Final Thoughts and Episode Wrap Up

This is the locked on Podcast Network celebrating ten years of your team every day Hey everydayayers. NBA free agency is here and coverage doesn't stop with your team. Locked on NBA will be here for you every day of the off season, with quick hittding thirty minute recaps of all the news and rumors in the NBA Make Lcked on NBA your second liston and stay caught up on the biggest off season storylines and free agency signings every day. Available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Part of the locked on podcast network. Your team every day. I'm Casey Vier. I got to be honest with you guys and our friends at home. I was kind of waiting for the sppurs to do something splashy from a personnel lens, and I was waiting and waiting and yeah, okay, Toby a haris was cool, but I will Jump out, maybe it isn on a lim, maybe it's not. Today, what they did with that coaching staff is the best move that they'll make the entire summer I'm Matthew Ty and look, it's been a safe calm, steady off season For San Antonio all the whileild the West is going crazy and The Spurs are kind of kicking back and just taking care of business right now And I'm Devin Brown. All that is great, and I'm here to talk that and more. Casey, Matt, let's have a good one. This is Lcked on Spurs Squad Show. The twice a week show where Spurs talk gets real. No filters, no clock. J raw take, sharp opinions and straight up, passassion for the game. The way only locked on podcast network knows how. Let's drop some dimes and squad up. The Spurs Squad Show starts now That it does. welcome to another get together right here on Lcked on Spurs. Of course, part of the locked on podcast network. You know it as the number one sports podcast network in the world. Matthew Tim and the host of the title pod is the man in the middle, Devon Brown NBA champion, right at your screen. I am merely Kasey Viera. We have a lot to hit on tonight. What we thought was planning ahead of time, the three of us three of us It going gonna to be a little bit of a slow day That's the way it always kind of works out, right? You're anticipating for something slow and then something big kind of breaks because yes, we planned on talking about the summer spurs. We are going to talk about Tobias Harris's fit and the fact whether or not the spurs are done for the summer, hit on that as well. But we start tonight, fellowas with a big name coach coming on to the bench coming on to the staff. No, not taking Mitch Johnson job, but instead Helping him out Billy Donovan, longtim face in the game, most recently Chicago Bs for many of years, eleven years in the business. he has taken over for Sean Sweeney as that lead ahe lead assistant coach first on the bench behind Mitch Johnson. Now I said eleven years out of course at the NBA level, an atternity at the collegiate level, best known for twenty seasons and a couple of the national championships of the back to back variety with the Gators. the Joe Kim Noah days, the Al Hoorfer days, Coreory Brewer that That bunch, that bunch in the mid two thousands. All right. Devin you're going hit lead off tonight time and feel free to hop in after that. The spurs at times in the finals in the playoffs showed an element of youth and experience. and in many respects, it started with the guy leading the charge in Mitch Johnson Billy Donovan brings a heck of a lot of experience And certainly something boy that San Antonio did not have did have the That's not the case anymore Yeah, absolutely. So you know, when I and it's a great hire by the way and when I think about this, the first thing I think about is I just want to say, you know, good luck to coach Sweeney. Our coach Sean on his way to Orlando U, you know, first head coaching job. he's he's worked hard to earn it and bestest of luck to him. Now replacing a guy like that who is your defensive guru Um, You know, I give kudos to this first because you had to go this route Um notot so much a Billy Donovan route, but you know, this surprised everybody. But you had to have a hire come in when you leave have a guy leave like that. and I think this person is doing a great job with hiring coach Donovan. Now from his perspective, You know, a lot of people are going to say that, you know, he doesn't have spur ties you know, and things like that. and I think You know, being a national champion, being somebody that's been in the coaching ranks for a very long time. You know, I look at it and I'm trying to look at it from his lens And Everybody that coaches admires what San Antonio's done. As a program, as a brand the last, you know, fifty years or so And I think for him It could be a stop where he can get a fresh start. He can get some intel on what San Antonio does behind the scenes, how the players prepare themselves day in, day out And then if he's, you know, able to get another head coaching job, it'll help him. So, you know, for him to be humble enough, you know, to do something like this because you really only see it on EBA two K Um I think it's going to be good for him and it's going to be great for the spurs Now, um Casey, when you talk about the leadership that he provides and he's not going to take one jumphot in a game next year But what he is going to be able to do Is calm midch down in those high, you know, leverage moments Uh, maybe, you know, aded two um But I just look at it as a young pop. You know, when you look at Billy and his resume, I think of him as a young pop And I think it's a great highire and I think he's going to have a lot of success here. Yeah, you know, one of the things that Billy Donovan's always been known for and you talked about his U his time obviously where he's where he had The majority of his success if you want to kind of frame it that way was at the collegiate level And then kind of over the course of his entire career He's in the NBA He's really been the overseer of a bunch of young teams. If you kind if you kind of go back and look at it Um and And I think one of the things he's best known for Aside from having just a lot of experience around the game, a ton of H IQ when it comes to basketball He has a reputation as being a schematic guy on both sides of the floor But the biggest thing, I think is developing young talent. and he's always been really good about that Um So I think just to have him in the building as and ex you know, sixty one years old He's got. couple of decades on Mitch Johnson moreore than twenty years Mitches srior. So to have someone like that to be able to lean on like remember Sewn Sweeney was was Damn near as young as Mitch is. So having a couple of guys on the bench who in Corless Williamson ammidst Johnson who are both pretty young in the coaching game to have a guy like that come in You know, it kind of reminds me of obviously Ver different story when when Brett Brown came and sat next to pop on the bench after being a head coach for a long time. That was more so like losing all these