Spurs Insider Podcast, 2025-11-19 05:41:00
专栏作家迈克·芬格和马刺跟队记者杰夫·麦克唐纳讨论了维克托·文班亚马的伤病，以及由于卢克·科内特的存在，马刺今年比去年准备得更充分，能够更好地应对他的长期缺阵。
推荐阅读：
以下是该播客的文字实录：
迈克·芬格 (Mike Finger) ：[音乐渐入] 来自一个遍布南德州、由绝密地点组成的高度安全网络——这里是《马刺内幕》——养伤特别版。我是迈克·芬格，与我同在的还有《快报新闻》的马刺跟队记者杰夫·麦克唐纳 (Jeff McDonald) 和体育编辑尼克·塔尔博特 (Nick Talbott)。维克托·文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 伤了，斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 伤了，迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 也伤了，就连我们的汤姆·奥斯本 (Tom Orsborn) 也倒下了，但我们都会努力坚持下去，共渡难关。
我们这周有很多要谈的。杰夫，你想从哪儿开始？我知道汤姆昨天报道了，那位7英尺4英寸的法国人，在赛季头一个月的大部分时间里都是NBA的恐怖存在，将在几周后，也就是两到三周后接受复查。此前的核磁共振检查显示他小腿拉伤。斯蒂芬·卡斯尔由于臀部问题，将不会在周二晚对阵孟菲斯灰熊队的比赛中出场。这让圣安东尼奥马刺队目前处于什么境地？
杰夫·麦克唐纳 (Jeff McDonald) ：完蛋了？[笑声]
好了，播客结束。我们回头见。
迈克·芬格 ：得了吧，杰夫，我们这可是个积极向上的播客。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：是啊，我知道，我正想说，当维克托再次长期缺阵时，这确实给良好的氛围泼了盆冷水。而且小腿问题已经成了一个挥之不去的麻烦。不仅仅是在马刺队内，在马刺队里，他是自训练营以来第三个因为小腿拉伤或小腿问题而缺阵的球员。而且在整个联盟里，这种情况也随处可见，简直是泛滥成灾。
今天我要是能打几个电话调查一下的事情之一就是，小腿拉伤在当今的NBA是否真的更普遍了？还是我们只是对它更加关注了？因为球队已经意识到，这类伤病有时会导致严重得多的问题，所以他们采取了十年前或十五年前可能不会有的特别预防措施。我猜可能是两方面因素的结合。当今NBA的比赛节奏比以往任何时候都快。比赛场次、跑动里程，我认为这些都有影响。然后，我认为球队现在对任何形式的小腿酸痛都会毫不犹豫地让他休战，因为我们都知道这往往会导致跟腱问题。所以我认为这是两件事的结合。这就是为什么马刺对维克托格外格外谨慎，在他完全康复之前，绝不会让他靠近球场。
迈克·芬格 ：没错，我认为这可能是明智的做法。你提到了比赛节奏。只要你看一场比赛，不仅仅是看维克托·文班亚马，任何一个打中锋位置的球员，这个位置过去总是显得笨重，打法也相对固定，在一个回合里完成一个低位单打动作，然后慢悠悠地跑回半场去防守对方的低位进攻。而现在，像维克托·文班亚马这样的球员满场飞奔，覆盖范围之广、速度之快令人惊叹。这几乎适用于场上的每一个位置。就像你说的，他们的小腿承受了更多的跑动里程和步数。
最坏的情况，无论对一个NBA赛季还是一名球员的职业生涯来说，都太可怕了。所以，即使这次的小腿伤病不属于那种通常会导致跟腱受伤的类型，即使它看起来不像凯文·杜兰特 (Kevin Durant) 那年在总决赛受伤时或者杰森·塔图姆 (Jason Tatum) 去年受伤时的小腿状况，我想不管是哈利伯顿 (Haliburton) 还是其他任何球员，当你的球队是围绕像马刺这样的一位核心球员建队时，采取超乎寻常的谨慎是完全可以理解的。我认为两到三周，通常马刺说两到三周，我更倾向于赌三周而不是两周，然后以此为起点。
不过，你知道，如果说这其中有什么聊以自慰的地方，那就是他们不是唯一经历这种情况的球队。你缺席一两个、三个球员，你也会对上同样缺少一两个、三个球员的对手。这并不是连输六场比赛的借口，当然他们也不会这么看。但仍然有可以赢下的比赛，从周二晚对阵孟菲斯开始。他们仍然会是热门。周四对阵亚特兰大，即便不是全员出战，也不是一场赢不了的比赛。你只能硬着头皮继续前进。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：我是说，就你刚才那点，贾·莫兰特 (Ja Morant) 今晚就不会为灰熊出战。你想知道为什么吗？小腿拉伤。
迈克·芬格 ：是啊。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：所以这伤病无处不在，无处不在。而且它已经成为一种至少需要两到三周才能恢复的伤病了。很多案例甚至需要更长的时间。我们并不确切知道维克托的具体情况。如果你非要我瞎猜，看起来他的伤可能没有迪伦·哈珀的严重。我们可是在对阵菲尼克斯那场比赛中亲眼目睹了事情的发生。
迈克·芬格 ：我敢说他的伤没有迪伦·哈珀的那么严重。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：没错。是的。但我不知道，我不是医生，也没看过核磁共振的片子，但仅凭我亲眼所见，我会认为他……
迈克·芬格 ：嗯，我们能确定的是，他是在对阵金州勇士队那场比赛中遭遇小腿受伤的。我们被告知了这一点。我们看到维克托·文班亚马在那之后走进了媒体室。我们看到他打完了整场比赛。我们看到他在比赛的最后一攻中要球——这个我们待会儿可以谈。他当时还在场上。我们看到他走进媒体室，和我们进行了一次非常愉快的交谈，这个我们稍后也会聊到。我们看到他走出了媒体室。而在菲尼克斯，我们看到迪伦·哈珀遭遇小腿受伤，我们看到他没能打完比赛。我们看到他一瘸一拐地走向更衣室，我们看到他被绑上了保护靴，我们——或者说我和汤姆——看到他拄着拐杖艰难地离开球馆。
所以，这让你相信，从严重程度上看，这是两种不同的伤病。当然，我再说一遍，我不是医生。也许维克托的伤比看起来要严重，但我倾向于相信，基于所有证据，奥卡姆剃刀定律会让我相信迪伦·哈珀的伤比维克托·文班亚马的更严重。这是否意味着他三周内就能回归？不，我不能保证。但我认为有理由保持乐观，他的情况不会像迪伦·哈珀那么糟糕。而且实际上，迪伦·哈珀正在好转，对吧？
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：是的，最新的情况是他已经脱掉了保护靴，但他之前穿了两周。不是说他只是从菲尼克斯回家路上穿着，他是真的穿了一段时间。我记得他应该是在马刺去芝加哥那段时间脱掉的，具体哪天忘了。所以是的，他已经脱掉保护靴，开始做一些更多的身体活动了，但他距离复出还有几周的时间，迪伦·哈珀是这样。
维克托缺阵的影响，如果他缺席一个月，大概是13场比赛。那是赛季中相当大的一部分。你必须在他缺阵的情况下赢下一些比赛。关于这点，我想指出的是……
