Spurs MUST Fix This!
The Spurs are hurting themselves. Bad three-point shooting, awful three-point defense, and too many turnovers are killing momentum and costing them wins. If San Antonio wants to take the next step, these issues HAVE to be fixed. Let’s break down what’s going wrong and how the Spurs can turn it around.
#spurs #sanantoniospurs #wemby
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TSR Sports is a YouTube Channel that covers the San Antonio Spurs live as well as the latest news, trades and rumors. TSR features all our favorite Spurs: Victor Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Carter Bryant, Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan and Luke Kornet! GO SPURS GO!
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46 Comments
Spurs fans what do you think needs to be fixed to take the next step this year? The losses suck but our Spurs are still having a great season. Thanks for watching and GO SPURS GO!
Knicks will beat spurs….we got no chance
Go Spurs Go!
Need consistency from Barnes vessel and champagne and get KJ involved more in the game.
It comes with the territory of having a really young team, gonna be some ebbs and flows. As the players start developing more consistency should see fewer losses like the jazz and cavs. I think it will come with time, but it’s on the players to keep developing that consistency night in and night out.
Love Castle but he has some terrible turnovers – But I understand he is going through some growing pains – Outside shooting from Barnes, Vassell, and Chapagnie, have been terrible in last two losses they gotta do better.
as it right now who's the best shooter out there including in the 3 point line because there some guys from the bench our struggling ,not sure who's in trade talks that's good in shooting our has a high percentage in getting buckets.
3:30 wasn't that first Cavs game the one where both Wemby and Kornet were out? And they had 80 paint points?
Dont worry about castle. Remember how pop use to go nuts about ginobli? He'll be fine.. time for mitch to enforce his law
Rather than calling it "Perimeter defense" you should maybe call it "3p defense". I feel like the focus of the coaching staff on defense for "Perimeter defense" is to lay the foundation of making it hard to get paint touches. When a team is shooting well above average from 3, there's probably very little you can do anyways. Obviously you can't just give another team completely uncontested 3s, but I think you'd rather force them to take 3s and tip your cap when they beat you that way, rather than giving up layups.
It's crazy how 7 of the 9 Spurs losses has come when they had a double digit lead in those games. I think some of it has to fall on Mitch as well. Sometimes he puts in a lineup that doesn't makes sense to allow teams to get back in the game. Spurs more definitely has to sure up that PF position. I like Barnes but he's not big or physical enough in that position. Right now they're a more finesse team than a physical team so their opponents going to out muscle them. The way teams knocking Vic to the floor they also needs an enforcer to retaliate for Vic.
Pray we beat the Knicks weds
It’s not the players it’s coaching zero adjustments on offense or defense you can’t put not run drop coverage all game long and you can’t do college dribble handoffs all game long against every single team. You gotta put the ball and your best players hands to tell him to take it home
I watch the Houston cougars as I’m an alumnus. It’s so different watching the spurs. Houston plays hard defense and doesn’t give the ball up without an amazing effort. Meanwhile the spurs chuck up threes and the other 4 players run off before it lands. No chance for rebounds, makes me sick sometimes.
turnovers killed us big time yesterday! Three point shooting is mid pack! but it is starting to get it right in most things!
I wouldn't worry about it. Cleveland have two elite defensive bigs , and our guards can't have a field day in the paint. As far as three point shooting, we already knew ours would be mid at best, and the defensive scheme will unfortunately allow more threes than usual. The real defensive problem is vassell getting blown by 90% of the time. This constantly put wemby out of ideal position.
For me it's the turn vers as well.. but I think it's lack of creativity on Mitch Johnsons part.. he doesn't adjust ..just keeps running the same plays! Here's where I miss Pop.
spurs are super young and not a lot of chemistry yet. the turn overs with bottom out with seasoning and chemistry
Mitch taking Wemby out 2 minutes into the 4th quarter and not bringing him back until we are down double digits with 5 minutes to go also was quite stupid.
I was told we’d win every game for the rest of the season! Fire everyone! Move the team to Mexico City!
As much as I hate to say, its Mitch and coaching staffs' fault, it kind of is largely. Yes. They arent playing on the court literally but some of the decisions Mitch and Co make are really head scratching. Prime example of taking Wemby out when he gets hot then replacing him wuth vets that are struggling just because he needs to finish with certain guys. (Mainly Barnes and Champangne). One common factor we see when we lose is players just jacking up 3s when we have one of the better slashers in Fox, Harper and Castle. Mitch does not stop that but just watches from far. Definitely having a rookie coach plays a big role for those losses.
YES & NO: The 3pt shooting% is often horrible (22.6% last night). And the turnovers have come roaring back, repeatedly. BUT, the 3pt-defence actually has been improving: they no long struggle trying to follow shooters over the screen; instead, they switch quickly (before open shots), and are least beginning to close quickly on kickouts (better anyway). Not saying they're great at defending the 3pt shot yet, but there is real progress on that dimension. Final Note: Loved the lineups Mitch threw in last night — the new roster combinations are getting interesting, and could be crucial come playoffs.
