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28 teams could still win the NBA Championship this year. Pop's Spurs are not one of them.

Here is the data from previous Post-Mortems:
2020-21:

2021-22:
2021-22 Post Mortem Final Summary

Team Name: San Antonio Spurs
Record at Time of Death: 16-49 (.246)
Head of Front Office: Brian Wright (2019-) (CEO: R.C. Buford 2002-)
Coach: Gregg Popovich (1996-)

Offensive Rating: 29th
Defensive Rating: 30th
Rebound %: 20th
Turnover %: 26th

Front Office: Change or keep?
Coach: Change or keep?
Relative to expectations, how did they fare this year?
Rising, falling, or treadmill?
If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason?

Notes:
Players under contract next year:
Keldon Johnson ($20m)
Doug McDermott ($14m)
Devonte' Graham ($12m)
Zach Collins ($8m) (Partially Guaranteed)
Khem Birch ($7m)
Devin Vassell ($6m)
Jeremy Sochan ($5m)
Malaki Branham ($3m)
Blake Wesley ($3m)
Charles Bassey ($3m)

Team Options:

Player Options:

Free Agents:
Romeo Langford
Keita Bates-Diop
Gorgui Dieng
Tre Jones
Sandro Mamukelashvili
Julian Champagnie
Dominick Barlow

Dead Money:
Joshua Primo ($4m)

Previous Post-Mortems:
30. Houston Rockets
29. San Antonio Spurs

Obviously, they are never going to fire Pop. He chooses when he leaves. Although it feels like we've been talking about his potential successor for at least a decade.

It's hard to see the Spurs like this. It seemed like they would keep things going strong until Kawhi Leonard wanted out. Then Murray wanted out. Now all they've got is Keldon Johnson and dreams of a Tim Duncan lottery magic redux. I said they were worse than expected this year because prior to this year, it seemed impossible for a Pop-led team to be dwelling at the bottom of the standings.

I don't think anyone could have expected the Primo situation costing them one of their recent lottery picks. That has stalled their rebuild a little. It will be interesting to see what they can do with a likely top 5 pick this year.

Spurs need to Spur and find a dominant big man. I'd love to see what Pop does with Wemby. But yea the Spurs need a PG and C and I'm sure that is their offseason objective.

Hoping Blake Wesley turns into something. Sochan might be a player too. They're prolly stuck with Keldon Johnson but he may bounce back with a more complete roster around him.

BuddyBuckets wrote:Spurs need to Spur and find a dominant big man. I'd love to see what Pop does with Wemby. But yea the Spurs need a PG and C and I'm sure that is their offseason objective.

Hoping Blake Wesley turns into something. Sochan might be a player too. They're prolly stuck with Keldon Johnson but he may bounce back with a more complete roster around him.

Wembanyama is obviously the dream draft pick but i can see a future with Scoot as well.

PG-Henderson
SG-Vassell
SF-Johnson
PF-Sochan
C-FA/Trade with a gazillion assets

(Branham and Wesley developing off the bench)

That could be a playoff team in a couple of years (depending on player progression and coaching status ofc)

And,yes,i expect Keldon to bounce back with a competent team around him,not making Westbrook like boneheaded plays on O and giving a damn on D.(All the things he's doing wrong this year)

Now if we don't land a top2 draft pick...well...yeah..we'll have this conversation again in 2025...

Gregg Popovich is the San Antonio Spurs. Why the hell would they fire him?

Adelheid wrote:Gregg Popovich is the San Antonio Spurs. Why the hell would they fire him?

They wouldn't.

You keep everything, draft a superstar, and build over the next couple years.

I like Vassell, Keldon is an ok player but not moving any needles, outside of that there’s very little talent on this roster

They did about what I expected this season. You know the Spurs have a great front office and great coach so there’s no reason to think they won’t be looking a lot better in 2-3 seasons

It's the lack of competitiveness and pride (since about the 20-30 game mark) that is embarrassing.

The record is fine for the roster and moves we made.

The last place on defense isn't.

It's also clear Johnson can't be anything more than a 3rd best player on a winning team (at best).

You can't just expect the same young guys to flip a switch and give a damn on defense if they add a top draft pick after you've allowed them to play scrimmage ball most of the season.

Whether or not teams like the Hornets, Jazz, Pacers etc are also tanking, their players turn up and try to win.

GusT15 wrote:

BuddyBuckets wrote:Spurs need to Spur and find a dominant big man. I'd love to see what Pop does with Wemby. But yea the Spurs need a PG and C and I'm sure that is their offseason objective.

Hoping Blake Wesley turns into something. Sochan might be a player too. They're prolly stuck with Keldon Johnson but he may bounce back with a more complete roster around him.

Wembanyama is obviously the dream draft pick but i can see a future with Scoot as well.

PG-Henderson
SG-Vassell
SF-Johnson
PF-Sochan
C-FA/Trade with a gazillion assets

(Branham and Wesley developing off the bench)

That could be a playoff team in a couple of years (depending on player progression and coaching status ofc)

And,yes,i expect Keldon to bounce back with a competent team around him,not making Westbrook like boneheaded plays on O and giving a damn on D.(All the things he's doing wrong this year)

Now if we don't land a top2 draft pick...well...yeah..we'll have this conversation again in 2025...

The only way the spurs are a playoff team in 2 years is if they draft Wemby/Scoot and they turn out to be LeBron level from day 1.

The spurs are so far away from even being a play in team right now it’s very hard to imagine

One of the worst products ever placed on an NBA basket all court. The lottery gods won’t favor this.

