点击查看原文：Wembanyama and road ahead for San Antonio
Wembanyama and road ahead for San Antonio
Columnist Mike Finger and Spurs beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss the Spurs’ recent East coast road trip, if Stephon Castle is a Rookie of the Year candidate, and how the Spurs will fare over the next week.
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Suggested reading:
Wembanyama energized a sagging franchise, excited a city
For Spurs’ road woes, the devil is in details
Inviting onlookers, Wembanyama embraces spotlight Duncan didn’t
Spurs no longer in New York state of mind
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Here is the transcript of the podcast:
From a highly secure network of top-secret locations across South Texas, this is the Spurs Insider, New Year’s edition. I’m your host, Mike Finger, with our usual panel of Express-News sportswriters, Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn, along with sports editor Nick Talbot. It’s been a couple of weeks; we took a week off. Hope everybody didn’t miss us too much; hope we didn’t miss each other too much. The local cagers went on an East Coast trip, made a quick jaunt to the Midwest, played six games since we last talked to you. I’m going to start with Tom Orsborn, who was on the trek, the three-game stretch in Philadelphia and New York. This turned out kind of how, exactly how we anticipated in our last podcast. I think all of us projected that the Spurs were going to go three and three in those six games, which is what they did. But Tom, what were your impressions of the details of your trip and the six games as a whole?
Well, a lot to unpack, Mike, from Philly, New York, and Brooklyn. A lot going on there. Yeah. You know, beginning in Philly with the officiating, the wild officiating in the first half. Victor Wembanyama accused of flopping. But the technical was rescinded. New York, he was spectacular.
That seems like ages ago, Tom. It seems like ancient history. How much has changed since then? The Joel Embiid ejection. Wow, that seems like that happened during Victor’s rookie year! We’re covering so much ground here.
Yeah, yeah, aren’t we? And in New York, he was spectacular. And then the 50-50 balls there at the end did them in; they couldn’t get them. Luck, bad luck, circumstances, whatever, but that did them in. And then Brooklyn, Wembanyama took that hard hit to the jaw, which he described as an uppercut. Completely accidental.
Which he did not just describe it as that. That’s what the broadcast showed. It was an uppercut.
Yeah, yeah, but it was completely accidental. Head, he’s looming, and the head comes up into him. And completely accidental. But yeah, a lot going on there.
And you’re burying the two leads, it seems like, Tom. First of all, he’s a Christmas hero. In a loss, granted, but almost an unprecedented Christmas debut for Victor Wembanyama. And then he plays chess in a park.
I said he was spectacular.
Okay. The chess, yeah, that was spectacular, too. A pretty, pretty neat moment. But the net result, Jeff, of all of this is the Spurs remain a .500 team heading where we’re recording this on New Year’s Eve. There’s a chance it’ll reach your ears and your digital players before the Spurs take on the Clippers on New Year’s Eve. But the Spurs head into that game as a .500 team, as they’ve been for most of this season. And, I guess it’s just because we’re entering this holiday, which prompts reflection among so many of us at the end of a year, the start of another one. Just where are the Spurs as they head into this next page on the calendar, Jeff?
I’ll get to that, but one question for you. You know how they say Victor, you know, he’s 7’3", 7’4", 7’5", he does stuff on the basketball court that nobody else has ever done before, no one’s ever seen before. Sometimes they say, you know, on the basketball court, he changes the chessboard. Do you think it’s the same like on the actual chessboard because he’s 7’5", he can make moves that nobody’s ever seen before?
Maybe. Like, I think he just the actual physical nature of the moves, he’s coming at it from a different angle. I’m not sure he changes the game. He can sit further away from the chessboard, probably, and still make those moves because he’s so long. Maybe an enterprising beat writer should look into that. Should track down all those people that he played chess against and uh, and do an oral history of people who played Victor in chess.
The next time we’re given more than a 30-second heads-up when Victor’s going to be playing chess in the park, we’ll be there. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you. We’ll be there. Now, back to your question. We can’t have reporters complaining that they weren’t invited to an organic, just true interaction with the public. Come on, man. You want to turn this into a media circus.
