Analysis Do Wemby's iffy health prospects make "going all in" with the roster building an option?

spursistan

spursistan

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By now, it is very clear that Wemby will not enjoy the durabilty of workhorses like Jokic or Timmy's near-two decade of evolving valuability and excellence.. So doesn't that make it imperative for the Spurs to shift gears to a more aggressive roster-upgrade approach?

When you have an established Top 5 player in league whose heath prospects are uncertain, it would be remiss to not take that critical variable into consideration. In other words, the Spurs don't have the luxury of "years to waste" with Wemby (a la Lebron's first Cavs stint); they don't have a "window " to wait for. The time is now and the Fox trade was done in that vein of thought which should continue to be the guiding tenet of the front office..

In practical terms, next deadline should be the first serious attempt to shore up the wing position and that may involve throwing draft capital as some of FRPs have already depreciated in value. This team is going to be in play-in dogfight as it is..
 
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In short : Get banner #6 in the rafters ASAP and let other the other chips (no pun intended) fall where they may
 
I'd say it's the opposite: If you have a vulnerable star, it is better to have a large window, thus being able to lose a season here and there, but still having a shot in the others.

If we would have went all in last season, we wouldn't have shipped as Wemby didn't finish the season.
 
It's a calf strain that will likely get better in a few weeks at best to a few months at worst. It's not the end of his career. Minor injuries happen.

If anything, I hope they use this opportunity to learn to actually defend without Wemby saving their sorry asses all the time.
 
Posted about it in another topic, but having a center as a franchise player is always difficult if he can't stay healthy.
Obviously having your franchise player hurt always sucks, but it's way easier to make up for guards/wings missing games because teams usually have just two competent bigs.
If one is hurt, you're forced to either give serious minutes to the third stringer or play small. And it's not easy to find a competent third stringer since rim protectors are at a premium and anyone competent has no reason to go to a team where they won't get guaranteed minutes.

Another thing is that we can't afford to trade our own FRPs until we determine Wemby can stay reasonably healthy.
 
I think it's too late to be back in rebuild mode

Even if it's a minor injury, it show you need even more depth at the Center position.
To keep winning when Wemby is injured and to rest Wemby on back 2 back when he is not injured
 
eric365 said:
I think it's too late to be back in rebuild mode

Even if it's a minor injury, it show you need even more depth at the Center position.
To keep winning when Wemby is injured and to rest Wemby on back 2 back when he is not injured
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We should be embarrassed by any further lottery or draft talk..What more luck do we want after the last 3 years? The goal should be to keep consolidating the roster in the hope that we would be able to play a .500 ball in the 15-20 games Wemby will miss annually..The rest is just hope to capitalize on Wembanyama's healthy playoffs runs once we get there..
 
spursistan said:
We should be embarrassed by any further lottery or draft talk..What more luck do we want after the last 3 years? The goal should be to keep consolidating the roster in the hope that we would be able to play a .500 ball in the 15-20 games Wemby will miss annually..The rest is just hope to capitalize on Wembanyama's healthy playoffs runs once we get there..
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Yeah, like, this is really pushing it asking for more draft luck in the top 4. Spurs have had more than enough lottery luck these past 3 years. Teams like OKC has built their team with lower picks. It's time the Spurs stop throwing away their second round picks. That's where they should start.
 
Ice009 said:
Yeah, like, this is really pushing it asking for more draft luck in the top 4. Spurs have had more than enough lottery luck these past 3 years. Teams like OKC has built their team with lower picks. It's time the Spurs stop throwing away their second round picks. That's where they should start.
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Exactly, OKC have built a roster that barely miss a beat when its 2nd (J Dub) or 3rd (Chet) best player is out for an extended period of time. Spurs' goal should be building one that at least prevents a complete collapse when Wemby is out.
 
LeBowen said:
Posted about it in another topic, but having a center as a franchise player is always difficult if he can't stay healthy.
Obviously having your franchise player hurt always sucks, but it's way easier to make up for guards/wings missing games because teams usually have just two competent bigs.
If one is hurt, you're forced to either give serious minutes to the third stringer or play small. And it's not easy to find a competent third stringer since rim protectors are at a premium and anyone competent has no reason to go to a team where they won't get guaranteed minutes.

Another thing is that we can't afford to trade our own FRPs until we determine Wemby can stay reasonably healthy.
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This degree of uncertainty somehow makes our FRPs a bit more valued than they should.. Teams might just gamble on Wemby's health in trades involving us . It is not ideal, but even in the prime Big 3 era we had to trade few of our owns. I think Harper & Castle are going to be too good for us to miss the playoffs.. And i still hope have that for Wemby this is a similar case to Steph Curry when early on everyone had concerns whether his ankles will hold up long term..In the end, outside few missed inconsequential playoffs games between 2015-17, he was always there when it mattered the most..
 
If his health goes completely South, you don’t want to be stuck with high dollar contracts for support players. Almost a reason to be more cautious. We have almost all the pieces we need now.
 
