点击查看原文：Getting meaner: Why the Spurs must stop being nice
Getting meaner: Why the Spurs must stop being nice
Columnist Mike Finger and Spurs beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss why the Spurs have struggled the last two games to finish in the fourth quarter, Chris Pauls’ impact on scoring and if De’Aaron Fox would be a fit in San Antonio.
Suggested reading:
For Spurs’ Chris Paul, points are part of the job too
Wembanyama learns to get mean as Spurs fight human nature
For Spurs’ Mitch Johnson, progress is routine
3 Takeaways as the Spurs blow another late lead
\
Here is the transcript of the podcast:
Mike Finger: From a highly secure network of top-secret locations across North America, this is the Spurs Insider road trip edition. I’m your host, Mike Finger, joined by our usual panel of Express-News Spurs beat writers, Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn, along with sports editor Nick Talbot. Jeff and I are in our secure locations in the frigid North, as opposed to the frigid South. The whole country is frigid this week, and so are the local cagers, unfortunately. When we talked to you last time, we had predicted, I believe, a two-and-two four-game stretch, which the Spurs got. But they got those two victories in an unexpected way perhaps. Now Jeff, we’re talking to the listeners after the second consecutive blown fourth-quarter lead. Is all okay in Spursland?
Jeff McDonald: It is kind of interesting. I think I predicted a one-and-three stretch, so they’ve actually outperformed my expectations. But then it’s hard to, the way things played out, it’s hard to like not feel like they left something on the table there. You know, being up in the fourth quarter at home on the second night of a back-to-back against Denver and then blowing it, and then up 19 against Chicago, and up 13 going into the fourth quarter and up seven with three minutes to go and just blowing it, like leading the whole game in Chicago. Chicago didn’t take its first lead until 47 seconds to go, and that’s all the Bulls needed. Won the game. So, it’s it’s kind of like what Mitch Johnson said last night after that game: like they’ve in the last hundred-some-odd minutes of basketball they’ve played really, really good, except for just a couple of stretches that cost them two wins. So, they can feel a little little good about what they uh have accomplished, but um they still have to feel like, man, they could have gotten greedy and gotten some more wins in that stretch.
Mike Finger: Fighting a little bit of human nature, as Mitch Johnson said. Victor Wembanyama, channeling Bill Parcells as we often do on this podcast, saying, um, we might we probably should have more wins, but we don’t deserve more wins because you are what your record says you are. And that’s been the case so far for this team. I do think it’s just amazing how quickly the outlook of a team’s um just spot in the in the league, just just the vibe of the season can change, um even during the course of one back-to-back where they got that victory in Denver that nobody on this podcast, and I’m I’m not sure anybody outside the Spurs locker room, thought they were going to be able to go to Denver and win that game, um in the mile-high city, and then come back and almost beat them twice. Just two epic games against Nikola Jokic. Um, it’s it’s just strange to to look at this week and think they got the two victories everybody thought they would, but the sky is falling. Tom, is the sky falling?
Tom Orsborn: Well, it’s it’s funny, as you you were pointing out, my kind of ebbs and flows. I I wrote a story on December 14th, uh after their shorthanded come-from-behind win in Portland, about how much they had improved. They they were one of at that point they were one of the best clutch teams in the NBA statistically. Um, you know, now not so much. But um, yeah, I I you know what was sad about last night’s game was Chris Paul after, you know, telling me in the locker room after the Denver game, I’m going to become more involved in the offense. He sure did. I mean that was a nice fourth quarter by him, and uh, you know, they squandered that.
Mike Finger: Hit some huge shots.
Tom Orsborn: Right.
Mike Finger: It’s it’s even those were those those games where just like it it’s shot-maker after shot-maker, like the the games that the Spurs used to play back in the day when it seemed like everything mattered. And other plays, Chris Paul hit a bunch of big ones. I mean Chris Paul was their best player in the fourth quarter last night. And…
Jeff McDonald: He was the only player to score a basket, a field goal for them in the final seven minutes of that game.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah. And doing other things too. I mean he was fantastic.
