How the Spurs Are Building a Bright Future Around Victor Wembanyama

How the Spurs Are Building a Bright Future Around Victor Wembanyama

let’s go to the Spurs d one of D rozen’s former teams quiet off season in terms of what they’ve actually done but got Chris Paul traded Devonte Graham to clear out some cap space and then in this sign in trade uh with the Kings and the Bulls they get Harrison Barnes also took Stephen Castle from Yukon traded their other pick to the wolves wolves get Rob Dillingham so all in all really just three additions to this roster West and yet I’m still over the moon excited because we get these clips of what wanyama is doing in Europe right now he had 275 and three in 19 minutes for France the other day he’s playing point for France I believe anything is possible with that guy I believe anything is possible with with wanyama so I’m like I’m I’m a little torn on their Moves In This sense I love the Chris Paul one mhm I love it I think that is perfect I think if Chris Paul is willing to be that guy at this point in his NBA life in his career I love that they’re just going to have Chris Paul running the offense to set up wanyama and give them some infrastructure even Harrison Barnes I think is an infrastructure ad but he is we just know exactly what he is and there’s a limit on him it’s fine for the short term it’s a veteran it’s a really good locker room guy by all accounts but is it aiming as high as I maybe would have dreamed probably not but I think this offseason is them really seem like they’re just creating a veteran Baseline for year or two oneyama that’s what this offseason feels like yeah I think you mentioned the key word there infrastructure and it’s the it’s the thing they didn’t really have last year that they tried to create they experimented this was a team that was with no infrastructure last year right this was a team that was very abstract kind of Loosey Goosey you know very just liquid where it was like maybe we have Jeremy soan at point guard maybe we don’t we’re going to try this lineup over here Zack Collins with Victor wanyama maybe not they were just sort of throwing stuff at the wall Jackson Pollock style and seeing what sort of happened afterwards um this feels very different this is okay we figured out what vikor wanyama is as a rookie and now we’re going to lean into that and to me what I’ve learned from the Spurs this year and there was all that talk about hey Victor wanyama is ready to win now and he wants to win now and there’s pressure and all these things the Spurs are saying there’s no pressure on us we have a b ion draft picks coming up in the next bazillion Years and we’re going to be okay but we’ve got the guy and now we’re leaning into that guy playing the position that he needs to be at this off season is all about creating infrastructure around Victor whama specifically for Victor wanyama to play center that’s what this is Chris Paul Victor wanyama pick and roll Chris Paul entry passes to Victor webban Yama that’s what this is about Harrison Barnes a power forward who can can play next to Victor wanyama and and give some backbone defensively to that to that team and some obviously experience and I think that’s important too BN has won at a high level Chris Paul has been in the league for a long time is probably the best Mentor in the NBA all of this is about maximizing Victor webban Yama at Center that’s Point number one yes the other thing I learned from the Spurs this year is that they weren’t they were not in love with this draft I like Stefan castle for them quite a bit they said you know what we’re going to punt on the eighth pick if we’re going to get a second star next to Victor web Yama we’re going to get it in the 2025 draft where we can have up to four first round picks in a loaded draft class that’s where we’re going to get our star we’re not going to rush the process right now we’re not going to go all in on a draft that nobody is very high on we’re going to be patient we got our guy we have up to four first round picks next year we’re not trading away that Atlanta pick which could be a golden ticket for us we have our own pick and maybe we’ll be good but we’re not going to be that good we’re going to have a few lottery picks potentially here it makes a lot of sense to me it makes a lot of sense to me in terms of what it is that they’re doing I was I we were texting back and forth on our uh just basketball group chat last night and I was like the Harrison Barnes thing just sort of feels lame to me because you just it felt like the Spurs were in position to do more and then I was looking at it this morning and I was like you know what I get it I get what they’re doing here and I agree with it he’s he’s kind of he’s like the I’m trying to think of like the right food analogy for him like he’s just he’s like a chicken breast you know like he is solid he he is nutritious but you really have to like cook it properly and and season it correctly to get like the most out of it and like this is probably the like he’s something just is he like a loaf of is he peanut butter and jelly no because that could be your meal chicken breast is the centerpiece of the plate he’s like mac and cheese to me m okay that’s good yeah I know what that is is it always my first pick probably not but every once in a while you can talk me into it yeah it’s good it’s kind of it it weighs you