3 Burning questions Spurs fans want answered at Training Camp

Diehard sports fans are of a different breed. And trust me, if you’re reading this right now and/or are planning on watching any more than ten Spurs games this season, you are a diehard fan. Heck, I am too! I’m currently writing a piece about training camp for a team that’s slated to lose 50 plus games. All diehards have one thing in common: a constant craving for more information on their favorite team (hence you logging on to AirAlamo today and opening this article). 

With camp just around the corner (teams are permitted to begin practicing on Sunday the 24th; some will start later in the week), the NBA season is within our—us diehard fans’—grasp. That said, I’d like to provide some San Antonio Spurs content that I know you’re so desperately wanting. Here are three things to watch for as your favorite team enters training camp this weekend:

1. Has Jeremy Sochan worked on his shot?

I believe I’ve written some version of the phrase “this question may make or break the Spurs’ season” about 500 times so far this offseason. Even so, it really does apply here. The loss of long-time shooting coach Chip Engelland affects all of the young guys’ development, but none more than Jeremy Sochan.

I’ve written before that Coach Pop wouldn’t have let Chip walk without a good succession plan in place, but I hope that whoever that successor is has worked with number 10 every day this summer. A brilliant defender and versatile option on both sides of the ball (Sochan defended and played all five positions during his freshman season at Baylor), the one thing lacking in his draft profile was shooting ability.

In Waco, Jeremy shot less than 30% from three on limited attempts; a few of those makes were banked in, meaning his percentage probably should’ve been even lower. Even more telling of a bad shooting stroke, Sochan shot less than 60% from the free throw line.

That latter number would make the rookie borderline unplayable at the end of games. We’ve seen teams employ a “Hack-a-Jak” strategy on big man Jakob Poeltl; with two men unable to take free points in the closing lineup, the Spurs would essentially have no offense on the court.

Back to the question— if the answer is yes, the good guys will be friskier than many expect them to be, and Sochan will immediately step in as a Rookie of the Year candidate. If it’s no, I’m not too worried. Jeremy is just 19, with a long career ahead of him. I just hope that the Spurs employ the person who can help get him there.

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.

3. What is the league-wide interest level on the veterans?

This here is the topic most discussed in articles about the Spurs in the past week or so. As mentioned at the beginning of this piece, the team is slated to lose a lot of games. Teams to whom that applies (“tanking” teams) tend to send their veterans away in trades, both to bring in draft capital and allow their young guys to see as many touches as possible. The first domino fell for the Spurs when they traded Dejounte Murray to Atlanta; other moves may be coming shortly.

In Josh Paredes’ article linked above, he talks about the two most mentioned veterans in trade negotiations so far— Josh Richardson and Jakob Poeltl. The team seems to be asking for at least one first round pick for Richardson and two for Jak.

Doug McDermott, the third veteran on the team, was not mentioned in the Air Alamo piece but was discussed in LJ Ellis’ article from which Paredes references. Ellis tells that there is not a ton of interest in McDermott, as his contract (two years, $27.5 million remaining) weighs down his value.

Neither piece talks much about what the return could be for the two veterans with positive trade value. We heard what the team is asking for but were not informed as to how the rest of the league values these guys. The Spurs are historically conservative in trades and try to extract what they feel is the best return when making moves.

As Matthew Tynan—another Spurs insider—mentions here, because Jakob adds a lot to the team (so does Richardson, for that matter), it makes more sense to wait on that return than it does to pounce on the first offer. It'll be an interesting situation to monitor.