Game Thread Spurs (7-2) @ Bulls (6-3) (Mon 11/10/2025) [7:00PM CDT]

[KobesAchilles]

Might sound like an overreaction, but if we're to be competitive, we need at least one more legit 6'8+ shooter who's not a negative on defense.
4-24 from 3pt if we exclude Wemby.
That just can't happen.

We drafted one this year. CB is needed for us to be a legit contender and I’m all for him taking Sochan’s minutes

 

[LeBowen]

We drafted one this year. CB is needed for us to be a legit contender and I’m all for him taking Sochan’s minutes

I'm a Bryant believer, but he won't be ready to be a serious contributor this season.
Which doesn't mean he shouldn't be taking Sochan's minutes.

 

[Shmurs]

I think the Fox experience where you have to accept some disengagement from time to time is ok. If he’s a #2 and there are other initiators then we can just use him when he wants to activate the super powers.

I expect him to go balls out in the playoffs though.

 

[KobesAchilles]

I'm a Bryant believer, but he won't be ready to be a serious contributor this season.
Which doesn't mean he shouldn't be taking Sochan's minutes.

He’s definitely not ready now. The only hope is that he will be better in April by playing him now. Get him some playoff experience early. Kinda like Harrison Barnes himself. Dude was not ready his first year at Golden State but he got some playoff experience and became a very good role player for them in their first title run

 

[Fireball]

What is your feeling with regards to Fox's speed changes so far? Is he still holding back a bit. I saw that he used to jump from both legs for layups which looks weird though it worked out well. Is this normal for him?

 

[SanAnSpursFan21]

Glad we got the win. Wemby with 18 4th quarter points and Castle with another double digit assist game.

I kinda think like the Warriors a few years ago that several Spurs guys could be All Stars since some of that seems to hinge on team success (even if it “doesn’t”). When the Warriors were ringing almost every year, even Draymond was getting all star nods

 

[Mugen]

I kinda think like the Warriors a few years ago that several Spurs guys could be All Stars since some of that seems to hinge on team success (even if it “doesn’t”). When the Warriors were ringing almost every year, even Draymond was getting all star nods

Wemby is a lock if he's healthy. Maybe Fox if Spurs are still a top 2 seed near the AS break. Doubt Castle gets serious consideration for AS this year though.

And shit on him all you want but prime Draymond is one of the best defenders in NBA history tbh.

 

[spursparker9]

Best scenario is Wemby get the starter votes. LeBum, KD and Joker are probably locked for the 3 front court starter spots. Not sure if Wemby has enough popularity to supercede any of these 3.



That would leave space for Fox and Castle to be picked by coaches for reserves. Fox should have priority over Castle. But there is still hope for Castle due to injuries replacements.

Spurs just need to maintain top 3 seeds in the fucking Western Conference

 

[DAF86]

Best scenario is Wemby get the starter votes. LeBum, KD and Joker are probably locked for the 3 front court starter spots. Not sure if Wemby has enough popularity to supercede any of these 3.



That would leave space for Fox and Castle to be picked by coaches for reserves. Fox should have priority over Castle. But there is still hope for Castle due to injuries replacements.

Spurs just need to maintain top 3 seeds in the fucking Western Conference

I think it's no longer divided into backcourt and frontcourt. The top 5 with the most votes just get in.

 

[Wemby_Island]

Wemby need more Kornet than Fox.

 

[Exstatic]

Best scenario is Wemby get the starter votes. LeBum, KD and Joker are probably locked for the 3 front court starter spots. Not sure if Wemby has enough popularity to supercede any of these 3.



That would leave space for Fox and Castle to be picked by coaches for reserves. Fox should have priority over Castle. But there is still hope for Castle due to injuries replacements.

Spurs just need to maintain top 3 seeds in the fucking Western Conference

He won’t be if he doesn’t start playing games soon.

 

[Arguendo]

At best Spurs will get 2, so it depends on Castle maintaining his form (and the TO trend) AND Fox needs to coast the 1st part of the season.

