点击查看原文：They're still winning
They’re still winning
Columnist Mike Finger and beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss the Spurs starting to believe in themselves, and why other teams and fans should start believing in their playoff chances too.
Suggested reading:
The Spurs are beginning to believe in themselves, and that’s scary
What Spurs’ Mason Plumlee said about finally being ready to play
What Kornet had to say about the NBA canceling the Hawks’ ‘Magic City Night’
Why Dylan Harper says he still has bragging rights over his older brother
Here is the transcript of the podcast:
Mike Finger: From a highly secure network of top-secret locations across South Texas, this is the Spurs Insider: They’re Still Winning edition. I’m Mike Finger, joined as always by San Antonio Express-News Spurs beat writers Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn, who transparently made their predictions for the week, like they always make their transparent predictions for every week. And in a weekly tradition on the Spurs Insider, we’re going to talk about how the local cagers have once again exceeded everyone’s expectations. They were supposed to come back, Jeff, and meet reality against a tough slate of opponents at Frost Bank Center. They were home again, but as Tom and Jeff pointed out last week, the schedule was getting tougher. That’s only made the Spurs tougher, Jeff.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, this is the week where Spurs fans are going to hate me, because I was going to say the shtick of this show—but it’s not even a shtick, it’s just the way I am—is I’m always wrong. Everything I predict is wrong, and I’ve been underselling them all year. So last week, I predicted they would be two and two. Was it two and two or how many did we predict? I don’t remember. But I thought they would split those games, and they’ve actually gone undefeated. And that’s not the first time something like that’s happened. So, I’m starting to believe in these guys.
And I think Spurs fans are not going to like me this week because I’m always wrong about everything and they finally convinced me. Like, every time you think, “Oh, this is the stretch that’s going to get them. They’re going to come back down to earth.” You know, that rodeo trip’s tough, they’re not ready for that. Well, they went eight and one on it. “Okay, they’re coming home, but have you seen the teams they’re playing on this homestand? There’s no way they’re just going to run roughshod through that.” Well, they’re three and zero, and two of those wins weren’t even close. So, I think at some point I just have to come around to expecting this team to win a lot of those tough games. And so I do, and I apologize to Spurs fans for whatever happens next.
Tom Orsborn: Well, I think in your defense, your story in today’s print edition of the Express-News—and it was also online, of course—kind of definitively turned the page to what we’re looking at now. It kind of really summed up that they’re for real and, on top of that, they’re just playing with an incredible amount of confidence. Your lead anecdote with Stephon Castle talking about when Thompson came over and kind of listened in on his discussion with Mitch during the game the other night, and he didn’t care. He’s like, “Hey, listen in, you know, listen to what we’re doing, what our game plan is. It doesn’t matter. We’re still going to run it, we’re going to execute it, and it’s going to work.”
That took me back years ago to the Cowboys, the Triplets Cowboys. They had that lead draw with Emmitt Smith, and it worked—it always worked—and they didn’t care what the defensive game plan was. And I’m getting the same vibe from this group. You mentioned, Jeff, in that story, they ran the same play what, 15 times?
Jeff McDonald: That’s what Dylan Harper said, yeah.
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, I mean, they’re executing, they’re confident, they’ve got the horses. It’s just kind of coming together much earlier than we thought.
Mike Finger: There was a Harper quote in there that struck me, and that’s he said along the lines of, “We’re starting to believe how good we are. We’re starting to understand how good we are.” And you can see that happening in real time over the last couple weeks. And, you know, it’s happening with me too. I’m starting to understand how good they are.
Tom Orsborn: Now, bring us back to earth, Mike.
Mike Finger: No, it’s happening with players who have never been good before. And Dylan Harper is one of those. He did not make the NCAA tournament in his one college year. He had a—like a lot of these guys—unaccomplished prep career. But I mean, these guys have not won. Not only have they not won in the NBA, but a lot of them have not won at all.
You had Carter Bryant in a just unbelievably candid, like he often is, unbelievably candid moment after the Clippers game saying, “I’ve never been a winner before.” And, you know, these guys are just figuring it out and it’s dawning on them that they are unstoppable. Now, the guys who have been winners before are starting to talk some pretty mad crap, which is enjoyable.