down a little bit but it’s fine and it’s it’s good hard stealing on the mac and cheese experience right you’re not going out and doing things afterwards no you you need a nap you need you need to sleep you know also like not the most nutritious thing in the world like it’s fine it’s calories it’s we we don’t know how nutritious Harrison Barnes is to winning basketball you know yeah there’s a little empty calorie stuff there with him it’s empty and it’s like empty calories are not in the way that we think of empty calories of being like a gunner it’s like empty calories and that like he is the prototypical like 3 and D but like is missing like the key ingredients that really Elevate him to like an Elite 3 andd guy and meanwhile you’ve got Victor wama over here who’s like a defrosting dry age steak you’re just like that guy that’s everything right there that’s what I’m looking forward to yeah the I love the point about them thinking about next year because if they have the up to four firsts and like I think wanyama is going to just make them a lot better this year like they like he is too good for them not to win some more games two things I think that helped them though for that draft class number one well I’d say three number one the lotteries can be chaotic like we just don’t know anymore like the lottery ends up being this thing where like teams are flying around whatever number two they’re in a much harder conference I think just because they haven’t they still have a lot of young guys that are frankly not very good they have a lot of young guys who haven’t worked that are going to need to play minutes for them I think there’s still like a stealing on this team just because of they’re in the harder conference with a lot of unproven guys number three if they’d like end up at six or nine or something you know they’re maybe not going to get Cooper flag I don’t think that’s where this is going to end up unless they win the lottery and then look out San Antonio is coming for everyone’s nexts immediately but could they get up to four by trading like three picks for a guy that they love you know a bunch of stuff that they can move right and there’s 12 teams in the Western Conference actively trying to make the playoffs right you know and then you’ve got whatever I don’t need name the teams that aren’t but San Antonio is one of those teams I I mean you could could you I so it’s like it’s really the Jazz the Spurs and the the the Blazers are the teams that aren’t right and so the Spurs are going to try to win more games but they won 22 games last year um I i’ I’ve heard the argument that is Victor wama gonna be the new Luca donic where the team just gets too good too fast and you don’t really have an opportunity to draft those players the difference between San Antonio and Dallas is exactly what you just said they have so many picks they have so many bites at the Apple that we’re they’re not going to end up with Cooper flag but they’re going to end up with somebody there’s just too many bites at the Apple for them not to and that’s sort of the BET here and they were not in on this draft class evidently and they’re kind of just going in on the future but also doing that while creating everything around Victor web nyama to make him successful because they know everything ends up being with them how many games is this team going to win I don’t know what’s the starting lineup for this team Chris Paul PA Deon Vel Harrison Barnes Victor wama in in pen and then yeah I think that fifth starter could be between Kell and Johnson I guess you could you could start Castle maybe if he’s really impressive I still think they probably bring him off the bench but maybe you could start him Jimmy soan they they do tend to like him gives that starting lineup maybe a little bit more versatility a little bit more ball handling I guess but there there it’s still an open question who the fifth starter is there’s stuff I like here I really like I I’m pretty high on Deon Vel as a fit with Victor wanyama but I don’t know if he’s going to be like the championship level number two maybe he’s more of a championship level number three if he hits the ceiling but you still need a championship level number three I think he’s a good he’s a good fit next to wemi um but yeah this is a team that just you don’t have to do everything right away in other words and this is a team that’s just taking right steps and they kind they’ve just kind of created the railroad tracks for themselves this summer that’s sort of how I think about them right is let’s get the train on the track and let’s start moving but we don’t we don’t have to get to our destination right away yeah and I think they they still have their non- taxpayer midlevel I mean like I don’t know exactly like what they could who they’d want to Target with that but there’s some I mean you could use part of that on someone you could like I would call Canard I think Canard might not be a bad fit for them um any more shooting yeah like bringing back even jedy Osman on like a cheap one-year deal is not the worst idea in the world to me he’s obviously kind of limited and um he’s a little ER tosy guy that can fill Ines somewhere yeah but he threes that that’s not bad like there are names out there that’ll be relatively cheap like even if you wanted just like a veteran like good locker room guy Reggie Bullock would be like fine to me