Armchair coaches... what development do you think our players need to lvl up?

[xellos88330]

I am looking at Wemby and I think he needs a hook shot. Sure his jumper is practically unblockable, but he needs a shot that he doesn't need to face the basket or bring the ball down for. This, theoretically, could prevent people from pushing against him in the post to disrupt his spacing and drives. If they are trying to get physical, it could lead to easy FT's and still get a good look at the basket.

 

[BacktoBasics]

Wemby needs to make better decisions breaking a double team and improve his timing when passing out of the post.

The entire team needs to rotate better when defending the perimeter and closing out around the 3pt line.

 

[LeBowen]

Wemby needs to get over himself and dribble the ball less.
His isos ruin everyone's rythm and the flow of the offense. He can do it a couple of times per game, but KD 2.0 experiment has to stop. Especially since we'll have too many ballhandlers when everyone is healthy.

Castle obviously has to fix his FTs and 3pt shooting.

Friendship crew are what they are, maybe Jeremy can keep this level of 3pt shooting going.

Bryant needs to learn how to play basketball, he's got amazing physical tools and his shot looks decent.

 

[Sugus]

I was personally hoping the coaching additions brought some new defensive schemes around, but it's one are that has stuck out to me every game this season: the Spurs collectively don't seem to understand or trust that they 1) have the de-facto DPOY anchoring their defense, and therefore 2) his paint deterring aura, coupled with the 3 > 2 meta that plagues the league currently, means that every single opposing team WANTS to shoot 3's and only 3's if they can help it.

There's literally no team in the league that has more Wemby-proof players than good 3pt shooters. They will ALL gladly do the drive & kickout every time, all game, if they can help it. Given this context, the same old issue of our guys going "OMG the ball is moving gotta chase it!!!!!!" whenever a drive happens, allowing some of the most textbook basic rotations to happen for the offense leading to easy and open 3s, is maddening.

I don't really know where the issue truly lays - previous years had Pop as the scapegoat along with the Friendly Krew, but Pop's gone from coaching now and the Stooges are featured much less prominently, yet the same errors remain. Very strange to watch. I kinda would rather see the Spurs have 4 players straight-up hugging their defensive duty, with Wemby just standing in the paint waiting for the drive, and denying all passing lanes possible. Have their PG drop 40 on Wemby if he can -- we'd win 100-40!

 

[bozhemoi]

Wemby attacking on the drive seems to be the next step in his development, which is why he doesn't jack as many threes. He's developing his skill sets and threats. In addition, he needs to learn how to read double teams. Timmy had a lot of trouble with these early on before he gets comfortable with them. Teams bring defenders at all angles to keep them off balance. He'll learn these.

I agree that his decision making is slow and this impacts the way the rest of the team plays, but imo it will get smoother before long. Ideally he'll be making reactions as fast as anyone else, except his duties are much more complex than anyone else on offense.

 

[elpimpo4cc]

Wemby attacking on the drive seems to be the next step in his development, which is why he doesn't jack as many threes. He's developing his skill sets and threats. In addition, he needs to learn how to read double teams. Timmy had a lot of trouble with these early on before he gets comfortable with them. Teams bring defenders at all angles to keep them off balance. He'll learn these.

I agree that his decision making is slow and this impacts the way the rest of the team plays, but imo it will get smoother before long. Ideally he'll be making reactions as fast as anyone else, except his duties are much more complex than anyone else on offense.

Wemby doesn't have 1/10 the basketball iq of Timmy. I'm afraid he won't be able to figure this shit out

 

[OU812]

To level up? We need our 4 best players (Wemby, Fox, Castle and Harper) to stay healthy). Considering that three of them are under the age of 22, you’d think that this would be an attainable goal.

 

[Neuromancer]

Victor - limiting turnovers, focusing on playing in the paint, drawing FTs

Castle - three point shooting, decision making

Fox - getting back to 2023 Fox

Sochan - not playing rotation minutes

Vassell - getting traded to another team

 

[spurraider21]

Wemby just needs the simple rise-up jumper that KP does in the post. doesnt need any crazy fadeaway dirk style shots, or even something like a hook. the guy is a good jump shooter, has clean form, is comfortable shooting, and is a very good free throw shooter. just needs the bare minimum strength/base to be able to rise up through contact and then shoot the bunny over the top.