The Stephon Castle postgame interview after the Houston Rockets blowout was full of some of the most Victor Wembanyama-esque “nice guy crap-talking” that I’ve heard in a long time. You had the one that Jeff noted in the Tuesday Express-News about how Ausar Thompson came over to eavesdrop on Stephon Castle and Mitch Johnson game-planning, and Stephon Castle saying it doesn’t matter if you hear what we’re doing. There’s another line in there about how some teams like to try to punk us, try to out-physical us, and when that doesn’t work, they have no other options. And Stephon Castle, much like Victor Wembanyama, said that kind of with a smile on his face and matter-of-factly. But that is a bold, braggadocious comment to make for a player who’s never been in the playoffs before.
But that is what we’re starting to see around this team. Not only are they beating everybody, they expect to beat everybody, and it’s quite a metamorphosis we’ve seen over the past three months.
Tom Orsborn: And then you had a guy who’s gone all the way in Luke Kornet saying he’s getting the same vibes, same feeling that he had in 2022 with the Celtics.
Mike Finger: Global Luke Kornet! Obviously, everything that he tries to do, he gets done. We’re not going to get into all that, but Luke Kornet is having some success.
Jeff McDonald: [laughter] He’s winning everywhere!
Mike Finger: Yes, he is. The three victories, the aforementioned Frost Bank Center victories over the past week—the first three games that the Spurs have played in a month—were all noteworthy in their own way. You had two of them against what I think you’d call contenders, perceived contenders, in the Detroit Pistons and the Houston Rockets. And as Jeff mentioned, both of those turned into blowouts. They were not close.
You had another one against one of the hottest teams in the NBA over the past couple of months, and all that team did was get out to a 25-point lead in the third quarter and pave the way for one of the biggest comebacks in the history of the San Antonio Spurs franchise. And that wasn’t really dramatic at the end either; the Spurs won that one with a hugely convincing fourth-quarter run. Which one sticks out the most to you, Jeff? What would you like to start with?
Jeff McDonald: Well, the Clippers one, because even before that game—and again, this goes back to me being wrong all the time about everything ever, so I don’t know why I’m even on this podcast making predictions.
Mike Finger: That’s what our listeners say! [laughter]
Jeff McDonald: I didn’t expect them to win that game even before it. You know, it’s the second night of a back-to-back coming off of the rodeo trip. When you come back from the rodeo trip, sometimes that first game you’re running on adrenaline. You’re worn out, but you’re running on adrenaline. It was a hugely physical, taxing game against Detroit in that first one back. So the next night, I did not expect them to beat the Clippers. I would have predicted that going in, because the Clippers have been playing as well as anybody in the league since they started 6 and 21. Like, they’ve been a really good basketball team.
So when I saw the Spurs get into that hole, I was not surprised. I was not freaking out. I was not like, “Oh well, it’s all been fool’s gold.” I was like, “Well, that’s pretty much in line with what I expected to happen.” What I didn’t expect to happen was for a Spurs team, under all the circumstances I just mentioned, to rally back from 25 points down in the third quarter. You’re behind by 25 in the third quarter to come back and win that game. That would have been an easy one just to say, “Well, we were supposed to lose this one anyway. Let’s clear the bench, let’s kind of rest up.”
But they didn’t do that, and that goes back to their belief. I mean, it’s one thing to believe when you’re playing well and you’re up by double digits on good teams. I mean, that’s a skill in itself to hold those leads. But it’s another thing to believe in yourself when you’re down by 25 on a night you were supposed to lose anyway—or losing made sense anyway—and to believe that you can come back and win that game. And so I think all those—that was the one that stuck out to me because of everything that went wrong, and this team persevered through it anyway. And that was the one that reminded me of the old Spurs a little bit. Well, you know what? As soon as that came out of my mouth, it doesn’t, because Pop would have punted that game. So, it doesn’t remind me of the old Spurs.
Mike Finger: I’ll tell you another person who that game stuck out to is one Victor Wembanyama, who—speaking after the game—here’s the thing, and I’ve sort of—we’ve talked about this at the arena this week. There’s going to come a point where this blunt, candid honesty and flying by the seat of your pants and putting your heart on your sleeve in every interview is going to—like someone’s going to use that to take shots at these San Antonio Spurs. Someone’s going to make fun of Victor Wembanyama for saying that that’s as difficult of a game as he’s ever had and that’s the most meaningful game that he’s had in terms of a March 6th game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Tom Orsborn: They already are.