Mike Finger: And and we talk about how much the vibe or the storyline can change from game to game, night to night. It seemed like from minute to minute last night, uh Jeff and I sitting there in the in the United Center talking about um how the Spurs were going to weather those last couple of minutes when Mitch sent Victor Wembanyama to the bench and the Spurs just had been getting overwhelmed every time Wembanyama went to the bench. Um, the the Bulls were just killing them. And so I believe the Spurs lead was three or four with about five or six minutes to go Jeff, and how are they going to weather these two minutes? Can Mitch leave Victor on the bench for a minute, two minutes? Well somehow during that stretch the Spurs actually uh extend the lead to seven points. And you bring Victor Wembanyama back onto the floor with a seven-point lead, your best player, you think everything’s gold, and and I believe what happened next? Ten to nothing.
Tom Orsborn: Ten to nothing, yeah. Chicago run.
Mike Finger: And that was it. Pretty wild. All night long, the Spurs, you know, until the end, the Spurs overwhelmingly won the minutes when Victor was on the floor and overwhelmingly lost the minutes when Victor was off the floor.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah.
Mike Finger: Until the very end when that just completely flip-flopped and they actually won those those uh little bit of minutes in the fourth quarter where Victor was on the bench and then got wiped out when Victor came back in. It was it was just…
Tom Orsborn: He earned up as a minus six, I think, on the in the plus minus, which often can be misleading, but this just for that to flip like that at the end. And it wasn’t necessarily because of anything Victor did or didn’t do. It’s it’s sometimes to to repeat the Mitch Johnson phrase, you’re fighting the human nature of getting complacent and uh getting a little satisfied with yourself. And I think that’s um that game is kind of a microcosm of that fight over the course of a season. I think during the course in a season, you fight the human nature of getting a little satisfied and getting a little uh uh of a of a feeling that we figured it all out after you beat the Clippers at home on New Year’s Eve, which we haven’t mentioned on this podcast, after you beat Denver on the road, and think you’re think you’re in it. I mean they I think they got as high as what? Seventh place in the West? And you’re thinking playoffs, not just play-in playoffs. And now it’s going to be a fight, and it’s al- it always was going to be a fight. But uh yeah, the like like Tom said, the ebbs and flows during the course of an 82 season, 82-game season are are quite striking sometimes.
Jeff McDonald: And it helps to remember this is a team that’s still learning a lot of things. You know, they’ve they’ve come leaps and bounds from last year, um but there’s a step in there about, you know, developing a killer instinct and, you know, in the course of the game when you’re up 15, keeping it at 15, pushing it to 20, not um like uh I think it was Harrison Barnes talking to us in the locker room last night, um don’t you know, when you’re up 15, don’t wait till it’s eight to get that urgency back. Like your your urgency should be to push that out to 20 by the end of the quarter, and that sort of thing. And I think I think that’s kind of what what happens sometimes when this team, this any young team really, um has a little bit of success, it’s like, well, you know, we’re still up by 11. Well, we’re still up by nine. Well, we’re and then by the time you know it, it’s a tie ball game and you have a you have a fight on your hands. And and it’s always better to not get into a street fight, just, you know, when you’re ahead, stay ahead, and do the do the things that got you there, continue to do the things that got you there. Um, you know, you’ll see them be up 15 and kind of feeling loosie-goosie, and somebody will take a bad three, or somebody will throw a way behind-the-back pass, or they’ll try a lob that shouldn’t have been tried, and it’s it’s just you want them to stay fundamental, even when they’re up 15, 17, 18 points, to keep the lead there or or push the lead out because if you screw around with any team in the NBA, as we saw last night, they can come back on you.
Mike Finger: And to be fair, um there have been plenty of occasions this year where the Spurs have been the team that has been down 15, 16, and come back. So, you know, their opponent they’ve taken advantage of that same dynamic in reverse.
Tom Orsborn: And Victor said he’s…
Mike Finger: Due to blow leads, yeah.
Tom Orsborn: Victor, I don’t worry about when we’re behind, I worry about when we’re ahead.
