点击查看原文：Storming the Castle
Storming the Castle
Columnist Mike Finger and Spurs beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss Stephon Castle’ 40-point triple double and why the Spurs players will be busy on All-Star Weekend, especially their young guards Castle, Carter Bryant and Dylan Harper.
Suggested reading:
Spurs’ Harper looking to carry on family lineage at All-Star weekend
How Stephon Castle found his rhythm in a historic 40-point triple-double
The Spurs have one major goal at the start of their rodeo trip
How the Spurs keep promise to flood-ravaged community
Here is the transcript of the podcast:
Mike Finger: From a highly secured network of top-secret locations across North America, this is the Spurs Insider Rodeo Road Trip/All-Star Weekend edition. I am Mike Finger, joined as always by San Antonio Express-News sports writers, Spurs beat writers Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn.
We’re not going to be together at the Frost Bank Center for a long time. As Mitch Johnson, the head coach of the Spurs, pointed out, this is not just a normal rodeo road trip, but a weird one. They’re going to strange places. What did he say?
Jeff McDonald: “Funkiest in recent memory.”
Mike Finger: “Funkiest in recent memory.” I love that word. They’re going to have KC and the Sunshine Band starting after the Super Bowl. The Spurs got to watch the Super Bowl at home for the first time in a long time. It is stretching into March. It will feature a couple of games in Austin. It is now featuring a couple of games on the West Coast, which Mitch Johnson pointed out the Spurs don’t often go west during the rodeo.
But in the middle of all this, the local cagers continue to roll. You got one of the best, maybe the best, Stephon Castle game of his promising young career just the other day, and heading into a Lakers game tonight here in downtown Los Angeles, the Warriors on Wednesday, and then a big All-Star weekend that Tom’s going to cover. So, where do you guys want to start?
Jeff McDonald: Well, what makes it funky is not KC and the Sunshine Band, but it’s just two games before the All-Star break. It’s kind of like a false start to the rodeo trip. It breaks it up a little bit where you don’t have all those games in a row. So that’s where we’re in LA to face the Lakers, and then they are in San Francisco to face the Golden State Warriors, and then they’re off for a week. That’s what makes it funky to me; that’s a weird start to the rodeo trip, just the two games before the break.
Mike Finger: The rodeo trip of legend, the rodeo trip that used to forge championship teams back in the Gregg Popovich era, the rodeo game of the classic songs of Bill Schoning, does not exist anymore. There are many road trips just in this season that are longer than any road trip that the Spurs will take during this so-called rodeo road trip. This is just a road back-to-back, and then you’ve got an All-Star game, and then you’ve got two games in Austin—which are sort of halfway road trip because they’re staying in hotels, but aren’t really because they’re home games for the Spurs officially. And then you’ve got a week-long trip, I think, to the East Coast to New York and Philadelphia, and that’s it.
I did look it up last year, and however you want to slice it, they were away from the AT&T Center for 12 games in a row, which is a lot. It’s less this time around. But it’s almost four weeks of not being around because of the All-Star break and that kind of thing. But how do they head into this? Should we call it a trip? On a roll! Looking for momentum, trying to seize some momentum going into the All-Star break and not—you know, we heard the old metaphor a bunch of times at the last game we were at—not take your foot off the gas.
With two games to go before you get a little break, some of the guys get a vacation, other guys have All-Star duties. But the talk right now about the team is running through the tape, finishing on a high note. A bunch of people told us, a bunch of players and Mitch himself told us, that with eight games before the All-Star break, they started talking about that as like a little mini-season. Let’s try to post the best record we can over these eight games, not look too far ahead to the break, not, again, take your foot off the gas. And since then, I believe they’re five and one. With these two to go to kind of finish strong.
So, they come into this two-game entry into the rodeo trip on a roll with some momentum, four-game winning streak, five out of the last six, I believe nine out of the last 12. So it’s really about taking care of business, so to speak. Beating a Lakers team that might—our viewers and listeners might know the answer to this question before they listen to this—but they might be playing a Lakers team without Luka Dončić and LeBron James, and then a Warriors team without Steph Curry. So it’s kind of about taking care of those two games and not letting your thoughts wander too far to Cabo or Cancun or wherever you might be headed for the little break they have coming up.
