It still seems unfinished.
That’s the thought that kept running through my head all throughout Sunday’s tilt with the Brooklyn Nets. The Spurs are undefeated. The vibes are high. Everyone is pleased as punch
with the roaring start this new season has gotten off to. Wemby has arrived. Castle has ascended. Harper looks legit. The Spurs are thriving in a way we’ve been dreaming about for years. So what’s my problem? Why am I off in the corner of the party mumbling to myself that the Spurs still have more work to do?
Well, for one thing, I think they’ve earned that level of scrutiny. I mean that as a compliment. Sincerely, I do. With the teams of the last couple of years, we would sit around hunting for modest improvement wherever we could find it. A raised effort here, a hot shooting night there, an occasional “not being a waste of space defensively.” We wanted them to look better and win some games, and then we could just go on from there, satisfied with the progress. It was a wholesome way to engage with a young team finding its way.
This season, though, I’m inclined to take this team at their word that they have their sights set on something higher than “marked improvement.” They say they want to compete. They say they want to make the playoffs. They say they want to be considered one of the top teams in the NBA, not in the future but right now. Ok, well, if that’s the case, then you have to answer some questions about blowing a 26-point lead to the Brooklyn Nets. You have to be held accountable for messing around down the stretch in New Orleans and almost blowing a winnable game. You have to figure out why you’re turning the ball over so much. You have to stop starting games like a puppy that’s just been let out of its crate.
These aren’t hard questions. These are things the Spurs can and should be able to tighten up as they get more of their team back and ease into the flow of the season. But the fact that their level of play has been so high out of the gate only seems to highlight the places where that standard hasn’t been met yet.
I think this team is good. I really believe they’re bursting at the seams with talented players who are champing at the bit to show exactly how good they are. You can feel that hunger in the way they play. Wemby, obviously, is on a whole other planet with what he’s bringing to the table, but the rest of these guys aren’t as far off his maniacal pace as you might think. Stephon Castle, specifically, looks possessed every time he gets the ball. Any timidity from last year’s rookie campaign has been shed, and now he looks like he’s in attack mode at all times. Dylan Harper, to his credit, seems eager to match that intensity, and the pair of them together jump out at you when you watch this team. It’s exhilarating, and it’s exactly the kind of thing the Spurs were desperately hoping would materialize from this influx of young talent.
It’s also the exact thing I’m talking about here where, like, you kind of can’t be in attack mode at all times. That’s not how this works. Maturity in this game means knowing how, when, and where to attack. Finding your spots. Playing off one another. Right now, it feels a little bit like I’m watching a team of champion sled dogs all trying to pull as hard as they can, and the general chaos of that effort is moving things in the right direction, but there’s simply got to be a better way to get where we’re going.
There are going to be more growing pains. We know this. De’Aaron Fox will be eager to get back in the mix and show what he can do. Jeremy Sochan is going to want to prove he has a place in the Spurs’ future plans. Kelly Olynyk is going to want to, well, do Kelly Olynyk things. The point is that, in more ways than one, this team we’re watching right now is not a finished product. It’s a house undergoing renovations that looks a lot better than before but isn’t quite livable yet. In the words of every single person to ever do a home reno: “It’s getting there.”
Look, I’m excited. We’re all excited. The idea that the Spurs are going out there and winning games despite the fact that they look a little insane in the process is, frankly, a pretty fun development. We’re in for a fun season around here, even if there are some very obvious bumps in store for us just up the road.
Takeaways:
- I love Victor Wembanyama. You love Victor Wembanyama. We all love Victor Wembanyama, yes? The Spurs are still awfully dependent on him to make this whole thing work. Look, I’m sympathetic because, like, it’s a hard problem to solve for. You can’t exactly ignore the Tall Boy out there and the idea of using one of the most talented players on the planet as a decoy is sort of antithetical to the whole concept of basketball. We don’t need him to do less. We just need every one else to be a bigger part of the plan. Teams are going to double him. He’s going to have off shooting nights. He’s going to get in foul trouble. He’s going to *whispers* probably have an injury scare or two. Wemby is the Sun and we have to figure out how to play in the shade.
- I missed Luke Kornet a lot in this game. Everyone said we would love him and I sort of kept that at arms length because no one gets to tell me how to embrace a folk hero athlete but, hell, Luke’s got the goods man. He’s the affable back up center of our dreams. Stay healthy Luke. We need you.
- The turnover problem isn’t a problem but it’s becoming a problem if that makes sense. You know? Like. I’m not worried about it but I’m starting to worry a little? Do you follow? It’s like, I’m not concerned but I’m growing concerned? I can keep going with these if that will help drive the point home for you. It’s not an issue but its becoming an issue. It’s not scaring me but I’m getting scared. I’m totally cool with it, but I’m warming up. I’m as chill as you can possibly imagine but I’ve moved on to the part where I’m getting a little sweaty.
- Love how much Coach Pop probably hates his banner. Ha, eat that old man! We love and appreciate you and there’s nothing you can do about it! You changed our lives for the better and we’re going to honor you accordingly you big jerk!
WWL Post Game Press Conference
– Do you make a conscious choice to come out of the gates salty when you’re writing?
– Conscious choice? No, I can’t say that I’ve ever made a conscious choice about anything when I write. Especially, when it comes to starting a piece. No no, at that point in time all of my effort is concentrated on defeating the general overwhelming panic that consumes my entire soul upon seeing a blank page with a blinking cursor.
– You start every writing process by entering a state of overwhelming panic?
– For sure, it’s kind of a flow state? Like, in order to access the creative parts of your brain you have to first succumb to the total ego death of acknowledging how exactly how stupid you are. How unworthy you are of the written word. It sort of unlocks the fight or flight instinct and only then can words happen. I usually snap back into consciousness about a paragraph in and just try to figure out where we’re going from there.
– That sounds terrifying? You’re basically saying the only way you can write is to panic so hard that you begin to fear death in the primal way animals do when they’re being hunted?
– Yes….yea. That seems right. It’s kind of beautiful to be honest. Only in our moments closest to annihilation can we truly access greater truths like “The Spurs aren’t as good with Victor off the court.”
