Three things: The Guy, a rookie welcome, and the newest challenger at the 'four'

The Spurs got off to an ugly start in Houston, but considering the circumstances, it was never exactly going to be pretty.

There are moments in life that require a little bit of advanced preparation in order to adequately absorb the psychological impact that awaits, like opening TikTok for the first time, going to the DMV, or getting a colonoscopy (so I’ve heard). And as it turned out, enduring rough visual performances, waiting around for long stretches of time with the hope that something good will happen, and being uncomfortably prodded were not experiences Spurs fans anticipated ahead of Sunday’s 134-96 blowout loss to the Rockets — at least not to that extent.

It was a rough glimpse of what a very young, inexperienced team can look like against high-level talent — talent that’s young and inexperienced in its own right. But in case you weren’t prepared before, at least now a baseline has been set for what a rebuild can look like from scratch. There will be difficult nights aplenty in the coming months, but as evidenced by the progression San Antonio exhibited as last season moved along, this group will improve well beyond the product it displayed in Houston.

Still, there is A LOT the Spurs have to work through ahead of opening night if they want to be competitive. We know there are many losses still to come on the horizon, and finding their own way following the departure of Dejounte Murray is going to be a struggle, but building an identity is going to be hugely important regardless of record. In the mean time, there are a number of questions that need to be answered.

Eventually, at least.

Missing ‘The Guy’

There is only one thing we know for certain when it comes to any conversation regarding the starting lineup: Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell and Jakob Poeltl all have a spot and will almost assuredly finish the season with the most minutes of any three-man lineup on the team, barring injury or any potential trade. As for the last two spots, we may very well be looking at a lot of the old “throw it against the wall” approach until something actually sticks.

Talk out of camp seemed to lean toward Tre Jones grabbing the first opportunity to start at point guard — at least to begin the season — and we saw that come to fruition Sunday night (though I would caution against using evidence from the first preseason game to inform too many starting-lineup takes at this juncture, for what it’s worth).

It wasn’t great.

The Jones we saw in the second half of last season — the player who owned the backup point guard spot with his aggression and energy — did not reappear against the Rockets, and in general seemed uncharacteristically tentative. What made him so solid last season was his ability to consistently get in the paint and put pressure on the back line of the defense, and outside of the first few minutes Sunday, that element was missing.

“It definitely wasn’t pretty, but there’s a lot to build on. We didn’t necessarily really run any offense … there are a lot of offensive things we’re still trying to put in, and I think it was more about trying to get our feet under us,” Jones said after practice Tuesday. “I remember my first year coming in (2020), they had like 20 sets it seemed like. We were trying to pick up so much just in those first practices — so many new plays, calls, schemes … so many different things.

“Now, we’re keeping it really simple and just trying to use a lot of actions and not necessarily plays,” he continued. “We’re definitely implementing things a lot slower to start off with, I think because of our youth, but also that’s just kinda how the game is now.”

And this isn’t about the way Jones played in one preseason game, or any sort of indictment of his ability to perform in his new role going forward based on this performance. When young players are adjusting to one another and to an offense that depends on reps and familiarity, early struggles are to be expected. These lineups will jell as the days and weeks go by, and players will find their comfort zones once a level of consistency is established. But what resonated more loudly than anything else in Houston was the absence of ‘The Guy’.

Forget for a moment the statistics Dejounte Murray dropped during his All-Star campaign, and instead consider what his mere existence on the court meant to the team. When shit went sideways, the Spurs knew they could put the ball in his hands and trust that, at the very least, they would almost always get a decent possession out of any tricky situation. Make or miss, he allowed his teammates to take a breath and stop their heads from spinning any time freneticism would start to kick in the door.

And much like Murray had last year, somebody else is going to have the opportunity to emerge as that type of player — not in a statistical sense, necessarily, but from a leadership standpoint. Whether or not anyone seizes that opportunity remains to be seen, but it will most definitely be there for the taking.

Not the warmest of welcomes

Over the course of the last week or so, any veteran Spur who was asked about the first NBA road trip they ever took had vivid memories — from who they sat next to on the bus, to pre-game jitters, to (in the case of Zach Collins) picking up a $300 Chik-Fil-A order for teammates before boarding the team plane.

As for this batch of rookies, Sunday’s loss was a not-so-gentle learning experience, especially early in the game. Blake Wesley struggled to even hit the rim on his jumper, Jeremy Sochan appeared to be thinking about what he needed to be doing on the floor rather than just reading and reacting, and Malaki Branham didn’t even play in the first half.

But things seemed to settle down after halftime. Wesley’s perimeter shot wasn’t falling, but he was stirring the pot at the point of attack, getting inside and drawing contact. Sochan started doing some of the things that make him such an intriguing prospect — bringing the ball up the floor, finding cutters, getting on the glass, being disruptive defensively, and looking for his perimeter shot. And then there was Branham who, when finally inserted into the game, hit the first three shots he took.

Interestingly enough, not only was Wesley the first rookie off the bench against the Rockets, but he and Jones led the team in court time with 20 minutes apiece. A downhill attacker of the paint, the rookie guard fits the mold of the type of player the Spurs have long employed at point; and given the team’s situation at the position and the status of the youth movement in general, Wesley may find a niche even when Josh Primo returns from his MCL sprain. It might not be obvious right away, but there is a path forward for a guy whose ability to penetrate sets him apart from many of his new teammates.