迈克·芬格 ：是季中锦标赛。这可能会让他错失季中锦标赛。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：可能会让他错失季中锦标赛。我想指出的一点是，他们……我的意思是，你肯定会想念维克托。你肯定会想念维克托的。我觉得这不算什么新闻。但他们本赛季应对他缺阵的准备，远比去年他因血栓缺阵时要充分得多。你知道，如果他要缺席本赛季剩余比赛——他不会的，这只是假设——如果他赛季报销，那他们肯定进不了季后赛。但现在有了卢克·科内特 (Luke Kornet)，有了一个健康的德阿隆·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox)，他们可以撑过三、四周，或许能勉强维持战绩，让他们仍然留在竞争行列中。我认为去年维克托缺阵时，米奇（译注：指马刺总经理布莱恩·莱特 (Brian Wright)）毫无办法。他们签下比永博 (Biyombo) 只是为了应急，结果不得不让他首发。然后他们还得让杰里米·索汉 (Jeremy Sochan) 打很多小球中锋，虽然他现在还会这么打，但这不能是你唯一的选择，那情况就很糟了。这需要是众多选项之一。
但现在他们有了卢克·科内特，他一直是个……他曾为非常优秀的凯尔特人队担任过首发，填补空缺。他不是那种能做出维克托·文班亚马式表演的球员。这么说吧，他做不出那些维克托·文班亚马式的华丽操作，但那些基础的东西，比如护筐、体型、篮球智商，卢克·科内特能够帮助马刺勉强度日。所以他们有这个保障。他们还有凯利·奥利尼克 (Kelly Olynyk)，他不是同类型的大个子，但他们今年有更多的大个子来填补文班亚马缺阵的空缺，这是他们去年所没有的。所以他们准备得更充分了。再说一次，我认为如果他们必须用现有阵容打完整个赛季，那就不太可能稳进季后海外围了，但如果只是撑过几周，我认为他们有足够的人手。
迈克·芬格 ：对此我有两个截然相反的回应。一个是好消息，一个是坏消息。好消息是，你最近看过西部联盟的排名吗？特别是下半区？那里简直是一堆烂摊子。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：我知道，但如果你长时间没有维克托，你也会成为烂摊子之一。
迈克·芬格 ：我不这么认为。这就是我的观点，西部有七支我感觉能稳进季后赛的好球队，而马刺是其中之一。而且总会有一支烂队最终排在第九和第十。一支有严重问题的球队会排在第九和第十位。你开始看排名就会发现，要么是一支烂队，要么像波特兰那样，不算烂但还没准备好。总会有一支没准备好的球队能进去。所以这就是好消息，这支球队的下限，假设除了维克托之外所有人都健康，在西部的排名中不会掉得太低。
现在是坏消息的回应：维克托不是唯一缺阵的球员。一年前维克托离开时，你还有所谓的“控卫过剩”问题，有一大堆能在外线打球的球员。我不认为斯蒂芬·卡斯尔的伤是长期的，可能周二晚对阵孟菲斯的比赛后就好了，但这依然是个隐患。迪伦·哈珀在维克托缺阵的大部分时间里估计也上不了场。这也是个问题。就连另一个J-Mac，不是杰夫·麦克唐纳，是乔丹·麦克劳克林 (Jordan McLaughlin)，周二晚也缺阵。所以你的后卫人手短缺，而德阿隆·福克斯刚从腿筋伤势中恢复过来。
所以，问题不在于马刺能否在没有维克托·文班亚马的情况下撑过三周，我认为如果只有他一个人缺阵，他们能应付得很好。问题在于，你需要确保阵容的其他部分能顶住，而这可能有点悬。这是我担心的地方。你希望斯蒂芬·卡斯尔能尽快回归。你希望德阿隆·福克斯能保持健康。你希望迪伦·哈珀的恢复能朝着好的方向发展。但与此同时，德阿隆·福克斯将面临巨大压力，他回归后的这一周左右表现还不错。他有一场重要比赛让很多人失望，一个关键时刻也让很多人失望，但接下来这将是属于德阿隆·福克斯的一周。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：他将不得不在一定程度上扛起球队，或者说领导球队，可能更贴切。德阿隆的这一周就像坐过山车，但我认为还是利大于弊。只是人们会盯着对阵金州勇士第二场比赛的最后时刻，对他大加指责，我理解。那些时刻是你的关键先生必须站出来的时候。但他复出后一直表现得相当不错，大部分时间是与维克托搭档，但对阵他的老东家萨克拉门托国王队时，维克托缺阵，德阿隆不得不承担更多责任。他那场比赛，你知道的，他拿下了赛季新高的28分，助攻数也创赛季新高，达到11次，是战胜国王队的重要功臣。
米奇说了一句我觉得很有趣的话，我转述一下大意：如果你处在德阿隆·福克斯的位置，马刺队全员健康，你有维克托，有斯蒂芬·卡斯尔，甚至迪伦·哈珀都在场上。作为德阿隆·福克斯，你有很多选择来处理局面。我是该接管比赛？还是让那家伙接管？我该把球传到这里？还是打无球？诸如此类。米奇说，某种程度上，随着这些球员的缺阵，德阿隆的选择变少了，他可以直接打得极具侵略性。他不必想太多。所以我认为在接下来的几周，直到一些伤员回归之前，我们会看到一个非常有侵略性、得分很高的德阿蒙·福克斯。所以我觉得这是未来值得关注的一点。
迈克·芬格 ：这个讨论现在几乎过时了，但我认为还是值得回顾一下，即使随着维克托的缺阵和马刺需要德阿隆·福克斯承担更多责任，它正变得过时。因为自从我们上次播客以来，这是一个重要的故事：上周五那场在亚马逊Prime视频直播的NBA季中锦标赛对阵勇士的焦点战。在最后一分钟，德阿隆·福克斯在马刺最后两次进攻中，在基本上18英尺的位置出手了两次跳投，但都投失了，马刺以两分之差输掉了比赛。
最后一球，维克托·文班亚马在右侧低位靠近篮筐的位置。德雷蒙德·格林 (Draymond Green) 在防守他。比赛早些时候有一个重要时刻，一个病毒式传播的瞬间，维克托和德雷蒙德来回交锋，维克托完成了一个可能是本年度NBA最精彩但被判无效的扣篮，并瞪着德雷蒙德。我想就此说明的一点是，我认为对德阿隆·福克斯投失那些球感到失望甚至指责他是可以理解的，也是没问题的。但指责他出手那些投篮是不对的，因为我认为这是一个重要的区别。因为那些投篮正是马刺交易来德阿隆·福克斯让他投的。那些投篮是马刺在去年二月放弃三个首轮选秀权——或者说是四个但有一个未兑现——三个首轮选秀权来得到德阿隆·福克斯时所设想的。那些投篮是他们在今年夏天让德阿隆·福克斯成为队史最高薪球员时所设想的。
德阿隆·福克斯是一名关键球员，这不仅仅是《马刺内幕》播客告诉你的。事实是，他赢得了NBA首届年度关键球员奖，而且是以压倒性的优势，100张选票中有90多张都投给了德阿隆·福克斯，而那仅仅是两年前的事。这就是他应该做的。在那种情况下，你能把球吊给维克托·文班亚马吗？你希望看到进攻通过维克托·文班亚马来发起吗？我能理解。那样做不一定错。但让你的关键球员去投那些为他设计的投篮也同样没有错。有时候球会进，有时候不会。你当然希望球能进。但我只想公开表明，而且我也在报纸上，expressnews.com上写过，我对他出手那些投篮没有任何意见。我不认为那是计划的失败。我认为是执行的失败。你没能投进。但我相信他投进的会比投失的多。再说一次，考虑到马刺未来三周的处境，这个讨论有点多余了，但我认为还是值得提一下。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：是的，拥有两位那样的球员的意义就在于，在那种情况下你有两个好的选择。所以，我认为无论哪种选择都不一定是错的。是的，你能把球传到低位的维克托那里吗？也许可以。德雷蒙德会对他犯规吗？德雷蒙德把他防得相当死。如果你把球传给维克托，那并不是一个轻松的选择。德雷蒙德会犯规吗？很可能。裁判在那个时候会吹罚吗？你不知道。相比之下，德阿隆·福克斯出手一个他擅长的18英尺跳投，看起来简单又合理。