young assistants and and Brett came in to sort of calm things down It's obviously similar having a guy to your side in your ear, someone to bounce things back and forth off of that you trust U And I think in this case, this is very much thing where it's like U Mitch Johnson And Billy Donovan, they have a relationship like the Spurs in general are familiar with Billy Donovan. So just bringing a guy in who's got the experience and by the way, it's like It's I think that the optics of things like this always look strange, right? because you're looking at Mitch Johnson a really young head coach And you're looking at Billy Donovan who's a very accomplished coach at both the collegiate and the NBA levels. It like, okay, maybe I guess he's never won a playoff series in his NBA career, but like this is a really Well respected dude who's been around the game for Yeah, Billy Donovan. He had the the first year sorry,ry to interrupt. the first year he went through the conference finals with O C withith Okay C. Okay afterfter that, after that he has not one That's right.ense. sorry that's. No, no, no, I appreciate it.. So but like this is a it's the optics are always going to be a little weird because We're just sort of trained to look at this from the perspective of like, oh, oh, you know Mitch betteret watches back or what kind of message are they trying to send and this and that and the other And so to be able to, especially if you're michch, to look at this and say, like, no, I'm Wlcoming him into to help me out here and if you're the spurs, you have enough faith that that Mitch Johnson iss not going to like this the wrong way Because the last thing San Antonio wants to do, especially in that front office. is to have some big public display of like, you better watch your back mitch type of thing That's not what's going on here. And so for everybody to sort of be on the same page here, especially like When you look at a guy like Donovan It is surprising He's not out there getting a head coaching job. but then again those kind of dried up and and you have, you know, certain places around the league including like Portland who you're never going to get a guy like Billy Donovan with the way they're paying contracts and and putting people on year by year deals. but U I think this is I know it's I know it's still just crazy to me But I think this is going to be a really interesting situation and as far as assistance go, it I mean, it doesn't really get much better than Billy Donvan from Mitch Johnson Yeah, I kind of view it as what'll probably be a little bit of a one off kind of a season that I think could be you said you said it right there. one years two year type deal because this coaching cycle with him getting let go that well like like you said, Matt is kind of running dry if he wants to get back in the MBA side of things real quick, real quick like keepe in mind, he didn't it wasn't like a firing. like it was like mutual Yeah, it was kind of like I'm, you know, I'm the the front office changed. I'm moving on like so it just yeah, it wasn't like he was out the door or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think I think this is kind of a good alternative to essentially having a gap year, right B for Billy because he was going to get whether it's in the league or back at the collegiate ranks after this year, he was going to be employed this time next year. It wouldd be crazy if he was not that's just kind of the way it goes. So I think the way he probably sees it is takeake a gap year a little bit, which in some respects, I think it's kind of admirable admirable because after being in Chicago and eleven straight years of doing this thing U he wanted to get back into it. He was to use Devan's wording, not too proud to do it. Right And he's in a spot where They have a chance to win and it's a void of what they need. And what I think is interesting, excuse me is that You know, when we hear mitch, we hear these things like, oh pop upstairs is always there. Yes, that's true Pops not on the bench in some of these big game steps ops not on the bch and any And when The Void is there on that front The finals, like we see, the inexperience Pop's not there to save things, but Billy Donovan now perhaps is I also think that the whole like I feel like the storylines took over so much in the post season. about like pop being around pop's around, but like I feel like it got a little overblown in terms of like how often Pop was like coming in the locker room or doing stuff in the film room. like this was Mitch Johnson's and Sean Sweeneyys and Corless Williamsonons. Sh like, yeah, pop was around. But I do think that because of the way some of those stories like just took off that a bigger deal was made out of it than it is like pop is just Oseeing everything breathing down people's necks and like that really like genuinely has not been the case Um, Anyway, I thought I would just make sure that folks knew that because it I feel like there has been sort of a U I guess a misinterpretation in some capacities in terms of like exactly how much Pop is like is putting his imprint on things likeike he's been up there you know, going through rehabs and workouts and stuff like that at the practice facility. likeike he's been around, but it it's not like he's been Like he's let Mitch do his thing Um He just, you know, he really cares about a lot of these dudes. He coached you know, a lot of this roster. So of course he's around, off course he's giving his input U this isn't going to be like a situation where he's hovering over the whole operation, nor has it been Devin,, what do you think of the schematical aspect of things? Because Billy Donovan known trally traditionally more as an offensive minded head coach How much do you think that played a factor in him getting the job based off we saw what we saw in the finals or I guess kind of the lack thereof when these games mattered How much of that do you think they viewed as that's really kind of the emphasis of what we're putting on with this hire as opposed to kind the defensive side of things, which for the most part, it felt like They kind of had figured out Well, you know, when you look at, um you know, his resume and the players that he's coached He's had some really good ones. He's had some really outstanding ones. So When you look at this first roster, You know, really You know, it's it's, you know, how are you going because the spurs have to as a whole have to figure out what they're going to do with Daron Fox Um, you know, come late fourth quarter Allright secondecond unit, things like that. Dylan Harper, the dynamic between him, Castle Fox Uh the sppurs seems like they seem like at times they haven't figured out. And then You blow a twenty nine point lead. so you're kind of confused on you know, where that is. So maybe Billy can come in and give his two two cents on on things like that. Now you had to byas hairis to this deal. so You know, that gives you some