It’s been a tough year for the San Antonio Spurs. Outside of the addition of Victor Wembanyama, who has been having a nice rookie season, there hasn’t been much to get excited about regarding the Spurs. On Wednesday night, they lost their 15th game in a row to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Wembanyama’s entrance onto the scene hasn’t done much to improve the team’s ceiling this year, and for the majority of the season, the Spurs have been testing out a new lineup. They’ve been using Jeremy Sochan as the team’s starting point guard, which hasn’t brought much luck. But they switched things up on Wednesday.
Against the Timberwolves, they threw out a starting lineup of Devin Vassell, Cedi Osman, Keldon Johnson, Wembanyama, and Zach Collins. It was a weird decision, and one head coach Gregg Popovich didn’t dive into post-game.
“It’s what we wanted to do,” Popovich said when asked about the lineup.
Sochan was the Spurs’ first selection in the 2022 NBA Draft, and he has a ton of talent on the defensive side of the ball. His raw numbers this year have been great, but he’s simply not equipped to be a point guard, an issue even he’s spoken about this season.
The obvious solution to the problem would be to start Tre Jones, who has developed a wonderful chemistry with Wembanyama. However, he’s remained in a bench role all season despite starting 65 of the 68 games he played in last year.
Meanwhile, Osman is a veteran who the Spurs landed in a trade over the summer.
The decision to keep Jones out of the starting lineup is an odd one, but Popovich surely has his reasons.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3]