3 Burning questions Spurs fans want answered at Training Camp

2. Does Josh Primo have what it takes to play significant minutes at lead guard?

That same make or break sentiment from the above question applies here as well, to a lesser extent. Josh Primo is already a top seven most talented player on the roster— the question is whether he can play point guard. In his first season in the league, Primo showed the unteachable shot making skills that have Spurs fans clamoring for him to take on a bigger role with the team.

In fact, one rumor that has circled since the team traded Dejounte Murray is that the front office was only ready to make that move because they wanted to see more time for Josh Primo. While Dejounte, to this point, is the unquestioned better defender and midrange shooter, Primo has the tools and frame to get there one day.

That long range shooting stroke mentioned earlier is an area where Josh already tops Murray. However, one skill that Murray is clearly better at (and one that Primo will need to take a huge leap forward in to play point guard) is ball handling. Last year, Murray primarily took what he could get while running the offense, averaging a clean 3.5 assist-to-turnover ratio. 

Primo, on the other hand, averaged 1.4 assists for every turnover. This didn’t get better (actually, it got worse) in games that he started and thus saw a bigger share of the ball— 1.35 assists per turnover. We saw more of the same (1.5 AST/TO) from Josh in this years’ Summer League before he was pulled for health and safety protocols.

Even if he has spent every minute this summer working on court vision and passing skills, I don’t know that the team will see that much of an improvement in training camp. Tre Jones likely begins the season at starting point guard, but Primo will have the opportunity to log a lot of minutes regardless.