迈克·芬格 ：是的，而且德雷蒙德当时是绕前防守他。另外，我反复看了那个回合，斯蒂芬·库里 (Steph Curry) 在弱侧，急切地准备协防包夹维克托。所以你一边是德雷蒙德，另一边是斯蒂芬。而我们在这两年零一个月里从维克托·文班亚马的经历中学到的一点是，给内线的传球往往比看起来更难、更复杂。并不是简单地把球扔给他，让他自己解决问题就行了。有时候这招管用，有时候不行。如果德阿隆·福克斯在最后几秒对阵金州勇士时投进了那一球，那将会是一记在整个赛季都产生回响的投篮，因为下一次发生同样情况时，对手球队就会考虑如何防守这一球，也许下一次传球就会给到维克多，那时斯蒂芬就不会去包夹，或者德雷蒙德会更倾向于防守德阿隆。我认为有很多理由说明那是正确的选择。
再说一次，如果你把球传给了维克托，并且维克托打进了，那当然也是正确的选择。但杰夫说得完全正确。他们现在有不止一个正确的选择。而在事后去指责那是一个多么糟糕的选择，马刺应该如何如何做，我不会加入那种论调。我对那个选择很满意。现在，我们将看看在接下来的几周里，德阿隆能否更多地依靠自己做到这一点。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：是的，而且我猜当斯蒂芬·卡斯尔在场时，情况会好一些，他会有更多的帮手。我们不知道斯蒂芬·卡斯尔要缺席多久。那场比赛后我在更衣室和斯蒂芬·卡斯尔简短地聊了几句，他看起来……他似乎觉得那不是什么大事。他说他甚至……我不知道这是好事还是坏事，但他甚至无法准确说出那场比赛中伤病是什么时候发生的。他说：“我不知道发生了什么，就是感觉有点酸痛了。”所以听起来不像是会让他长期缺阵的伤病。因此，让他回归——因为他今年打得太好了——那将有助于我们度过难关，就像我们一直在说的。
迈克·芬格 ：我不确定我们上次录制的时候，我猜当时德阿隆·福克斯在马刺打了两场比赛，我们可能提到了，我想我们提到了，那是斯蒂芬·卡斯尔助攻数很高的两场比赛，也是他整体表现非常出色的两场比赛。但如果你要为马刺的未来寻找亮点，如果斯蒂芬·卡斯尔真的回归了，他已经证明了他是一个相当不错的球员，他知道如何与德阿隆·福克斯在场上共存，他们俩是一个相当不错的组合。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：我们真的很想念汤姆来填补这些冷场时间。
是啊，是啊，是啊。我们确实想念他。
好吧，这里有一个话题，既然我们在回顾，谈论维克托总不会错，对吧？他可能缺席大量比赛的另一个后果是，他们什么时候会修改NBA奖项的65场比赛规则？我知道你不在乎这些，但有些人很在乎。今年的情况是，维克托可能再次因为腹股沟拉伤而无法获得年度最佳防守球员奖，也无法入选最佳阵容。
迈克·芬格 ：是小腿拉伤。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：小腿拉伤，抱歉。谢谢你。当NBA引入……我失败了，我小时候玩那个“手术”游戏就不行，我太糟糕了，分不清身体部位。当NBA引入那条规则时，我认为是出于好意，大家的初衷都是好的。它主要是为了对抗负荷管理。但你看到这么多人因非负荷管理的原因缺席比赛，我愿意接受这样一种想法，也许这里需要一些灵活性。我不知道，这就是我想说的。
迈克·芬格 ：是啊。我是说，你这是问错人了……
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：我知道。就假装关心一下吧。
迈克·芬格 ：我想说的是，在德阿隆·福克斯的复出计划中，这个问题被提到了。那个计划，那是被考虑到的一个因素。它不是优先事项列表中的第一、第二、第三或第四项，但当计划呈现给德阿蒙时，它大概是这样表述的：嘿，你可以及时复出，你不会因为缺席太多比赛而失去入选NBA最佳阵容奖项的资格，而且你能以百分之百的状态回归。假设你打72场比赛，那72场比赛你都将是满状态，不会受到限制。所以那72场比赛的数据会很好看。你也不会因为缺席太多而低于那个门槛。这是当时讨论过的事情。
而且球队确实会讨论这个，因为它很重要，对球员们很重要，他们很在乎。这对他们的钱包也很重要，因为入选这些阵容是有奖金的。所以我确实认为这可能是值得解决的问题。然后你可能会说，好吧，你把它从65场降到60场，那又有什么意义呢？你又回到了由投票者决定的问题上。而且我想，杰夫，你是一个投票者，这可能也是你更关心它的原因之一。但这些问题就是，如果你要信任投票者来投票决定这些影响合同、金钱和声望的结果，那么我认为你也应该信任他们来决定缺席多少场比赛算太多。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：对。我是说，在它被写入NBA劳资协议之前，任何投票者都会完全权衡这一点。是的，科怀（伦纳德）(Kawhi Leonard) 那年表现很棒，但他只打了40场比赛。所以，你知道，他会因此被扣分，或者我不会因此投票给他。我心里有没有一个具体的数字，比如必须打X场比赛？没有，但你知道，你只是……你综合考虑了所有因素。
当你看看去年的维克托，他打了多少场？46场还是多少？可能比那多一点。反正是40多场。远低于65场的门槛，但他仍然是联盟的总盖帽王。不是场均盖帽，是总盖帽数。而且是以巨大的优势领跑联盟。然后你告诉我，那家伙因为得了血栓，就连年度最佳防守球员奖的评选资格都没有。你知道，我不知道。如果你能在有限的比赛场次里仍然产生那样的影响力，我仍然会考虑投票给你。我只能这么说，但我不被允许，我们都不被允许，因为那65场的规定。而现在维克托可能又会因此吃亏。
我不知道他是否会……我想你可以缺席17场比赛，对吧？我不知道他是否会因为这个伤缺席17场，但你知道会发生什么吗？你有一个长期伤病，然后之后你又扭伤了脚踝，或者撞到了膝盖，这就变成了一个选择题：你是选择休战错过那个门槛，还是……你知道，所以当你缺席这么一大块时间后，就没有太多回旋余地了。我希望他们能重新审视或者考虑一下这条规则。我没有答案，因为就像我一开始说的，大家的初衷是好的。联盟的初衷是好的。我们不打算奖励那些搞负荷管理的人。它的目的是为了对抗那种行为。但我不认为它真的起作用了。而且我认为它实际上惩罚了更多那些同样初衷是好的，努力每晚都上场，但却遭遇了深静脉血栓或小腿拉伤之类伤病的人。
迈克·芬格 ：我认为你说得对，而且你看，现在真正的问题已经不是负荷管理了。而是这些为期两周的伤病，像瘟疫一样在联盟中蔓延。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：这或许说明了负荷管理可能是个好主意。
迈克·芬格 ：没错。我正要说到这点，负荷管理少了，但两周的缺阵多了。所以也许负荷管理并不是问题所在。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：我们都知道球队已经无法再打82场比赛了，但没人会去改变它。没人会这么做。它将一直是82场。没人想放弃那笔钱。但比赛太多了，尤其是，让我们把这个话题绕回来，尤其是考虑到现在球队的打法。没人能在六个多月的时间里打82场那种强度的比赛还能安然无恙。尽管马刺去年确实有三个，有三个铁人。有三个家伙打满了全部比赛。
迈克·芬格 ：是的。其中两个人今年仍然有望做到这一点，哈里森·巴恩斯 (Harrison Barnes) 和朱利安·尚帕尼 (Julian Champagnie) 的表现完全符合人们对他们角色的期望。他们尽职尽责。另一个做到这一点的人，现在正在为一支比马刺差得多的球队效力。我们早些时候谈到了烂摊子。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：克里斯，是的。
