NBA Austin Toros Thread

[ace3g]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1968843122768568648

 

[SpursBrazil]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1968842787576541373

 

[SpursBrazil]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1970234547276009748

 

[ace3g]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1970234547276009748

Looks like it was a trade

https://twitter.com/x/status/1970146328706506964

 

[scott]

We had Malachi in Austin while Malaki was blocking him out here in San Antonio. Missed opportunity for greatness.

 

[ace3g]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1972740464370733405

 

[NASpurs]

Those jerseys reminds me of these jerseys

 

[Bruno]

From what I've seen, Austin Spurs' roster for next season will be:

Adam Flagler / Isaiah Miller
David Jones-Garcia / Kyle Mangas
Harrison Ingram / Stanley Umude
Riley Minix / Osayi Osifo
Micah Potter / Abdullah Ahmed

It looks like a quality team. It's noteworthy that these 10 players all have some gleague experience. The only rookie in Austin should be Carter Bryant if he is assigned there.

The weak spot of this team might be PG. Flagler is more a combo guard than a true point and Miller is coming back from an ACL surgery.

 

[brazil]

From what I've seen, Austin Spurs' roster for next season will be:

Adam Flagler / Isaiah Miller
David Jones-Garcia / Kyle Mangas
Harrison Ingram / Stanley Umude
Riley Minix / Osayi Osifo
Micah Potter / Abdullah Ahmed

It looks like a quality team. It's noteworthy that these 10 players all have some gleague experience. The only rookie in Austin should be Carter Bryant if he is assigned there.

The weak spot of this team might be PG. Flagler is more a combo guard than a true point and Miller is coming back from an ACL surgery.

Do you think Carter will be assigned to Austin or the Spurs will keep him in the NBA roster ?

 

[LeBowen]

Do you think Carter will be assigned to Austin or the Spurs will keep him in the NBA roster ?

He'll definitely go to Austin as long as all the wings are healthy.
If Jeremy doesn't show significant jumpshot improvements right away, I'd just DNP him and have Carter get his minutes.

 

[Bruno]

Do you think Carter will be assigned to Austin or the Spurs will keep him in the NBA roster ?

I'm not sure what Spurs will do with Carter Bryant, I guess it will depend on what he will do in preseason.

Spurs have a lot of depth at SF/PF with Vassell, Barnes, Sochan, Keldon and Champagnie. Most of them aren't great players but they still should be better than a young rookie like Carter Bryant. If Mitch is in win now mode, Bryant should get a lot of DNP-CD at the start of the season.
To get consistent playing time, Spurs' coaching staff will need to come to the conclusion that "Bryant will be a core piece of Spurs in the future, we need to make him grow instead of playing some flawed/limited vets".

 

[spurraider21]

Spurs have a lot of depth at SF/PF with Vassell, Barnes, Sochan, Keldon and Champagnie

not to mention olynyk and some experimental Kornet/Wemby lineups

i think bryant will spend early time in austin until they start to feel confident his shooting is at an NBA level. vassell/champagnie could also spend time at guard. injury to basically any position from 2-4 could clear the logjam.

theres also always the possibility of trades

there's a fair amont of versatility with guys like vassell/champagnie/castle/barnes/bryant where you could get very creative. an all-defense lineup with Castle/Champagnie/Bryant/Wemby/Kornet could be hilarious... the inverse of the warriors death lineup

 

[brazil]

not to mention olynyk and some experimental Kornet/Wemby lineups

i think bryant will spend early time in austin until they start to feel confident his shooting is at an NBA level. vassell/champagnie could also spend time at guard. injury to basically any position from 2-4 could clear the logjam.

theres also always the possibility of trades

there's a fair amont of versatility with guys like vassell/champagnie/castle/barnes/bryant where you could get very creative. an all-defense lineup with Castle/Champagnie/Bryant/Wemby/Kornet could be hilarious... the inverse of the warriors death lineup

I'm with you, some here are advocating for Carter taking mn away from Sochan, Keldone and/or Vassell but this is totally unrealistic at this point. As mentionned by Bruno we will have a clearer picture after preseason

 

[LeBowen]

I'm with you, some here are advocating for Carter taking mn away from Sochan, Keldone and/or Vassell but this is totally unrealistic at this point. As mentionned by Bruno we will have a clearer picture after preseason

It's unrealistic because of Spurs family values, but if Sochan and Keldon don't show significant improvement right away, I don't see why shouldn't Bryant get minutes ahead of them.

