The Spurs are no longer in the running for the playoffs, nor for the “play-in”, for a few weeks, with only 19 victories in 74 matches. This comes as no surprise since the five-title franchise has been in a rebuilding phase for two years, and the goal is to lay the foundations for a new cycle, perhaps with Victor Wembanyama or Scott Henderson if luck smiles on them in may.
“I knew we were going to live a few seasons of defeats” confess Gregg Popovich In The Athleticwho remembers that he had already found himself with young people under his thumb. “But the prospect of having three or four 19-year-olds, coming out of a college year or something, was motivating in a different way. It was Timmy (Duncan), Manu (Ginobili), Bruce Bowen, Tony (Parker), and it was all fun. Winning is more fun than losing. But that was just an adjustment every year. Manage this, manage that, the playoffs were coming, and we were doing what we had to do. And we have had success. It’s a totally different situation, where you can really see the players progress. »
Gregg Popovich didn’t need to train Tim Duncan
But for two years, no Tim Duncan or Tony Parker in the players arrived at Spurs, and we must focus on the development of young people, while waiting for the rare pearl, the “franchise player”.
“I had nothing to do with Tim Duncan becoming Tim Duncan. He was already a finished product when he arrived here, after four years at Wake Forest. Manu was already European champion. Tony was 19, but he had played with adults before, for two or three years, something like that. he remembers. “Watching these guys develop (now), just moving around without the ball, simple things: ‘Why did you go behind the back of the defence?’… ‘No, you have to sprint back, you can’t just run on the defensive retreat’. Things that may seem silly. »
“Stupid”, but they have to be repeated over and over again because some have only played one year in the NCAA, and others have only known defeat since their arrival in the NBA. But Gregg Popovich loves this job.
“To see them gain discipline, gain a competitiveness they thought they had but didn’t have in college, understand collective concepts, and how it all fits together. Watching this all develop is really exciting” he assures. “That said, there are evenings when you say to yourself: ‘What am I doing here?’ Honestly, there are nights when you think, ‘What am I doing here?’ But the next day in training, the guys are fired up, ready to train. They get high every night. We beat some good teams, and we also lost by 25 points. Overall, I wouldn’t trade (this season). »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Keldon Johnson | 61 | 32.8 | 45.3 | 33.2 | 74.8 | 0.9 | 4.2 | 5.1 | 2.9 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 22.0 |
| Devin Vasell | 37 | 31.2 | 44.1 | 39.1 | 78.0 | 0.2 | 3.6 | 3.9 | 3.6 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 18.8 |
| Devonte Graham | 15 | 27.5 | 39.5 | 37.4 | 77.2 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 2.6 | 4.5 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 14.8 |
| Tre Jones | 60 | 29.2 | 44.4 | 26.1 | 87.0 | 0.8 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 6.4 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 12.5 |
| Jakob Poeltl | 46 | 26.1 | 61.6 | 0.0 | 60.5 | 3.3 | 5.7 | 9.0 | 3.1 | 2.1 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 2.6 | 12.1 |
| Josh Richardson | 42 | 23.8 | 43.6 | 35.7 | 88.3 | 0.7 | 2.1 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 11.5 |
| Zach Collins | 59 | 22.5 | 52.1 | 38.2 | 76.5 | 1.8 | 4.4 | 6.3 | 2.8 | 2.0 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 3.2 | 11.2 |
| Jeremy Sochan | 56 | 26.0 | 45.3 | 24.6 | 69.8 | 1.7 | 3.6 | 5.3 | 2.5 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 11.0 |
| Doug Mcdermott | 61 | 20.6 | 46.2 | 42.3 | 72.9 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 10.1 |
| Malaki Branham | 58 | 23.1 | 43.5 | 30.2 | 81.5 | 0.5 | 2.2 | 2.7 | 2.0 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 9.4 |
| Sandro Mamukelashvili | 11 | 21.8 | 42.5 | 34.2 | 70.0 | 2.5 | 3.7 | 6.2 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 9.2 |
| Keita Bates-diop | 59 | 21.1 | 50.8 | 39.8 | 78.2 | 1.0 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 8.9 |
| Julian Champagnie | 7 | 15.9 | 48.8 | 41.4 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 2.7 | 3.0 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 1.6 | 7.6 |
| Romeo Langford | 37 | 20.2 | 47.8 | 26.9 | 68.1 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 2.8 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 7.2 |
| Joshua Primo | 4 | 23.3 | 34.6 | 25.0 | 77.8 | 0.5 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 4.5 | 2.8 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 7.0 |
| Stanley Johnson | 30 | 15.6 | 53.3 | 45.0 | 66.7 | 0.7 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 5.8 |
| Charles Bassey | 35 | 14.5 | 64.4 | 37.5 | 59.5 | 2.1 | 3.4 | 5.5 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 2.1 | 5.7 |
| Blake Wesley | 29 | 17.2 | 31.5 | 38.1 | 60.0 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 1.7 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.9 | 4.9 |
| Isaiah Roby | 42 | 11.3 | 43.2 | 30.0 | 48.8 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 4.1 |
| Gorgui Dieng | 26 | 10.4 | 36.9 | 25.5 | 75.0 | 0.9 | 1.9 | 2.8 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 3.2 |
| Jordan Hall | 9 | 9.1 | 32.1 | 20.0 | 77.8 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 3.1 |
| Dominick Barlow | 20 | 12.5 | 49.0 | 0.0 | 66.7 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 3.0 |
| Alize Johnson | 4 | 7.4 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 1.8 |
