Game Thread Spurs (27-12) @ Thunder (33-7) (Tue 1/13/26) [7:00PM CST]

Ice009 said:
He played his best when Victor was out and was one of the main factors that carried the team to the record they had in that stretch. He was the focal point during a lot of those games. Steph was out for some of those games too.
He was also maybe the Spurs' best player last game in OKC.

All I'm saying is, people need to not crap on Fox if he has a bad game when he's being played like this. He's not at his best playing off the ball. He's being a good team player, and then people are ragging on him for these performances the past bunch of games.
Click to expand...
For sure, I agree. I think he will play his best individual ball playing that way, but I think the team has a much higher ceiling with him switching primary duties with Steph and that Steph has gotten too many of those duties lately.
But, team game, the spacing has sucked missing DV, with limited Vic, and with Barnes/Champ hitting less than 33% combined, and that coincides with Fox/Steph/Dylan shooting terribly.
Fox isn't going anywhere this yr, or probably next, so they have to figure it out, and he's the best suited/only one suited today to play off ball, because today Steph/Dylan are shooting under 25%

Maybe the first 33 (24 with Fox) games was a fluke and this doesn't work, maybe the past 6 games missing key shooters and slumping is just that- a slump against 5 tough teams. We'll have to see, I'm hesitant to look at 6 games given the circumstances and say he can't play-off ball, but he does need to initiate more for sure.
I think it boils down to we are fine if Steph is the only poor shooter in the SL, but for the past 2 weeks its been Steph + Fox + Barnes + Champ with Kornet for a lot of those minutes. 5 guys that haven't been hitting 3s, that'll make you look bad.
 
scott said:
And I think that's correct.

If we were presented the idea of acquiring De'Aaron Fox, but specifically to be an off-ball guard... I would have been far less interested.
Click to expand...
I'd still be happy to pay the price given how the lottery worked. Dylan was a gift and without him, Steph would likely be playing a lot more with reserves. That changed the equation.
Spurs aren't on a 57 win pace without Fox, probably closer to 45.
Personally I didn't want to give Fox the extension but I'm very confident when can get what we paid for him, if not more.
And I have confidence Fox gets back to 36+% and if he does, a lot of these concerns go away. 3 attacker guards is an incredible thing to have, but it does come at a cost and Barnes going from a 44% shooter in Nov to a 33% shooter over the past 20 games makes this a lot trickier.
 
Arguendo said:
I'd still be happy to pay the price given how the lottery worked. Dylan was a gift and without him, Steph would likely be playing a lot more with reserves. That changed the equation.
Spurs aren't on a 57 win pace without Fox, probably closer to 45.
Personally I didn't want to give Fox the extension but I'm very confident when can get what we paid for him, if not more.
And I have confidence Fox gets back to 36+% and if he does, a lot of these concerns go away. 3 attacker guards is an incredible thing to have, but it does come at a cost and Barnes going from a 44% shooter in Nov to a 33% shooter over the past 20 games makes this a lot trickier.
Click to expand...
To be clear, my issue is less with Fox (who does need to play better than he has the last few games) and more with how we are using him. It would be one thing if he were being deferential to a highly efficient, low TOV version of Castle... but instead it's for a low efficiency, turnover machine. I want to see us more playing to our strengths and not into our weaknesses.
 
Rafa said:
I'd be more inclined to accept this if Castle wasn't such a turnover machine. For example, if Harper ever gets back on track, I don't mind him being more on ball and Fox being off ball. But Castle has been so dreadful it's painful to watch the team continue to run through him when you have a semi all-star PG right next to him on the floor.

I also do wonder if we put the ball more in Fox's hands if he wouldn't start performing better as well. Point I guess is that with how things are looking recently, it's annoying we aren't trying something different.
Click to expand...
All of this.
 
I'm expecting OKC to double Victor fairly relentlessly tonight, and they'll hide Chet away from him. I think this may open up some nice cutting lanes for our guys if we can get Wemby operating as QB in the high post with Barnes and Champ setting off-ball screens for Steph and Swipa. If OKC sags off to cut those closing lanes off, it's going to create 3PA opportunities for Champ and HB, and hopefully they're hitting.

We started insanely cold from three in previously games versus OKC, so we certainly don't need to rely on the 3 ball to beat them. I expect us to design our defense to leave open 3PA for JDub, Caruso and JWill specifically. Wiggins, Joe and to a lesser extent Ajay and Wallace will feast if we leave them open.

I wonder if OKC will go back to Kenrich Williams at C against Wemby. They had some moderate success in that in a previous matchup, but not really. Wemby's been pretty unstoppable against them. With our guards on cold streaks I do wonder if they just allow Wemby to do his thing and focus on making life uncomfortable for the guards.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

scott
Game Thread Spurs (26-11) @ Celtics (23-13) (Sat 1/10/26) [7:00PM CST]
37 38 39
Replies
952
Views
8K
BatManu20
BatManu20
scott
Game Thread Spurs (25-11) vs Lakers (23-11) (Wed 01/07/26) [8:30PM CST] on ESPN
35 36 37
Replies
915
Views
8K
Ice009
I
Rafa
Game Thread Spurs (17-7) vs Thunder (24-1) (Sat 12/13/25) [8:00PM CDT]
79 80 81
Replies
2K
Views
22K
thiste
T
scott
Game Thread Spurs (13-6) vs Grizzlies (9-12) (Tue 12/2/25) [7:00PM CDT]
26 27 28
Replies
678
Views
7K
O_V
O_V
scott
Game Thread Spurs (27-11) @ Timberwolves (25-14) (Sun 1/11/26) [6:00PM CST]
33 34 35
Replies
861
Views
7K
scott
scott
Back
Top