Seen several posts lately about the Spurs rotation, so I thought I'd try and project the Spurs minutes to start the season (minutes in parentheses):
With Mamu's return confirmed by Woj, the roster is mostly finalized outside of picking up Julian's option and signing a 3rd C. Castle plays ~24 minutes to start the season, with every opportunity to show he deserves more. Wemby starts at ~30 minutes after returning from a full summer with the French national team.
Since Chris Paul is 39 years old and will inevitably miss at least a quarter of the games, I thought I'd also project the minutes when he's out:
Again, I expect Castle will get every opportunity to show he deserves to start in these games.
Some thoughts:
- As the season goes on, I'd imagine Castle's minutes trend up, taking a few from Barnes and a few from Keldon. If Castle really shows out, and/or there's a trade or two, he could be starting sooner rather than later.
- Champagnie and Mamu won't get much playing time when everyone is healthy, but since there's always lots of injury and rest throughout the season, they'll still get ample minutes (especially if there's a trade at the deadline).
- Fans' opinion of players like Keldon and Collins may vary, but even if you don't like them it's important they get consistent minutes so that at the very least they maintain their trade value.
- Branham and Wesley may still have some potential, but with the Spurs' new additions it looks like they'll mostly get spot minutes (barring injuries) unless they show out in practice.
- As Wemby gets his wind back after the full summer, I expect he'll eventually hit around 32 minutes/game while still resting occasional games. But the Spurs will definitely prioritize getting him 65 games so he qualifies for DPOY.
I'd be interested in hearing everyone else's thoughts!
Also, as a small plug, in case you want more of this sort of analysis, I post more often over on Twitter/X. GSG
by samlet
7 Comments
The big flaw here is Wemby’s mins are too low and Keldon’s are too high. Wemby averaged 32 mpg in March and 36 mpg in April, despite us not really playing for anything. I’d be shocked if he averaged below 35 mpg. Keldon is a bad fit with a combo of Wemby and Jeremy so Pop decided to use Champagnie over Keldon in the second half of last season. Champagnie has better positional size, is a better shooter and better defender. Also just turned 23 a couple weeks ago so should show noticeable improvement. If Sochan is playing 30mpg and Wemby is playing 30-40mpg — Keldon won’t get so many mins, especially at Julian’s expense. I’m hoping Malaki or Blake has improved to earn some mins too. Last note, I don’t think you can really have both Castle and Sochan on the floor at the same time, especially if Keldon plays 20+ mpg and Collins plays 10+ mpg, so the 2 combined shouldn’t sum to more than 48 mins.
needs more Sidy
As long as we get as few Malaki and Blake minutes as possible, I’ll be happy.
I think it will be something like:
– CP3 (28) / Castle (20) / Jones
– Vassell (34) / Castle (10) / Julian
– Barnes (24) / Keldon (24) / Mamu
– Sochan (32) / Mamu (16)
– Wemby (32) / Collins (16) / Bassey
The priority is to keep developing our high end talent. Giving minutes to the likes of Julian, Jones, Branham, Wesley, Bassey, Sidy etc ain’t going to be a given.
CP3 will go down as usual so Jones can fill in for him. I don’t want Jones inclusion to stunt the growth of Castle at PG.
The idea that Julian is just going to be out of the rotation is foolish
Champagnie and Branham are not going to play 0 minutes.
Y’all are really sleeping on Julian