Misc 2025 Spurs Defense Watch Thread

[NASpurs]

Victor said on media day that defense was non-negotiable and that the coaches and the players themselves are going to hold each other accountable.

Plus it helps that Pop is gone from the sidelines.

We're back boys.

 

[scott]

Victor said on media day that defense was non-negotiable and that the coaches and the players themselves are going to hold each other accountable.

Plus it helps that Pop is gone from the sidelines.

We're back boys.

Keldon and HB hearing this like:

https://i.imgflip.com/a7lcdq.jpg

 

[TDomination]

thats what i'm talking about.
i really hope thats true and that the players are all committed to this.

get the stop, but then get the rebound. I hope rebounding is being focused on as well.

 

[Neuromancer]

So if everyone is going to hold each other accountable for bad defense, Keldon is never going to see the court

 

[Shmurs]

it’s all right there for Devin. Spend your energy and focus on D. On offense you conserve energy by being catch and shoot only. That’s all tee’d up for him. Feast on open shots and don’t turn the motor off on the other end. That’s it.

 

[scott]

Just posted some interesting stats in the Sochan thread... but... could it be that Harrison Barnes is the key to this defense?!?

 

[JMarkJohns]

Hoping this means a small role for Carter early and as he adapts to speed and size of the game, a larger role by trade deadline or as his shot allows!

 

[NASpurs]

Looking good boys

 

[LeChonAsado]

Well shit I guess they fucking meant it because hell yeah!

 

[ace3g]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1981212451590025347

 

[NASpurs]

Well shit I guess they fucking meant it because hell yeah!

Sweeney for MVP tbh

 

[NotoriousHOP]

CBS did an early ranking of defenses. Here is what they said about the Spurs.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/ranking-every-nba-teams-defense-entering-2025-26-season-thunder-clear-no-1-spurs-ready-for-huge-leap/

5. San Antonio Spurs
2024-25 defensive rating: 116.3
2024-25 defensive ranking: No. 25
It's time. Victor Wembanyama's reign as the perpetual Defensive Player of the Year should begin this season. The Spurs allowed only 110 points per 100 possessions last season with Wembanyama on the court, a figure that would have placed them above Houston as the No. 5 defense. The problems arose when he was out, but the signing of Luke Kornet, one of the most underrated per-minute defenders in basketball, should address that. Carter Bryant has a ways to go offensively, but he should be a defensive menace from the start. That has more or less been the story of Jeremy Sochan's career, and to a lesser extent Stephon Castle's, though mostly as a shooter and not an overall offensive player. The Spurs practically never fouled last season, so one source of free points was minimized. If you're a Spurs skeptic this season, it should be on offense. The defense should be very, very good.

 

[Sugus]

Whew, I was about to create a duplicate thread for this - thankful for BB's Search function working properly!

Anyways, the Spurs are currently ranked the #1 defense in the NBA:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1983006441540858027

There was a thread on ST highlighting the Spurs' woeful defense during the DeRozan and Frienship Krew years, which I unfortunately can't find now, but which had a lot of interesting and conflicting opinions as to how the Spurs would perform defensively after Wemby's arrival and then his sophomore season. Many posters even downplayed Wemby's defensive impact - because of course, how can a defender be so good if the team defense is so bad!? - and declared the Spurs to be doomed to bad defense forever.

If anyone has the link to the ST thread, I'd appreciate it! Meanwhile, I'll just say that the stat isn't all that surprising and doesn't feel like much of a fluke to me; the Spurs have played some amazing defense these games (against middling opposition, sure, but still). If they can sustain anywhere near the intensity, I don't see them falling from a top-10 defense when the season's done.

 

[scott]

Found on the interwebs... have not verified the numbers... but... in reference to giving up Wide Open 3s...

There are no tracked defensive stats for giving up these shots, at least from what I could see. So in it's place I sorted each of our games(since the Suns game) took the number then compared and contrasted it with that teams average amount of wide open shots as well as comparing it to the league average.

I know it's a bit sloppy but formatting is Team Name(league rank in amount of wide open threes, how many per game) then how many against us.

Suns(takes the 3rd most wide open threes in the league at 25 per game): against us 18

Lakers(last in the league at 15 per game): against us 13

Rockets(19th in the league at 19 per game): against us 18

Pelicans(13th in the league with 20 per game): against us 23

Bulls(6th in the league at 22 per game): against us 24

Warriors (4th most wide open 3s in the league at 24 per game): against us 33

Warriors: against us 19

Kings27th in the league with 16 per game) against us 19

Grizzlies: (7th in the league with 22 per game) against us 20

The Spurs are giving up an average of 20.7 wide open threes a game. The league average Wide Open three point shots per game is 19.8.

My take away from the numbers: There are, of course, improvements that can be made in this area, but it's not as bad as some people are making it out to be. We've only had one egregiously bad game against the Warriors.

Ultimately this is just another piece of improvement the team has had since we drafted Victor. I still remember the dreaded 18 game losing streak we had during Victors rookie season.

Now, we are almost a 5th of the way done with the season and currently rank 10th in offensive rating, and 5th in defensive rating. Just happy to see that improvement.

 

[CGD]

^ well there is also a difference in the quality of open 3s given up. I’m sure the Spurs were more than happy to give Draymond all those “open” looks.

 

[CrustyCoastBendFan]

Found on the interwebs... have not verified the numbers... but... in reference to giving up Wide Open 3s...

2 WORDS
DROP
COVERAGE
Apparently, the hallmark of the PROFESSOR POP Era has been this curious defensive philosophy—old habits die hard, as they say. It’s like crafting a “Positionless Squad” masterpiece and then refusing to switch, as if guarding drop coverage was some sacred tradition passed down from the basketball gods. One can only hope that SWEENY has been brought in as the grand fixer, tasked with breaking the spell and steering this oddball ship of habits back into the waters of modern defense. I believe the ideal D for this 3-ball era is a switching zone defense Hybrid, coming from strictly a layman's point of view.