Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, basketball fans, San Antonio Spurs fans, Welcome to another edition of the San Antonio Spurs Weekly Podcast with your boy, a fan of the Black and Silver of over forty years, a former stand up comedian and actor, and also a heck of a YMCA basketball coach, A thirteen and one. You got that right, still know? Greg Popovich?
Come on, dude, but he is my host, your.
Host, and of course our host here he is Jay Dizzle up for it right there. What's going on?
Guys, Welcome to another episode of the San Antonio Spurs Weekly Podcast. Thank you guys for hanging out with us. It is summertime. Not a lot of news, but boy have we been waiting for this episode, haven't we? San Antonio Spurs fans. The signing of de Aaron Fox. We are gonna talk about how he was as sly as a Fox and how the San Antonio Spurs have a lot of confidence in this young man and this young
group of San Antonio Spurs players. And I'm gonna tell you right now, NBA, tell him, Tupac, tell him tell him what all eyes on you is, right, That's what's happening. Here in San Antonio. All eyes are on the San Antonio Spurs. Can they keep their health up for the season. We are getting ready for the preseason. I can't believe it's August already. We're only a month and a half away from a little bit of preseason action right now, Deer's season action and more. Boy, are you ready, San
Antonio Spurs fans? I know we are. I know. I've been watching these boys show up to summer league games for their Spurs, their teammates cheering them on, and y'all just don't know, NBA fans, and this is just not the Homer in me coming out in this episode. This is gonna be the y'all just don't know. Addition, either, you really don't. We're gonna go over a few of the Spurs stats, We're gonna talk about the roster that
we have, and much much more. But let's talk a little bit about that signing of dearon Fox.
We've got some breaking news here on NBA. Today's shamp Sarania back here with us and Shams. What can tell us about another extension out in San Antonio?
I mean a Spurs star deeron Fox has reached agreement on a four year, two hundred and twenty nine million dollar max contract extension with the Spurs that keeps them in San Antonio through the twenty twenty nine thirty NBA season. This is a signing that will occur later on Monday, and deal and Fox and his rich Paul navigated a trade his preferred destination, the only place he wanted to be, San Antonio back in February.
He wanted to be a Spur.
He got there, he got his wish, and now months later he gets the full max contract. And this is after the Spurs already drafted Dylan Harper, have the ring Rookie of the Year as well, and Stefan Castle. That backcourt is loaded, so now he's gonna have no state taxes as well with this extension compared to his old California residents. But Fox him, Victor Yama him him and have developed a very close relationship.
And uh, you know.
Overall, I think for the Spurs, this is something that they wanted to make sure they got done early this offseason.
Yeah, Spurs making sure they made that move early. Sean's catching a straight right there, bro take.
A shot at California.
Sho Thanks so much. Man, Yeah, that is true too, And now you have you know this Spurs team last season they really underachieved. They lost Wendy to the blood clock then also finished under five hundred. So Mark, just what is the ceiling for this Birds team? Now? Knowing that Darreon Fox is going to be there with this extension.
Well, first, kudos de Niern. He got what he wanted. He's back home, his wife's from around there, he got paid, and he's with Wemby. But the question is, like a lot of people don't know this. The Spurs haven't been in a playoffs since twenty nineteen. Sounds kind of absurd to say it is. Wemby has not played in the postseason. I expect him to be healthy and take the team to the playoffs. I think they will be a playoff team.
And then the next thing is people are like, well, darn, you got these other two guards, great guards, Castle, the rookie coming in. I don't think they do anything right now. You let those two guys that Harper grow, let Castle grow some more, and Fox will be a great mental for him. They're a really scary team if everybody's healthy, and it's.
Hard to evaluate anything last season because so much happened to the Spurs, from Greg Tavovich having his health issues and then eventually stepping down, Mitch Johnson coming in in the middle of the year, having to take actually early end of the year and having to take over on the fly. Wemby had blood clots shut down his season right after the All Star break, and even Darren got there and they played a couple a little bit together, but they didn't really get to see what that combination
can do. And so I think I'm excited to see what the Spurs do. I think this gives Dylan Harper some time to grow, This gives to Fuon Castle some time to grow into those roles. And as Mark Mark said that, yeah, maybe three years from now that might be a decision they have to make, but it's not a decision.
It's a coach time to grow too. With his first training camp.
