Tag: Zach Collins

Zach Collins contract extension fingered as San Antonio Spurs’ biggest regret of 2023-24

His fit (or lack thereof) next to Victor Wembanyama may be a bigger reason to have buyers’ remorse for Collins’ big new contract extension

Was extending the contract of San Antonio Spurs big man Zach Collins the move that the Spurs would consider their biggest regret of the 2023-24 NBA season? The oft-injured swingman played 69 (nice!) games this season, the second-most of his NBA career, which oddly has little to do with said potential regret.

His fit (or lack thereof) next to star rookie forward Victor Wembanyama may be a bigger reason to have buyers’ remorse for Collins’ big new contract extension, according to Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes. “The 26-year-old started each of the Spurs’ first 20 games alongside Wembanyama, theoretically providing floor-spacing on offense and another big body to shield the rookie from tough matchups on the other end,” writes Hughes.

“It wasn’t the worst theory, even if the Frenchman showed quickly he needed no protection, but the numbers with those two bigs sharing the floor were rough from the start,” he adds.

“Big picture, the Spurs are in great shape. Wembanyama has the look of an all-time great, and the historic rookie numbers back up the eye test,” suggests Hughes. “But Wemby is San Antonio’s most important player since Tim Duncan, and it didn’t exactly set him up to succeed.”

We’re leaning more to not finding a little more talent to pair with Wemby at the deadline, but these minor issues are far from what plagues many other teams in the league, so we’ll take it.

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Spurs’ Zach Collins MRI confirms torn labrum; will be ready for start of 2024-25

Collins’ career has been plagued by injury since his arrival in the league.

The San Antonio Spurs have announced that veteran big man Zach Collins injured his labrum after hyperextending his shoulder in the Spurs’ last game of the 2023-24 NBA season vs. the Detroit Pistons, per recent reporting from HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto.

“Spurs center Zach Collins underwent an MRI in San Antonio that confirmed a torn labrum in his right shoulder, (San Antonio) says,” writes Scotto of the unfortunate injury. “Collins is scheduled to have surgery in the coming days and is expected to be fully recovered for the start of the 2024-25 season.”

Collins’ career has been plagued by injury since his arrival in the league, having crossed the 65-games played threshold just twice since being drafted in 2017, and missed the 2020-21 NBA season entirely.

A small silver lining is that this injury has nothing to do with the lower extremities that have been the cause of most of his missed games.

Collins averaged 11.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists with San Antonio in 2023-24.

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Zach Collins discusses Spurs needs with Victor Wembanyama out

Zach Collins discussed the importance of the San Antonio Spurs rebounding better with Victor Wembanyama out.

Victor Wembanyama returned to the lineup for the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night, helping his team take down the Utah Jazz on the road. But on Monday night, Wembanyama was out, and the Spurs were forced to battle it out against the Phoenix Suns without him. Luckily, they stepped up to the plate and earned a win.

But with Wembanyama out, the Spurs are forced to face some challenges that are made easier when he’s available to play. Most notably, they need to put forth some extra effort in the paint, as Wembanyama’s presence down there is a game-changer, especially on the glass.

After the game, Zach Collins spoke about how the Spurs need to step up in the rebounding department when Wembanyama is out. (H/t Jonah Kubicek of Inside the Spurs)

“I think for us, again, it’s physicality, it’s everyone taking on the challenge and then we have to rebound when he’s not there,” said Collins. “That’s another thing, too, that he [Wembanyama] can just grab rebounds that nobody else can grab so that’s big for us.”

With Wembanyama sidelined, the Spurs still managed to outrebound the Suns 47-40.

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Zach Collins talks about Spurs goal for final stretch of season

Zach Collins recently spoke about the San Antonio Spurs continuing to fight despite their rough season.

With Victor Wembanyama in place, the San Antonio Spurs have their franchise centerpiece to build around. As soon as they picked him with the first pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, their organization changed forever. That said, in the short term, not much has changed. In fact, they are having a worse season than last year.

So far this season, the Spurs are on track to finish with the worst winning percentage in franchise history. They are already mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, and the rest of the regular season doesn’t matter. But they still plan on playing until the final whistle.

Spurs big man Zach Collins recently spoke about this mindset, noting that they don’t plan to just roll over and wait things out until the end of the season. (H/t Tom Osborn of the San Antonio Express-News)

“We can phone it in and focus on next year or we can build for next year,” Collins said.

The Spurs are going to give it their all every single night.

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Zach Collins wants more court time with Victor Wembanyama

San Antonio Spurs big man Zach Collins wants to play more alongside Victor Wembanyama.

The San Antonio Spurs have done a lot of experimenting this year. They’ve thrown out a bunch of different starting lineups in hopes of finding one that works best for both the team and Victor Wembanyama. The most notable experiment they’ve done is having Jeremy Sochan run the point guard position, but that’s not the only one.

At the start of the season, Zach Collins was San Antonio’s starting center, but since then, they’ve moved the big man to the bench. Now, Wembanyama runs a lot of minutes at the five. However, Collins would like to see things go back to the way they were, at least a little bit.

He recently spoke about how he’d like to spend more time on the court with Wembanyama. (H/t Stephen Hunt of The Spokesman Review)

“It’s been good,” Collins said. “We were playing together a lot more at the start of the year and then I got moved to coming off the bench, so we don’t really get to play together that much anymore, (but) I did enjoy playing with him because he’s a fun guy to throw the ball to under the rim. As much as he needs to score first, he’s a very good passer, too. Hopefully, we can get back out on the court a little bit more in the future.”