like competent player you don’t need to worry about him being a top eight playoff guy right away he just needs to be functional for for 12 months and like you could do worse with like $6 million every mid level yep I’m excited for the Spurs we are going to talk a ton about them um very excited for wanama at the Olympics I that’s going to be like that that to me is the number one thing I can’t wait to see at the Olympics is really just that like and in a final and that’s what’s sort of fun about the Spurs now too it’s they figured out how they want to play with Victor wanyama and now we all get just watch it happen yeah right we get to all just watch it unfold and they have somebody who could throw him a pass now with Chris Paul so it’s great yeah Chris Paul throwing him lobs is just going to be the best thing PA yelling at the refs in games that don’t matter because the entire Spurs exist right now just to develop Victor whama that part’s going to be fun to me I mean Chris Paul and Greg papovich getting mad at guys and hustling around is going to be sicko and I love it it’s it’s GNA make the difference though between winning 30 games and 33 games this season yeah and if they win 33 games and have the 10th best odds at number one pick that’s that’s a really good place to be and then a year and then a year we’re doing this same exact kind of structure next summer West and we think about what else they do look okay how do they throw fire how how much fire do they need how much gas they need to throw in the fire like how much is it time to dump all of that on there and go for it I I think we get there I think the other point in comparison with Dallas is that they did they to put I think even more of like a fine point on that Dallas got Luca as a without like really just kind it bleeds into the end of the Durk a a little bit and then they try to accelerate the Luca ERA with the porzingis trade and and other stuff the Spurs almost like it feels like they looked at that and like the what how like it took Dallas a lot of winding around to get back to getting Kyrie and all these roll guys and and and everything that it took and said we can’t do that we need to build in flexibility so like when the exact right moment is there with the exact right guy we can do we don’t need to shoehorn ourselves into a corner by trading for someone who’s like a a good player but like a fringe Oster and we’re unsure about the fit just cuz he’s available like they don’t need to do that they could have been in on other stuff this summer I think conceivably they could have been the team that traded for Deonte Murray they could have they could have been a Darius Garland they could have thrown a crazy offer out for Darius Garland if they wanted to or pick another a wing out there somewhere but they went Chris Paul they went Harrison Barnes and I think that and and still have room going forward and that that to me feels super super intentional yeah they learned from the Thunder didn’t they that’s what this looks like the Thunder got SGA and they said look we don’t need to go out and trade for some Superstar player we’re going to keep drafting we’re going to keep drafting we’re going to keep Drafting and boom we get Jaylen Williams boom we get CH momr like and that’s what happens they got their star they know it and that’s sort of the greatest luxury the Spurs have is we know who the face of the franchise is and now we could be we can we have that we’re not stressed about figuring that out we know five six years from now we have a championship ceiling because we have that kind of player that’s the hardest player to find yeah now like what so what are we going to rush this for he’s not ready to win a championship now like what are we doing no so like to me the they could have Houston Rockets this and that would GL they didn’t I’m glad they like I’m I like what Houston did but also I don’t look at Houston and say yeah they’ve got their Championship level star I like Alper and sangon I don’t know that he’s the best player on a championship team a few years from now I have no idea he could develop into that but I know that that’s going to be the case for Victor web inyama so you don’t necessarily have to do these things I think for them patience is going to be key does Stefan Castle ultimately develop into a true kind of point guard we’ll see I I would guess that Victor web nama’s running mate like his the number two on the Spurs championship team if that ever happens is not in the league right now not in the league yet they’re going to draft that player over the next few years and in the meantime they’re going to provide all the things that they need around vict wanyama for him to be as successful as possible and I think this is a good route you mentioned like a dejonte Murray or Darius grin trade or all these things I’m glad they didn’t do that the Chris Paul thing to me is might might be my favorite free agent signing of the off season because it’s that perfect Middle Ground he can be that guy for a couple of years and then you go find that guy later in the draft probably you don’t have to go trade a bunch of stuff for Garland or Murray who are good players but probably not the needle movers who you need

Chris Manning and Wes Goldberg discuss how the San Antonio Spurs have built around Victor Wembanyama this summer.

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