Tom Orsborn: A win is a win is a win, but you look at their winning streak; it’s a banged-up Oklahoma City team without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and then two wins over Dallas. Maybe a somewhat depleted Lakers team, Warriors without Curry. I don’t know.
Mike Finger: What are you saying?
Tom Orsborn: I’m saying that maybe, you know, take it with a grain of salt, this winning streak.
Jeff McDonald: You play the games on the schedule.
Tom Orsborn: I know, and I agree! I said a win is a win is a win, and it’s hard to win in the NBA. So, yeah, I’m just pointing a few things out.
Mike Finger: A couple of weeks ago—it’s been at least two weeks because it was January at the time—after a game at home that I think the Spurs won, because they win most of their games at home, Stephon Castle was in the locker room just looking worn out and said something along the lines of, “Man, we need the break. We can’t wait for the All-Star break.” And it was weeks and weeks away.
And you’re thinking, man, if this team is already thinking about the All-Star break on January 20th, how are they going to get there? And all they’ve done since then is reel off another set of convincing victories. It’s almost like, do you want the All-Star break to come with as well as this team is playing now?
Jeff McDonald: Yes. I know you want the All-Star break to come. I don’t know if that was hypothetical, but yes, they want the All-Star break to come because, I mean, like every team this time of year, everybody on the team has something. Like Mitch told us a few games ago, “Don’t be surprised if we have some pretty bloated injury reports popping up here between now and the beginning of the All-Star break.” Most of it’s nothing; most of it’s bumps and bruises. And he’s been right. There’s been like a nine-man injury report, six-man injury report. They need the break.
And, you know, they played pretty well in that second game against Dallas. The first one was hit or miss until the second half. And like that Oklahoma City game Tom referenced earlier, where Oklahoma City—I don’t know if there’s been a conclusion to this investigation—but they might get fined for the amount of guys that they sat against the Spurs. Like, they played nobody, and the Spurs struggled to put that game away. They’re winning games, but they aren’t just beating the crap out of everybody. So yeah, they could use the break.
Mike Finger: For six years of this Spurs Insider podcast, we were talking about teams that couldn’t win to save their life. And now a couple of months into this season, you know, how the tone has changed. “Yeah, they’ve won 19 games in a row, but they were only ahead by six or seven points in a couple of them.” [laughter] It’s crazy how standards change.
Tom Orsborn: Mitch talks about this a lot. He frowns when they’re not winning convincingly, when they have their lulls.
Mike Finger: Yes, Tom, every coach does that. I’m just making an observation, as you were, that, man, obviously they’re not going to win every game. They’re playing with their food sometimes against teams that are resting everybody. But it’s worth taking a step back and saying, holy cow, it wasn’t that long ago when they couldn’t beat anybody. You’ve got to play the course. You’ve got to play the golf course in front of you, as Mitch keeps saying. How have you guys been doing playing the course? Any holes-in-one, aces, eagles?
Jeff McDonald: You’re asking Tom and I?
Mike Finger: Yeah.
Tom Orsborn: I’m in the rough. Constantly. Constantly trying to get out of the rough in life and golf and everything.
Mike Finger: I keep hitting that damn windmill. So this is all a setup to a mini-golf joke? I don’t know. I see.
What did you think of the big—was that the best Stephon Castle game of his career? Statistically, nobody had done what he did, scoring 40 points in a triple-double, since the great David Robinson for the San Antonio Spurs. But all around, considering, as Tom pointed out, Dallas not the toughest opponent the Spurs have faced this year, but all told, is that as well as Stephon Castle has played? And is he—this is a better question—is he playing the kind of basketball night in and night out that the Spurs want to see from him?
Jeff McDonald: Offensively, what I liked about that game on his way to 40 points was there was a lot of “in-between” stuff. A lot of jumpers in the paint and maybe even stretching out towards the free-throw line. I’m not even talking about three-pointers. He made three three-pointers, that’s nice too, but there haven’t been a whole lot of games in his career yet where he’s just been automatic from that in-between area.
