The Spurs are about to be UNLOCKED...

4.9 seconds left in regulation. Wemby grabs the rebound. The Spurs have a timeout, but the coach lets the clock run. Mitch Johnson said it himself after the game. Quote, that was my fault in the last four seconds. He thought it was a shot clock violation, but it wasn't. And Fox missed from basically half court. And Utah, a depleted Utah team, managed to get it to overtime. And the Spurs still won, thankfully, 117-111, their third win in a row. But it was because Victor Wembynjama didn't turn it over once. That's the second game in a row. Devin Vassell took over late. The night before, it was Julian Champagny. Every night, different guys are stepping up. Wemby is getting back to himself. And this is the week that the Spurs finally figure out who they are and prove it once again and go on a big winning streak. The same box score of this game still tells you where there are some little cracks in their armor. Seven players played 245 of 265 minutes, and we are only five games into this season. The rotation is a bit shorter. Fans are calling for Mitch Johnson to run a certain big man off the bench. We're going to dive into all of that and more coming up on this episode. So let's start with what Utah was missing. Jaron Jackson Jr., torn MCL, Lowry Markkinen, wrist sprain, Yusuf Nurkic. Who hasn't played all season and the Jazz still led by as many as 11 and were up 55 to 51 at halftime. The reason it was only four was Wemby. That's pretty much it. 21 points in the first half alone on the second night of a back-to-back in a city where there's a good amount of higher elevation. It was crazy, but nobody else was there yet at halftime. Fox had seven at the half and Harper had five. The Spurs needed somebody to show up in the second half. But the game went to overtime, and in overtime, Utah opened with a three. Sensabaugh was hitting a bunch of crazy stuff, but the Spurs answered with 12 straight points. The Jazz went two for seven in the extra five minutes and gave it away four times. If you look at the broader picture of this game, the Spurs shot only 32% from three, something we focused on a lot this year, but they scored 54 points in the paint to Utah's 34 and forced 19 turnovers while committing only 11, and notably, like I said earlier, Victor Wembynyama with zero. If Wemby can keep this form, the Spurs are going to be very solid. We're aiming for 60 plus wins this year and Trading $25 on 60 wins nets you a nice amount on Calshi. This video is brought to you by Calshi, where you're trading against real users, not the house like traditional sports books. You're buying yes or no contracts on real life events like the weather, like politics, like sports. And like I said, if Wemby continues to play the way he's playing, why not MVP? Trading $25 on Calshi also helps you out a lot there. So if you're interested in trying out Calshi, use the link in the pinned comment or description down below. Use code DIGESTNBA when you trade $25 to get 55 put in your account instantly. Thank you, Tekashi, for sponsoring this video. So, after that overtime, that crazy close game that shouldn't have been close, the Spurs have now won three in a row after an 0-2 start. Welcome back to the bandwagon, everyone. Things are about to get even better. But like I said, a win like this does not happen with just one guy. Wemby did have some help, and it came from exactly the players the Spurs have been waiting on. And we have to talk about Devin Vassell, finishing with 21 points. 17 of them came after halftime, a large chunk in the fourth quarter and overtime. In OT, there was one point where Harper missed in close. Vassell tipped it in with a put-back dunk that put the Spurs up 111-108, incredibly clutch. He had four points in that extra overtime period and had three steals on the night. And look at how much Mitch Johnson trusted him. Against Dallas, he played 32 minutes. Sacramento, in a big blowout, he still played 24. Against Utah, 33. And he was on the floor at the end of the game when it mattered most. Lots of Spurs fans are seeing it the same way. You go anywhere, you're seeing this sentiment. Eric Alamo saying Victor Wimbenyama went ballistic and Devin Vassell came up huge late. And this matters so much because of what Vassell said the day before. He wanted the Spurs to, quote, become the hunters again after giving up 30 or more points in the first quarter of each of their first three games. On Wednesday, they were behind for most of the night. But the Spurs continued to hunt anyway, and Vassell had the line of the night about his coach, quote, we have his back, and we know he has our back. And probably because the coach has been trusting him and the Spurs quite a lot, though I do know there are some questions. But to keep it positive for right now, I want to remind you of something Mitch said about Vassell back in May after Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals. Quote, he may be our most consistent player if he took away any stats and just watched us play. But Vassell doing this against Utah, while it was big, it's not the first time a Spurs shooter has stepped up and really brought up the scoring when the guards, like Harper, like Fox, weren't quite getting it done on the offensive end as much as maybe we'd like. And the night before, the first night of the back-to-back, before the game against Utah, while it was Vassell versus Utah, it was Champagny the night before. 