It was the plan...They are now in a realistic position to have their next true franchise player and they desperately need it....Will the lottery be in their favor in 2 months?

Fire the GM. Force the coach into retirement. Falling team.

Would suck if they ended up with Wemby. He needs to go somewhere relevant.


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Tempe wrote:Fire the GM. Force the coach into retirement. Falling team.

Would suck if they ended up with Wemby. He needs to go somewhere relevant.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

???

The spurs are one of the leagues best organizations.

They’ve developed so many good players

To get technical about it, Coach Pop is the “head of the front office” since he is also the President of Basketball Operations, in addition to being the coach. Brian Wright is the general manager.

Coach Pop will not be fired, of course, nor should he be.

Wright is not likely to be fired, and probably shouldn’t be. He does face some pressure to make sensible moves during the draft and the offseason.

The Spurs have been worse than expected, but in hindsight it’s easy to identify reasons for that, apart from a shortage of star talent.

They’ve been giving heavy minutes to rookies and newcomers. Sochan is the obvious example, but Branham, another rookie, has played in 50 games now, at more than 20 minutes per game. In the past, the Spurs mostly used their G league team in Austin to develop players and get them up to speed for the NBA. However, this season they’re using the main club for that, and it shows.

The future, I haven’t the slightest idea. It depends.

Phreak50 wrote:It's the lack of competitiveness and pride (since about the 20-30 game mark) that is embarrassing.

The record is fine for the roster and moves we made.

The last place on defense isn't.

It's also clear Johnson can't be anything more than a 3rd best player on a winning team (at best).

You can't just expect the same young guys to flip a switch and give a damn on defense if they add a top draft pick after you've allowed them to play scrimmage ball most of the season.

Whether or not teams like the Hornets, Jazz, Pacers etc are also tanking, their players turn up and try to win.

Now do your favourite son, Lonnie, who you continued to defend when presented with the fact that he had the worst net rating in his entire draft class.

It's fine to dislike or like a guy, but to do so for a similar stat is weird.

Keldon is not in a role that is either suited for him or one he will continue to have once we keep upgrading talent. Nobody's considered him a true #1 option so that's presenting and going against an argument that hasn't been made. Still, having defenses focus most on you while still being top scorer is a tall task.

Keldon was the 29th pick. Most fans would appreciate having their FO hit on a player like this late in the 1st, as we've done fairly consistently - Murray, White, SloMo, Tony...

Keldon's improved every season. And he's a poor defender which we can't hide because we are not a good defending team. That takes habits which take time and talent which we're going to address.

It also takes cohesion. Pre-deadline trade of Jakob, we've had our intended starting lineup for a whopping 18 games together: Tre, Devin, Keldon, Sochan, Jakob.

Our next most used 5-man line-up featured Jakob and JRich after Devin was out with knee surgery and recovery. That was 15 games' worth and before trading Jakob and JRich.

Along the way, guys have been in and out of the lineup with injuries and tweaks that come with bigger minutes and roles. Tre and Keldon missed some games because of that, for instance. Sochan, too. Devin. Romeo.

We don't have many good defenders but the ones we have haven't been as available as it would be necessary to have a better team impact.

Plus we readily play three rookies, all 19, and a couple of G-League call ups with Bassey and Barlow. We just picked up Mamu.

It's easy to say play harder and surely we'd win more. We do sometimes look defeated after being overwhelmed by an opponent run. It's not the same thing as not having the chops to hang with more experienced and talented rosters. Nobody plays to or tries to lose. Guys are playing for their jobs and roles. This season is also about who we continue with.

For those who say it's sad to see the Spurs 'like this', it's our first rebuild in over two decades. 'Like this' is what it looks like.

Also, we're expanding the fan base to Austin and Mexico.

Also, by the start of next season, our new $500M, multi-purpose practice complex will be ready.

If there's ever a season in which to go into a deep rebuild, get assets and cap space, *this* is it.

p.s. Edited to add, yes, of course, keep Pop and PATFO.

First year of the rebuild went about as expected. Spurs land Wemby or Scoot and we're back in business.

The nice thing for the Spurs is that Wemby or Scoot fit nicely into the Vassell/Johnson/Sochan nucleus. I think Bassey could be a solid backup 5 as well. Of the Detroit, Charlotte, Houston and San Antonio group they're easily the best environment for Wemby IMO.

The Pop thing is really interesting to me. The rumor was Quinn Snyder would wait to succeed Pop but he just took the Atlanta job. Before that, Will Hardy seemed like an heir apparent but he obviously went to Utah. That tells me Pop doesn't really know when he wants to hang it up, which is fine but a little surprising since he said for years he'd leave as soon as Duncan retired. It would be understandable if their lottery luck this year significantly influenced his decision.

Vassell and Sochan are the only two guys right now on the roster I view as keepers going forward. Keldon is a weird tweener in the sense he's too small to be a PF and too slow to be good perimeter defender. Spurs will eventually trade him. Vassell's potential is being a Middleton-Alan Houston type of player. I see a lot of Alan Houston in him. Sochan I think will be a star in the next few years. He's made amazing plays this year that are eye opening that I think very few players are capable of doing in this league. If the Spurs can get another franchise player through the draft, they will be set for a long time. Obviously, that will take a lot of luck to happen, but we'll see.

If the Spurs don't land Wembanyama or Scoot in the lottery I'm going to be disappointed. Their roster is perfectly suited for either to come in and hit the ground running. They just need a little luck to get back to their winning ways.

My Hornets on the other hand, life is pain...

Scoot or Wemby suit the Spurs. They just need one.