Sochan is entering his fourth year. If he doesn't start shooting the ball when needed from the opening night, he should be done. He's a good defender, but even if he was the best defender in the league it would be hard to justify starting him considering all of our guards need spacing.
Sounds harsh, but I truly believe the next month will determine the rest of Jeremy's career.

If he can't shoot and Bryant isn't a negative on defense, I see no reason why should we waste minutes on a player on expiring contract who's a bad long-term fit over a rookie who could potentially be our 3-D wing for many years.

As for Keldon, he is what he is and his best attribute, attacking mismatches, won't be as needed anymore because our guards need the ball. And he's a very inconsistent shooter. And a traffic cone.

I don't think Vassell overlaps with Bryant, but he also needs to get his shit together.

I said it before, my ideal starting lineup would be Fox/Castle/Champ/Barnes/Wemby because as we've seen already, having actual wings that can shoot works best with Wemby and it's not even up for discussion.

 

[brazil]

It's unrealistic because of Spurs family values, but if Sochan and Keldon don't show significant improvement right away, I don't see why shouldn't Bryant get minutes ahead of them.

Sochan is entering his fourth year. If he doesn't start shooting the ball when needed from the opening night, he should be done. He's a good defender, but even if he was the best defender in the league it would be hard to justify starting him considering all of our guards need spacing.
Sounds harsh, but I truly believe the next month will determine the rest of Jeremy's career.

If he can't shoot and Bryant isn't a negative on defense, I see no reason why should we waste minutes on a player on expiring contract who's a bad long-term fit over a rookie who could potentially be our 3-D wing for many years.

As for Keldon, he is what he is and his best attribute, attacking mismatches, won't be as needed anymore because our guards need the ball. And he's a very inconsistent shooter. And a traffic cone.

I don't think Vassell overlaps with Bryant, but he also needs to get his shit together.

I said it before, my ideal starting lineup would be Fox/Castle/Champ/Barnes/Wemby because as we've seen already, having actual wings that can shoot works best with Wemby and it's not even up for discussion.

Just to add a bit and being cynical, even if Sochan does not show any improvements I believe he still has some value in a trade scenario... so you'd want to make sure he has enough minutes to preserve an asset value unless he became an issue preventing Spurs to make play in. But as I said even with last year Sochan with same minutes, this roster has the tools to make the play in now if he is even worst than last year then it is another topic

 

[LeBowen]

Just to add a bit and being cynical, even if Sochan does not show any improvements I believe he still has some value in a trade scenario... so you'd want to make sure he has enough minutes to preserve an asset value unless he became an issue preventing Spurs to make play in. But as I said even with last year Sochan with same minutes, this roster has the tools to make the play in now if he is even worst than last year then it is another topic

I'm not so sure about his value.
New CBA has punched most teams right in the mouth and the days of overpaying role players are over.
Jeremy is a good defender with no range and subpar playmaking skills. Who would even want him?
We're not getting a FRP or an equivalent of it for him, anything less and his value is irrelevant because we have too many SRPs already.

We'd gain more value by establishing Bryant if he has the potential to become a starter than by not tanking Jeremy's value.

I guess we'll have to wait and see how things develop.

 

[brazil]

I guess we'll have to wait and see how things develop.

+1

 

[spurraider21]

It's unrealistic because of Spurs family values, but if Sochan and Keldon don't show significant improvement right away, I don't see why shouldn't Bryant get minutes ahead of them.

Sochan is entering his fourth year. If he doesn't start shooting the ball when needed from the opening night, he should be done. He's a good defender, but even if he was the best defender in the league it would be hard to justify starting him considering all of our guards need spacing.
Sounds harsh, but I truly believe the next month will determine the rest of Jeremy's career.

If he can't shoot and Bryant isn't a negative on defense, I see no reason why should we waste minutes on a player on expiring contract who's a bad long-term fit over a rookie who could potentially be our 3-D wing for many years.

