Spurs Talk: Wemby's Improvement, Tarris Reed Jr. & Western Conference

Welcome back. The Spurs are currently riding a winning streak and got a home showdown Saturday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves to talk the state of the silver and black. I sat down with Spurs fix Carolina Teague. Here's a look at our conversation. All right, Carolina. So we got about a week of Spurs basketball in the books. Tell me what you've seen. What's been the big takeaway? What I've seen is an improvement. You know, the last time we spoke, if I'm not mistaken, Spurs were 0-2. And now this is us talking again, and they've done great ever since. They seem like they're back to their normal Spurs. This is a team that can make a playoff run in basketball. They're currently doing great in the Western Conference, and I think that what I've seen is the team look way more cohesive and just look like the basketball that we're used to seeing the Spurs play, especially last year. So it's starting to look like everything's back to normal a bit. Now, in fairness, they have picked apart some bad teams to reclaiming their record. Went against a Dallas Mavericks team that didn't have Cooper Flagg, the Utah Jazz most recently, and that one took an overtime performance. The last time we saw them against a competitive team was that Houston Rockets team, and it came down to a last-second block shot. What was your takeaway there with Wemby specifically on that block shot? Because finishing at the basket has actually been somewhat of an issue that I've noticed from him. Yeah, so finishing at the basket was an issue, especially from the Rockets. But right now, we got to look at the way the Rockets are playing right now. They're currently, last time I checked, they were undefeated. So, I mean, this is probably the best team in the West at the moment. And they play a really tough game of basketball. Fred Van Fleet was also playing the game as well. You know, he's also very competitive. When it comes to Remy, though, it seemed like the last game that Spurs had at home, Finish at the rim a whole lot more. The players were trying to finding him a whole lot better. So even though he had that big block shot, there seemed to be a much more better improvement for Victor at the rim. And then yesterday against the jazz, he just scored a season high 30 points. So I think we've seen a lot more improvement since that game. So. It's all water under the bridge, and they always have this thing called short-term memory, and I think that's kind of how they kind of took that block. It was an ugly block. Everybody saw it. It was all over the world, but I've seen some improvements since that time. Okay. This three-guard lineup, the last time we did talk, you were pretty optimistic about it. But so far, again, still mixed results in terms of… That second unit coming in and being able to provide offensively. So do you think this is a lineup they stick with or we're still in testing mode at the moment? I think it wouldn't surprise me if they stuck with it. The reason why I say that is because now we have kind of seen that improvement with the three-guard lineup. And yesterday when the Spurs went into overtime against the Jazz, they stuck with their starting lineup the entire time in overtime. And that's when they had their offensive spurt and everybody started to just click in that moment in overtime. So it wouldn't surprise me if they continue to... I would say, like you said, experiment, but keep that experiment going longer than what people anticipate, for sure. And also, Victor said after the game that they're all confident about that three-guard lineup as well. Now, Luke Cornett, I get it. He's a champion. He's experienced. He's seasoned. But we've seen a lot of Luke Cornett over this last year, and that playoff run was pretty ugly from him. Terrence Reed Jr., in the limited minutes we've seen, he's been proven to be an adept rebounder, given that extra spark and that size that this team needs. Do you think it's time to go all in and up his minutes? Truthfully, if we don't see if this— People don't see an improvement from Luke Cornett. It would be nice to see an An increase in minutes for Terrence Reed, simply because this is a team that's trying to get a championship. This is a team that's trying to take it to the next level. Obviously, they fell short last year. And you're looking at a team who has to make those tough decisions in order to be able to get to the top of the NBA. It's not easy to win an NBA game, as they always say. Now, yesterday, you know, publicly, the team said that they do not want to blame Luke Cornett. And it's not Luke's fault. Even Coach Mitch said when Luke looks like he's struggling on the court, you know, that's a testament to everybody else who's on the court. the floor with him as well. So he didn't want to put the blame on Luke Cornett per se. And when we also said that the comparisons between him and Luke Cornett were unfair. However, this is if Terrence Reed is having better performances throughout his minutes that he's showing, then it would be nice to see an increase of his minutes in that spot to see how they can flow more better and if they get better results because of that. I want to shift the focus a little away from the Spurs and more towards the Spurs opponents. So in the NBA, we've seen some big injuries this week, in particular, Jalen Williams of the OKC Thunder, which we know is obviously going to be a big rival to the Spurs this season. And then Anthony Edwards just learned that he's going to be out multiple weeks. How do you feel this impacts the Western Conference? It's going to impact the Western Conference tremendously. I mean, every time we see the Timberwolves match up with the Spurs, Anthony Edwards is always that big X factor that gives the Spurs a problem and a run for their money. This is one of the most talented players in the NBA. And then you see somebody like Jalen Williams who goes down, and this is a team like OKC that was this close to getting to the NBA Finals, and Jalen Williams was that X factor as well that could take them over the edge. It's really unfortunate to see these type of players. Having these injuries, and it's a big loss to the Western Conference, so obviously, like, my thoughts and prayers go out to them, and I hope they get better soon, but, you know, when you look at that competitive edge that the Spurs have, and people can kind of, like you had mentioned, there are certain people that are injured out at the moment, you can kind of look at those as, is, Is it showing the true gauge of how Spurs can be against these type of competitors? And all I have to say for that is that injuries are common in the NBA. Whether they're unfortunate or not, they do happen. And knock on wood, you know, God forbid something doesn't happen to one of the Spurs players as well. It's just something that comes with the territory. And hopefully the teams are able to adjust. And, you know, everything's going to fall where it's supposed to be during the season. You mentioned the Rockets earlier, and the Rockets obviously do have a win. If the OKC Thunder are knocked out by this Jalen Williams injury, and if Anthony Edwards, his knee doesn't fully ever recover this season, do you think the Rockets or anyone else is their biggest competitor? I think for me it's too soon to kind of determine right now, but to say that the Rockets wouldn't be competitive would be crazy for me to say. They look amazing right now. And it's crazy because they're right up the street. Three hours down the road from San Antonio, they're San Antonio Spurs fans' biggest rivals. A lot of hardcore Spurs fans hate the Houston Rockets. So for their top competitor to be the Houston Rockets, it would be so poetic to watch this rivalry go down in real time.