Collins has had an iffy season, and it will be up to Gregg Popovich whether to grant his wish or not.

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Zach Collins receives horrible grade for Spurs season so far

San Antonio Spurs big man Zach Collins hasn’t been what the team hoped he would be this season.

This year hasn’t gone as well as the San Antonio Spurs may have hoped. Obviously, getting Victor Wembanyama in the fold has been a blessing, as the 20-year-old rookie already looks like a franchise centerpiece in the making. But as a team, they’ve struggled. They’re currently sitting at the bottom of the Western Conference.

Unfortunately, not everybody on the roster has seen as much success as Wembanyama this season. Some players on the Spurs have struggled a bit, and it’s shown up in their play on the court. One player, in particular, who has had some problems is big man Zach Collins.

Eduardo Shabot of Air Alamo recently handed out midseason grades, and he gave Collins an F.

“Zach Collins was expected to be a key player for the Spurs this season, particularly after Wemby’s move to power forward and Jacob Poeltl’s departure from the team,” Shabot wrote. “However, despite his strong temperament, Collins’ performance hasn’t improved from last season’s numbers, resulting in disappointment for the team.

“Regrettably, due to his subpar performances and lack of significant contribution to the franchise, he should be considered one of the primary candidates to be gone from the team at the end of the year unless he demonstrates a clear improvement in the remaining games of the regular season.”

Collins hasn’t been what the Spurs had hoped he would be.

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Four San Antonio Spurs see ratings updated for NBA 2K24

A number of San Antonio players saw their ratings changed in the latest granular assessment of play in the league.

Now that the NBA’s trade deadline and 2024 All-Star Week are behind fans of the San Antonio Spurs, they can turn their attention to the news that really matters for the rest of the season (at least, to the gamers, anyway) — the arrival of a new set of NBA 2K24 overall player ratings for the Spurs.

A number of San Antonio players saw their ratings changed in the latest granular assessment of play in the league for the popular basketball simulation game, and most of them were positive. A total of four such players were updated, with three of the four seeing rises.

Let’s take a look at which players, and how they were assessed in this update.

Spurs’ Zach Collins on his play this season, his contract extension, and more

The Gonzaga alum recently sat down with host Emily Austin of the “Hoop Chat” podcast,

San Antonio Spurs big man Zach Collins is in the midst of one of the best seasons of his NBA career in 2023-24, putting up career highs in points and assists despite the addition of wunderkind rookie forward Victor Wembanyama to the Spurs’ frontcourt rotation.

The Gonzaga alum recently sat down with host Emily Austin of the “Hoop Chat” podcast to talk about his improved play this season. They also got into him finding his way as a player after several injury-filled campaigns with San Antonio and the Portland Trail Blazers, his recent contract extension, and how the season is going for the Spurs so far among several other topics.

Collins and Austin even get into the NBA’s new in-season tournament and some celebrity look-alikes of some current player in the league later in the conversation.

Take a look at the clip embedded above to hear Collins’ interview on the “Hoop Chat” pod.

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Gregg Popovich discusses injuries to Spurs’ Zach Collins, Malaki Branham

San Antonio Spurs Gregg Popovich recently discussed the injuries to Zach Collins and Malaki Branham.

The San Antonio Spurs have dealt with a ton of struggles this season, and most of them have been due to the team’s youth. Victor Wembanyama is leading the way, but he just turned 20 years old (today, January 4). Even guys like Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson, the team’s other stars, are only 23 and 24 years old, respectively.

However, while many of the Spurs’ problems are self-inflicted wounds, they’ve also dealt with their fair share of injury problems this season. Right now, Zach Collins is set to miss 2-3 weeks, and Malaki Branham is listed as day-to-day. Both guys are dealing with ankle issues.

Head coach Gregg Popovich discussed the absence of those two guys, what it means for the Spurs, and how it affects the two players.

“We miss Malaki and we miss Zach, but everybody’s got somebody that’s out, so that’s not a big deal,” Popovich said via Tom Osborn of the San Antonio Express-News. “But for us it is because they’re such a young team and they need all their bodies. But I’m pleased with their effort. They just have to keep the attitude up.”

Collins is having a great season thus far playing alongside Wembanyama in the Spurs’ frontcourt. He’s averaging 12.9 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 2.3 assists while shooting 49.5% from the floor and 31.2% from behind the three-point line.

Meanwhile, Branham is averaging 8.9 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 2.5 assists while shooting 43.7% from the field and 31.8% from beyond the three-point arc.

The Spurs would love to get Collins and Branham back as soon as possible.

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Top 3 performers from San Antonio Spurs loss to New York Knicks

Check out the top three San Antonio Spurs performers from their loss to the New York Knicks.

For the second game in a row, the San Antonio Spurs got blown out by their opponent. On Monday night, they were stomped by the Indiana Pacers, and on Wednesday night, in their very next game, they got beat up by the New York Knicks. It was a wire-to-wire domination for the Knicks, who won 126-105.

The trio of Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson, and RJ Barrett combined for 72 points, leading the way for the Knicks. Meanwhile, the Spurs had a rough shooting night from behind the arc. As a team, San Antonio shot just 9-for-34 (26.5%) from distance, while New York shot a whopping 19-of-42 (45.2%) from deep.

That said, there’s something to learn with every game, so let’s take a look at the top three Spurs performers from the game.