Mike Finger: People are going to make fun of Carter Bryant saying, “Man, I’ve never won before,” and Dylan Harper saying, you know—or Stephon Castle saying, “I don’t care if they do listen in on our huddles, we’re going to beat them anyway.” All of this stuff, all of this honesty, is going to be used as fodder for the 24-hour debate shows where people yell at each other and have hot takes, and they’re going to talk about how the Spurs are going to get hoisted on their own petard and how silly is it for Victor Wembanyama to act this emotional after beating the Clippers on March the 6th.
But for the time being, it’s awfully entertaining. And I hope that doesn’t just beat the honesty out of these guys, because it’s so refreshing. People tune to this podcast for cynicism, I realize, but it’s so refreshing to have these guys just wear their hearts on their sleeves, say what they’re thinking. If they feel emotionally spent and if they want to bend over and cry at the end of a 25-point comeback against the Clippers because that’s what they’re feeling, that’s great. That’s human drama, that’s awesome. I just worry about the days—and as Tom said, it sort of already started—where that becomes fodder for jokes and whatnot because that’s our modern media environment. But that game against the Clippers, I mean, Victor was honest about it. He was tired from the night before, they were down 25, he thought it was the biggest game that he’d played in, tired as he’s ever been, and that’s what he told us.
Tom Orsborn: And he took it a step further, which is what I loved. “30 best hours of basketball in my life. 30 best hours of my life.”
Mike Finger: Yes! Boring life so far, kid. Pistons and Clippers! Boring life so far. Yeah, so I don’t know, you can see—everyone listening to this podcast can see in their heads how all that stuff—they can see those debate shows, they can see those clips that you’re going to see on your social media feeds of just people making fun of the Spurs when they inevitably fall short at some point and saying, “Oh, were they too soft? Were they making too much of a game against the Clippers in March? Did they get high on their supply too early?” You see it coming, but it’s sort of a shame because this is really fun to witness, fun to cover, and I don’t think it’s unhealthy to have this attitude after six years in the wilderness to enjoy basketball like these guys are enjoying basketball.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, we want these guys to care, right? Hasn’t that been a criticism of NBA players in recent years? They don’t care about the regular season. They’re a little too blasé, they’re a little too “too cool for school.” Like, we want these guys to care, and then when they care, some segments want to tear them down for that.
Tom Orsborn: Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Jeff McDonald: People in our jobs, we like raw honest emotion and feeling. So I’m all for it.
Mike Finger: Because you don’t get any of that in your own life, Jeff, right?
Jeff McDonald: Correct. Exactly.
Tom Orsborn: That play, back to that Clippers game, I asked a couple of people about it, Wemby in particular really stood out to me. That play where he’s at the top of the key defending Kawhi for a straight-on three, alters that shot, makes that shot difficult. Kawhi’s shot goes off the front of the rim, lands directly in Fox’s hands, and De’Aaron Fox with—you know, in one motion catches the ball and gets it downcourt to Wemby, who snuck behind the defense and was in great position to do so. And then he goes in for the dunk that put them ahead for good. But that kind of just symbolized things are going their way, and they go their way but they capitalize on them, too. I mean, that was a great play by Fox; it was incredible.
Mike Finger: Yeah. And Wemby kind of cheating in a way. He was looking for some rare rest there and was leaking out. Loaded highlight reels from all these games. Wemby playing out of his mind. Do we think that the MVP picture has not changed? I think we’re recording this on a Tuesday morning, a matter of hours after another signature SGA moment. SGA clearly is the frontrunner if he gets the number of games required. Jokic also ahead of Wemby. This is probably not going to turn into a Wemby MVP season; he’s positioned if those guys miss some games and don’t get to 65, I think, but even if he finishes top four, top three, what a year for him, what a step up for him.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, the scuttlebutt on the social media last night after the SGA game-winner, game-sealer was, “Well, this MVP race is over. Give it to Shai.” Which I understand and that’s probably where this is going anyway. But Victor’s shot up that list, I think. I’ll be interested to see the next time friend of the podcast Timmy Goodtimes reaches out for our straw poll. I think he does it every quarter; I don’t know how often he does it.
Mike Finger: I think there’s one more before the end of the year, so it’ll be soon.