I mean, I’ve been doing this a long time, man.
Uh-huh.
And, you think I lost it? Your question earlier about where the Spurs stand going into 2025. Reflection. You’d go backwards. They’re probably better off than anyone that we predicted before the season, right? Like, what were the final win totals we were all kind of honing in on? 34, all in the mid-thirties, yeah.
So, at exactly .500, they’re on pace to win 40, 41 games? Is that how the math works?
Yeah. So, they’re a little ahead of the pace that we all thought they would be at. They recorded win number 16 on March 25th last year.
I always enjoy those stats because they had like an 18-game losing streak in the middle at the beginning of last year. So it pushes all those win numbers back. That’s kind of fun. But yeah, they’re ahead of schedule. They are right there in the play-in mix. If they had beaten Minnesota, which they lost by two points in that trip, they’re in eighth place by themselves or maybe tied with Golden State. Which is in the thick of the play-in race. So they’re I don’t think we really thought they were going to be a play-in contender this year, but they clearly are. And if they were in the we said this before, if they were in the East, they’d be even more solidified in that mix of teams fighting for extra games. So ahead of schedule so far, and we’ll see if it keeps up when the calendar flips to 2025.
If we want to get into the minutia of these six games that happened since our last podcast, the losses all were at least competitive for most of the time.
On that road trip, yeah, that road trip they were 1 and 3, but it was there was a play or two away from being 2 and 2 or 3 and 1 or maybe even sweeping the thing. Their three losses were by a combined 10 points.
And it wasn’t the way that those type of losses happened last year, the year before, where it was like inevitable that everything was going to fall apart in the end. It seemed like, like the Minnesota game in particular, was one of those we’ve seen a few out of the Spurs this year where it looks like they’re about to get run out of the building early on and easily could have been. And this team just hangs around. And I wanted to get everybody’s opinion on kind of what goes into that. To me, it’s like, first of all, the NBA is that way. It’s been that way the last few years. The 10-point leads can become close games; 20-point games can become close games. It happens all the time; that’s just the way the NBA works. But also, I think the Chris Paul factor, just having that competent veteran point guard to keep teams focused, keep the Spurs in these games, I think that’s played a huge role. I also think, like, the Spurs seem pretty well-coached. Is that a hot take? They make they tend to make good in-game, halftime adjustments. Like, they they they’re starting to get Victor in his spots; they’re getting what they want out of their offense a lot of times. Am I making too much of that?
Could have could have been a better ending in Minnesota, I think. But your point is correct. Yes, they’re well-coached, but that shot by Jeremy there at the end was disappointing.
I mean, that’s not a called play, either. That’s a that’s a play that um I think Jeff mentioned in the in the three takeaways, which are always a highlight of my day, that, like, Minnesota’s really good on defense.
Yes.
I don’t think like that’s not a play where you called that for Jeremy Sochan. You don’t probably wouldn’t want him taking that shot, but he he probably could have made that pass that he wanted to to make it look like to Harrison Barnes in the corner, and that would have been a great that would have been a great shot. If he if if Jeremy makes that pass to Harrison in the corner, you live with that every day of the week. Because Harrison, Jeff, correct me if I’m wrong, probably would have had a decent look there if he gets that ball.
He might have been wide open, and he was wide open and was having a great game. The defender sort of decked. What Donte did was a deke. Yeah, it was a pretty good defensive play. Here’s the difference in that situation between last year and this year. You know, you need one last you get one last shot to win or tie a game. Last year, they couldn’t even get the ball in bounds half the time.
Right. Exactly. That’s what I’m saying. This year, they at least got a look. It was, you know. And there’s three people all over Wembanyama at the end. Like, you can’t get the ball to Wembanyama there; you get Sochan in a situation where he can make a decision there. He probably made the wrong he obviously made the wrong one. I don’t want this to be a pile-on Jeremy Sochan podcast because he continues to be one of the bright spots of this team this season. It’s just probably not the probably not the shot the Spurs wanted there. But I can sort of see how it happened. I have the thing like uh Dante DiVincenzo kind of dekes him there into getting him to take a shot that the Timberwolves probably wanted him to take. He takes it; it’s not close; it looks bad. But that game overall is not an embarrassment per for the Spurs and in the way that they they did a lot of good stuff again against a pretty good team.
