Spurs' season-long issue compounded by much larger problem

There are things that you must have on your basketball team in the year 2024 if you want your team to have a viable shot at winning basketball games. Unfortunately, the San Antonio Spurs, are missing several key attributes conducive to competing at a high level on a nightly basis, and the lack was placed on display once again as the Timberwolves placed their foot on the Spurs' neck and did not let them up until the game was pretty much over.

If you missed the game, do not let the final score of 114-105 fool you. The 210 was not represented in a fashion that would make its citizens proud to rock their silver and black colors. It was another game filled with mistakes, bad shooting, and poor shot selection. The egregiously bad shooting is truly something to marvel at.

The Spurs' bad shooting is made worse by hard-to-swallow truth

How often, as a fan, do you watch the game and think the frustrating plays made are the result of low basketball intelligence? This can sound harsh, but when a team is repeatedly making the same mistakes, you reach a point when you start to question the ability to receive a message that has surely been on repeat, like your favorite sleep sound. Not every player on the team suffers from this issue but enough of them do.

Consider how many times a game a Spurs player does something that makes fans sit back and say, "Wow. That was a heady play." Not very often. Long gone are Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Boris Diaw, etc.. The current iteration of players miss open passes, fumble the ball often, throw it to the other team inexplicably, and try to shoot over a 7'1 multiple time Defensive Player of the Year in Rudy Gobert who is the lead to win it again, among many other head-scratching transgressions.

Constantly poor choices combined with an inability to make shots no matter how open you are will always result in a horrendous season. Victor Wembanyama has been in the NBA for less than a full season, and he has already solidified himself as the team's smartest player. He has made nuanced improvements to his game during the season, something that not many rookies can do.

A major step for the Spurs next season will be ensuring the guys on the team can make smart, snap decisions that lead to positive outcomes over and over. That's necessary at the professional level.