options there. So Mitch is definitely going to listen to him and lean on him as far as, you know Uh you know, making sure that everybody stays happy with their touches and the locker room stays fluent and there's no problems there Um But I just think really, you know Man, just I just hope he brings that presence defensively because you know, Sean Sweeney, you're going to see next year at times. He's definitely going to be missed Yeah. I mean, I think that Billy Donovan is just has the reputation of just being a smart basketball like strategist on both sides of the floor. Like I don't think that this is something where it's like Yes, like he's definitely going to help things move along offensively like you can go back And look at some of these bulls teams over the last several years and wonder aloued just how they were able to manufacture the type of offense. They were able to manufacture in a lot of ways and and that a lot of that credit goes to Billy Donovan. So he will certainly help out from a creativity standpoint on the offensive. and I'm looking forward to seeing what he's got in store for Victor Wembenyama and and looking for ways to to to foster, I guess a more creative offense on the whole, especially as you brought up you know, when they went through the offensive lols in the post season that really cost them because Yes, we can talk about defense in San Antonio undernder Mitch Johnson is always going to be defense first. It's what fuels their offense. It's what it's what fuels their fast break and their transition offense Devan, you can speak to this too If you just keep missing shots It makes that defense harder to play because you're you're going to be getting back constantly on your heels. you're not able to set up. you're playing in transition the whole time. So you can all, you know, we can always talk about a team being defense first, but it's a two way street. like at some point Yes, the defense can help you when you have a little cold stretch during a game at some point the offense has to be able to put the ball in the basket or the defense is going to get is going to start getting cooked because because they're not able to actually get set up and figure out a rhythm on that side of the floor I have a u general kind of sentiment and it pivots back to what Tyen was saying earlier. And I don't think this is the case, but optics is I don't want to say always thing but it is a thing And the idea that Mitch Johnson. kind of needs someone with a little bit more heavy standing behind of him behind him on the bench. to maybe ignite a little bit something. I don't know if I necessarily agree with that, but we're just going to talk about the idea of a hire like that. C be something, could be nothing. in this case, probably not in my opinion. But traditionally in your experience How do you Devin and your experiences in the league How do those type of things usually work or do they work at all? or is that just kind of a I guess for lack of a better term, a figment of our imagination from the outside looking in Uh well, what is his official title? if you don't mind me asking you guys live onir Is it associate head coach or is it is he the first assistant coach? What I saw was lead assistant lead assist And and I don't know so I don't like Sean Sweeney to your point was associate head coach exactly I have not seen a an official title beyond what Sham Shirania pointed out today and I have not asked anybody specifically, but What it looks like right now is lead assistant. I think that if he were hired as associate head coach, I think it would have been the news. Right. So so That's my point. So In a situation like this, if you're mich And obviously you're going to hear about this before you know, anything goes on Um, ye, if he's an associate head coach Billy Donnam is the associate head coach. Yeah. Yeah. well, you know, now I got to Be a little creative like you said, Matt with my late game plays and not try and do crazy hammer plays that everybody knows that they ran when I was running and every every team every NBA team knows that play now. So used to work used to work. used to work foranu. Eactly. So But with him being in with, you know, the first assistant or lead assistant, however you want to put it. Yeah, likeike you said, it shouldn't disrupt Mitch at all and like you said, you know what? You know, Mitch looking over his shoulder at all. he's done a fantastic job this far to get this team to the finals. Let's not take that away from him Rome But yeah, so and and we did go through I went through this once. they they fired unfortunately, they fired coach Scott halfway through one of our seasons with New Orleans and u the GM actually took over in He was very honest with this. He said Oh yes, yes, I remember. Yeah, he said He, listen I don't really know a lot about the ex the knowose I can get your team together So I hired and he hired Tim Floyd to come in there. So he was actually the coach. not a real And so I have seen this before and It was fun, man. I mean, cooach Floyd was he was funny. He was he was strict, but he was funny I worked in El Paso for a little while, so I have a of handful of Tim Floyd stories Yeah when he was there. I know it wasn't the most endearing of exits that he had with the good o EP media out there. Anyways, moving on. All right. Yeah, so Billy Donovan come to town as the lead assistant, the lead assistant to Mitch Johnson. that The best move that the Spurs will be making, is it the last move? Is it the most notable? That's something that we're going to be talking about coming up on the other side of the break. Are the spurs done? Is this pretty much showing things up in terms of making the splashy moves? We'll find out. We'll debate. We'll talk about that Tobias Harris guy coming town too because we haven't gotten together since that All that in a little bit more coming up next right here On the Spurs squad show onlocked on Spurs. All right I know what you guys were doing leading up to today prior to hanging out with us this evening I know that you were out there. You were watching crazy Portugal, Croatia matchup. And it was even infinitely more fun for you World Cup viewers, your soccer fans. if you had a little something rid in with Fandel because As you saw One goal is going to completely change the energy in the game Shift the momentum, alter the outcome That's what the World Cup is all about. Right now Fan dou is given fans another reason to stay locked into every match with every goal pays is what they call it. You bet on a match, you get bonus bets for every goal scored in said match. That means more goals, more bonus bets. same you're in good shape if you touch that Spain match earlier on today as well. And all you have to do is just turn your token because we've seen these these games, seen these these matches where it's scoreless, it feels like forever, even to the one ones we saw earlier today with the Portugal Croatia. Everyone's pressing and