It’s been maybe he’s having one of those games where he makes some threes—that’s not really his bag—or he’s just getting all the way to the rim. And teams have figured that out. Like, “We’ll just build a wall, don’t let him get all the way to the rim,” and he’s going to try it anyway and you might have some success just blocking off the rim as he just barrels in there. Well, then in that Dallas game, he was hitting stuff—I’m not saying he’s hitting these like Jordan-esque fadeaways and 18-footers, 19-footers—it’s just paint stuff, but he’s not having to get all the way to the rim to get the ball in the basket.
If he can do that consistently, he becomes pretty lethal. Because like I said, teams have figured out, “Well, we’re going to give him the three, and if he makes some of them, okay, whatever. We’re not going to let him get all the way to the rim.” He’s going to have to do something else. Well, then in that Dallas game, on several possessions, he figured out a “something else,” which was pull up for a jumper here. And I think that’s what made him unstoppable and that’s what made him get to 40 points. And that is the part, if he can replicate it game in and game out, that makes him really interesting as a consistent scoring piece for this team.
Tom Orsborn: And as you said, his three-pointers aren’t his bag, but January, there’s been a pretty good leap from December to January to February. He’s shooting about four a game and he’s up to the mid-30s for January and February. Of course, not a big sample size yet, but he’s showing improvement with his outside shot, whether it’s mid-range or long-range.
Mike Finger: What was the obvious player comp when the Spurs drafted him and throughout his rookie season that people would bring up over and over again? People who were okay dredging up some not-so-pleasant memories. But over and over again we heard Kawhi, right? That that’s a guy he could become. And when did Kawhi—Jeff can speak to this, Tom can speak to this—those leaps in his game had to do with pulling off sort of exactly what Jeff was talking about, is figuring out the stuff in between.
Kawhi was one of the best, is one of the best when he plays, at figuring out the stuff in between, whether it’s the mid-range or just the pull-up floater type stuff. Not getting all the way to the rim but still getting baskets. It’s not a perfect comp, Stephon to Kawhi, but you can sort of dream on that. And there are still times when he makes Mitch pull his hair out with, like Jeff said, he tries to get to the basket even when they’re not letting him get to the basket. The turnover numbers aren’t ideal yet, but there’s still improvement being made. He hasn’t hit that wall yet.
Tom Orsborn: He’s come a ways with the turnovers from early in the season, for sure. Much better at protecting the ball.
Mike Finger: That Houston game, have we talked about that or was that on an earlier podcast? Because that Houston game to me—you were talking about his best game overall—that game at Houston might have been Stephon Castle’s—it’s on the list of his best defensive games. So he’s had his best offensive game and maybe his best defensive game here in the last couple of weeks of his career. Like, he’s really putting it all together.
Really encouraging for the local cagers to see that. That will transition into the big event that Tom Orsborn’s covering this week, the Rising Stars Game, which I know is on top of everybody’s list. I lost interest when David Jones Garcia was scrapped. That is a huge asterisk on the event that David Jones Garcia’s not going to participate. But you’ve got Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper. You’ve got Dylan Harper staying for some other thing that involves family members. That’s pretty much the All-Star weekend in a nutshell.
And yeah, the “some other thing,” and then you’ve got Victor Wembanyama holding court, doing interviews in front of all kinds of influencers, Baby Gronk and whoever else does interviews, someone probably who posts recipes on Instagram. I’m sure those people show up. Well, like the fellow from the Kimmel show is old school compared to new influencers. He’s basically like Barbara Walters of this. Is that what you’re saying? He is Barbara Walters when it comes to—he’s more safe. He’s Walter Cronkite compared to the people who are out there putting their phone cameras in front of these players during All-Star weekend.
I do not begrudge Tom Orsborn that task at all. Tom every year volunteers to be in the middle of all that madness at All-Star weekend, and he’s going to do it again this year. What are you looking forward to most, Tom?
Tom Orsborn: Well, it’s interesting, you talk about the difference between a while ago and now. Ten years ago and with years going forward, it was pretty easy duty. There was no one out there. You had LaMarcus a time or two and he barely played, wasn’t a big All-Star type player. He was an All-Star player but his game didn’t translate to those dunkathons and whatnot. But now you got everybody out there.
Mike Finger: You mean different Spurs.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, exactly. One guy we didn’t mention, and you even have a coach out there now and his staff, but one guy we didn’t mention, Carter Bryant, in the Dunk Contest. What do you think of Carter Bryant’s chances in that dunk contest?
