Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images Slow start for the Spurs continues to be slow “We are trying to get to their level.” That was the quote that stood out to me from Gregg Popovich’s post-game press conference. The Spurs are trying to compete on the same level as this Thunder franchise that, by all accounts, seems to be the most well-oiled machine in the NBA. Their stars are thriving, their role players fit perfectly, and their front office has secured enough draft capital to do pretty much anything you could ever dream of for the next decade or so. They are the model franchise in the NBA and, more specifically, they are a really good basketball team right now. The Spurs are not. The Spurs have the idea of a good team. They have the hazy outline of what a good team might look like, but that’s all it is at the moment. In practice, they are still bad. Quite bad. Even with the advent of a fancy new veteran point guard, they still don’t run a consistent offense with set plays that they can rely on. Their defensive effort is usually there, but it’s constantly misapplied and easy to exploit by teams that know what they’re doing. No one can seem to figure out how to put anything coherent together for 48 minutes at a time, and the sense of urgency is nonexistent. The Spurs are not a good team right now. That doesn’t mean they won’t be by the end of the season, but right now they kind of stink. I’m sure—at least I think I’m sure—that there is a plan to get better, but I can’t totally parse it out. Everything seems predicated on our tall French wunderkind taking some kind of unprecedented leap. Yes, Victor’s whole brand is “unprecedented,” but things are typically unprecedented for a reason: they are really hard to do. You can see him out there straining against his limits to be a superhero every single time the ball comes to him, and in an effort to do everything, he’s ending up with nothing. He’s tall, he’s extremely gifted, but he’s also just a kid. It’s so easy to forget that. Maybe the front office knows all of this. It’s possible they are playing 4-D chess and seeing angles that I have neither the time nor the inclination to comprehend. Maybe they heard everyone all offseason chattering away about how now is the time to “step on the gas” or “put our chips on the table,” and they were looking at what they had in-house and just thought, “Look, we’re here every day, and we see these guys a lot more than you do. They ain’t ready for all that.” I’m coming around to that line of thinking. I mean, what choice do I have? I don’t think our front office is dumb, bad, or predisposed to putting out a product designed to drive me nuts. They probably looked at the kids on our roster and think they are good but not great. They probably think most of them aren’t part of the long-term solution to building a championship team around the generational asset that has fallen into their laps. They are likely very attuned to how Victor is wired and understand that this wiring lends itself to pushing past a breaking point before settling into where it needs to be. He thinks he’s ready, and they know he’s not. So how do you handle that? You give him some veterans who have seen everything there is to see in this league, build out just enough infrastructure to keep things moving, and then turn him loose to go find out for himself. No one is going to tell Victor what he can or can’t do. The only way for him to get it is to live it. He has to go out there and play against a personal rival like Chet Holmgren, a guy he knows he’s better than, and watch his team get absolutely worked by the other team. He has to realize that it doesn’t matter how good he thinks he is right now—there’s still work to be done. The Spurs are trying to get on the Thunder’s level, and the Thunder didn’t get to where they are right now by going for broke every time some talking head on ESPN (or some blogger with a “What We Learned” column) decided that the time for winning was now. They were patient, methodical, and they put a plan into place that has landed a very small-market team in the driver’s seat of this league for years to come. The Spurs aren’t good right now, and more importantly, they aren’t even ready to be good. Once everyone realizes which problem they should actually be trying to solve for, that’s when we can all finally start moving forward. TAKEAWAYS: Ugggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Sorry, I just— I know I kind of talked myself into being more patient with what we’re doing as a team right now, but if you could allow me just one more... Uggghgghghghghghgghhghhhhhhhhghhhhhhhhh It’s going to be fine. Really, it is. I know that, and you know that. This team will look and be better as the season goes on, and it’s still really early, and all the other caveats that we need to apply. I know that, and you know that, and we all can just, like, agree that overreacting to these early games is probably silly, right? We all agree? Cool. I just wish it were different. The front office can be patient, but me, personally, sitting in my chair at home, wanting to have fun on a Wednesday night in October? I’m feeling particularly impatient about watching us lay our second consecutive egg on national television. Methodical team building is great and all, but Thunder fans talking trash on social media is bad for my personal mental health journey. The offense feels really stagnant, and I want that to be different. Desperately. Whip the ball around out there! Make the extra pass! Make two extra passes! Overcorrect on how many passes you think you should make because whatever number is in your head right now is too low! Move! Move! Move! If the Spurs organization needs me to send them some YouTube compilations on ball movement set to Frank Ocean songs, I’d be happy to oblige. Every time the Spurs turn the ball over more than 20 times, it makes me want to become the Joker. Not even one of the good Jokers, either. I’m going to become the sad Joker from the bad sequel who doesn’t even want to be the Joker anymore and is just kind of bummed out all the time. Jeremy Sochan? If you’re reading this right now, none of this applies to you. You’re doing amazing, bud. gettin' crafty with it pic.twitter.com/dQsLPqZrft— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) October 31, 2024 WWL Post Game Press Conference - So we’re adjusting our expectations? - Yea, I mean, yea. - What we’re your expectations before? Surely not a championship? - Well, no, but I certainly didn’t think I’d be bummed out watching Spurs games four games into the season. I was ready to rock! I was coming in guns-a-blazin! I just thought....I dunno, I was ready to have some fun with it this year and I guess I got a little ahead of myself. - Shoot, I mean, that sounds kind of sad. - It is sad! Hate that for us. - Well how do we turn this around? The press conference thing is supposed to be more of a lighthearted bit to end things on. - Um, yea. Maybe ask me a non sequitur question? That usually helps - Sure thing. Knute Rockne, P.T. Barnum, and Mark Twain. You can only have dinner with one of them. Who are you picking? - Mark Twain. Easy. - Really? Why? - So I can give him a piece of my mind. - Care to elaborate? - He knows what he did.