Mike Finger: That’s crazy. And it’s sort of true. And that and that’s not just the Spurs, that’s not just a young team, that’s that’s the modern-day NBA where no lead is safe. But it does it it it is interesting to look at sometimes that you feel better about their ability to come back than you do about their ability to to hold the team off. That just came in waves last night with the with the Bulls. Um, huge huge dunk by Coby White. Another thing that flipped during the game is we spent most of the first three quarters talking about how uh this franchise of Michael Jordan, just everybody was petrified to go to the rim against Victor. Did he finish with eight or nine blocks?
Tom Orsborn: Yeah.
Mike Finger: And and uh those were the shots he blocked, how many did did he just prevent them from even trying because they didn’t want to try him anymore. And then what what decides the game, just a vicious thundering slam dunk by Coby White over Victor Wembanyama. Um, it was that that was a heck of a play. Uh do we want to go back and review more of the week as a whole, more positive vibes? Those uh it seems like a long, long time ago. It was last year when the Spurs played the Clippers, but that was a that was a pretty decent, pretty encouraging all-around uh home effort by the the local cagers.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah. Wire-to-wire win.
Mike Finger: Wire-to-wire win.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah. It doesn’t seem like a long time ago.
Mike Finger: Yeah. And then the the I think we’re also giving short shrift here to the really epic, really entertaining, really fun back-and-forth between Wembanyama and Jokic I mentioned a little bit earlier. But I mean those are the kind of games you can envision watching for years to come, right?
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, and what I found interesting about those pair of games, um is just I I didn’t I guess I hadn’t really delved too deeply into it, but then when you watch them, uh the the Nuggets are using the Spurs are using Wembanyama the way the Nuggets have grown to use Jokic. And that’s interesting to me that that’s kind of the archetype um that the Spurs are after. It’s not and it’s not that they’re the same player exactly. I mean Wembanyama jumps and Nikola doesn’t. But there’s just the the the the skill sets both of them have to be able to do basically anything, and you can play them anywhere, and you can put them in any sort of situation and just hunt your advantages that way. Um, that’s kind of what the Spurs are doing with Victor, and Mitch told us before that first game in Denver that yeah, when when we when we won the lottery to get Victor Wembanyama, like before we’d even met him, we were going through tapes of of different different teams and and players and how they’re used, and and like Jokic was Jokic and the Nuggets role we zeroed in on because we could envision running constructing an offense the way the Nuggets have constructed an offense around Nikola Jokic. So when you watch those games, it’s kind of like maybe seeing into the future a little bit of what the Spurs envision, um you know, when when they get everything on board. You know, they probably need more shooters. Like Jokic has a couple guys where if you throw that if you double-team him, he can whip it out there to the three-point line and you got a guy that’s probably going to knock it down. I don’t think the Spurs have an abundance of those yet, but a couple more catch-and-shoot guys, um get Victor more comfortable with a lot of the things that they want him to do, and I think you know, when you if you watch the Nuggets games, you can see what the Spurs are gunning for down the road.
Mike Finger: Yeah. And and even those two fourth quarters and overtime of the second one, you would see Victor doing Jokic things at one end of the floor and Jokic doing Victor things at the other end of the floor. It was kind of a mini back-and-forth chess match between them. Um, I think it was the game in in Denver when Victor drew like three defenders to him at the top of the key and he threw a pass to a cutter for Keldon Johnson. And that’s some that’s totally a play that totally a play that Jokic would have made at the other end of the floor. It was it was exactly what Nikola would have done. And I thought that was cool, um to see that. The was the um the end of the San Antonio game didn’t go great Tom. Uh, and you were you were there for that one. Uh, just any minutiae there that you wanted to get into of of what went wrong at the end of its… I mean you lose you lose to a heck of a player, a multi-time MVP. Like there’s no shame in losing to Denver in overtime, but uh but what what sticks out to you about how that one got away at the end?
Tom Orsborn: Well, not just the not just the end end of the game, but the fourth and overtime they were outscored like 41 to 19. It’s just like the offense blew a fuse. And that was the game in that that Chris wasn’t Chris Paul wasn’t uh a big participant offensively, wasn’t hunting shots and being aggressive like we saw last night in Chicago. And I think that that played a factor in that, you know, with him being passive, I think it just threw everything off. And uh and Wembanyama in the fourth uh overtime too, he admitted afterward that he could have been a little more assertive. So yeah, it’s just, you know, being aggressive and keeping the foot on the pedal or in the cliché, but that’s uh that’s basically what it came down to.