Jeff McDonald: He does text a lot. Go ahead. But I’m looking forward to seeing where Victor is when that comes out, because I think in the last one he started to sneak in at four or five. I’ll be interested to see if Victor creeps up there. But to me, right now, if I’m doing a ballot right now with the standings where they are, I’m probably going to have to give the top spot to Shai. But Victor might be second. I don’t think second’s out of the realm of possibility. I think Victor might be second on my ballot if everything ends up how it is today.
And the Spurs will be second place in the West at least. They’re not falling—they’re seven games up, like they’re going to be in second place. The only question is, is there some way that they catch the Thunder? And probably not. Last night’s game against the Nuggets would have been huge in that regard. But if the Spurs end up second, Victor playing this way, Victor gets to 65 games, I think second is more than fair to be on my ballot.
Mike Finger: I think he’s going to give—at present, he’s closer to Jokic than some people think, even though Jokic’s counting stats are typically absurd. But Jokic can only—if Jokic misses two more games, he’s out. So that would all but wrap up second place for Victor because I think Victor has passed Cade Cunningham. He’s beaten the Pistons twice; the Pistons no longer have a better record than the Spurs. The Victor Wembanyama momentum is growing.
Jeff McDonald: And look, it’s an offensive award, right? Nobody—I looked this up—nobody averaging less than 25 points a game, which Victor is averaging less than 25 points a game, nobody’s won that since Steve Nash back-to-back in the early aughts. Like, it’s been two decades. You have to get to 25 points a game to win MVP. My argument would be half the game is defense, right?
Tom Orsborn: That’s exactly right.
Jeff McDonald: And Victor is as dominant, as impactful on the defensive end as anybody else in the league is on the offensive end.
Mike Finger: That’s absolutely true. But you know who else is probably a top-five defensive player is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He’s really good at that end too, and that’s the drawback there.
Jeff McDonald: Well, that’s why he’s going to win. But when you’re comparing him to Jokic, I would say Victor is way closer to Jokic on the offensive end than Jokic is closer to Victor on the defensive end.
Mike Finger: That is very fair.
Jeff McDonald: You know what I mean? But I get it, too. Like, that’s just how the award has evolved, and I’m not going to slight anyone that wants to give Nikola Jokic any kind of a basketball acumen skill award. So I’m not going to quibble with anyone, but I think Victor number two is a pretty solid pick right now. And I said it before on this podcast and I might stick to it: if for some reason the Spurs are able to secure that number one seed, I might give it to Victor anyway. Number one, top of my ballot. If he’s done what he’s done and they’re the top seed in the West this season, I would seriously consider that. But it’s not going to happen; they’re not going to catch the Thunder.
Mike Finger: There was some lobbying in the local cagers’ locker room the other night for another award. There was some chatter. What do you think of friend of the podcast Keldon Johnson’s chances of winning Sixth Man of the Year?
Jeff McDonald: I think he’s got a chance. It seems to be Naz Reid in Minnesota seems to be the people’s choice or the voter’s choice right now. But I think Keldon should be on a lot of ballots. You get three picks, right? First, second, third. He should be on a lot of those ballots. He’s been really good.
Mike Finger: You know who’s really friendly to Keldon Johnson is the robots. The stats dorks. His advanced numbers are super good, and I cannot claim to be able to explain to the listener—by the way, there’s some news on that. There’s a lot of pressure from the people. Tom and Jeff know what I’m talking about; the people are pressuring our crack expert podcast staff led by Monty Bock. They want to see the faces of the Spurs Insider panelists.
Jeff McDonald: There is a clamor. There’s a clamor to see what we look like.
Mike Finger: I mean, I get it. I’ve seen us. We’re handsome men. I know that our brand is very much built around the idea that we don’t make you look at us. But man, it sounds like just the voice of the people is trying to be heard, and I guess we have to respect the people’s wishes. Tom did his part this week, like there was a chance you might have had to look at us this week and Tom claimed to have technical issues, which is how he gets out of everything. He claims that his camera didn’t work, so you don’t have to see us this week. But there’s a chance that you might have to see us at some point. We’ll always be available on your podcast players, your old school—is that old school?
Jeff McDonald: That’s old school.
Mike Finger: Yeah, just like vinyl! The vinyl of podcasting to get it on the podcast players. Get us on your gramophone.
Tom Orsborn: This is the first I’m hearing of this camera thing on a laptop. I didn’t know that.