Yeah, yeah.
I haven’t done all the permutations of that last play, but like what if you have Julian Champagnie in there instead of Sochan? Would that change anything? There there are probably reasons you have Sochan in there instead. I mean, you were you were down by two; you didn’t technically need a three.
Exactly.
So, um I don’t know. To go back to your point, yes, they’re they’re being competently coached by by Mitch Johnson, who did not enter the season thinking he’d have to constantly coach anybody. I think Chris Paul makes a big difference. I read I don’t every so often, I click on these things for some reason, and I don’t know why. But I read something today complaining about how Chris Paul’s shooting has fallen off in December, and you know, in Minnesota, he didn’t even have a field goal. And I’m like, yeah, that would have been nice, but it doesn’t matter. He had 14 assists. They’ve gotten way more big shots out of Chris Paul this year than I ever thought they would have.
Yes, and they’ve got His shooting was sort of carrying them in an unrealistic way there for a stretch when it seemed like he was making a big shot every game. That’s probably not why they signed him. That was sort of gravy. They’ve also gotten more big shots from other people out of Chris Paul. Just having a guy on the floor that has been there and done that before is I mean, that’s that’s the difference to me in the in the Spurs in the fourth quarters this year and not in the fourth quarters. They are better in those situations at home, which is not to be unexpec which is to be expected. On the road, they’ve been they’ve been a little rougher in those crunch-time games, but that’s kind of a next step for a team. It’s like last year they couldn’t beat anybody anywhere. This year, they’re at least taking care of those close games at home. Now it’s time to learn how to take care of some of those close games on the road. It’s kind of a step-by-step process.
Yeah, I think all that is I think all that’s fair. You can look at this most recent road trip and say they probably shouldn’t have let that Philadelphia game get out of get away, especially after Embiid gets ejected in the first half. That was a missed opportunity. The Minnesota game, probably a missed opportunity late in that. It was winnable. They did have a chance. Victor missed a free throw at one point. Like, he he was just unbelievable down the stretch. Again, we’re nitpicking. But that missed free throw kind of changes the ending there. There’s missed opportunities. But they were bouncing there in New York; they won that one, too.
But there’s just so much more competent fourth-quarter-wise than in previous years. And this is not breaking news; we talked about it all season long. This is what was expected, this growth. I think even in a on a trip where they go 1 and 3, you continue to see some little bits of progress, I think. Some competence might be a better word there. But it’s New Year’s Eve, which means tomorrow is New Year’s Day, it’s January. You know what that means, right?
It’s time to talk about the Rookie of the Year race.
Oh, my goodness.
Go ahead. Where do we think Stephon Castle stands in the Rookie of the Year race after this stretch? You know, he started off so great. He had to he had to start a lot of games because of the Spurs’ just injury situation. And he was kind of a hot commodity there for a while. Now he’s been moved back to the bench since they’ve gotten healthy. Doesn’t have as many opportunities to kind of play through some of those rookie struggles. And kind of wondering what we what we what we think about all that.
I read in the Express-News, on expressnews.com, on Tom Orsborn’s Blue Sky feed, where everybody all the basketball fans are on Blue Sky now. I highly recommend it; we’re all on Blue Sky. That the there might be talk of Stephon Castle hitting the rookie wall, Tom. What do you think about that?
Well, the Spurs don’t want to hear that.
Okay.
Clearly. I found that out. They clearly don’t want to hear that.
But none of them are listening to this podcast, wink, wink. Sorry, everybody. Circumstances, as Jeff pointed out and as I pointed out in the story, are working against him right now. But he’s still he’s still leading the the mythical, well, it’s not mythical, but he’s leading the race. I know you don’t want to talk about it, Mike, but he’s still I think he’s still the front-runner for Rookie of the Year, but I’m not sure about that.