Yeah, and let's talk a little bit about Deer and Fox and his fit with Wemby though, Also, Mark, how do you think those two fit together on the court.
Oh, you know what, I think that Fox's time with Sabonis, Yeah, probably could help, you know, pick and rolls and you know, Sabonis was certainly kind of god that could shoot threes making mid range. Wemby's just such a unique, different monster, right, And so that's why I think training camp is important. Maybe that what the Spurs should do is take a note out of like the Celtics when I covered them,
where they go somewhere. I don't know if they're doing training camp somewhere else, but when you have so many new pieces like that, bring them away. Yeah, so they could get to know each other and build some camaraderie too.
Some really good information right there from NBA today, And let's talk a little bit about Deer and Fox. First, we'll talk about the chemistry of the Spurs and actually what they've been doing in the off season. It's funny that Mark was talking a little bit about that, the camaraderie with the Spurs. If you don't know now, you know they've been doing that. They've been getting together in the off season, whether it's going to dinner, going to games,
and they're just developing that camaraderie. And if you didn't see that last year and the limited amount of time they were all on the court together, that's scary. Now, just imagine that health I believe they're all healthy and ready to roll, and we'll talk about that coming up here on the show. But let's talk about Deer and Fox. A lot of you guys out there were complaining, saying we paid way too much money. This guy is not a superstar. This guy is not a star. Are you
absolutely kidding me? The gentleman averages twenty three and a half points a game in his career. Do you realize the boost that gives each and every player around the Spurs This year, they now can be a little more relaxed. Dearon Fox can hit that three. He averages six and a half assists a game. Guess who averaged pretty close to that last year, Chris Paul. Chris Paul, one of the greatest point guards of all time, averaged right around
that seven assists, almost eight assist clip. I mean, dearens one assists away, and you know he'll get that every night with Victor Wimenyama. Just one assist to Victor makes his assist stats go up. What I love about this signing it's four years. Whose contract needs to be resigned in four years? Dylan Harper. After the rookie contract, the Spurs will have a major decision to make. What has Darin done for the four years here in San Antonio and what has Dylan done? Dylan may be a bus
Spurs fans, you don't know. Dylan may be good enough to trade and we bring in an integral piece, or trade d Aarin in four three years, three four years and get another integral piece to have an amazing run into the NBA finals. I see the Spurs closer to the NBA Finals than a majority of you, in a majority of these NBA analysts out there, the Spurs will make the playoffs next year. They'll be fighting for around
that five seed. I believe. I said that five to six seed, okay, depending on what the Clippers and the Lakers do. But Luca is just if you have seen Luca in the offseason, this dude's ready to ball. I'm gonna call it early. I think Luca wins MVP. He's gonna be right up there. It's gonna be Sga, probably Yannis, probably Wemby, and then you also have got Luca in the mix. It's gonna be an interesting MVP run this year. But the key in every sport, we say it all
the time, as health. The San Antonio Spurs are healthy, but I don't think our fans mental is healthy. And what I mean by that is, don't get me wrong. Okay, we talk about this contract extension. Dearen was gonna get max money. He was gonna get max money. The rumor was he got hurt in the offseason again, had a stomach issue. The Spurs may lessen his load. We even said that on the show, but we predicted anywhere between
that two hundred to two hundred and fifteen million. Mark got a little bit more than what we thought, but that doesn't mean he's not worth it. Dearon Fox is a stud. Deeren Fox is a stud. In the seventeen games he played with the Spurs, still shot on almost
forty five percent from the field. He was twenty points a game, pretty close to still getting a couple of rebounds, and definitely near that seven assists clip, just in the limited amount of time he was here in San Antonio and the limited amount of time he was playing with Wemby. That's sickening. You're looking at two, possibly three potential All Stars for the Spurs, and you also may have a rotational third All star between Castle, maybe even Devin Vasselle.
We are forgetting about Devin Vesselle people, We are forgetting about Sohan, We are forgetting about Kelden. Yes, even you people out there said, oh, I woultrade these guys. Do you realize the integral pieces these guys are. I don't think you realize it. These guys have been a part of the organization for the last three to five years. They know how it works, they know where they're headed. The Spurs must trust those three to be keeping them around. I just want to put that out there. You know
everybody says, oh, the Spurs are building around Wemby. I want to give a big shout out to Devin Vichelle. Also give a shout out to Jeremy Sohan and Keldon Johnson, who have been through all the bad years here in San Antonio. When you think they might be developing around them, think about it. Sometimes you don't always have to be the star for a team to develop. Devin Vessell will go through his stats in a minute. Pretty shocking last year. I am predicting he's gonna have a big year this year.
