By Jeje Gomez / Pounding The Rock, 2026-10-01 06:34:14
马刺于周一举行了媒体日，正如预期的那样，一个反复被提及的问题就是后卫轮换将如何安排。当被问及此事时，米奇·约翰逊 (Mitch Johnson) 表示，这是他们建立化学反应的唯一途径，并且他预计会让他们的出场时间比上赛季更多。
同时派上达龙·福克斯 (De’Aaron Fox)、斯蒂芬·卡斯尔 (Stephon Castle) 和迪伦·哈珀 (Dylan Harper) 的潜在问题不难想象。糟糕的空间、技能重叠导致的边际效益递减，以及防守和篮板上的身材劣势，都是比较令人担忧的方面。出于这些原因，如果约翰逊给他们更多共同出场的时间，但实际上并不让三人组首发，甚至不是每晚都让他们同时在场，这并不令人意外。
但如果他真的决定放手一搏，给这套阵容一个真正的机会，那么它是有可能奏效的，而且绝对值得一试。
只要胜利不断，就不该有自我问题
圣安东尼奥很幸运能拥有如此有天赋的后卫。问题在于，他们的优势相互重叠。这大概也是约翰逊最初拆分他们出场时间的原因。常规赛中，三人组在18场比赛里只共同出场了25分钟；季后赛中则在14场比赛里共同出场了44分钟——哈珀的出色发挥和其他替补球员的低效，几乎迫使教练不得不这么做。而当三人同时在场时，马刺往往大比分吃亏（常规赛净负21分，季后赛净负26分）。
不习惯共享球场的球员无法产生一加一大于二的效果，这并不奇怪。但正如约翰逊所说，只要他们愿意牺牲个人数据，随着时间推移，他们应该能够建立起必要的化学反应。
对这项潜在实验的成功至关重要的是，年轻后卫们都表示对自己的角色没有自我问题，而福克斯作为马刺球员也一直表现得极为职业。如果所有人——包括文班 (Wemby) 以及其他任何承担拉开空间角色的球员——都不在乎某场比赛的个人数据，那么这三人就可以根据具体对位中谁手感火热，轮流以主要持球人或副控的身份折磨对方防线。
这项尝试的成功并不完全取决于后卫们牺牲的意愿，但他们确实看起来渴望一起打球，这一事实大有帮助。
如果年轻后卫的投篮进步是真的，适配性就没那么尴尬
斯蒂芬·卡斯尔上赛季成长为联盟最好的外线防守者之一，并且随着纪律性的提升仍有成长空间。哈珀作为新秀在防守端也令人惊喜。他们两人都有身材去防守高个后卫甚至锋线球员。福克斯身材偏矮，但手速快、拼劲足。在防守端，只要每个人都愿意协防保护篮板，这并不是一个糟糕的组合。
但在进攻端，情况就不同了。即使后卫们没有自我问题，乐于跟随手感火热的人、等待属于自己的接管时刻，他们也不是出色的无球球员，主要原因是他们的投篮令人存疑。上赛季三人的三分命中率都低于35%，而且年轻球员的出手量还很小。对手会有意放空卡斯尔和哈珀，而且这招屡屡奏效。
好消息是，哈珀和卡斯尔在常规赛收官阶段外线手感火热，并在季后赛中也有几段不错的表现。福克斯作为跳投手经历了一个低迷的赛季，尤其是季后赛，但他在常规赛的接球投三分命中率达到38.7%。在他们证明自己能够稳定命中投篮之前，防守方会继续无视他们，但如果年轻后卫在常规赛末段的进步是真的，那么这套阵容的适配性就不会那么尴尬。
错开三人的出场时间应该不难
约翰逊没有承诺会让他们“多很多”一起打球，只是说预计会比上赛季常规赛更多，这是有原因的：他可能需要拆开使用他们，以帮助其他阵容组合，并最大限度地发挥他们的价值。
正如我们上赛季所看到的，只要他们中至少有一两人留在场上，即使是简单的进攻也能运转良好，因为他们能够冲击篮筐、迫使防守收缩。虽然增加第三名持球人可能有助于提升某些阵容的火力，但马刺仍需确保其他阵容组合——尤其是那些没有文班亚马 (Victor Wembanyama) 在场的组合——拥有进攻发动机。
幸运的是，错开后卫们的出场时间应该不会太难，从而保证场上始终至少有他们中的一人。更多地让他们同时出场并不意味着 exclusively 让他们一起打球。让三人同时首发似乎过于激进，但寻找时机让三人同时登场，同时不忽视其他阵容组合，并让他们轮流担任主攻点，这应该不难做到，毕竟约翰逊手里已经有上赛季的蓝图了。
潜在问题是真实存在的，但早做实验更好
上赛季，马刺在大多数情况下只让三名有天赋的后卫中的两人同时出场，并取得了不错的成绩。为什么要在一个新的赛季改变现状呢？毕竟在上赛季打进总决赛之后，新赛季他们将背负期望，成为众矢之的。
答案很简单：他们至少需要弄清楚，让三名最好的球员同时在场究竟是否可行，因为福克斯至少一年内不太可能离开，而哈珀已经证明他已准备好承担更大的角色。季后赛中他们被迫让三人同时出场，结果并不理想。他们需要尽早弄清楚，是否有办法让这三人同时在场的进攻运转起来。如果没有，他们就可以调整体系或及时纠偏，从而有足够的时间稳定轮换。
让三人全部首发，或者更可能的是让他们同时打大量时间，其潜在风险应该被正视。但与其在局势恶化时被迫使用这套阵容，不如尽早真正尝试一下，行不通就果断放弃。即使从这项实验中得到的只是一个“三人无法共存”的明确结论，那也依然是值得的。
由生成式 AI 翻译，翻译内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
查看原文：The Spurs should give the three-guard lineups a real chance
The Spurs should give the three-guard lineups a real chance
The Spurs held Media Day on Monday and, as expected, one question that kept coming up was how the guard rotation would shake up. When asked about it, Johnson said that it would be the only way for them to build chemistry, and he expects to have them on the floor more than last season.
