'I want the ball in my hands': Development for the future remains the Spurs' top priority, but Devin Vassell may have already arrived

San Antonio has edged out two consecutive Eastern Conference playoff contenders, and they could not have done so without the shot-making of their third-year swingman.

Under even the least powerful lens, the seedlings of high-level shot-making in Devin Vassell’s game are evident. The herky-jerky step-back, the turnaround fall-away over the right shoulder, the snaking dribble out of the pick-and-roll into the mid-range gaps, the increasingly dangerous dribble-penetration, the high-point release that’s nearly impossible to block — each one effective and dangerous, yet still relatively underutilized pieces of weaponry.

But, to borrow one of Gregg Popovich’s pet phrases, the worm seems to be turning.

Buried under the brilliance of Keldon Johnson’s game-saving block of a Donovan Mitchell layup attempt during the final seconds of the Spurs’ wild 112-111 victory over the Cavs on Monday, Vassell was once again the offensive life vest for a team clinging to its raft. As the rest of his teammates struggled to score, San Antonio’s third-year swingman hit two huge jumpers down the stretch of the game to give his team the margin it needed, just as he’d done against the Heat two days prior. They would be the only four points the Spurs would score over the final four-plus minutes in a game they won by one.

”Just getting to my spot, trying to create something … just trying to create space and trying to make a play,” Vassell said of his late-game thought process. “If I didn’t have something I would try to get somebody open, but I was able to create space and hit tough shots.”

It’s been a blend of opportunities that have led Vassell into the spots he loves in recent days. He went straight iso-ball in Miami on Saturday, a play type we haven’t seen much of in San Antonio since DeMar DeRozan was in town. There was no off-ball screening action to get him to his comfort zones early in the possessions, nor did he draw favorable matchups off defensive switches. On two consecutive possessions with the game in the balance, Vassell waved off teammates offering to set screens, backed up his dribble near half-court, isolated his defenders — first Bam Adebayo, then Caleb Martin — and danced on them before hitting two straight contested step-backs.

On Monday, Vassell was the beneficiary of two simple yet beautifully orchestrated plays designed to get him the ball flowing directly into his hot spots, with each utilizing some type of misdirection. On the first, Vassell and Charles Bassey set a double-drag screen at the top of the key for Tre Jones. Devin then rolled to the basket before spinning around and curling off a Bassey pin-down for the shot; on the second, Jones and Zach Collins forced the defense to shift with a side pick-and-roll, only to then skip the ball over to Vassell, who got a perfectly timed back screen from Romeo Langford that freed him from Caris LeVert’s mark.

Vassell’s 43.2-percent shooting off the dribble ranks 14th in the NBA among players with at least 100 such attempts this season, more efficient than the likes of Devin Booker, Tyrese Haliburton, Tyler Herro, Klay Thompson and Brandon Ingram, just to name a few. He’s also knocking down 44.4 percent of his contested catch-and-shoot jumpers, which lands him in the 86th percentile of players in that category. The “mid-range killer,” as his teammates are calling him, has become the Spurs’ best shot-creator, and as his game continues to develop from the inside out, the evidence of that is only going to become clearer with every opportunity he gets.

“He’s a bouncy, athletic wing scorer, and we’ve seen him grow his game off the catch-shot stuff for sure. But now he’s being able to play bully ball and get to the rim. Those long reach outs, him in the pick-and-roll game where he’s learned how to navigate that environment,” Brett Brown said last week. “I think he has improved significantly in that area. Pop puts him in great situations, and they get like this is their year to test drive some things, experiment with some things.”

While his blossoming isolation potential is a much-needed development for a team that lacks one-on-one scoring talent, it’s the aforementioned pick-and-roll ball-handling element of his game that’s taken the most noticeable leap.

Vassell was flatly average in that area during the 2021-22 season, if not a bit below. There were signs of an increasing comfort level in those situations, but his .867 points per possession (including passes) was hardly efficient enough to justify a high volume of pick-and-roll reps. However, that number has ballooned to 1.062 points per possession (including passes) this season, per Synergy data, and the production hasn’t come on a limited number of attempts.