Good message, Rich. Keep that perspective. We need to stay grounded in the real world. We had that little streak where we allowed ourselves to ponder whether we are actually championship caliber now. Now we got our heads out of the clouds and see clearly.
Turnovers, 3pt shooting and perimeter defense are obviously been a problem but man we're also getting outrebounded like crazy
I agree with you rich 100%
I see the bright side here. We stopped losing by 13 and lost by 12. This is progress! We are getting there!
This is why the Sochan-haters are dumb. I'm not saying he's the best option. But watching our guards clank 3-pt attempts and turn the ball over in the paint, really makes you wish Mitch would say 'It's not your night.' The one person I eat crow is Keldon. He was great in that Jazz loss. He should have played more though.
Definitely think devin should go to bench and HB need the best players on team to play more especially julian playing killer defense 💯I would start fox castle julian jeremy and wemby next game 💯 think devin plays better off the bench and HB just need to be sniper off bench cause his defense trash 🗑 most times also gives dylan alot talent to play around dylan devin kj HB and kornet 💯better bench
Like i said rebounding and 3pt shooting , bobby portis has that and he is a champion as well so there is an experience factor too , package jeremy plus picks we can get em , with myles turner there is minutes is down , another thing we should force julian champagnie to level up, a bruce bowen crash course will help him improve , he is the missing link , on our perimeter , i hope he realize that , and he should be a triple threat not just 3pts shooting , which he is so inconsistent , he should take advise from vassell and KJ
…we lost cause we couldn't score…vasell fox barnes julian and castle didn't hit there scoring averagesi think we should trade for trey Murphy…sochan barnes and Jordan McLaughlin and the hawks 2026 swapand a future first plau two second round picks it should do it the hawks have the pelicans first round pick this year…so im sure they want a pick… it's a win win for us and the pelicans…they get 2 first 2 second round picks a young player and expiring contract in barnes we get trey Murphy and he's only 25 years old
Either start kornet alongside wemby or get a proper pf. Preferably a 7 ft pf. Move Barnes at the 3. We're not using sochan so dump him and let's get a pf that plays like kj if kj was 7ft
The spurs are a championship caliber team, that doesn’t mean they don’t have weaknesses . Pretty much every winning team in NBA history has had weaknesses. Back in the big 3 era, the spurs weaknesses were athleticism, turnovers and free throw shooting . In 2003, the spurs lost games where they were up 20 points in the fourth quarter . It happened multiple times, even in the playoffs . It’s an 82 game season, the spurs are just in a slump. But what’s going to really matter is that they address the problems and get better as a team . Commit to staying on their assignments defensively and stop ball watching so much.
Barnes, Vaselle and Champagnie get it together and we win easily. or stop shooting so many 3s if its not falling lol
Fair enough. However, if you examine all NBA team's game statistics, I'll bet that similar results will turn up in their losses. I'm interested in the number of free throws by both teams, too.
Yes we need an enforcer but all these people saying we need rebounds we out rebound most of the teams we play and we're like 5th and defense and fifth and offense I don't know what the f*** y'all are talking about. I agree with one thing that everybody is saying yeah we need somebody that's an enforcer like a Jimmy Butler or somebody that's not afraid to not get somebody out you know what I'm saying but all that other s*** you guys are just talking about your ass
Concerns or issues are still the same: turnovers, rebounds, not guarding perimeters, rushed shots, too much bricking 3’s…. Despite those issues we are doing great. And i do hope they start cleaning up their plays. Go spurs go!
They are a great inside team on offense, yet they continue to shoot 3's as if they were al Steph Curry. Stay inside, get the other team in foul trouble, make more shots, score more points … no downside. Quit shooting so many 3's, it's ridiculous.
As I saw some very silly comments, I would like to explain the Spurs defensive system put in place by Sweeney (the Mavs' system when they reached the NBA finals two years ago with Gafford or Lively in the role of the low man).
The central piece of this defense is the low man (Wemby or Kornet) who should stay near the paint to defend the rim. This player is put on the worst shooter (the system accepts to let this player to shoot at 3 opened : this is the drawback !!). At some moment, Wemby or Kornet will request some pre-switches (if you pay attention, we can see them asking to switch) in order for them to stay the low man in any cases (a switch shouldn't lead them to follow a player at the perimeter because a PG could finish by defending a center in the paint). All other players are switching all pick&rolls.
When finally a good shooter is left opened at the perimeter or if victor is obliged to chase a PG at the perimeter, this means that the execution of the system didn't work well.
As you can imagine, this defensive system is not very easy to run, especially for very young players (Wemby, Castle, Harper, Champagnie, Bryant, Sochan,…)…
The main advantage of this system is that Wemby and Kornet are optimized as they should, 100% of their defensive playing time, defend the access to the rim. This is definitely working well as the Wemby defensive rating this season is much lower than last season.
The main drawback of this system is that, if the execution is not perfect, this will lead to let a good shooter totally opened at 3. If the execution is perfect, this should always be the worst shooter who should be let opened at 3.