Nba is just being super careful with calf strains now esp after last year. If I had to guess this injury was caused by broccolihead on the warriors rolling up on wembys legs
 
If Wemby turns out to be injury prone it will be the fault of all the folks from ST and now BB who root so cheerfully for Nephew's misfortune. Pop got on the mic and told you that's not who we are, but you continue to relish in Kawhi's misery. You have brought the wrath of the Basketball Gods down upon us. SHAME SHAME SHAME
 
scott said:
If Wemby turns out to be injury prone it will be the fault of all the folks from ST and now BB who root so cheerfully for Nephew's misfortune. Pop got on the mic and told you that's not who we are, but you continue to relish in Kawhi's misery. You have brought the wrath of the Basketball Gods down upon us. SHAME SHAME SHAME
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I still root for Nephew to get sepsis in both legs.
 
On a more serious note...

Philly has managed to be competitive (albeit in the east) despite having their franchise tied to Embiid and PG13... if I squint...

Fox ~ Maxey
Castle ~ Edgecombe
Harper ~ Grimes
Vassell ~ Oubre

Those are the top 4 players for Philly this year. We just need some other dudes to step up and be our Barlow/Drummond/Watford.

Handicapping for East v West, I'm looking for us to be around a .500 club while Wemby is out. If we can do that, I think we'll be in good shape.
 
Chet missed like his first entire season and then a huge part of last year. Those big skinny dudes are fragile. Still, keep working to keep him healthy.
 
RC_Drunkford said:
he's so injury prone that he can do dribbling drills while injured. Who knows how long he'll be healthy with such a fragile injury history?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1990826210536886781
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I saw 2 turnovers there

He's not injured. He might have felt a slight twinge then they got an MRI and saw his calf was fatigued and in jeopardy so they'll give him a week off then MRI it again.

Too bad it was more than just giving an off day after a grueling b2b battle.

We have a 7 road game in 8 games stretch coming up. Going to have to have Fox and Castle step up and take over, Kornet absolutely has to stay upright, and Olynyk is going to be needed to hold things down and hit a three here and there.

Harper has missed 3 weeks? Or almost 3 weeks? His seemed far worse than whatever Wemby got so it's probably going to be 5 week minimum before we might see him again. Then he'll have to recondition
 
I don't think you can measure the durability of Victor against Timmy and Jokic. Jokic never plays defense and Timmy is an all time paint defender but didn't extend much beyond that. Imagine of both needed to be three level scorer's WHILE being not just a 3 level defender but the best 3 level defender in the league by such a wide margin nba players wouldn't even shoot against them.

What we need to do is just ask Victor to play like a traditional stretch big or regular wing player. Since he came into the league he has played the most painful and brutal style of basketball I have ever seen anywhere. He will sprint multiple times basket to basket in a game Jokic might not do it once in a week. He his asked not only to guard a player but to basically shut down the entire paint almost singlehandedly. And in crunch time clear out give it to him and pray he can hit back to back 3's with a block in the middle like he has done multiple times. That's a lot to ask out of one player and I can't think of anyone in the league who is on the same planet of having to do for their team what Victor has to do for the Spurs. I can't think of any player who is tasked with being the best defender in the league while also being asked to be a top 15 scorer and go to scorer. I can't think of any other player in the league who is asked to hit the game tying 3 AND then get the block AND THEN hit the game winning 3. Nobody can stand up to that type of play for long without their body breaking down.
 
scott said:
On a more serious note...

Philly has managed to be competitive (albeit in the east) despite having their franchise tied to Embiid and PG13... if I squint...

Fox ~ Maxey
Castle ~ Edgecombe
Harper ~ Grimes
Vassell ~ Oubre

Those are the top 4 players for Philly this year. We just need some other dudes to step up and be our Barlow/Drummond/Watford.

Handicapping for East v West, I'm looking for us to be around a .500 club while Wemby is out. If we can do that, I think we'll be in good shape.
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Or maybe the GM built a solid squad and stumbled into Maxey turning into a potential franchise-level PG, while the Injured Non-Dynamic Duo somehow netted them Edgcomb. At this point, Embiid and PG13 are “franchise” in title and size of contract only. The basketball gods remain a cruel and mischievous bunch, yet somehow, in this bizarre twist of fate, the Philly Scumbags find themselves lounging comfortably in the proverbial catbird seat. I'm not saying go and start lobbing batteries at a Beloved Local Sports hero or throw mudballs and boo Santa Clause.
 
Even disregarding Wembanyama's unique body type and skillset, now more than ever, it's a young man's game.

Between the pace and space, injuries and transactions, if you have an MVP or even All-NBA caliber player, no matter their age, it behooves you to attempt to expedite your championship contention window.

The question is, what does that look like in this case? Vassell and pick(s) probably gets them Murphy or a similar caliber player at best. Would that really vault them into full fledged contender status?
 
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