The potential issues with playing Fox, Castle, and Harper are not hard to imagine. Bad spacing, diminishing returns due to overlapping skills, and being too small on defense and the boards are among the more concerning ones. Because of those reasons, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Johnson give them more playing time together while not actually starting the trio or even having them share the floor every night.
If he does decide to go for it and gives it a real chance, there are ways it could work out and it would definitely be worth a try.
There should be no ego issues as long as the wins keep coming
San Antonio is lucky to have such talented guards. The problem is, their strengths overlap. It’s probably the reason why Johnson split their playing time in the first place. The trio only logged 25 minutes together in 18 games in the regular season and 44 minutes in 14 games in the postseason, where Harper’s stellar play and the ineffectiveness of other bench pieces almost forced the coach’s hand. The Spurs were outscored by big margins (21 points in the regular season, 26 points in the playoffs) with the three on the floor.
It’s no shock that players who are not used to sharing the floor couldn’t be more than the sum of their parts, but, as Johnson said, they should be able to build the necessary chemistry with more time, as long as they are willing to sacrifice their numbers.
Hugely important for the success of the potential experiment is that the young guards have said they have no ego issues with their roles, and Fox has been a consummate professional as a Spur. If everyone, including Wemby and whoever else fills the role of floor spacer, doesn’t care about their stats on any given night, the trio could take turns torturing defenses as main initiators or secondary ball handlers based on whoever is feeling it in any specific matchup.
The success of the enterprise is not going to be dictated solely by how willing the guards are to sacrifice, but the fact that they truly seem eager to play together helps massively.
If the young guard’s shooting improvement is real, the fit is not that awkward
Stephon Castle emerged as one of the best perimeter defenders in the league last season, and still has room to grow as he becomes more disciplined. Harper surprised on that end as a rookie. They both have the size to defend big guards and even wings. Fox is smaller but has quick hands and plays with energy. Defensively, it’s not a terrible fit, as long as everyone is willing to help out on the glass.
On offense, it’s another story. Even if the guards have no egos and are happy to go with the hot hand while waiting for their turn to take over, they are just not great off-ball players, mainly because of their questionable shooting. All three shot under 35 percent from three last season, and the young guys did it in small volume. Opponents left Castle and Harper open by design, and it worked often.
The good news is that Harper and Castle ended the regular season on a tear from outside and had some good stretches in the playoffs. Fox had a down year as a jump shooter, especially in the postseason, but shot 38.7 percent on catch-and-shoot threes in the regular season. Defenses will continue to ignore them until they prove they can hit shots consistently, but if the improvement from late regular season from the young guards is real, the fit won’t be as awkward.
It should be easy to stagger the trio’s minutes
There’s a reason why Johnson didn’t commit to saying he would play them “a lot more” and just said that he expects to do it more than last regular season: he might need them split to help other units and to get the most out of them.
As we saw last season, as long as at least one or two of them are on the floor, even a simple offense can thrive because they can get to the rim and make the defense collapse. While adding a third ball handler could potentially work to supercharge some units, the Spurs will still need to make sure other groups, especially those that don’t feature Wembanyama, have an engine.
Fortunately, it shouldn’t be too hard to stagger the guards’ minutes so that at least one of them is on the floor at all times. Playing them together more doesn’t mean playing them together exclusively. Starting them all seems like too radical a step, but finding pockets to have all three out there while not neglecting other units and while giving them turns to be the main guy seems easy enough, since Johnson has the blueprint from last season.
The potential problems are real, but it’s better to experiment early
The Spurs had great results playing only two of their three talented guards together last season, for the most part. Why change things to start a new year in which they’ll face expectations and will have a target on their backs after reaching the Finals last season?
The answer is simple: they need to at least figure out if it’s at all viable to have three of their best players on the floor at the same time, because Fox is unlikely to go anywhere for at least a year and Harper showed that he’s ready for a bigger role. They were forced to play the three in the postseason, and it didn’t go well. They need to find out as early as possible if there is a way to make the offense work with those three out there so that if there isn’t, they can either adjust the system or correct course with enough time to stabilize the rotation.
The likely pitfalls of going all in with all three starting or, more likely, playing heavy minutes should be acknowledged, but it’s better to give it a real try as soon as possible and scrap it if it doesn’t work than being forced to use it when things go awry. If all they get out of the experiment is a conclusive answer that the three can’t share the floor, it will still be worth it.
By Jeje Gomez / Pounding The Rock