Okay, okay.
To be fair, there aren’t a lot of strong contenders now that Philadelphia’s guy went down again. So it’s been kind of kind of what the class is what we thought it was, right? I mean, there’s a lot of good things. Stephon Castle’s great. But if he wins Rookie of the Year, it’s not like Wembanyama winning it over Holmgren.
Okay, like a lot of these times, it just goes to the rookie that averages the most points in situations like this, which right now is Jared.
Which right now, yeah, which right now is Jared McCain, who I mean, if he doesn’t he might not be the pick if he doesn’t come back in
He’s out for the year.
Yeah. So, he wouldn’t be the pick playing 20 games or 23 games. So, right now, among the rookies that are um, you know, still healthy and playing, it would be Washington’s Alexander Sarr at 11.6 points per game. Your dark horses would be the two Memphis guys, Jalen Williams and Zach Edey, who are right behind them.
As much as I hate this whole discussion, the the talking about awards at all, talking about awards in January.
You know that’s why I brought it up, right?
Of course. But we’re I’m checking the Vegas Insider, which has this and sports gambling, too. We’re adding sports gambling onto awards talk. Like, this is driving me crazy here at the end of the year. I don’t want any part of this. But Tom asked Tom Tom assumed that Stephon Castle’s the favorite and asked me who is the favorite. Well, according to five different betting sites, Zach Edey is way ahead as in the as a betting favorite. Plus 120, plus 115, minus 115, plus 120 on FanDuel, where you have Yves Pons. Yves Pons from New Orleans in second place, Stephon Castle in third.
I stand corrected.
But now I kind of sort of distinct third. Alexander Sarr in fourth place, Jalen Williams, who I mentioned, Jeff, the other day, just another example of Memphis finding like productive guys in the second round. Like, he’s been starting for them all year. He’s not going to be a star; I don’t think I don’t think he’s going to win Rookie of the Year, but Williams and Edey could definitely split that vote.
You know what I mean? The Memphis the haunted Memphis Rookie of the Year vote.
Well, I don’t know. Sometimes when you have two guys, people don’t know who to pick.
Okay. Some go one way; some go the other.
You feel so strongly about it and get on one of these like terrible, awful, ruining the country sports betting sites and clean up on your Stephon Castle. They’re still listing him at 4 to 1, 5 to 1, 6 to 1 to win, where Zach Edey is even money. And I kind of say this, if if we want to have an interesting or or a productive rookie conversation, I still think you look at all these guys and say that Stephon Castle I I project as as the guy who’s most likely to have the most productive career. I think I think if you redraft all these guys, Stephon Castle is the guy that most teams want. I don’t think he’s going to win Rookie of the Year just because of what Tom kind wrote about in his story on expressnews.com. What we’ve been saying here is he’s just not going to get the it’s circumstances. It’s um, you know, he’s not going to start anymore. Zach Edey is a starter as long as he’s healthy in the Grizzlies’ lineup. Stephon Castle’s probably not going to put the stats. He’s probably hitting a spot here where things are going to get a little difficult for him. But I still think the Spurs should be really, really happy with the pick they made because that’s going to be a big part of the Spurs for a long time.
What do we think about his
Finger right there. He has the best up He does have the best upside when you look at it. No one has ever looked at Zach Edey and said this guy has a lot of upside. That’s why he was in college for all those years because no one thought he could stretch or play defense or switch, right? And, you know, he’s still going to have those issues. So, you know, he may be what he is.
All the upside in the world.
What do we think of Castle’s, well, that said, his minutes or lack thereof lately? He didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter in New York. Was kind of absent down the stretch in Minnesota. It seems like it was almost the thing we made a big deal about early in the year when he was guaranteed 20-plus minutes is he can have these stretches where he looks like a total rookie. A bunch of stuff goes wrong for him, but one of his best qualities is he sticks to it, and next thing you know, he’s making plays down the stretch. He’s making big shots down the stretch nowadays. You know, he’s getting his seven minutes. He’s making his rookie mistakes, and then he’s not getting a chance to do what we all said he was so great at and bounce back and make those big plays down the stretch.