迈克·芬格 ：我们的朋友克里斯·保罗 (Chris Paul)，首先，他在场上看起来就像个40岁的人。我没看他们打很多比赛，只看过一些片段，但他……马刺选择放手可能是个明智之举。这很明显。而且，他为一支战绩只有4胜10负的球队效力，上场时间也不多。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：是的。我是说，关于克里斯·保罗，我们去年谈到的，他告诉我们的是，如果他要……你知道，他非常重视家庭。如果他要为了赛季离开家人，那他会去一个能打球的地方。他不会来圣安东尼奥打替补。但另一方面，权衡之下似乎是，如果他能回到洛杉矶，那么当他能和家人在一起时，他就不那么介意打替补了。
迈克·芬格 ：家人住在那里，是的。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：你必须……是的，你必须……我想这是他愿意做的另一种权衡。我猜，我不知道。也许他在那边只是非常不满。我完全不知道。我没和任何人聊过或者……
迈克·芬格 ：我是说，“不满”这个词有点重了。我敢肯定他脾气很犟，因为他高兴的时候脾气也很犟。我喜欢和他待在一起，喜欢和他聊天。我们开玩笑，但有他在这里的一年很有趣。我认为那一年会带来红利。那一年会对斯蒂芬·卡斯尔、对更衣室里的很多球员产生长远的影响，他们学到了一些关于如何成为一名职业球员的东西。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：是的，借着这个话题说一下，斯蒂芬·卡斯尔现在经常做的那种跳步传球给底角，通常是传给朱利安·尚帕尼投三分，他说：“我是从克里斯那里偷师的。”克里斯是那个告诉他，教他怎么传那个球的人。就连朱利安也说：“是的，这完全就是克里斯会做的事。”所以，正如你所说，他在球队的那一年，将在未来几年为这支球队的球员带来回报。
迈克·芬格 ：没错。人们没看到的是，他打满了82场比赛的那一年，马刺输了多少场？快50场了。然后他离开了。从远处看，你可能会说，克里斯·保罗在圣安东尼奥那一年有什么意义？他为什么在那里浪费了一年？马刺为什么在他身上浪费了一年？我认为那一年对双方来说都不是浪费。我认为那是一年……他们对自己所做的投资感到满意。他们对自己从克里斯·保罗那里获得的经验财富感到满意，那是一笔好交易。我希望克里斯至少能以某种方式在快船队找到乐趣。
我们继续向前看。我之前提到有一场对阵孟菲斯的比赛。我们是在周二早上录制这个节目。如果你习惯在周三早上听，那场比赛可能已经打完了。但那是“烂摊子”灰熊队周二晚造访霜岸中心。亚特兰大老鹰队，马刺今年和他们拥有选秀权互换权的球队，现在看起来谁的选秀顺位会更高还是个悬念。马刺或者老鹰，他们俩……他们的战绩相似。老鹰所在的东部赛区更容易一些。他们周四会来访，队里还有另一位缺阵的球员，联盟中众多缺阵的球星之一。特雷·杨 (Trae Young) 不打，但老鹰在他缺阵的情况下表现还不错。然后在我们下次再会之前，周日还有一次客场之旅去菲尼克斯。那是三场比赛，杰夫。在我们做通常的一周预测之前，你早些时候提到了，我知道你得去投篮训练了，但让我们来展望一下三周。那可能更有趣。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：你对“有趣”的定义很奇怪，但好吧。
迈克·芬格 ：只是因为，让我们看看在维克托·文班亚马可能缺阵的这段时间里，马刺的赛程是什么样的，你知道吗？
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：好吧，让我打开我那可靠的马刺App看看赛程。嗯，它bug很多，我得一直重启。
迈克·芬格 ：哦，所以如果你说它有bug，那你肯定没有代言合同。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：我看起来像霜岸银行吗？
迈克·芬格 ：让我们预测一周、两周、三周。我们会带大家看到12月8日，那之后还有季中锦标赛的比赛。我们不打算讨论那些尚未公布的锦标赛比赛，但这能让你大概了解三周的评估期。我就把比赛念出来，我们看看马刺应该赢下哪些。主场对孟菲斯，这是一场。主场对亚特兰大，我不会把这场算作必胜。客场对菲尼克斯，也不会算作必胜。菲尼克斯最近打得更好了。客场对波特兰，也不会算作必胜。客场对丹佛，客场对明尼苏达，主场对孟菲斯，这场应该能赢。你觉得也许斯蒂芬·卡斯尔，甚至迪伦·哈珀可能在那场复出。客场对奥兰多，客场对克利夫兰，客场对新奥尔良，这是另一场你应该赢的。在这一组里，一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十场比赛，有三场你觉得是稳拿的。然后是一堆五五开的比赛。我认为以五胜五负的战绩度过这段时间并非不合理。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：那是我第一反应，我第一次过一遍赛程时的反应就是，你有机会打出五成的胜率。
迈克·芬格 ：是啊。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：你确实有机会。我不知道。
迈克·芬格 ：如果你能让卡斯尔回归，一支拥有德阿隆·福克斯和斯蒂芬·卡斯尔以及马刺那些角色球员的球队，就像你提到并在报纸上写的那样，马刺现在在中锋位置上，在维克托身后有了更好的储备，卢克·科内特打得非常好。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：科内特会非常关键。在这段时间里他会非常关键。他会非常关键。
迈克·芬格 ：我不认为这是灾难。我不认为这是悲观绝望。我认为期待五胜五负，甚至更好的战绩是完全合理的。那是一段艰难而漫长的客场之旅，感恩节期间要去菲尼克斯、波特兰、丹佛、明尼苏达。但你们可以挺过去的。我想这就是我们要留给你们的。你们可以挺过去的。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：总得用积极的话来结尾。你们可以挺过去的。
迈克·芬格 ：是的。这一切都会过去的。
杰夫·麦克唐纳 ：我们会挺过去的，挺到下周我们再见的时候。在那之前，请互相照顾，保持真实。[音乐渐出]
由生成式 AI 翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
点击查看原文：How the Spurs move forward without Wemby
How the Spurs move forward without Wemby
Columnist Mike Finger and Spurs beat reporters Jeff McDonald discuss Victor Wembanyama’s injury and how the Spurs are better equipped to deal with his loss for an extended period of time versus last year due to Luke Kornet.
