In 1997 I was a kid, and the Spurs had just completed a tank fest that seemed like just bad luck. David Robinson was hurt. Sean Elliott was hurt. The leading scorer was Dominique Wilkins. Yes that one. Monty Williams, the now former head coach of the Suns, was a young player on that squad. Throughout the frustrating season my dad had said “every time they lose, it is actually good. They get a better pick.” I asked if the guy in my Sports Illustrated for Kids was a possibility — a guy named Tim Duncan. The graphic said “He’s good!”. My dad said “probably not him, but someone good.” From then on I held out hope.
We were out at some now-defunct amusement park when my uncle went inside somewhere to watch the the draft lottery. “The Spurs got Duncan” he said as he walked out. Of course, it was just the lottery, but we all knew. Ten years after lucking into David Robinson and saving the franchise from relocation, the Spurs hit the jackpot again and would turn a contender into a winner for the first time in franchise history.
The other thing about that time was that the Spurs had been in San Antonio 24 years to that point. They won in year 26, and being a kid at the time, that seemed like a ridiculously long amount of time. Now, of course, the Spurs are entering the 26-year anniversary of the Duncan lottery and just now, won again. Vincent Wembanyama is a generational prospect the likes of whom are finishing up a career with the Lakers right now. LeBron James was über hyped and somehow lived up to those expectations. That is a huge task for Wemby, but it is the one in front of him. Tim Duncan played 20 years, but even a 14-year one like David Robinson would be epic. The tanking worked. The Spurs punted on this season, all part of a longer plan, and while they missed the playoffs for four straight years, they only punted on one season.
The “Spurs” way of tanking — being extremely lucky — is unsustainable. The thing the organization does that others do not — read: Orlando, NYK, Cleveland — is building a winning culture. Everyone misses **cough** Josh Primo **cough** but the ability to recognize mistakes and move on quickly is the real skill. Moving on from mistakes, and capitalizing on successes is how you win five championships and extend a contending window for 20+ years. The team hit on Tony Parker and Manu and that same process found Derrick White, Vassell, Murray, Poeltl, Keldon Johnson and others. The Spurs traded for Antonio Daniels to be the point guard of the future but then found they had a better guy in Tony Parker. They made the change. They had Stephen Jackson at the three until they realized that Kawhi was better and made the change.
The process — forgive the term — for doing good work involves a lot of boring, unsightly work. That is the whole point of the “pounding the rock” mantra. The Spurs did the hard work of remaking the roster while breaking in a lot of young guys that should serve as the immediate supporting cast while stocking the kind of draft capital that can be swapped for even more pieces.
David Robinson dropped into a team that had good pieces and turned it around. Duncan joined a squad just two years removed from the Western Finals. Wemby is joining a group that has a considerably less impressive resume. I don’t know the plan, but I would love to see a quality veteran to come in. McDermott and Collins are nice but teams are sniffing around those guys.
I think the Spurs will spend some time figuring out what kind of player they have, and then start making moves. A veteran point guard should be easy to find, and bigs are cheap and plentiful. My dream is a veteran point guard that can control the pace and knows when and how to get Wemby the ball. The other desire is to get a veteran big man to do some dirty work as Hollinger suggested. I wonder if Memphis wants to trade Steven Adams. I’m speculating out loud here.
The Models
Typically bad teams are bad for pretty obvious reasons. There are bad players, eitehr old or disgruntled or hurt, and questionable coaching. While it is reasonable to think that Pop won’t coach Wemby for his entire career, the entire Spurs project is respected accross the league and beyond. The team was bad because it was young, and the very best players capped out at “complementary piece”.
In the freakish athlete department, Wemby is more skilled than Giannis was at this age, and the Bucks had to spend years figuring out what they had exactly, before making the roster around their guy. Giannis is famously the hardest worker ever and willed himself into dominance despite still having almost no dribble package.
“The Unicorn” Kristaps Porzingis (a one-time Spurs target) spent time on the Knicks as they figure out how to develop him while keeping Melo happy. He got hurt a ton, and spent a lot of time in Dallas shooting way-to-long threes and playing an unhappy second-fiddle to Doncic when he arrived.
LeBron had some of the most terrible teams possible for a while, and dragged a totally unprepared team to the NBA Finals in 2007. I don’t think Wemby can drag any old dudes to the championship round, but I am happy to be wrong. 2003 was a quite different NBA than this one. Let’s just note that now.
Wembanyama is a guy that is about to win the MVP of the French league at 19. That league is not quite the Spanish one, in terms of quality, but there are some shades of Luka Doncic there. Again, the current Spurs roster is more flexible, cheaper, younger, and the draft pick stash is better than what Dallas had at the time when they added the now-disgruntled star.
Durant came in and averaged 20-points per game in 2008 but his teams kept losing. He won just 40 games his first two years before the Thunder won 50 in his third year. Again, it took time to rebuild the roster and find out what they had, and what they could be. The Spurs did a lot of work to plan for this moment and it shows. GM Wright and the front office were talking about the work in front of them. “It’s the start” he told the SAEN.
They got the luck they needed. Now it is time to put in some more hard work to make it all pay off with more rings.