Mike Finger: What’s what’s the concern level that this kind of offensive power outage has happened in two straight fourth quarters now? And and you can, you know, not to single out anybody, but you look at your leading scorer, Wembanyama had three points in uh fourth quarter and overtime against Denver and was scoreless in the fourth quarter against Chicago.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, took only two shots. That’s what stood out to me, and that’s I asked him about it, and he said, yeah, I could have been more assertive. So yeah. It’s just a uh I’m almost laughing at us, laughing at the whole media um
Mike Finger: Know what you mean?
Tom Orsborn: Games…
Mike Finger: After the if we I mean we if we would recorded this podcast four days ago, how different would we be sounding about how Victor is taking over fourth…
Tom Orsborn: We’re going to be working until June.
Mike Finger: We’re going to be working until June. And I mean Victor’s been a really For his hundred games. Hey, he celebrated his hundredth game of the…
Tom Orsborn: He celebrated his 21st birthday. His first hundred games, like would anyone say that he like he wasn’t clutch, that that was the issue? Like he wasn’t he wasn’t a good fourth-quarter player, like…
Jeff McDonald: For the for the longest time, that’s what you would almost would say the opposite, like sometimes it takes a while to get into a game, but man by fourth-quarter time and you need big shots, Victor Wembanyama’s hitting those things. So when the last two the last two, he’s been a little passive in the fourth, or maybe it’s something that the defenses are doing to sort of take him out of it, and he’s got to find a find a counter.
Mike Finger: In in some ways, and this is going to sound maybe a little ridiculous, um he’s been victimized by I think his immense trust in his teammates. Like it’s Jeff you mentioned to me last night about a couple of the drives that he had made in the fourth quarter where he gets the ball in the paint and really doesn’t even look at the rim, he’s immediately looking to fire a pass out to let’s say Jeremy Sochan in the corner or Julian Champagnie or whoever. And that’s almost like he has so much belief that those guys can make a play for him that he’s passing up the higher-percentage shot that he could take himself. And if that’s a criticism of a guy like that’s that’s one that you can live with. He believes that he believes in the guys around him.
Tom Orsborn: I think you’re you’re exactly right. He he’s their biggest cheerleader too. I mean he wants those guys to do well and to succeed, and sometimes it’s at its own detriment own detriment of the team, but no, I think you’re I think you’re exactly right about that, Mike.
Jeff McDonald: And I don’t necessarily mind the kick out to an open three-point shooter at that in in those situations. I mean that’s kind of what the game is these days, but I would also say I would also argue that if you’re kicking out if the result of your of your possession is a Jeremy Sochan taking a three-pointer, you’ve played into the defensive hands.
Mike Finger: Yeah.
Jeff McDonald: Like just just if you’re Wembanyama, take the layup. If it…
Mike Finger: That’s something he has to learn. He has to learn like that it’s sometimes the right pass isn’t the right pass, depending on the situation, depending on who the player is, where that player is, that type of thing. Hey, do you remember um there was a generational uh number-one lottery pick uh best biggest hyped prospect in years who came into the league early on and got a lot of crap for passing the ball in the fourth quarter?
Jeff McDonald: Are you talking about Andrea Bargnani?
Mike Finger: That one, and there was another one, uh you know, that and I’m not sure how the kid turned out, less something.
Tom Orsborn: Oh, Bronny’s dad.
Mike Finger: Bronny’s dad. Absolutely. So many times earlier in his career it was like why won’t LeBron James take the shot? He’s passing the ball, he’s afraid of the moment. I think he did okay. I think and I’m and Victor is not the same player that LeBron is obviously. But LeBron had that too where he thought as he’s making his move, even when he was, you know, 20 years old, 21 years old, 22 years old, the game’s on the line. I I remember this vividly, you know, he would make the the pass because he thought it was the right pass, and his teammate would miss the shot, and he would get all kinds of grief for being afraid to take the shot himself. But I think he he looked at the game the way Victor sort of does, and that hey, that guy’s open, and that’s the right pass, you know, I’m going to make it. Um, well he LeBron figured out uh when to be aggressive, and I think I think Victor will too.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah.