then things get going and the crowd comes alive and next thing, you know, the final twenty minutes or so just become all out chaos and must watch TV. So from the opening whistle to the final kick, let there be goals on Fandl. headad on over to fantal. comot Get yourself started All right, so this is the first get together for the three of us since the spurs learned yesterday They will be having a new swing man. new I would call is going to say stretch f, not a stretch f. a little bit under the size for that Toobyas Harris, come town, two years, thirty one million dollars to add some wing depth to the roster. I guess we'll start first. I'll ask both of you guys. How are you feeling about it And we will go from there. Devin, where are you at with things know that the spurs have The longt time veteran, the thirty three year old soon to be thirty four year old coming town Well, from what I hear on the streets, you know, Tobias likes to work out here in San Antonio, spends the summers here Um, you know half of them at least So, you know, for him, you know, it's it's sort of, you know, coming back to an area that he's familiar with And if we look at his body of work, the last time, you know, we' seen him he was actually playing really good in the playoffs. I mean He was he was Arguably, you know, their best player down the stretch so You're getting a veteran guy, another quiet guy, another guy that's not going to disrupt your locker room Um which is kind of, you know, concerning, to me. Matt may think differently, but to me, You know, you need someone that's going to grab Daron by the fox And and get him get his little butt playing, you know, sometimes when he's struggling and And you know, same thing have that that respect for Castle and Harper U Wimby same thing, someone that can get them going whenever they have these slow starts and things like that. A. I don't think that's to buy his hairs, but as far as the fit for The roster he's perfect. Um, but we'll see how this thing plays out. And so so far You know, when you put a letter grade on what, you know, San Antonio's done You know, to this point You know, I think it looks pretty good. I think they'll be ready to go next year U the top guys will be the top guys and When you're able to, you know, fill in with with guys like this who can You know, he'll have games where he'll he'll make a big splash U So if you're the spurs, you're happy so far Yeah. I mean, that's a good question about about Tobias. I don't I don't know if he is what what did you say get get grab Dereren's little butt by the fox or something like that. So okay Yeah. I'm not I'm not sure if he is that type of player. I know though that like Throughout his career, like coaches love him. and teammates love like he's a great locker room de, but I don't know if he's that kind of guy The kind of guy he is though is something that I feel San Antonio really, really needed in a lot of places in the post season where it's like The offense isn't working. noobody's able to get a bucket to go. all right, clear out mid post give it to Tobias And he's been really efficient in post up situations like while he was with Detroit. you can even go back to the days in Philly. I think there's always been sort of this this his his brand has sort of been tarnished over the years. because he has made so much money and has never been an all star like going back to twenty nineteen. he gets maxed out by the Philadelphia seventy sixers. and suddenly peopleople were doing the thing with him that a lot of people are doing with Dereren Fox right now You're playing good basketball. But you're not playing max level basketball. Okay. another thing with that too Another thing with that to that what happened there, remember was that Philly prioritized signing Harris over Jimmy B overver Butler. Yes. It was It was never Ghead, gohead, gohe No, no, no, I was saying it like that in addition to being in Philly as well, and that's tremendously unfgiving. But that was kind of that was kind of what spearheaded that was that Philly prioritized going with the stretch, that the floor spacing, the wing that Tby' Harris is. Jimmy Butlner goes to Miami, does a whole bunch of stuff. Py flops year after year like they do. nextext thing, you know, it's a Molotov cocktail disaster all the way around and Harris is taking the brnt of it. Sorry, continue your thought. goo ahead. No, no, no, that's like that's a that is a good point. and I'm glad you brought that up. and it just sort of adds to the point that I'm making is that a lot of his reputation has been A lot of toobias' Harris Tobias Harris' reputation has been has been formed. We were just talking about optics a second ago. A lot of his reputation has been formed by the optics of this stuff of stuff that wasn't his fault in any shape or form. It was always it's the The Sixers picking him over Jimmy Butler. It's the Sixers giving him a max contract. The reality is for the last decade, this guy has been a positively impactful player No matter where he's been and For San Antonio He's like like, Ask anybody and they'll tell you the reputation is he's a bad defender. He's not a bad defender. Like he has been a very good team defender for a long time. Do you want him out there defending isolations against the best in the NBA? No, probablyably not, but when it comes to defending the post, rebounding the basketball, playing team defense. he's a verys a defender And then on top of that, I already mentioned the rebounds. I mentioned the ability to when things aren't working, you can get him the ball in the post and he is an efficient scorer out of post ups as well as a playmaker out of post ups. He's also just multipaceted. He can handle the ball in the pick and roll. He can spot up and shoot shots He's a good cutter. He'll get on the offensive glass at times, which I think is going to be interesting, especially playing with Wimonyama and the situations where he's probably going to draw mismatches where smaller guys are having to to defend him because the big guys on the court are dealing with Weemby and sometimes two to three guys at a time and he's going to be able to get behind the defense. I just think that at fifteen million dollars a year, like this is a no brainer signing. The only thing is that like Devin said, I don't think he is that sort of like, you know, I don't think he's Mario Ellie And and if Draymon Green Draymon Green or anything like that. But but he is someone who We all know that San Antonio needed some help at that four spot in that front court, someone on the wing, someone at the four. I know today is todayoday' for his play on the wing. So but but they needed somebody to be able to fill in that spot and I think that he's going to be excellent for them, especially now that For the first time in his career basically going to be like the fourth or fifth offensive option on the team And I think that's going to make a huge difference I know when I texted you guys when