Carter Bryant in the win: 17/5/4 on 94% TS
https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401811016
17 points
5 rebounds
4 assists
6⁄9 FG, 5⁄6 3PT, 1 steal
The progression of our rookies throughout the season has been insane.
Your player development needs to be acknowledged. I think people might just think Spurs get lucky but there’s a reason you guys hit on players. You’re not 100% (Sochan lol) but no team is. But you guys hit on most players.
(Also I’ve been telling people about Bryant, dude is going to be good)
Sochan was looking pretty good last year until he broke his hand. He also, by most stats, has been an elite defender he just can’t shoot. With defense not being so important and shooting being much more important around wemby, he just couldn’t develop fast enough, but he was always gonna be an offensive project
Yeah, it’s pretty annoying when people argue that the Spurs were just lucky. How is drafting Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard etc. lucky?
How is drafting Tiago Splitter (champion), George Hill (traded for the draft rights to Kawhi Leonard), Cory Joseph (champion), Kyle Anderson, Dejounte Murray, Derrick White (champion on a different team), Keldon Johnson, and Tre Jones lucky? The highest draft pick in the previous sentence was George Hill, drafted 26th overall in the first round while Tre Jones was the lowest at 41st overall pick (Round 2, Pick 11).
How is signing and developing players such as Bruce Bowen, Danny Green, Jonathan Simmons, Patty Mills, Julian Champagnie etc. that were in the G league or signed off waivers lucky?
Edit: Not to mention how deep Coach Pop and RC Bufords’s coaching/GM/front office tree extends into the rest of the NBA. How many organizations in the NBA don’t have at least one coach, player, GM or other front office position that used to be with the Spurs.
Small nit: Hill never won a championship. He made the Finals with the Cavs, but missed the free throw leading to JR Smith’s brain fart.
(Sorry for the reminder, Cav fans.)
Oh damn, you’re right. Good catch. I thought he was on the Bucks team that won the chip but he left a year before. But it also reminded me that I needed to add that Cory Joseph also won a chip as a member of the beautiful game Spurs.
Did y’all hit on every rookie? Lmao
No. 2021 and 2022 were disasters.
2021 we got Primo when we could have gotten Sengun, Trey Murphy, Jalen Johnson or even Herb Jones.
2022 we got Sochan, Branham and Wesley, when we could have had Duren or J-Dub, Walker Kessler, and Payton Watson or Andrew Nembhard or J-Will or even Moose.
But it all worked out I guess. Those draft failures led to getting lucky in 2023.
But then we might not have gotten Wemby.
Yup. That’s why I said that it all worked out in the end.
Jeremy Sochan was cut just a few months ago
we had like 6 picks in ‘21 and ‘22 and we basically wasted all of em
Primo, Luka, and Sochan were misses.
Yeah, was gonna say 😂 well run organisation, no doubt. But absolutely stupidly unbelievable historical drafting luck.
i’m glad our recent luck has people forgetting we picked Primo and Sochan
Every rebuild is gonna have picks that don’t work out. Sixers with Fultz/Okafor. Pistons had Hayes/Ivey. If my bad luck is Sochan but I get Wemby/Castle/Harper… sign me up lmao
Imagine getting past Castle and then Carter Bryant switches onto you. You somehow get past him and then there’s Wemby. lolololol
it’s honestly remarkable that 6 foot dudes even manage to score out there
with harper as well lol
If he were on the Lakers he’d be the 3rd building block next to Luka and AR going forward. Spurs have an embarrassment of riches
He’d be a perfect fit with Luka/AR. Gross to think about lol
4th. You forgot Bronny. lolololollakersarecookedlololol
You guys didn’t even have a FRP in 2025. You had #55 and traded up for the dude the Nets picked at 36, some guy named Adou Thiero.
ok
Late bloomer, can’t wait for 2nd year CB
Pretty sure Presti was gonna take Bryant if he or CMB was still available. I’m just happy the Bulls took Essengue and got them euro prospects out of reach.
He didn’t get that many minutes, so I would say he is developing pretty fast for what we can give him.
This guy’s shooting mechanics is clean.
Hoping he can replicate 1⁄3 of young Kawhi’s progression in year 3 and year 4 lol
The Guard Whisperer’s youtube channel has a ton of great videos showcasing the training that him and Castle have been going through over the past few months. https://youtu.be/uOaCiM8weT8?si=AtTAVG32fRQszpLh
It really helped that CB was the de facto “5” while Mitch was running small ball lineups. It gave CB all wide-open looks from the 3-pt range and he made them pay. Let’s go rook! Now stop blowing defensive assignments and we’ll be good! GSG
His jumpshot is as pretty as a butterfly.
carter’s improvement from where he was at the start of the season is remarkable. Carter had big golden retriever energy earlier in the minutes he played earlier in the season. the game has slowed down for Carter a lot as well.
Unrelated to the game and might be a little weird, but I loved that kid’s name. Like a composite of 2 Hall of Famers Vince Carter and Kobe Bryant.
Same with Duncan Robinson, Isiah Joe, and Paul George.
Damn rook
My ceiling comp for him coming out the draft was Trey Murphy rather than Kawhi/OG/Mikal, we’ll see how he continues to develop