Last season was the first time since 1996-97 that San Antonio lost 60 games in a regular season. After that terrible season, the Spurs were “rewarded” with the #1 overall pick in the draft. They drafted Tim Duncan and the rest is history. After last season, the Spurs once again had the luck of the draw, landed the #1 overall draft pick and selected Victor Wembanyama, a player with enough hype to be possibly capable of turning this franchise around the same way Duncan did 26 years ago.
There isn’t much to talk about San Antonio’s performance last season. They were a bad team, they had the worst defense ever recorded in the NBA in terms of defensive rating and they were simply awful on both ends of the floor. Even though Popovich’s teams tended to have a modern approach to the game, the 2022-23 Spurs were the opposite of that: low 3pts volume% rate, loads of mid-range shots and a lot of shots allowed to their opponents at the rim.
2023/24 OUTLOOK:
Victor Wembanyama is now the face of this franchise and even though his talent is unbelievable, he might need a period of adaptation before we know for sure what will be his ideal position in a NBA game. This might make the Spurs have a slow start this season.
Devin Vassell seems to be from the young players that already were in San Antonio last season, the one who is more ready to make a bigger impact this season. This is why the Spurs signed him to a $146 million contract extension. San Antonio was an awful jump shooting team last season but Vassell improved his numbers (even though he only played 38 games) while showing that he can be a vital piece in the future of this franchise.
Jeremy Sochan’s versatility will also be important for the team going forward. San Antonio also has Tre Jones and Keldon Johnson to develop, but asking all these young players to develop well while the team manages to stay competitive as a whole seems too much for a team currently in a complete rebuild mode. The good news is that it will be close to impossible for them to be as bad on defense as they were last season…