Mike Finger: You didn’t know that existed? Who’s the rock star in the '70s who was like never on his album covers and didn’t do videos and like you almost didn’t know—Steve Miller? That’s kind of what we’re going for. You almost didn’t know what he looked like for a while.
Jeff McDonald: There was a mystique. An aura.
Mike Finger: How about around that era—this is Tom’s era—there was a hit debut album called Bat Out of Hell. Do you remember that, Tom?
Tom Orsborn: Yeah, Meat Loaf!
Mike Finger: I don’t think Meat Loaf was figured prominently on that album. It took a while for people to realize that Meat Loaf is just some guy, Robert Paulson-looking fellow.
Where I was going was, if you look at like net rating, I’m pulling up here the WAR (Wins Above Replacement), like Keldon Johnson is a top 30 player in the league according to all these advanced stats. Good on offense, good on defense. The advanced numbers love him in terms of how efficient he is in his minutes off the bench. He doesn’t have the counting stats, the old-school stats of Naz Reid, but he’s been a more effective player than Naz Reid according to a lot of these stats. And the eye test sort of matches that in terms of how well the Spurs play with that second unit, how much energy he brings to them. Again, I’m not an award person and I’m not saying he’s going to win this award because it generally goes to the guy who’s scoring the most points off the bench, and Keldon doesn’t do that. But I think he has a legitimate case to be considered. He’s been vital for this team; I mean, there’s no question about it.
Tom Orsborn: While we’re on awards, and first I’ll stick with the Keldon theme here. Maybe someday the NBA will have an award called the Keldon Johnson Award that goes to the most exuberant, enthusiastic, Ernie Banks-type “let’s play two” player in the league. I like that idea. Nobody else might, but…
Jeff McDonald: It should be sponsored by caffeine. Just caffeine. Pre-workout.
Mike Finger: And then is tonight’s game, or Thursday’s—let’s see, oh tonight, yeah, Tuesday against Boston, is that a Coach of the Year showdown?
Jeff McDonald: Possibly. That’s another argument. Like, okay, if Victor’s not the MVP, then Mitch Johnson must be doing a bang-up job. You know, it’s got to be one or the other. Not really, it could be both.
Mike Finger: That’s such a strange award every year. Every year there’s 10 people you could pick. Also, how many—you know this, I don’t know it off the top of my head, but how many times did the winningest basketball coach in basketball history win that award?
Jeff McDonald: I think Gregg Popovich won it twice and Phil Jackson won it once.
Mike Finger: As Harry Page would say, “Thank you.” What it really is—the award is, and this is where it plays into Mitch Johnson’s favor, it’s the team that exceeds expectations by the most. Right. So if we were sitting here before the season going, “Boy, the Spurs would be doing really well to be in the play-in,” and then they end up first or second in the West, Mitch Johnson’s got a good case for it. I think in Mazzulla’s case, it was, “Boy, the Boston Celtics were without Jason Tatum the entire year and they’re right there as good as they ever were.” People want to make a Jordan Ott in Phoenix case. Good case, you know, everyone thought they’d be terrible and they’re not. Who else? But there’s always about six or seven or eight of these guys. Charles Lee in Charlotte. Like, there’s six or seven or eight of these guys every year you could pick. And so it just becomes a crapshoot of how the voters sort of group. And I’d be willing to bet—I have no analytics on this at all—I bet it’s the closest vote every year just because there’s so many candidates that you could make a perfect case for. Like, there’s no Coach of the Year that’s won that award where I’ve been like, “Well, that was stupid. What were we thinking?”
Mike Finger: A lot of coaches who win that award end up getting fired, right?
Jeff McDonald: Yes, correct.
Mike Finger: Because it goes to coaches who exceed expectations, and what happens when expectations are exceeded? There’s inevitably, as Manu Ginobili would say, a…
Jeff McDonald: Regression.
Mike Finger: Regression to the mean. And so that regression to the mean comes, and then the coach gets fired. You have two choices: you either win a title soon or you come in under expectations. Those are the only two choices once you’ve exceeded expectations. You either keep going and win a title or you disappoint someone. So that’s why you get fired.
Tom Orsborn: Okay, one more here while we’re on the awards theme. And I’m surprised it’s gotten this far since our host is anti-awards.