Well, could could it be as simple as there’s options now? The Spurs are playing at full strength; they have 15 healthy guys most nights.
They went with Tre Jones in New York against the Knicks in the fourth. He had a high nine assists, and Mitch just felt more confident with understandably a point guard out there. Yeah. So a lot of times when healthy bodies
When when Stephon Castle was out there in end games, it was because the Spurs coaches, going back to Gregg Popovich into the Mitch Johnson era, they all had a great deal of confidence in him and and still do. It was a case of like that not everybody else was healthy. Like the rotation wasn’t as deep as it is now. It was him or Blake Wesley, Malaki Branham. Now you can put in a Tre Jones who’s healthy again. Just Jeremy Sochan being back again, that has that ripple-down effect through the rest of the lineup where you have more available minutes from Devin Vassell, from Keldon Johnson, all that. I think there’s just um, you’re in these close games, and you want somebody who is playing well with confidence, who has a track record there. And maybe Stephon Castle, any any rookie gets squeezed out a little bit. I think that he’s going to get more opportunities the rest of the season. Again, I still think the Spurs have that pick to make over again; they’d take him a hundred times out of a hundred. By the way, Jeff might have mentioned this to me, this past week somebody mentioned to me how how happy are they that Houston made the pick they made in front of them at number three? Anybody have any thoughts on that? Like, I remember remember when I got all kinds of grief for questioning Reed Sheppard on this podcast last summer?
Yeah.
I mean, I
And he still might be fine; he’s still he’s still a good shooter, like the Spurs are still there. Back in the summer, after the draft, and I heard this from one person. So it’s it’s just one person’s opinion or thoughts. But that person said if they had been able to choose between Reed Sheppard and Stephon Castle, they might have taken Reed Sheppard. So Houston taking that might have just take might have saved them from themselves. And just take the um take the you know, the guy, you know, took the choice off the table. That said, you know who was on top of all this was our and we this will be something we should have mentioned on this podcast anyway, our our our friend Jonathan Feigen, who has retired now.
Oh, good. Shout-out to Jonathan. Shout-out to Jonathan. Best of the greatest of all one of the greatest of all of all time. Good guy.
He’s one of the GOATS.
Houston Chronicle beat writer covered the covered the Rockets since I don’t know, since 98, ago, I think. But um, you know, I was there for the preseason, and Reed Sheppard was kind of the trendy Rookie of the Year pick in the preseason.
And he was like, no, Reed Sheppard’s not going to play nearly enough to win Rookie of the Year. Like he’s not they they have so many guards on this roster already ahead of him; he’s not going to play nearly enough. And he was really the only guy saying that. And, you know, it’s turned out to be kind of correct. Not kind of correct; definitely correct. So, you know, it hasn’t just been a that’s true, and again congrats to Jonathan. Great career. Just the consummate professional beat guy.
One of the few Jeff does this exercise every year where he goes through the the whole league in terms of the big guys. And Jonathan was one of the few who had you beat in terms of covering the same team for the same outlet longer than you did. Or longer than you have. But congrats to him. I think we’re down to one. I think I’m I think I’m number. Not that I’m bragging about it.
It’s just Ira.
Ira Winderman of the South South Sun-Sentinel down in Florida, covering the Heat.
Yeah. You’re almost there; you’re almost the dean.
Um, that’s probably true. I should point out that that’s not just a matter of of opportunity for young Mr. Sheppard. Like, he has done great in the in the minutes that he’s gotten. And he and he plays in most games, just not a lot of minutes because he hasn’t forced the issue. He’s not making the shots; he’s not doing what I think people expected him to do. He still could be a productive pick. And he could, you know, it could be a situation where if he got to play more, he’d play better. But the Spurs are pretty happy with who they have, I think.
