Sure Let's Get Trae Young

But it's Still About the Long Term, Folks

If you have spent any time around sports at any level, the idea of pain and suffering being the necessary ingredients for any level of success is a common refrain. The idea of not only delayed gratification but superior rewards than could be obtained by taking the short cut and quitting is ingrained. Even during a contest you hear it and see it: pass up a good shot for a great one, dig in, keep working.

It works and is continually preached because it is true in all aspects of life. You go to sleep so you can wake up refreshed tomorrow even if you want to binge the Boys. You do the studying so you can pass the test.

The Spurs put in a couple of years of suffering. They took lots of losses. The prize was a remote one, but the home-run of all home-runs possible: Wembanyama. He is ridiculous to look at and difficult to process. He is lanky and fast and quick and smooth, and yet gangly and awkward looking. He’s worth losing for.

The undercurrent of sentiment in the Tanking Years was that the suffering would end and the winning would return. When Wemby put up numbers in a comeback vs Phoenix and Kevin Durant, the memers were hyped and excited about Tim Duncan comparisons.

And yet we’ve found ourselves with the sobering realization that one (unique) man is not enough to change the fortunes of a franchise filled with incomplete hoopers. The Youth movement is filled with, well, youth.

There was a video on twitter of Pop coaching up the guys — basic stuff like encouraging them to attack here, adjust his body there, do this and that. It is coaching stuff, really. It’s good in that it gives you more of an idea of the kind of things that head coaches do. We see the loud stuff on television — the yelling, the pointing, the arguing with referees. We hear about the lineup stuff, and that kind of thing. We also read about the human interest stuff — trips to museums, etc. That’s all well and good, but the day-to-day coaching — improving an individual at NBA basketball is sometimes lost.

Pop joked about the rumors of Trae Young and Dejounte Murray joining the squad. “Sure why not” he said. “we’ll get a vet or two and go out and win a championship this year”.

The squad is young and everyone has a lot of work to put in before any rewards are realized. Wemby is just 20 years old. The staff has the luxury — and the stated goal — of waiting and seeing and watching and learning. They want to win, but one thing they learned this season was that winning was going to be a lot harder than they realized. Jeremy Sochan at the point was fine, but it didn’t quite work out. Wemby at the 4 was fun, but playing him at the 5 is better. They learned some things.

Getting one or two vets — game-changing vets — is an option. The right guy comes up and is willing to be a part of Project Wemby? Yes, take him. Trae Young is not really the kind of player to defer to someone else, but even the most selfish hooper knows having a unicorn on the floor with you helps your game more than hurts it.

The front office has likely kicked around every scenario possible and kicked the tires on the things the Trade Machine doesn’t cover — the friends, family, and bullshit that comes with an NBA super star. Can the program built on Dave/Tim and a quiet, thoughtful Frenchman withstand a snarling, smirking Trae Young?

Probably not. Young can win you 20 games just with his firepower and gravity. He is a defensive liability — that was the hole Murray was brought in to help fill — and that won’t change as his athleticism wanes. He sure would be fun to watch, though. More than Tre Jones or Devonte Graham or any draft picks are at this moment.

How about old Dejounte Murray? He was a beloved Spur, before being traded, talking a lot of noise, and burning some bridges. That would all be water under the bridge if he came home and threw some nice lobs to Wemby. He can do it all — triple double machine — and has the kind of game that would age gracefully as his prime ends and Wemby enters his. The price would be even less than it was previously, and you get a true partner for Wembanyama to grow with for the next four seasons or so. That’s about when Murray would be slowing down a bit, and the next guy can come up.

The plan is more like the OKC idea: grow and take your lumps for three seasons and enter the contending years with young, cheap stars and plenty of flexibility.

That’s fine. That’s smart. That’s good.

It sure ain’t fun to watch though.

My family has reached the limit of watching Spurs blowouts. You check the score and the squad is down 25 in the 2nd quarter. You watch the games and see young guys spinning around as a guy walks past him for a layup.

There’s a lot of coaching that can be done, but I don’t know if I am hungry to watch every step of a journey consisting of well, the sorting of journeyman and trade filler. Or the writing of trivia — who played the most minutes on Wembanyama’s first NBA team? It’s rough in these NBA League Pass streams.

So its hard not to say, “Sure, let’s go get Trae Young”