Mike Finger: Yeah, that’s what I’m looking forward to most and I guess that’s it—seeing him—are you serious?
Tom Orsborn: Yeah!
Mike Finger: I admire Tom Orsborn to have done this this long and to still look forward to crap like this. That is something else. I admire you, Tom. I wish I could look forward to that. Like four guys that no NBA fan has ever heard of. Do you think any fan knows who Carter Bryant is?
Tom Orsborn: Well, we know who he is, and we know how much he struggled with dunks earlier, and to be in the dunk contest, it’s just crazy. So, a little nervous for him under the big lights.
Mike Finger: It’s going to be awful. It’s an unwatchable event, but good luck to him.
But I want to clue in the viewers and the listeners on Carter Bryant. He might have had the damnedest dunk I’ve seen in my life. I’m talking about that time that a couple of us went out to Ingram when the team went out there in September to do like a little practice for the flood victims, the kids out there. And there was a dunk that Carter Bryant did in the layup line.
If you can picture this—I’m going to try to explain this to the viewers and listeners—if you can picture just your standard high school basketball gym, like a 3A gym, you’ve got the bleachers on either side, and then you’ve got the baseline. There’s no seats or anything on the baseline. And we were standing there watching them do a layup line. You’ve got maybe five feet between the end of the baseline and the wall behind you. And we’re watching them do a layup line and somebody throws a pass, a ball, over our heads to the wall behind us. It bounces—it’s low—we have to kind of duck the ricochet coming back towards the court. And somehow Carter Bryant was the guy coming and he grabbed that thing, I swear it was eye-level to us, like us shorties. Grabbed it and got it up and dunked it in one motion. It was one of the damnedest layup line dunks that I’ve seen in my life.
So all that is to say, I think he has a chance if he can get the yips out of him, if he can show up on the big stage. Because he’s got the athleticism to pull it off.
Tom Orsborn: And there’s a method to my madness here, Mike. I brought up his name because it hadn’t been mentioned. I just wanted to bring it up because of how well he played in those Dallas games. I mean, the kid is really coming on. He’s more relaxed, he’s hitting threes, he’s dunking, he’s playing good defense. It’s really pretty neat to see where he’s come from being, you know, missing those dunks and being obviously nervous and not relaxed out there to where he is now.
Mike Finger: He’s been really great with his minutes lately. And fans are asking sometimes, “Why is Jeremy Sochan not playing? Why did they try so hard to trade Jeremy Sochan unsuccessfully at the deadline because he’s not playing?” It’s because they want to see Carter Bryant do this. If there’s any minutes left over at that spot, they want them to go to Carter Bryant.
And we saw it all year long: let him have some bad games, let him have some games where he looks overwhelmed, let him miss dunks, let him blow defensive assignments, but let him figure it out on the fly so that he can get those moments where he has a game like he did at Dallas where he just—I mean, he turned that game around in the second quarter. There was a two-minute stretch where Carter Bryant dominated that game. And the goal is, can he be this as you get to the playoffs? Can he keep growing, can he keep building? Can this become a consistent thing where you can get 12 or 15 of these kind of minutes from Carter Bryant as you look at a playoff situation? And if you can, it does change a lot of things about what you can do and how you can guard other teams, how you can push the pace on teams. He brings a completely different dimension if you can trust him for 10 to 12, 15 minutes a game. And so that’s why you’ve seen him play a lot more this year than Jeremy Sochan has, because they see the ceiling there and they want to give Carter Bryant a chance to approach it this season. And to do that, he’s got to play minutes.
Mike Finger: Well, the word “ceiling” that Jeff used, I think to kind of expand upon his point, they see Carter Bryant’s ceiling, but to pair with that is they saw Jeremy Sochan’s ceiling. And the ceiling became evident last year and at the beginning of this year in that they sort of know what Jeremy Sochan is as a player. And is that a player that can help you win? Yes, sure. Is that a player they like having around, that the players enjoy having around? Yes. Can he defend his rear end off? Absolutely. But his ceiling is a guy who is always going to be limited on the offensive end.