I think that’s definitely fair to say. I mean, not fair to say they’re fully happy with them. Yeah. And I think you’re right; they might have they’ve there’s a good chance they’ve ended up with the best player in this class. I mean, it’s hard to say after one year. But we we have seen what Stephon Castle can do as a rookie, all the different ways he can contribute, not just scoring at all. And you have to believe I mean, you don’t have to believe, but generally, you know, his shooting’s going to get better. I don’t I’m not an expert, but I don’t see anything in his mechanics that is just terrible. It’s not like where you saw Sochan shoot as a rookie, and I’m like, “Yikes! I don’t know if that’s even fixable.” Everything every shot Stephon takes, like McCain, to me, looks confident, and it looks like it’s going in, and it just doesn’t.
Yeah. I think maybe if he maybe if he could just get that little mid-range down, that would help. I don’t really like the thing where he just does the Keldon Johnson barrel into like the slow-step thing was working for him for a while. But now he’s doing it in traffic and just kind of barreling. I mean, it’s rookie stuff, just learning what you can get away with and can’t get away with. And learning how teams adjust to you. It’s it’s all that stuff, and he’ll he but we’ve seen what he can do defensively. I’ve always been impressed with his like floor presence and his court vision. Like, that was one of the first things I noticed was him making passes I didn’t they’re not these spectacular passes where he’s just threading the needle to guys. But it’s like I wouldn’t even have thought to make that pass to the skip guy. And he that’s that’s where Steph goes with it, and it’s the like the right pass. So all that stuff is just really encouraging. His numbers don’t matter that much when you’re when you’re judging his rookie year. I mean, it probably will for Rookie of the Year voters, but to the Spurs, it’s not about the numbers; it’s about watching him on the floor, how he progresses, what he’s learning, how quickly he’s learning, and how quickly he’s, you know, adjusting to the NBA. So all all all signs are good for him so far, even though he’s a little bit of a lull right now.
I think part of why struggles can be sort of expected is he it’s not that he’s reckless. And sometimes he is. But I was I was reading something and it’s been months and months, and I don’t remember who it was. It was a smart basketball person sort of talking about why Tre Jones has limitations as a point guard, even though his assist-to-turnover ratio has always been like super good, right? Like he he hardly ever turns the ball over. Has has good assist numbers. But you almost want from a Chris Paul type point guard, from a Stephon Castle, you want some turnover risk because if you’re not taking the risk, if you’re not making difficult passes, like that limits your ceiling. And I think that whereas Tre Jones has that sort of high-floor, low-ceiling deal where he’s just making the smart, obvious play over and over again, which is valuable as a backup point guard, like Stephon, as Jeff was pointing out, makes that makes that pass that a lot of people don’t see, and that’s going to make that’s going to lead to him looking foolish sometimes or look it’s going to make you like slap your head, like, what the hell was he doing there? But I think that’s because he’s going for that high-ceiling type of play sometimes. And when you have a player like that, I think part of working through their stuff early in their career is just figuring out how much they can push it. And sometimes he just runs into traffic, and it looks terrible. But I think that’s because he’s like he’s developing that elite star-quality playmaking repertoire. That’s going to pay off down the line.
There’s a fine line between what an amazing pass and like what was he even thinking?
Yeah.
There was a was it the Minnesota game where Chris Paul led Jeremy Sochan on a pick-and-roll pass. That was like close to being like, oh, what a terrible pass, and it was just perfect. Jeremy made a great catch.
I know what you mean. Was that in Minnesota?
I think that was in Minnesota. There was the moment in Brooklyn where Chris made a pass to where Jeremy should have been on the roll. And the ball basically rolled out of bounds into the third row. We’ll see. Put those two together. And Chris Chris got on Jeremy’s behind. Sean Elliott pointed this out on the broadcast. Chris Chris was just on his butt. And basically Sean’s point was if Chris Paul throws a ball somewhere, and it goes out of bounds, it’s because you weren’t where you were supposed to be. Like he’s throwing the ball where you’re supposed to be. And there was there was a play maybe five minutes later, same thing, and Jeremy was right there for the catch and the dunk. So they might have both been in Brooklyn, but those two together kind of illustrate the point I’m trying to make is sometimes you make passes that have a a danger, a chance of looking terrible because there’s that upside of this is this just becomes an unguarded assist.
