the season.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
The Boys of the Desert think the Spurs are about
ten to twelve games better, depending on what prognostication you
look at. I think they're better than that if they
can play together and stay healthy. This all is predicated
by the core ten or twelve guys staying healthy the
whole season. What are your thoughts about what is a
good season for the Spurs or an expectation for them?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Well, I think let's start. You know, they were twelve
games better than last year, and that was you know,
dealing with Victor being out after the All Star breaking
miss in the final thirty games of the season, and
so there was you know, significant progress in itself if
we're just looking at the benchmark of of you know,
a twelve win improvement from a year ago. But I mean,
I think you know the expectation, and you know, Mitch
(01:59):
laid it out think pretty succinctly as well as some
of the other players at media days, that they they
expect to take another step. They expect, you know, to
be competitive, they expect to be in every game and
and they expect to you know, be you know, be
playing for something significant here as we get into the
second half of the season, and I think, you know,
that's basically, uh, you know what what the expectation probably
(02:22):
should be within you know, the circle of the team,
and you know, nothing can be guaranteed because you can't
force thee injuries, you can't foresee what happens around you know,
the the rest of the league and the rest of
the conference. But you know, bear in mind you've got
a very very very tough Western conference that didn't really
(02:43):
experience tremendous change in terms of personnel, you know, moving
from one place to another, you know, aside from Kevin
Durant moving to the Rockets. So it's it's still a
stacked conference. But I think, uh, you know, I think
the Spurs are expect to take another step and so
I think they're expected to be probably playing significant games
(03:06):
as you get into March and April.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I think the one thing that's exciting is the flexibility
that coaches are gonna have with who's on the floor,
and especially when you look at the guards Deer and
Fox when he's ready and healthy, the starting point guard
Castle and Vassell and Harper Vessel maybe not play point,
but the other two certainly can, and they can all
(03:27):
kind of play together, and you don't necessarily have to
have what you would call a true point guard. You
can get the ball up the four with whoever gets it,
get into offense early, and the other guy that's gonna
assume the other role or the other wing player the
other wing spots, and then you bring Kelden Johnson off
the bench probably and you've got, you know, a good
scoring opportunity. So with those five guys alone, even before
(03:49):
we talk about Wimby, you've got so much versatility in
the backcourt positionless basketball.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Fin that's the area that we're in right now, Andy,
And I mean, you know, you go back, you know,
fifteen twenty years ago, when everybody was slated as a
point guard, shooting guard, small forward. I feel like we're
kind of past those labels now. I mean, you've got
five guys out on the floor and you're maximizing everybody's
skill set. Whether to your point, they're all ball handlers,
they're distributors, they're able to play inside, they're able to
(04:16):
play outside. You know, you're talking about seven foot five
guys spacing the floor and stretching the floor here and
knocking down three pointers. So this, this game of positionless
basketball allows you to basically, you know, put the best
players that you have on the floor from the offensive end.
But I think also too, it's about, you know, the
commitment to defense, and that's what we're hearing about here
early in training camp, I think, is you know, building
(04:39):
a defensive identity, because I think that really is where
everything starts for the Spurs this year. It's building that
defensive identity and then that momentum from the defensive end
translating to the offensive end. And a lot of that's
going to come from not only the versatility that you're
talking about, but also the depth as well, top to
bottom on the roster. So yeah, again there's there's a
(05:00):
lot of factors that are going into play here. But
you know, I think again you you're you're going into
training camp, you know, really with with a lot of options,
a lot of flexibility, and I think if you're Mitch Johnson,
these are these are all great problems to have.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
If you look at analytics, and the analytics says that
it's a three point shooting contest most nights, especially in
the regular season, I think maybe a little bit less
of that as you get deeper in the playoffs. Where
does the Spurs three point shooting come from? Because obviously
Fox is an underrated shooter at point guard. We don't
know that much about Harper yet as far as how
(05:34):
he'll transition to the NBA distance. And I think uh
and I think uh Castle got better as the season
went along. Where do you envision the three point threat
coming from?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, I think that's it's a good question. I think,
you know, the two areas that probably, you know, we're
maybe top of mind for the Spurs at the end
of last season was you know, rim protection when Wenby
was off the floor and perimeter shooting, and so they
did a couple of areas where they did address that. Obviously,
you know, I think we you know, made the juries
a little bit out on Daron Fox talk about him
(06:07):
as an underrated three point shooter five games, so it
was really hard to get a sample size where he
was going to fit. You know, Julian Champenni's coming off
a career three point shooting season. Devin Bassell, you know,
a little bit more consistent last year because he was
able to stay on the floor a lot more. And
then a couple of guys who I think they pick
up in free agency too. Lindy Waters, the third, who
(06:29):
was a pretty good three point shooter when he was
in Oklahoma City and then specifically more last year kind
of became a three point specialist when he was in
Golden State and Detroit. And then Kelly olynnok you know,
veteran big who can stretch and space the floor and
has been a good three point shooter in his career.