Branham, on the other hand, looked as polished as advertised — at least as a scorer. His readymade spot-up shot was on the mark immediately, he did a good job creating space in the mid-range for his pull-up jumper, and his feel for where he needed to be within the system (even early in the proceedings) was obvious. There is a logjam off the ball in the Spurs’ backcourt at the moment, so until things clear up, finding minutes right away might prove difficult. But anyone who can shoot the ball the way Branham did in college is going to have a chance to earn minutes in some capacity, so long as the rest of his game comes along for the ride to the NBA as well.

As for Sochan…

Let’s talk about the ‘four’

There really is no argument as to which position caused the most headaches for the Spurs last season. Jakob Poeltl played on an island in the frontcourt on nearly a nightly basis, mostly sharing the floor with Doug McDermott and Keldon Johnson, two natural wings forced to play as undersized ‘fours’. It led to defensive problems, terrible rebounding numbers and constant mismatches inside. San Antonio would slap on some Keita Bates-Diop adhesive to try and patch the hole, but on some nights it seemed like Clark Griswold’s chewed pieces of gum may have had a better chance to keep the Hoover Dam from leaking.

The Spurs went to work addressing those issues this summer. On top of selecting Sochan with the ninth pick, San Antonio signed Dominick Barlow and Jordan Hall to Two-Way contracts immediately following the NBA Draft, two big, versatile prospects. But perhaps the most interesting puzzle-piece acquisition came to town in the form of Isaiah Roby, who the Spurs quickly claimed off waivers after the Oklahoma City Thunder cut him from their overcrowded roster.

While the betting person may assume the best play would be to put money on another season of McDermott starting alongside the other regulars and running back a similar frontcourt, there are a few factors to consider.

First and foremost, Johnson didn’t lose 20 pounds during the offseason for nothing.

“He’s really a wing player. He’s not really a ‘four’, so this is putting him more at his natural position,” Gregg Popovich said after the team’s practice on Friday. “So he’s a little quicker, he moves better, and he tells me that he looks better, too.”

The beefier Johnson helped as best he could last season against players often several inches taller than him, if not half a foot. Now, he no longer has the same amount of weight to throw around, so asking him to play the same role long-term doesn’t make a ton of sense. When a player and a team are aligned on the idea of a guy shedding pounds in order to play his natural position, it seems like it would be counterproductive to shove him right back into the same role. And thus far in camp, the team has not.

“So far in practice, Keldon and Doug have mostly been playing the three, so we’ve had some bigger guys out there. What kind of impact that’s gonna have on a game, we’re gonna have to wait and see,” Poeltl said Wednesday. “I think it will help us out defensively, especially if we have some size out there. We had a couple of games last year where we struggled a little bit with the other team hurting us with offensive rebounds, so hopefully that’ll help.”

And this is where all the new Spurs forwards come into play. Pop has already spoken about the fact rookies and young players are going to see earlier-than-expected minutes this season, and one can safely deduce at some point Sochan is going to be the man at the ‘four’ — whether that’s this season or next — barring any potential injury or bust situation. But as we approach the start of the 2022-23 campaign, the 6’8, 230-pound Roby might be the player to watch for now.

A big, active, athletic forward who can handle the ball and hit open 3-pointers at a great clip (46.3 percent from deep last year), Roby started 62 of the 105 games in which he appeared for the Thunder over the last two years. He’s not spectacular at any one thing but he’s solid, with experience in the role he’ll be asked to fill for another rebuilding team. He knows how to play in a free-flowing system, can provide physicality and disruptiveness in the frontcourt, and will make teams pay if they leave him on the perimeter. If you’re searching the crevices for stability and consistency on a roster with 10 players age 22 and younger, the 24-year-old Roby may be the linchpin that helps stitch together the starting lineup.

There will be an understandable clamoring for Sochan to take the stage, but bringing a rookie off the bench in an effort to moderate minutes and provide a little early structure would be logical, and it would certainly fit with Pop’s modus operandi. Regardless, the feeling around camp is this team wants to put players in a position to succeed, especially as it pertains to the trimmed-down Johnson. If that is indeed the case, the days of the Keldon-Doug starting-forward combination could be numbered, if not simply over.

Note: The Spurs have yet to guarantee Bates-Diop’s contract for the upcoming season. If they do decide to bring him back and opt to waive a different player with an already-guaranteed deal instead (which is possible), he may also enter the conversation here.

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In retrospect, these look more like observations than pressing questions. It’s going to take time for a new leader to emerge, rookies all develop at different paces and slide into position where they can, and there’s a good chance whatever unfolds at the ‘four’ will do so slowly. San Antonio is still trying to figure out what it is, and as camp and preseason continue, all we can do is take educated guesses as to what the next steps might be.

Things will remain fluid for now, and expecting different looks — especially during the preseason — is the best way to approach the viewing experience. This stretch of the calendar is in place to help teams establish a rhythm and experiment with different lineup combinations, and the Spurs have some serious experimenting ahead of them. If it’s any consolation, things can’t get any worse than the opening act.

I don’t think.