Spurs Starting Five Isn’t What You Think
The Spurs’ starting five is deeper, bolder, and not what you expect.
The San Antonio Spurs are heading into the new NBA season with a surprising projected starting five. Victor Wembanyama enters year three, joined by new teammates like De’Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper, and Carter Bryant, making this roster deeper than ever. Let’s break down the logic behind Mitch Johnson’s choices and what it means for the Spurs’ playoff hopes.
11 Comments
1- Castle 2- Fox 3- Jones- Garcia 4- Wemby 5- Kornet SUB : Lindy Waters (1) Harper (1 or 2) Champany (2 or 3) Carter Bryant (3) Barnes (3 or 4) Kelly Olynyk (4 or 5)
What seed dp you think the spurs will finish this year?
And my starting 5 is
1. Fox
2. Castle
3. Vaselle
4. Barnes
5. Wemby
OK, if we start Olynyk:
1 – Fox
2 – Vassell
3 – Castle
4 – Olynyk
5 – Wembanyama
We’re gonna have the strongest bench in the league, with rookies Harper and Bryant, and Champagnie, Johnson, Barnes, Sochan, and Kornet,
Fox Vassell Barnes Sochan Wemby, with Castle as the first guard off the bench (I'm assuming Harper will miss some games to start the season)
We need to stop thinking we "MIght" make the playoffs… SPURS KNOW ITS TIME TO INVADE… It's not time to experiment anymore. They will know their role & spots and come at teams
in waves not letting them rest on offense or Defense…. The Starting five in my opinion… First unit Fox Vassell Barnes Sochan Wemby… Second unit Harper Castle Keldon KO Kornet… Third Unit DJG Waters III Champagnie Bryant and Potter… nobody will care about minutes when they are WINNING…. Let's Goooooo…huge fan here.. alien in the mask👽
Oh , and if a team does try to have a long scoring run in the Game ….Call Timeout and use this lineup … "Coach yelling if they Score another Basket you ain't playing Next Game …. Only- Defense lineup Castle Sochan Wemby Olynyk Kornet….Mitch screaming they ShallNot Score…… Go Spurs Go
I am a fan but also a realistic guy :
1) I won't believe in the Sochan and Castle's improvements in catch&shoot before to see them in real on the court. 30% in catch&shoot last season for both of them is catastrophic (90 points per 100 possessions !! you can forget a positive NetRating…).
If Castle is starting, Sochan cannot start and if Sochan is starting, Castle cannot start. Two non-shooters on the court => welcome to the losses.
2) I doubt that the Spurs will rush the come back of Harper and he could miss the october's games. A primary ball handler needs to lead the second unit. Will it be McLaughlin ??
Castle needs then lead the second unit as the primary ball handler. He will also be able to keep the rim pressure as with Fox, he should lead the Spurs this season for the number of drives.
3) Barnes is not a great rebounder at all. Wemby is not a great rebounder either (he didn't box-out on the defensive rebounds and only count on his lenght to catch them; he is one of the worst offensive rebounder for a center of the NBA). Just stop making Barnes playing in the frontcourt. He is a wing player (he should be more in the corners than in the paint).
The Spurs added two bigs in the roster and we should use them.
4) Castle and Barnes are by far our best catch&shooters. If we want some spacing to help Fox and Wemby to drive to the rim, they need to be on the court at the perimeter. Their defenders won't be able to roam towards the paint to block the access to the paint or they will be sanctioned by opened 3s.
Based on these assumptions, my natural starting lineup beginning of the season (and only beginning because it mainly depends on the evolution of the catch&shoot of Harper, Castle and Sochan and if they will be considered as non-shooters or not by opposite defenses) is : Fox – Vassell – Barnes – Olynyk – Wemby.
This lineup is not the best defensive one but it brings the best spacing to our two allstars (Vassell, Barnes and Olynyk are all over 40% in catch&shoot). As soon as Wemby is on the court, the defensive rating shouldn't be too bad but the offensive rating could be one of the best in the league. The NetRating should then be very positive for this lineup.
Thanks to Olynyk and its rebounding skills, we shouldn't lose the battle of possessions.
And if the Spurs are playing against a team using a double big lineups, we still can put Wemby as PF and Kornet as C to limit the offensive rebounds of the other team.
The second unit (beginning of the season) could be : Castle – Johnson (quickly replaced by Harper) – Champagnie (or Bryant) – Sochan – Kornet.
The spacing is horrible with this lineup but can be btw created by a lot of movement and by cuts to the rim. But the main interest for this lineup is that it should be defensively performant.
The NetRating of this second unit shouldn't be too negative. We shouldn't then undergo big runs (-15/-20) like last season.
1st five fox,castle,barnes,kornet,wemby 2nd five vassel,jones,champagnie,sochan,olynik 3rd five carter,potter,waters,minix,kj,(harper ifallowed to play)
🦊, Dev, HB, 🟢, 👽 + 🏰 as 6th man (go get that hardware AND can sub for 1-3)
(🏰 sub for Dev then Dev comes in sub for HB, then HB comes in sub for Sochan… 🤔 been thinking 🏰 is the 6th man and should be in the trophy convo by seasons end… Harper a 'red shirt rook' til after Feb)
Wemby/barnes/julian/vassel/fox .. should be the ideal starting 5
Wemby, Olynyk, Barnes, Castle, Fox. I like Vassell w/2nd unit and Harper. Olynyk doesnt need big minutes (18-20pg) but would be a nice stable option at the 4/5 that could space the floor w/high ball IQ. I see Coach Mitch experimenting with lineup based up match ups. Will be very interesting to see what this new coaching staff brings to the team. Im really excited for that! PATFO gave Mitch full control with coaching staff hires. Really intrigued with the lead assistant Sean Sweeny and what he brings. Vics lead trainer joined the staff, Corless Williamson/Rashad Lewis.