Against the Jazz, the worst shooter in the starting 5 was Nurkic. This is why Wemby was staying in the paint while Nurkic was shooting at 3 totally opened. Victor is not allowed to follow him at the perimeter (for this defensive system to work).
In conclusion, thanks to this defensive system, the opposite team should finish with a bad percentage because they cannot access to the rim (they should replace these valuable shots at the rim by midrange and 3-point and of course the given FTs should be low).
If the 3-point shooting percentage of the opposite team is high, this means :
1) this team had lot of luck (in the first loss against the Suns, shooting at 58% at 3 is very rare !!) and you need to accept to lose the game. I doubt that the Spurs could have won this game !!
2) the execution wasn't very good and the opposite team managed to make the Spurs missing some switches to free the good shooters. The high 3-point shooting % is then mainly due to an execution problem of the defensive system.
Have u noticed the last 2 games Wemby started we lost n have u noticed JC plays better when he starts
Our ball handlers (Castle and Harper) are still young and you cannot blame them for too many turnovers. This is part of their learning phase.
The ball handler role is surely the most difficult role to learn (with the defensive anchor) and there are very few PGs who managed to reach the ratio Assists/Turnovers above 2.0 before their third year in NBA.
Castle is below 2.0. He almost doubled his assists but also doubled his TOs. Next year, he should have the same number of assists but a lower number of TOs.
Harper is just amazing as he is already above 2.0 in his rookie season (this is just amazing and why he should become a very impressive ball handler !!!).
And in some nights, because Castle and Harper are young, they will have lots of TOs (btw Victor is still having very very bad nights for TOs also !!!) and the Spurs will have 20 TOs. We just need to accept it and this will then be very difficult to win those games.
Next season, the number of these nights (with high TOs) will definitely decrease because these three players will have all one year of experience more in the league.
For the 3-point shooting, this is almost the same : Wemby, Castle and Harper are all still bad 3-point shooters. This summer, they will all work with shooting specialists. The shooting skill is the easiest skill to acquire in basketball as it mainly required to learn making the right move and to replicate it thousands and thousands times to make your body to remember (even in stress moments).
Of course they won't become Curry but they can all become decent 3-point shooters. I have no doubt… we just need to be patient. (the case of Sochan is different as he never acquired a good shooting mechanic !!!).
For example, Aaron Gordon, with a basketball court at home, has trained a lot his shooting skills every summer. He started his first season at 27% and his last two seasons were above 43% (3/4 attempts per game).
And finally I would like to add that our 3&Ds (Vassell, Barnes, Champagnie and Keldon) all lack of consistancy.
Even if Barnes, Vassell, Keldon and Fox are all above 38% at 3, there are games where all of them are just missing all shots (even the opened and totally opened ones). And this should be very difficult to explain by the coaching staff…
And we all know that if you don't manage to shoot at 3 efficiently, the defenders will start to roam more and more towards the paint to block any drive to the rim.
This is exactly what happens in both Q4 against the Jazz and the Cavs : we didn't manage to make a 3-point shot and the opposite defense started to collapse towards their rim. This was then totally impossible for Castle, Harper and Fox to drive to the rim as too many defenders were in the paint ('no need to defend the 3-point anymore… they are missing all shots !!!") and we even had several TOs (because surrounded by several defenders).
Yesterday only Victor, with his size, was managing to score in the paint or to be fouled trying.
In order to continue to have access to the rim for our ball handlers, the 3-point percentage should be at least ok. "Defenders, you want to roam towards the paint, I will sanction you by sinking several 3-point shots !!!".
PS1 : The next game, our shooters could be back all together at 36 at 3 (this should be our global level based on our individual stats), and this will be very difficult for the Knicks to win against the Spurs….
PS2 : The Spurs are 16th in NBA for the 3-point percentage (average) !! And our percentage in december (even with the last two bad games) is better than the percentage in november. We don't really lack of 3-point shooters…
Losses are part of the journey, it's better to experuence these now with the new roster and rotation rather than on the first round of playoffs. GSG!
if anyone thinks we will win a playoff series much less a championship with vassell and Julian and sochan on team . yall jus don't want to accept the reality of the spurs and rather make excuses so yall can sleep at night
wemby's sorry ass should have stayed on bench. I don't care if he's generational. wins mean more.. but our spurs are back to earth. Front office wants to win the draft lottery not a title
the only YouTube channel that is in touch with reality is Awfulcoaching he gets it!!
I have two issues with that San Antonio Spurs team at this point in the season.
1. Some questionable rotations by Mitch Johnson where he really seems like he doesn't want to win the game. Like yesterday. He clearly should be playing more minutes with Wemby and Kornet. Now, Wemby's minute restriction prevents me from making any normal assessment of this team. It's not possible. Imagine evaluating the Knicks or OKC with Jalen Brunson and Shai only playing 25 minutes.
2. Castle's usage is too high. He's in the NBA's top 50. The Spurs are the only elite team that has three players in the NBA's top 50 usage. That's not a good sign. It indicates that the ball is less in Fox's hands. The Spurs just need to have Fox and Wemby in the NBA's top 50 usage. The ball has to be in Fox's hands more often. If the goal of the season is to win, of course.