26 points, 25 minutes, eight threes all in the first half. This is what I'm talking about, man. He's splashing it. These Spurs support players are helping out when the Spurs need it most. In these little back-to-back games against teams you maybe underestimate, these are the important wins that you need to get if you want to continue to push to be a contender. Because even still, Champagny fresh off that 8-3 night, he only scored six against Utah. He barely attempted any threes. He only attempted like half as many threes as he made in last game. 31 minutes and the Spurs still won. That is the point right now. It doesn't have to be the same role player every night. As long as Wemby's drawing the attention, he's doing his thing, and you have other players there to support him. But Wemby, for sure, made sure that he was not the problem tonight either. He didn't turn it over once. 39 minutes, zero turnovers, zero against Sacramento in 27 minutes, and it wasn't just the turnovers, and it also wasn't just the points. Even though he did have 36, he had 14 rebounds, five assists, two steals, two blocks. He's doing everything, and he has not wasted any possessions doing it. He shot over 50% from the field, 66 minutes over the last two games, 65 points, not one turnover. In Dallas on Saturday, he did have two turnovers, so he's not always perfectly clean, but even a two turnover game is really, really good progression for him so far. And this isn't an accident either. This is something, there's been a conscious effort to get his turnovers down. The more he dribbles, the more he tends to turn it over. But still, the reports said that staff spent Monday studying film on how to get him more involved. Then, he had nine dunks against the Kings, tying his career high, following that with 36 points at high altitude on the second night of a back-to-back. And we can't forget how important those nine dunks were against Sacramento. Not only did it feel like he got a bit of offensive confidence back, but he hadn't been getting to the rim before that. He finally did. The guards fed him, he lived at the rim, and he's continued to roll since then. Before the game, Wemby said the start of the season was quote, in between. Not starting over, not where they left off, just in the middle of it. And Wednesday was the first 30-point game of the season for Wemby. But fans want even more. One Spurs account wrote, Wemby needs to be taking this shot way more often, about the one at the top of the key. And I tend to agree. By the way, if you've enjoyed even one second of this video, if you wouldn't mind hitting that free subscribe button, we're here every single Day, sometimes multiple times a day. We're currently at 16,082, but we're aiming for 17,000. We hope you guys can help us get there. So right now, the Spurs are winning. Things are starting to work, starting to come together. But carrying a team costs something, and right now, Mitch Johnson is playing a lot with the Spurs minutes, and I would say that there is some fair reason to be cautioned about the way the rotation has been deployed lately. Because unfortunately, in some games like yesterday, when you look what's going on behind the starters, there's not much right now. That's not to say that they're useless by any means, but Wemby played 39 minutes. So did Fox. Vassell played 38. Castle, 38. Harper, 37. Champagny, 31. Kelton Johnson, 23. Those seven players played 245 of the 265 minutes. Part of that is the overtime, obviously, but the five starters alone played 191 minutes. Let's take a closer look at the bench. The Jazz bench outscored the Spurs bench 39-19, and of those 19, Keldon had 9, Champagne 6, Carter Bryant 3, and Luke Cornett just 1. Keldon scored 14 in 22 minutes against Sacramento and 9 in 23 minutes against Utah. He's at least been fairly reliable. But Carter Bryant, on the other hand, 17 minutes against Sacramento, 5 minutes against Utah. He's not putting the ball in the basket. Harrison Barnes played 14 against Sacramento and scored 3 and then didn't play. He was one of four players to get a DNP coach's decision, along with David Jones-Garcia, Jordan McLaughlin, and Terrence Reed Jr. So the question is, is an eight-man rotation or a very condensed rotation like this sustainable? I wouldn't say so. I don't think that after game five, this is somewhere that you want to be. There are 77 games left, 77 plus. Again, we're talking playoff stuff, NBA Cup, all this stuff. Having such a tight rotation this early, yes, it helps you get wins. And maybe it was just an emergency measure on the second night of a back-to-back, but it's something to watch for sure. But also, the fix isn't that complicated to me. And one of the clear examples is sitting right there at the end of the bench. Free Terrence Reed. We got to start with the guy that he would replace, and that's Luke Cornett. In the