GRADES: 11/10/2025 Spurs @ Bulls

[scott]

SPURS 121 - BULLS 117 | SPURS IMPROVE TO 8-2

Scott's Notes:

• October Wemby returned in a big way and it couldn't have come at a better time. An absolutely dominant 4th Quarter capped off with a clutch 3, a block, and another clutch 3 for the win. The stuff that makes SportsCenter editors go from six to midnight. I think the highlight-worthy block turned into a trailing 3 on the other end has become one of Wemby's signature moves, and he did it again early in the game before delivering the winning shot following a block. Great to see him bounce back as we (at least, most of us) thought he would. Bravo.
• Steph was excellent all around again. Not the most efficient scorer but still dishing out dimes guaranteed to make up jump like Rod Strickland. My only qualm was that there were a few moments in the 4th quarter when he was pressing a little too hard and trying to make things happen on offense, when he should have slowed things down and got back into an offensive set. The turnovers are way down for Stephon and that's huge. He's cut out those lazy passes to no one that had been picked off for an easy fast break the other way, and that's a huge difference maker.
• I'm sorry if you live in Texas and had this game blocked because of Kornhub restrictions, because that was an explicit exhibition of Luke screwing the Bulls. At least Luke is the kind of guy to call the next day, as evidence by his gifting everyone a free hot dog with his two missed FTs, but still abusing the opposing team. So great to have Luke back... he so important to this team.
• I was lower on Fox than consensus, but I think that's part of having higher expectations for Swipa (and I'm a huge fan of Fox). I thought in the first half things were shaping up for a huge game from De'Aaron, but I think Chicago started playing very physical and the refs weren't giving Fox the whistle (and they probably should have, he was getting mugged down low), and that completely took him out of his rhythm. He had some uncharacteristic mistakes in the second half. I think it's likely he still isn't operating on the same frequency as the rest of the team considering he missed all of camp and has only been playing 5-on-5 for two weeks. It will come and it will be fine.
• I was a lot higher than consensus on Keldon. I thought this was a classic Keldon hustle game, he gave us all the normal Keldon goodness, including 3 more OREB. This is the Keldon I want. Maybe I'm overlooking some defensive mistakes, because otherwise I don't understand his community grade of 3.4 (but I'm definitely open to the idea that I am overlooking something. LMK).
• Barnes and Champ I thought played their roles just fine. Champ took all the shots he's supposed to take, he just missed them all, which will happen. That's why he's a 2 and not a 1 for me.
• Jeremy... really hard to see a consistent role on this team for him. He's likely just going to be that guy who occasionally (like last game v the Pels) who gives you a very nice game, but is usually just bad. A team low -10 in only 10 minutes is rough work. I'm sure the haters (of which I'm probably one of them) are having a field day today. I don't care about the 3pt tracker... where is the "not the worst player on the floor" tracker?
• Mitch... solid 1 for me, even with the grit the team displayed to get the win. Mitch's experimental rotations in the first half is what derailed this game. Seems like Mitch is trying to be too fair and give everyone a chance like this is some 10-year old CYO game. He needs to make the hard decisions and have a rotation he sticks with, with rest days as appropriate.
• Will Purdue... you get a 1 as well. Your stories are fun, but like... start a podcast and stay off the game broadcast please.

What You Said:

• @spursfanfromafar
  • Welcome back, Dominant Wemby. After a few shaky appearances on offense, Wemby was back to his marauding best against the Bulls thanks to some scintillating three point shooting (Curry'esque) and great coordination with a fantastic Castle. Castle is really growing in front of our eyes as an advanced playmaker by cutting down on his turnovers and showcasing great passing to both Wemby and Kornet. And welcome back, Korndog. He was vital to the win as well.
  • One of Mitch's more so-so games. Wasted an unnecessary review and came up with some odd lineups to let the well coached Bulls take advantage and end up with a 1 pt lead after the first half. The third half was all shooting by the Bulls' bench and the game was getting away but thanks to Wemby, Castle and Kornet, the Spurs pulled it back to come up with a facile win. Outstanding fourth quarter where Mitch adjusted well by playing Kornet and Wemby together and that improved both shot blocking and rebounding (offensive and defensive) and tied the Bulls down. On offense, Castle brilliantly used the lob pass to get Kornet going while choosing the moments to drive and score at the rim. Wemby was amazing in the fourth with ice in his veins.
  • Fox was good in the first half, but played a bit too loose. Keldon had an up and down game, Vassell was bothered by migraine and played only a few minutes where he didn't really hurt the team and Barnes had a so-so game. Champs was a disaster on shooting and turnover prone. Hopefully he will bounce back. And Sochan's weaknesses were there to see.
  • Overall, an amazing 8-2 in the first 10 games with many key players being injured, is an outcome that the Spurs org and its fans will take with delight. The next 10 are going to be tougher but opponents have already thrown the kitchen sink at Wemby and he is still doing amazing things on Defense (sureshot DPOY) and getting better at handling multiple defensive looks (his PER has bounced back to 26.1). Spurs fans can dream of another strong 10 games by Wemby as his supporting cast also eases into consistency.
  • Lastly, it was nice to see Tre Jones play well against the Spurs. The kid was above average relative to his draft position and carried the team well during its worst phases and to see him thrive in Chicago is heartwarming. The Bulls seem to be very well coached and remind me of last year's Pacers team, but they lack a major star like Halliburton. It was a good game to watch, overall.
• @brazil
  • The god tier: Victor
  • The good: Castle, Kornhub and the migraine
  • The bad: Mitch rotation untill the fourth quarter then he rendeemed himself in the fourth playing Korn and Victor, benching Sochan was also the right move.
  • The Ugly: Sochan.. wtf.. Carter place is in Austin
• @NotoriousHOP
  • Wemby - We don't win without him showing up big in the final frame but I also cast a wary eye because of the nine 3pt attempts. Sure, he made six but the most dangerous Wemby is the Mavs Game Wemby where most of his damage is done in the lane.
  • Castle - High assists and low turnovers. Didn't see that coming after the turnover fest of the first few games but he seems comfortable out there. If he could convert more of his shots at the rim, we'd have something really special on both ends.
  • KornDog - Welcome back! KD keeps it simple, plays good D, knows how to hit the open man, and is effective. If we had him for the Lakers game, we win that one also.
  • Fox - Not showing much rust for being out of commission for so long. His scoring bursts have come at just the right time and allows the team to stay in striking difference.
  • Bulls Defense - The league has found a, TEMPORARY, way to slow down Victor and their response is, "Nah, we got faith in Vooch".
• @Splits
  • Mitch is an idiot, rotations made no sense, bailed out by Wemby. only reason he gets a 2 instead of a 1 is because the friendship crew (sans Keldon) were stuck on the bench when it mattered
  • Kornhub - holleeee shiiitt what a difference this guy makes on the team. Unreal contributions on both ends of the floor
  • Steph - finally hit a 3, another double-digit assist game, only 1 TO, 3 more steals keeping him top-10 in the league, played heady
  • Champ giveth one game and taketh another. this was a shithole showing on both ends. fine, your shot isn't falling, at least play some defense
• @Guru of Nothing: I'm cutting Mitch some slack on experimenting with the rotations, but that 1st quarter challenge was straight-up amateur hour. WTF
• @LeBowen
  • Hopefully Mitch learned his lesson here. We can't play a 12 man rotation. We have a lot of players that can get minutes, but not everyone can play every game.
  • Wemby put the team on his back.
  • Champagnie was horrible, Devin wasn't much better, but I'll give him the migrane benefit of the doubt. Barnes was pedestrian and Fox threw away too many balls despite having good scoring stretches.
  • Castle was frustrating, but it just shows that our standards for him are getting higher and higher. Just 1 turnover and 11 assists is great work.
  • Sochan should start catching DNPs, he's offering nothing out there.
  • Keldon is a subpar basketball player, but if everyone had his effort, we would've won this one by 30.
    