But it’s funny. It’s funny when you’re Chris Paul, and you do that; it’s like, oh, the other guy screwed up.
Right.
But if you’re Stephon Castle and you do that sometimes, it’s like everyone thinks you screwed up.
This is my point. And Tre Jones doesn’t do that. And there’s a place for that Tre Jones player, just the reliable high-percentage pass, high-percentage play over and over again type of guy. Like that’s that’s a great guy to have on your bench. It’s probably not the guy that maximizes the effectiveness of your offense if you’re never kind of pushing it. So it’s good to have a like they have three guys who I think fit pretty well together this season and and giving you a wide variety of looks at the point guard position. I think that’s pretty cool.
The best example of the high-risk, high-reward actually maybe in the other league these days is Kaylen Clark, if you want an example of high-risk, high-reward.
Yeah, exactly. And it’s kind of who she’s playing with. Like if she doesn’t have the right teammates, it doesn’t it doesn’t it doesn’t look as great. But no, that’s that’s good. Looking forward, we’ll we’ll close like we often do. And your Spurs will include the Clippers game on New Year’s Eve. In this projection, even though some of you might not hear this podcast until after that game is over with, but you got the Clippers at home on New Year’s Eve. You got two games against the Denver Nuggets, one on the road, one at home on back-to-back nights. Then at Chicago next Monday, where it will be frigid, Jeff. I don’t know if you’ve taken a look at the at the forecast, but I think the high temperatures will already be around 19, 20 degrees.
Fahrenheit.
So, so bulk up your layers in your in your in your bag for that trip. That’s four games, two at home, two on the road. None of them slam-dunk easy victories, I don’t think. None of them unwinnable, although winning at the Nuggets might be tough. I’m going to go continue the theme and go 2 and 2 again.
Yeah, 2 and 2. Yep. That’s what they are right now. That’s what that’s that’s what the record says they are.
I’m going to go a little more pessimistic than that and say 1 and 3.
Okay.
And it’s sort of like buckle up, everybody, because it’s going to get a little rough. And one reason I’d be concerned is the just the the road games are piling up. Like the Spurs went into that last four-game trip; they had completed fewer road games than anyone in the league, which means they’re all coming now. And those road trips on a team like that can just wear you out. And even when you have some home games sprinkled in, like they had a four-game trip, came home yesterday, now they play the Clippers tonight. That that game almost feels like a road game. I mean, yes, you have the home crowd behind you, but you’re not at home in your bed very long. You’re not really acclimated to home; you’re not settled in. You’re basically making one stop, and then you’re back back on the road to Denver. Same thing, you come home the next night from Denver and play your other home game in that stretch, you know, the next night, where you’re not really home; you’re just flying in and flying out. And then you’re going back on the road, and I know we’re not predicting that, but after the Chicago and Milwaukee games, they they go to LA for two games against the Lakers. So it’s a bunch of road games where they’re they’re only home for a night. And I just think that wears on teams after a while. Maybe I don’t know, maybe a younger team can handle it better, just fresher legs. But then I wonder if there’s a mental component to it that a more veteran team might be able to kind of power through more. And maybe that’ll be something worth watching during that stretch.
That’s why I think to get to that 2 and 2 this week, the the one that they have to win is that at Chicago against a not-great team. But that that’s one, like you said, that could slip away, and that takes you to 1 and 3 or 0 and 4. But I I think that’s the one that you of these next four that you can’t keep losing.
They did beat Denver last year when they when the Spurs were a 22-win team. You got them two nights in a row. Like maybe you can pull one of those off.
Yeah.
I wouldn’t be surprised that they’re winning any one of well, I would be surprised if they went at Denver. I think you win you beat either the Clippers at home or the Nuggets at home, and then you got to steal that one against the Bulls. How about you send your like basically your G League skeleton crew out to Denver and just take that L, let everybody else stay home, and then play them?
That that that’d be a very Spursian thing to do.
They did that late last year and almost won