Mike Finger: I know, man, I know. It’s something new to talk about, what the hell. Must have taken his meds this morning.
Tom Orsborn: He adjusts! But do we have the Executive of the Year? At least a candidate? A good candidate?
Jeff McDonald: Well, I’m not in on that one. I don’t get to pick it, so… I guess he is a—he’s got to be a candidate. And there—that’s a good argument on Twitter is, “Well, the Spurs are just lucky.” They got lucky with Victor Wembanyama and so that’s why they are where they are. And, you know, they got lucky in the Dylan Harper—they moved up in lotteries. So it’s all been—I mean, the Fox trade, acquiring Kornet… It takes luck for any team to be good, whether it’s lottery luck or anything else, it takes luck for any team to be good. You have to have good players, but you also have to build the team around it.
And I guess my argument for Brian Wright would be the things he didn’t do between getting Victor Wembanyama and now. You know, there’s a clamor like, “We’ve got to trade everybody for a Damian Lillard,” or “We’ve got to trade everybody for Giannis,” or “We’ve got to go all-in for Kevin Durant last summer.” And sticking by and saying, “No, we’re going to grow this organically. We’ve got the talent, we’ve got the young talent.” Not just Victor, but Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper. You know, make strategic moves, smaller moves. I mean, trading for De’Aaron Fox was the biggest trade in Spurs history, but it’s not the same as trading for Giannis or trading for Kevin Durant in terms of what you’d have to give up. They didn’t have to give up much for De’Aaron Fox. Little under-the-radar Luke Kornet signing. Like, all those little moves are what positioned this team to capitalize on the just ostentatious lottery luck that they’ve been afforded in the past three years.
Tom Orsborn: The Kornet signing took a weakness and made it into a true strength.
Jeff McDonald: Yeah. And if some Spurs fans had gotten their way, one of—one or more of Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper wouldn’t be here and Kevin Durant would be. And then you have a very short window to try to get something done with that.
Mike Finger: If you extrapolate out the Spurs’ record without Victor Wembanyama this year, which I think it’s like 9 and 5—this is taking Victor Wembanyama off the floor. Like, that’s a huge, huge improvement over where they’d been. So it’s hard to just put it on, “Hey, they have Victor and everything else is easy.” They’re really good without Victor. It’s been quite a franchise-wide turnaround. They’re a good team in every sense. And it’s been a slow realization on behalf of Spurs fans, people in the Spurs locker room, people covering the Spurs, people on this podcast—it’s been a slow realization that this is not just a flash in the pan type of deal. This is a good team. And it’s not just about one superstar player; he’s a big part of it. If Victor Wembanyama wasn’t here, a lot of things would be different. But it’s a good team.
Stop the presses! Hot take: the Spurs are a good team. But I think it’s worth just pondering that. They are a good team. It’s not one superstar carrying the load for everybody. When Victor Wembanyama’s off the floor, when Stephon Castle comes off the floor, they are replaced by good players and players who know how to play together and players who fit well together, all the way down to the 9th, 10th guy in the rotation, including Carter Bryant. It’s jaw-dropping in a way how quickly this has come together.
When Jeff mentioned earlier he misspoke because of the specifics of that game that Pop would have punted against the Clippers, I’ve had this same thought a lot this year where this team that has not been in the playoffs together ever, that has not been to the postseason in six years with a bunch of guys who’ve never in their lives been in the playoffs, they carry themselves down the stretch of games much like the old Tim, Tony, Manu teams did. And I don’t want to get hyperbolic; it’s not because they have the skins on the wall that those guys had, it’s just sort of the expectation that they’re going to win games. I think that’s what Jeff was getting at earlier—that those teams at the end of games expected they were going to find a way to make it work out and the other teams kind of crumbled around them. Is that kind of fair to what you were saying, Jeff?
Jeff McDonald: Yeah, that’s what I was getting at. Correct. Yeah.
Mike Finger: And to for that to develop this quickly, it speaks to Mitch Johnson. It speaks to Brian Wright. It speaks to the people who put the team together, who guide them in practice every day, who call the plays, and obviously to the players who are out there doing it. Again, this is not the hottest take in the world, but they’re good in every sense. And this is going to pave the way for an 0 and 4 week, by the way. Clearly! By the time people listen to this on Wednesday morning, they will have been blown out by the Boston Celtics and they’re on their way to an 0 and 4 week. But even if that’s the case, man, how far have they come in three months? It’s staggering.
