Alright, let’s all take a deep breath. In through the nose, out through the mouth.
Because honestly… what even was that?
The Spurs escaped New Orleans last night, and I mean escaped in the “shimmying out
the bathroom window away from a fight you accidentally started” sense. One second they are cruising, clearly the better team, and the next they’ve stumbled into one of those old Looney Tunes dust-cloud brawls with fists, shoes, sound effects, and the occasional “POW” sign poking out. A 20 point lead just… evaporated, like it had somewhere better to be.
It was not ideal.
But to their credit, the Spurs did accomplish the one task that matters. They didn’t lose the basketball game. Escaping looks the same in the standings as a blowout, and sometimes growth looks like simply not combusting when everything around you feels like it is collapsing. That’s still a new thing for this squad and it’s important. This is the real nitty-gritty part of assembling something special.
I keep thinking about this idea of “the road” and how long it’s supposed to be. Is there a timeline we’re meant to be following? Do the Spurs need to log 10,000 hours of deeply chaotic experiences before they acquire all the prerequisites for actually challenging the contenders in this league? Is there a certification course? A rite of passage? Will we just know it when we see it?
Those questions feel loud right now because of the renewed discourse around a certain large Greek elephant in the room. I don’t really want to wade too far into it here because, at the end of the day, that entire situation feels like it’s happening in some parallel universe where the Spurs are the type of franchise that mortgages its future on the concept of acquiring a second tall man in the hopes of getting lucky one time. They’ve never operated that way, and until they do, I am going to continue to go on about my business.
It’s interesting nonetheless because it forces people around the league to talk about this roster in terms of assets. Commodities. Pieces to be moved around a board. That’s a strange feeling as a fan. Steph Castle stops being the kid you once watched in grainy YouTube compilations and becomes a chip you might have to push forward. You start asking yourself questions like “can I live with the idea of Castle in a Bucks jersey if it means Giannis in a Spurs one,” and the honest answer is something like… I guess I could. It’s just sports. I would survive. But I am not totally sure I would want to.
Because it is not just sports, right? Castle is our guy. He is a Spur, and if he wins he damn well better be doing it in silver and black. That would feel better than almost anything else we could possibly dream up. What sounds cooler: watching Giannis and Wemby tag-team the Pelicans on their way to a win by 30, or watching Dylan Harper figure out his sea legs in crunch time and hit a game winner in a contest that shouldn’t have been this close to begin with? The tag team sounds nice. It sounds comfy. But, man, what we watched last night was satisfying. It felt earned. It felt real. It felt like something we built with our own hands. I like that. That is what I want out of a Monday night.
I also know I am talking a little out of both sides of my mouth, because you know what else was cool? De’Aaron Fox calmly knocking down mid-range jumpers in the clutch. Once upon a time, he was Steph Castle and Dylan Harper up in Sacramento, and now we get to enjoy the fruits of that labor and, honestly, those fruits are pretty great. I’m certainly not complaining about the fruits.
So what am I saying? I don’t know exactly!
Maybe I’m saying that I like this team right now, warts and all. I want to see them keep figuring it out. I want to see Wemby slide back into the mix. I want to see them grow into something.
Last night the Spurs confirmed for me that we’re nowhere near where we want to be yet, but also that the ride is still one I want to be on.
Takeaways
- Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Dylan Harper gets downhill like you read about. It’s insane. He genuinely plays the game of basketball like he’s sprinting down a mountain. What’s even more insane is that it doesn’t really feel like it’s out of control. He’s not spinning around and bouncing off things all willy-nilly, he’s just on the march. Moving toward the basket. Finishing cleanly. It’s such an impressive bit of skill that it’s hard to even notice all the other things he’s doing well. I just can’t wait for the ball to get back in his hands so we can see what he does with it.
- I guess I just didn’t see the vision for Julian Champagnie, but please, forgive me, I get it now. I’m on board. He’s simply there when you need him. Imagine that. A rotation wing consistently hitting from three, grabbing boards, and playing reliable defense. I just…I mean, he’s that guy. I didn’t think he would be, but he is. Every time he pulls up to shoot, I’m almost shocked it doesn’t go in.
- It was super fun and cool to have Fox, Castle, and Harper all back in the lineup. It…looked okay. It looked good. It just also looked okay. Which is fine, I think. I don’t know. It’s probably going to take some time turning knobs and figuring out exactly how to mesh these guys so that the skill sets bring out the best in each other instead of just feeling like we have multiple looks to throw at teams depending on who’s hot. That’s fun too. I just think when we get this band playing together is when we’re really going to start hearing some music, you know?
- Choosing not to read too much into third quarters being a problem. Part of that is because I don’t have a good answer for it. Class, what do we do when there’s a problem we can’t figure out? Say it with me. One, two, three…WE. IGNORE. IT. That’s right. Very good, everyone.
WWL Post Game Press Conference
– Not sure that you make a very good teacher.
– What? Why? Says who?
– What do we do when we have a problem we can’t solve? We ignore it? That’s terrible advice!
– Since when? Ignoring stuff is great. Did you know that 63 percent of the time when you ignore something it will just go away or resolve itself on its own?
– Taking that stat at face value, what happens when it doesn’t go away on its own? Thiry-seven percent of the time you’re still going to have a problem, right?
– Sure, but then again, you had that problem to begin with, so what else is new? Plus, now you’ve ruled out that ignoring it is not the solution. You’ve ruled out a variable. It’s science.
– So ignoring things is a key part of the scientific method in your class room?
– My brother, it’s absolutely crucial.