It is possible mostly because of his defensive impact, it's just absurd for a 2nd year player, he's not just athletic, he's smart and a quick learner.

For sure, 3xAS isn't happening, 2 is unlikely but the door is very open - perennial American AS down- Tatum, Hali, Lillard, LeBron, Kawhi, AD. Kyrie. JWill is prolly out given he's gonna miss the first 15ish games, Trae wasn't playing like one and gonna miss too many games. Cle ain't getting 3xAS again. And the 16 American AS slots really helps.

IMO Castle has a huge edge over Fox because first 8 games and Fox will help Castle's weaknesses a lot- Fox helps cut down the TOs, takes lots of pressure off especially in crunch time, but Castle ends up leading in Assists and keeps getting to the line at a crazy clip. Depending on how long Harper's out, Castle may be able to keep this 18ppg scoring up too.

Fox was at his best as lead ball-handler/attacker and secondary creator playing with Sabonis. I think that happens again, and Castle gets to play off, play mostly downhill and drive + score/get fouled/alley-oop.

And yeah, Castle's just crazy impressive, so mature, so much body control, learns/adopts/improves and always gives 100%. Fierce. The future is crazy bright.

 

[Valparaiso]

Nobody says trauma is rational.

And Elliot's the last person anyone would call objective

 

[spursparker9]

Oh I just remembered that aren't they gonna try out the real international vs USA format all star game this year?

If that is the case, how would they pick the players? There might be some undeserving all star players on the international team to make up the team.

 

[Arguendo]

Best scenario is Wemby get the starter votes. LeBum, KD and Joker are probably locked for the 3 front court starter spots. Not sure if Wemby has enough popularity to supercede any of these 3.

That would leave space for Fox and Castle to be picked by coaches for reserves. Fox should have priority over Castle. But there is still hope for Castle due to injuries replacements.

Spurs just need to maintain top 3 seeds in the fucking Western Conference

I think it's no longer divided into backcourt and frontcourt. The top 5 with the most votes just get in.

It's also International vs American. Lebron and KD and all other Americans don't factor in with Wemby.
The International 5 will be Luka-SGA-Wemby-Giannis-Joker. There's 8 international slots, 16 American slots, split into 3 teams and playing a round-robin.

"The 2026 NBA All-Star Game will feature a new format: a three-team, round-robin tournament with two USA teams and one international team. Each team will have eight players"

 

[Arguendo]

Oh I just remembered that aren't they gonna try out the real international vs USA format all star game this year?

If that is the case, how would they pick the players? There might be some undeserving all star players on the international team to make up the team.

You've got it backwards. Tatum, Hali, Lillard, LeBron, Kawhi, AD, Kyrie, and JWill are hurt.
Like half of the top 30 healthy players are international and they only get 8 slots.
The top5 players in the league are all international.
It will be way easier to find 3 deserving international players (think Sengun, Giddey, Paolo, Murray, Saikam, Avdija, Lauri, Franz, Barret, etc- that's 9 real contenders + the Sarr's, Embiids, etc) than to find 16 deserving Americans. There's gonna be multiple better international players left off because the format.

 

[thiste]

Oh I just remembered that aren't they gonna try out the real international vs USA format all star game this year?

If that is the case, how would they pick the players? There might be some undeserving all star players on the international team to make up the team.

If you do East vs West it's just as unfair if there are way more deserving players in the West, you know.

One way or another there are always deserving players that don't get called.

 

[spursparker9]

Best scenario is Wemby get the starter votes. LeBum, KD and Joker are probably locked for the 3 front court starter spots. Not sure if Wemby has enough popularity to supercede any of these 3.

That would leave space for Fox and Castle to be picked by coaches for reserves. Fox should have priority over Castle. But there is still hope for Castle due to injuries replacements.

Spurs just need to maintain top 3 seeds in the fucking Western Conference

It's also International vs American. Lebron and KD and all other Americans don't factor in with Wemby.
The International 5 will be Luka-SGA-Wemby-Giannis-Joker. There's 8 international slots, 16 American slots, split into 3 teams and playing a round-robin.