Vassell has played better defense this year, but if his 3pt shot is going to hover around league average and not approaching specialist figures, his ceiling as a role player is just not there

Fox needs to be a more assertive downhill attacker

Castle needs to approach league average 3pt shooting

thats all ive got really. the rest is nit picking

 

[KobesAchilles]

Victor - limiting turnovers, focusing on playing in the paint, drawing FTs

Castle - three point shooting, decision making

Fox - getting back to 2023 Fox

Sochan - not playing rotation minutes

Vassell - getting traded to another team

Fax

 

[twodeep]

Team defense needs to improve, things I have seen is players watching the ball and not man and ball so guys move and get lost and get those easy baskets. Help defense communication is bad at times also they don't always get in good help defense spots that allow them to stunt then recover. Get better at jamming players on screens instead of fluffing off so if you switch or go underneath they don't get free runs at the basket.

On offense they need to be better at making the extra pass and not forcing bad passes which will fix the other issue shot selection can be iffy at times. Quit over dribbling the ball cough cough Vassell

 

[KobesAchilles]

Team defense needs to improve, things I have seen is players watching the ball and not man and ball so guys move and get lost and get those easy baskets. Help defense communication is bad at times also they don't always get in good help defense spots that allow them to stunt then recover. Get better at jamming players on screens instead of fluffing off so if you switch or go underneath they don't get free runs at the basket.

On offense they need to be better at making the extra pass and not forcing bad passes which will fix the other issue shot selection can be iffy at times. Quit over dribbling the ball cough cough Vassell

I haven’t been a kid in a very long time but sometimes I wonder wtf they even worked on as kids. Like the ball watching on defense stuff was ran out of me in MS. Boxing out was a drill that everybody participated in and tbh we used to have to box out the coaches. Also we all fought for the rebound. And on offense if you stopped moving then you were benched.

I watch this team and none of the guards box out or fight for the boards. KJ and Vassell are constantly watching the ball instead of their man and on offense many of our players are stagnate. Just shit that used to be taught at ages 11-13. Is it bc of AAU? Or did we just draft dumb lazy players with no heart and hustle

 

[dastexan]

Victor needs to stop reverting to being a 7'6" shooting guard when he gets frustrated. Once he stops doing that, we are really going to be cooking with gas in San Antonio

 

[poopbox]

Mitch needs to ride the hot hand and not do his lineup changes like he predetermined them 4 hours before the game starts

 

[poopbox]

Jeremy has pretty much been benny hill music for 3 straight game minutes.

Him at the 5 is a disaster playing a great offensive rebounding team. We need to get an at least not trash 3rd center during the tradeline

 

[poopbox]

Carter Bryant giveth Carter Bryant taketh away.

 

[twodeep]

I haven’t been a kid in a very long time but sometimes I wonder wtf they even worked on as kids. Like the ball watching on defense stuff was ran out of me in MS. Boxing out was a drill that everybody participated in and tbh we used to have to box out the coaches. Also we all fought for the rebound. And on offense if you stopped moving then you were benched.

I watch this team and none of the guards box out or fight for the boards. KJ and Vassell are constantly watching the ball instead of their man and on offense many of our players are stagnate. Just shit that used to be taught at ages 11-13. Is it bc of AAU? Or did we just draft dumb lazy players with no heart and hustle

AAU is a big issue most of the coaches are crap and cater to letting kids jack up shots to get talented kids but not really teach them anything so they can win. Many reason why Europe is passing the US in basketball over the years

 

[CGD]

Wemby—decision making; double teams
Castle— shooting; TOs
Harper— little TP-like floater
Carter— positional awareness; rebounds
Sochan— shooting

Not bothering with others. They are who they are for better or worse (e.g., Keldon’s lack of positional awareness).

 

[ambchang]

