2 Cringeworthy Spurs eye-sores have made unfortunate return in recent stretch

There are two things that Spurs fans wanted to be gone this season: the turnover problem and poor shooting. Watching this team on offense last season brought a ton of eye-popping highlights, courtesy of Victor Wembanyama, but it was also frustrating and required a ton of resolve. While they've made several improvements this year, the team is still lacking in their problem areas.

Spurs haven't made the strides fans hoped for

When you check the stats, San Antonio went from being ranked 27 in turnovers last season to 15. However, a closer look will show that the Silver and Black have only made a modest improvement in that area, going from 15.7 to 15 turnovers per game. That tells us that turnovers are up across the league, so it's not necessarily a great thing for the Spurs

When Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes were added to the roster, fans hoped the veteran presence would help the young guys understand how to value each possession. They've accomplished that in a few games, but not nearly enough. They continue to cost themselves field goal attempts while gifting extra opportunities to the opposition.

Spurs opponents are averaging 90.8 shot attempts per game, while the Silver and Black put up 87.4. Turnovers lead to transition points, and fast break plays give teams momentum. When you combine their slow starts with the constant turnover problem and poor shooting, you lose games in the NBA. They must start taking care of the ball. It's something they can control.

The shooting, on the other hand, is a different story. It's easy to say, "Just shoot better." But it doesn't work like that. If the players aren't good enough shooters, then they aren't good enough shooters. Over their last five games, San Antonio has taken 84 open 3-pointers—4-6 feet of space is considered open—and made 22 of them. That's 26.2%, and it won't get it done.

The Spurs were ranked 14 in the league in 3-point percentage (35.8) in the middle of November, but a recent stretch of horrendous shooting has plummeted the team to 22 out of 30 teams. They shot 33.1% over the last ten games after tricking the fans into thinking they turned a corner.

This could just be a small swing in the wrong direction that will correct itself, but until we see an extended stretch of good shooting, it's hard to put faith in that. They have to shoot, though. The state of the NBA is strict about the importance of the 3-point line. Teams that don't shoot the three well don't win as much.

It's starting to look like the Spurs have put too much stock in the hope that players who can't shoot will develop that skill, and it's either taking too long for them to come along, or it's just not going to happen. If it continues, they'll have to adjust that strategy and maybe use some of their draft capital to find proven shooters to add to the roster.

In the meantime, when the shots aren't falling, they need to recognize it quicker and get more aggressive. They can still pull out some of these games if they attack the paint, seek contact to draw fouls, and intensify their defense. The Spurs said they wanted to make the playoffs, but to do that, some fundamental changes need to be made to their plan of attack.