it first came out, I was kind of like, M All right, it's good to add depth. It's not a It's a two year deal, so you're not mortgaging your future. You had to pay the money to somebody anyways. And I was like, okay, yeah, it was safe, it was good. And then I kind of looked at the numbers a little bit Did you know that This is a guy who has been doing this since the eleven twelve season. And in with the exception of that rookie season, he' averagage double figure scoring in every single year that he's played. Oh yeah, for sure. that's impressive. No impressive. No, I'll say no, I did not know that Me neither. For as much for as much as he was vilified and Pilly He's a good he's a good player Yeah. like Yeah pretty much from the start. Yeah. I'll say this. he's it seems like and and you guys, you know, correct me if I'm wrong It just seems like the Spurs weren't happy when they would put Carter Bryan at the fourore, Harrison Barnes at the four Klden at the Ford Right? It just with what they've done in the draft and this off season and I say that because Yeah, Tobias Harris is a legit six seven He's six eight six nine, man. he's he's a big dude. Okay. I didn't realize Okay. six eight six nine. So He's dead legit why? So when you talk about playing The four position That really helps the sppurs out because I just think that It was too much for Carter Bryant Harrison Barnes is fifty, you know and and now you got all these young guys, but but this this really helps right here It's They're the he's the same Harrison Barnes is the same age as Tobias Harris No, but but you're right. likeike he is pulled out of the playoff rotation. I mean, Harr But Barnes was forty eight when the season started. nowation. Harrison Barnes fifty something years old. But But Devin's right like all all of those dudes were asked because really the only functional size San Antonio had was Victor and Luke Uh at least in their rotation. U I think, you know, there' they were able to to patch together some areas like, you know, Julian Champani is a really good rebounder for his size and position. Keldon is a strong dude who if you need him to go push some folks around for a while, he can he can hold up for a bit. But like in terms of just of true size at that, position and in that front court alongside Victor. No, San Antonio was really had sort of a dearth of that. like they they they needed help in that front court and and toobias just affords them an added luxury and layer of Just competent Like you know, effective basketball, smart basketball and and I think that it's going to go a long way for this team for sure because it's not like you're going out there and you bring up the the fact that he's scored double digits all these years. Yeah. like one of the it's one of the things that he's always been good at is is putting the ball in the basket and and now, like I said earlier, he's not going to have to do it against some of some of the opponents best wing defenders and stuff like that because Ste Castle, Victor Wimin Yama, Darren Fox, Dylan Harper. They're going to be occupied with those guys. So It should be a a a little bit of a softer task, I guess I would call it Um, not to mention like, The dude was a thirty seven per thirty seven percent three point shooter last year. So he's going to be able to stretch the floor and in particular And what have we seen with the spurs, especially when Victor is is rolling or diving to the rim Those corners open up and he is good from the corners. That's that's his spot I have a question for you guys. this was another thing that I asked you with the signing and I say this more so in kind of a onene year kind of viewpoint, not An indictment on the future type of deal. Do you think what went into this signing was something that was exposed when we got into playing really deep important basketball? And I'm talking the finals and you saw Kelden have a bad finals, reallyally Kellden struggled for majority of the playoffs. You saw Carter Bryant essentially become a non factactor in the context of just needing One more piece, even for one year because they don't have the belief that Carter Bryant theoretically Do you think there might have been a belief that they don't think Carter Bryant is ready yet going into I'm not talking about long term viewpoint because I think Carter Bryant's fantastic. I'm talking about playing basketball in June and succeeding and being, you know valuable, playing more than six minutes you what at a time. Do you guys how much do you guys think that played a factor, whether it had been that element of Carter Bryant or that element of Keldvin as well Go ahead, Devin, aad. So to answer your question, When we got into the Nick series, you know, that rotation became what six, maybe seven So what' at most most seven Yeah And so what it is is hey, you know, Mch is doing a good job. You know, it doesn't matter, you know, I see these different things on Facebook talk about, you know, to buy starting right away and this and that and you know, it's like, it doesn't matter, you know, who starts Right What they're trying to do is they're trying to have Mitch have twelve eleven, twelve, thirteen guys at his disposal And so that's what this Tobias Ser signing does along with everything else that they have Now when you speak of Carter Bryant This is a big Summer League for him And the fact that he can build trust. So there should be a list that he has personally that he wants to get better by the time he comes back from it. And there's a list that San Antonio has that they need to check some things off. they need to see out of him. So you're going to probably see a very aggressive Carter Bryant. I just want to throw that out there. You're going to probably see a very aggressive Carter Bryant come Summer League Yeah, you're probably going to like you go back and you look at all the young guys that San Antonio has sent to Smmer League after their first seasons in the NBA. lookook at and and they put the ball in y''s hands, right. They they you're not standing in the corners. You got the ball in your hands and they're putting you in a lot of different actions. there they're seeing what you can do. And so I would expect to see Carter Bryant in that role ads for like what this might have U haught them or exposed in their eyes I don't think that there was anything super surprising. Like I think if you would have talked to them last last summer before this season even began. lookingooking ahead, you know, we've talked about on here the fact that they were ahead of schedule this year. Well that that H more to do with the the build of their roster than it does the fact that just because they're young. like this is very this is a very talented team. We all saw that. But from a roster building perspective, like they were still sort of on step one of climbing that contention ladder and they kind of leap to the front a little bit. But I think that if you would have talked to them last summer