And if you have a player in Carter Bryant, who—by the way, one thing that Jeff did not mention as much during his excellent analysis of Carter Bryant—is Carter Bryant has the capacity to be every bit as good of a defender as Jeremy Sochan is. Maybe not guarding opposing fives, opposing centers, but can guard a lot of positions on the basketball court. He can guard fours, he can guard twos, he can guard Cooper Flagg.
And if you have a player like that—when he was talking a few weeks ago about something he said a couple of times about how he thinks he can be one of the best basketball players in the world and was asked what goes into that, why do you think you can do that—the first thing he mentioned is that he thinks he can guard anybody. And the Spurs think that. If you can get Jeremy Sochan-level defense from that player who also can do what he’s shown on the offensive end over the past couple of weeks—he’s got a three-point stroke in him, he can dunk obviously—that’s a special player.
And so you have to take those two analyses of a player side-by-side and say, what do we want out of this position? Are we going to get any more out of Jeremy Sochan than we’re getting, and could those minutes be better allocated to a guy who can be a more complete player? And I think that’s what you’re seeing.
And in terms of Jeremy Sochan’s future, Jeff, do you have anything on that? Or his recent past? This is our first podcast since the trade deadline when I think the Spurs made a legitimate effort to find a trading partner and did not find one. Are we 100% positive that Jeremy Sochan is around the rest of the year?
Jeff McDonald: I think there was a real sense with people on the team, probably with Jeremy himself, that he was not still going to be on the team come this past Friday after the deadline. I really think a lot of people thought he was going to be moved and they just couldn’t do it. And it wasn’t because they didn’t try.
And by the way, this would have been beneficial for Jeremy Sochan too; it was a kind of a mutual thing where, hey, let’s see if we can find a place where you can get some more opportunity. You’re not getting it here. It’s detrimental to your career to rot on the bench here for the final half of a contract year. Let’s try to find a place you can play. They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t find someone. From what I understand, a lot of people that were willing to take Jeremy Sochan also wanted the Spurs to attach draft capital to that and they didn’t want to do that. Or they required them to take back a contract that might have extended beyond this year that the Spurs might not have wanted to take, like in the case of Gershon Yabusele.
And you hate to say it, but that’s sort of where Jeremy’s stuck around the league. He’s not a player teams are really trading for looking for an upgrade; he’s kind of a guy at this point that teams would be like, “We’ll take him off your hands if you want to pay us to do that.” He’ll be a restricted free agent this summer—maybe just a full-on free agent, the Spurs don’t have to restrict him if they want to do him a favor and not restrict him and let him just test the entire market. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of offers he gets during the summer.
Like we said, you could see him having a home, having a role on certain teams constructed a certain way. It just doesn’t seem like it’s going to be this one. And for the big reason we just mentioned: because Carter Bryant is kind of that guy of the future for the Spurs. That’s the guy that’s going to take his spot.
Mike Finger: When the Spurs traded to get Harrison Barnes a couple of summers ago and Harrison Barnes, it was clear, was going to hold down that four spot for a while but kind of be a placeholder, he turned out to be much more than that. They love Harrison Barnes and he’s exceeded our expectations, exceeded fans’ expectations, probably exceeded the Spurs’ expectations for how well he’s fit and how much he’s meant to this team to get to the point where it is now. I think the long-range plan for the organization was that somebody else was going to—when the Spurs start competing for titles and making playoff runs in the coming years—that Harrison Barnes wouldn’t continue to be the starting power forward. And the hope at that time was that somebody like Jeremy Sochan would emerge into that and that you’d find someone to kind of step up for Harrison Barnes’ place once he aged out of it.
That just didn’t happen, in part because of what Jeff was talking about, his fit with the roster. What they need out of that position when you look at the other guys on the floor is a guy who can help space the floor, and Jeremy just wasn’t going to do that. And I think once they got to this past draft and were able to get, after drafting Dylan Harper, a guy who appealed to them for a lot of reasons from Arizona, Carter Bryant—he hadn’t played a lot of games, but they could see him fitting into that spot. And now, I don’t know if Carter Bryant’s going to be your starting four next year, but eventually, I think he could fit into that role if he keeps improving at his current pace. And maybe it’s not that specific position—they have a lot of versatility with this roster—maybe he becomes more of a three. But I think it’s good that Jeff brought this up this week just to see these two guys side-by-side, Carter and Jeremy, and it’s sort of ships passing in the night, right? At some point, Carter became a little more integral to what the Spurs are building.