As for Keldon, he is what he is and his best attribute, attacking mismatches, won't be as needed anymore because our guards need the ball. And he's a very inconsistent shooter. And a traffic cone.

I don't think Vassell overlaps with Bryant, but he also needs to get his shit together.

I said it before, my ideal starting lineup would be Fox/Castle/Champ/Barnes/Wemby because as we've seen already, having actual wings that can shoot works best with Wemby and it's not even up for discussion.

i think part of the equation is the spurs have to do a better part of balancing interests of developing young guys vs maximizing regular season wins, to an extent they really havent had to for a long time, even last year.

yeah, im not really expecting development from keldon anymore, and he is a net negative out there. but if bryant is as bad offensively as we saw in the preseason, he may be completely dysfunctional on an NBA court. its better to have net negative than dysfunctional. for his warts, Keldon can make plays and scores with solid efficiency. im not defaulting to "play Bryant over Keldon right away" for that reason. the spurs are trying to make ae playoff run, and having bryant go through growing pains by being force-fed minutes early in the season may cut against that

barring some ridiculous impression he leaves in camp and preseason, i think sending Bryant to Austin for the early parts of the season (or until injuries demand otherwise) makes sense just so they can make sure he wont completely faceplant on offense to the detriment of the team. and ill be clear, i really hope that by ASB, bryant has played himself into the rotation

 

[LeBowen]

i think part of the equation is the spurs have to do a better part of balancing interests of developing young guys vs maximizing regular season wins, to an extent they really havent had to for a long time, even last year.

As I mentioned in that other topic, the issue is that friendship crew isn't contributing to maximizing wins.
We played better with the likes of Champ and Mamu in the starting lineup in both 23-24 and 24-25 seasons.

For me starting Champ would be a no-brainer. Has enough size, can shoot, isn't a negative on defense, doesn't need the ball.

 

[spurraider21]

As I mentioned in that other topic, the issue is that friendship crew isn't contributing to maximizing wins.
We played better with the likes of Champ and Mamu in the starting lineup in both 23-24 and 24-25 seasons.

For me starting Champ would be a no-brainer. Has enough size, can shoot, isn't a negative on defense, doesn't need the ball.

yeah i mean i said keldon is a net negative. but there are levels to that. if bryant is dysfunctional offensively, the results may be even worse.

 

[Exstatic]

I'm not sure what Spurs will do with Carter Bryant, I guess it will depend on what he will do in preseason.

Spurs have a lot of depth at SF/PF with Vassell, Barnes, Sochan, Keldon and Champagnie. Most of them aren't great players but they still should be better than a young rookie like Carter Bryant. If Mitch is in win now mode, Bryant should get a lot of DNP-CD at the start of the season.
To get consistent playing time, Spurs' coaching staff will need to come to the conclusion that "Bryant will be a core piece of Spurs in the future, we need to make him grow instead of playing some flawed/limited vets".

In his media day interviews, he said he expects to spend a lot of time in Austin,and didn’t seem bothered by it.

 

[ambchang]

As I mentioned in that other topic, the issue is that friendship crew isn't contributing to maximizing wins.
We played better with the likes of Champ and Mamu in the starting lineup in both 23-24 and 24-25 seasons.

For me starting Champ would be a no-brainer. Has enough size, can shoot, isn't a negative on defense, doesn't need the ball.

I have been a big advocate for Champ for a while. He is a better defender than Spurs fans give him credit for. The Spurs defence becomes slightly better when he's on the floor at -1.8 difference last year, which puts him at 66th%ile in the league. For comparison's sake, Sochan was at -0.6, which puts him at 56th %ile. Wemby -9.2/97th, Vassell +5/14th, Keldon +4.1/18th, Castle +3.5/23th, and Fox +5.3/12th.

He has the 7th best defensive ws/game out of all the Spurs players last year, and 3rd of all the regulars who still remain with us this year (behind Wemby and Sochan. Tre Jones and Paul are the ones who left, and Ingram and Minix are the low usage non-regulars, so effectively Champ was 5th on the team in DWS.

On offence he is pretty much my ideal role playing teammate for Wemby, catch and shoot, knows his own limitations. He could be a better ball handler and passer, but with Fox, Harper and Castle I don't see that as that important.