Mike Finger: Yeah. Anyway. I mean this is just a 21-year-old guy.
Jeff McDonald: Barely 21.
Mike Finger: Barely 21. Turned 21 in France before he turned 21 in the United States. That was interesting.
Jeff McDonald: That was Sandro coming through after the uh win in Denver when when uh Victor was doing his media in the hall Sandro just kind of bust busted up and uh announces that uh hey, he’s 21 in France now because that was his bir- you know his birthday was the next day.
Mike Finger: Uh-huh. So, it was a time zone joke. And as uh I pointed out off the air, like Sandro has a legitimate point there. Like I think Sandro understands the world better than most of us. And uh really, Victor should have been you should celebrate your birthday not based on where you are on your birthday, but where you were when you were born. So, I think Sandro was correct. He was born in France. He was 21 years old and when it was uh you know uh 10 p.m. in in uh Denver that night, he should have already been considered 21 because he was 21 in France. Sandro Sandro understands things that most of us don’t.
Jeff McDonald: So I’m going to just tell her when I was born on Jupiter and I’m 15 years old.
Mike Finger: Well there you go. I’m not sure people would buy that, but…
Jeff McDonald: I bet they would. Listen listen to Sandro more is my point.
Mike Finger: What else did we want to talk about this from the past four games? Any uh any more Keldon Johnson observations? Did we do that too much last week?
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, I don’t know. He’s just kind of where he I don’t know. He’s he’s back on he started the one game when Sochan was hurt and was fine. And now he’s back on the bench playing limited minutes and figuring things out. It doesn’t as we talked about last week, it doesn’t all look as spectacular often as it did earlier in the year when he was starting and playing 26 minutes a night. So it’s going to just be short bursts, and he’ll do good things and bad things.
Mike Finger: How’s uh how’s Devon how’s Devin Vassell doing? What’s your take on him?
Tom Orsborn: Well, I feel like you’re leading me. Uh, I did have a nice chat with Devin at shootaround before the Chicago game, and that seems like a long time ago too. Uh and I this this might eventually make it into express-news.com, the hard-copy edition of the Express-News, maybe not uh maybe not this week, maybe not today, but um just the idea of when Devin Vassell got hurt in last season, um he was a guy who was still averaging what? 18, 19 a game, still playing with a a rookie in Victor Wembanyama who whose game was not as complete as it is now, who wasn’t necessarily like as as um ball-dominant as he’s become. And so Devin Vassell, especially going back to the year before Victor was drafted, Devin had spent a lot of time with the Spurs as a number-one option and as the guy who felt like he had to hunt his shots, that he had to uh be the aggressive one, lead role, lead lead scorer role, all that kind of stuff. He comes back to the Spurs, um several weeks into this season after having offseason surgery, and he comes back as a backup and joins a a rotation in which Victor Wembanyama has become a much more complete uh dominant player, and you’re not going to you’re not going to have as many opportunities as Victor’s sidekick. And uh the point of the conversation with Devin is just uh he he admits that that Victor is doing so much that that his role is changing in a way. And uh he’s got to find his spots, and he’s got to remind himself that hey, he can’t just be floating around and watching them uh Victor dominate. Instead of um in instead of uh you know being the lead scorer, he can still be a second scorer, but in a way where he can keep his aggression. There’s that theme that Tom talked about with Chris Paul, you still need to find your aggressive spots. And I I I just think that’s interesting uh to see how even the role of a second player around Victor Wembanyama can change as Victor’s game grows. And I think Devin’s been pretty good lately. He wasn’t great last night against Chicago, but I I I I think he’s making progress in in figuring that out, as so many people are on that team are.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, I think the process is good with him so far. I I think I think recently he’s missing shots. He’s missing shots, but if you figure that will that will iron itself out, but the the process is good. He’s getting he’s he’s looking for his looks, he’s getting the looks he wants. He’s been like a slam-dunking fool lately, getting in the paint and stuff. So, I, you know, I think his shooting percentages have not been what what what you’d want, and I think there’s an ebb and flow to that throughout the season and regression to the mean and yada yada, and once once that bounces back, you’ll you’ll see something pretty special from him, I think.