And I'm not saying big year like twenty five points a game, but we know he can produce that from time to time a twenty five thirty point night, and yes there's nights where he's on twelve or ten. But the Spurs have always been like that as a team. They've always balanced their players' points per night. And this is smart because if you lock down on one player and you only have one player that scores, and you can shut that player down, it makes it for a
lot of losses on a team. Now you have Fox, Now you have Castle, Now you have Wemby, now you have vasel Vasell is like a snake in the weeds right now? Do we forget that last year the month of April, he put up the most amount of three point makes in Spurs history for a month. Dude can shoot. And I believe dearon Fox now is really going to space and spread that floor. And I'm not talking about Dylan Harper right now. I know some of y'all are so high on Dylan Harper. I like Dylan Harper. I
think Dylan Harper is gonna be a great pro. I think he's gonna be a great fit in San Antonio. But everybody is expecting him to be better than Castle unseen Yet he's still developing that outside shot. If you watched him for the limited amount of games in the Summer League, he's got a lot of decision making things that he needs to work on. But he's a rookie. He only played one year at Rutgers. Want to keep
that in mind. The Spurs are deadly right now. NBA, NBA family, if you're out there listening, this is just not a Homer saying this. They're dead. I believe they're underestimated. I truly believe that. And now with the addition of Fox, I think the money was perfect because even if he wants to be traded in three years, which I don't see him doing. Do you realize d Aeron's only twenty seven years old. That four year contract gets him to thirty one, and he ain't even close to the end
of his career. I see de Aeron Fox being that leader.
Now.
He worked with Chris Paul last year, a little bit learn from Chris Paul. Now he's gonna hand that down to these superstars and Dylan Harper, Castle, Carter Bryant in others. This is scary. The Spurs have always developed their team around knowledge and of course the man behind the curtain. Greg Popovich at hefe of course, still in the mix, still giving his x's and o's behind the scene, and a lot of you really made fun of Mitch Johnson. This shows me right here, you're a fairweather Spurs fan.
I called you out. I believe having a young coach like Mitch Johnson, who was underneath Popovich for a few years, is going to be a surprising good coach in the NBA. Then of course there's gonna be questions, Oh, of course he had Wimby for years, and how can he be calmed down? Every great coach always had great players. Phil Jackson had Jordan Pippin. How about Steve Kerr, Curry, Clay Green, the Knicks, Patrick Ewing, a Laja one, Rudy tom Janovich. The list goes on and on and on. Pat Riley
Laker fans, Magic Johnson, cream Abdul Jabbar. Come on, guys, Great coaches help develop great players. That's why they're considered great coaches. Still unseen to see if Mitch will do that, but I love his future. The team loves Mitch Johnson. Victor Wembinyama wanted to see Mitch Johnson back, and Victor has a lot of say in this team. He wants to be a Spur for life. He bought a nice home here in San Antonio. That that's almost like Tony Stark esque. If you've ever seen any articles on Wemby's
new home. My god, he's got the best of everything. He is an alien. Okay, he is an alien. You go in there and I wouldn't be surprised. You wouldn't hear Jarvis talking to him. Okay, that's how much he is so ingrained with today's technology making him better. All right, the true iron Man of the NBA.
We'll see.
