This season is pretty make or break for both Blake and Malaki. Both are still just 21.5 years old , but both are RFAs after 2025-26 unless we do rookie extensions.
From Spurs media day yesterday, a question was directed to Harrison Barnes on his initial thoughts on playing with Victor and some of his new teammates, "I think in my 2 weeks, the one guy I definitely would love to shout out is Blake. I thought he's done an unbelievable job. Just picking up guys defensively full court, getting active, getting steals. He's had a great 2 weeks."
Source (around 4 mins in): https://www.nba.com/spurs/videos/harrison-barnes-media-day-9-30-24
While he didn't allude to signs of improvement in Blake's biggest weakness (shooting), I'd imagine he wouldn't be getting this kind of love from Barnes if his shot was falling during scrimmages like it did last year (35% of his FGAs were from 10'+ of which he hit just 23% 😬).
Blake has always had flashes, especially his coast to coast speed (he really needs to spend time with Tony to learn the art of gear shifting on the dribble tho since he just goes full speed at all times which yields some pretty reckless possessions) and drive strength so would be amazing if he developed enough this Summer to crack into our backcourt rotation 🙏
by NihilisticTaters
6 Comments
He was our best perimeter defender last year (by a decent margin too) so I’m not too worried. His offense will come around eventually, having CP3 will help with that as well. His defense is what is going to earn him minutes tho
Wesley earns minutes playing defense, and earns money playing offense (which, as of last year, was non-existent).
I hope Wesley has improved his handle. There’s no point being fast if you can’t take the ball with you…
His defensive intensity stands out. So does his athleticism. He’s very young and I hope
He continues to improve and prolong his NBA career.
Wesley also fighting for his NBA career out there compared to Sochan or Keldon. Going balls out on defense in training camp is a must for him.
Blake and Malaki are both undersized guards that desperately need to put things together if they want to stay in the league. Blake is a great athlete and shows good intensity on defense and can run in transition as fast as anyone in the league, but he’s gotta develop into at least a bit of an outside threat and improve his dribbling and passing, and overall decision making. Malaki shows flashes of a good spot-up shooter that can create his own shot while also being a good athlete, but he’s gotta improve on defense, and like Blake has to improve his playmaking and decision making. I’m rooting for both guys, but if you’re an undersized guard today you really have to have a solid all-around game while also being very good at at least one thing.