Mike Finger: When I asked uh Mitch about um what he’s doing better, Devin Vassell, that said he he’s better understanding what winning plays are, which I thought was a pretty high compliment of uh of Devin. Like I think that it it Mitch Mitch is not going to the issue um he’s not going to come out and rip players, but when he says something like that uh Jeff and Tom you can chime in on this, it seems like he’s pretty sincere when he offers uh uh compliments to people. Like it’s not it’s not hollow praise usually with him. So yeah.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, I think they’re happy with him. Um, yeah, what what else do you want us to talk about this week?
Mike Finger: You want to talk about De’Aaron Fox?
Jeff McDonald: Sure. I’m going to throw out a grenade.
Mike Finger: Sure. When’s he showing up? We’re burying the lead. They’re not the Spurs are not going to make a midseason trade, a major midseason trade. Um, you might see something before the trade deadline, we got about a month. Um, I do think and and I mean this sincerely, like when I imagine which player uh best fits as a number-two guy to Victor Wembanyama or a fellow all-star caliber player to fit alongside Victor Wembanyama, um I have a hard time imagining somebody in terms of playing style at both ends of the floor, in terms of timeline, in terms of personality, all that stuff. I I have a hard time imagining a better candidate than De’Aaron Fox. That’s exactly the guy I want if I’m the Spurs. And so when you read reports that uh the Kings are are might have to consider moving him, and they’ve been playing better lately by the way since they fired Mike Brown and Doug Christie’s taken over, they’ve won a few games in a row and they’re probably not going to trade anybody during the season. They might not trade anybody during the offseason. But um when you read reports that they were considering it and that the Spurs were among the teams who had inquired, of course the Spurs were among the teams that would inquire. Like that would be uh front office malpractice if the Spurs wouldn’t inquire because that’s just like your dream target. Um, and I think that if that ever would come up, especially this offseason, if for some reason the Kings thing falls apart, if De’Aaron doesn’t want to sign an extension, that is exactly the kind of player you should be interested in if you’re the Spurs. He just fits so well. Um, and I’ll throw that out to the group.
Jeff McDonald: And you’re definitely reaching the point here eventually where it’s time to spend some of these picks and upgrade the roster. You can’t hold onto them forever. Uh, the the trick has always been, you know, who to spend the picks on and for how many and how much, and when is the right move to, you know, there’s there’s multiple moves you could make or try to make through throughout, you know, the course this rebuilding process. And the trick is doing doing the right one and not doing the wrong one. You know, sometimes you do the wrong one, it it does more harm than good, and you’ve wasted your picks and blah blah blah. Um, that’s always been the hard thing is knowing when to pull the trigger. But I agree with you, De’Aaron would be a he would that would be a nice little little two-man game between those two.
Mike Finger: I mean amazing. And and you talk about picking the right ones, not taking the wrong ones. Like if you longtime listeners of this podcast and readers of the newspaper know that uh I don’t think any of us, and I know I wasn’t ever a proponent of the Trae Young trade. And uh like I wouldn’t have done that. I think that De’Aaron Fox is a better fit. I think he’s a better defender. I think he he he the the timeline works. Um, I think personality-wise he’d fit in. He’s Texas guy. Not sure how much that matters, but it’s it’s part of it.
Tom Orsborn: Well, his wife has roots in San Antonio.