Right, Let's take a look at some of the San Antonio Spurs and what this does for the Spurs coming up now. As a team, the Spurs last year averaged one hundred and thirteen points, almost one hundred and fourteen in the middle of the mix. There, they scored the sixteenth most points in the league. Not too bad, you're in the middle of the pack. Their defense, though they gave up here you ready, one hundred and sixteen points, almost one hundred and seventeen. They were only losing games
by an average of three points. What does it have to do with anything, Katie. San Antonio's bolstered their defense, Kelly Olnik coming in, Cornett coming in Fox now re signed. This team is ready. And as much as we loved Mamu Mamo had trouble on defense at times coming off the bench, this team is ready to really make a move in that defensive category. I believe they can hold teams to about a one to eleven to one to ten this year. I believe San Antonio can still average
about one fourteen one sixteen. We were doing this without Wembanyama in the lineup for forty games. We weren't doing We were doing this without Fox for twenty games. Do the averages. That's scary, that's scary for teams. San Antonio of course, is always in the top ten and assists. You're gonna see that continue to stay the same. Rebounds per game is going to go up. I see us going into that, you know, fifteen fourteen category, as far
as fifteenth best team fourteen. Bringing on somebody like a Kelly Olnik, somebody that's gonna chase down rebounds, a Cornette, that's what he's gonna do. Clean up the glass when he's in there. These guys are gonna help Victor Wembinyama as far as not getting beat up as much. It's gonna save on his body. Now, speaking of which the San Antonio Spurs' health in the offseason, I don't know if you have seen in other reports and in other videos.
I'm ticked talk and social media, these boys are looking pretty badass. Jeremy Sohan's been in the gym every single day. Castle's been in that gym every single day. Their muscle definition looks a lot different. Devin Vissel has been boxing three to five days a week for stamina, for strength. Keldon Johnson still being a beast, and we're seeing Carter Bryant fly all over the place and getting recognition from people like Klay Thompson saying, this kid is gonna be
a very good pro. He's gonna be one of those players on the Spurs that you're like, wow. He kind of reminds me of that Klay Thompson that just fits a role, a Scottie Pippen that fits a role. And I'm not talking about scoring, but do you know that on a basketball team, not everybody has to score, but they do good on certain things, Like I had a young girl on our team this year on our nine tens every year. She's my defensive bulldog. She's like my
Bruce Bowen. When I can put her in there and she shuts down the opponent, and if she picks up a bucket or two, that is a bonus. That's Carter Bryant. He's gonna be that guy. One night you're like, oh my god, he had fourteen points and fifteen rebounds. Then when he develops his shot a little bit better, he's nineteen. Dylan Harper nineteen, Castle going to turn twenty twenty one this year. Wemby twenty two, Fox twenty seven. Do you see the trend here in San Antonio? This is why
the Spurs will be scary. They are so young still, even adding old Nick and adding the likes of Cornet and adding a twenty seven year old Fox, very scary. Taking a look at some of the stats from last year with various players, Victor Wimbeney, on my own course, only forty six games he played last year, but played thirty three minutes twenty five points a game.
Almost.
I'm gonna let that set in twenty five points a game in his second year as an NBA pro. Combine that with Darren Fox's career totals of almost twenty five. There's fifty points, folks. Fifty points are possible between these two players. Every night. Spurs averaged one hundred and fourteen points a game. Do the math. I'm a math guy. I'm a numbers guy. That's sickening. Then you bring somebody
like vissell In, who averages sixteen points a game. Can you imagine if he bolsters his offense up another four points a game? There's twenty We should be keeping track of this. Say that's seventy points a game between three guys. Castle comes in gives you a good ten to fifteen. That's eighty. Keldon Johnson gives you that maybe ten to fifteen, that's ninety. Harrison Barnes, who we forget about, speaking of iron men, eighty two games last year with Champenny and
Chris Paul. Harrison Barnes is still here, folks. He can give you that twelve points a game. That's one o two right there, sham Penny speaking of the devil right there right. Spurs are very confident in him, as they extended his contract. Ten points a game there, that's one twelve for those guys there, we haven't even talked about the likes of Carter Bryant. We haven't talked about Kelly Olnik, we haven't talked about Cornett. I'm just throwing that out there.
That's a pretty even balance of scoring. You could see the Spurs have one, two, three, four, five, six, seventh. They had it last year. They had almost eight players in double figuresh average. Haven't even inclined to Dylan Harper in a scoring league. If you can get your roster from one to ten averaging double digits with two guys averaging twenty five a game.
That's scary.