And then of course that even doesn't even get to Victor,
who again, he might be still the best three point
(06:50):
shooter on the team when all is said and done,
which again that's not something we say about our seven
for are very often. But Keith maybe the best three
point shooter of.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, and I see, you know, Wimby when he first
got here talked about one of his idols growing up
was Kevin Durant, and Durant was really good at you know,
the three and sometimes taking a step inside the three
point line and drilling it. We know Wimby can play
with us back to the basket if he needs to,
and his defense, so I'm not sure there's anything that
he can't do.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Well, yeah, I mean he's an alien. And then it's
the best way to describe him. And you know, talking
to the players from last season who were here, who've
seen him in runs so far in the summer and
up to this point, and then talking to the new
guys like Lindy Waters today, you know who's been you know,
here the last two three weeks in open gym. He's
(07:42):
saying that I've never seen anything like him. And now
you're comparing, you know, what Victor's accolades are to two
guys that Lindy's played with, and Steph Curry and Shay
Gilgess Alexander, So I mean, obviously pretty high compliment. And yeah,
I think you know, when you talk about Victor's skill set,
it's just it's off the charts. And I think his
ability to impact the game from pretty much anywhere on
(08:03):
the floor, on both ends of the floor is what
makes him just a special player to watch. And I
think we're all pretty prime to see what he can
do this year.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Have you practiced any Mandarin? Getting ready for the game
with the Chinese team on Monday?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So good news actually is we've got a roster today.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Oh good, that's a step, that's step.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
And the interesting thing about the Chinese team is that
they're actually bringing a mix of some some of their
local players from last year, but also some international calling
him international, but I mean they're basically ex NBA players
who are i think looking to gain a little bit
of exposure here because whether they're going to play in
the Chinese League or whether they're going to play elsewhere overseas.
(08:46):
But this roster is actually going to feature Victor Oladipo,
Frank Kaminski, former Oklahoma City guard, Deontay Burton, Justin Holliday
was just in Denver a couple of years ago. So
there's some NBA players, older NBA players that are on
this team in addition to the younger Chinese players that
are coming over from the programs. So, uh, there are
(09:08):
gonna be some familiar faces that you're gonna recognize when
you come out to the Frostbank Center on Monday Night.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
All Right, Dan enjoyed the opening night in the preseason
and then opening night with Dallas in about three weeks.
Looking forward to hearing you and uh we'll talk again soon.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Thanks Andy, Good talking to you, all right.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Dan White's the new voice of the Spurs. The Monday
Night against gang Zhu Long Lions. Oh how's that Guang
Joe Longoe Long Lions.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, look, Joe got to get the Joe in there.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
I was pretty surprising when he rattled off the first
name Victor Ola Depot.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah, well you gotta play where they're paying.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Yeah. Well, if I remember correctly, like he got hurt
in his Miami days, and I don't. I just don't
think he was able to kind of recover. But uh, hey,
you know he knows he knows how to say Ola Depot.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I mean.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
The one thing about Dan Wise or is all I
like to call him Dan Wise? He is very good
at pronunciation.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Well, he spent a lot of time calling hockey and
they've got some uh some central European names.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
You got to learn too.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I'm surprised you didn't. You know, you didn't throw a
little well, I was going to say a little shade.
As I look at the TV.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
We have an update in the Yes now too too,
What does Boston do?
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Uh? It was a just looks like an RBI no
home runs. I don't see who got it.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
It's uh the TV that's on here is kind of
around a corner, so I can't see it too.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Well, oh too too and what a thing is it? Uh?
It is the bottom of the third part.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Trevor's story has a U two RBI, so I'm assuming
he got the hit.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
All right to two in the third. We'll keep you
up to date on that.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
We've got some football stuff to get to and Becky
does it again. We'll talk about her coming up in
the six o'clock hour and the w NBA news. It's
been all over the place that's coming up on the
ticket
We are waiting for a phone call coming from Dan
Weiss here shortly, and when we get connected with him,
we'll talk some Spurs basketball. So we'll talk some Spurs
basketball anyway before that happens. I think that depending on
who you ask, there are those who think the Spurs
are going to be at least ten games better than
(00:26):
they were last year, and that tends to be what
the boys in the desert are. All Right, we got Dan,
so let's just switch gears and go to Dan. Dan,
thanks for joining us, Welcome to the show. How excited
are you for your first NBA season, which, as far
as I'm concerned, starts Monday night when the Spurs take
on the team from China.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah, No, definitely very excited. It's amazing, how you know,
kind of quickly it just comes up, and you know,
you jump into media day, you jump into the first
couple of days of training camp, you turn around and
you got the scrimmage for thes on Saturday, and then
here we go Monday night and you're you're you're starting
off at your five game preseason plate. So it's it's
(01:07):
coming quick, coming quick for the players, coming quick for myself.
