The Spurs are still sorting through what their new look actually means after one game, and the biggest question may not be the three-guard starting group itself. It’s how that setup reshapes everything behind it.
On Tuesday in the season opener against Oklahoma City, second-year guard Dylan Harper moved into the starting five in place of Julian Champagnie, giving San Antonio the combination many had wanted to see during last spring’s playoff push. The first half was rocky for the group, but the unit settled in after the break.
What changes most, though, is the bench dynamic. Jared Weiss of The Athletic noted that with Harper starting, Mitch Johnson loses the option of using him as an energy piece off the bench to swing momentum.
De’Aaron Fox was the first guard Johnson pulled, then later returned to lead the second unit. That stretch didn’t go cleanly, though, as Fox struggled to connect with Champagnie or Keldon Johnson as secondary playmakers, and the result was a string of turnovers and possessions that went nowhere.
The second half offered a slightly different look, with the three guards staying on the floor while Champagnie came in for Devin Vassell, who had picked up his fourth foul. That left it unclear whether the Spurs are settling into a new substitution pattern or simply reacting to the flow of one game. Either way, Weiss suggested it may take a few games before the rotation gets fully ironed out.
“The biggest thing is just, for me at least, communication,” Harper said. “Just making sure we’re all on the same page.
Just being able to go out there and play for each other while also knowing that we have each other’s back. I feel like we did a good job at that, but we still have a ways to go in all areas of the game.”
Victor Wembanyama is also carrying plenty of attention after a rough opener of his own. Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News reported that Wembanyama doesn’t plan to make too much of a first game in which he missed his first 12 shots from the field.
Oklahoma City crowded him with extra defenders to cut off his driving lanes and kept Isaiah Hartenstein near the basket as another layer of resistance. Wembanyama said he was “overthinking” the Thunder’s defense, adding, “I don’t need to do more.
I need to think less.”
Kevin Durant, meanwhile, sees the next step for Wembanyama as a matter of simplification. In McDonald’s tweet, Durant said, “Just make the game easier for you,” and added, “I think that’s everybody’s next step, not just his. That’s the goal we’re all trying to reach as players is just to make the game easier.”
The Spurs also had to monitor the health of two key pieces. Fox and Keldon Johnson are both listed as questionable for Friday’s game against Houston, according to Tom Orsborn of The Express-News.
Fox is dealing with a sprained right wrist, while Johnson is working through a “mouth laceration” after taking stitches for a gash inside his right cheek on Tuesday. “It was a really deep cut,” Johnson told reporters.
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