Mike Finger: Wife has roots in San Antonio. I think that uh you know, with with the Trae Young thing, there would be somewhat of a back-and-forth as to who the true star is. From everything I’ve I’ve gathered about De’Aaron Fox, I think he’d understand that he’s like one-B to Victor, um if not two. Um, I I just think that would be awesome. And it probably won’t happen, like these things hardly ever happen. But if if you’re out there pondering what move the Spurs make, what big splash they make, that’s the kind of move you’re interested in. And as Jeff said, uh they have all these picks coming up. They have this cap space, you’re going to you have to use it at some point. The key is to use it on the right type of move. And uh you know what I think I mentioned this to to a group of people talking about this yesterday here in Chicago. Like the uh I don’t think that the Spurs one-B or or uh second superstar is on the roster right now. I think they really like Keldon Johnson. I think they really like Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan, like those three guys are integral to the future. But when the Spurs compete for their next championship, I don’t think any of those guys is the second option that you dream of. I think that player’s still is outside the organization. And uh you’re probably not going to draft that guy, even though they have a lot of draft picks coming up. You’re you’re probably going to want to target somebody either in free agency or a trade. And I think that De’Aaron Fox is the kind of guy that could fit. Um, I’m not sure what people are supposed to do with this because I don’t think the trade’s happening during this season, and, you know, it’s just something to dream on, I guess.
Jeff McDonald: I was going to say, all that said, I don’t get the sense the Spurs are in this mode of like, oh, we’re right there, we need to do something right now to go out this season. I don’t I don’t I don’t If people are expecting that at this trade deadline, they’re probably going to be sorely disappointed. I think the the Spurs the whole this whole season was can we take a a palpable step forward? And so far they’ve done that. I think we were all saying if they’re competing for a play-in spot, if they’re competing for the play-in spot, you know, they’ve they’ve taken that step forward this year. That’s that’s a worthy goal. I don’t see them pushing all their chips into the middle middle and going all in uh just trying to make the playoffs this season. If they do, you know, if they if they can maybe there’s some minor moves, maybe this team is good enough to do it on its own. And if they do, great. But I don’t think that’s the that’s the overriding goal of this season is is oh my god, we got to make the playoffs, we’re right there.
Mike Finger: For a backup big maybe, you know, to to win the playoffs this year, I don’t know.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, that’s an area of need. And I’m glad Jeff brought some uh a much-needed disclaimer there to to make it clear that we’re not pushing for a huge in-season trade because that’s not the goal at all. The the reason I bring up Fox is if that player is available at this moment, they would be targeting him not to try to make the playoffs this season. That wouldn’t that wouldn’t be the goal of that. It would be hey, this is a guy who could help us win championships in 2027 and 2028 and down the line, be here for the long haul. Um, the only reason you’d make that trade in-season is if you thought, you know, if we don’t make it now, someone else is going to make it and we’re not going to have that shot.
Mike Finger: Exactly. Or this is our or the or the deal is so good,
Jeff McDonald: Yeah.
Mike Finger: uh that that uh why why not make it now and go for it? You know the any deal like that just to make the contracts work it would be like a Keldon Johnson and Zach Collins plus just a bunch of your picks. And I think if that’s like Sacramento would’s I I and I don’t think Sacramento is going to do this, but if for some crazy reason Sacramento would say that’s what we want on February 4th, then I think you’d consider doing it. I I think the odds against that are astronomical. But um it’s something to to keep in mind heading into the offseason.
Jeff McDonald: We’re wasting everyone’s time.
Mike Finger: We’re wasting everyone’s time. But that’s what people listen to podcasts for, is to waste their own time, to dream.
Jeff McDonald: I mean, you wouldn’t be listening to this podcast if you cared about wasting your own time.
Mike Finger: Exactly. Exactly. It’s just another diversion to keep you uh uh uh from pondering just the bleakness of your own existence. And we’re glad to help you.
Jeff McDonald: And on that note, I don’t think about that.
Mike Finger: We’re glad we’re glad for 30 minutes every week to help you not ponder the bleakness of your own existence. Like that’s that’s our job’s here. And we’re we’re so glad that you come along. Um, we need to do the future uh prediction thing. That’s that’s the weekly routine. Um,
Jeff McDonald: Well it’s going to get bad.
Mike Finger: What’s what’s what’s what’s ahead Jeff? A Wednesday night game in Milwaukee against Giannis, uh two games that Tom will be covering in Los Angeles. Uh is there another one next Monday before we uh uh tape?
Tom Orsborn: They got two against Memphis at