But a lot of optimism here as we're going into
into the season.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
The Boys of the Desert think the Spurs are about
ten to twelve games better, depending on what prognostication you
look at. I think they're better than that if they
can play together and stay healthy. This all is predicated
by the core ten or twelve guys staying healthy the
whole season. What are your thoughts about what is a
good season for the Spurs or an expectation for them?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Well, I think let's start. You know, they were twelve
games better than last year, and that was you know,
dealing with Victor being out after the All Star breaking
miss in the final thirty games of the season, and
so there was you know, significant progress in itself if
we're just looking at the benchmark of of you know,
a twelve win improvement from a year ago. But I mean,
I think you know the expectation, and you know, Mitch
(01:59):
laid it out think pretty succinctly as well as some
of the other players at media days, that they they
expect to take another step. They expect, you know, to
be competitive, they expect to be in every game and
and they expect to you know, be you know, be
playing for something significant here as we get into the
second half of the season, and I think, you know,
that's basically, uh, you know what what the expectation probably
(02:22):
should be within you know, the circle of the team,
and you know, nothing can be guaranteed because you can't
force thee injuries, you can't foresee what happens around you know,
the the rest of the league and the rest of
the conference. But you know, bear in mind you've got
a very very very tough Western conference that didn't really
(02:43):
experience tremendous change in terms of personnel, you know, moving
from one place to another, you know, aside from Kevin
Durant moving to the Rockets. So it's it's still a
stacked conference. But I think, uh, you know, I think
the Spurs are expect to take another step and so
I think they're expected to be probably playing significant games
(03:06):
as you get into March and April.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I think the one thing that's exciting is the flexibility
that coaches are gonna have with who's on the floor,
and especially when you look at the guards Deer and
Fox when he's ready and healthy, the starting point guard
Castle and Vassell and Harper Vessel maybe not play point,
but the other two certainly can, and they can all
(03:27):
kind of play together, and you don't necessarily have to
have what you would call a true point guard. You
can get the ball up the four with whoever gets it,
get into offense early, and the other guy that's gonna
assume the other role or the other wing player the
other wing spots, and then you bring Kelden Johnson off
the bench probably and you've got, you know, a good
scoring opportunity. So with those five guys alone, even before
(03:49):
we talk about Wimby, you've got so much versatility in
the backcourt positionless basketball.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Fin that's the area that we're in right now, Andy,
And I mean, you know, you go back, you know,
fifteen twenty years ago, when everybody was slated as a
point guard, shooting guard, small forward. I feel like we're
kind of past those labels now. I mean, you've got
five guys out on the floor and you're maximizing everybody's
skill set. Whether to your point, they're all ball handlers,
they're distributors, they're able to play inside, they're able to
(04:16):
play outside. You know, you're talking about seven foot five
guys spacing the floor and stretching the floor here and
knocking down three pointers. So this, this game of positionless
basketball allows you to basically, you know, put the best
players that you have on the floor from the offensive end.
But I think also too, it's about, you know, the
commitment to defense, and that's what we're hearing about here
early in training camp, I think, is you know, building
(04:39):
a defensive identity, because I think that really is where
everything starts for the Spurs this year. It's building that
defensive identity and then that momentum from the defensive end
translating to the offensive end. And a lot of that's
going to come from not only the versatility that you're
talking about, but also the depth as well, top to
bottom on the roster. So yeah, again there's there's a
(05:00):
lot of factors that are going into play here. But
you know, I think again you you're you're going into
training camp, you know, really with with a lot of options,
a lot of flexibility, and I think if you're Mitch Johnson,
these are these are all great problems to have.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
If you look at analytics, and the analytics says that
it's a three point shooting contest most nights, especially in
the regular season, I think maybe a little bit less
of that as you get deeper in the playoffs. Where
does the Spurs three point shooting come from? Because obviously
Fox is an underrated shooter at point guard. We don't
know that much about Harper yet as far as how
(05:34):
he'll transition to the NBA distance. And I think uh
and I think uh Castle got better as the season
went along. Where do you envision the three point threat
coming from?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, I think that's it's a good question. I think,
you know, the two areas that probably, you know, we're
maybe top of mind for the Spurs at the end
of last season was you know, rim protection when Wenby
was off the floor and perimeter shooting, and so they
did a couple of areas where they did address that. Obviously,
you know, I think we you know, made the juries
a little bit out on Daron Fox talk about him
(06:07):
as an underrated three point shooter five games, so it
was really hard to get a sample size where he
was going to fit. You know, Julian Champenni's coming off
a career three point shooting season. Devin Bassell, you know,
a little bit more consistent last year because he was
able to stay on the floor a lot more. And
then a couple of guys who I think they pick
up in free agency too. Lindy Waters, the third, who
(06:29):
was a pretty good three point shooter when he was
in Oklahoma City and then specifically more last year kind
of became a three point specialist when he was in
Golden State and Detroit. And then Kelly olynnok you know,
veteran big who can stretch and space the floor and
has been a good three point shooter in his career.
