You know, what's funny about this thread? Everyone complaints about Stone saying "Is this just not our year?" yet here ya'll are talking about maybe multiple years are just not our year. Ya'll act like you know the future when in reality every single year things happen that change the landscape of the NBA. Last year it was OKC is unbeatable for the next decade, then the year before that it was the Celtics are going to be unbeatable for the next decade, then the year before that it was the Nuggets are gonna be unbeatable for the next decade, and so on. Ya'll are some negative nancy's.
Why should fans have belief when the head of the organization doesn’t? Stone didn’t even try to improve at the deadline. Will he do anything of note this offseason? I doubt it, but I’ll wait and see… because it’s far more likely he makes marginal moves thinking obese, about to turn 33, FVV off an ACL and Steven Adams are gonna do anything in the West teams keep passing us by…we’re out here looking like the Ja Morant Grizzlies from a few years ago…hell, at least that team made a 2nd round
He couldn’t make any moves because we are in a hold pattern until our 33 year old superstar with a repaired ACL and 14 ppg on 39% fg comes back. Can’t wait to see him tear up OKC, Spurs, Timberwolves, and Nuggets next year. No changes needed….WE’RE GOING ALL THE WAY BABY!!!!!
Even if Victor never becomes a legitimate 1st option, his defense is incredibly offense-breaking. He's like the defensive version of Stephen Curry where Curry was such a menace that he completely shattered defenses. Victor is going to shatter many offenses, and we saw it back to back to back with the Wolves, Thunder, and Knicks. If you want any chance of beating the Spurs then you're honestly just going to have to out firepower them. That means that you need one guy who can legitimately get you 26-35 points a night, a great second option that is a threat for 20+ every night and then several rotation/role players that score in the double digits. Technically... Houston has this. Kevin and Sengun as the 1+2 punch, and Amen, Fred, Jabari, and Tari who can all get your 10-19 points. BUT, the offense is so misaligned that it's not going to work out. You need structured fire power. Not the chaotic fire power the Houston employs. If Dylan Harper can become the closer (like Kobe, or Middleton, or Kyrie, or Wade, or Parker, or Murray) then it is going to become VERY hard to beat San Antonio because after that all they need to do is put quality role players around Vic and Harp because I do feel confident that Vic will become a consistent and reliable scorer despite this series. Honestly, Castle, Fox, Vassell, Johnson, and Champaigne are all replaceable and not the true worries of that team but I can see a few of them sticking along. Harper is the only real concern. If that boy turns into that 22/5/5 guy... shiiiiiiiid. Dynamic duo foreal.
If Jalen Williams was healthy OKC would be back to back champs. Though it is crazy watching 57m a year FOX continually choke....wow that contract is terrible. DD
You guys do realize the Spurs are going to improve A LOT, right? Wemby/Harper/Castle failing to win a title as guys on their rookie deals is just a learning lesson for them. The narrative may be that they choked because the media wants the arc of 'Wemby overcoming the choking issues' but its just a dumb take - the reality is, this is a young inexperienced team that hasn't yet learned how to execute consistently for an entire game and haven't yet learned the composure age brings in the face of adversity - they will very likely improve significantly in all of these areas moving forward and they are already better on talent than most teams. We can only tolerate "narrative" as long as we understand it's not actually real - it just how people engagement farm in the modern economy. If you can't see that in this day and age, you need to seriously understand this concept or else be prepared to be exploited aggressively every time you are online.
Do you not see the similarities? Fox is John Wall by another name. The Spurs have to pay someone just like Houston had to overpay Fred and Dillon after Wall was gone when our "core" team was exclusively lotto picks. The contracts may be bad - but if you gotta make NBA cap minimums and most of your core roster is on rookie deals - then not only can you afford to have guys like Fox - you actually kind of have to bring those guys onto the team just to make the finances work. ...as for Jalen Williams - I actually think he may be expendable in OKC very similar to Harden when OKC opted for Ibaka + role players over Harden when Russ and KD were already max guys. At this point SGA is option 1 AND option 2 and Williams might be another super max player who earns that super max with the ball in his hands - but SGA needs the ball in his hands too. The Thunder played better without Williams this year and probably can get two or three high quality players for what they would pay for Williams and we are talking about a team that will likely have serious depth issues in the coming years once Chet and JWill's contracts take over. Once SGA's super max takes effect, they are at the 95% of salary cap with FOUR players under contract - SGA, Chet, JWill, and Caruso...andf they have to figure out how to sign ten more contracts. They don't have to make a final decision on this yet, but we are about 1-2 years away from some very hard truths about how thin a 7/8 man rotation can be in OKC if you have SGA and Chet but have to find a way to afford five-ish of those guys between JWill, McCain, Hartenstein, Mitchell, Wallace, Dort when you are paying JWill and potentially Chet max and supermax deals.
Also the moment he’s set to shoot those FTs I’m convinced he’s not going to be the greatest that ever touches the basketball. A pathetic piece of work and an embarrassing brand of human being
I think the guys that state absolutes are getting it wrong. SA, OKC, Boston, Denver are all going to be competitive at a championship level for years to come, unless their star players get hurt. I don’t think it takes too much pessimism to realize that as a likely outcome. We have seen what an offense led by FVV looks like. We have now seen what an offense led by KD looks like with this coach. It’s really not that negative to predict a negative outcome for our offense going forward with the same coach and mostly the same cast of characters. To be on the tier with the 4 you sited, we need both personnel changes and, at least, a coaching philosophy change.
This. GARM has gotten way too entitled and pessimistic. The new CBA makes it harder to create super teams: OKC will have 50% of their cap towards Jalen Williams and Chet this upcoming season. Spurs have Wemby who doesn't have a great injury at his size, plus Fox's extension kicking in. Boston will have 70% of their cap to Tatum and Brown.
Exactly. The constant pessimism is bad for fans and the team. The negative Nancy's need to listen to the words of a continuously doubted NBA champion: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...ears-making-2026-nba-finals-san-antonio-spurs In other words, get rid of the Stoner and Udoker. Then, stop whining and just...
They can be beaten but not by us. This ****ing team is not going anywhere with this ****ing roster. This team has so many flaws to fix and you know for damn sure it won’t be fixed in one season. Unfortunately, with the current front office, this will definitely take a while and not sure if it’ll be fixed with current staff
You can be above the 2nd Apron retaining your players with bird rights for as long as you can handle the draft consequences and the payroll consequences. Really smart teams (and young teams) like OKC and SA that have hoarded frp’s can go over the 2nd apron for one year and have the flexibility to weather multiple years over the 2nd apron if they have hoarded other team’s picks. Only their own picks are affected by the penalties. Neither team is over the 2nd apron or projected to be over the second apron next year. OKC will go over in the 27/28 season and can afford to stay over it for 28/29 before the more egregious penalities start to hit. SA has an even larger runway, especially since Castle and Harper won’t be max players for quite a while. If your organization is willing to incur the $ penalties like GSW did for many years, there is no reason to expect SA or OKC to be in real cap trouble until the 2030’s and if they draft well maybe even not then.
Exactly... not to mention, we spent years trying to figure out how to outshoot GSW - even going total smallball nonsense... Curry and Klay get season ending injuries - and LA beats our butts in the paint to knock us out in the second round... lol! Build the best team u can... dont rely on gimmicks... and let the chips fall where they may!
Any contending team can be beaten, but you have to have a basketball brain to make it happen There aren’t enough people in our building with basketball brains to do so. it shouldn’t be good enough to win 50-plus games every year but be first-round fodder, but that asshat Stone might think it is