Sorry to those who's comments I didn't get to... there were a lot of them to curate this game and apparently there is a 10,000 character limit in posts... I'll look into that.

Up next - two home games against GSW including a cup game. I'm expecting a split, it's just hard to beat a team two games in a row... but if we can pull it off, that would be quite the statement!

GSG!

 

[spursfanfromafar]

Ha. Glad you brought Purdue up. What the hell was that. It was as if the Spurs broadcasters forgot their main job of commentating on the game. Thankfully Purdue was done by the third quarter. What a drone.

 

[CrustyCoastBendFan]

I don’t get the hate for Perdu, aside from the fact that the Spurs were losing their Shizz during his segment. This is what happens when a former player joins the booth, especially when they’re as close to Sean as Perdu apparently is. Give him some grace. What’s more shameful is when Beadle shows up—a trained media professional—and they spend the time droning on about her life instead of focusing on the game. Spare me.

 

[scott]

I don’t get the hate for Perdu, aside from the fact that the Spurs were losing their Shizz during his segment. This is what happens when a former player joins the booth, especially when they’re as close to Sean as Perdu apparently is. Give him some grace. What’s more shameful is when Beadle shows up—a trained media professional—and they spend the time droning on about her life instead of focusing on the game. Spare me.

I actually liked all his content and would enjoy listening to it more... it just that during the game I want to hear commentary about the game.

 

[NotoriousHOP]

I actually liked all his content and would enjoy listening to it more... it just that during the game I want to hear commentary about the game.

The stories were great but limit them to half a quarter please.

 

[rjv]

i want to give an A- to the refs. that's how a game should be called. they allowed for some physicality (maybe a little too much) but they were consistent on both ends. if this had been the same crew that worked the Lakers game last week, there would have been close to 100 free throws and the game would have lasted close to three hours.

 

[rjv]

i was also puzzled by the five that mitch put out there in the 2nd quarter. it really changed the momentum of the game. maybe some of it had to do with the migraine that devin was dealing with but please don't do that again. and the will perdue thing felt like a really bad version of the manning brothers doing their thing on MNF.

 

[Davidicus]

The 2nd and 3rd were an absolute disaster for Mitch. Experimental rotations for too long, needed 1-2 more timeouts during CHI runs, guys sluggish and lost on D. Felt like we needed a Pop tirade.

But once Mitch put HB on Vucevic in the 4th, it allowed Vic to roam in the paint. Gave the NBA a taste of their own medicine putting a smaller player on a stretch big. That changed things for us in the 4th. That plus French Vanilla to close the game.

All in all, Mitch did some things in the 4th to redeem himself, in my mind (and Victor..)

 

[TAPS]

I thought Sochan had 2 good games and 2 bad games

 

[scott]

I thought Sochan had 2 good games and 2 bad games

That appears to be the consensus.

 

[ambchang]

I thought Sochan had 2 good games and 2 bad games

I wouldn’t call the other two particularly good. At least based on what I saw he was discombobulated on offence. I’d say he was still decent on defence and even though he didn’t get rebounds he did box out well. But he was fumbling the ball, getting in the way too much. I hope he’s just trying to get back into knowing the offence but those two good games wasn’t all that good.

 

[024]

I don't mind the lineup experimentation. It's still so early in the season and Pop used to do them all the time.