and said after the Luke Cornet signing. Okaykay. what's next? Well We are a little bit thin on the wings like in terms of size. Yeah, we got we got Harrison, but he's he's getting up there and he's not really like a true four. He's more of a big three Kelden Sure, you can throw them around at the four, but the guy six five, you're going to need someone bigger than that. Julian Champani same thing you know, six seven six eight, but not a true four. Like I think if you would have asked them at the start of the year and then even like just maybe two months into the season after you saw them play the Kicks the first time and said, yeah Go forward. will'll survive this year as best we can without added size in the front court going forward We are going to have to get bodies in here that are going to be able to help Victor on the glass specifically. And then not just that. size to set screens size to play defense against whenever you have a Carl Anthony Towns on the floor. It's a tough matchup for Victor because he can take him out on the perimeter and then get by him. So there are just sort of these pieces that if you would to talked to them a year ago, they probably would have looked ahead and said like we like all the The for the front court guys who are in the draft. We like the fact that there are going to be a lot of combo wings in free agency. like that's going to be a big target for us nextext off season Um, and don't get it twisted They look they see all this stuff a year, two years, sometimes even three years ahead of time. Like they got people watching down the line Wh's about to be available? What do these drab classes look like? like that is their job year round. So I do think that if you would have given them some sort of Truth serum behind the scenes. they would have told you like, yeah, I think our next step is probably going to be bolstering the front court. And like look at what like in the draft and in free agency, that is basically all they've done Just to kind of put a bow on the Carter Bryant point or at least one more point on the Carter Bryant idea. How close or how far do you think he is to get both of you guys' opinions to, I guess figuring it out because there were times the back end of that playoff run and then in that nextick series. It just felt like everything looked And someone in the comments actually said that So shada, I'll have to go back, but everything looked fast to him. It just looked a little sped up and he looked out of place. How close do you guys think he is to figuring that part out Have you ever been to work and had fifteen different people telling you fifteen different things? That's every day. No, I'm not gonna say. I love my job I love my job. love. Yeah. So for him some of my him. he's got so many so many voices in his head. but you know why I say that is because you know, I've been there and gone through it. You get all these voices in your head Then you get the coaches, you know, telling you stuff And then you get the head coach telling you stuff. So you're out there like, hey, listen,'m I'm going run down here. If I'm openoping, I'm going to shoot it. If not, I'm going give it to number twenty one. and on the other end, I'm going to guard my butt off and hopefully I don't miss a rotation. But when you have when you can't just play the game, when you've played the game your whole life just fast and free and you know, able to do what you want And now you're being structured. It's a difficult, difficult situation to be in What what are young guys? What do you hear from young guys all the time when they first start figuring it out in the NBA? They say The game really started slowing down for me that hadn't quite happened for Carter yet. like keep in mind, he didn't really the rotation until about halfway through the year And then suddenly you're making the this deep run into the post season Mitch is trying to balance back and forth like how much he can trust him You'll see Carter get on the floor and this is where I really noticed. the getting sped up and his mind going a million miles an hour on the defensive end. There were some possessions. It looked like he was a linebacker out there like he was playing football on the floor. And so I just think that there's going to like He's super excited about being on the floor and I think eventually That excitement is going to calm down and he's going to be more collected and he's going to find his role. Like this is the normal trajectory for like Dylan Harper is not the normal rookie The normal rookie is Carter Bryant And the normal nineteen twenty year old is Carter Bryant So Usually unless you go through the sophomore slump thing, which we see as well Usually this is where the biggest leaps happen. year one to year two, year two to year three And so I think that as far as San Antonio is concerned, when they watch Carter Bryant play like I think that they probably feel that he's right on schedule from where they expected him to be who was a guy coming into the league still expected to be pretty raw like this is a guy who came off the bench for Arizona in his one year in Arizona, remember. So like I think that that right now and just over the last couple of months and talking to people like Carter Bryant's right on track But I do expect that And they expect, by the way, like it's not like a they are in a situation now. Unlike the last several years where there can be sort of this extra level of patience They need production without question And he is the type of player that is going to be extremely valuable to them in the future because he has a lot of size at the three the shot looks really good. I think that's something that as long as it continues to develop that you're going to be able to count on to a degree. Now what's next? It's it's and Devin talked about it, what we're probably going to see at suummer League What does he look like with the ball in his hands? What does he look like when he has a little bit more responsibility What is here two going to look like when he's a little bit more prepared for what he's about to face when he goes on the floor and Mitch Johnson says go get Say Gil just Alexander These are all sort of lessons that He had to deal with and absorb and I guess the next step is just to see how he responds in here too. And remember, there was that trip that he had to Austin midway through the season. you know, some could view it as a demotion, so to speak, if you look at it more kind of like baseball where he was sent to Austin, essentially was put in a similar spot where he was going to be and coming up in Smmer League. And after that, what was it like February, March somewhere around there, he played really great. playayed Austin the rest of the way. So hopefully summer League can offer a little bit same kind of As for us, we kind of got our order of operations, the conversation veered one way. So we'll go back to that idea of the Spurs roster. Do they have any blanks left that they needed to fill? if any at all? Will they be doing that? Let's revisit that coming up on the other side of the break right here on the Spurs squad show unlocked on SpurRs. but got a message for The die hard sppurs fans, the die hard locked on fans, the die hard locked on sppurs fans. 