Suggested reading:
MRI reveals Victor Wembanyama has a left calf strain, Spurs announce
Spurs vs. Grizzlies: How to watch the game, who’s starting, who’s out
Spurs’ Stephon Castle exits Sunday’s game early due to injury
Why De’Aaron Fox’s big miss was right play for Spurs in long run
The latest on Dylan Harper’s injury
Here is the transcript of the podcast:
Mike Finger: [music fades in] From a highly secure network of top secret locations across South Texas, this is the Spurs Insider on the Mend edition. I am Mike Finger, joined by Express News Spurs Beat Rider Jeff McDonald and Sports Editor Nick Talbott. Victor Wembanyama’s on the shelf, Stephon Castle’s on the shelf, Dylan Harper’s on the shelf, even our Tom Orsborn is on the shelf, but we’re gonna all gonna try to make do, weather on.
We got a lot to talk about this week. Jeff, where do you want to start? I know Tom had reported yesterday that the 7-foot-4 Frenchman who had been the terror of the NBA for much of the first month of the season will be reevaluated in a couple of weeks, two to three weeks after an MRI showed that he had a calf strain. Stephon Castle’s not going to play against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night due to a hip issue. Where does that leave the San Antonio Spurs at the moment?
Jeff McDonald: Screwed? [laughter]
Okay, podcast over. We’ll see you later.
Mike Finger: Come on, this is a positive podcast, Jeff.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, I know I was going to say, it kind of puts a damper on the on the good vibes though when Victor’s on the shelf for an extended period again. And it’s that those calf issues have become a bugaboo. Not just with the Spurs, but with the Spurs, he’s the third guy since training camp to be out with with calf, a calf strain, a calf issue. But also just all across the league, it’s just it’s just rampant.
And kind of one of the things I’m going to investigate today if I can, make some calls on is, are calf strains just more prevalent in today’s NBA or are we just more attuned to them because teams have figured out that they lead to much, much more serious issues sometimes and so they’re taking extra special precaution with them that they might not have 10 years ago or 15 years ago. And I’m guessing it might be a combination of both things, that the pace of play in the NBA these days, it’s played faster than it ever has. The number of games, the number of mileage, the number of, I think all that contributes to it. And then I think teams are very quick to pull the plug on any kind of calf soreness whatsoever because we all know that they can often lead to Achilles issues. So I think that’s the combination of the two things. That’s why the Spurs are being super duper cautious with Victor, not going to let him anywhere near a court till that’s resolves.
Mike Finger: Yep, and I think that’s probably the wise course of action. You mentioned the pace of play. Just the way that a center, just watch one game, and it’s not just Victor Wembanyama, but anybody who plays a position that used to be lumbering and sort of station to station and you’d have a post move at one end and you’d lumber up the court and defend the post move at the other end. Like now a guy like Victor Wembanyama is just all over the court, covering so much ground so quickly. And that goes for basically every position on the court. Like you said, so many more miles, so many more steps put on these calves.
And the worst case scenario is so frightening in terms of an NBA season, in terms of an NBA career, that even if this is not the specific type of calf injury that typically leads to Achilles injuries, even if it doesn’t look like Kevin Durant’s calf looked in the finals that year when he blew it out or like Jason Tatum’s looked last year when he blew it out. I think that Haliburton or name your guy. It’s it’s understandable why when you’re built around a singular player like the Spurs are, you would go above and beyond in terms of caution. And I think two to three weeks, generally when the Spurs say two to three weeks, I’d bet on three before I bet on two and and start from there.
But you know, it’s I guess if there is cold comfort in this, it’s that they’re not the only team going through it and that just because you are without a guy or two guys or three guys, you’re going to be playing other teams who are out a guy, two guys, three guys. And it’s not really the excuse to lose six games in a row, not that they’re looking at it that way. But there are still winnable games starting Tuesday night against Memphis. They’re still going to be the favorites. Atlanta on Thursday, that’s not an unwinnable game, even without your full strength roster. You just soldier on.
Jeff McDonald: I mean, just to your point, Ja Morant is not playing for the Grizzlies tonight. And do you want to know why? Calf strain.
Mike Finger: Yeah.
Jeff McDonald: So it’s just it’s everywhere. It’s everywhere. And it has become a two to three week injury at best. A number of cases go on longer than that. We don’t really know specifically what Victor has. If if you want me just to talk out of my rear end, it seems like it probably isn’t worse than what Dylan Harper had. Like we saw that happen in that game against Phoenix.
Mike Finger: I would venture to say it’s it’s not as serious as what as what Dylan Harper had.
Jeff McDonald: Correct. Yeah. But I don’t know. I’m not I’m not a doctor. I haven’t seen the MRI, but just judging from what I have seen with my eyes, I would think he’s…
Mike Finger: Well what we know for sure is that he suffered this calf injury against the Golden State Warriors in that game. We have been told that. And we watched Victor Wembanyama walk into the media room after that. We saw him finish the game. We saw him call for the ball, we can get into this later. We saw him call for the ball on the last play of that game. He was still on the court. We saw him walk into the media room, have a very pleasant conversation with us, which we’ll talk about later. We saw him walk out of the media room. And in Phoenix, we saw Dylan Harper suffer the calf injury and we saw him not finish the game. We saw him limp towards the locker room and we saw him get strapped into a walking boot and we saw him, or Tom and I did, struggle out of the arena on crutches.
So when when that leads you to believe that those are two different injuries in terms of severity. I guess again, I’m not a doctor. Maybe maybe Victor’s is worse than it looked, but I tend to believe just based on all evidence, Occam’s razor would have me to believe that Dylan Harper’s was more serious than Victor Wembanyama’s was. Does that mean he’s going to be back in three weeks? No, I’m not guaranteeing that. But I think there’s reason to be optimistic that it won’t be as bad as Dylan Harper’s. And actually Dylan Harper is progressing, correct?
