Player The restricted-age video store section of Dylan Harper

[brazil]

As much as I like Harper, I still don't understand this pick. We should've easily traded back for Kon, who we knew was a sharp shooter who would give the team the spacing that we need. Instead we went this best player available yada yada, and now we got a player who won't get as many minutes as the players ahead of him because they all play the same.

The time where you pick following your need is over, you pick what you consider has the most upside. Harper was considered a clear number 2 and I am more than ok with the pick. Picking for the need is why Portland picked Bowie over Jordan, they had Drexler and all star Paxson in that position, in terms of roster and needs you can understand not picking Jordan but that was a tiny mistake right? All things being equal of course Spurs had Fox and Castle but still picked Harper and it is the right move. You fix the roser later through trade if needed

 

[Exstatic]

How long before Ron Harper turns into Uncle Dennis?

His kids aren’t particularly close to Ron Sr.

 

[brazil]

I think Wemby will never do it; he genuinely loves this franchise.

I think you are wrong here. He loves the franchise, he would love to be the player of one franchise and he won't leave because of individual accolade missed opportunities but he will certainly leave if he feels he has no shot at ringing. There is no doubt in my mind about it and this shot at ringing needs to come sooner rather than later

 

[scott]

Feels like the Spurs created a Fox/Haliburton situation for themselves. There were plenty of minutes to go around for all 3 guards, but Mitch is somehow finding a way to botch things to the point where we may have to trade one of them fairly soon.

 

[Shmurs]

last night we ran a champ + Vassell lineup with castle and neither of the other 2 guards.

this isn’t a very good team when Mitch thinks everyone deserves to be an initiator and plays position-less offense. It’s too much to ask that we leverage an alleged advantage and put 2 of the guards together at all times?

 

[Rafa]

I think Wemby will never do it; he genuinely loves this franchise. But there is a real Harden-out-of-OKC potential/danger with Harper if his role continues to be stymied while the top draftees of his class become stars and flourish elsewhere. Harper missing out on All-Rookie (first) teams will be the first scratch on the wall..

Similar concerns with Harper from my end. It’d be one thing if Castle was being properly deployed as a combo guard/off ball defensive minded player, but the fact he’s basically our primary ball handler over even Fox doesn’t bode well for making Harper fit. The fact it’s gone so poorly and we refuse to adjust speaks volumes as well for who we are putting our chips on.

We all knew it’d be tricky to make 3 potentially great guards work, but we somehow found a way to make none of them work lol it’s actually quite an amazing feat from our coaching staff to be able to accomplish that.

 

[LeBowen]

The situation would be simple if not for Spurs family values.
Fox is a proven all-star, Castle and Harper are young players every single team would kill for.
It's way harder to obtain one of those for your roster than hire a generic assistant as the head coach.

If Mitch can't figure it out by the end of the season and we fail miserably in the playoffs, which is our current trajectory, he needs to go.
But again, Spurs family values will prevent that and he'll get at least 3 years.

 

[spursparker9]

I think you are wrong here. He loves the franchise, he would love to be the player of one franchise and he won't leave because of individual accolade missed opportunities but he will certainly leave if he feels he has no shot at ringing. There is no doubt in my mind about it and this shot at ringing needs to come sooner rather than later

tbh seeing Chet 3peat should be able to make Vic pull the trigger

 

[brazil]

tbh seeing Chet 3peat should be able to make Vic pull the trigger

Or a project like winning a ring with the Knicks the first after 50 years

 

[Wemby_Island]

He will go to Boston. He loved the city so muchh..

Its not about if he loves spurs as a franchise or not. He does too much on D and Vic feels he is entitled for ball when he demands on O.

Our players dont do that and Mitch wont hold them accountable. So he will go to somewhere where he will be valued more and players rally around him. He wants to be that leader.

 

[Exstatic]

He will go to Boston. He loved the city so muchh..

Its not about if he loves spurs as a franchise or not. He does too much on D and Vic feels he is entitled for ball when he demands on O.

Our players dont do that and Mitch wont hold them accountable. So he will go to somewhere where he will be valued more and players rally around him. He wants to be that leader.

