The young Spurs are growing up fast

Harrison Barnes and Luke Cornett certainly struggle, but overall, the Spurs have one of the youngest teams in the NBA with Dylan Harper, Stephen Castle or Victor Vembanyama. First of all, like on Tander, these are young people who play a lot and who quickly got commitments.

Last night, while the Lakers were trying to hold on, these young Spurs showed mastery, and that’s what impressed their coach Mitch Johnson. “I thought our response was correct. Obviously a team like that is going to run. They have a lot of ways to affect the game. They’ve been through games like that so many times…” reminds the heir of Gregg Popovic. “And when you get shaken up a little bit, when you bend a little bit, you just have to be disciplined: stick to the game plan, execute, play together, do more of the little things even if you feel like you should be taking decisive action instead. And I think we did that really well.”

The importance of having a creator

Symbolized by Stephon Castle’s fine 2nd half, this accuracy may also derive its strength from the choice to play with three backs, or even three playmakers. On paper, we could have imagined that they would step on their toes, but in the 4th quarter we saw how important it is to have creators and players capable of holding the ball under pressure.

“I think they did a great job of setting the tempo, from the first quarter, even when the opposition was scoring.” points out Johnson about the Fox-Castle-Harper trio. “Sometimes, naturally, when you get a basket, you drop your shoulders a little bit or your energy drops. But as the game went on, I found that we stayed true to the tempo. Even if you get the basket, you know that over time, with our depth and our creators, this style works in our favor. We have to do that regardless of the result of the previous action.”

Castle, like Wemby, showed this maturity in his rookie year, and this season Harper is the one to follow. “Calmness, control, maturity beyond his years, ability to read the game and a natural talent that not everyone has…” cites Johnson about the qualities of his rear, inherited from his athletic parents. “He’s got a nice edge — now he has to work to fulfill that talent.”