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, the last he’s out of the boot now, but he was in a boot for a couple weeks. Like it wasn’t a, it wasn’t like he just wore the boot home from Phoenix. Like he was he was, I think he got out of the boot sometime when the Spurs were in Chicago, whenever that was. So he is, yeah, he’s out of the boot and doing a little more physical stuff, but yeah, he’s he’s still a few weeks away, Dylan Harper is.
The ramifications of of Victor’s absence, like if he misses a month, that’s about 13 games I think. And that’s that’s a chunk of the season. Like you have to win some of those games without him. And one point I’d make there is…
Mike Finger: It’s the cup. It could cost him the cup.
Jeff McDonald: Could cost him the cup. One point I’d make there is they are, I mean you’re going to miss Victor. You’re going to miss Victor. I mean, that I think that’s not breaking news, but they are far more equipped to deal with his absence this season than they were last year when he went out with the blood clot. You know, if he were to miss the rest of this, he’s not going to miss the rest of the season. This is hypothetical. If he were to be out for the season, no, they’re not making the playoffs. But they have with Luke Kornet here, with a healthy De’Aaron Fox, they can weather four weeks, three, four weeks and maybe tread water enough to where they can still be in that that mix. I think last year they Mitch had no options when Victor was out. They had signed Biyombo to kind of be an emergency guy and then they had to start him. And then they had to play Jeremy Sochan and a lot of small ball center, which he will still do, but that doesn’t need to be if that’s your only option, that’s bad. It needs to be one of the options.
But now they’ve got Luke Kornet who who’s been a, he’s been a starter. He’s been a fill-in starter for the Celtics on very good teams. He’s he’s a guy that’s not going to do Victor Wembanyama things so much. Well, let me change that. He’s not going to do the spectacular Victor Wembanyama things, but the the fundamental things, the rim protection, the size, the, you know, just basketball acumen, he he’s Luke Cornet will will help the Spurs tread water a little bit. And so they have they have that. They have Kelly Olynyk who’s not the same kind of big man, but they have bigger bodies this year to kind of fill in for Wembanyama’s absence that they didn’t have last year. So they’re better equipped. Again, I think if you had to go the rest of the season with this roster, not as much of a playoff shoo-in, but if you you have the bodies to maybe get through a few weeks, I think.
Mike Finger: I’ll go two polar opposite responses to that. One the good vibes, one the bad vibes. The good vibes is, have have you looked at the Western Conference and like the bottom half of it lately? There’s a lot of train wrecks there.
Jeff McDonald: I’m aware, but you go too long without a Victor, you’re one of the train wrecks.
Mike Finger: I don’t think so. That’s my point, is that like there’s there are seven good teams in the Western Conference that I feel comfortable about making the playoffs and the Spurs are one of those teams. And a bad team is going to finish 9th and 10th. Like a bad team, a team with serious issues is going to finish in the 9th and 10th spot. You start looking at it and it’s either a bad team or a team like Portland who’s not bad but just is not ready. Like a team that’s not ready’s going to make it. So that’s the that’s the good vibes thing is that there’s the the bottom for this team, assuming everybody other than Victor is available, is not that far down the Western conference standings.
Now the the bad vibe response is Victor’s not the only guy out. And a year ago when Victor left, you still had quote unquote too many point guards and you had a whole bunch of guys who could play on the perimeter. I don’t think that the Stephon Castle injury is long-term, might not be beyond Tuesday night against Memphis, but that’s a concern. Dylan Harper is out for much of the time that Victor’s going to be out presumably. That’s a concern. Even the other J-Mac, not Jeff McDonald but Jordan McLaughlin is out Tuesday night. So you’re you’re running short on guard bodies and De’Aaron Fox just came back from a hamstring injury.
Like that’s the concern is not can the Spurs weather three weeks without Victor Wembanyama, which I think they could they could hold up okay if that was the only guy. The concern is you need to make sure that the rest of the roster holds up and that might be tenuous. That’s that’s my concern there. You want to get Stephon Castle back at some point relatively soon. You want to make sure that De’Aaron Fox holds up. You want to make sure that Dylan Harper sort of trends in the right direction. But in the meantime, that’s a lot of pressure on De’Aaron Fox, who has had a pretty good week or so back. He had one big game that a lot of people were disappointed in and one big moment that a lot of people were disappointed in, but this is now going to be a big De’Aaron Fox week moving forward.
Jeff McDonald: He’s going to have to carry them a little bit or lead them, might be the might be the better way to put it. And he has, it was kind of a roller coaster week for him, De’Aaron. I think more good than bad, I just think people look at the the end of that second Golden State game and kind of ding him a lot, which which I understand. Those are the moments your clutch player has to come up clutch. But he’s been pretty good since he came back, most of it playing off of Victor, but against Sacramento, his old team, you know, Victor was out that game and and De’Aaron had to carry more of the load. And he had a, you know, he set a season high in scoring with 28, season high assists at 11, and was a really big part of that win over the Kings.
And a thing that Mitch said that was interesting to me was, you know, if you’re if you’re, and I’m paraphrasing all of this, if you’re in De’Aaron Fox’s shoes and everybody’s healthy on the Spurs, you got Victor, you got Stephon Castle, you got even Dylan Harper on the floor. There’s a lot of a lot of options if you’re De’Aaron Fox to how to handle that. Do I take over? Do I let this guy take over? Do I throw the ball here? Do I play off the ball? All all those things. And Mitch said, you know, in a way with these guys out, De’Aaron can, it takes all the options away and he can just be super aggressive. He doesn’t have to overthink anything. And so I think we’re going to see a pretty aggressive, a pretty high scoring De’Aaron Fox here over the next couple weeks until they start getting some of these bodies back. So I think that’s something to look for going forward.
Mike Finger: This is almost an obsolete discussion now, but it’s worth going over, I think even though it is becoming obsolete with Victor out and with the Spurs needing De’Aaron Fox to do a lot, just because it was an important story since our last podcast was the big game Amazon Prime game, NBA Cup game against the Warriors last Friday when in the final minute, De’Aaron Fox took and missed two basically 18-foot jumpers on the Spurs’ last two possessions and missed them and the Spurs lost by one basket.
The last one, Victor Wembanyama is near the basket on the right block. Draymond Green is guarding him. There was a huge moment earlier in that game, a viral moment where Victor and Draymond went back and forth and Victor got possibly the best dunk of the year that did not count in the NBA, and sort of stared Draymond down. The point I want to make about that is I think it’s understandable, I think it’s fine to be disappointed and to even call out De’Aaron Fox for missing those shots. But it’s not okay to call him out for taking those shots because I think that’s an important difference. It’s because that’s those are the shots that De’Aaron Fox was acquired to take. Those are the shots that the Spurs had in mind when they gave up three first-round draft picks, or it was four but one didn’t convey, three first-round draft picks to acquire De’Aaron Fox last February. Those were the shots they had in mind when they made De’Aaron Fox the highest paid player in franchise history this summer.