Mamu I am not as sure. He was only on one single lineup with more than 100 possessions last year, and the drating of that lineup was the worst five man defensive lineup in the league, allowing 145 pts over 100 possessions (that lineup ran 114 possessions). To be fair Mamu played center, and the other guys were Castle, Wesley, Champ and Keldon, so not the cream of the crop type of lineup. It was also at 4th % on offense and worst in pt differential. Pretty grim. His on/off stats were +2.1/31st %ile on defense, and -1.3/43rd on offence. Granted, his numbers are all over the place on defence as he was 1st ad 6th %ile in pts/possession defensively (that's really bloody bad) in his 1st and 3rd year, but 96th and 98th %ile (that's elite) in his 2nd and 4th year. Most of that is due to a very small sample size though. He has always been an excellent player in on/off for ORB% though, ranking around 82nd to 88th %ile in 4 of the 5 years he was in the league (year 4 he was 71st)

 

[LeBowen]

I have been a big advocate for Champ for a while. He is a better defender than Spurs fans give him credit for. The Spurs defence becomes slightly better when he's on the floor at -1.8 difference last year, which puts him at 66th%ile in the league. For comparison's sake, Sochan was at -0.6, which puts him at 56th %ile. Wemby -9.2/97th, Vassell +5/14th, Keldon +4.1/18th, Castle +3.5/23th, and Fox +5.3/12th.

He has the 7th best defensive ws/game out of all the Spurs players last year, and 3rd of all the regulars who still remain with us this year (behind Wemby and Sochan. Tre Jones and Paul are the ones who left, and Ingram and Minix are the low usage non-regulars, so effectively Champ was 5th on the team in DWS.

On offence he is pretty much my ideal role playing teammate for Wemby, catch and shoot, knows his own limitations. He could be a better ball handler and passer, but with Fox, Harper and Castle I don't see that as that important.

Mamu I am not as sure. He was only on one single lineup with more than 100 possessions last year, and the drating of that lineup was the worst five man defensive lineup in the league, allowing 145 pts over 100 possessions (that lineup ran 114 possessions). To be fair Mamu played center, and the other guys were Castle, Wesley, Champ and Keldon, so not the cream of the crop type of lineup. It was also at 4th % on offense and worst in pt differential. Pretty grim. His on/off stats were +2.1/31st %ile on defense, and -1.3/43rd on offence. Granted, his numbers are all over the place on defence as he was 1st ad 6th %ile in pts/possession defensively (that's really bloody bad) in his 1st and 3rd year, but 96th and 98th %ile (that's elite) in his 2nd and 4th year. Most of that is due to a very small sample size though. He has always been an excellent player in on/off for ORB% though, ranking around 82nd to 88th %ile in 4 of the 5 years he was in the league (year 4 he was 71st)

The point I was trying to make is that we were better with Champ/Mamu because even though they're worse players than Devin/Keldon individually, they're both smart enough to know not to step out of their role and most importantly both are good shooters.
This season's goal is to make the playoffs, we don't need 5 high end starters.

Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, Sam Merrill, Dean Wade, Isaac Okoro all started games fo teams that had the best records in the league last season.
I don't think they're that much better than Champ.

 

[Exstatic]

The point I was trying to make is that we were better with Champ/Mamu because even though they're worse players than Devin/Keldon individually, they're both smart enough to know not to step out of their role and most importantly both are good shooters.
This season's goal is to make the playoffs, we don't need 5 high end starters.

Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, Sam Merrill, Dean Wade, Isaac Okoro all started games fo teams that had the best records in the league last season.
I don't think they're that much better than Champ.

Champ was an UDFA. Cason Wallace was a top 10 pick who would have started immediately on many teams, including this one.

 

[LeBowen]

Champ was an UDFA. Cason Wallace was a top 10 pick who would have started immediately on many teams, including this one.

Dort was also undrafted. Aaron Wiggins was 55th pick. Isaiah Joe 49th. Jaylin Williams 34th. Ajay Mitchell 38th.

And I said Wallace isn't that much better than Champ.
He's obviously better, but not to the extent that having him instead of Champ would add +5 to W column.