Spurs Stink, But Still Are Building
Early in the season when Wemby was debuting, some social media posts were excitedly thinking of the Duncan/Robinson records that could at least be matched. The turnarounds of those teams were largely due to the influx of HOFers but also we should not discount the fact that the rosters were solid. In 1997, the Spurs introduced Timmy to a squad recovering from injuries and — sure, tanking — that had won a lot of games.
This squad is not that. Wembanyama joined a group that was hoping to get better, one that played awful defense, and was about learning the game and not so much winning them. The Spurs have also embraced learning as the primary focus of this season as well. Though they said in preseason they wanted to do more winning, they are also putting Jeremy Sochan at point and having him learn on the fly. They are spending time with Wemby “seeing what they have” and that means they are not optimizing the outcomes game to game.
There is value here. It takes the long-term vision. The old organizational adage about pounding the rock really applies here. There has been a lot of striking and no rock breaking. Yet.
We saw a nice Sochan game where he looked the part of the guy they envision him to be. We have seen Wemby get more comfortable game by game. We still have seen some terrible losses. There is some twitter speculation that it is because the squad lost the shooting guru to OKC. A little brain drain does hurt. I can see that a comparison to the Belicheck situation is not without its good points.
This week the Spurs play the Timberwolves and the Bulls. Both squads were criticized in the last couple of seasons for going for it, instead of optimizing for losing. Minnesota traded for Gobert and it did not immediately pay off and they were laughed at, but now? Well they look a little more competent than they did before. The defense is great, and the offense is mid-tier. They have a super-star in the making in Anthony Edwards. They have a nice mix of veteran savvy and young talent.
The Bulls meanwhile, failed. They acquired DeRozan to pair with Zach LaVine (former Wolves player, coincidentally) but all they have done this season is lose and look miserable in so doing.
Roster building and organizational planning is just a series of informed gambles. In that way it is very much like basketball. You work to increase the likelihood that you will make a given shot by expecting it, having good form, and your best shooter in the spot. When the ball is released, however, it is still up to fate.