last three games, 45 minutes with one point and a minus 26. He had 14 against Dallas, 17 against Sacramento, 14 against Utah. These are minutes, by the way. But there's just, there's nothing really happening, unfortunately. Look, and I don't want to just keep piling on Luke Cornett. I don't think it's fair. Like, obviously, he's a great guy. But at the same time, like, there is a clear difference in when you're using a guy like Terrence Reed, even though he is young, he's a rookie, whatever, he's still like 23 years old, versus when you're not. So right now, Cornett's just not giving the Spurs enough. But they keep playing him anyway, and at some point that decision has to flip. Now, Terrace Reed, his minutes have been scattered. Not a ton of them have come against really good competition. Some of them have, right? That game against Dallas, 12 minutes across Dallas and Sacramento combined. He had six points and eight rebounds, and the Spurs were a plus four when he was out there. And he told reporters, right, that's my game. That's what San Antonio brought me here to do, to rebound. And he's definitely excelled at that. He's a rookie. He scored his first career basket against Dallas on Saturday. They call him the bear. He knows exactly what he's there for, but so far he just hasn't been asked to do it. And in a game where the Spurs were relying so heavily on their top guys, in a game where they needed everybody, with Wemby at 39 minutes, Cornette at 14, he still played zero minutes. That's your center spot. Do you just straight up replace those 14 core net minutes with Reed right away? I think it would be hard to justify that as a coach, but at the same time, something should be done. When you're giving Wemby a breather, you should have the option to have a couple of different looks out there. This was the kind of game that I know was very close, wire to wire, and maybe you think it's risky to run a rookie in that kind of situation, but if you want to stop having the starters playing this many minutes, including Wemby in particular, it's a solution that has to be seriously considered. Looking ahead, the Spurs host the Minnesota Spooky Wolves on Saturday on Halloween. Tobias Harris hopefully could make his season debut. We still haven't seen exactly when he's going to come back, but I'm hoping that that could be a perfect game for it. There are some other things to watch, too. By the way, Victor Wimbanyama, continuing another great defensive performance, picked up some more blocks and is now just two blocks from passing George Girvin for fourth. Fourth already for Wemby on the all-time Spurs block list according to our stats. Two on Wednesday. So, hey, he could very well do this on Saturday. So what does all this mean? Where am I landing with the discussion, with the rotation, all these players? I'm saying this is the week where you're going to see the Spurs fully unlock themselves. These two wins on the back-to-backs, I know against teams with injuries, teams that the Spurs are supposed to beat, but that is what I like about it. Hard back-to-backs, high elevation, being able to go in there and do what they did. I think it's time for San Antonio to finally turn that corner. Your guards, they looked a little tired, but Vassell steps up in one game, Champagny in another, you have Terrace Reed. Being ready to be unleashed. You have different role players ready to step up every night. So for Saturday, I'm going to be watching a few different things. And even just in the next couple days at practice, things like that. One, does Reid get on the floor? Two, does Wemby make it three games in a row without a turnover? That would be ridiculous. And three, does Mitch Johnson continue to rely a bit on Devin Vassell's offense in the fourth like he kind of did in Utah? Because even if it's not Devin Vassell, are we going to see a role player step up similarly? I'm very excited for all of this because one thing is I know how much I love to talk about potential trades and looking at how the Spurs can build long-term for the future, but none of the fixes right now need a new trade or new signing. I think it's just very clear that when we look at the rotation, look at who's available, look at who can be used, we just look at the coach, look down at the bench, and maybe make a different choice. Because using a very short bench in Game 5 of the season was a choice. It was a bold choice. And it can be unchosen pretty quick, but it's something that I think could very well be expanded a little bit. A rotation that's just seven deep by Game 5 breaks pretty easily by, I would say, like December. You're going to get guys tired. So Reed for Cornette's minute is one fix. Carter Bryant easing into this season, He's in being... A bit more responsible, being a bit more impactful is another thing that I think a lot of us are expecting, not to mention other guys off the bench, like maybe McLaughlin, even Jacoby Gillespie. Certain guys are going to be able to step up as the season goes on, as the Spurs get out to bigger and bigger leads in games, when we can rely on other guys to not have to play as many minutes as they did in this recent one.