Tom Orsborn: Jeff brought the Sochan thing up. You masterfully set Jeff up, then you chastised me.
Mike Finger: I chastised you because I hate—you hate the what’s-that-thing? You said, “What’s that thing called?” about the Shooting Stars.
Jeff McDonald: The All-Star tiddlywinks competition. [laughter]
Mike Finger: Jeff was telling a story about Mike Monroe. Mike Monroe and Tom Orsborn have handled most of the All-Star duties for the San Antonio Express-News for the past 20 years. Jeff has had to do a couple, and you were talking about one of your memories of having to interview Tony Parker after he won whatever that thing was called.
Jeff McDonald: The Taco Bell Skills Challenge in Orlando! And I feel for Tom having to do this on occasion because I’m like, how do you write a story off of that on deadline? You go in there and you ask Tony, like, “Those three passes at the two-minute mark, what were you thinking there?” There’s just no questions to ask after someone wins the Taco Bell Skills Challenge. And the passes are through some kind of hoop, right?
Tom Orsborn: Speaking of Mike Monroe, had coffee with him last week. He’s doing good. Good man, miss him.
Mike Finger: I’ve kept in constant contact. I’m constantly in the loop of his very rich, very full, very bountiful life in retirement. He’s doing great.
Before we knew who was going to coach the All-Star teams, I was texting people at the league to ask how they were going to pick three coaches. And they said, well, it’s going to be the second-place finisher in the West and whoever’s ahead in the East, and the third is TBD. And I was like, “Can it be Mike Monroe? Can Mike Monroe be the world coach for the All-Star team?” And the person I was texting seemed to really think that would be a good idea, but they didn’t make it happen. It’s going to be Darko. That’s a shame.
We didn’t talk about the game itself, the Rising Stars, which isn’t even a game, it’s a round-robin tournament. What do you think, Tom? Break it down. We need the X’s and O’s analysis. What does Victor Wembanyama need to do to lead the world to victory?
Tom Orsborn: Well, you said what I’m looking forward to—that would be one of them, just seeing Victor, who takes this stuff seriously and plays hard and wants his teammates to play hard, wants his opponents to play hard. That’ll be fun to see how that shows up this year.
Mike Finger: I bet he doesn’t get them to play hard.
Tom Orsborn: Probably not. He thought that last year too. But he might be the MVP, though, because if he’s going to be one of the guys who’s taking it seriously…
Mike Finger: Yeah, I think we talked about that a lot last year, trying to save the All-Star game and turn it into something competitive. It’s unsalvageable. Just go back and play an East versus West and let it be terrible and just, you know, just do it. I would agree. The idea is just to have your best players in the world on the same court, even if they’re not playing a real game. It’s an event, not a competition.
Tom Orsborn: Back to Jeremy real quick, I just want to say that game—and it seems so long ago now—in Charlotte, the snow game. Late in the game, there’s some guy—I forget, there was some controversy going on, replays and whatnot—and Jeremy’s out there in the middle of it, just yakking away at the refs, yakking away at the Charlotte Hornets. And he almost got a technical, I think, had to be pulled away. So somehow, some way, he still finds a way to instigate. And they threw him into a game the other day after the trade deadline. It had become obvious that they weren’t playing him at all in the last few days before the trade deadline because you don’t want to get a guy hurt and screw that up. But there’s no certainty that he will not contribute in some way on the court over these next few months going into the playoffs. Somebody else could get hurt, they might need him.
Mike Finger: They threw him into that Dallas game and he got a really nice ovation when they put him in. I kind of enjoyed that for him. Cool moment. Fans still remember, they still love him. I’m not sure I’d completely rule out a buyout. Anything could happen. But if the Spurs were to see someone—and here’s the catch—I don’t see that there’s somebody else out there that they feel they need to add. And if there was somebody that they needed to add on the buyout market, I’m not sure Jeremy would be the first person they’d waive or buy out. But I guess this is just a rambling way to say there is no guarantee either way that they’re going to have him around the rest of the year or that they won’t. If there’s an opportunity for Jeremy somewhere, I think they’ll let him pursue that. I would say I would be shocked if he’s a San Antonio Spur next year. I think that’s pretty obvious. But the rest of this season, we’ll see how it goes.
