Player The Methodical Meritocracy of Maestro Mitch Johnson and his Many Minions

RC_Drunkford said:
Mitch has to run Wemby/Fox DHOs with Wemby rolling to the rim for a lob or poppin out to the 3-point line. I just watched some tape of him in the Kings offense. They were running a ton of DHOs with him and Sabonis. Different actions. Sabonis is one of the best DHO hubs in the league, but Wemby demands so much attention that they could easily run some of this, yet we never see it.


Even when Fox was going off for us, most of his buckets come in transition or off catch and shoots. It's very rare that there is a pick & roll involved and those are mostly with Luke.


Also people seem to forget that for the 12 games Wemby missed, Castle was out for 9 of those as well, putting the ball in Fox' hands by default.

During that stretch Fox averaged 18 shot attempts, 26.7 PPG, 6.3 AST 1.6 STL with 8 FT attempts per game on 48/38/82 shooting . It's no wonder he can't catch a rhythm if you let him get 9 shots for an entire game and have Castle be the defacto PG. This is on the coaches.
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Glad you posted this.

Fox is deserving of criticism for his play of late, but I'll stand firmly on the position that we are misusing him and not putting him in the best position to succeed. If we wanted him to play off-ball SG, there were better targets we could have gone after. Why trade for a guy with Fox's skillset if you aren't going to use it?

Those stats you posted in that non-Wemby, non-Castle stretch really highlight it. If we want Castle to play the way he is, Fox really doesn't fit. But I'd also argue that playing Castle the way we are isn't particularly the most efficient approach either. IMO we need to find a way to center our offense around a Wemby/Fox two-man game and figure out how Castle best compliments that. I still think Fox/Castle/Shooter/Shooter/Wemby can work very well... but not if we're having Castle cosplay as Kobe.
 
RC_Drunkford said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2011117150048555324

https://twitter.com/x/status/2011117731039625647

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Castle's decision making needs some work as well
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Pro/bro tip: You can resize uploaded images. :D
 
scott said:
Glad you posted this.

Fox is deserving of criticism for his play of late, but I'll stand firmly on the position that we are misusing him and not putting him in the best position to succeed. If we wanted him to play off-ball SG, there were better targets we could have gone after. Why trade for a guy with Fox's skillset if you aren't going to use it?

Those stats you posted in that non-Wemby, non-Castle stretch really highlight it. If we want Castle to play the way he is, Fox really doesn't fit. But I'd also argue that playing Castle the way we are isn't particularly the most efficient approach either. IMO we need to find a way to center our offense around a Wemby/Fox two-man game and figure out how Castle best compliments that. I still think Fox/Castle/Shooter/Shooter/Wemby can work very well... but not if we're having Castle cosplay as Kobe.
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agree. The offense should evolve around the Fox/Wemby two-man game. Castle played well next to CP3 last season, so it all comes down to Mitch telling Fox to demand the ball more. Steph still should be out there for defensive purposes, but he can easily play offball. He did at UConn and played very well next to CP3 running the offense last year. He also seems to shoot better from 3 off the catch.

I think Mitch just needs to be more creative with the type of sets we run. A lot of it is very basic stuff.

LeBowen said:
Pro/bro tip: You can resize uploaded images. :D
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got you, still figuring out some of the functions here
 
One other thought that popped into my head... is Castle's offensive load taking away from his defense at all? He's been very good (96th percentile actual D-EPM) on defense this season... could he be even better with less focus on the offensive end?
 
scott said:
One other thought that popped into my head... is Castle's offensive load taking away from his defense at all? He's been very good (96th percentile actual D-EPM) on defense this season... could he be even better with less focus on the offensive end?
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IIRC, his defensive metrics have been steadily going up.
 
scott said:
One other thought that popped into my head... is Castle's offensive load taking away from his defense at all? He's been very good (96th percentile actual D-EPM) on defense this season... could he be even better with less focus on the offensive end?
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nah I feel anything more on defense is diminishing returns territory
 
spurs offense was humming at its best when Castle was out, Fox was running the show, and we were starting 3 shooters in Vassell, Champagnie, and Barnes

this is not to say castle doesnt have a role or spot in the starting unit. we've had plenty of success with castle starting with Fox... see the 3 wins against the Thunder and our NBA cup run. but i think he needs to adjust to Fox more than the other way around
 
spurraider21 said:
spurs offense was humming at its best when Castle was out, Fox was running the show, and we were starting 3 shooters in Vassell, Champagnie, and Barnes

this is not to say castle doesnt have a role or spot in the starting unit. we've had plenty of success with castle starting with Fox... see the 3 wins against the Thunder and our NBA cup run. but i think he needs to adjust to Fox more than the other way around
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There is going to be a point coming up quickly where the Spur's FO is going to have to make some ruthless and possibly painful decisions for the betterment of the team.

Let's hope they make the right ones as they do it.
 
Corso said:
There is going to be a point coming up quickly where the Spur's FO is going to have to make some ruthless and possibly painful decisions for the betterment of the team.

Let's hope they make the right ones as they do it.
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What do you see as the toughest potential decisions?
 