De’Aaron Fox is a clutch player, and that’s not just Spurs Insider podcast telling you that. That is, he won the first ever Clutch Player of the Year award in the NBA by an overwhelming margin, like 90 something of the 100 votes went to De’Aaron Fox, and that was just two years ago. This is what he’s supposed to do. And in those situations, could you lob the ball to Victor Wembanyama there? Would you like to see the offense run through Victor Wembanyama? I could understand that. That wouldn’t necessarily be wrong. But it’s also not wrong to have your clutch player take the shots that he was acquired to take. And sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t. And you’d like to see them go in. But I just want to go on record and I’ve written about this in the paper, expressnews.com. I have no problem at all with him taking those shots. And I don’t think that was a a failure of a plan. I think it was a failure in execution. You didn’t make the shots. But I think he’ll make more of those than he misses. And again, this is this is sort of an unnecessary discussion considering where the Spurs are going to be over the next three weeks, but I think it was just worth addressing.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, the the point of having two of those guys is to have two good choices in those situations. And so neither one of them is necessarily wrong, I don’t think. Yeah, could you throw the ball down there to Vic? Yeah, maybe. Does Draymond foul him? Draymond had him pretty pretty penned. Like it wasn’t an easy play if you throw it to Vic. Will Draymond foul? Probably. Do you want are the refs going to call that at that point? Well, you don’t know. It just seems like De’Aaron Fox taking a De’Aaron Fox 18-footer seems seems simple and fine.
Mike Finger: Yeah, and and Draymond was fronting him. But another thing, I looked at that play several times, and Steph is on the weak side anxious to double down on Victor. So you have Draymond on one side and Steph on the other. And one thing we’ve learned about the Victor Wembanyama experience in two years and a month is that the entry pass is often harder than it looks and more complicated than it looks. It’s not so simple as just dump the ball to him and let him cook. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. And if De’Aaron Fox makes that shot with the last seconds draining off the clock against Golden State, the Golden State Warriors, like that’s a shot that’s going to have reverberations throughout the season because that’s the shot that teams are going to think about defending the next time that happens and maybe then the next pass goes to Victor where Steph isn’t doubling or where Draymond cheats over more to defend De’Aaron. I think there there were lots of reasons why that was the right play.
And again, if you would have thrown it to to Victor and Victor made it, sure that’s the right play too. But Jeff is exactly right. They have more than one right option now. And to kind of pile on and talk about how terrible of a choice that was and how the Spurs should have done it differently after the fact, I just don’t, I’m not going to join in that chorus. I was fine with that. And now we’re going to see if De’Aaron can do it more on his own over the next few weeks.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, and I guess when Steph’s there, it will be less, you know, they’ll they’ll be more, he’ll have more help. We don’t know how long Steph’s. I did talk to Steph Castle briefly in the locker room after that game and he was kind of, he didn’t seem like it was that big of a deal. He just said he couldn’t even, I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing, but he couldn’t really pinpoint when when that injury occurred in that game. He said, I don’t know what happened, just kind of got sore on me. So but it doesn’t sound like something that’s going to keep him out long term. So, you know, getting him back, because he’s played so well this year, that will that will help weather the storm as we keep saying.
Mike Finger: I’m not sure we had, I guess there were two De’Aaron Fox games under the Spurs belt when we met last week and we might have brought up the fact, I think we did, that they were two big Stephon Castle assist games and two really two good all-around Stephon Castle games. But that’s if you’re looking for bright sides for the Spurs moving forward, if Stephon Castle does come back, he’s proven that he’s a pretty good, that he knows how to play with De’Aaron Fox on the floor, that those that’s a pretty good tandem.
Jeff McDonald: We’re really missing Tom to fill in all these dead spaces.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We are.
Well here’s a here’s a, since we’re going back, you can’t go wrong talking about Victor, right? Another ramification of him missing a good number of games probably is when do they change that 65 game rule for NBA Awards? I know you don’t care about them, but some people do. And there’s a scenario this year where Victor again can’t be defensive player of the year, can’t be all NBA because he had a because he had a groin strain.
Mike Finger: Calf strain.
Jeff McDonald: Calf strain, sorry. Thank you. When the NBA instituted, I failed, I wasn’t good at that operation game growing up, I’m just terrible, I don’t know my body parts. When the NBA instituted that rule, I think it was in good faith and everyone’s heart was in the right place. It was basically to combat load management. But you’re seeing so many people miss games that aren’t load management related at all, and I’m open to the idea that maybe there needs to be some wiggle room in there. And I don’t know, that’s what I wanted to say.
Mike Finger: Yeah. I mean you’re you’re talking to the wrong…
Jeff McDonald: I know. Pretend to care for a second.
Mike Finger: I will say that came up with the that came up with the De’Aaron Fox comeback plan in that the the plan, that was something that was considered. It wasn’t number one or number two or number three or number four on the list of priorities, but when the when the plan was presented to De’Aaron, it was sort of presented in that, hey, you can come back in plenty of time to, you won’t miss enough games to keep you from all NBA awards and you come back full strength able to make, let’s say you play 72 games, those 72 games will be full strength and you won’t be limited. So you can those 72 games will look good. And you’re not going to miss enough to where you fall below the threshold. That was something that was sort of discussed.
And teams do discuss it because it matters, it does matter to the players, they care about it. It does matter to their pocketbooks, to their wallets, because there’s money associated with making these teams. So I do think that that might be something worth addressing. And then you say, well, do you drop it from 65 to 60 and then what’s the point anyway? You’re just you’re right back to the question that’s up to the voters. And I think Jeff, you are a voter, which might be why you care about it a little more. But like those are the those are the questions that you sort of have to, if you’re going to trust the voters with the votes that affect some of these contracts and some of this money and this prestige, then I think you should be able to trust them to decide how many games missed is too many.
Jeff McDonald: Right. I mean before it was, you know, codified in the NBA collective bargaining agreement, any voter would totally weigh that. Yeah, Kawhi had a great year, but he only played in 40 games. So, you know, he gets dinged for that or I won’t vote for him for that. Did I have a number in my, play X amount of games? No, but it was just, you know, you just kind of, you weighed it all. You weighed it all.
And when you look at Victor last year, he played in what, 46 or something like that? Maybe a little more than that. It was 40-something. Fell way below the 65-game threshold, but he still led the league in total blocks. Not blocks per game, total blocks. And led the league in total blocks by a huge margin. And you’re telling me that guy shouldn’t at least be eligible for the Defensive Player of the Year award because he had a blood clot. You know, I don’t I don’t know. If you can still have that kind of impact in a limited number of games, I would still consider voting for you. I’ll put it that way, but I wasn’t allowed to, we weren’t allowed to because of the 65 game thing. And now Victor might be might be screwed by it again.
I don’t know that he’ll, I think you can miss 17 games, right? I don’t know that he’ll miss 17 games with this thing, but you know what happens is you have a long-term injury and then there’s one down the road where you tweak an ankle or one down the road where you bang a knee, and it gets to be, do you sit that one out and miss the threshold or do you, you know, so it doesn’t give you a lot of leeway when you miss a big chunk like this. And I’d like to see them revisit that rule or think about it. I don’t have the answers because like I said at the top of this, people’s hearts were in the right place. The league’s hearts were in the right place. Like we’re not going to we’re not going to reward people for the load management stuff. It was meant to sort of combat that. I don’t think it’s really worked. And I think it’s actually punished more people who’s also whose hearts are in the right place, who are trying to be out there every night but, you know, suffered deep vein thrombosis or a calf strain or something.