Tom Orsborn: Look at De’Aaron Fox in that fourth quarter against the Clippers. You know, 10 points, six assists, played the entire fourth quarter, ran the show completely. I mean, didn’t have that clutch-type basket, closer-type basket, but his fingerprints were all over that win based on what he was able to do at the end of the game in the fourth quarter.
Jeff McDonald: Before we get out of here, I want to tell a story without outing anybody that sort of speaks to the swagger that this team is playing with right now. The last game against Houston, it’s a Peacock game, which means no Sean and Jacob Tobey on the local broadcast, which means some of us get to sit courtside, so you can see and hear more. And it’s a different world down there, by the way. At some point during that game, Kevin Durant is getting frustrated with the way the Spurs are defending him. Keldon is grabbing and holding, and they’re double-teaming him and they’re triple-teaming him. And at some point, Kevin Durant tells Keldon Johnson, “Man, why are you guys triple-teaming me? What are you doing? Why are you triple-teaming me?” And Keldon said, “Man, you’re the 6th leading scorer in NBA history. That’s why we’re triple-teaming you.” And another Spur nearby, who will remain nameless—I will protect the not-so-innocent—tells Kevin, “It’s not because you’re good, it’s because the rest of your team sucks.”
Tom Orsborn: Wow!
Jeff McDonald: And that’s the kind of swagger the Spurs are playing with right now.
Mike Finger: And by the way, the reason that you’re protecting the innocent is because you did not hear that specific comment; that was relayed afterwards in a sort of off-the-record—I think if you’d heard it yourself, you might have said it, but yeah, that’s pretty good. That’s pretty good. And think about what would have happened if KD had come to San Antonio, how things would be different. I don’t think the Spurs would be in a bad place, but…
Jeff McDonald: Their window would be shorter. They wouldn’t have some of the players—I mean, probably not, if you’re talking about Steph or Dylan. I mean, it probably would have cost at least the number two pick last year. Like, some of the players that you tab as being the reason this runway is so long wouldn’t be here. It’d be like, we’ve got to win right now with Kevin Durant, and maybe they do, but I don’t know.
Mike Finger: Kevin Durant would solve some issues for this team. Like the probably number one weak point of this team is the go-to shooter with the game on the line. Like, he’s the number six scorer of all time; he would provide things—playoff know-how, all that type of stuff for this team that the Spurs don’t have. That being said, so I’m not saying it would be a disaster, but I think all things considered, there’s no way you go back and do that trade if you have it to do over again. You’re much better off where you are right now with the guys that Jeff mentioned, with this team that’s built to contend for years and years and years into the future and to contend this year. There’s an argument to be made that even this year, the Spurs are better off with this group than they would have been with Kevin Durant. But that’s for sure the case in the years to come.
So there you go. Do you all want to make fools of yourselves again? Let’s see. Moving forward, we have the Boston Celtics, who I think now are the favorites in the East. I don’t think there’s a question about that. Now that Jason Tatum has returned to this team that had exceeded expectations for the first several months of the season, they’re the favorites in the East. They’re coming into the Frost Bank Center Tuesday night. The aforementioned Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokic will be in town trying to shove Jeff McDonald’s podcast comments back into his face to prove that Nikola Jokic is a true MVP contender; that’s on Thursday. You’ve got the aforementioned Charles Lee and the Charlotte Hornets in—is this right?—a Saturday afternoon matinee at the Frost Bank Center. Yeah, because, you know, that’s always a strange one to be playing in the afternoon. And then a return trip or a rematch with Carter Bryant’s boyhood idol, Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers next Monday. We won’t pick the Kings game on Tuesday because that’s—we’ll do another podcast before then. So that’s four games: Celtics, Nuggets, Hornets, at the Clippers. Tom Orsborn, what you got?
Tom Orsborn: Wow. Wow. Well, Charlotte—I can see Charlotte being the team that beats them twice. Sorry, sorry. I can see Charlotte beating them; it’s just one of those deals, you know, you have a team that just owns a really good team. So, I’m going to go two and two.
Mike Finger: Repeating our mistakes! Jeff McDonald?
Jeff McDonald: 0 and 4. [laughter] Take care of each other and keep it real, everybody. We’ll see you. That was a joke!