Spurs' colossal offensive weapon won't be solved in time for the playoffs

San Antonio is fifth in the NBA in total dunks this season with 464. The athleticism this team can put on the floor allows that via straight-line drives, fast breaks, and alley-oops—more importantly, the alley-oops to Victor Wembanyama. Throwing lobs to a 7'5" guy with the range he has is a cheat code teams try desperately to stop. But the Spurs are built to counter the counters to get the same result.

In the example above, Harrison Barnes ends up getting fouled, but play was working to perfection. When Devin Vassell gets the handoff, Vic dives to the basket, and if he were open, Dev would have thrown him the ball, but the Warriors did a good job of cutting it off.

That leaves HB open in the corner long enough to get him the ball, and he attacks with the help defender trying to close out from a bad angle. At that point, all Wembanyama had to do was turn around, and all of a sudden, the angle for the lob was open. These actions happen by design, and they'll help San Antonio get easy buckets in what will be a difficult playoff run.

The Spurs will hammer opponents with whatever works

Mitch Johnson isn't above spamming plays until they no longer work. Dylan Harper let us know that when he told the media about San Antonio running the same action 15 times in a row against the Houston Rockets last month. That one in particular is going to be a problem for defenses to contain.

A shooter like Vassell could have shot a pull-up jumper after catching the ball if he had a good look, so they have to cover him. But they don't want to let Vic get an easy dunk—it's the highest percentage shot in the game—so they have to collapse when he ducks into the paint. That puts pressure on rotations. Had the rotating guy been a step slower, that's an open three for Barnes.

And after all of their scrambling, they still gave up an alley-oop. That play stresses the defense in several ways with the potential for a bucket from different players. Their depth in guys with overlapping abilities will allow these kinds of actions to take place no matter who is on the court, and a lot of them will end up as dunks for Wembanyama.

Critics wanted the Spurs to trade one of their playmakers. They couldn't have been more wrong. San Antonio's athleticism at the guard and wing positions has become one of their biggest strengths. Having so many dynamic athletes who can get downhill and finish effectively or change the angle to get the Alien the ball near the basket makes defending them a hellacious task for the opposition.

That's not going to change during the postseason.