And then of course that even doesn't even get to Victor,
who again, he might be still the best three point
(06:50):
shooter on the team when all is said and done,
which again that's not something we say about our seven
for are very often. But Keith maybe the best three
point shooter of.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, and I see, you know, Wimby when he first
got here talked about one of his idols growing up
was Kevin Durant, and Durant was really good at you know,
the three and sometimes taking a step inside the three
point line and drilling it. We know Wimby can play
with us back to the basket if he needs to,
and his defense, so I'm not sure there's anything that
he can't do.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Well, yeah, I mean he's an alien. And then it's
the best way to describe him. And you know, talking
to the players from last season who were here, who've
seen him in runs so far in the summer and
up to this point, and then talking to the new
guys like Lindy Waters today, you know who's been you know,
here the last two three weeks in open gym. He's
(07:42):
saying that I've never seen anything like him. And now
you're comparing, you know, what Victor's accolades are to two
guys that Lindy's played with, and Steph Curry and Shay
Gilgess Alexander, So I mean, obviously pretty high compliment. And yeah,
I think you know, when you talk about Victor's skill set,
it's just it's off the charts. And I think his
ability to impact the game from pretty much anywhere on
(08:03):
the floor, on both ends of the floor is what
makes him just a special player to watch. And I
think we're all pretty prime to see what he can
do this year.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Have you practiced any Mandarin? Getting ready for the game
with the Chinese team on Monday?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So good news actually is we've got a roster today.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Oh good, that's a step, that's step.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
And the interesting thing about the Chinese team is that
they're actually bringing a mix of some some of their
local players from last year, but also some international calling
him international, but I mean they're basically ex NBA players
who are i think looking to gain a little bit
of exposure here because whether they're going to play in
the Chinese League or whether they're going to play elsewhere overseas.
(08:46):
But this roster is actually going to feature Victor Oladipo,
Frank Kaminski, former Oklahoma City guard, Deontay Burton, Justin Holliday
was just in Denver a couple of years ago. So
there's some NBA players, older NBA players that are on
this team in addition to the younger Chinese players that
are coming over from the programs. So, uh, there are
(09:08):
gonna be some familiar faces that you're gonna recognize when
you come out to the Frostbank Center on Monday Night.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
All Right, Dan enjoyed the opening night in the preseason
and then opening night with Dallas in about three weeks.
Looking forward to hearing you and uh we'll talk again soon.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Thanks Andy, Good talking to you, all right.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Dan White's the new voice of the Spurs. The Monday
Night against gang Zhu Long Lions. Oh how's that Guang
Joe Longoe Long Lions.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, look, Joe got to get the Joe in there.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
I was pretty surprising when he rattled off the first
name Victor Ola Depot.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah, well you gotta play where they're paying.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Yeah. Well, if I remember correctly, like he got hurt
in his Miami days, and I don't. I just don't
think he was able to kind of recover. But uh, hey,
you know he knows he knows how to say Ola Depot.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I mean.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
The one thing about Dan Wise or is all I
like to call him Dan Wise? He is very good
at pronunciation.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Well, he spent a lot of time calling hockey and
they've got some uh some central European names.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
You got to learn too.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I'm surprised you didn't. You know, you didn't throw a
little well, I was going to say a little shade.
As I look at the TV.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
We have an update in the Yes now too too,
What does Boston do?
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Uh? It was a just looks like an RBI no
home runs. I don't see who got it.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
It's uh the TV that's on here is kind of
around a corner, so I can't see it too.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Well, oh too too and what a thing is it? Uh?
It is the bottom of the third part.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Trevor's story has a U two RBI, so I'm assuming
he got the hit.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
All right to two in the third. We'll keep you
up to date on that.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
We've got some football stuff to get to and Becky
does it again. We'll talk about her coming up in
the six o'clock hour and the w NBA news. It's
been all over the place that's coming up on the
ticket
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.