Spurs: Biggest area of improvement for everyone on the roster

Keita Bates-Diop must remind us he can stroke the three

At Ohio State, Keita Bates-Diop had some nice shooting seasons from beyond the arc. Bookending his four years with seasons shooting 46.2% and 35.9%, he proved he had a more than decent stroke from 3-point range.

In the G League from 2018-20, Bates-Diop made 40 of 104 outside attempts for a mark of 38.5%. Unfortunately, none of that shooting success has translated to the NBA.

After last season's career-low shooting season of 29.4%, Keita's career 3-point percentage is now barely above 30%. Fortunately, in the Spurs' preseason game against the Magic, he looked comfortable hitting a cold-blooded trey in the face of a comeback attempt by Orlando.

Let's hope there's more of that to come for him as he looks to establish a bigger role in his second year on the Spurs.

Jock Landale must protect the ball better

The preseason made one thing clear about Jock Landale -- he knows how to pass the ball. Unfortunately, he also knows how to lose it. The Australian big man had a game-high five turnovers against the Utah Jazz in the preseason opener.

Obviously, three games of action isn't a lot to go on, but the way in which many of Landale's turnovers came about is what I wanted to address. He's had a few instances in which he gets careless in the backcourt or underestimates the quickness of NBA talent, passing a lazy ball that gets intercepted.

This issue should be easy to clean up and is one Coach Gregg Popovich will likely have his eyes on, so I'm not too worried about Jock for now.

Tre Jones must improve his FG% from everywhere beyond 3 feet

Although he's been a defensive stud since his days at Duke, the biggest knock on Tre Jones has always been his jump shot. In his first college season, he made just 27 of 103 attempts for 26.2% but increased that by 10% in his second.

So far, Jones hasn't gotten enough NBA minutes to show if he's improved enough in that regard, as he's only taken five threes and made three of them. Still, his adjusted shooting numbers, albeit in limited play, show he'll need to make strides from everywhere farther than three feet out.

From 3-10 out, Jones shot just 23.1%. From 10-16 feet, he shot 33.3%. Again, he only had 73 total attempts from 2-point range last season, but that's enough to at least notice a trend. Fortunately, a strong Summer League performance should do wonders for Jones' confidence offensively.