San Antonio Spurs – The News Desk

NBA Pre-Postseason Player Tiers 1 and 2: Wembanyama quickly rising; Giannis, Jokić steady at top

13Apr

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NBA Pre-Postseason Player Tiers 1 and 2: Wembanyama quickly rising; Giannis, Jokić steady at top

Yesterday, I largely focused on setting the table for the updated NBA Pre-Postseason Players Tiers before revealing Tier 3 (players between the 24th and 42nd spot) and Tier 4 (Nos. 43-80).Today, I’m going to get a little more into some of the more interesting and/or challenging placements, as well as note a few overall trends.For starters, a consistent bit of feedback — and one I’ve gotten from multiple sources since the release of Tiers 3 and 4 — is the always difficult evaluation of which player is more valuable between an elite role player and a good-but-not-great primary or secondary creator. A senior analytics staffer within the league went so far as to argue they would prefer essentially the entirety of Tier 4A, largely made up of elite role players or connectors, over Tier 3B, whic...

The ‘humbling experience’ of trying to shoot over Victor Wembanyama

11Apr

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The ‘humbling experience’ of trying to shoot over Victor Wembanyama

Pat Connaughton knows what an open shot feels like. As a nine-year veteran of the league, he’s taken hundreds of them, developing a sense for space and when there’s enough of it.In early January, when Connaughton’s Milwaukee Bucks played the San Antonio Spurs, Connaughton got that familiar feeling again. With about eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Giannis Antetokounmpo drew a double team and found Brook Lopez alone on the right wing. San Antonio’s Julian Champagnie, Connaughton’s defender, scrambled to cover him.As Lopez caught Antetokounmpo’s pass, the Spurs player responsible for covering Champagnie’s rotation was 27 feet away, one foot in the paint and the other on the floor’s other side. Connaughton knew the swing-swing pass from Lopez would come and he usually only need...

New scene at NBA games: Fans screaming at players about their losing bets

4Apr

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New scene at NBA games: Fans screaming at players about their losing bets

NBA players have always gotten an earful from fans, whether at home or on the road. It comes with the job.But this season, it’s getting darker.The recent surge in legalized gambling in every pro league, and throughout college athletics, has impacted American sports in ways thought unimaginable just a few years ago. But along with the potential good that hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenues bring to the NBA and other leagues, something new and ominous has arrived: verbal abuse directed at players and coaches based solely on fans’ wagers.GO DEEPERTrotter: With legalized betting, could society be the big loser?Fans can now bet in real-time on their smartphones, on all aspects of the game, including minutiae such as how many rebounds one player might get in the first half, and how ...

Spurs’ Jeremy Sochan finds success with quirky one-handed free-throw style

29Dec

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Spurs’ Jeremy Sochan finds success with quirky one-handed free-throw style

SAN ANTONIO — It has been difficult for San Antonio Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan to find much to laugh about in a season that on Tuesday night produced yet another double-digit loss for his team.Somehow, it seems that everyone finds something funny whenever Sochan steps to the foul line for a free throw.The 130-118 defeat the Utah Jazz gave the Spurs at Frost Bank Center left them at 4-25 with too many of those losses linked to the team’s experiment with the 6-foot-8 Sochan as starting point guard.That exercise has been deemed a failure and scrapped with Sochan back at forward in a starting lineup that puts rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama at center and second-year guard Malaki Branham at the point.However, a prior experiment with Sochan continues to be a rousing success: His quirky one-...

Dunking hurts: Why players hate — and love — the NBA’s greatest feat

23Dec

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Dunking hurts: Why players hate — and love — the NBA’s greatest feat

The dunk is basketball’s most lionized play. The most iconic ones are canonized, referenced fondly and often, debated for their merits and significance. The sport’s language has created so many names for it: jam, yam, slam, poster, stuff, hammer. It’s a unique club that only few on this world can join. It’s marvelous.And it hurts like hell.“Can you think of any other concept where your hand swings at something metal?” 11-year NBA veteran Austin Rivers asks. “It’ll probably hurt, yeah?”When asked, players catalog the pain dunking has caused: broken nails; bent fingers; recent bruises; lasting scars; midair collisions; twisted necks; dangerous landings. Injuries that cost them games or even seasons.Derrick Jones Jr., a former NBA All-Star Weekend dunk contest winner now with the Dallas Mave...

