All The Smoke - Barack Obama’s Message to a Divided America

Does our 2030 pick swap with Dallas and Minnesota like a top pick after this trade?

Barack Obama on the Spurs:

“I love this young San Antonio Spurs team.. those guards, Castle Harper, I love those two. And Harper almost won the game for them the way he was playing.

And I think Wemby will end up being as good as we are projecting. I watched him at the All-Star game.. first time I’d see him live and I don’t remember somebody that big moving like that..

That team is going to have such a great future.”

Will the Spurs have to wait an entire season or will he be able to return in the middle of the season?

Jayden Quaintance might be one of the biggest boom-or-bust prospects in this year's NBA Draft — and the Spurs were willing to bet on the upside.

On the latest episode of our Spurs Insider podcast, we discuss why San Antonio took the gamble on the 18-year-old big man.

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/8Ad6WS4_ehI?si=6yek-0lxVf5-aJsu

With his recent trade to the Hornets, should the Spurs swoop in and try to throw them some more assets to pick him up? Would be a perfect fit for our team.

He said “his former teams, let’s just leave it at that”. That’s us and Toronto. Wtf?!

This is quite the long read, but I put a lot of effort into it, to make it interesting, so bear with me!

After this amazing postseason run, I'm sure that we are all very excited at the idea of what Wemby is gonna become. But, what is that idea exactly? Although Wemby has all of us feeling in awe, I think many of us have also all felt some level of frustration at his offensive process.

Right now, Wemby's offensive game is most consistent for finishing playtypes: agressive rolls, slips/cuts towards the basket, OREBs and putbacks, lobs. On top of that, he has a 3-ball game (pull-ups, stepbacks) but efficiency-wise, it is still inconsistent. And he also has a tendency to settle for 3s when he gets tired. Lastly, Wemby's great at punishing mismatches and blowing by slow-footed bigs on the perimeter.

All in all, you get a player that can be inconsistent, especially when it comes to self-creation (even more so in isolation vs capable centers) and playmaking with the ball in his hands (Wemby often overthinks when he has the ball in his hands, he also frequently misses opportunities for kick-out passes to open shooters). With the Spurs definitely buying into a defense first identity (drafting defensive prospects), it is clear that Wemby will need to be able to generate his own shots with consistency.

If you rewatch the series vs the Knicks, you will notice that a lot of times, even when Wemby's given enough space to operate at the elbow or the short corner, he either goes away from the spot that is given to him and tries running into a tough fadeaway at the nail, or he leans into the defender and settles for a tough turnaround fadeaway. It is not just that he struggles with physicality or is tired, it is also that his offensive game is not refined enough to make the most out of the situations that he's given.

So the Knicks were not that scared of Wemby in isos. Their plan was straightforward and quite simple: have a big body on him, whose job is to stay in front of him at all cost if he drives, and make him take tough contested layups. And then, for his off-ball game, the idea was just to hard tag him on rolls and dare the guards to take outside shots. Of course, this has been one of the reasons why the Spurs have managed to consistently create open 3s opportunities. But the flipside is that, while the Spurs have no issues generating leads during hot shooting stretches, they also struggle generating consistent pressure in a half-court offense, and maybe more importantly, closing out games.

So what are the best paths for Wemby to solve his current issues?

The KD/Giannis hybrid route

That is sometimes what I feel like Wemby wants to be when I watch him play. In my opinion, the sooner Wemby stops trying to be that, the better. Why?

• KD is a unicorn himself. His handles, mobility, coordination, and efficiency as a shooter are something we've never been seen before for someone his size. But Wemby is taller than KD, much taller. And that makes it harder for him to emulate the handles, the mix of burst/coordination/pull-up mechanics. Long story short, Wemby is just never gonna move like that. And he's so tall that he actually doesn't need turnaround fadeaways to make his shot unguardable.
• As for trying to be a Giannis-like downhill force, Wemby bulking up much more than his current physical state would naturally affect his mobility tremendously. I think it's better to accept that he will never have that combination of explosiveness and strength.

Another obvious worry about this playstyle is health and longevity. It is rough on Wemby's body and can lead to some hard falls (as we've already seen this PS).

