Spurs

Starting 5: Jeremy Sochan, Devin Vassel, Keldon Johnson, Victor Wembanyama, Zach Collins ;

Key Rotation Players: Tre Jones, Julian Champagnie, Doug McDermott, Cedi Osman, Malaki Branham;

Coach: Greg Popovich;

Expected Wins: 29.5 ( per Draft Kings, 11 Oct);

Team Profile

Tne San Antonio Spurs are one of the most, if not the most, intriguing teams in the NBA this season. Let us start with Victor Wembanyama, the most anticipated rookie since Lebron James, and is a DPOY candidate from the jump, he lead the NBA in blocks per game at 2.75 barely playing 20 minutes, in the preseason. His weaknesses this season should be things we will have no problems fixing on the long run, but staying out of foul trouble, playing each minute with the same focus and shot selection will be shaky this season at least. Victor this preseason proved that every shot that he takes is a clean shot. However, this does not mean it is a good shot, even with his crazy shot-making. Also, even with his freakish height, I expect Wemby to have some lackluster numbers rebounding, not that the Spurs will struggle rebounding by themselves, Zach Collins and especially Sochan should clean the glass; a curiosity is that of the five starters, during preseason, Wemby was the fourth with the most rebounds, as Keldon Johnson is also a good rebounder for his position and crashed the offensive glass (1.7 ORB per game, the same as Zach Collins and Sochan). The identity of these Spurs will be defense through offense, a team that has a plethora of good defenders for their position and a tall lineup as mentioned, Sochan will probably handle the most challenging perimeter player and hassle him, Keldon will take the second and Devin Vassel, being 6’5’’ is equipped with tools to defend the worst of attacker of the perimeter, as taller and not skilled players will not give him problems. This defense is backcourted by two quintessential goalkeepers, Wemby and Zach. By forcing misses and turnovers, defense will turn into offense with spears pointed at the basket like Vassel and Keldon, this is a young and quick team. A very typical outlook in the preseason, and one of the reasons why Sochan is playing Point Guard, was Sochan grabbing the board and passing ahead to one of Vassel and Keldon who were spacing the wings. Either with Vassel hitting a quick 3, Keldon slashing, or hitting one of the trailers like Zach or Wemby, this is good and effective offense. Regarding half-court offense, the Spurs do not have a top 20 offensive shot creator, they will thrive on spacing and passing, as they led the league in assists per game in preseason with 29.6 and I expect them to be at least top 10 during the regular season. Zach Collins will serve as an offensive hub, last season he was in the 92 percentile of assistance percentage (A player’s assist percentage shows how often the player is assisting teammates. Since a player can only get an assist when his teammate makes a field goal, AST% looks at how many of these teammates made field goals due to that player’s assists). Talking about Zach it is also important to mention the spacing that this team will have: even though they are playing with two bigs, both Zach and Wemby will take threes, atleast 10 per game; with averages around 33% this will provide good value and opportunities for Keldon to drive to the basket. Furthermore, I would like to mention that I expect Devin Vassel to take another leap this year, not quite to All Star level but to the point that his new contract (135M $ / 5 yrs) won’t seem foolish. To sum up, this starting 5, maybe also with Tre Jones in, should have good on/off numbers and I expect to hang with must of the teams. However, the bench is somewhat lackluster and I think here is where the San Antonio Spurs will loose most of their games: Tre Jones, their wings Julian Champagnie, Doug McDermott, Cedi Osman and also the young big Malaki Branham who quietly averaged 10 PPG last season, are not bad players, per say, but the NBA nowadays is filled with talent ( when can we expect a expansion?) and specifically the West is packed with even more talented teams.

Finally, a word for the iconic coach Popovich, who is going for his 28th season. Popovich will make sure everyone will play at his highest level, I reiterate, this is a team that its identity will be passing, defense with forcing turnovers and high-pace offense coming from that.