DTW said:
Okay, but then why acquire Fox in the first place? If they wanted more of a spacer and secondary ball handler, they could have spent lesser resources on a better fit.
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There's room for three creators. As the season moves along and builds into the playoffs, I'd expect Fox to take on more of the primary creator role he's filled in the past and Castle to learn to treasure every opportunity with the ball like he's guarding the Imperial Treasury (German: Kaiserliche Schatzkammer) at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. Sometimes, I even wish Chris Paul were back as a player-coach, so he could do his 24-7 tutoring with Steph and Dylan (and then realize it would never fly with the new bench coaches).
 
poopbox said:
Don't think Pop has any say at all tbh cause he would never let his pet cat Sochan get benched.
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Sochans minutes only decreased from 29 per game as one of Pops Pets to 26 in Mitchs first year.
 
scott said:
What do you see as the toughest potential decisions?
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What is Julian's ceiling and what's it worth? Is he the most valuable trade bait?

When does Harrison's starting streak end and what role does he play going forward? Is he resigned and for how much?

Who replaces Barnes as starter and what does it cost in salary and players?

Who's out between Sochan, Olnyk, and Biyombo and who replaces them?

Will Carter's next G-League stint last long enough for him to learn?

Defended open three pointers | Made three pointers. Which coach is retained?
 
Area 51.247 said:
What is Julian's ceiling and what's it worth? Is he the most valuable trade bait?

When does Harrison's starting streak end and what role does he play going forward? Is he resigned and for how much?

Who replaces Barnes as starter and what does it cost in salary and players?

Who's out between Sochan, Olnyk, and Biyombo and who replaces them?

Will Carter's next G-League stint last long enough for him to learn?

Defended open three pointers | Made three pointers. Which coach is retained?
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I actually think all of these are pretty to answer.

What's Julian's ceiling? He's probably pretty near it as a fully actualized player. What's that worth? Maybe up to the MLE. We can probably get him at a discount by declining his option and getting him money earlier.

When does Barnes streak end? As soon as there is a better option.

Who replaces Barnes as starter? That's the one that is tbd. Someone not on the roster yet.

WHo is out between Sochan, Kelly and Bismack? All of them are on borrowed time. Literally any other NBA player can replace them.

Carter's next G-League stint? Honestly... who cares? He's a ways off... he'll be fine. We don't need to worry about what he can learn from a trip to Austin.

Which coach is retained? Probably all of them. We're still at the start of this journey, not an established team who needs to find heads to roll.
 
Area 51.247 said:
What is Julian's ceiling and what's it worth? Is he the most valuable trade bait?

When does Harrison's starting streak end and what role does he play going forward? Is he resigned and for how much?

Who replaces Barnes as starter and what does it cost in salary and players?

Who's out between Sochan, Olnyk, and Biyombo and who replaces them?

Will Carter's next G-League stint last long enough for him to learn?

Defended open three pointers | Made three pointers. Which coach is retained?
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#1 realistically should be the only difficult question the FO has to answer.

Harrison either has to move to damn near the end of the bench or dumped. Biyombo should also be off the team, offers nothing.

I don’t want Barnes infecting our young guys with whatever he’s afflicted with.
 
Fabbs said:
Sochans minutes only decreased from 29 per game as one of Pops Pets to 26 in Mitchs first year.
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Well last year Mitch was definitely just doing a continuation of whatever Pop was doing and had planned to do what he came back. This year I don't think Pop has any say or has any care to.
 
poopbox said:
Well last year Mitch was definitely just doing a continuation of whatever Pop was doing and had planned to do what he came back. This year I don't think Pop has any say or has any care to.
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Which leads us back to was and is Mitch nothing more then a Pop chosen hire?

Hey we were 2nd best record for a cup of coffee so it's not all bad.
But the return to Suck is really getting consistent now.
 
poopbox said:
This year I don't think Pop has any say or has any care to.
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Disagree. Pop's a mentor and presence, no matter his official capacity. Think he "is over himself" though, and content to watch and observe while realizing his limitations. If asked, sure that he'll communicate his opinion.
 
Fabbs said:
Which leads us back to was and is Mitch nothing more then a Pop chosen hire?
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If so, good hire Pop!

Fabbs said:
Hey we were 2nd best record for a cup of coffee so it's not all bad.
But the return to Suck is really getting consistent now.
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"Return to suck" like losing by 1 to the Wolves on the road means they suck. Thunder were bound to take one.

Some of you have forgotten what it's like to be a top-tier team and seem to think winning was easy during those years. We laid plenty of eggs and had plenty of subpar months during the 00s too.
 
Very true, it's just that this team hasn't proven anything and it's all new for them. We don't know how they'll respond. A lot of us knew TD/TP/Manu led teams would right the ship at some point. We don't know that about this team, yet.
 
Ice009 said:
Very true, it's just that this team hasn't proven anything and it's all new for them. We don't know how they'll respond. A lot of us knew TD/TP/Manu led teams would right the ship at some point. We don't know that about this team, yet.
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Dusty/spurs reporter invoked SPAM on Twitter the other day but you can’t apply that at all to this unproven bunch
 
Am I noticing more 2 of 3 of Fox/Castle/Harper on the floor? ...probably easier to frame it as it looks like Harper is getting more minutes.
 
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