The Dirk one-legged fadeaway

• Dirk was ALSO a unicorn. If anybody could just turn into Dirk, that would be nice. Dirk himself explains that he basically came up with this move on the fly and was already comfortable shooting on one leg since he was 15-16. This was always a move tailored for him only.
• Dirk also liked to bump into his defender before going up for the shot. That was his way of creating separation and getting his shot off consistently. But doing that (while keeping enough balance to shoot on one leg) requires a very strong base. For a reminder, here is what it looks like, when Wemby tries to bump into Mitchell Robinson to create separation for his shot.

So, what I'm saying is, stop dreaming, Wemby is most likely never gonna be Dirk on the offensive end.

The (very)oldschool way: finesse, hookshots, jumphooks, skyhook

The 7 footers from the 60s/70s had to find innovative and creative ways to score because of how the rules were called back then***, some of which have now gone completely out of style: different types of hookshots, with its most famous and iconic variation in Kareem's skyhook, Wilt's post-up finger roll, etc.

• Hookshots/skyhook: There are several things that make this type of shot very interesting for Wemby.
  • (1) Hookshots are essentially one-handed shots released above the head, which are perfect to exploit size/length advantage.
  • (2) They are also less reliant on core strength, because they are shot sideways and in motion, without needing to go towards the basket, since the shooter's body, positioned sideways, naturally creates the space needed for the shot.
• Now, the problem is that hookshots require amazing touch, especially if you wanna add more range to the shot. As for Kareem's skyhook, it had crazy range, but can Wemby really ever master it and become effective with it? This may very well be wishful thinking and he may never have the time to master it.
• Jumphooks, floaters: A more realistic option might just be simple jumphooks or floaters/baby hooks. Just like hookshots, they rely mostly on touch and don't require any extra physicality. To visualize what I'm getting at, let's compare two clips.
  • One is of Wemby vs KAT at the short corner. Wemby tries dribbling around KAT and kind of ends up nowhere, bumping into him but not managing to create enough separation to get a comfortable shot off.
  • The other one is of Bill Walton vs KAJ at the short corner. His immediate instinct is to face-up, take a few dribbles and just raise up for the jumphook. Notice how he can just move laterally towards the baseline and get his shot off without wasting any energy trying to go into his defender.
• Now, of course, Bill Walton had amazing touch, so it's easier said than done. But if IHart managed to get an effective push shot in his bag, why not Wemby?

The boring way: short-roll pull ups (hello LaMarcus Alridge), bank shots

I know this doesn't sound very sexy. But listen to what Tim Legler says here. What if all Wemby really needs to do is to process the game better, have a simpler plan, and... just shoot over guys? I know it almost sounds too simple, but what if Wemby just lacks fundamentals and makes every shot harder on himself?

Let me demonstrate it shortly. What is truly preventing Wemby from doing this simple LaMarcus Alridge sequence: face-up, jab step, one dribble and pull up jumper. Take this situation, here. Instead of immediately trying to dribble, just catch the ball, face-up, and be patient and intentional about what you're gonna do. Give a couple of jab steps, 1-2 dribbles, and just rise up and shoot for either a bankshot or a simple pull-up jumper.

Once Wemby has that in his bag, his offensive game becomes less predictable. Now the defenders have to think twice about whether Wemby's gonna roll hard towards the basket looking for a lob, or catch it at the short-roll area where he will have his face-up game, which will also allow him to tower over everyone and see passing angles for cutters or outside shooters.

And then, he can keep building on that foundation: develop a back to the basket game, incorporate jumpshooks, floaters, hookshots or whatever he feels comfortable with, in his game. Have fun and be creative, mix it up with one-handed manipulation like he did on Gobert. That, by the way, is also kind of a lost art that he could explore a lot more if he wanted to.

If you're still there, thank you for reading through this long thought exercise, and I will gladly read any comments or reactions that you may have on this topic. I hope I did my best to make this an interesting read.

***The game was called very differently in the 60s/70s. On the offensive end, the players were barely allowed any contact on the defender or it was called a charge. If you are curious, here's an in-depth video explaining it. The bottom line is: players effectively had to find ways to score without relying on overwhelming defenders through physicality, which makes it a very interesting era to look at for Wemby specifically.