His USG% is 32.8. He’s getting the ball a ton,and he screws up a lot when he has it. I like Vic, but if there’s tunnel vision in the equation,it’s him not passing it out when triple teamed. I’d love for him to take 10 games, and just be a hub,just pass the ball out to Shooters and cutters.

 

[Wemby_Island]

His USG% is 32.8. He’s getting the ball a ton,and he screws up a lot when he has it. I like Vic, but if there’s tunnel vision in the equation,it’s him not passing it out when triple teamed. I’d love for him to take 10 games, and just be a hub,just pass the ball out to Shooters and cutters.

I dont think he is getting enough in paint or mid.

Mostly he is getting around 3 pt line and spurs win if the shot fall and dont win if they dont fall.

From my eyes, I feel like his mid range jump shot is top notch, but no one passes the ball to him in that area. So he will hover around 3 pt line as he gets the ball.

 

[Ice009]

As much as I like Harper, I still don't understand this pick. We should've easily traded back for Kon, who we knew was a sharp shooter who would give the team the spacing that we need. Instead we went this best player available yada yada, and now we got a player who won't get as many minutes as the players ahead of him because they all play the same.

Kon would fit very well on this team. He'd actually work even better here than Charlotte with the open looks he'd get, but I wouldn't have traded Harper and traded down to get him. Definitely would not have done that.

Like others have said, though, would Mitch have even played him much? Would have have cited he wants defense and not given Kon the court time to show what he can do?

 

[Exstatic]

Kon would fit very well on this team. He'd actually work even better here than Charlotte with the open looks he'd get, but I wouldn't have traded Harper and traded down to get him. Definitely would not have done that.

Like others have said, though, would Mitch have even played him much? Would have have cited he wants defense and not given Kon the court time to show what he can do?

Kon is a support piece. A damn good one, but you don’t want to pass on a guy like Dylan for a support piece. We can go grab a shooter on the market for a lot cheaper than you can grab a top flight prospect. One may actually fall into our lap if we can get in on one of the big trades at or near the deadline.

 

[spurraider21]

As much as I like Harper, I still don't understand this pick. We should've easily traded back for Kon, who we knew was a sharp shooter who would give the team the spacing that we need. Instead we went this best player available yada yada, and now we got a player who won't get as many minutes as the players ahead of him because they all play the same.

yeah if we drafted purely for fit Kon would have been a lot more seamless. there's also some hindsight bias here given how dynamite kon has been so far

but it was a fairly consensus view that Harper was too good of a talent to pass up and the gap between him and the next guy from a talent/potential perspective was too vast to consider fit. anyway, VJ would have gone ahead of Kon (not that he's been bad either). bailey would have fit well too

ive been one of the people yelling about lack of shooting on the team for a while and even i didnt consider taking those guys ahead of Harper because he has #1 option talent/potential

 

[scott]

Kon is a support piece. A damn good one, but you don’t want to pass on a guy like Dylan for a support piece. We can go grab a shooter on the market for a lot cheaper than you can grab a top flight prospect. One may actually fall into our lap if we can get in on one of the big trades at or near the deadline.

Counterpoint: if you're going to completely misuse the top flight prospect, maybe you would have been better off just taking the supporting piece.

With that said, it's early... I hope the Spurs figure it out. By right now it feels like they are massively fumbling this 3-guard thing by using each of them in the most suboptimal way possible. It's almost like we have a love affair with making things more difficult than they need to be.

 

[dn0774]

Kon is having an insane season clearly but let's not act like him being this effective this fast was anywhere close to consensus. There were (are?) significant doubts about his defense and on ball abilities. Granted, if he is going to be a generational level shooter who cares about those doubts.

That being said, we are seeing in a couple places the comparison of highly touted draft picks getting handed the keys early to a featured role (Kon & VJ) and guys who are given inconsistent roles (Dylan this year and Sheppard last year) and struggle. Watching Reed go from being an automatic bucket in college to a timid, scared rookie afraid to disappoint Ime and get yanked was jarring. Now he has his sea legs under him and built a little confidence and is producing.

The sad part is I know that Dylan's shooting splits are dog shit and yet I am still not convinced he can't shoot because of what happened with Reed last year (not saying he would shoot at Reed's level to be clear).