Wemby - Get back to the fundamentals, learn when to go on the high post (most of the time), and when to draw his defender out for perimeter shots to open the floor up for himself and his teammates. Defensively, work more on positioning but then again, his other worldly physical gifts just allow for so many errors upstream. Just unbelievable.
Fox - Take on more of a mentor role not just for Castle and Harper, but more for Wemby. Teach Wemby how to take over the game, how to exert his will on the game.
Harper - Defensive positioning, work on his shot a bit more, mix in more mid range floaters and tear drops, but man I am so excited about him. Also, stay healthy.
Castle - Stay healthy, work on the outside shot. He has exceeded every single expectation I had for him this year. He is way better than what I expected to be his best case scenario so far this year. I previously have his peak as a fringe all-star, but I think he can be a regular allstar, even go for all-nba one day. His defence has stepped up, so excited. he cleaned up his TOs within a few weeks, such a joy to watch.
Vassell - work on being a 4th option, catch and shoot, move around screen, curl and attack. On D, pay attention at all times. Also, just voluntarily take a pay cut.
Johnson - Very happy with him this year. On D it's a lost cause, really. He just can't help himself but to ball watch, but if he can just pay a bit more attention then I am happy for him.
Barnes - Nothing, so lucky to have him.
Kornet - Stay within his role, work off Wemby, shoot the 3 when open, roll to the rim and get them lops.
Sochan - Don't know what to so, as the #1 fan of Sochan on this site, I can't defend him at all this year. His defence has dropped off, and his offence is just ghastly, even when he was hitting his 3s. He has to go back to do what he is good at, crash the boards, cut for open layups, run the court, compete on defence. I still think he can drive to the basket some what, work on drawing some fouls here and there. But man, he is now clearly the worst player on the team.
Bryant - learn to play basketball.
Mitch - try to be more flexible in lineups and matchup accordingly. Get Wemby to park his ass down low, don't be afraid to pull him if he does something stupid. The team actually has quite a few different skills, but there are +s and -s for every player (except Wemby, and maybe Castle and Fox) so deploy the right players at the right situations.

 

[O_V]

Vic - go back and watch games 1 and 2

Everyone else: shoot threes with the confidence of Stef Castle.

 

[DAF86]

The clear answer is to figure out how to best utilize Wemby on the offensive end.

I don't pretend to know for certainty what the absolute best version of Wemby lead offense looks like but some things I'd like to see are:

-A lot less driving by Wemby, specially when guarded by guards or wings. It is pretty clear by now that one of the main blueprints to defending Wemby is to just hack the heck out of the ball when he puts it on the floor. With Wemby's height, he's always gonna have problems with ball security when the best defensive guards and wings on the league go after his dribble.

-I would also like to see more pick and rolls with Wemby as the roller. I don't keep track of the metrics but it looks like, in p&r actions, Wemby does a lot more popping than rolling. With his height, jumping ability, hands and finishing Wemby should be the greatest roller in NBA history, yet we barely see that aspect of his game.

-In general, just playing closer to the basket and teammates looking for him more when attacking the rim. This is related to the previous point: witj his height, hands and finishing ability, I would like to see Wemby getting more touches near the basket without him having to wear himself down by trying to post up or back down people. Just have him on the dunker spot a lot more and have him be the benefitiary of his trio of elite guards breaking down defenses by getting passes on advantageous positions or putback opportunities. I would also encourage him to go more after offensive boards, instead of always tracking down in defensive transition.

To sum up: the closer Wemby plays to the basket, the better.

 

[UbikRex]

Wemby needs to learn to face up and get his shot over defenders similar to Timmy would. A lot of different players would try to push Timmy down and muscle him out but he adapted to facing up his defenders more and they had little room to work positionally to affect his shot without fouling him. Especially when he could just bank off the glass. this would lead to faking out his defender putting the ball down on the floor spin pivot to middle of the lane with his hook one hand shot into the bucket.

Been a couple times Wemby has faced up and just shot over his defender during the season and it has usually resulted in an easy bucket I recall once in his first game another in a later game he has pivoted to the middle of the paint to shoot also with relatively easy looks.

Castle needs to work on his mid range more. He masters that he will be unguardable with how he powers into the paint. Aside from that getting better at avoiding cross court passes when he gets himself up in the air,.

Fox tends to move faster than the ball and dribbles off himself he just needs to get more in synced with his movements

Harper similar to Castle work on his mid range and then work on his 3 ball.

I know that Korndog has a jumper. He just isn't asked to score with his jumper. Would like some dedicated plays that he gets to shoot them would really force defenders to step out further when he runs out.

 

[RC_Drunkford]

Wemby - face up game, not dribbling

Harper - shooting off the dribble

Castle - 3-point and midrange shooting

Champ - handles

Sochan - basketball

 

[twodeep]

Wemby - face up game, not dribbling

Harper - shooting off the dribble

Castle - 3-point and midrange shooting

Champ - handles

Sochan - basketball

Castle is shooting at a 40% clip since returning from injury so let's hope that his shot continues to stay in the 35 to 37 range. The 3pt stroke is looking good right now. Agree about his mid range game

At least champs handles are not Danny Green bad

Harper and Wemby yes and yes

 

[DAF86]

I don't know where I heard that Castle's mid range jumper % are actually pretty damn good, tbh.

Does anybody have the stats?