The week ahead, two games here on the West Coast, Jeff. How are they going to turn out? And then I need your prediction for whatever the thing is that the Harpers are in, too.
Jeff McDonald: Oh boy. I think they’re going to win both games, the Spurs. If they lose, it’s going to be one of those, like we talked about earlier, where you have to fight human nature not to take your foot off the pedal. But I think they have it in them to beat the Lakers, who might be pretty short-handed tonight, and to beat a Warriors team that’s not going to have Steph Curry. I think they go 2-0.
You want me to do my Harper prediction now? So let’s break down who they’re going against. I love the names of these teams, by the way. You got Team Harper—where’d they come from with that one? You got Team All-Star—who’s on Team All-Star? That’s Scottie Barnes and Chet Holmgren and Richard Hamilton as Team All-Star. And you got Team Cameron, which that one throws you a little curveball. That’s the home of the Duke Blue Devils. So these are former Dukies. So that’s Jalen Johnson, I think, and Kennard, and Corey Maggette. And then you got Team Knicks—where’d they come from with the name for that one? It’s a bunch of New York players: Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Allan Houston, who the Spurs slayed in the '99 finals. And then you got the Harpers. For the fans at home and for the host of this podcast, please explain what the heck they’re doing.
Mike Finger: They’re shooting baskets and there’s a point system and it’s timed. That’s all.
Jeff McDonald: Shooting baskets all at the same time? Are there multiple basketballs being shot at the same time?
Mike Finger: I don’t think so. Now, here’s the other thing: it’s been 11 years since they’ve had the Shooting Stars. This is a revival! Of all the things that were in Adam Silver’s suggestion box that people put in, I think there was just an overwhelming clamor to come back with the Shooting Stars competition. Where’s it been? It’s been gone for 11 years. They had to bring it back. And so you’ve got Dylan Harper and his father Ron and his older brother Ron Jr. are going to shoot in that one. And I did ask Dylan like, “Hey man, does your pops still have the jump shot?” He’s been retired for a quarter century. Dylan said, “No, he does not. We’re going to lose,” basically is what he said. “We’re going to make Dad take all the layups and we’re going to take the other shots.”
Jeff McDonald: Oh, there’s layups?
Mike Finger: Yes. It’s, I think it might be sort of—you know the thing they do like at the quarter breaks where a guy’s got to make a layup and a free throw and a three-pointer in a certain amount of time? It’s some version of that. If you remember a long time ago, the team that won the Shooting Stars competition back in the day was David Robinson and, I think, Tim Duncan and Becky Hammon when she was still a player. So the Spurs do have a tradition, a dynasty.
Mike Finger: You know what they should play? Here are some ideas. How about All-Star Weekend Knockout? Or All-Star Weekend 21? You know, those classic high school gym games. Horse? Horse could be something. I don’t know.
For all your coverage of the Shooting Stars—is there Shooting Stars and Rising Stars? Yes. There’s stars and All-Stars. There’s just a veritable galaxy out there. And the Slam Dunk? Surely not anymore. What’s the other one? The three-point? The Spurs don’t have a three-point shootout guy, which makes sense.
Rising Stars, you got Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper on Team Melo. And you got Castle, Donovan Clingan—the Connecticut connection—Cooper Flagg’s on that team, Reed Sheppard’s on that team. I see them taking the title. There’s an asterisk though with David Jones Garcia not there. Whoever wins the MVP of this thing, there’s going to be a big asterisk because we all know it was going to be DJG. And that’s not just—I mean, yeah, the guy can light it up in that kind of atmosphere. It would have been good.
Well, for more coverage of all that—Rising Stars, Shooting Stars, Falling Stars, Silver Stars, Ninja Stars, Wish Upon a Star—you got Tom Orsborn at ExpressNews.com. He’s going to have you covered all week. Full coverage of the rest of the Spurs West Coast jaunt on this rodeo trip, and we’ll have coverage of the Spurs games coming following the All-Star break in Austin, Texas, and much, much more. Until we see you next time, take care of each other and keep it real.