Dylan has always been a swagger/irrational confidence kid and when that is taken away it looks ugly.

 

[spursistan]

Counterpoint: if you're going to completely misuse the top flight prospect, maybe you would have been better off just taking the supporting piece.

With that said, it's early... I hope the Spurs figure it out. By right now it feels like they are massively fumbling this 3-guard thing by using each of them in the most suboptimal way possible. It's almost like we have a love affair with making things more difficult than they need to be.

I'm not going to suddently question Harper's superior talent pedigree vis-a-vis Knueppel because of an unproven and unimaginative coach has decided to pull rank on a rookie player. If someone has to go because of fit it will be Fox first, then maybe Castle (doubt it) and probably Mitch before them all because he couldn't maximize this much talent at his disposal..Harper is the most obvious longterm Wemby sidekick we could have imagined-- a potential offensive engine unto himself. Him falling into our laps was a godsend gift. Spurs are the last franchise to trade Second Overall picks,

 

[Shmurs]

Kon has been playing like the 2nd greatest 3 point shooter on planet earth. Thats not a role player if it holds. Thats Klay, basically.

I think Harper is still the right play but Kon seems incredibly gifted.

 

[scott]

I'm not going to suddently question Harper's superior talent pedigree vis-a-vis Knueppel because of an unproven and unimaginative coach has decided to pull rank on a rookie player. If someone has to go because of fit it will be Fox first, then maybe Castle (doubt it) and probably Mitch before them all because he couldn't maximize this much talent at his disposal..Harper is the most obvious longterm Wemby sidekick we could have imagined-- a potential offensive engine unto himself. Him falling into our laps was a godsend gift. Spurs are the last franchise to trade Second Overall picks,

Don't misinterpret my comment as anything other than an indictment of my perceived mismanagement of the team by the unproven and unimaginative coach.

The front office made the right pick. The coach (perhaps in coordination with the front office?) appears to be fumbling the bag so far. There's still time to turn things around though... we'll see.

 

[kxs783]

The time where you pick following your need is over, you pick what you consider has the most upside. Harper was considered a clear number 2 and I am more than ok with the pick. Picking for the need is why Portland picked Bowie over Jordan, they had Drexler and all star Paxson in that position, in terms of roster and needs you can understand not picking Jordan but that was a tiny mistake right? All things being equal of course Spurs had Fox and Castle but still picked Harper and it is the right move. You fix the roser later through trade if needed

The Biwie/Jordan argument is so misrepresented. Bowie was picked #1 because he was the clear #1 coming out of college. It had nothing to do with fit vs need. Every team would've picked Bowie #1 at that time. Also nobody knew Jordan would become Jordan. The same way teams didn't know Jokić would become Jokić. This is a different situation than the Harper pick

Bottom line is, we have 3 guards who'll probably never play together as an unit for a long period of time because they can't shoot, which is going to clog up the paint or force Wemby to shoot from outside because all they can do is drive and kick out to him. So what's going to happen is one of these guys will eventually be traded for a better team fit in another position. No matter how good it may not sound, you're always building for fit. There are a ton of teams who have great talent but they suck as a team because the pieces don't fit. Which brings me back to my point, we could've gotten this fit in the draft and not have to worry about trading away one of these guys to find that fit.

 

[PocketMonger]

Kon is threating to join the 50/40/90 club as a rookie. Future super star in the making. Lauri 2.0 loading in.

 

[LeBowen]

Kon is threating to join the 50/40/90 club as a rookie. Future super star in the making. Lauri 2.0 loading in.

Kon is also averaging 3.5 assists, we'd have him in that "don't move from the corner" Barnes role.

 

[Exstatic]

Kon is threating to join the 50/40/90 club as a rookie. Future super star in the making. Lauri 2.0 loading in.

Nope. He’s Doug McDermott, part 2.

 

[PocketMonger]

Kon is also averaging 3.5 assists, we'd have him in that "don't move from the corner" Barnes role.

There are only so many touches and shots to go around. That's why trading for Lauri or Trey Murphy doesn't appeal to me at all. They aren't worth the price for the role they would be asked to play.