Luke Kornet was supposed to steady the Spurs’ second unit. Instead, that group keeps taking on water whenever Victor Wembanyama sits.
San Antonio signed Kornet last summer with the idea that he could help solve the minutes when Wembanyama goes to the bench, and early on that plan looked sound. Kornet was one of the best backup centers in the NBA last regular season. But since the playoffs began, he has not looked like the same player.
The drop-off has been hard to miss. Opponents are going right at him at the rim, and his presence as a shot blocker has not held up the way it did before. Against the Dallas Mavericks, that showed up in a rough -22 in 14 minutes, with his rim protection again becoming a problem.
The numbers back up the eye test. Kornet’s defensive field goal percentage has climbed from 44.9% last season to 53% this season. If he can’t get back to that earlier level, the Spurs are going to keep paying for it every time Wembanyama leaves the floor.
That’s why San Antonio needs to start looking at other answers, and Tarris Reed Jr. is the clearest one on the table. Swapping a 10-year veteran for a rookie is not the kind of move teams usually rush into, but Kornet hasn’t played well enough to be locked into the job.
Reed Jr. doesn’t solve everything, but he does offer something the Spurs can use. He can attack the offensive glass and create second-chance points, which would at least give San Antonio more scoring chances while limiting possessions for the other side.
He also gives coach Mitch Johnson another center option, something the Spurs did not have in the same way last season. So far, though, Johnson has barely dipped into that choice, using Reed Jr. for just 23 minutes across five games.
That has to change. Even a short look - five minutes here and there - would at least tell the Spurs whether Reed Jr. can give the second unit a lift. Johnson may still be waiting for Kornet to rediscover last year’s form, but right now San Antonio’s bench defense is getting hammered.
In Other News...
Wembanyama Gave Spurs Fans A Scare In A Huge Night Against Kings
Victor Wembanyama kept doing Victor Wembanyama things in San Antonios 124-109 win over Sacramento, piling up 30 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks while extending a remarkable defensive run. With at least two blocks in each of his first nine games this season, he moved into the second-longest streak in NBA history, another reminder of how quickly he has become the center of everything the Spurs do on both ends.
The bigger concern came in the middle of the night when Wembanyama twisted his left ankle and sent a jolt through the building. He returned to the floor and helped San Antonio protect its lead, which eased the immediate worry, but it also left the Spurs and their fans waiting to see how he comes out of one of the most productive performances of his young season. [Read more 🡒]
Wembanyama Just Passed An Early Spurs Test Fans Were Watching
Victor Wembanyama has already had to answer one of the first questions that follows any young star into a new season: how will his body hold up when the games get physical? In a pair of early tests, he rolled his ankle against the Dallas Mavericks and later dealt with another ankle injury against the Sacramento Kings, but in both cases he was back on the floor quickly enough to ease some of the concern around him.
For the Spurs, that matters as much as anything else right now. Wembanyama and his teammates point to the work he puts into body care and preparation as a big reason he has been able to keep going through those moments, and it is the kind of detail San Antonio will keep watching closely as his workload grows and the season wears on. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Need One Real Test Before Contender Talk Gets Serious
The early numbers around San Antonio are hard to ignore. The Spurs sit in the top five in offensive rating, defensive rating and net rating, which is the kind of profile that naturally starts to push a team into bigger-picture conversations. Still, the schedule has been soft enough that it is fair to wonder how much of that success is a reflection of who they have played and how much is a sign of a team ready to matter in a real way.
Golden State is part of the next stretch that should help sort that out. Games like that tend to tell you more than a month of favorable matchups ever can, especially for a young group still trying to prove its ceiling is as high as the numbers suggest. If the Spurs keep stacking strong performances against better competition, the contender talk gets a lot more serious. [Read more 🡒]