Pick-and-roll ball-handling duties have accounted for 46 percent of Vassell’s usage this season (up from 24.3 percent last year) and led to nearly a quarter of his scoring chances — situations in which he’s shooting 50.5 percent from the floor. Among all players with at least 100 scoring chances out of the pick-and-roll this season, only Kevin Durant, Jaylen Brown, DeMar DeRozan, Luka Doncic and Franz Wagner (what??) are shooting a higher percentage than Vassell, and only 10 players have accounted for more points per possession. He’s already doing this at damn near an elite level, and for all intents and purposes this is just the beginning of the upslope in his developmental curve.

Still, while he’s flourished throughout the normal flow of the 48 minutes, these moments have seemed fleeting down the stretch of games until recently, for reasons both obvious and not. San Antonio has played the second fewest “clutch” minutes (36) in the NBA this season, which hasn’t afforded him much opportunity to take those high-leverage shots. On top of that, nagging injuries have already kept Vassell out of six games so far this season, and even required minute-restrictions at times along the way. But based on the numbers we have, what’s a little more difficult to parse is his drop-off in usage rate as games have grinded along.

• First quarter: 24.5 percent

• Second quarter: 25.9 percent

• Third quarter: 22.2 percent

• Fourth quarter: 22.6 percent

• “Clutch” time (last five minutes, score differential within five points): 13.8 percent

The Spurs’ offense operates within a system more than it does on strings of individual play calls, which often gives more assertive players — like that Keldon Johnson guy — the first cracks at scoring chances, even down the stretch of games. But little by little San Antonio has begun to install specific packages for its go-to scorers, and if the last couple of contests have provided any indication, the late-game Vassell bump seems to have arrived. It’s one thing to see him get these chances more often from our perspective, but it’s another thing entirely to watch opposing defenses shadow him off the ball the way Cleveland did late in Monday’s game. The Cavs knew the Spurs were going to Vassell, they understood the threat he posed, and they wanted anyone other than him to take the shots. They were not going to give him any space.

Now, it’s about finding the right balance — when and how to go to Vassell or Johnson, and whether or not to use either as a decoy — and continuing to drill these moments into players’ heads. The preparation for the critical minutes in the years to come begins now.

“I think we’re just trying to figure it out on the fly. We’re a young team and we’re trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t,” Vassell said Monday after shootaround. “Coach has a lot of confidence in me, so those couple of plays he drew something up for me (in Miami), the next play he drew something up for Keldon, so he’s just trying to make sure that we have certain plays we’ll be able to execute down the stretch.”

The developmental aspect of the discussion is once again the most important one to consider. It has become increasingly more tempting for the coaches and players to get the ball to Vassell in close games with every opportunity they get (and lord knows the fans want to see it), but he isn’t the only young player who needs to be groomed for these situations.

In a weird way there’s still a tendency to overlook Johnson. Perhaps it’s the fact he’s already made ‘the leap’ and earned a lucrative contract extension, but much like they’re doing with Vassell, the Spurs are still experimenting with ways to put him in the best possible locations to score in tight quarters. Winning every single game it plays at any cost is not the team’s priority right now, and giving both of its budding stars ample opportunity to develop into viable late-game options will remain the focus. The more those two are able to learn how to feed off one another under pressure, the better off both players will be in the future.

As we look ahead to that future, the signs of what Vassell could become as a scorer are obvious. But all of this is still new to him at the highest levels of basketball. Even during his days at Florida State, he was mainly used as a spot-up shooter, not a shot-creator or primary pick-and-roll ball-handler. So while the progress he’s made at this stage of his career is quite promising for the Spurs’ prospects going forward, they have not yet reached ‘just give him the ball and get out of his way’ territory.

Life is only going to get more difficult from here. Playoff-contending teams like Cleveland will continue to adjust and do what they can to keep him away from his spots, especially as the season moves along and seeding begins to matter more to these types of title hopefuls. Defenses will begin to dig in and play with more desperation, and they’ll certainly start to home in on Vassell more closely with every second of film and every bit of intel they gather. How he responds to the new looks he’s inevitably going to experience will be a game within the game to watch.

But Vassell is ready for it. While he’s always maintained perspective on the team’s goals and the reality of its situation this season, it hasn’t kept him from truly relishing this role and opportunity. In his mind, it’s his responsibility to help win games right now, not just later when all the stars have finally aligned.

“My teammates have a lot of trust in me, and obviously the coaches do, too,” he said. “That’s what I’m in here practicing hours for — for situations like these.

“At the end of the game I want the ball in my hands, and I’m just trying to take the next step.”