It’s time to question if the Spurs' shooting woes are deeper than we thought

After suffering through a brutal stretch in which they've lost 10 of the last 13 games, cracks are beginning to show on the San Antonio Spurs. Their biggest flaw thus far has been that they are a poor shooting team, ranking just 22nd in 3-point percentage. That has come back to bite them in a major way, with them having four rotation players who are below-average 3-point shooters.

Having that many non-shooters in today's NBA is a rarity and highlights the Spurs' biggest flaw. No matter how interim coach Mitch Johnson reconfigures the starting lineup, there isn't enough shooting to go around, and San Antonio has been at a competitive disadvantage as a result.

Part of their struggles has been a lack of development for some players, including Keldon Johnson, Blake Wesley, and Jeremy Sochan. Johnson's track record as a shooter is one of the more fascinating ones in the NBA. He was an above-average shooter in college and shot horribly in the G League before emerging as an above-average shooter playing in San Antonio over his first few seasons.

However, over each of the last three seasons, he has been a below-average shooter, and that has hurt both his development and San Antonio's ability to space the floor. Johnson is still a useful player but not nearly as much if he could consistently knock down threes.

Having several homegrown prospects fail to develop into respectable shooters has hurt San Antonio and cast doubt on whether Stephon Castle can develop into a good shooter in his own right.

Is there something or someone to blame for the Spurs' shooting woes?

The Spurs made a controversial decision to let longtime shooting coach Chip Engelland leave back in 2022, and since then they have yet to have a player develop into a good shooter. He went to the Oklahoma City Thunder and has helped turn them into one of the better shooting teams in the NBA.

If he was still with the Spurs, it's possible that Sochan and Castle would be further in their development and Johnson would be a capable shooter by now.

Without Engelland, several of the Spurs prospects have failed to reach their full potential, and it makes their decision to let him leave seem even worse in retrospect. With several prospects all failing to improve as shooters, San Antonio had to make a big trade to try and restructure their roster.

Adding De'Aaron Fox should help to boost the team's 15th-ranked offense with them in need of a second option behind Victor Wembanyama.

He will help to stabilize the Spurs' offense and take pressure off Wembanyama while allowing Devin Vassell to settle into being a third option. That should be just what the Spurs need, but not having Engelland necessitated the need for the Fox deal, and the Spurs wouldn't have been in that position had they cheaped out and kept Engelland.