"The 2026 NBA All-Star Game will feature a new format: a three-team, round-robin tournament with two USA teams and one international team. Each team will have eight players"

If they decide to play for real....what a team for the International....that is basically the top 5 players in the world Luka-SGA-Wemby-Giannis-Joker.

 

[Wemby_Island]

Did not watch the game live. As always super fun to go through a game thread in which the team sucked through stretches and pulled out the win. It obviously was never a only a Spurstalk thing ... its a basketball fan thing to go off the rails quickly.

I am glad that Mitch's rotations were called out here. He really has a problem if too many guys are available it seems. Some guys never got into a flow.

So happy Victor found his stroke from three. That is the alien/unicorn we need. Prior to the game I doubted the Bulls would leave Vucibaby on an island with Wemby but thankfully they did.

Props to the Bulls - they are playing awesome and that without their starting point guard. They had the Spurs defense on skates and once again showed that our defense is 90% Wemby but as soon as teams move the ball well, they get wide open threes easily. That has not changed.

While I enjoyed the conversation with Will Purdue, it was a bit annyoing that the announcers completely forgot calling the game one bit. It was distracting and as it coincided with the worst stretch of the Spurs in this game, it felt weird.

8-2 .... wow! On to the next ten

I dont agree with this.

We are too early into the regular season and he has to do some experiments now.

 

[Arguendo]

If they decide to play for real....what a team for the International....that is basically the top 5 players in the world Luka-SGA-Wemby-Giannis-Joker.

My hope is they keep this format for a few years and the World team sweeps every single season because they just play much much better, actual team basketball.
It's not a coincidence the best players are international, they grow up actually learning basketball instead the the AAU garbage hero-ball that's been ruining US basketball quality.

 

[Shmurs]

Sochan is not much of a hobby horse for criticism anymore. Seems a little settled. So with that, I’ll move on to being irrationally upset by Jacob Tobey. Just like…shut the fuck up dude. You’re the lamest dork in sports media and your catch phrases are ruining calls we’re supposed to watch for generations.

Vic’s sizzle real is gonna have to be put on mute, like Giannis’s

 

[Exstatic]

Oh I just remembered that aren't they gonna try out the real international vs USA format all star game this year?

If that is the case, how would they pick the players? There might be some undeserving all star players on the international team to make up the team.

I was thinking the exact opposite, that there would be undeserving Americans. There hasn’t been a US MVP since Harden in 2017-2018.

 

[thiste]

You've got it backwards. Tatum, Hali, Lillard, LeBron, Kawhi, AD, Kyrie, and JWill are hurt.
Like half of the top 30 healthy players are international and they only get 8 slots.
The top5 players in the league are all international.
It will be way easier to find 3 deserving international players (think Sengun, Giddey, Paolo, Murray, Saikam, Avdija, Lauri, Franz, Barret, etc- that's 9 real contenders + the Sarr's, Embiids, etc) than to find 16 deserving Americans. There's gonna be multiple better international players left off because the format.

Well the International starting 5 pretty much writes itself: SGA-Luka-Wemby-Giannis-Jokic, so there's only 3 slots left for International players.

Now if I'm a coach, with an 8 player roster I would believe having 3 bigs like those 3 should be enough. They might still select Sengun, but then that's the absolute limit. You really can't choose more frontcourt players for the last 2 spots.

So, who do you get that's a legitimate international guard for the ASG?

Giddey? Murray? Feels a little bit lacking... I could imagine Mathurin cuz he's really good, but he's injured and the Pacers ain't exactly doing well rn

I don't really have anyone else in mind

 

[Valparaiso]

Kornet is shooting 72% from the field, and has 9 assists and 1 turnover in 71 minutes.

 

[Dex]

Wemby need more Kornet than Fox.

Wemby needs Fox to play beside to help draw attention and alleviate the double teams.

The rest of the team needs Kornet because goddamn do we suck without him if Wemby is on the bench.