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That's discover dot com slash credit card There is an adage and I don't know if this is a product of the outside world, This is the social media world, whatever it is, but Devin, you were employed by these guys, so you would know best There is an old adage that when it comes to the Spurs fans saying, Hey, Spurs need to make a move. They need to do something drastic, they would say what we have is always kind of the default. We like what we have. We like what we have Credit to Brian Wright, this era has been a little bit more splashy since he was givven the keys to the car. You've seen the Daron Fox trit. you've seen him not be afraid to make moves, traded to Jone Murray. But now it feels like we've kind of resorted back to the we like what we have thing, which is fine. When you win sixty something games and lose in the MBA finals, I would say, yeah, that's a pretty good reason to like what you have. But here we are in July, a couple days in a free agency. They addressed one need I ask you, Devin, do they need to address another need before we get this thing started I mean, yes and no, you know, the yes part of it is Um you know, continuing to try and find that that guy that can play alongside Wy when I say alongside, I mean inside, you know, as far as, you know, because we know that Wimby wants to try and stretch the floor. So getting a legit five, you know, at this point. probably hard to do, but you know, just a big guy, a bruiser and someone that's going to, you know, when you know like and I used Draymond Green and I didn't mean that lightly earlier. and what I mean by that is think about this, if you sign a guy like that All of a sudden everybody on your roster goes, A man. And then with the way they do the NBA now If you show Draymond Green, if he signs here and he's at the prx facility The next day and he's working out. It sends a message to your roster Get your butt to San Antonio. This guys won championships, multi championships, multiple sorry, multiple championships and he's already in the gym working So we We can't not do that Right? So you still don't have a guy like that., but this far, you got to give mid straight. He's done a great job. or sorry, Brian They've done a great job, you know, this far and you know, I can't go too much on it because hey, I was on a couple of those rosters that were, Hey, we're good. So I was always watching the watch always say that for card signings. So when I didn't see that, I was like, Yeah, we're here. We' okay. They were It was like backack cour it's fine. I don't know about anywhere else. I can tell you right now. we're good at that two Hey Kasey I was like Tim said he needs some help down there, but we're good out here. Yeah, I mean, you know, I think that going out and look, they they basically crazy the craziest outcome would have been that they like didn't use their mid level exception. like they had to go use it and I think that having a guy available to them like Tobias Harris, like that's certainly not doing nothing or liking what we like liking what we have they that's a meaningful addition to your team And then the next meaningful addition to the team is these twenty, twenty one year old twenty two year olds continue to improve. Carter Bryan as well, like you're getting the addition just from within because of the development there. It's not like the Spurs teams that We're talking about that it's basically full of established players and you go sort of mix pieces around in the margins. L the you're expecting significant leaps from these guys because they're so young. So you're also hoping for this internal improvement and By the way, one of the reasons you're not going out and making another big move is because you're about to have to start paying these guys. Like the next step in the process this summer There are a couple of roster spots left. They have about four point four and a fivef million dollars left until they're in the luxury tax. They are basically strapped in terms of they can only now spend as much as like the five and a five million dollars biannual exception. Other than that, all they can do because they're over the cap is veteran is veteran contracts, veteran minimums. So it's not like they have a whole bunch of money to go spend anyway. But I do think that what we saw in the post season last year after Derren Fox got hurt. was a real Drop off in terms of consistency from an organizational standpoint m on floor organization. I'm not talking about like the sppurs. I'm just talking about on floor offensive organization play initiation. Um Darren Fox was definitely not himself like post injury So I do think because of the way the spurs are designed, which is veryer reliant on those three guards to be creating advantages all game You should probably look to get one more piece of guard depth. They went out. They got someone like Jordan McLaoughghlin last year. He did not fare very well when he when he checked in in that Oklahoma City series when they needed him in Dar and Fox's absence. So maybe looking out on the market to see what you can bring back in in a return in that capacity But like For the most part, they they're pretty much When it comes to anything splashy, like they're pretty much done for this summer save for a few pieces that I don't who knows. mayaybe they can get a discount somewhere. Maybe they promote from within when it comes to their two way guys or second round picks or whatever the case might be. Maybe maybe someone shows out at Summer League. Remember Gary Neil When he when he got that that contract out of summer League. So Devin Brown. Devin Brown. I mean, like like all of there are examples along the way. So summer's not over yet, but the majority of like the big work, so to speak. is done until until until Vic gets back to the states if he's not back already and they sit him down and say, hey, big fella. Here's a check U the most we can give you is three hundred six million dollars or whatever. but you write it in. What do you want? That's That's the next big piece of business that they got to take care of this summer. I got family in Paris right now out visiting and they said everybody they talked to and they said, Ohh, we're checking in from San Antonio. You know who they're talking about. You know who the first person they're asking it. Sure. yeah, ye. As expected. He's pretty popular. