3 ways Devin Vassell can become a top 5 shooting guard in the NBA

You have to look past their abysmal record to see it but something is brewing in San Antonio. The team is, by many metrics, one of the worst in the NBA but the nightly box scores don't tell the full story.

Since the turn of the new year, the quartet of Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan, Tre Jones, and Victor Wembanyama has found their stride. These four want to play at a frantic pace, strangle opposing offenses, and swing the ball around until they can find a good look. All of that has led to a +4.6 net rating, which gives some level of validation to the hope Spurs fans have for this group.

This group is the core but the Spurs aren't done building yet, not by a long shot. The Spurs are guaranteed at least one top-five pick this season, with another top-ten selection that could convey if the Toronto Raptors can pull their act together down the stretch. Armed with those picks and plenty of cap space, the Spurs are in a great position to build a competitive roster around their rookie sensation and young supporting cast.

Whether it's through the draft, free agency, or trade, the Spurs are sure to add fresh talent from one source or another. But that shouldn't take any focus off of the work they need to do internally. And perhaps no player is as critical to the team's long-term plans of building around Victor Wembanyama as Devin Vassell.

Vassell has improved his game every year he's been in the league and has established himself as one of the best young wings today. You could argue that he's one of the best five shooting guards in the NBA today but it's not a certainty. And there's a significant gap between him and Devin Booker, Anthony Edwards, and Donovan Mitchell.

If you agree that those three comprise the top tier of shooting guards, Vassell likely slots into tier two alongside guards like Desmond Bane, Anfernee Simons, Tyler Herro, and Bradley Beal. Focusing on improvement in these three key areas will help him jump to tier one and lock himself in as one of the top-five shooting guards in the NBA.

Improving as a playmaker is critical for Vassell and the San Antonio Spurs

Vassell came into the NBA with limited playmaking ability but has made significant strides to improve as a passer over the past three seasons. That's been evident this year, as he's averaged a career-high four assists per game and assisted on a career-best 18.6 percent of San Antonio buckets. But to take his own game and the Spurs' overall potential to the next level, he'll need to continue to improve here.

With Tre Jones still on the roster and the Spurs likely to add another guard through the draft or via trade, it's unlikely that Vassell will ever have to prioritize creating for his teammates to the same degree that Devin Booker or Donovan Mitchell do.

That said, it's easy to see how the Spurs offensive could thrive with a playmaking hydra led by Jones, Vassell, Jeremy Sochan, and someone like Rob Dillingham or Trae Young. Distributing the playmaking burden across a group that relentlessly attacks the defense and looks for open threes or easy lobs to Vic can take the Spurs' offense from one of the worst in the league to one of the best. In order to get there, Devin needs to continue to improve as a playmaker, especially off the bounce.

Vassell is already proficient in pick-and-roll situations. He averages 0.94 points per possession as the ball handler, which isn't far off from where Donovan Mitchell (0.96) and Anthony Edwards (0.98) come in but still fairly below Devin Booker (1.07). Still, Vassell's increased comfortability in pick-and-roll situations has been clear to see this season.

There's little doubt that Vassell can become an elite pick-and-roll operator. He's on his way there already. But focusing his energy on improving in this area of the game will make him and the Spurs that much more dangerous on offense.

Vassell needs to demand constant attention as a catch and shoot threat

I'll preface this section by saying that I know I'm being nitpicky. But taking a leap to cement yourself as a top-five player at your position requires critical attention to the details and the small areas where you can make incremental improvements.

To be clear, Devin is already a great catch-and-shoot three-point threat. He's shooting 39 percent on catch-and-shoot three-point attempts this season, which is a very respectable mark. But it is down from his 43 percent rate from last season.

To lock himself in as a top-five shooting guard, Vassell needs to command the kind of defensive attention that fans saw shooters like Klay Thompson, JJ Reddick, Khris Middleton, or Michael Porter Jr. demand. That means shooting at least 43 percent from beyond the arc and holding that mark consistently.

To be fair to Vassell, a marginal year-over-year decline in catch-and-shoot three-point shooting is a pretty small thing to call out. It's not like he's fallen apart from deep; he's just not as good as he was last season. But a lot goes into that decline, such as the quality of passes he's getting—if they're directly in his shooting pocket or if he has to make slight adjustments that give a defender time to close out—as well as the greater emphasis he's put on pull-up attempts this season.

But for Vassell and the Spurs to reach their peak, we need to know that Vassell can reliably hit 40+ percent of his catch-and-shoot looks from deep. Victor Wembanyama will routinely demand double teams in the post for the rest of his career. If he can use his length and already developed passing ability to turn those double-teams into opportunities to find Devin for easy catch-and-shoot looks, it will go a long way toward improving the Spurs' league-worst 34.6 percent three-point shooting rate.

Attacking and getting to the line at a higher rate will help Vassell & Spurs

If there is one thing that great shooting guards typically do that Vassell doesn't, it's attack the rim and get to the line at a high rate. Admittedly, Vassell's game more closely resembles the styles of Khris Middleton and Klay Thompson than Devin Booker or DeMar DeRozan but it would still help to see him attack the cup more than he does today.

Vassell averages just under nine drives per game, noticeably fewer than peers such as Jimmy Butler (14.8), Anthony Edwards (14.7), or even Bradley Beal (11.8). It's not that he's ineffective; he shoots 55 percent on attempts off of drives—better than all of the players we just named—he just doesn't attack the rim as frequently.

Why this matters for Vassell and the Spurs is that by shying away from opportunities to attack the rim, Devin is passing up opportunities to create contact and get to the line. When you think about a lot of the great shooting guards in the NBA, many of them were able to finish through contact and convert from the line. Vassell can do both; he's just not showing it today.

Devin is averaging just three free-throw attempts per game this season. That's fewer than Coby White, Kelly Oubre Jr., Cam Thomas, and Colin Sexton. As a team, the Spurs are shooting just 20 free throws a game, the second-fewest in the league. They shoot a solid 78 percent from the line but that doesn't matter quite as much as it could when you're getting there as infrequently as they are today.

Getting to the line isn't a prerequisite for being an elite shooting guard. Klay never got to the line at a particularly high rate and neither did Ray Allen after he arrived in Boston. If that's who Vassell is more closely modeling his game after, then more power to him. But if that's the route he's headed down then, as outlined in the previous point, fans need to see more consistency from behind the arc.

Nobody should expect that Devin will ever be a slasher like Ant or Booker but you can't deny that drawing fouls, getting opponents into foul trouble, and getting to the line at a higher rate wouldn't help the Spurs. It's not the most important thing he should focus on but it should be on the short list.

All of these points aim at one goal: building out Devin's offensive game and turning him into a reliable 1B to Vic's 1A. He's well on his way there already but if he can continue to improve as a playmaker, demand constant attention behind the arc and get to the line at a higher rate than he is today, it won't be long before he's widely acknowledged as one of the best players at his position.