That's scary. We're looking at the new NBA. And of course I understand put the asterisks of health, the asterisks of time off, not playing back to backs, I get all that, But that's scary Spurs fans. Now, what about the defense. You're thinking about the defense right, well, you're looking at the rebounding. We were very weak on the boards, especially when Wemby went down. Wemby was eleven boards a game. Last preseason. We said Wemby would average twenty four, which
he averaged twenty four point three. We said he would average twelve boards. He averaged eleven, And we said he would average three and a half blocks versus blocks three point eight. Man, I'm like a nostra damis, Well, what about this year, Katie, what do you think? I think Wemby goes up to twenty seven a game. I think Wemby average is about twenty seven a game. I think
he sits around that eleven rebound mark. His rebounds are going to stay about the same, maybe drop a little because you got ol Nick in there, and you have of course Cornette in there now taking a little bit of the rebounds. His steels will stay the same about one one and a half. His blocks, I see him at least getting three and a half easy a game. He won the blocks title with only forty six games. I see his stats going up. What about Deer and Fox?
I see deer In really getting settled. I see deer In at about twenty two points a game this year. I see his assist total going up probably about seven and a half. His rebounds I see going up to maybe about five. We're gonna need Deer and Fox as those steals. I'd like to see him push that, maybe become a closer league leader in steals there. Devin Vaselle, I believe his game will go up about seventeen points
a game. He's got a lot to prove in his last couple of years of his contract here in San Antonio? What happens with Devon? Are there Spurs planning for the future to not give Devon a Max deal? If Dylan Harper comes along and Steph has a good year, the Spurs are in perfect position right now with the signing of dearon Fox. That's more evident than ever Spurs fans, because they signed deeron Fox and we have these young guards and we forget about Devin Vessel. What if he
comes out averaging twenty plus a game. What if he gives you that in the next two years? Now, what do you do, Spurs fans? Do you give him the max deal? You gave him one hundred and forty nine million a couple years ago. Do you give him a two hundred million dollar deal? Continue to keep that core around? The Spurs are ready. We haven't even talked about. We haven't even talked about in this episode some of the signings the Spurs grab this year.
You know.
What about David Jones? About David Jones Garcia, here's a guy I see like a Jonathan Simmons coming off the bench, maybe to relieve somebody like Devin on that wing. And now DJG can get in the lineup when he plays maybe forty games this year, say he averages double figures. The Spurs are deep, The Spurs are deadly. The Spurs are scary, and we need to understand that in the NBA and be ready for what is the next level for the Spurs. As we said, we think they will
push toward that five six seed. I believe they can get above the forty four win mark. The West is tough, The West is tough. I believe the Spurs can step up a little bit further depending on what the Lakers and the Clippers do. The Clippers are adding a lot of older talent, and I just want to say history repeats itself. The Lakers did this many years ago. Remember when they had the likes of Gary Peyton, Kobe Shaq, Karl Malone. How did that work out? Exactly?
It was a bust.
I see the same thing happening. And then the Clippers. I think losing Norman was a big mistake. Kawhi Leonard always hurt. Reason why the Spurs got rid of him. Chris Paul. You know he'll be their eighty two games, but can he get along with James Harden Forget what happened in Houston with those two. The Clippers every year seem like they try to grab crap, throw it against the wall and see if it sticks. It works for about forty games and then all of a sudden they implode.
Last year was different. It made a run toward the end of the year. What about the bench. We're gonna get more into the discussion of other teams when it comes to our NBA preview, which we'll be doing here in the next couple weeks. We might be taking teams comparing them to the Spurs. What the Spurs can do against each and every one of those teams this year? What about Golden State? Golden State? Will Golden State make the playoffs? Will they be in the play in this year?
What about Denver? Denver's restrapped, reloaded, trying to make one more final push. OKC is the standard in the West, but the West is wide open as far as I'm concern, from numbers two to ten this year, and that's prime pickings for the San Antonio Spurs. Absolutely, the Spurs are ready, are you ready. I know I'm ready, man, I am ready this triple H and the WWE.
You used to say, are you ready? I am.
I'm ready for another fun filled year with the Spurs. I've been itching. I've been getting that itch again. So over the next couple of weeks, we're gonna break down some of the players on the roster what they can do for this team. We'll have players spotlights. We'll also have our NBA preview with each team in the NBA over the next couple of weeks. So we're gonna get ready to go hot and heavy with NBA and of course San Antonio Spurs action here on the San Antonio
Spurs Weekly Podcast. Make sure you follow us on other social media outlets such as YouTube, and you can follow us or follow me on x at comedian kd ontil Bill down. Remember, no matter what happens with the San Antonio Spurs, you're a fan first, right, Let that black and silver blood run through your veins and remember, Go Spurs, Go