Victor Wembanyama vs. Chet Holmgren: A rivalry that is redefining their franchises – and the NBA itself

18Nov

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Victor Wembanyama vs. Chet Holmgren: A rivalry that is redefining their franchises – and the NBA itself

OKLAHOMA CITY — Sixty minutes before the marquee game for Tuesday’s In-Season Tournament slate, the NBA’s newest tall boys are dribbling. Victor Wembanyama is near center court, going through his legs and back again, television cameras following, a team security member shadowing. Chet Holmgren simultaneously sits courtside, several minutes early for his scheduled warmup time, mindlessly yo-yoing beneath his knees.Most rookies warm up sooner, before fans even enter the arena. Veterans choose first, after all, and slots nearer to the game’s start go quickly. But these two are different. They’re starters, cornerstones and the league’s very future. First-year bylaws don’t apply in the same way to them, not even for traditionalist franchises like their own.On Tuesday, Wembanyama and Holmgren’s...

2023-24 NBA City Edition Jerseys: Every Nike uniform ranked from worst to first

12Nov

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2023-24 NBA City Edition Jerseys: Every Nike uniform ranked from worst to first

The 2023-24 Nike NBA City Edition uniforms were unveiled last Thursday. NBA fans will be treated to another season where alternate uniforms, according to Nike, continue to “represent the stories, history and heritage that make each franchise unique.”The uniforms are now in their seventh season with the NBA, and they have been a big hit in the past. Home teams will wear the uniforms throughout the NBA In-Season Tournament, which tipped off last Friday and will run until Dec. 9.The big question: How does this year’s collection of uniforms look? The 30 Nike NBA City Edition jerseys for the 2023-24 season.The unveiling gave The Athletic’s team of Jason Jones, James Edwards III and Kelly Iko an opportunity to discuss the jerseys in depth. The trio conferred about all 30 City Editi...

Hollinger: Victor Wembanyama’s breakout was a sight to behold in Phoenix

4Nov

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Hollinger: Victor Wembanyama’s breakout was a sight to behold in Phoenix

PHOENIX — There’s a special feeling when you’re in the building for that, “Holy s—!” moment, that rare, special game in which a young prodigy establishes that he’s ready to take his place as one of the game’s next big stars.While it didn’t take a rocket scientist, or even a Rocket, to determine that Victor Wembanyama was likely on that trajectory, Thursday was that day for him. His 38-point outburst was the exclamation-point performance, the game that told everyone the league’s Next Big Thing has officially arrived.If you missed it, the San Antonio Spurs’ 7-foot-4 French phenom took over crunchtime in just his fifth NBA game, scoring 10 points in a pivotal 12-0 run to break open a tied game late in the fourth quarter, as San Antonio swept a two-game series in Phoenix with a 132-121 win ov...

Bold predictions for the NBA season, including Wembanyama the All-Star and a Celtics title

22Oct

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Bold predictions for the NBA season, including Wembanyama the All-Star and a Celtics title

What time is it? That’s right … it’s time to make some outlandish statements that people will look back on next spring and cackle hysterically.OK, that’s not actually the goal, but it is certainly an occupational hazard. Prognostication makes fools of us all; there are just too many things we can’t possibly have seen coming. Thank goodness for that, actually, as sports would be pretty boring otherwise.That won’t stop me from trying, though. With the regular season starting next week, now is the time to gaze into my extremely hazy crystal ball and make some calls for what will happen in the coming months. In particular, the goal is to make some calls that might go against the tide and are actually, y’know … bold. For instance, “Nikola Jokić will make the All-Star team” is a defensible pre...

NBA’s sudden change of heart on load management is odd, but better late than never

15Oct

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NBA’s sudden change of heart on load management is odd, but better late than never

The NBA’s 180 on load management is giving me whiplash.Five seconds ago, every available piece of science the NBA told us it had in its possession from its teams said – screamed – the same thing: players not only needed more time off but that the league would be derelict in its partnership with its players if it didn’t align with teams, whose data said: rest.The league cut way back on back-to-back games. Many teams eliminated morning shootarounds, as they were viewed as disruptive to players’ sleep patterns. Every team had a “Director of Very Important Sports Science and Cutting Edge MahnaMahna” and scores of eager data collectors. Wearables tracked every waking moment of every player, what they ate, and when. Cameras high above each arena tracked every movement of every player on the cou...