Mike Finger: I think you’re right, and I think when you look at it, it’s not the it’s not the load management that’s really an issue anymore. It’s these it’s these two-week injuries that are just spreading around the league like hotcakes.
Jeff McDonald: Which maybe points to the fact that the load management might have been a good idea.
Mike Finger: Correct. That’s where I was getting to is that there’s less load management and more two week absences. So maybe the load management wasn’t the problem.
Jeff McDonald: We all know the teams can’t play 82 games anymore, but no one’s going to do that. Like no one’s going to change that. It’s going to be 82. No one wants to give up the money. But it’s too many games, especially, you know, to bring this conversation full circle, especially with the way teams are playing it now. Nobody can play 82 games of that over over six months and survive really. Although the Spurs did have three, have three Iron Men last year. Had three guys play all of them.
Mike Finger: Yeah. Two of those guys are still on pace to do it this year, Harrison Barnes and Julian Champagnie playing exactly pretty much exactly how you’d expect them to play in their roles. Like they’re doing their jobs. The other one who did that is not playing for a much worse team than the Spurs. That’s been, we talked about train wrecks earlier.
Jeff McDonald: Chris, yeah.
Mike Finger: Our friend Chris Paul is, first of all, looking like a 40-year-old man when he’s out there. I haven’t seen them play a lot, I’ve seen bits and pieces, but he, it was probably a wise move for the Spurs to to move on. That was obvious. And also he’s just not on the floor a lot for a team that’s what, 4 and 10.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah. I mean it’s the thing with Chris Paul we talked about last year was what he told us was if he’s going to, you know, he’s big on his family, as we know. If he’s going to leave his family for the season, it’s going to be somewhere to play. He’s not going to come to San Antonio and come off the bench. But at the flip side of that, the tradeoff seems to be if he can go back to LA, then he doesn’t mind coming off the bench so much when he’s around his family.
Mike Finger: Family lives, yes.
Jeff McDonald: You have to, yeah, you have, it’s a tradeoff he’s willing to make the other way, I guess. I guess I don’t know. Maybe he’s just disgruntled as all hell over there. I have no idea. I haven’t talked to anybody or…
Mike Finger: I mean disgruntled is a strong word. I’m sure he’s ornery because he’s ornery when he’s happy. I loved hanging out with him. I loved talking to him. We make fun, but he was fun to have around a year. I think he’s going to pay dividends. That year’s going to pay dividends for Stephon Castle for a long time, for a lot of those guys in that locker room who learned some stuff about being a pro.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, just to just to hijack it, that pass that kind of skip pass that Steph keeps making to the corner for for corner threes usually to Julian Champagnie, he said, I stole that from Chris. Like Chris is the one that told me that showed me to make that pass. And even Julian’s like, yeah, this is exactly what Chris would do. So to your point, a lot of the that year that he was here is going to pay off for for guys on this team for years to come.
Mike Finger: Yep. And people didn’t, like he it was a year where he played 82 games and the Spurs lost what, 50 of them, close to 50 of them. And and then he moved on and just looking at that from a distance, you might say, what was the point of the Chris Paul year in San Antonio? Why did he waste a year there? Why did the Spurs waste a year with him? That was not a wasted year for either of them, I don’t think. I think that’s a year that they were they were happy with the investment they made. They were happy with the currency of experience that they got from Chris Paul and it was a good deal. And I hope hope Chris is at least finding ways to enjoy himself in some ways with the with the Clippers.
We’re moving forward. I mentioned earlier that there’s a Memphis game. We’re recording this on Tuesday morning. You might, if you’re routine to listen to it on Wednesday morning, that game will already have been played. But those are the the train wreck Grizzlies visiting Frost Bank Center on Tuesday night. The Atlanta Hawks, the team with which the Spurs have pick swap rights this year, and it’s looking like a down to the wire thing as to which pick will be higher. The Spurs or the Hawks, they’re both, they both have similar records. Hawks in an easier conference. They come in on Thursday with another player who’s sidelined, one of the many stars around the league who’s sidelined. Trae Young isn’t playing, but the Hawks are weathering the storm without him. And then a road trip to Phoenix on Sunday before we meet again. That’s three games, Jeff. Before we do the typical one week prediction, you alluded to it earlier and I know you got to go to shoot around, but let let’s play out three weeks. That might be more fun.
Jeff McDonald: You have a weird idea of fun, but okay.
Mike Finger: Just because the like let’s let’s look at what the Spurs have while Victor Wembanyama might be out, you know?
Jeff McDonald: All right, let me call up my trusty Spurs app with the schedule on it. Well, it’s it’s very buggy. I keep having to restart it, so.
Mike Finger: Oh, so you don’t have a you don’t have an endorsement deal if you’re talking about it’s bugginess.
Jeff McDonald: What do I look like Frost Bank to you?
Mike Finger: Let’s let’s give one week, two weeks, three weeks. We will take them through December 8th, which there are cup games after that. We’re not going to get into what what unannounced cup games might be coming up, but that gives them, that puts you through about three weeks of the evaluation period. And I’ll just call them out and we’ll see what games the Spurs should win. Versus Memphis at home, that’s one. Versus Atlanta at home, I’m not going to I’m not going to make that automatic. At Phoenix, not going to make that automatic. Phoenix has been playing better. At Portland, not going to make that automatic. At Denver, at Minnesota, at home against Memphis, should win that one. You think maybe Stephon Castle and maybe Dylan Harper’s back for that. At Orlando, at Cleveland, at New Orleans, that’s another one you should win. Of that group, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 games, there’s three that you feel like you should have for sure. And then a bunch of coin flips. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to to weather through that at five and five.
Jeff McDonald: That was my first, that was my first reaction, my first pass through it was you have a shot at going 500 there.
Mike Finger: Yeah.
Jeff McDonald: You do do. I I don’t know.
Mike Finger: And if you get Castle back, a team with De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle and the roll guys the Spurs have, as you mentioned and and wrote about in the newspaper, the Spurs are better equipped at center behind Victor now with Luke Kornet has played really well.
Jeff McDonald: Cornet’s going to be huge. He’s going to be huge during this thing. He’s going to be huge.
Mike Finger: I don’t think it’s I don’t think it’s a disaster. I don’t think it’s doom and gloom. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to expect five and five and maybe even better than that. That’s a tough long road trip, Phoenix, Portland, Denver, Minnesota over Thanksgiving. But you you can you can get through this. And I guess that’s where we’re going to leave you. You can get through this.
Jeff McDonald: Always have to leave it on a positive. You can get through this.
Mike Finger: Yeah. This too shall pass.
Jeff McDonald: We’ll get through it, get through it till next week when we see you next time. Until then, take care of each other and keep it real. [music fades out]