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It just kind of goes without saying. I don't really think the SPurs should do anything else because they can't really do anything else What are you going to do? They don't V minimums. got to go do something But that's what I mean, right? There's really nothing left for them to do that's flashy. All those all the big names that they were out there and as soon as I say the sentence, LeBron's going to sign this first. But all the big names that were hypothetically out there, they're gone. Jayalen Brown somehow ended up in Philly, Kawi back in Toronto, all that stuff. So all that stuff's off the table Just kind of like it was this time last year when the Durant thing seemed like a thing. Once KD was off the table, we' like, okay, right This is what they're running out there with. And it worked out And it worked out pretty well. I think that's kind of where it's at right now And understandably so, the team the team went to the finals and you should be feeling good about life. So you take advantage of those last few spots that you get, you know, hopefully you do find lightning in a bottle, whether it is one of those betts, whether it is one of these summer league guys, mayaybe David Jones Garci, he's still bang. say that. he comes back. You don't know You know, I mean he he has he has a good he he has been signed to the u to the two way qualifying offers. so he is still under their control. still under their control. Yeah. Yeah. we'll see. I mean, I mean, point being, that's that's the way to go. And yeah, you got something there. But for the most part, I feel pretty good with with where they're at. They address needs. It's tough to address every single need when you're limited kind of in what you have to send out, right? Because you not trade in Harper, not trade in Castle. there's only so many people thatd be willing to mess around on the fox side of things and that money. so your hands are kind of tied with what you're going to do. didid something of it. Harris Maybe not a huge needle mover, but it helps, you would think Drafting pretty big, literally It helps whether or not those guys ultimately see the floor in meaningful minutes and read and acquaintance, we'll get to we'll get to across that bridge when we get there, but I'm okay. All right. since we talked about those young guys, got somem league coming up In a matter of twenty four hours or so, the California classic. It's the first little Oh. I guess glimpse of Summer League. you want to call it? that Th games coming up this weekend O West. What we are looking forward to coming up on the other side of the break as we near an exit right here this Thursday edition of this first Sad show. don't go anyway It's smart to always have a few financial goals and a really smart one you can set, earning cash backack on what you buy every day. And with Discover, you can get this. Discover automatically matches all the cashback you've earned at the end of your first year. Seriously, all of it, and we trust you to make smart decisions A all you listen to this show. See terms at discover dot com slash credit card. That's discover dot com slash credit card Summer League, like I mentioned Not too far away, right around the corner. You got Miami, you got the Lakers and who am I forgetting there's somebody else in the Miami, the Lakers, some someone else. Th games, three games over the next few days U, acquaintance not playing. We know that is Carter Bryant playing Not not in San Francisco. He' only going to play in Vegas. Okay. So you're looking at a very in group, only so many guys on this team might actually be in San Antonio for I was going to say November, even pre you'll have you'll have you'll have Terrace Re you'll have Jacobi Gillespie and you'll have Llik Brown. They're all Yeah there're have the other three of the other four going into this I wanted to ask Devin this question because You Well we talked about it briefly before the break Guy So found his way through opportunities like Summer League. mayaybe not any of those three guys that we mentioned, Carter Bryant whose spots are a little bit more solified guys who have something to prove themselves and And Devon, of course, did exactly that and found his way into the league by way of opportunities like suummer League, by way of opportunities like the G League and D League, stuff like that. So For these young guys What is the message that you would send as they try to make the sat. Well, the message that was sent to me from Pop was We've seen what you can do spareingly now if we put heavy minutes on you We want to make sure and Matt brought this up earlier. We want to see what you can do. Um, you know, when you have the other team that's looking All to Eentually everybody's looking to stop you So I went out there, played two summers for San Antonio Um, and in one of them end up getting the MVP of the league. . And so we we won the championship G NVP of the leeague they there in Utah. so I would have to say Pop was very excited, but you know The thing about it is is that You know, yes, you're going to have the ball more in your hands, Carter Bryant Um is defensively, you know, because you're going to be going against U some high draft picks, a lot of the draft picks that are, you know, out this year A lot of them, you know are known as big time scores. so You know, you definitely don't want someone popping thirty on you or anything like that. So For Carter Bryant and the draft picks this year, it's going to be very important for them Just go out there and play hard, show that you can play within the system and just go from there I'm I'm remembering now last season or last summer when when the Spurs suummer League team It was San Antonio against Dallas because they had the number one pick versus the number two pick. So Cooper flag versus Dill Harbor Bryant was also on the court and he was locking Cooper flag up. It was it was crazy to watch and Summer League like that dude did not want him to score. So it'll be cool to see again if he does if he does end up squaring off against, you know, one of these high end drirave picks from this this pass draft and there are some High in scoring at the top of the drirave. So that'll be that'll be fun to watch him. Also I feel the need to whenever, whenever, especially now, especially during the summer. I feel that whenever you're introducing Devin For the rest of the summer, you have to saye former NBA champion and Summer League againVP That' be Yeah because Yes. that was I forgot about that. Yeah, That's so great. Same on great Chame on me. I totally agree. I know. I go up here. I gas this dude up all the time with his accolades How did that How did that one fall to? Yeah don't I don't know. Yeah. My bad, bro. That's all right. Hey. I'll tell you what, even work get better. We we beat Ben Gordon Chicago team in the championship go There you go. Oh Bang Gordon. I was gonna say, Billy Donovan did not I was gonna say not a little bit before Bill. That was before that was before his time. Yeah, Billy might have been in Florida then. You might have been. Yeah, I was gonna say, they might have crossed paths at one point then. I don't know. Anyways, we'll see. Summer League gets underway