Best way to counter this team?

[SpursBills]

Styles make fights, and it's been clear after these last three games that the Spurs roster makeup matches up with OKC very well. SGA is a skill/guile-based shotmaker with height and length but limited athleticism. Castle matches him in size, can hold his own in guile, and exceeds him in athleticism/strength. I'm curious what OKC looks like when Ajay Mitchell gets healthy again and whether having him as an outlet valve significantly influences this matchup.

That being said, what are some of the ways that the weaknesses of this current Spurs iteration can be exploited? And one step further, what are some things that the Spurs can then do to counter this?

Off the top of my head -

1. Dominant offensive rebounders to win the possession battle and exploit Spurs' relatively size starting Barnes at the 4 and Wemby's frame - i.e. Mitch Robinson, Steven Adams, Thompson twins

2. Offensive initiator that can match/exceed our guards in strength/size/athleticism - Anthony Edwards is the only one I can really think of off the top of my head

3. Post-op bigs who can continue to go right at Wemby and potentially get him in foul trouble - Jokic, Sengun

4. Waterbug initiators who are both fast and athletic? Not sure if Fox has lost a step in being able to guard this type of player - best example is probably Tyrese Maxey, maybe Donovan Mitchell

Counters to the counters?

1. The age old unicorn that we all want - 4 with size who can shoot and rebound. Alternatively, French Vanilla lineup is possibly a solution to this, but need a better third big who can protect the rim
2. Not much to be done about this one
3. Again, need for a third quality big in case Wemby/Kornet minutes need to be increased
4. 3 and D guard in the mold of Jamal Shead/Cason Wallace/Keon Ellis would be a nice lower priority offseason acquisition

Curious to see other potential counters / weaknesses of this team


Signed,

Pam "definitely not Sam Presti" Sresti

 

[100%Duncan]

Pollen season is this team’s kryptonite

 

[Robz4000]

Pollen season is this team’s kryptonite

Just about time for Sneezy to make his triumphant return tbh.

 

[BatManu20]

Physical teams with multiple physical bigs like the Knicks & T-Wolves give us trouble. Also, given our propensity to leave shooters wide open, teams that shoot really well from 3, like the Suns.

 

[mo7888]

Styles make fights, and it's been clear after these last three games that the Spurs roster makeup matches up with OKC very well. SGA is a skill/guile-based shotmaker with height and length but limited athleticism. Castle matches him in size, can hold his own in guile, and exceeds him in athleticism/strength. I'm curious what OKC looks like when Ajay Mitchell gets healthy again and whether having him as an outlet valve significantly influences this matchup.

That being said, what are some of the ways that the weaknesses of this current Spurs iteration can be exploited? And one step further, what are some things that the Spurs can then do to counter this?

Off the top of my head -

1. Dominant offensive rebounders to win the possession battle and exploit Spurs' relatively size starting Barnes at the 4 and Wemby's frame - i.e. Mitch Robinson, Steven Adams, Thompson twins

2. Offensive initiator that can match/exceed our guards in strength/size/athleticism - Anthony Edwards is the only one I can really think of off the top of my head

3. Post-op bigs who can continue to go right at Wemby and potentially get him in foul trouble - Jokic, Sengun

4. Waterbug initiators who are both fast and athletic? Not sure if Fox has lost a step in being able to guard this type of player - best example is probably Tyrese Maxey, maybe Donovan Mitchell

Counters to the counters?

1. The age old unicorn that we all want - 4 with size who can shoot and rebound. Alternatively, French Vanilla lineup is possibly a solution to this, but need a better third big who can protect the rim
2. Not much to be done about this one
3. Again, need for a third quality big in case Wemby/Kornet minutes need to be increased
4. 3 and D guard in the mold of Jamal Shead/Cason Wallace/Keon Ellis would be a nice lower priority offseason acquisition

Curious to see other potential counters / weaknesses of this team


Signed,

Pam "definitely not Sam Presti" Sresti

Sam....uhh... I mean Pam... I think OKC would trounce this iteration of the Spurs if they could somehow trade for Embiid... just devastating...

 

[Itzsoweezee]

Physical teams with multiple physical bigs like the Knicks & T-Wolves give us trouble. Also, given our propensity to leave shooters wide open, teams that shoot really well from 3, like the Suns.

Yes, this is the formula. With wemby’s minutes restriction, it seems Mitch is unwilling to play the French vanilla lineup, and olynik has been somewhat underwhelming. Good luck finding a player that can defend bigs, rebound, and shoot.

 

[Seventyniner]

Now imagine trying to counter the Spurs when Wemby gets to play 32-36 mpg for a series.

 

[LeBowen]

Our 3pt line defense isn't great, especially defending the corners.
Got to give something up, but in the modern NBA those 3s torch you every so often.

 

[STAT88]

Steph Curry going for 50 off a bunch of moving screens and cheap fouls.

 

[spursistan]

Keeping my feet on the ground. Spurs aren't yet the class of the league; we just match-up well with OKC, and even then i need to see how it goes in the playoffs.

Physical teams with multiple physical bigs like the Knicks & T-Wolves give us trouble. Also, given our propensity to leave shooters wide open, teams that shoot really well from 3, like the Suns.

Pretty much this.

 

[CGD]

As noted, its the teams with physical front court line ups. Those are still very tough for us: HOU, NYK, MIN.

Its why its the one place (back up C0 i hope the fortify at the deadline.

 

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Elite 3 point shooting and winning the rebound battle would neutralize us quite a bit

 

[Mal]

I guess Lu Dort`s approach

 

[Exstatic]

Elite 3 point shooting and winning the rebound battle would neutralize us quite a bit

That’s how the Knicks did it. They shot well, AND put back a lot of their misses.

 

[SpursBills]

The Twolves team on paper at least has a lot of guys that can give this team trouble. Second best rim protector in the game who’s not a stick like Holmgren can blunt the effectiveness of our guards. An initiator who’s as strong and even more athletic than our best POA defender. Their 1-3 all can shoot the 3 and are all good defenders. A strong 4 that can out-muscle our wings. They’ve beaten the spurs without Wemby earlier this year, but those two games in January will be a real litmus test to see how exploitable some of the spurs’ weaknesses are.

 

[Chinook]

The Thunder can blow out the Spurs if they get Wemby in foul trouble. They have a chance to do that of they continue to attack the rim and either Victor brainfarts or OKC gets a friendly whistle. They need a Cory Joseph to and-1 dunk on Wemby to show shake them out of their fear.

 

[scott]

The Twolves team on paper at least has a lot of guys that can give this team trouble. Second best rim protector in the game who’s not a stick like Holmgren can blunt the effectiveness of our guards. An initiator who’s as strong and even more athletic than our best POA defender. Their 1-3 all can shoot the 3 and are all good defenders. A strong 4 that can out-muscle our wings. They’ve beaten the spurs without Wemby earlier this year, but those two games in January will be a real litmus test to see how exploitable some of the spurs’ weaknesses are.

Yeah, I think you just look at the non GSW/LAL teams who have beaten us this year... and there are some common threads:

PHX
MIN
CLE
NYK

I consider GSW and LAL losses to be flukes at this point. We haven't played any of those other teams besides NYK at full strength, but they all provide some similar characteristics... we've got 3 of them coming up here in the next few weeks. I'm expecting us to whip that ass against CLE and NYK at home.